Busted and broken

What with both Adam T and Martin falling foul of Covid and Andrew a late withdrawal, it was a sparsely attended GNN last night. Indeed, at 7.30 we were a mere quartet, with Katy, Laura, Ian and myself sat around the table as Sally and Stanley cooked and Joe orbited scooping up crisps. We nonetheless embarked on a quick game of Ticket to Ride: New York, before Joe joined us a little later. 

Katy's yellow cabs carved a worryingly easy path through Manhattan, as the rest of us looked less in control of our destiny. Laura and I both fretted over our turns and picked up extra routes that didn't work. They mainly didn't work because Ian - more in control than it seemed - ended the game, giving everyone one last turn when we needed at least two to complete the extra routes. Despite Katy's yellow highway, Ian took the laurels:

And we ended things just as Joe arrived, with Reiner Knizia's new card game Art Robbery in his bag. We set up and started playing straight away. 

In this feisty game, the players have made off with the loot from the robbery and are now 'debating' - via cards - how to split it. There's four rounds and in each round you play cards to either grab a number tile from the communal pile or, possibly, off someone who's already taken one. Cards match the numbers (which equal points) but there are some Knizian wrinkles, like the 'Boss' card only scoring if she's attended by a 4 or 5, the guard-dog protecting your tiles, and some of each set containing 'alibis', which are relevant come the end of the game: the player with fewest alibis automatically loses. 

It was fairly chaotic-feeling compared to something like High Society, but fast and fun, with dick moves aplenty and a reasonable amount of swearing at each other as tiles kept getting stolen. Joe and Laura lost with joint-fewest alibis, and Ian took his second win of the night:

Ian 28

Sam 26

Katy 16

Joe and Laura - Nicked!

After that, we kept to the breezy-games-pace with a blast through Cross Clues, scoring an impressive 24, despite numerous discussions where someone or other initiated the finger of executive decisions. So close to that perfect score!

Then, after some pondering, we introduced Laura to the charms of QE. It's simple, right? Just bid on everything, but make sure you don't spend the most. This almost blew up in my face when everyone was appalled that my opening bid (as auctioneer, so a public bid) was £10M. My protests that I was auctioning the financial system of one of the world';s biggest countries and this was a comparative pittance moved nobody, and Joe - usually so non-evil - encouraged everyone to bid zero to shaft me over before the game had even got going!

There followed a succession of low public bids just to ram home my mistake, but inevitably the prices began to rise, and Laura seemed unable to control her impulses as the winnings piled up in front of her: she was clear points leader, but at what cost? Even my opening salvo was beginning to look like a bargain by the end, when Katy priced her final auction at £30M. As expected, Laura blew us away on points, but was hamstrung by financial ruin. Ian spent by far the least (£19m!) but it was Katy who claimed victory, as I realised my hidden industry wasn't the one I thought it was. 

Katy 39

Ian 36

Joe 31

Sam 15

Laura - Bust!

I wanted to make a note of Laura's spectacular score, but my notes here say "Laura goes home as Katy yells at her" which is probably putting it a little dramatically (and I think she was yelling at me) but not that far from the truth.

Now high on alcohol, crisps and Ian's snack mash-up of dark-chocolate coated nachos, we played Skull. I took one frankly rubbish photo...

And then forgot to take any more. Joe took us to the cleaners, wrapping up a game win before anyone else won a round. With the hour now pressing towards half-ten, we cracked into co-operative Wavelength, playing twice partly because we did so badly on game one, and partly because I drunkenly hectored everyone into trying again (sorry everyone). Inevitably there was mention of Gwyneth Paltrow, and many discussions along the lines of is X thinking of everything in the universe, or just all types of fatty snacks? There was a long debate about Skips, and I discovered that I was the sole member of the party who thought Monster Munch are unhealthy. "It's natural maize!" cried Joe, almost as if he was in the payment of Walkers, like a covert Gary Lineker. 

In the second game everyone started yawning and I felt so guilty I made snacks. Then I discovered I was the only person who didn't think toast wasn't the least meal-like snack. What was happening?!?!

Despite the inebriation, fatigue and stupidity (mine) we triumphed in the second game with a card to spare, coming back from the near-dead. I finally lifted the portcullis and allowed everyone to leave. 

Flower Power

I logged on at 8 , just in time to interrupt the early stages of a game of Skull so they (Sam, Joe, Ian Martin and Adam H) simply abandoned the game and began anew with me on board.

