Two Clover by Half

All the gamers for the evening arrived on my (Joe's) doorstep within seconds, meaning a single trip to the front door for me - what luxury. Katy, then Ian, then Martin and Jo filed in; but as we were discussing that to play while waiting for Adam H and Sam, Katy realised she'd left a vital piece of her tens machine at home, so borrowed Ian's bike to scoot home.

 We remaining four amused ourselves with Cherry on Top, a curious shedding game with plasticky renditions of fruit (and coconuts) on different coloured cards.  I didn't take any photos.

Martin won

Katy arrived back as we were finishing (I did have to return to the front door for that, sigh), and we pondered the next delight. Adam H phoned to let us know he could no longer make it, and with Sam due in a while, we tried my new deluxe edition of The Gang.  Although this now plays up to 10 (that would be a scream (agony or delight, your choice)) it is solidly achievable with five. And we prevailed, winning the first two hands, losing the second two and pulling it out of the bag on the final fifth. Fun! 

The Gang - now with tasty gold bars!

We raced through a couple of hands of FTW! The strategy escaped me (again).

Martin 94

Jo 81

Katy 71

Ian 52

Joe 34

Towards the end of the game, Sam texted to say he would no longer be joining us, so we were set at five for the rest of the evening. We contemplated Medici, but someone mentioned MLEM, and I lobbied for it, as I felt I needed something where I could be let down by the dice rather than my analytical prowess. 

It was as fun as I'd hoped - my early investment in trips to deep space were thwarted by one ship after another blowing up with me on board, and I thought my chances of competing were over. But I snuck in a five point bonus for three cats on a low planet, and on the final trip, after all others had bailed, I finally made it to deep space (or was Ian with me? It's so dark up there it's hard to tell). It wasn't quite enough to beat Katy, but I was satisfied with second place.

Katy 36

Joe 30

Jo 24

Martin & Ian 21

Jo had brought a couple of card games - Daytime Minutes, a trick-taker about mobile phone usage with 1990s styling, and The Dealer, which had, to my eye, much more interesting artwork, sort of skater-art crossed with garbage pail kids, all on a dusty black background - really unusual and appealing. 

We went with the latter. The Dealer doles out a card to each other player from a big deck consisting of 0,1,2 and 3. But Hanabi-style, the card you hold is visible to everyone but you. You then have to decide whether to stick or twist - you're aiming to bank a score of 3-5 - any other score will bust. 

The Dealer gets points by making players bust. Everyone has a special power (the Dealer being one), and these rotate after each hand. It's a game which encourages meanness and lying to the other players - this could feel particularly tough as you're potentially being lied to by everyone else, which is an aspect we didn't really lean into enough, I suspect. The special powers mitigate this a bit, as some of them encourage the forming of temporary alliances, though these too can be two-faced. Katy proved to be the most adept, mostly through her last turn as the dealer, managing to bust the hell out of the rest of the table.

Katy 25

Ian 20

Jo 17

Joe 13

Martin 8

We turned our attention to So Clover. Our first game was reasonably good, but we felt we had more to give, so went for a second round. As almost never happens, I finished my clues first, and everyone else followed in short order. We then proceeded to decode each clover in what felt like record time - scoring a perfect 30 points. Martin breathed a sigh of satisfaction, like someone who'd just eaten a perfectly cooked and presented banquet of words.

Round one - 27 pts

Round two - the full 30!

And with that, four gamers stepped out into the night, to wend their ways home. A fun evening, sorry to those who couldn't make it. See you all soon!

Greenbank rangers

 This week, with a lack of available venues, five of us converted on the Greenbank pub in Easton for the week's bout of games. This meant I took the train, which gave the whole thing a sort of games weekend vibe. I got off at Easton, and found that Katy was on the same train. She'd even got on at the same station as me but, for whatever reason,  we hadn't seen each other on the platform.

And so we arrived together at the pub where we found Joe, Martin and Ian already playing a game. I didn’t recognise it nor take a note if its name but I do know that Ian won again soon after we sat down.

The first game the five of us played among the hubbub of a busy pub was Bomb Busters. Martin asked if anyone needed a rule refresher and I admitted I’d never played the game at all. I was quickly brought up to speed and thrown in at Chapter 17. This meant that the “captain” had to lie about whatever clues they were giving regarding the value of their wires. 

