Going Commando

On Friday Paul made one of this intermittent sorties from Croydon, so for Andrew and I the journey from the other direction to Chris' house was a comparative breeze, despite some heavy traffic. We entertained ourselves playing the A-Z game, which somehow led us to the idea of Heston Blumenthal serving a pint of offal as pudding or an Oswestry Trifle being 100% cream. It's a long story, but not one where you probably had to be there.

We arrived to find Chris and Paul finishing off a game of Cosmic Run. I didn't pick the story of the game, but I seem to recall Chris had won.

Chris then had to dash off to pick up his children, so Andrew and I introduced Paul to The Mind. We failed to beat the game, but picked up another admirer in the time it took for Chris to return.

After catching up and being plied with delicious food, we debated what to play before settling on The Oracle of Delphi. This was a game I'd played with Stanley the previous weekend so I had the rules fresh in my head - most of them anyway. What I didn't have fresh about my person was the entire contents of the game, as we discovered after setting up there was a bag of player pieces missing. At this point I was crestfallen, as it seemed Zeus had maybe set us one task too many. But I underestimated our boardgame commando stylings - Chris moved up several gears as he engaged the service of a printer to generate some more tasks, and ransacked other games for other ad hoc replacements.

That out the way, we moved on to the original twelve Zeus had set us, with the winner allowed into the hallowed porch of heaven, or something.

Chris's yellow ship - secretly a temple

I began at speed and was first to complete a task. In fact I think I was about three tasks ahead at one point, but my lack of forward planning meant I'd left myself with not much room for manoeuvre, as Zeus is more picky about certain tasks more than others; you can make any three coloured statues you like, as long as two of them are yellow and green...

And like a breakaway sprinter in Flamme Rouge, I found myself overhauled by everyone as statues and shrines were erected, offerings given, and monsters defeated. Paul played slow and steady, but like the tortoise, it seemed to be the right thing to do.

Paul - chores done
Andrew and Chris - one task left
Sam - three tasks left

Thanks to our early start, the night was still young, but rather than begin another odyssey we went for  the comparative soufflé of Cash N' Guns; new to everyone but Chris but straightforward to pick up. There are eight piles of cash (or other good stuff) and everyone has a gun. Everyone plays a card face down that represents a click or a bang, then the Godfather counts us in and we all point a gun at each other. Someone with a gun (or guns) pointing at them can choose to back out of the round - or they can take a risk and stay in. Cards are revealed and a click does no damage to the recipient. A bang however means you're out of the round - and three bangs means your out of the game!

Each player only has three bang cards and five clicks though, so there's some table-reading at play here. Being Godfather means you can tell one player to point their gun at someone else, but there's a cost to becoming Godfather, as when all the loot is shared out you can forego a share in order to become the new Godfather.

It was fast, fun and very silly.

Chris 206
Sam 197
Paul 127
Andrew 107

Next up was Space Base, the dice-chucking game of spaceship deployment. I persisted with my method of purchasing lots of low-value ships quickly - the idea being to maximise returns on other players turns - but it proved as ineffective as any other time I've used it. Chris's early-game business seemed to leave him never picking up cash on anyone else's turn, but whatever he was up to, it worked out for him. Regularly rolling the right numbers on his own turn helped as well, as he surged up the track leaving the rest of us languishing in the doldrums:

Chris 41
Sam 17
Paul 15
Andrew 10

Paul was eager to return to The Mind, so we did. It was a slightly drunken series of Minds, though, that included a hesitant level one where any misconceived idea of collective synchronicity went up in smoke as Paul banged down his 83. The rest of us had cards in the seventies, which felt thematically appropriate, somehow.

But our third attempt was a bit more valiant, as we crashed and burned at the giddy heights of level 7.

Our consciousnesses aligned, we sought to break them apart again with a fast-moving blast of poker. A fiver each in the pot, winner-take-all, and a mere ten minutes between each doubling up of the ante. Paul looked strong early on, ominously building a lead of chips by whittling off each of us. Chris was first out when his pocket queens were unluckily ousted by my pocket jacks - a third jack coming up on the turn saving my all-in bacon. With the antes upping, Andrew was out shortly afterward, and it was between myself and Paul.

I threatened briefly, but like the candle of youth, my brief surge flickered out as, chips fast-disappearing, I was forced to go all in on a shabby hand. Fortunately for me, Paul followed me in with an almost-equally-shabby one. Unfortunately for me, almost-as is not the same as worse-than, and he made a pair anyway...

Paul + £20
Everyone else - £5

Midnight wasn't too far off now so we made our aperitif Pairs, once a staple of games nights but lesser-spotted these days. This part of the evening is less twelve tasks and more twelve drinks though, and my recollection of the game is murky. I do recall going bust on blueberries, and the fact Andrew engineered himself into a winning position, but chose to twist a few times anyway. Successfully as it happens... kudos to him.

