King of Vegas

 I arrived at 8, interrupting a little game of Mhing between Adam H, Katy, Martin and Joe. Since we were just a fivesome today, Lords of Vegas with its expansion was suggested. It received general agreement, so before too long we were dazzled by the bright street lights along The Strip and also dazzled by Joe’s plan for a green-baize version of the board, complete with recessed area along The Strip to be used as a dice arena.

The game started quite amicably, with players happily swapping lots in order to concentrate their resources in a particular block. Before long, two things were apparent. It was me versus Martin in one area, Joe versus Katy in another and Adam had a corner of the board all to himself.

Purples where the early winners, much to Katy’s delight. Martin went big on brown casinos since there were fewest revealed and, when they refused to pay out, he said “Joe, you’ve done it again,” referring to the last game when browns where mostly clustered after the Game Over card in the deck. I had two casinos on The Strip but they rarely paid out, while Joe was last to score at all.

Then things got feisty. Adam sprawled and made a 5-tile casino and then Joe got a 4-tile and a 3-tile casino in one turn. Martin took over Joe’s 3-tile casino and I took over Adam’s 5-tile casino which Adam took over again but only after it paid out. Then, towards the end (which comes quickly in a five-player game) I join my casinos to Martin’s to form a 7-tile casino which I then re-roll. Amazingly, Joe’s lone die beat everything and he was suddenly sitting pretty.

The then-leader Katy with her high-rise casinos got a little nervous and, after saying earlier that she didn’t want to lose to Adam or Martin but was fine with losing to Joe, suddenly found her words coming back to haunt her. Neither Martin nor I got the chance to re-roll Joe’s (by now) 8-tiler since Martin pulled the Game Over card from the deck.

Joe 36

Katy 29

Martin 23

Adam 20

Andrew 10

That was a new record low score for me but, in my defence, I don’t feel like I had many turns at all. And if something goes wrong in a five player game then you have a hell of a wait before you can do anything about it. Still, it was fun to watch.

After winning on Lords of Vegas, Joe put on his cowboy hat in celebration.

Then we player Verflixxt. I picked up an early +6 but then got nothing but negatives, with a last-minute clover saving my blushes. Katy picked up two clovers and was never seemed like being caught.

Katy 21

Adam 16

Joe 11

Andrew -8

Martin -9

My last game of the evening was Whale Riders, not the card game. I dawdled at the back and was only just at the turning point when Martin started buying pearls at the finish line. Katy discarded three contracts, saying they were bullshit, and then somehow picked up three more she couldn’t do and spent another turn discarding them too.

Martin 22

Adam 17

Joe 16

Andrew 15

Katy 9

With that, Katy and I left. I don’t know what the remaining players played. But thanks for the evening, chaps. See you next week.

Bugged out

Another week of games online, albeit one with an end to the isolation in sight. The promise of a six household get together is only a couple of weeks away, but with the addition of some online activities for those unwilling to come out just yet.

But that is all conjecture for the future. This week, six of us rolled onto BGA. I was too late for Raj, which ended in a cruel tie for Ian and Andy.

Martin 11
Katy 5
Ian -99
Andy -99

Soon after I arrived, Joe logged on and the six of us played That's Life (or Verflixt, or Fucksticks as it has alternatively been called). It worked well online although twice I clicked on the tile I wanted to go to instead of the piece I wanted to move, thus moving a guard by mistake.

We all admired the new die rolling animation. All except Joe who insisted it was broken and that you could see the final number during the animation. We disagreed and there then followed a lengthy demonstration of possibly the worst psychic in the world. Joe guessed correctly but always said the number just after the die finished rolling. "Well, you have to expect some lag," he explained.

He continued a few more times, looking like someone just reading a die and expecting people to be impressed. Eventually, he switched from Safari to Chrome and the bug no longer occurred - his ability to see into the future was over. I wonder if the story of Samson and Delilah would have been so popular if, instead of cutting off his hair to remove his strength, Delilah had just changed his default browser.

"Two!"

As for the game, I did terribly while Katy attributed her success to her laid back nature while she branded Martin a "Skippy wotsit" who never stayed still long enough to pick up a tile.

Katy 27
Ian 11
Andy 9
Martin 2
Joe -7
Andrew -8

Then another old favourite had made a recent debut online, Hugo. Despite technically being banned in a couple of houses we were playing in, we carried on regardless. It was the familiar mix of chants and cheers as Hugo chased our hapless party guests (although we were slightly disappointed to see the same dice animation as we'd seen in That's Life.)

