Spies like us

The first games night of 2016 arrived this evening at my house (Sam's). I'd managed to get Stanley to play Macao on the first of January, mainly by repeatedly saying "Macao" in the style of a deranged parrot, but despite winning (80-79) Stan was not taken with it. After a Christmas of Codenames, Spyfall, King of Tokyo and Dragon Run, the Feldian mechanics probably seemed rather dry.

Chris arrived early and we played Spyfall with himself, myself, Sally, Stanley and Joe all in the mix. I don't remember everything at this point, but I do recall being the spy a couple of times and figuring out where we were. Joe pulled off being the spy and voting out other people. Then whilst Joe and Sally danced upstairs the three of us played King of Tokyo, the game of fighting beasts. Stanley's dice rolls let him down and Chris led for a while, only for me to pip him to the post:

Sam 20
Chris 18
Stanley 12

As we finished Andrew, Katy and Ian arrived en masse and we embarked on a game of Dragon Run. This game is similar to Incan Gold in the push-your-luck sense; as the players represent adventurers trying to escape the dragon's fiery breath, having stolen his gold. On your turn you have three choices - charge recklessly ahead, hide in the shadows, or cry like a baby. Charging is high risk, hiding is a calculated risk, and crying is no-risk but no reward. Chris played the Psychic and despite his psychic powers letting him down, he did enough to claim the win:

Chris 16
Sam 11
Katy 10
Andrew 8
Ian 7

As we ended Joe arrived! I had missed his texts and assumed he was out of the picture, but he was merely fashionably late. We broke into two parties of three, with Joe and Chris teaching Katy Alhambra and Ian, Andrew and I playing Railways of Mexico. I have to say I was pleased with my first round - not only did I deliver the first cube, I also (thanks to the Railroad Executive) completed one of the long-distance routes!

However, it was a bond-heavy strategy that ultimately would count against me. First Andrew the Ian overhauled me and Andrew, thanks to his leeching off Ian's delivery route, surged into the lead whilst Ian and I fought over second. It remained competitive throughout, but to win I needed Andrew to have failed his Baron - he hadn't:

Andrew 62
Sam 58
Ian 55

I didn't witness much of Alhambra, but that girl Katy did it again:

Katy 144
Chris 136
Joe 123

Joe unfortunately was not feeling great and now retired, despite the early hour. Hope you're better Joe. The rest of us played several rounds of Spyfall, much of which has now faded from view in my memory. I think Chris and I were the spy quite a lot though.

Sticking with the clandestine mood we broke out a long-forgotten favourite: The Resistance! Chris and Ian were the spies in the first game and we, the resistance, foiled them. Then Andrew and Ian were the spies and we foiled them too! I was bamboozled by Chris and Andrew in the second game: Chris seemed so set on me being the spy I thought he must be one himself, but I'd forgotten about my drunken proclamation of the resistance cards being green, inadvertently implicating myself.

Finally we played Yardmaster, my new game of train-loading. In a yard. I have to say, having played it with Stan and now a bunch of GNNers, I don't massively rate it. With five players especially you're often just waiting for your turn in order to pick up Cargo cards so later you can (hopefully) buy Railcar cards which need to be a certain colour or a certain number to add to your engine. But Katy and Chris liked it, and Andrew won, so he might look at it favourably too:

Andrew 16
Katy 14
Chris 12
Sam 12
Ian 9

I will concede the game does look lovely though.

So! The first games night of 2016 came to an end.  Let's hope for many more that don't have the headache the following day like I'm going to have tomorrow. Best wishes for the new year all!

Good Weather, Bad Beat

The extended Morrison clan headed to Devon this weekend, to the scout hut. Quite possibly not ever a real scout-hut, this nonetheless very scouty hut-type building perches overlooking the Channel, and on a fine day it feels like one of the nicer places in England to be. There's a short walk to a tiny beach and an even shorter one to a proper Devon pub. Way back in the pre-GNN days myself, Joe, Chris, Andrew and Paul congregated there for a gaming weekend - I'll see if I can't get the hut again for whoever can make it at some point, as it's such a great location.

The reason for the get-together was my dad, Mo (Mervyn Oakman Robinson, to give you the full nomenclature) was over from America. And in-between some cliff-top walks we of course squeezed in some games!

On Friday I introduced Mo and my brother Marty to Timeline. I'd borrowed Joe's set, and as well as having more cards, the card size made the game more accessible to three optically-challenged men. My own cards are tiny, maybe purely to meet the remit of games-that-don't-need-a-box-as-big-as-that. Marty especially liked it, and I think we all won a game apiece. Then after a breather I introduced them to Age of War, which was fun but not as big a success.