Since I was the newbie, Martin suggested I rethink my first guess since it was a number that could be a red wire and thus end the game. I did so and we were safe. Until the very next turn, when Katy confidently chose a wire, and Ian revealed it to be red. Game done after three turns. “Did you enjoy it?” Joe asked me.

We played again and this time we were a little more circumspect and we were able to complete the chapter, with Martin having both red wires.

Then I noticed that there was a couple in the corner also playing games. I was impressed that this pub had such a pro-gaming clientele until Martin explained that they’d leant them a copy of So Clover. And they were playing the competitive variant. Amazing.

In a far corner of the pub, the strains of folk music could be heard. “Is that live?” Joe asked and, confused by the background chatter, I asked if he’d said “Is that Laibach?” which would have been a remarkable change of style for Slovenia’s greatest band. But the music was live. Every Tuesday, apparently.

After a lengthy break to cue at the bar for drinks, we got out The Gang, competitive poker. It didn’t end well. We did so badly at our second attempt that the hands were almost perfectly ranked in the opposite order that we’d bid. When we’d finished (ie gave up) Joe expressed confusion after how successful they’d been last time. Martin bemused me by saying there was a competitive variant of The Gang. But surely that would just be Texas Hold 'Em, wouldn't it? 

Finally (for me) we played Mamma Mia! It had been a while since I’d played this game and I had a brief rules refresher. It was a harsh game - bombastic pizzas (needs 15 ingredient cards to complete the pizza) were surprisingly successful which meant the table was often swept clean of any available ingredients. In round one, Ian, Joe and Martin didn’t make any pizzas at all, while Katy managed two.

But right at the end, I came good - I was the last to play cards and so, of course, I put down some ingredients and a pizza. It turned out that this was to be the winning move as my final pizza could be completed and I took a last-minute win!

Andrew 5

Katy 4

Martin 3

Ian 2

Joe 1

And with that, I was out the door, retracing my steps through Easton’s backstreets, and arriving at the station with minutes to spare before my train home.

Thanks all. It was a blast.

It's the trick that kills you

Steve and Anja were our hosts last night, with Louie sadly unwell enough to join but Lennon pitching in to open proceedings with a nine-player crack at Flip 7. Weirdly, this was suggested by Martin, even though he has regularly disdained the game. As is our established preference we took out the Freeze cards, although in hindsight they might have helped Ian and Lennon, who both imploded with incredible regularity. In fact I'm not sure Ian ever got past three cards. Adam did though. He almost needed an occasional table for his cards at one stage. 

Adam 202

Anja 152

Sam 146

Steve and Martin 89 each

Katy 66

Joe 54

Ian and Lennon - DNS

We split into two groups. Joe joining the Dalton-Dales for a gambol around the pyramid in Camel Up...

...whilst Martin explained the rules of Skull Queen to Adam and Katy (Ian and I had played before).

Both games took quite a while, even though we only played four rounds of Skull Queen as opposed to the one-round-per-player. The game is somewhat like contract whist in that you're predicting trick wins, but you're predicting for each suit rather than overall, and incorrect predictions can end up giving you zero points if your prediction pirates plunge off the plank. 

Martin dicked Katy over on her very first trick, rationalising that it was 'the best way to learn'. Katy frowned. To my left Joe was enjoying the racing/betting experience of camels who are capable of flea-like springing onto each other's backs, apparently having never played before. We were sure it did the rounds on GNN about ten years ago, but maybe Joe was playing Brass or Agricola. 

There was no Explainer's Curse for Steve as he ungulated his way to a convincing victory:

Steve 46

Anja 29

Joe 26

Lennon 22

And we wrapped up around the same time:

Sam 96

Adam 81

Martin 76

Katy 75

Ian 69

The double-movement cards (5 pushes the loser down twice, 8 up twice) played a significant role in prompting pirates into the pointless sea. Now there was some chat and bedtime duties so the remainder of us played The Gang. 

We made a poor start, although it was a close-run thing with first Jacks and 10s and then sixes and eights (I think?) the wrong way around. Down 0-2 to the incoming cops things looked bleak. But we rallied, aided by a Muscle card, and pulled off a slightly curious win: in the final round all but Joe had their strongest hand in the table cards. This drama didn't quite captivate Steve though, who chose reading his book over being dealt in for the finale. Steve! It's games night!