"We all self-Hugo," said Katy, "nothing to be ashamed of." "And anyone who says they don't self-Hugo is lying," added Joe.

Andy -17
Ian -18
Joe -24
Andrew -24
Katy -25
Martin -31

Then we squeezed in one last game before Joe left. He can't resist For Sale. It was a typical game. Andy picked up a zero dispite bidding 17 and Martin got $15 with only a 22. But it was slow, steady me that finished in first place.

Andrew 53
Katy 52
Martin 45
Ian 38 plus tie breaker
Joe 38
Andy 34

So Joe left and Katy and Ian were teetering on the brink. They both agreed to stay on for one last game of No Thanks, but things quickly became unstuck when Katy lost her connection on her first turn. Or was it something more serious than that? She kept getting a lengthy error message from BGA, something about some module not working.
She tried refreshing, and refreshing again and then refreshing in another language before finally deciding that the problem was beyond help. Then we had the difficulty of working out how to cancel the game if Katy couldn't access it to say she was fine to abandon it.

In the end, we left it, since there wasn't a time limit on it. And, as far as I know, it's still there. I hope we have the chance to finish it next week. I'd love to see what Katy's thinking time is.

And so that was that. A bit of a damp squib to end on but still a fun evening. See you all next week.

The Discovery of Fingers

... by Europeans

Today Sam hosted a number of gamers (Joe, me, Katy, Ian and, making his leaderboard debut of the season, Chris) this week and, as you may have guessed the first game we played was Timeline (The Discovery of Fingers was Joe’s alternative title for the card that illustrated The Invention of Sign Language.)

This was the choice of Sam’s son, Little Joe, as a quick game for him before he went to bed. Despite his young years, he managed to win the game with only sneaking a peek (apparently) at a couple of the dates. He probably thought he had to after the first round when his father gave him the wrong advice about where to put a card.

Little Joe 0
Andrew 1
Katy 1
Ian 2
Joe 2
Sam 2

With Joe off to bed and Sam’s other son back from Ju Jitsu, so Sam went and did the dad thing and put them both to bed. The rest of us (now with late arrival Chris) played For Sale. Chris was given a quick precis of the rules and we were away. Among the usual banter (“You know where you are with a one”) were some new comments (“You’ve no idea where you are with a fifteen”) and, just like last week, Joe dealt out the wrong number of cards in the first auction round and no one noticed until half way through.

In the final reckoning, Katy came top.

Katy 58
Chris 54
Ian 51
Andrew 44
Joe 43

Then, with Sam back, we split into two groups of three. Joe, Chris and I went for the point-salady Euro-goodness of Gold West, while Katy, Ian and Sam went for Martin Wallace’s least Wallace-like game, Hit Z Road.

The hum of simultaneous rules explanations filled the air. When Joe explained how you get points for chaining your camps in a group, I wanted to say “It’s a bit Kingdom Builder-y,” but instead it came out “It’s a bit Killdem Bingery” and Chris looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.

The game itself was fine. A bit odd on first play and not very intuitive, with the mancala-like method of activating your pieces on your go, and also there's a wide variety of options available to confuse a newbie. Joe sped off into a massive early lead, leaving Chris and I feeling like we’d just been suckered into a game chosen by Joe just so he could win. He kept insisting that’d it would all be much closer in the final count but Chris and I were sceptical. And, it turned out, we were wrong to be. To be exact, Chris was wrong to be sceptical. I was bang on the money.

The worst episode of Wacky Races ever

Chris 98 plus most camps
Joe 98
Andrew 79

On the other half of the table, with it’s nightmarish vision of America gone crazy (insert political joke here) Sam, Katy and Ian seemed to be having a whale of a time. I noticed that Katy was a hoarder, keeping a healthy stash of resources in front of her. Sam, meanwhile, looked far less prepared and before long, he was a lone survivor, making his way through the landscape twitching at every shadow.

He almost made it, too. In one round he was attacked by twelve zombies, and had killed off eleven when the last one got past his valiant defence and killed him. The cry of anguish at that last roll was genuine and heart breaking. It could’ve been one of those stories you tell your grandkids. Instead, it got him last place as Ian and Katy both survived.