There's a general consensus that bluffing games like this lose something when translated onto the internet. The opportunity to read people is gone and, since that's pretty much what this game is about, it's a kind of hollow experience.

Not that it wasn't fun. Adam never bid, so everyone assumed he always played a skull. Although, I seem to remember Ian ruining many attempts at guesses with a cheeky skull of his own. It took us twenty minutes for someone (Sam) to score a point and then ten minutes more for Martin to draw level.

In the end, Adam won after all.

Then we played Raj. Joe was in full dark mode, with only a faint grey light illuminating half his face. It seemed to help as he won a game where luck was mean to Sam who picked up negative points despite going high. Fun, but over too fast.

Joe 18

Ian 17

Andrew 6

Martin 3

Sam -4

Then we played For Sale, while Adam vanished for a while. It began with a lot of the most attractive cards coming out early. Martin made some comment about being prepared for "when the shit comes out", to which Joe remarked that you don't want your trousers down when the shit comes out. Slightly counterintuitive advice, there.

After a game where Ian seemed to be in pole position, Joe took his second victory in a row. His response was an airy, disinterested "oh, did I win?" Sam, at least, was comforted that he had the most accurate prediction of his final standing.

Joe 59

Ian 57

Andrew 54

Martin 44

Sam 35

Then came 6nimmt. Constantly frustrating but with always the hope that someone else will be less lucky than you. In Andy's absence, someone mentioned that professional variant, just to keep the tradition alive. I was first to dip into negative points, but then saw Sam whizz past me in a last round death spiral. In terms of actually playing well, it was Martin versus Joe, with Martin leading by four points in the last round, but Joe just couldn't close that gap, even with a hand as even distributed as this...

Martin 37

Joe 35

Adam 29

Ian -4

Andrew -10

Sam -18

I had to dash off, as culinary duties called and it looks like Sam and Joe left too. The remaining three played Conspiracy. It literally could not have been closer.

Martin 57

Joe 57

Ian 47

Thanks all, see you next week.

From six nimmt to nein danke

After last week's hiatus, six of us returned for another week of virtually having fun. Initially Sam, Martin, Ian and Andy were present for an opening game of Skull. I had arrived too but needed to dash off and buy tin foil so couldn't participate.

Andy 2
Ian 1
Martin 1
Sam 1

Joe arrived and I sorted myself out, kitchen-wise. Then we played Railroad Ink, new on the geek, and it's a neat implementation of the roll and write original. I found it quite relaxing, although Andy couldn't see where a potential score for a particular move would be displayed. "I guess you just have to work it out yourself," replied Martin. How very old school.

Andrew 49

Martin 47
Andy 43
Sam 38
Ian 37
Joe 37

Then we played For Sale. Sam went aggressive right from the start, saying he wouldn’t do his usual timid strategy and finish in fourth. I said I was fine with fourth, and picked up the first free card I could. In a sense, we both got exactly what we wanted.

Joe 59
Martin 49
Ian 48
Andrew 45
Sam 41
Andy 28

Next up was 6nimmt. Now, I didn’t make many notes but I think at this point Joe sung a bass line and invited people to guess. Only Sam tried before Joe admitted it was the middle eight from “Boys of summer” by Don Henley.

6nimmt was as 6nimmt does. I was cruising in first until I hit a death spiral. “It was pretty close in the middle of the pack,” observed Martin from the safe distance of a convincing win.

Martin 40
Andy 25
Sam 24
Andrew 23
Ian 23
Joe -4

Sam bowed out and the five of us knocked out a quick game of No Thanks, which Martin won thanks to the final card which wasn't 29 like I wanted and it certainly wasn't 18 and 19 as Joe needed.

Martin 23
Andrew 27
Ian 32
Joe 42
Andy 44

Then Ian  left and as a foursome we played Conspiracy. This has a similar card drafting mechanism to Abyss, but is simpler. Put your cards in a pyramid shape, and score points for collecting things, putting things next to other similar things and getting locations. I had very little idea about what was going on.

Joe 54

Andy 53
Martin 48
Andrew 44

And with that, we were done for another evening. Thanks and see you next Tuesday.

Five get over-stimulated

Friday found Andrew and I wending our way to Chippenham with a bag full of 5-player games in the boot of the car. I'd also stuck in NMBR9 as a four-player option, just in case. With Chris' friends Stuart and Paul yet to arrive, after catching up with the Smith coterie that was the game we started with. Stuart arrived in the midst of the head-scratching and watched the drama play out before joining us for a four-player. We didn't make a note of the scores, but as I write Chris assures me that I won both of them. Hooray!

numbers

By the time our 4-player game had ended Paul (not Jefferies) had arrived, and we were set for our evening of 5-player snappy games.