Saturday morning dawned about two hours earlier than was strictly necessary, so while the others slept, Little Joe and I took a stroll down to the beach. Upon our return we played Age of War with Marty's youngest, Betty. Nobody won as the appearance of bacon sandwiches meant all the cavalrymen went AWOL to the breakfast table, requesting ketchup.

Sally and Florrie discuss Martin Wallace's penchant for industrial age gaming

Our first walk of the weekend was to Shaldon, 3 miles as the crow flies along the Devonshire coast path. Possibly more like 5 miles as the Morrisons stagger, though, and only some heroic singing by me about men going to mow meadows and baked bean tins not making it into heaven got the boys up the last big hill.

mushroom

After a perambulation around Shaldon and a stay on the Ness Beach (accessed via a Smugglers Tunnel!) we returned to the hut, and as the children played loud and frankly appalling music loudly in the hut, the adults sprawled in the grass outside. After another game of Timeline (I forget who won) I set up Fauna, and Marty and Mo were intrigued enough to play. Sarah was intrigued enough to come and watch and then team up with Marty. This was new to everyone including me, but as those who have played know it's extremely simple, and lots of fun. The only criticism we had of it was scoring adjacent regions on the map, especially for animals in lots of areas, took quite a bit of time and felt at odds with the light game-play. But overall it was a hit, and it did get played again on Sunday morning with me and the kids.

Meantime Saturday day had turned into Saturday night, and the main event was Poker.

I used to have a half-decent pedigree at this game, way back when we played regularly I often finished runner-up and once or twice even won. But the last two or three years whenever I've played I've always been first out, and this event was no different, as I chased a couple of hands and folded what would have been my best hand of the night pre-flop.

Mo followed me out a while later, then Sarah too, leaving Marty and Sally facing off to claim the £50 at stake. Sally claims to not being completely sure what she is doing, but perhaps this seam of randomness helps her game. She was certainly not cowed by Marty's famous 'poker stare' that he picked up in Vegas. The final hand, though, was a doozy.

Marty, needing to build up his chips and keep the pressure on Sally, went all in with about £9. Sally met him and the cards were flipped:

Marty A, 10
Sally K, 7

The flop came and Sally picked up a King!

K, 9, 9

Sally's kings and nines now beat Marty's nines with ace kicker. But the turn came and ka-boom: it was an ace. Marty now back in front with aces and nines. "The only thing that can save you is a king" said Mo. And sure enough, almost as if Paul Jefferies' ears twitched in Croydon, the third king came up on the river. It was brilliant for Sally, brutal for Marty, and the only thing that could follow that was two games of The Resistance.

Perhaps underlining why I'm so bad at poker, I decided from the outset that Marty was a spy in game one, and he wasn't. Sally, who spent the game telling everyone I was clearly a spy, was. The spies won - but only in part because Mart had misunderstood the final goal of the game, and thought it was about categorically identifying who the spies were by the time the fifth mission was completed, rather then preventing them from sabotaging three missions. Which to be fair, he did. Mo was the second spy.

In the second game Marty and I were the spies. After a successful first mission we weren't involved with, we found ourselves both on mission two. We both hoped the other would Fail it, and both returned Success cards. Now the Resistance were only one mission from winning! Again we were both chosen to go, and this time I actually said aloud "I'm putting my fail card in the discards" - ostensibly to assert my resistance membership, but covertly as a signal to Marty, who twigged and sabotaged the mission. It's not exactly Derren Brown, but I was pleased with it.

All we had to do now was Fail the deciding mission. Fortunately I was chosen to go and the spies won again! There was just enough time left to drive to Castle Drogo and go on a three hour walk before heading back home...

Thinking about the No-Joe Show

Next week is the Christmas GNN, but unfortunately Joe can’t make it that day. I started wondering if there was a way of him joining in the fun, even though he wasn’t physically there. In the event that he can’t rustle up a games night of his own, I started wondering if there are any games that he can play by phone or text.

The first, and most sensible answer I came up with was the online version of Brass. It works fine on a mobile phone, no worries. And I’m sure that there are other similar apps that offer you a chance to play your favourite board game remotely.

But then I started thinking, what about an actual physical board game? Are there any that he could join in with? We could even have an empty chair and a glass of cranberry juice to mark his presence.

Auction games would be impossible, so Ra and Medici are both out. Similarly, any games where you have to share cards, like 7 Wonders or Kakerlakenpoker, can’t be done.

After some thought, I decided that Incan Gold is playable over the phone. As long as we tell him what’s going on, he can keep track of the game quite easily, I reckon.

Stone Age, too, is a possibility. It’s more complicated: he’d need to set it up himself and pick out the cards and huts as they’re revealed by us, but otherwise it may be possible to play this over the phone. And I’m sure we can rely on him to be honest about his dice rolls, as we will be honest about ours.