Ian 20
Katy 16
Sam 0

We actually ended at about the same time, so we ended the evening with two six-player games. Verflixxt/That’s Life was first, with some questions about whether Katy’s copy had any bits missing since there seemed to be only six clover tiles and we thought maybe there should be eight. Still, it was the same for everyone.

We were still baffled by the illustrations and we came up with the theory that maybe they illustrated German proverbs, for example “It’s like when you get a package in the post and it’s a live dog.” As for the game, Chris did splendidly picking up more than his fair share of clover tiles.

Chris 25
Sam 15
Katy 6
Ian 0
Joe –2
Andrew –11

Next up was Fuji Flush and what a game it was. For a start, we began by all playing a “2” and pushing through together, which would never be allowed to happen if Martin was here. As we chuckled happily in our moment of solidarity, I wondered out loud why we even bothered dealing out six cards.

Dick points were spread out pretty evenly, and soon four of us were on one card. Katy managed to push through her 19 just before Sam’s 20, giving her the win.

Or did it? That night, in a fitful sleep beset by doubts, Katy realised that Sam’s 20 should’ve wiped out her 19 (or 5, see comments) but she’d forgotten to discard. No one else noticed. But her guilt was too overwhelming, so she emailed us the next morning to explain her mistake and give the win to Sam. What a nice gesture and I hope Katy didn’t feel too bad about her honest mistake. After all, as they say in Germany, Es ist wie wenn du ein Paket in der Post bekommst und es ist ein Live-Hund.

Sam 0
Katy 1
Ian 1
Andrew 1
Joe 2
Chris 3

Thanks for hosting, Sam. And thanks to me, Katy and Joe for bringing snacks which were pretty much hoovered up the moment they hit the table.

It’s the penultimate week of the season, so no shenanigans for the Division. Just cold, hard numbers. Ian hangs onto the lead, with Katy and Joe within striking distance and Martin still with an outside chance. Adam's hold on Points Ratio is a bit slim, too.

Just Divine

Whoever decided to schedule Valentine’s Day on a Tuesday this year needs, in my opinion, a good talking to. Due to this special day, there were only three of us this week. Me (the host), Ian and Katy. Katy brought as many games as she could, plus we all brought snacks, meaning the snack/player ratio was an impressive 1:1.

Our first game was Isle of Skye, which Katy tried her best to convince us she was bad at. She mentioned how much she struggled with money last time, and Ian had to remind her that she’d actually won that game.

"It's very zone-y."

I haven’t played in a while and, boy, did it show. Once again I ended with lots of money, but any tiles I wanted either vanished or were bought before I could get them. Luckily Ian and Katy set up a close finish to add a bit of excitement.

Ian 57
Katy 55
Andrew 17

Next up was Divinare. As I explained the rules to Katy, she kept asking if there was another game like Divinare that she thinks she played ages ago. I said I didn’t think so, but she insisted there was. Then I remembered I’d brought it to Roll For The Soul once and the mystery was solved: Divinare is the game that’s like Divinare.

It’s a fun game: a bit luck based and there’s a bit of screwage in there too. I should bring it to games nights more often. Katy proved herself to be best psychic.

Katy 17
Andrew 11
Ian 11

This was followed by Verflixxt (or That's Life), which now comes in its own bespoke carrying pouch since Katy was appalled at the oversized box that originally housed it.

As for the game, we all got two of those clover tiles (complete with illustration of a dog in a parcel) to turn negatives into positives, but Ian also got an armload of positives too. I was doing okay until right at the end when I rolled a bunch of ones, stealing last place from Katy who – up until then – had been the unluckiest roller.

Ian 27
Katy 11
Andrew 9

Next up was more dice! This time, Roll Through The Ages. This was new to Ian and Katy but it didn’t take long for them to get the hang of it. Katy loves a scoresheet and wrote “Dr Katy” at the top of hers, causing Ian and I to add “BA (Hons)” to our names, keen to show our higher education credentials too.

Ian soon had four developments and it looked like he was about to end the game, but he couldn't get enough money together to buy that last development. My joy was short lived, however, as he used the people he got instead to finish off monuments that I had already started.

At the end of the game, when adding up our scores for developments and monuments, we all scored nineteen points! As such, it was down to who had least disasters.

Andrew 19
Katy 15
Ian 14

Then finally, with Ian keeping an eye on the clock for his train home, we played Push It. Or Speed Push It as it might have been called. Only up to seven and, on my small table, we got it over and done with in double quick time with Ian scoring two-pointers three times. Ever the gracious host, I decided not make the game last any longer by staging a dramatic comeback. And that’s the story I’m sticking with.