Everyone bar Lennon was back at the table now and we split into two fours, with Joe leading Anja, Martin and Adam in a game of TRND, which unfortunately I know nothing about, and the rest of us playing a hugely dickish session of Misfits. 

In game one, Ian defied gravity, physics, expectations and the fabric of reality as he pulled off three or four insane moves, earning him the title Prince of Darkness. Both he and Steve started new towers with horrible foundation blocks that we managed to build upon regardless. 

Ian took the win, but as TRND was ongoing we began again. There were rules arguments as Katy attempted to executive-decision Ian's opening gambit - upside-down cloud - back to him. There was a group decision that the cloud rolling didn't equate it falling. Then it fell anyway. 

There was a lot of shenanigans and complaints that the TRND players kept 'using the table' but Steve overcame all obstacles to claim the win: this 'despite Katy' my notes say. TRND finished with Martin the victor; not sure the word 'convincing' does the margin justice:

Martin 85

Adam 36

Anja 9

Joe 4

Joe's final hand was one card away from a huge points haul: close, but no red chair. We did briefly flirt with the idea of one last game, but that crushing disappointment for the Berge turned out to be the night's last act. We trundled out into the night, sated. See you in a couple of weeks!

Come on, Eilan

When I arrived at Sam’s house, Joe, Jo, Ian, Adam T and Sam were all knee-deep in a game of Inkling. In this game, players are dealt some cards with some markings on them which resemble parts of letters. Place these cards anyway you want, and hopefully you’ll be able to spell out one (or more) of the six words on your card.

It was interesting to watch, but are there hidden strategies still to be uncovered? It seemed to reward literally writing the word, while any attempt at cryptical clueing fell flat. Ian tried to clue two of his words with one, admitting he’d “tried to So Clover it.” While Sam went all Rebus on the group. One of his clues looked like “OIST” which I noted may be the noise you make when you pick up something heavy. But it was actually a clue for “FLOOR” - it was the word “1st” with a button next to it, ie. first floor.

Joe 17

Adam 14

Jo 11

Ian 11

Sam 9

Adam tried to encapsulate it’s qualities by saying “It’s like a cross between a word game and…” “a break down.” Sam helpfully suggested.

By now Martin was here, and then a ghost from the past breezed in. Mark, who once appeared in this blog on a semi-regular basis, was visiting from Devon. How nice to see him again. With eight of us, we split into two. Sam, Mark, Ian and myself played Rebirth while Jo, Joe, Adam and Martin played Eternals Deck.

I didn’t notice much of Eternals Deck except for its lovely cloth board and the look of disappointment when, halfway through the game, Jo explained to their colleagues that they were playing the easy version of the beginners stage. But, they all won!

As for Rebirth, after a rules explanation to Mark (that I needed too, frankly) we set off rebuilding a post apocalyptic Scotland with our farms, castles and zeppelins. Mid-game, Sam and Mark started chaining together farms for big returns. Ian and I tussled in the housing market and I also focused on castles. 

Mark expressed surprise at the score, saying he'd only really got the hang of it 70% of the way through the game and that before then he'd been copying us.

I guess that makes it a shared victory?

Mark 141

Sam 132

Andrew 113

Ian 109

After this we rearranged. Both Adam and I were in the market for something shortish and Martin suggested Greed. We agreed (no pun intended) and were joined by Jo. The remaining four brought out The Gang, a clever cross between Texas Hold ‘Em and The Mind. I’ve played this before with six players and little success, but this time the sounds of cheers wafted across the table as they succeeded round after round in an atmosphere of co-operative bon homie.

Greed, as you can gather, is far less communal. There was a lot of PvP action as we took out each others thugs and holdings, but at the start both Jo and Adam complained about the opening hand they’d created for themselves, which were far too forward thinking so left them with few options in the short term.

I, on the other hand, barely looked more than two turns ahead such that apart from an early flourish where I picked up some cash, I was reacting to what other players were doing. Adam had abandoned whatever plan he’d started with and gone aggressive, playing a lot of spoiling cards. Jo, though, smartly got themselves into a winning position, playing a double-your-money card and then another card netting $45,000 which turned into $90,000. 

