Kiss and Tell

We lost Andrew but gained Andy M, had no Adam T but Adam H stepped in as a late responder. The venue floated around before settling at mine, but the first half hour or so was mainly chat. Ian told a story about sleeping in mulch - or 'a ditch' as Katy liked to interpret it - and then he told it again to late arrivals Joe and Andy. Martin was due about 9pm, but after a diversion into whether conking out drunk is the same as going to sleep and another diversion on Venn diagrams, we finally played a game. It was Viva Pamplona!

Katy suggested that the orange safe spaces should actually be safe, as one pays to be there, and we thought Why not. So you can't be pushed while in an orange space, but neither can you collect courage points if the bull attacks (nor lose them if you're behind him, which had ramifications later). Good thematic sense! I regretted not bunching my runners together in my opening turn as no less than three others immediately took advantage, shoving me all over the place, like a rank amateur bullied by seasoned pros. We all fell behind the bull - but some of us hid safely in the safe spaces. Then we realised that we could keep a runner in a safe space all the way to the end of the game and not lose any more courage points - which we did; Katy, Adam and I lingering way back on the course like cowardly custards.

But Adam's rolling didn't favour him and he found himself forced to run, way way back behind the bull, who only paid out 2 or 3 times the entire race! Very few of us made it to the arena, and Andy cleaned up on his debut, shrugging off everyone teasing him about cheating.

Andy 39
Katy 35

Sam 25
Joe 17
Adam 9
Ian 5

Joe and Katy then played Sea Salt and Paper while they waited for Martin, whilst I attempted to explain Terra Nova to Adam and Andy. I'm not sure what happened in SSaP, I missed the end. I also handed guidance duties over to Ian when I had to go away on bedtime patrol upstairs. 

For a reasonably simple game of build stuff to get in each other's way with a side order of tactical scoring, it does take a while to explain. Ian did a good job though, and we set off into the good hexagonal night, starting around the time Martin arrived and began setting up his latest Knizia offering, Aristocracy. I missed almost everything about this other the occasional expletive and Katy's happy air of satisfaction versus the boy's chagrin, but did manage to snap a photo:

At our end of the table Andy started well, but as we proceeded Ian's eye for scoring opportunities saw him streak ahead, establishing a solid lead. Terra Nova can be fruitful if you pay attention to the round-by-round bonuses, and try and time your actions on the board to them. Adam frustrated himself when he built a palace and a town earlier than was ideal, even though it catapulted him up the track: delaying would have been more productive in the long run. 

Despite building the largest network (12 point bonus!) after connecting two towns, I was struggling to stay anywhere near Ian. In fact I was struggling to keep up with Andy -(bonus points for towns!) and Adam (-being Adam). But it was Ian's day: he scored a shedload of points in round five as well and wrapped things up convincingly, seemingly unaffected - maybe even blessed - by his night in the mulch.

Ian 74
Adam and Sam 59 each
Andy 53 

Aristocracy finished as well, with Katy even more convincing:

Katy 66

Martin 48

Joe 47

And Martin telling Joe he should design his own version of the game. I've no idea what it's about, although the cover suggests a psychopaths-with-delusions-of-grandeur kind of vibe. Not something I would ever accuse the players of, of course.

EDIT: This morning Martin had to remind me that he Joe and Katy also played Spots around this point as we finished Terra Nova! Martin won. 

Ian took his leave triumphantly, whilst the rest of us debated what to finish with before settling on Wavelength. Memories are a little hazy now but I can vouch that at some point before/during the game, Joe revealed he had kissed Kylie Minogue "on the lips" (-because she's a kisser on greeting) having made some illustrations for her website back in the last century. "I've known you ten years, and this is the first time you mention this?" Martin cried. Joe confessed he'd been waiting for the right moment. There was also talk of foamy nipples and it was hard to tell what was the greatest emotion in the room - Joe's nostalgia, or his audience's astonishment. 

But we had business to attend to, and that was arguing about how much a grain of sand looks like a person (not at all? a little bit? a lot?) This was Joe's clue and he and Katy, post-reveal, debated what more looks like a person between a grain of sand and 'air'. "Air can look like a person!" Joe insisted, waving his heads around in what I supposed was meant to suggest that air can look like a person. I regretted my clue of snooker for mental activity/physical activity, and changed to to darts after they had set the dial. If nothing else this should prove to everyone that Andy is not the only one who can cheat. I waved away protests for not other reason than I wanted to. 

It didn't help much: we actually did rather badly overall, triggering no extra cards and only scoring ten points total. "You should have listened to me" Martin said, as the only person (other than me) who truly understands how physical darts can be. Lots of fun! Thanks everyone...

Replenish!

A rare Thursday GNN extra session, as Ian and I made our way to Steve and Anja's for a pre-Christmas bit of competition. Louie joined us as Ian and I talked our hosts through the basics of Terra Nova, which we'd played on Tuesday. "We'll remind you of the rules as we go" I said "If you can just remember your own faction's ability" Sure, everyone said. And off we went. 

We were supposed to be hoovering up cash and power respectively, whilst Anja's reds got power moves on the cheap and Steve could form cities over the rivers, without even bothering to build a bridge. We were using the advanced sides, but playing like amateurs: Steve and Anja didn't know the rules and Ian and I kept forgetting to use our faction abilities. 

Louie was transfixed by the game, but also Ian's sack of chocolate that he carries everywhere, like a confectioneering Santa Claus. Despite our best efforts, we were nowhere near the bottom when the game ended. And it ended in a fight-off between the hosts: Anja built the largest network and hauled in twelve points for doing so, whilst Steve's comparative hamlet trundled in in fourth place, size-wise. But his round-by-round shenanigans meant his points cushion was big enough to hold Anja off for a narrow win, whilst Ian and I lagged some distance behind, possibly victim to the first twin-barrelled explainer's curse. Or possibly just out-done.