Ian 7
Katy 3
Andrew 0

And so the evening ended at a sensible 10.25pm. Thanks guys. Hopefully we’re a bit more populated next week.

On the Division we have points along the x-axis, points ratio up the y-axis and the size of the bubble indicates the average complexity of the games played by each player, according to Board Game Geek. Ian is now second, while only a few weeks ago he was back in sixth!

Samarcan’t

Games never stop, as the old saying goes. And so, for a few hardy gamers, the recent weekend away was followed up by the regular Tuesday meet for Katy, Sam (hosting) and myself. We were joined by Ben, Andy, Chris, Ian, Joe and Martin.

Early arrivals, Katy and Ben played Sam at Verflixxt. While the rest of the gamers came in, having done their best to avoid the football traffic.

Katy 20
Ben 19
Sam 17

Martin was keen to play Twilight, the non-franchise card game of moon cults and bad art. “Look,” he said, as he drummed up support for the game, “they’re burning a chicken on the cover!” Well, that seemed to swing it, and he, Joe, Ben and Katy adjourned to the front room.

Meanwhile, the five remaining players gave Chocolatl a spin. Chris looked offended when Sam started to explain the rules to him, forgetting that they’d played it together less than a week before. Andy listened to Sam’s explanation of the rules, and then double-checked a few things in the book, for good measure.

As for the game, there was bidding, as you’d expect, but I’m not sure it’s at its best as a five player. There was a lot to take into account. So much so, that it wasn’t worth thinking too much. Sam went for the +1 tiles in rounds one and two and, almost by chance, Ian was usually second in the city, so he ended up with a healthy collection of bonus dice to roll at the end. Neither tactic was enough to win the game, which went to Andy and his softly softly collectee pointy approach. What I mean was, it was hard to see his tactic, except avoid losing points. Maybe he didn’t have one.

Andy 54
Chris 46
Andrew 44
Sam 43
Ian 43

During this game, Twilight ended in high drama. Joe and Katy made up the Moon Cult, against Ben and Martin in the Sun Cult. At the end of the third round, the Moon Cult lead 386-91. Amazingly, by the end of the fourth round, the tables had turned completely thanks to a total shut out by the Sun Cult.

Martin & Ben 397
Joe & Katy 386

Since we were still knee deep in Chocolatl, they began Can’t Stop, the fun dice rolling game. Katy managed to go through the whole game without getting a single meeple on the board.

1. Joe
2. Martin
3. Ben
4. Katy

And now our game timings were overlapping, so since they were halfway through Can’t Stop, we cracked out Samarkand. This is a game where your meeple moves around a board following arrows, having to trade with nomads, buy cards or trade cards for points. The trick is arriving at the nomad camp when the camp is full, so that you get all the cards. And then hot-footing it to the right city to sell those goods before anyone else does.

The most notable aspect was some confusion about one small icon in particular: a tunnel entrance. Was it a burnt mushroom? A man? A tunnel? Of course, it was swiftly dubbed the burnt mushroom man tunnel, and cue childish giggles every time someone went to exploit the man tunnel.

Sam didn’t seem to get to grips with it and gave a poor judgement of it by the end. Ian seemed much more favorable but, then again, he did win. I’m sort of in the middle, as my placing will testify.

Ian 510
Andy 405 (possibly more, can’t read my writing)
Andrew 380
Chris 375
Sam 145

In the other room, The Last Spike was now on the table, with Katy seemingly taking her revenge for those two last places she’d had to endure.

Katy 133
Joe 91
Ben 75
Martin 36

So, with that going on, the five of us went for Celestia.

Sam 52
Chris 51
Ian 46
Andy 45
Andrew 39

And with that, we were all together again, for a hearty game of 6nimmt (chosen in favour of Pairs, despite Sam’s new fruit version).

Cue the usual cries of agony and woe, as one piece of shitty luck gave way to something even crueler. It was close for first place, though with four players tying for first and second. (Or first and third, if you prefer).

A particularly nasty situation

Ian 33
Katy 33
Andrew 35
Martin 35
Sam 36
Andy 49
Joe 50
Ben 62
Chris 63

On the division, Katy regains points ratio and top spot, while Martin keeps hold of the medal table.