We began with Pairs, which everyone had played before and even if you haven't, doesn't need much of an introduction. I got off to a solid start with my Incan Gold tactic of safety play, and for a while it looked almost valid, albeit not one Martin would approve of. Then as other braver players surged forward, I had to take more risks. Risks that didn't work. The game was notable in the main though, for Paul's repeated suffering at the hands of the double mushroom, which kept choosing to spore in his face:

Chris 22
Sam 18
Stuart 13
Paul 12
Andrew 8

Next we played Las Vegas - new to Paul and Stuart, but easy to pick up and play. Too easy, in fact, for my liking, as my first round of hedge-betting yielded very little, and it with a three-round game, I'd given myself a bit of a way to go to catch up. Chris's last die of the last round cost me a whopping $80k... meanwhile, Paul strolled to a convincing debut victory.

Paul $360k
Chris/Andrew $240k
Stuart $220k
Sam $210k

Next we blasted through a couple of games of Skulls. This was new to everyone but Andrew and I, but it's not exactly dripping with rules. After two games of skirting around the edges I decided to take on the Berger mantle of guessing early and guessing high. Although you do run the risk of implosion - I lost my skull early in the second game - not playing skulls at all means you're always in the bidding, and I picked up a couple of wins.

Next up was 7 Wonders which needed no introduction. Andrew's card preparation was scrambled by his conditioning of playing with three or less, but when he reminded himself we were five, the mystery was solved.

wonders

For the first time in a long while, play on the other side of the table was irrelevant in terms of military scoring and resource retail. Neither Andrew nor I went for military at all, in part because I was being handed my cards early on by Chris, who seemed to be encouraging me to go for sciences. I became resource-rich and cash-rich, but was neglecting the diversification that 7 Wonders traditionally rewards. Paul and Stuart fought out a military battle, whilst directly opposite me Chris was benefiting from mine and Andrew's pacifism. He scored big on battles as a result, and had points coming in in pretty much every category. I'm not sure what happened to Andrew.

Chris 62
Sam 52
Stuart 50
Paul 44
Andrew 32

Then another classic: Heck Meck! Famously the first time we played this one person took everyone's turn for them, and I think none of us wanted to play it again for about two years. Then we discovered that when you're allowed to think for yourself, the game is actually pretty fun. I guess it can occasionally run on a little though, and possibly this was one of those times, in part down to the serial worm heists we were pulling off. In the end, Chris and I tied for wormage with me grabbing the win on the tie-breaker. We didn't note down the scores.

Next up: Insider! I was the Master first time out, and the word was Dictionary. It was successfully guessed, but we wrongfully accused Stuart of being the Insider when it was actually that dastardly Andrew!

Stuart was the Insider next time around, but we aborted when he made the mistake of saying "Okay" aloud when the Master - Paul - said the Insider should look at the word.

Then I was Master again and we collectively failed to identify the word, which now escapes me.

Finally, I was the Insider and managed to pull off a win after guessing the word myself, which was sleeping bag. I like to think all my fake guesses contributed, but probably we were all marginally tipsy at this point.

We kept playing! Raj made a long-awaited appearance from its box and we played three rounds with the winners bonus of 3/6/9. The sting of the ties-cancel-each-other-out rule was much to the fore, with Chris picking up a high tile very cheaply and Paul serially finishing on minimal, or even negative points. In the end - if I read Chris' note correctly - Andrew won with 75 points. Or someone did. Whoever it was, it wasn't me.

notes

tiles

We finished off our five-player session with 6Nimmt. By the this point the evening was a little hazy and again the note (above) isn't totally clear on who won. But I seem to recall Paul, who had apparently a long line of 6Nimmt defeats under his belt, finally emerged victorious!

It was now midnight and we were ready to call time on the evening. As Stuart and Paul made their way home, we blasted though a quick pallet-cleanser of NMBR9 again. I think I won - I seem to do well at this game, unless I'm playing Martin or Little Joe.

*

In the morning Andrew and I were up and about before anyone else, as I enjoyed the novelty of having children in the house who don't arise at dawn. We enjoyed a few more games of NMBR9, and Andrew's colourful spread reminded me of that Michael Jackson video when he dances about on a neon pavement. Then we played a two-player variant where when a card flips, you pick up two matching numbers instead of one. This led to some pretty hefty scores.

michael jackson pavement

We also explored Andrew's idea of a YouTube channel where professionals are invited to play a game that's themed on their profession - a medic plays Pandemic, a Provost plays Caylus, and so on. I wondered who or what we would recruit to play NMBR9 as unfortunately Michael Jackson is no longer with us.