Jo 170,000

Martin 120,000

Andrew 85,000

Adam 10,000

With that, I was gone. Handing over to Sam for part two. Thanks all.

* * *

Adam also left now, and we were down to six. Martin promptly brought out Things in Rings and attempted

to explain it whilst the rest of us attempted to understand it. At least I did anyway - having slightly indulged things by now I mostly spent my time proclaiming my bafflement. 

As far as I could comprehend it's kind of like a wordy version of Zendo, where instead of figuring out the spatial rule to a bunch of pyramids, we're trying to deduce the conceptual rules for each circle in a Venn diagram, and there are three qualities: the context (eg can be dangerous) an attribute (eg larger than a person) and the text of the word itself (eg it starts with a vowel, which happened to be the one we figured out first). 

Turns are taken by placing a Word card into the puzzle somewhere (or indeed, outside of it) and hoping you're right: first person to successfully shed all cards wins. The person making these decisions was the "knower' - Martin, who didn't get to guess - and there's definitely a subjective element to where things end up - is a zipper dangerous? -  it's possible. Jo sussed out the attribute, but we were all thrown by the context and things ended up there on speculative punts more than Holmesian genius. 

After a 40 minutes or so of bewilderment Jo won (I think) and we all professed our admiration for something so bonkers. Tough being the 'Knower' though. 

It was time for So Clover. I don't recall a huge amount about at this point but it was a reasonable success. 

Post-script: At the start of the night, Adam T thrashed me 3-0 at Toy Battle and he also beat Ian and I at Rainbow!

The Gang's All Here

 After last week’s happy coincidence of everyone congregating at Joe’s door before we went in, it was back to normal as I, a few minutes late, weaved past the bikes on the path to the front door. I was the penultimate gamer to arrive and, while we waited for Laura and established that Adam wasn’t going to attend (by calling him, which seemed strangely old-fashioned), we (me, Joe, Sam, Martin and Ian) began with a game of The Gang.

It’s a co-op version of poker where everyone bids on how well they’ll do. This is tricky as those who don’t play much Poker have trouble gauging how good their hand is and those who do play Poker keep playing as if it’s Poker and bidding according to what your hand might be if the right card comes up.

In one round, I bid high in a show of confidence...

Joe, on the other hand...

Confusing. We played four times, with Laura coming in after the first time, and failed three rounds.

After this, the six of us split into two.  Joe, Martin and Laura went to Ireland for a game of Rebirth while Sam, Ian and myself played Fellowship of the Ring, the co-op card game set in Tolkien's imagined kingdom. 

With just three players,  we often found that our choice of how to approach each round was limited. At the start of a round, each player picks up a character with a certain goal. But often, three of those characters are mandatory thus we were mostly robbed of the chance to vary our tactics. 

And they needed varying. We didn't do so well, struggling past rounds two and three before eventually beating round four and satisfying ourselves that we had, at least, equaled the score of the last GNN group who played it. 

In Rebirth, it sounded like Ian and Martin were in a tussle for the lead. “I can’t shake Ian,” declared Martin as Ian continued to nip at his heels on the scoretrack.

Martin 239

Ian 234

Kaura 194

At the point we reshuffled our seats. Laura made moves to go home but was persuaded to stay for one more game. Martin, Laura and Sam played Tower Up while Ian, Joe and me played Sunshine Lane. Lots of buildings on this kitchen table. Martin mentioned he was writing a review of Tower Up. Considering how late this blog is, I hope he wasn’t relying on my photos at all.

In Sunrise Lane, Ian and I battled over highest buildings in the blue quarters and most coverage in the red while Joe’s longest set of buildings wasn’t enough to keep up with us as we celebrated our joint victory, inseparable even after the tie-breaker.

Andrew 104

Ian 104

Joe 98

Tower Up ended…

Martin 56

Ian 52

Laura 41

And then Laura and I departed. The remaining four were setting up the next game, Bomb Busters, as I was pulling on my coat. 

I was later informed that they had two successes.

Before the ended with So Clover twice, scoring 21 and 21.

Thanks all. Another splendid evening.