Cautiously Unlimited

Hey, Internet, have you ever played board games? We have. By “we” I mean: myself, Sam, Katy, Martin, Ian and Joe. And by “have” I mean: at Sam’s house on Tuesday evening.

I arrived a few minutes late, just in time to see the last few seconds of Bandu. This a building game, with each player constructing some sort of tribute to public art sculptures of the 1960s and 70s. Last tower standing wins.

1. Martin
2. Sam
3. Katy
4. Ian

Codenames is the new craze that’s sweeping GNN and tonight the six of us split into two teams of three for three rounds of this crazy guessing game. Joe, Sam and Katy took on Martin, Ian and me. Katy and Ian were the spymasters in the first round. Katy found it hard going, and was 5-1 when she said “Mr Tumnus” and said it had a “cautiously unlimited” number of answers. They got up to 5-4 but then guessed wrong, and Ian’s team closed the deal 8-5.

Next up Sam and Martin were spymasters and controversy reigned when Katy unthinkingly touched a card that she was suggesting might be the answer. Martin pounced, saying since she touched it, she had to choose it! She quickly retreated, saying it was a mistake, but then Sam swooped in and accepted Katy’s “guess” even as she was disowning it, since it was a correct one. Martin ended the game (at 7-5 to Sam’s team) by steering us to the assassin with the clue “beak” (I think) and the assassin was hiding behind “Kiwi.”

Finally, it was Joe and I as Spymasters. A far less exciting round if my lack of notes are anything to go by. Joe (and Katy and Sam) won 8-7.

After this we considered splitting up, but Verflixxt/That's Life tempted us, especially since Joe hadn’t played it before. It’s a colourful game, but mostly due to the language we used when reacting to each roll of the die. Katy did best, picking up those all-important clover tiles to convert her minus points into plus points. I did not pick up any.

Katy 25
Ian 15
Sam 8
Joe 6
Martin 5
Andrew –7

By now it was around half past nine. Usually, this is the time where we start considering lighter fare to finish off the evening, but in the pile of six-player options that Sam brought in from the other room was Medici. This caught mine and Martin’s eyes and it was chosen.

I started well, getting the biggest boat for the first two rounds, but my attempts to get enough commodities in the final round fell short. Sam surged up from third in mid-game to take a handsome win. Katy said she did not like it.

Sam 103
Martin 89
Katy 76
Andrew 67
Joe 65
Ian 53

All that's left is to say congrats to Martin on his forthcoming new addition to his household. No, not another game. And he didn't tell us straight out. Sam was talking about how much space was needed for his games collection and Martin sympathised, saying that he had to reorganise his games too because "we will be needing the spare bedroom soon." And then he paused while we worked it all out.

Honestly, why couldn't he bring that form to Codenames?

It's only Rockleycon but I like it

Friday

Andrew and I (Sam) arrived at Rockley cottage in mid-Somerset first, and sniffed around the place finding it to our liking. Talking later with Chris and Paul, we realised we’ve been doing these weekends away almost every year since before the Millennium. Once upon a time we camped and played cards, but when Chris stumbled on Settlers and El Grande, there was a sea change toward a place with a roof and a table. This year we found ourselves in the village of Edington, and after pondering the finality and intractability of the passage of time, we broke out Castles of Mad King Ludwig and started building rooms.

Chris and Paul were new to this game of haphazard construction but picked up the rules very quickly – it’s such an intuitive game. Paul was last to be Master Builder, but shrugging off this economic hobbling and swiftly began accruing a shedload of money. He sped off up the scoretrack, never to be caught, though Andrew gave it a decent go. Chris was sidetracked by a bonus card for getting all types of rooms, a bit of a red herring bonus if his (and previous) experiences are anything to go by.

Paul 123
Andrew 109
Sam 97
Chris 89

After all that building we were pretty hungry. I started making a chorizo stew whilst the other three played the longest game of Red7 in the history of games of Red7. I cooked stew and rice and we ate it as the game went on hold.

They continued afterwards, promising the game was nearly over for several rounds whilst I entertained myself – and occasionally the others – playing Sausage and Mash with Agatha Christie.

Eventually Chris ended the game with his first victory of the weekend:

Chris 44
Paul 31
Andrew 29

Keyflower was next on the menu. This Chris’ current favourite and he was keen to show it off to Andrew and I, having played it in Bracknell and Reading Boardgame Social. He’s explained it better elsewhere on the blog, but essentially each player is building a village by bidding for hexagons to add to their existing settlement.