Finally Stan and I saw off the Saturday with a blast at Hostage Negotiator, which is a solo-player we played co-operatively. In this not-particularly child-friendly game, a madman (or woman, but the intro game has a male) has taken several meeples hostage and you're tasked with trying to get them released, by virtue of chatting to them for a while over the phone. Chatting successfully buys you conversation points, which in turn buys you more cards to chat with. It's part high-pressure stress, part dinner-party discourse - which I guess for some of us amounts to the same thing.

The problem is your chat is manifest in dice-rolling, and when the dice don't go your way the madman gets cross with your negotiation anecdotes - possibly cross enough to start gunning down his guests. In our case, two of them went this way, but we successfully got half the hostages out and won.

dinner party adventure

A happy end - for most of us, anyway.

That end of term feeling

Tonight was the final evening of the most sparsely populated GNN season for a long time. For some reason, it had a knockabout craziness to it, perhaps because we were not battling until the final seconds over a hard-fought title, but instead watching me stroll over the finish line thanks to attendance alone.

We (Sam, me, Joe, Ian and Katy) began with Sam’s boys, Joe and Stan, indulging in a couple of rounds of Codemasters with pictures. I didn’t note the scores, but I do remember Katy’s impudence in suggesting I’d made a mistake in giving my clue. Although the spymaster is supposed to stay silent, I couldn’t let this go unchallenged, and I reminded her to “never patronize the Spymaster.”

Then, while Sam put the boys to bed, we decided what the next game might be. Isle of Skye was almost our choice, but we decided it might be a bit much with five players and two newbies.

Instead we went for Fool’s Gold as a nice push-your-luck game that everyone knew. Before long, the sledging started, with Joe loudly questioning my tactics on my first move.

After the generous first round (except for me, who’d played quite badly as Joe had noted) the game got meaner and meaner. Gems were snatched from our hands by false alarm cards, and gold nuggets were replaced by card after card of silt.

It was close at the end, with Ian beating Joe beating Katy on a tie-breaker.

Ian 26
Joe 26
Katy 26
Andrew 23
Sam 21

After this, Sam introduced us to Om Nom Nom, the simple game of trying to eat things without being eaten yourself. A load of dice decide how much of the lower two links in the food chain are available to eat and then the players decide which cards they want to play in order to eat those things. The clever bit is that everyone has a card from the uppermost link in the food chain. So, if you think “ah, there’s lots of flies, I’ll play my frog” then there’s probably someone else around the table who had already thought of that, and will play their hedgehog to eat your frog.

Doing things that no one else is doing seems to be a good strategy. I got lucky in round one, scoring 16 points while my nearest rival had but three. It was too big a gap to bridge. Meanwhile, Joe, with one point after two rounds decided to go Dirk for the third and final round. Dirk did better than Joe did.

Andrew 24
Ian 18
Sam 10
Katy 9
Joe 3

It was still early, and Joe had come to the realisation that you can keep drinking Budweiser and never get drunk. The games continued with Magician’s Night, the glow-in-the-dark game of pushing things towards other things.

Charging up our magicians

Since it’s only a four player, Joe decided to sit out the first game. There then followed a, shall we say, full and frank discussion about what Joe might be doing in the dark while we play. Sam claimed that there was a bit mid-game where the lights suddenly come on, in case Joe got any ideas.

As for the game, once we’d remembered how to set it up, Sam won.

After this, Joe played and Sam sat it out, with a win for Katy.

Since there are no placings, it can’t be leaderboard, but it was a lot of fun.

Next up, much to Katy’s despair, was Skull. She insisted that she didn’t like it and we insisted that she did. Or would, once she got the hang of it.

During the game, people kept coming up a cropper on Ian’s skull. However, he himself won no actual hands of his own, leaving him in last place.

1. Andrew, 1 flip, 3 tiles left
2= Katy, 1 flip
2= Sam, 1 flip
2= Joe, 1 flip
3. Ian, no flips

Finally, the played Pairs, as whiskey and Jaegermeister were brought down from the high shelf. Pairs was as Pairs is: blueberries killed off Ian and Sam. Joe didn’t score at all after round two. There was controversy near the end of the game when Katy, in first place, twisted for the match and Sam accidentally drew two cards. The card he initially showed was okay for Katy, but he took it back and played it again with the right card showing, which bust her. She complained, have briefly thought she’d won, but Sam was firm on the rules.