Doorstepping

 This week, on approaching Joe's welcoming door I found Adam H, Sam and Katy all having just arrived too. We said our hellos on the path to the front door and then Martin arrived too. A few more welcomes were shared when I asked if anyone had actually knocked.

Happily, someone had and Joe opened his door and greeted us all with a look of mild bemusement.

We went down to the kitchen where we found Adam T already sitting at the table. We chatted admirably and established that we 7 were the night's attendees. 

We split into two, poured pickled onion Monster Munch into a bowl, and began the games. Sam, Martin, Adam T and Katy played Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game. Martin described it as The Crew but Lord Of The Rings. A collaborative trick taker where the players adopt personas from the books in order to achieve certain trick taking criteria each round. 

I don't know if Sam was ever Sam but I did hear him say “I'll try being Merry,” as if he were begrudgingly agreeing to enjoy himself.

Four chapters complete. Managed to leave The Shires.

Joe, Adam H and I played Expeditions. This trailblazing game of gratuitous tourism pitted the three of us in a challenge to see who could visit all the locations on the cards in our hand first. 

The game begins with each player putting down four markers indicating four of the twelve locations in our hands. Adam put all of his markers in Africa. A bold move.

 As the game progressed,  we soon learnt that he had other locations in Africa, conveniently close to the starting point of Essen in Germany. I also had a cluster of locations but they were in far flung Australia.

The trick of the game is to use the non-locations spaces to get extra turns or tickets (allowing you certain benefits). Both Joe and I ran out of tickets at one point while Adam never did.

When the game ended,  all my remaining markers and cards counted against me. But Adam's victory was never in doubt.

Adam H 17

Joe 14

Andrew 7

At this point the two games ended and we rearranged our seating slightly.

Joe, Adam T and Martin played Bebop, the game about crowds at a Jazz festival. I was tempted to volunteer too but the only way to allay Sam's doubts about starting so late (8.30) was by Martin insisting it'd be shorter with just three players. 

Instead, I joined Adam, Katy and Joe in a game of Las Vegas. Katy had initially asked for Lords Of Vegas and was appalled when she learnt there wasn't copy in the house. 

But Las Vegas scratches a thematically similar itch. We rolled our little cubes of destiny across Joe's new dice mat and did our best to control the casinos along the Strip. We managed some pretty snazzy rolls, beginning round two with three of us rolling three 6s among our dice, only for Joe to let us down - he only had three fives.

Joe also amazed us by telling us he’d actually been to Las Vegas. Katy was especially stunning, reasoning that during all the times they’d played Lords of Vegas, he might have already mentioned it. Maybe his first hand experience came in handy, because he came first after I lost my winning position thanks to a dry last round and him picking up $200k..

Joe $530,000

Andrew $490,000

Katy $310,000

Adam H $290,000

As for Bebop, I didn't follow much after the ceremony of popping out the cardboard pieces but I did hear Martin remark on Sam’s early lead and Sam replying “I’ve got to make hay before I know what I’m doing,” adding that understanding the rules of a game is usually when his results start to tail off.

I left after Las Vegas but got the scores from Bebop. Looks like Sam’s early surge was enough to give him the win.

Sam 96

Adam T 75 (win on tiebreaker)

Martin 75

And after that they played The Gang

And good old So Clover.

Thumbs Up

Last night's games began early as Adam T and I played a couple of head to head games as we waited for 7.30 to arrive. Adam had Hey That's My Fish in his bag, and so we began with that. 

Neither of us had played in a while, and we both remarked on how feisty the game is v it's cute and cuddly appearance. I played numerous dick moves, hampering his penguin movements, and kicked off the evening with a win:

Sam 59
Adam 36

Then we played Match of the Century, a chess game that isn't chess, but kind of channeling it in a Spassky v Fischer match-up, recreating the epic battle of 1972. This is essentially a lane battler where playing the higher value gets you the advantage, and a secured majority in advantage wins you the round. The catch is that whomever loses a particular lane activates the special power on their card, gathering pawns (power boosts!) more cards (more cards) mental strength (potentially both more cards and pawns) or occasionally - Adam made use of this a fair bit - negating any advantage to the winner. 

We were neck and neck when Martin knocked on the door, so called it an honourable draw. Ian and Joe followed in short order, and we had half-hour or so until Katy arrived, so began the official GNNing with Courtisans - new to Ian. 