However as well as using meeples to bid for the card, you can also elect not to bid on your turn but to use the action on the hexagon instead. The winning bidder gets to keep all the meeples that have used that hexagon’s action, and it’s this delicate balance of getting stuff versus losing meeples at the game’s heart. It’s also a multiple-paths-to-victory game, and a bit of a head-scratcher. There’s plenty to mull over, but we played it with reasonable pace and I pulled off a surprise debut win:

Sam 64
Chris 63
Andrew 60
Paul 56

Next up was Take It Easy. Everyone loves this game for its thematic possibilities that have evolved from our original rhyming-couplets convention, combined with its ability to drive you crazy. Paul began with an unbeatable calling theme of James Bond gadgets, which he sustained brilliantly over the 21 tiles placed. Andrew followed this with a wistful take on things he missed from his childhood, and I did animated characters. I can’t remember what Chris’ one was. The scores felt almost secondary, but it was Chris again with a convincing win:

Chris 649
Sam 587
Andrew 583
Paul 550

By now it was nearly ten and we’d been playing (or learning rules) for the last six hours. When I suggested Alien Frontiers I didn’t expect two newbies to bite, but Paul and Chris were keen – or at least amenable. Rules-wise it’s pretty simple next to something like Keyflower though, so going through the rules only took ten minutes and we were away. I can’t remember much about it to be honest – toward the end my eyes were starting to feel a bit furry but with some luck from the dice I did enough to pull off a win:

Sam 9
Andrew 7
Chris 6
Paul 4

I was ready for bed, but those crazy guys tempted me to stay up for one last game: Kakerlaken Poker. I think everyone has played this by now and there are fairly diverse opinions on it. I think it’s great, personally, though I usually do really badly. Maybe something about my sleepy state made me more aware of when Andrew was lying.

Sam: Fewest cards
Paul: No pairs
Chris: One pair
Andrew: Loser with three of a kind!

A very enjoyable start to the weekend came to an end and we reeled off into bed. I recall it being funny anyway. It’s Saturday now and my main recollection is thinking “Shit, I hope Chris doesn’t bid on that hexagon for making gold” in Keyflower. But the others assure me it wasn’t all like that.


Saturday

Andrew here. The day began with Sam and I driving through the rain (perfect weather for board games) to the neighbouring village Bratton in a hopeful search for real coffee. In fact, they did stock it and Sam came out of the shop with a packet of filter coffee and freshly baked croissants, ruefully saying “Village shops aren’t the same as they used to be.”

Once we were back, we struggled with the cryptic crossword. Paul rose from his bed and we decided that the best way to get Chris to join us was if he heard the noise of happy gamers vigourously enjoying themselves. However, the best we could come up with this early was That’s Life.

Andrew 26
Sam 18
Paul 1

It was Paul’s first game, which goes some way to explain his score. Our plan worked, though, and Chris came down halfway through the game. Once a coffee was put down in front of him he was persuaded to join us in another game of That’s Life.

Andrew 24
Sam 17
Paul 13
Chris 12

After this, we cleared the table for the first of our big epic games of the day: Colonial. A huge epic of a game, taking in a vast swathe of history that lasts centuries. And that’s just reading the rules!

Ho ho.

Sam talked us through the rules, and we looked perplexed and puzzled. There were rebellions and war, diplomacy, and even the chance to abolish slavery. And that was just while reading the rules! (Oh, that joke never gets old)

But seriously, we decided to play a shortened version (up to eight prestige points instead of ten) but we explored as much of the game's options as possible. Sam got hit by a rebellion (thanks to me) and a war (thanks to Paul) but, thanks to never having got into debt, Sam was able to end the game the moment he got eight prestige points.

Sam 8
Andrew 6 and some debt
Chris 6 and more debt
Paul 4

But it was very much a training game. Paul deliberately did odd things, just to see what happened, and Chris deliberately had terrible luck when rolling dice just to entertain us. In fact, his fortune with the dice was so bad that when he finally succeeded in exploring Australia we all applauded.

It was a good game. At least I enjoyed it but then, I do like a game with a bit of a narrative to it. It felt weighty, with its nicely illustrated map and its themes of empires rising and falling. Not sure when we’ll get the chance to play it again, though. It certainly needs some sort of player guide, too.