However, she only had to play safe in the next round and wait for enough people to go bust to win.

Katy 22
Andrew 18
Ian 16
Sam 12
Joe 8

Which ends the season! Congrats to me for my win in Points, and to Katy for the Medal Table, and to Adam for Points Ratio.

Chance would be a fine thing

For the first time since we stopped going to Roll For The Soul, GNN set out into the public arena as we decided to hold this week’s event in Bristol’s new board game cafe, Chance ‘n’ Counters. We took in the ambiance, and looked at the wide selection of games, and also noted the sensible drink holders attached to the sides of the tables.

There were five of us: Sam, Joe, Ian, Ben and me. In the beginning, Joe hadn’t arrived, so the four of us played Rhino Hero, noting that the tables in the cafe were sturdy enough to hold a balancing game without juddering or shaking.

By the time Sam completed his go and Ian stood up, the hotel was leaning notably. When Ian built with a card that reversed the player order, Sam’s fate was sealed. He was about to place his next card when the building collapsed beneath him.

1. Andrew
2. Ian/Ben
3. Sam

Then Joe arrived we wondered what we could play and couldn’t come up with a decent idea. Five players is a tricky number and nothing on offer seemed to be right. Then Joe admitted he’d brought Lords of Vegas which, with the expansion pack, plays five. Although it seemed a bit odd to come to a board game cafe equipped with your own game, it was the only title that everyone was keen on.

At the start of the game, Sam sped into an early lead. He quickly acquired two two-tile casinos and also earned quite a lot of money by people gambling in his casinos and losing badly.

Ben also got a two-tile casino, but it didn’t seem to do so well for him. I kept pace with Sam with a few single tile casinos and Ian pondered what to do with his conveniently clustered plots. Joe got off to a slow start.

Joe’s slow start turned into a slow middle. He got involved in a war over a five-tile gold casino with Sam and Ian. There were many reorganisations, but whenever he was boss, the casino never paid out. In fact, gold hardly paid out at all in the whole game.

This left Joe in a predicament, and Sam and Ben, too as they had built gold casinos. Sam’s reduction in points allowed me to overtake him. On the other side of the Strip, though, a Leviathan of a casino was being built. Two green casinos (mine and Ian’s) merged together, with Sam as a minority stockholder on the board, hoping for a bit of luck in any reorganising.

So determined was I to keep hold of it that I sprawled twice into unused plots, just to get another dice in there. And it almost worked, too. Ian finally managed to take over the casino late in the game. I worked out that with a bit of luck (ie, the game ending soon) I’d still win. I built another casino on the strip – a three-tile silver casino – to try and consolidate rather than risk losing a reorganisation roll.

But I didn’t have any luck. The green casino paid out on the next card, and then the Game Over card was turned over. The fact that the green casino paid out twice put Ian level with me on points, and he had enough money in the bank to sneak the win after fighting back from a distant third.

Joe was ruefully upbeat about his record low score. In a way, Joe’s luck-dodging performance will be just a memorable as Ian’s late comeback.

Ian 29 (plus $47m)
Andrew 29 (plus $39m)
Sam 23 (plus $33m)
Ben 23 (plus $18m)
Joe 8

After this heady excitement I wondered if I’d got a bit carried away, standing up while taking my go and punching the air after a lucky dice roll. I hope I didn’t embarrass us.

We settled back down to Earth with a game of Skull and Roses. Or should that be: (The Worst) game of Skull and Roses (in the World).

None of our predictions came true. Not one. Well, not until the very end. It was a horror show. The pile of discarded tiles grew and grew. At least the failure was evenly spread, with all of us having just two tiles left at one point.

Eventually, though, people were whittled away. It finally came down to me against Sam. I put down a rose, and it was my turn to call. It was simply a matter of guessing if he’d put down a rose or not. I guessed that he had, and bid “two.” He hadn’t.

1. Sam
2. Andrew
3. Ian
4. Joe
5. Ben

And with that, the evening was done. We paid our bill, tipped according to whether we liked cats or dogs, and bade our farewells. A very pleasant evening.

On the division, Ian widens his lead over the rest, and I take the medal table. Adam is still top in points ratio.