This has been explained elsewhere already, but is essentially Biblios crossed with set-scoring crossed with extra dick. I thought Ian's relentless palming off of white cards onto me was going to put me in last, but I managed to negate the minus 7 points with my last turn, and that was enough for a win:

Sam 13

Adam 8

Joe 7

Martin and Ian 5 each

We followed that with Cabanga - new to Adam. This was the opposite experience from the last time I'd played - there was so little Cabanga-ing then the game felt a bit procedural. Now we couldn't stop shouting cabanga! and at one point Joe was cabanga-ed an entire new hand of six cards. Bad luck Joe!

I snagged another win. Not sure how really. 

Sam 1
Martin 5
Adam 8
Ian 9
Joe 15

Katy had arrived for the finale and now we split into two teams to play Turbo Kidz - new to everyone. 

This is a racing game where the driver is blindfold, and their teammates must guide them around the track, which is a laminated board. The car is represented by a marker, and the racing line the progress it makes as the team-mates 'steer' them by a. using the driver's non-dominant thumb as a steering wheel and b. yelling (sorry - I got excited) directions at the same time. If the 'car' crosses a white line at any point, that's considered a crash, and the driver is returned to the previous checkpoint. 

It's quite a surreal experience as the driver - losing sense of scale as well as direction - and also the thumbing co-pilot, as your movements get interpreted in semi-mysterious ways. A pretty bonkers experience all around.

First to two race victories wins the game, and the Joe/Ian/Sam team thought we'd won it, but there was a steward's enquiry regarding a white line, forcing a decider - and we lost!

Katy/Adam/Martin - Podium!

Joe/Ian/Sam - Odium

Then, after the usual shenanigans, we split into threes. Joe Katy and Ian set up Sunrise Lane, whilst Adam, Martin and I went to the haunted house in Spectral.

I'd found this game bamboozling on my first visit, with its cards-referencing-other-cards geography and deduction-with-area-control approach to gameplay. This time, it was Adam's turn to be bamboozled - although to be fair, with more decorum than I managed - as we diligently made our notes. Both Martin and Adam said they didn't really have a system down yet. Joe won Sunrise Lane and they began playing The Gang as we reached our finale...

Adam was undone by ghosts and Martin surprised by the lack of gems where he had investigators. 

Sam 57

Martin 45

Adam 36

Adam confessed he was watching our moves to see what we were getting up to, and both Martin and I said that was next-level Spectraling. "Well, it didn't work" Adam pointed out. We did some seat-swapping as Katy, Adam and Joe set up Mille Fiori and I suggested Cascadero, a proposal I would come to regret. 

We played the roving Heralds variant: only two of the heralds on the board, but whenever one is scored the active player can choose to move it to a neighbouring town. This apparently simple tweak was enough to send me into cognitive meltdown, and I sulked my way through "all of" (Martin) or "the middle twenty minutes" (me) of the game, as everything I did seemed to resonate with pathetic ineffectiveness. Happily, the other end of the table were making up for it, with Katy at one point complaining about "Cocks in my furrow!" in a loud voice. 

I attempted to rally, like a deranged patient briefly experiencing lucidity, but my grand plan to come less-feebly-third was kiboshed by Martin passing 50 points and ending the game instantly. "Cascadero is kind of like Mille Fiori crossed with a staple gun" Joe sympathised, adding "in the eye" for clarity. 

Martin 55

Ian 37

Sam 25 and DNF

At the same time, Katy wrapped up a win in Mille Fiori. It was close, though:

Katy 209

Joe 199

Adam 184

It was time for So Clover! We played twice, first as a sextet. I don't actually remember much about the first attempt apart from the seemingly endless ways the words went with my clue of priapism, although most of them everyone agreed would have made me write 'wank' instead. "Wank goes with everything" said Ian at one point, like he was seeing the matrix for the first time. 

We scored a decent 30/36 but lost Adam to hometime. Katy insisted the five of us play again, so we did. After Katy blamed herself for not getting a six on Ian's clover, she began rooting for us to score badly, but we actually did rather well again. Katy's clue of Bellend for dirty/hood was a highlight. Or lowlight. Either way, it was an excellent but imperfect 28/30 to round off an action-packed night of no less than eleven games!