Then we had lunch of sliced meats, cheeses, potato omelette, burningly hot quiche and dips. This was all to get us in the mood for Amerigo, another epic to stretch us to our limits.

It was new to Paul and Chris, and neither Sam nor I had played in a while so the game was dotted with confusion of the rules. I can’t honestly say it was a madcap bag of laughs, except when someone put a healthy handful of cubes into the top of the tower and only three dribbled out of the end. This happened more than once. Oh, how we laughed.

I exploited a new scoring rule that Sam and I were previously unaware of, scoring well for settlements on completed islands. It was enough to nab me the win.

Andrew 211
Sam 185
Chris 172
Paul 168

Then we went for a walk down to the local farm shop where I bought some local micro-brewed beer (as if we didn’t have enough alcohol already) and then we set off for a brief walk through some of Edington’s finest footpaths.

As we wandered past farms, we imaged the knowledgeable conversations we could have with the farmers thanks to our expertise in Agricola.

“You know, if you fence that field in, you could keep twice as many horses in there.” And “I see you’ve got a stone farmhouse. What other improvement did you get when you built that?”

Then, as it was threatening to rain again, we returned to the cottage, took turns having showers and our next game was another AP-laden Eurogame: Castles of Burgundy. In my notes for this evening, I wrote that CoB is “the fun game of having a plan and then forgetting it by the time it gets to your turn.” Sam went crazy on bonuses for shipping, and got a comfortable win. I came last, behind two newcomers to the game.

Sam 199
Chris 184
Paul 165
Andrew 163

After an excellent curry made by Chris, we decided to play something that was a bit more fun: Incan Gold! Chris was the big winner here, staying on in the first temple by himself, and getting a 9, an 11 and a 17 all to himself. A just reward for his cooking skills.

Chris 68
Andrew 54
Sam 31
Paul 6

By now, the cryptic crossword had bothered Sam and I so much that we even texted Joe, who kindly lend a hand to a particularly annoying clue. As for the games, we chose Raj as a similarly light yet tense way to pass the time. Sam won the first two rounds, but after Chris commented on how well Sam was doing, his game collapsed and he fell back into third.

Andrew 58
Chris 47
Sam 39
Paul 33

Following this, we chose 7 Wonders. A perennial favourite that we’ll still be playing in the old person’s home where we will surely end up. I went for sciences, but it wasn’t enough to beat Chris’ smorgasbord of decent scores across many categories.

Chris 61
Andrew 55
Sam 52
Paul 44

The evening was progressing nicely. We had no appetite for a big game, so we ploughed on with more simple yet tortuous games. No Thanks was given a couple of turns.

Andrew 16
Sam 32
Paul 39
Chris 75

Sam 23
Andrew 32
Paul 48
Chris 63

And then Kakerlaken Poker was dragged out again, with Paul trying to pass off most of his cards with the joyous cry of “It’s a kakerlaken!” It didn’t work.

Sam 1 pair
Andrew 2 pairs
Chris 3 pairs
Paul 4 of a kind

At five to ten Paul had a hankering for a game of Castles of Mad King Ludwig, and since our bedtimes were flexible, we were amenable. I got shitty bonuses, made all the more annoying by me throwing away a bonus card that scored money and I ended with over 50,000 marks.

Sam 120
Paul 102
Andrew 98
Chris 85

And we ended with Timeline, the general interest edition. I can’t remember much about this at all.

Paul 0 cards left
Chris 0 cards left
Andrew 1 card left
Sam 1 card left

Finally we went to bed. Just as I was putting my head down, I got a text! Sam had just realised an answer on the cryptic crossword.


Sunday

Early morning, while listening to an old pirate radio broadcast I’d found on the internet, Chris and I played Biblios. It was close, and I entered the auction round with barely any money at all. I managed to win, though, thanks to Chris not pushing me on an auction for an “adjust two dice down” card. If he’d taken it instead of me, the result would have been very different and I’d be alive today.

Andrew 8
Chris 5

Sam and Paul came down from upstairs, and they blearily looked at the quiz in yesterday’s Guardian, unable to face the cryptic again. Instead we went for a light breakfast followed by a light-to-medium game of Istanbul. My recent form on this game has been nothing short of shocking, but when I got a “Use Sultan's Palace twice” bonus card my strategy was already decided for me, and it worked.