All the way up to eleven

Today I was bothered by a slight cold but couldn’t bear to miss a second Tuesday in a row so I arrived at Joe’s, slightly croaky, ready for some gaming glory. I was last to arrive, since I’d forgotten all the short cuts I usually take to Joe’s, and I found we were six in total that night: me, Joe, Katy, Martin, Ian, and Sam.

They were discussing potential six-player games for the night but, instead of walking into the next room and looking at Joe’s collection, Joe was looking on his phone for six-player suggestions on his and Sam’s own website. I can’t tell if this is extremely lazy or the perfect use of the internet.

Martin suggested we try his new acquisition: Deadwood. It was an old Cheapass Games game, and he found it on a wall! He said it looked good and, if it wasn't, he can just leave it on another wall.

How odd, then, that we should begin with a five-player game: Fuse. This bomb-busting dice game was introduced by Sam and he acted as the compare: explaining the rules and dealing out cards as the game progressed.

We began slowly, all too polite to take the die we needed (“No, really. I’m happy with anything.”) but we got up to speed and were able to defuse the bombs with 49 seconds of the 10 minutes remaining. This gave us a high score of 74 points!

After this, another team game: Codenames. We played one round in which cryptic crossword experts Joe and Sam as spymasters. But having experts on one side is only good if you have experts on the other. As it was, Katy and I could only get two of Joe’s audacious “Camelot, 5” clue. Sam struggled, beginning his game with a clue for only one card, just so he could get it out of the way.

The game was remarkable in that out of all the many wrong answers, none benefited the other team.

Joe, Katy, Andrew 8 (all clues cleared)
Sam, Ian, Martin 8

Finally, we did the decent thing and split into two groups of three. Sam, Ian and I returned to the vineyards for another bash at Viticulture, while Joe, Katy and Martin chose Castle Crush.

In Castle Crush, as far as I can tell, each player builds a little town to protect two little meeples, which then are subjected to the whims of a toppling battering ram. Martin noted that the table held two of the most opposite games it could possibly host. Thinky Eurogamer worker-placement next to tactile physical bludgeoning.

Us wine-growers set up swiftly, and were off to a flier. Ian and I went for early cheap deliveries just to get some money coming in. I pretty much ignored cards, though, which Sam and Ian profited heavily from.

It was a close battle, with the three of us leap-frogging each other up the score track. Halfway through, Katy looked over from her half of the table and remarked to Sam how well he was doing. “But look at all the wine Ian’s got,” Sam replied, as he poured himself a real glass of the stuff for himself.

A close battle

Castle Crush ended soonest, with Martin coming out a clear winner.

Martin 85
Katy 69
Joe 64

And they followed this by the card game 99, which Martin also won.

Martin 77
Katy 76
Joe 51

By this time, Viticulture had ended and, once again, Ian took top spot.

Ian 25
Sam 22
Andrew 20

Next up was another team game, Push It. By combining Sam’s and Martin’s sets, we were able to have a three two-player team battle around Joe’s circular table: perfect for the game.

Ian & Katy got an early lead, but then became stuck on four points while the rest of us caught up. Then Sam & Martin put together some good moves while Joe & me sort of made up the numbers.

At first we thought we should just play until seven points, but we were enjoying it so much that it was extended to the usual eleven (hence the blog title). Sam & Martin crashed through the winning line with a neat two-pointer.

Sam & Martin 12
Ian & Katy 7
Joe & Andrew 5

And we finished the evening with Skull and Roses, the simple bluff game. It was quite a short game, since Joe’s ability to read the table was second to none. He was only wrong once, and that was when he tried to bluff, but no one followed and he had to reveal his own card: a skull. He made up for that immediately afterwards by guessing seven roses out of eight. Ian managed to also get a correct call in. After that, it was just a case of who had the most cards left.

1. Joe
2. Ian
3. Martin
4= Katy
4= Andrew
5. Sam

And with that, we were done. We set off with Martin saying he’d thoroughly enjoyed every game he’d played that evening.

A glimpse at the division will only increase that contentment.

Cracking Skulls

Six gamers at seven for Sam’s house. We began this early to give Sam’s boys, Stanley and Joe, a chance to play a game before they went to bed. We chose Midnight Party which had recently been a big hit with the family on Sam’s holiday. We began before GNN regulars Joe and Matt arrived, but since Joe arrived soon after we’d begun, he was dropped into a couple of random positions on the corridor. Meanwhile, little Joe decided he wanted to be on a team with Sam.