In the morning I noted the leftovers of the kind of party Martin Amis can only dream of, with Zeus's tasks discarded next to a boozy kitchen sink.

As I had to head off to Cheshire, Andrew and I wended our way home early-doors, coming up with twenty six words for the current weather (y was yucky). I enjoyed the puzzly sandbox of Delphi, the silliness of Cash and Guns and I always love The Mind. Great to revisit poker as well. Thanks all for a very fun evening! Hope to see you soon. Paul.

A Curate's Egg

Last night was my first Tuesday night games after a fortnight's absence - that's three nights in a single sentence! Ok, four.

Photos will be in short supply I'm afraid, as I didn't take any - maybe Sam can slot some in. But I'll add a cartoon called True Humility, by George Du Maurier, originally published in Punch in 1895.

Bishop: "I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr Jones"; Curate: "Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!"

This cartoon was sooooo funny in 1895 that it gave rise to the expression 'A Curate's Egg' used to describe something that is both good and bad. What passes for hysterical may have substantially changed in the intervening century, but the euphemism is going strong.

Five of us were ranged around my kitchen table; I was joined by Sam, Ian, Martin and finally Andy B. On my request, Sam had brought Space Base, which I was keen to try - In an email earlier that day, Martin had ladled luke-warm praise on it by quoting mediocre comments from BGG, but I for one was unperturbed. While we waited for Andy, we decided to roll out a quick Knister...

This is the roll-and-write game of a 5 x 5 grid of squares which you fill in with numbers from a pair of dice, hoping to form decent poker hands. My first game, and I liked it. That agonising Take It Easy feeling of needing (and failing to achieve) just the right number to pull off a big score, but without the triple-figure addition and GNN standard bingo-calling. In fact Andy arrived just as we were about to start, so we all played, and Andy took us to the cleaners. Points are good.

Andy 65
Sam 47
Joe 41
Ian 39
Martin 34

We decided that Space Base with 5 players was worth a shot, and Sam began setting up. Almost at once my doorbell rang - the latest in a line of interruptions that included Sybil farting, Sybil scratching to be let out and Sybil scratching to be let in. By the time I rejoined the table I felt I'd missed some valuable part of the explanation - or perhaps it was the riot of primary colour on the table - either way I was discombobulated. Everyone reassured me that I'd missed nothing, we got underway and I gradually regained my composure.

It's been called Machi Koro in space, and I can see the similarities. Everyone starts with similar bases numbered 1 to 12, and on your turn you're rolling a pair of dice (the second game in a row we'd played where was the main mechanism, as Martin noted), and activating ships in those bases. Or adding the two dice together and activating that one base. Most starting ships give you money, or income, and you use this to buy better ships, from an offer a little like that in Splendor; three rows of increasingly expensive and powerful ships. There's even one, as Sam mentioned, that lets you instantly win the game once you've activated it a few times. As you replace ships on your bases, you gain abilities that can be activated on the other players' rolls. Unless you're Ian, who was dogged by rolls that he couldn't use.

taken earlier

There were a few instances of confusion with the iconography, and the rulebook stayed in play for most of the game - Martin was appalled by the size of it for such a simple game, and also by the typos. Meanwhile Andy had spotted and exploited an interesting strategy - chaining powers that let him activate the ship next highest up. With his 8 to 11 bays stocked with these, any roll from 7 upwards would allow him to activate his 12 bay. Now all he needed was a 12 ship worth all that effort. And right on queue, the ship Sam had mentioned that lets you instantly win the game popped up. And Andy duly bought it. This essentially put a three round timer on the game, and we all began scrabbling for as many points as possible. There was a slim chance that Andy wouldn't get the roll he needed, but he got it.

We all agreed that the sweet spot would be three players, and it was to long and overpowered with five. Sam and I both liked it, not sure about Ian and Andy. Martin said he enjoyed the company, so parts of it were excellent; like the Curate's Egg. Points are good.

Andy WIN
Martin 31
Sam 27
Joe 20
Ian 6

We packed Space Base off to Uranus, and decided on a game of Texas Showdown next - another that's been detailed elsewhere on the blog recently, but was new to me. I love card games, and this one had a similar feeling to Voodoo Prince - good with five, tricks are bad and all that jazz.
During the game I decided to make nuts. Walnuts dry-roasted in a pan, then doused with salt water and dusted with smoked paprika once they've dried. I'll make them again, but next time I'll pop them in a hot oven to crisp up again after the water, and I won't add as much salt - Ian found them too salty, having run out of beer. Like a trusty Saint Bernard Sam produced a bottle of San Miguel from his bag to quench Ian's thirst, and we got back to finishing Texas Showdown. Points are bad.