Andrew 5
Sam 4
Paul 3 + cash
Chris 3

With time pressing, we finished what was left in the fridge while playing Tsuro. And what an exciting game it was as we all ducked and weaved, trying to find a quiet corner to see out the game while the other players pick each other off. Paul and I were face to face on one square. I couldn't kill him and survive, so I put down a tile that sent us both around the board... to the same square somewhere else! Amazing scenes. But then we were stuck and both died on Paul's next turn, leaving Sam alone on the board.

1. Sam
2= Paul
2= Andrew
3. Chris

Our last game was Verflixxt! Or That's Life. We played it through twice using all the tiles. The first game ended as

Sam 31
Andrew 15
Paul 6
Chris 2

Then in the second game, Paul requested that all the clovers be right at the end. So we put the guards on the largest minus numbers instead of on the guards (otherwise it would have been impossible to play). Chris quickly sped off, hoping to get to the clover tiles first. It looked like a good idea at first, but he couldn't quite get enough clovers to make it work.

Paul 20
Andrew 13
Sam 12
Chris -8

And with that, games were packed away and cars were loaded up.

Chris departed for home and while Paul was having a shower, Sam and I tried a lightning fast game of Trivial Pursuit (house rule: roll two dice, may move either value or the combined value) and Sam was winning six cheeses to four when Paul came down and it was time to end the weekend once and for all.

Good show, chaps. A great occasion. I'm already looking forward to the next.

Stars on 45

Sunday was my 45th birthday, and having spent the previous 48 hours either throwing up, or sleeping, or feeling like I was about to either throw up or fall asleep, or possibly both, I was in a fairly self-indulgent mood on Sunday morning, and roped Sally and Stanley in to a game of Castles of Mad King Ludwig. Sally's games antennae must have started tingling as without even knowing we were setting it up she embarked on a lengthy phone call in the front room, and I played her first few moves for her. Not very well, either.

On Saturday I had, in the latter stages of convalescence, taken on and beaten Stanley at Lords of Waterdeep (181 to 162) with a Griffiths-esque strategy of taking lots of debt (skulls rather than bonds) in order to realize lots of short-term reward. I ended the game with the skulls taking 45 points off me, but I'd done enough to hang on to the win. Yesss! I hissed, before falling asleep again.

Sunday in Bavaria and it looked like Stan was out for revenge, as he started chaining noisy rooms and gardens together like there was no tomorrow. Or like tomorrow was a long way off and anyway we could spend it in the garden. I concentrated on getting the King's Favour and points for my own bonus cards, which meant I built a lot of circular cellars. Sally had no strategy whatsoever, except to profess an indifference to winning or losing and a lassez faire attitude to staircase placement. "It's my birthday!" I yelled, vainly. Little Joe erected a miniature cafe around the table and plied us at first with plastic snacks, then latterly interpretive dance and bird noises.

As Sally and Stanley got more and more hysterical at Joe's antics I elected to take advantage of their frivolous fun-having by scoring shitloads of points. That would show them whose birthday it was!

However Stanley's meteoric surges up the scoretrack were uncatchable. Especially as I pointed out in his last move he could score 13 points instead of 5...

Stanley 103
Sam 100
Sally 79

Mad Prince Joe not pictured

After a fairly relaxed day involving Stan and Joe lobbying for a Yo Sushi lunch just so they could watch the conveyer belt and refuse to eat the food, we reconvened in the evening with Mark and Peppa. They (plus Stanley and I) played a couple of games of Verflixxt, or That's Life as it's better known. We played a slightly abridged (less tiles) version, and Peppa won the first with 23 points. I had 21 and Mark was in the red, I think by 7 points?

However the second game - which Peppa set up - was more interesting. She put the clover tiles at the very end of the track, so basically whoever picked up red tiles was then racing to get there first and claim the clovers. Mark took a high-risk strategy of picking up high reds and ignoring the green tiles. I applaud his spirit, but not the result:

Sam 27
Peppa 15
Mark 7

There was still time for Sally, Peppa and I to play Stop Spot! The game of measle contagion amongst unsuspecting children. Over the course of a round players flip their way through a deck of cards and take whatever the card shows - usually, it's more spots to add to the cardboard children's head in front of you. Sometimes, it's cream or medicine to remove some. At the end of the round, the person with the fewest spots wins! It's the sort of thing Martin Wallace might come up with if he teamed up with David Cronenberg. Over four rounds Peppa was the least spotty, winning 2-1-1 over myself and Sally.

And with that, my 45th year came to an end!