This time we played a variant where Hugo speeds up each time he goes around the board so that in the fourth and final round Hugo was moving six squares at a time! Oh what fun! Ian started well, getting no points at all (in this version, points are bad and you start at 10) in the first two rounds. But then Hugo got the better of him, and Joe was able to sneak a win at the last minute. Martin often found his plan ruined as people ducked into rooms immediately ahead of him and Stanley went on a bit of a suicide mission in the last round, starting at the top of the stairs when Hugo was moving five squares at a time.

Joe 26
Ian 27
Martin 33
Andrew 34
Sam (and little Joe) 37
Stanley 50

Matt arrived towards the end of Midnight Party so when Sam took his boys to bed, the rest of us played a couple of rounds of For Sale. It was Ian’s (and maybe also Matt’s) first game, so Joe explained the rules. He must’ve slipped some strategising in there too, because I got stuffed both times we played.

Martin 52
Ian 51
Joe 47
Matt 43
Andrew 37


Joe 58
Martin 44
Ian 44
Matt 40
Andrew 38

Then Sam came back and we split into two groups: Joe and Martin tried Baseball Highlights 2045. Meanwhile, Matt, Ian, Sam and I considered playing Lords of Vegas. However, we couldn’t be that cruel to Joe to play his favourite right under his nose. So we went for Tinners’ Trail, the classic evergreen of boardgaming. And what a damp game it was. I feel like we say this every time, but there were a lot of areas with the maximum amount of water.

So we got mining. The most notable feature of the game (apart from the collapse in prices in round four) was adit-stealing, as Ian and Matt built adits into neighbouring unclaimed regions, only to be outbid for them by Sam and me. Ian cut a particularly morose figure, as he surveyed the damp county with a sigh of despair. He’d have made a great 19th century tin mine owner.

Sam 113
Andrew 102
Matt 65
Ian 63

Martin and Joe were still deep into their game of baseball so we played Sumeria, a simple game of area control. Too simple for me, since I had little idea of what the best strategy would be. No worries for Ian or Sam, though. I guess Ian must have taken great pride in my downfall after I stole half his adit.

Ian 23
Sam 20
Andrew 6
Matt 5

By now Baseball Highlights ended and Martin won the world series 4-3 from 3-1 down. I know little about the game, bit apparently it all changed when Joe went for a piss.

Since we were now all six again (in number, not in age) we decided to play a rousing game of pairs. I found myself in the unusual position of being in first place with 20 points, just one short of ending the game. Martin had 18 as we went into the last round. I cautiously decided to stick on just one card, meaning Martin had to push his luck. Alas, he didn’t have any and got out on his second blueberry. In fact, a lot of people got out that round, which meant my lone card came in second and got me five points.

Andrew 25
Ian 20
Martin 18
Joe 15
Matt 12
Sam 11

Finally, we ended on Skull & Roses. And what an odd game it was. A flurry of skulls early one meant that no one could make any predictions at all. Joe and Martin were first out, with Matt taking out Martin twice in two rounds by putting down a skull which Martin foolishly flipped. Matt and Sam finally managed to make one correct guess as to the number of roses everyone had put out. But Matt’s luck didn’t last.

In the end there was me, Ian and Sam, and I only had on tile left: a rose. And it was my turn. And I played rather well, even if I do say so myself. I guessed that neither Ian nor Sam would want to give me any leeway in my guesses so they would both put down a skull. I bid “one rose,” and I was right. Neither of them could outbid me without losing a tile (which might have been the right thing to do, Sam later pondered). So I got one prediction right.

Next, I figured that Ian would want to be able to make a bid, so he’d put down a rose. But Sam was last in turn order and unlikely to be in a position to influence things, so he’d probably put down a skull. I guessed “two roses.” Ian must’ve thought the same thing, since he didn’t try to outbid me, and nor did Sam. And I was right! My second correct prediction, and my first win on Skull and Roses (I think)! What a way to end.

Andrew 2
Sam 1
Ian 3 tiles left
Matt out with 1
Martin out
Joe out

Choosing the best of two strategies

Tonight we arranged ourselves around Joe’s kitchen table. We were five in number, which is perfect for a game of A Fake Artist In New York, except I’d forgotten it and left it at home. Instead, we (Joe, Martin, Sam, Matt and myself) pondered what to play, idly casting an eye over a pile of games but never really approaching a decision. We almost thought about never choosing a game, and just spending a relaxing evening discussing them.

But then the deadlock was broken when Joe brought in Blockers. This underrated abstract game got my instant seal of approval, and debutante Martin was willing to give it a go. He was given a walkthrough of the rules, but asked that Joe not read out the section marked “Strategy”, wanting to work it out for himself. You win the game by having the fewest distinct areas on the board, and having captured the least number of opponents squares.