Martin 8
Sam/Andy 9
Joe 10
Ian 12

artist's impression of my nuts

Everyone graciously agreed to try out a recent acquisition of mine, a little card game by Wolfgang Kramer and friends called Fat Fish. No one had ever heard of it, and we felt afterwards there may be a reason for that. Players lay cards to a single row in the offer of three - following some faintly convoluted rules. If a row has five cards you have to take it, a la 6 Nimmt, and score one of each colour from it - any duplicate colours score you minus points. There's a fiasco card that nets -5 to the latest player to not be able to follow the rules regarding card placement - an addition which strikes me as an act of desperation on the part of the designers: "The game's too confusing. We could simplify it, or... we could add a card that penalises players for being confused!" Trouble was it wasn't quite confusing enough to make it funny, and by the time the fiasco card was with me, everyone had worked out how to play.

It was "Not an instant classic", as Martin pointed out. It would be better with three, but far too chaotic with five, and not enough agency for players to feel in control. I'd like to play again with three, but for now, we stopped after a single round. Points are good and bad. Like the Curate's Egg.

Andy 29
Joe 21
Sam 16
Martin 6
Ian 4

Sam decided to make that his last game of the evening, having a very early start to London the next day - we remaining four cast about for a final bit of fun, and settled on Krass Kariert.
It was Andy's inaugural play, and we all enjoyed it. Making pairs, runs and triples is satisfying, particularly with the puzzle of not being allowed to reorder your hand. Of Martin's recent card game acquisitions it's probably my favourite - though I didn't warm to it as instantly as Zero Down, it's got a bit more depth.
In this game there are no points, just lives. And Ian ran out of lives before the rest of us.

Ian 0
Martin 1
Andy/Joe 2

We called it a night, and it was a most enjoyable one. Not a Curate's Egg at all - wholly excellent.

Crisis of Time

Thursday, and Little Joe insisted on foregoing his bedtime story for a game with Andrew, so no sooner had he arrived than we played The Mind.

The first game was fairly disastrous, as we lurched from flippant to studious play and couldn't find a rhythm. We busted out on something like Level 4, before concentrating our brains and pulling off some high-five-worthy placements on our second attempt. We still didn't win, but Joe went to bed suitably sated, as the game of the moment shows no immediate sign of getting old.

I introduced Andrew to Space Base, which is a dice-chucking, luck-pushing, theme-pasted-on game somewhat reminiscent of Machi Koro. Each player begins with a base populated by twelve ships in bays 1-12, and on your turn you chuck dice and activate bays equal either to both die rolls individually, or the sum of them.

Then you can buy more ships, and 'deploy' the old ship from the bay. Deployed ships get you nothing on your turn, but get you stuff when any opponent rolls their number - so as the game continues and everyone deploys more and more ships, your inactive turns get increasingly rewarding. You can also buy some colony ships that clog up your bays, but score you points - first to 40 wins.

It's extremely fast-moving and I enjoyed it a lot, despite the fact I made a crucial error in passing up the chance to win - Andrew took full advantage:

Andrew 40
Sam 36

We hemmed and hawed over what to play next before deciding to finish off T.I.M.E Stories...

SPOILER ALERT

Sent back in time to solve a mystery and prevent a rupture in the fabric of continuity, we take on the host bodies of some lunatics at a mental asylum. Having made the journey thrice before, we were familiar with the majority of locations, but weren't quite sure how to piece the puzzle together. Not wanting to having to go through this all again, we afforded ourselves twice as much time units as the game officially gives you, and blasted through the place at a rate of knots, discovering all manner of unworldly creatures and a dark, macabre plot, that we eventually foiled by virtue of cheating. 

As I said to Andrew, I've never known a game to be so gripping on a first play and then drop so rapidly to unengaging. I'm still surprised by it's high rating on BGG considering how the game is structured - you fail, and start again, going to the same locations and having the same experiences... then fail, and start again. And again, and again, until you finally complete the game without running out of time units. It's beautifully made, but God, four plays was enough.

Andrew and Sam save the world.

We finished off with Avenue, the roll-and-write game of grape gathering and gathering frustration. This outdoes NMBR9 and Take It Easy in terms of getting ones' hopes up only to torpedo them in spectacular style. I still can't get over the fact Joe created one single avenue on his very first play... I tried that again tonight, and failed miserably!

Andrew 41
Sam 36

Thanks Andrew! Looking forward to The Mind, Space Base and Avenue again. Looking forward to selling or trading TIME Stories...