We debated whether to go again, but it was nearing 10pm and so elected to go with something shorter, landing on Tembo. Roles were reversed, as now the hosts were the explainers, and as they were a little rusty on the rules, there was some German translation (hats off to Anja) and online English version downloading from Steve, who having explained the rules to us kept forgetting to follow them - leading to repeated cries of 'replenish!' when he failed to replace spent cards from his hand. 

Your cards are animals, seeking to cross the river. At the start there are five paths across it, but during play three of them get blocked by lions, who eat everything. And there's also crocs, who eat some things (for instance, a croc may bag a gazelle but leave the zebras alone). But mostly there's tentative hope and temporary alliances, as crowds of animals gather together before crossing en masse, when someone plays an elephant to guide them over. Animals that make it across are points! (the cubes in the pic above just denote who is who)

No explainer's curse here, as Anja ran away with our first game and Steve came in second. Having enjoyed predation and shouting replenish so much though, we played again, and this time Ian took the win. A really fun 15minute filler where everyone cries with despair at least once felt like an appropriate way to see out the night. Thanks all.

The Glow of Dishonesty

An unusual games night in one way - no Martin, Joe, Katy or Andrew - but numbers swelled to six with Mel and Ben hosting and Gareth rejoining us after a short absence. Ian, Adam H and myself made up the sextet, and after comparing notes on general health and wellbeing, we kicked things off with Just One. 

It was easy at first. Too easy - we shrugged off the odd duplicate and advanced processionally towards maximum points, to the point that each correct answer seemed curiously procedural and lacked tension. But then, like a sneak thief, Just One crept up on us and dealt out a number of duplicates. Adam's word was Flintstone, and with two Bedrocks and two Wilmas cancelling each other out, Mr Hillmann was left with a single clue: knapping. Impressively, he knew what it meant in terms of definition. But he didn't know what it meant for Just One, and having stumbled once we did so again on Ben's final guess, leaving us with a merely reasonable 10/13. How the casually mighty fall.

Then we split into threes, with Adam leading Mel and Gareth to Mexico in Railways of the World as Ben, Ian and I set up Terra Nova. This is the short version of the epic Terra Mystica, which Ian said he'd attempted to play online and found a struggle. That mirrored mine and Andrew's experience on the table several years ago, but thankfully Terra Nova is considerably more accessible. 

Mechanically, you're simply building houses and upgrading them into trading posts, then upgrading trading posts into palaces. Thematically, the changing landscape of the board represents obstacles, as each of us prefer a different terrain to settle on, so we spend shovels to do a bit of preparatory landscaping. And, as there are rewards for chaining buildings together into towns, and having the largest chains at the end of the game, there are incentives to build in each other's way. 

Ben got off to a strong start, utilising his faction's abilities to outbuild Ian and I in the centre of the board. Terra Nova has round-by-round rewards which I tried to focus in on, possibly to my detriment. Ben and Ian were taking a longer-term, strategic view, possibly echoing Adam's progress on Railways next to us. 

I wasn't keeping track of this at all, except at one point Adam said "Oh. I forgot to tell you" and I sighed with relief inwardly that it's not just me who misses critical rules. There was some tense bidding at one point, between Adam and Gareth. Mel may have been struggling with cashflow, as she sighed as well: "I'm bidding nothing, obviously". Adam helped himself to another of Ian's kilo of Lindt.

On the Terra Nova board, we were nigh on hurtling towards the end. It's only five rounds and I'd been first to pass on all of them, I think. Meantime Ben's progress after a brief mid-game stall continued, and Ian ruminated on how badly he was doing - until he made a second town, joined his towns together for the biggest network, and accelerated past me into second. In the final scoring, it couldn't have been closer. Well, for Ian and Ben anyway. 

Ian/Ben 58 each

Sam 53

Terra Nova's tie-breaking suggestion is to play a game of Terra Mystica. We applauded the ambition, but passed. While Railways continued, we instead had a crack at Spots, the dog-collection game de jour. This was so fast-moving I forgot to take photos, but I survived a catastrophic bust to be first to six dogs.

Sam - top dog

Ben - hot dog

Ian - underdog

By which time, Mexico was fully networked and Railways had finished! Adam took the win here, shrewdly doing railway-y things I imagine. There wasn't enough time for a debrief...

Adam 55

Gareth 43

Mel 31

Because we swiftly moved on to Spicy, new to Ben and Mel. We played twice, and the first game was remarkable not only for how many times we challenged Adam, but how many times we challenged Adam on the number when he'd lied about the suit, and vice versa. Not only did he end the game by emptying his hand twice, he was also points leader by a huge amount at that juncture. I suggested we play again. 

Adam's confession that he found the duplicate peppers (red and blue) confusing, led to a lot of colour-announcing, which meant more words were being said and that meant it was easier, in theory, to spot a lie. But which part of the untruth was untrue? I felt confident on a few challenges - mostly on Gareth and Adam - but tended to challenge the wrong thing. Ben challenged as well, with a deal more success. Nobody emptied their hand twice (or at all?) but Ben's chiselling skills saw him take the victory on the last game of the night, as the mighty - Adam in this case - fell again:

Ben 23

Mel 14

Ian 12

Gareth and Sam 9 each

Adam 7

As we geared up for our walks and rides home, thanking our hosts, Mel remarked that Ben had the glow of victory about him. "I think it's the lying" Ben ventured happily. 

And with that, we fled to the night. Thanks to our hosts, to Ian's boss for the sack of chocolate, and everyone for another fun GNN night!