So we played and blocked and from a very early stage, we got in each other’s way: everyone seemed to try to take control of the middle area. There was a lot of cursing at bad luck, in a very Take It Easy kind of way, as each time we picked up a new tile, it was never quite what we wanted.

It was Matt who really impressed, though, joining up his disparate red nations in a long column that stretched from one edge of the board to the next. It was to prove to be decisive move and one that left him in a strong position for the rest of the game.

Matt 4
Martin 5, wins on a tie breaker
Joe 5
Andrew 6
Sam 8

Finally, after the game had ended, Martin looked at the strategy guide in the rules. We discovered that it recommended one of two strategies: either focusing on having fewest areas or capturing the least tiles. In other words, it just told us what we already knew. It dressed it up a bit by talking about a “Balanced” strategy or the “Edge” strategy, but nothing seemed very deep. Not exactly a discussion on the Sicilian Defence.

It was during Blockers that we decided to play five short games this evening, each chosen by a different player. Joe had chosen Blockers and, since Matt won it, he was given the next choice. He went for Skull and Roses.

It was an odd game. Or maybe all games of Skull and Roses are odd. Joe was an early loser, and was quickly down to one tile that everyone knew was a rose. That didn’t stop him from winning a round with just that one tile.

Meanwhile, Matt, Sam and I all lost a round or two while Matt and Sam won a round. It was then that we suspected that Martin was the only player left to have a skull. This put him in a position of considerable power, if only he’d fully believed it himself. After several rounds of him stopping people from winning, he foolishly played a rose, allowing Matt to guess he’d done that and so he won the game.

Matt 2
Sam 1 (more tiles remaining)
Joe 1
Martin 0 (more tiles remaining)
Andrew 0

Matt had already chosen a game, so Sam was given the choice. He went for High Society, the game of bidding just the right amount or be damned to a cruel last place for your greed.

I think this was the first time we’d played with Martin, who certainly seemed appalled at some of the high bids made for the cards early on. Time after time he’d pass on a bidding round for a mediocre card that was already $20m+ in value. He managed to get the 10 card, though. Matt, meanwhile, was looking good with his x2 card until he picked up a ½ card to go with it. Cautious Sam, with his 7 card and a x2 won it. I found myself in last place, having misjudged the last bidding round. Oh wells.

Sam 14
Matt 12
Martin 10
Joe 8
Andrew BUST! (with 11, for the record)

Since Matt and Sam had already chosen, it was now Martin’s choice. He went for Abluxxen: a swift three round game. However, he didn’t reckon with a tipsy Joe needing a rule refresher on every turn. After the first round of confused gameplay, Joe actually found himself in the lead.

We decided to limit the game to two rounds for the sake of time. Martin must’ve mentally rolled his sleeves up, determined not to let a drunken ingenue take first place, and he did it with some style, finishing with a four of a kind just before I was about to put down a five of a kind.

Martin 26
Joe 17
Matt 13
Andrew 11
Sam 6

Finally, it was my choice and I suggested No Thanks! Sam went for what now seems to be called The Endersby Strategy of picking up low value cards (just like Blockers, this is one of two strategies available: Endersby and Non-Endersby. Although the Non-Endersby Strategy does tend to be quite varied).

We were slightly distracted by the large jar of old school sweets that Joe had on a shelf in the kitchen, and he got it down so we could relive the joys of sherbert lollipops and love hearts (Martin’s first love heart said “Grow Up” which made us all wonder how it knew we were playing board games). Sam, however, did not appreciate the synthetic taste of a Fruit Salad sweet, having to spit it out after only a few seconds chewing.

I went for the middling cards but couldn’t get my two chains to join up and Martin picked up an early 33, deciding he wanted to control the top end, but then let a 34 card go round once too often and Matt picked it up. This sealed both their fates. Joe, though, got a streak of luck and ended with a negative score, to go with the one he got five years ago that he likes to mention every now and again.

Joe –2
Sam 21
Andrew 27
Matt 28
Martin 58

What an evening! Martin convinced us to play one more game of Go Stop before we left and while we finished the whiskey kindly supplied by Joe. We did, but we forgot that Matt is Kryptonite to Go Stop. Just like the last time he played, he ended the game by getting the highest showing card. Thank goodness it wasn’t leaderboard.

Which now looks like this. With Andy and Ian away, Martin stretches his lead at the top to what is surely an unassailable position with only one week left.