Castles of Burgundy could also be done, but that’s because it mostly feels like everyone’s playing a solo game anyway. He could just play on his own, and then text in his results. Not terribly interactive. But then, CoB doesn’t have a great deal of player interaction anyway.

The Resistance might be possible with a little preparation. We’d have to know the number of players well beforehand and then put a spy/resistance card in an envelope and give it to him earlier that day. Preferably at a park bench, while wearing trench coats and black leather gloves. Then, when we come to play the game, he opens the envelope, the rest of us draw the remaining cards, and we play with Joe on speaker phone! It’d be fun!

And I’d love to know if it could be possible to do the same with RotW. It’d have to be by text, since two and a half hours on speaker phone would wipe out most phone’s batteries. As long as Joe doesn’t mind passing on every auction then, once we’d got the board set up in both houses, it may be possible. Or is that just a crazy dream?

Of course, there are probably apps and websites that do all this for you. But it would be nice to have him physically there, if not in person, at least in meeple.

Novocon for the soul

Our fondness for squeezing as many board games into one cottage in the country has not happened recently. Instead, Anja and Steve have kindly offered to recreate the experience over a weekend

Saturday

Thanks to the appalling traffic on the M3, Chris couldn’t make it to Sam’s beforehand and had to go straight there. Due to some confusion over house numbers, he knocked on a stranger’s door before realising that the overall ambiance of paint pots and discarded ladder, this probably wasn’t the right place. He called Sam for further directions while people from inside the house stared at him. Obviously, Chris’ “Weekend Bailiff” look had unnerved the locals.

But he found the place, then me, Sam and Gonz arrived, followed by Adam and Hannah. We were ready to play!

We split into two groups. Four of us (Sam, Adam, Chris and Anja) chose Macao. The rest of us went Waterdeeping. For the first time in ages, I wasn’t black or purple, which meant I kept looking at the wrong players on the board for the opening rounds. I went for my previous tactic of only going for big scoring quests, while Gonz did the opposite, picking up small quests by the dozen. Steve relied on Intrigue cards, which he would gaze at longingly.

Hannah couldn’t get an engine started, and my quests scored big during the game, but low during the final bonus stage. Gonz, already in the lead by the final round, shot off into the distance, and Steve crept up on me right at the end.

Gonz 178
Andrew 131
Steve 131
Hannah 103

Then Jon arrived! The people on Macao didn’t seem anywhere near ending, so as Steve went off to do fatherly things, we began a new game, La Guerre des Moutons, otherwise known as Wooly Bully. This puzzle-ish game of tile placement requires that each player tries to build the biggest possible field with their sheep in. You have to match the sides of the tiles you put down, plus there are wolves in neighbouring forests who can ruin your flock, or hunters who can kill the wolves.

At the start of the game, no one knows who is which colour. Jon said this meant you could bluff as to which colour you were. As such, I began by trying to make people think I was yellow and helped build that field. Before I knew it, Hannah had completed it, and it was large enough to win the game for her. So much for bluffing. I could’ve equalled her, but I couldn’t find the right tile for the final space. Gonz stole the win from Jon by putting down a wolf in a nearby forest just at the last minute.

Hannah 18
Andrew 12
Jon 5
Gonz 3

They still hadn’t finished on Macao, so with Steve back at the table, the five of us went for 7 Wonders, with the Cities expansion. After my last dismal showing, I wasn’t confident but at least it wasn’t all new to me. My strategy was to get money and rely on my neighbours having lots of resources, and it seemed to work well. I got The Palace and some very nice black cards. Hannah and Steve built huge armies, at which point Jon got a dove token rendering him immune to attack and forcing Steve and Hannah’s massed ranks to combat each other instead. In my imagination it was a terrible battle of blood and revenge. In truth, it was mostly Steve sighing in disgust and picking up a “-1” token.

Andrew 73
Gonz 69
Steve 67
Jon 53
Hannah 45

By now the other table had brought their epic Macao session to an end after over two and a half hours.

Adam 65
Sam 47
Anja 44
Chris 42

After this, my notes get confused, not helped by the batteries in my phone running out, so no photos to help me remember what happened after what.

Cube Quest was broken out. This game is a simple knockabout contest, and we at GNN Towers are slowly realising we’ve been playing almost every rule wrong. This time, it was the role of the medic cubes to be clarified. Now we were playing by the real rules Steve beat John 2-0, and then Chris and Gonz shared the honours 1-1. And Adam beat Sam in a deeply thoughtful strategic game. Anyone looking at them would’ve assumed it was chess, but in fact it was Hey That’s My Fish. Adam 49, Sam 43.

Chris tries to flood the midfield, while Gonz goes for fast wingers

Even in Cube Quest, cultural stereotypes shine through.

Also around this time, Sam regained his title of Mr Biblios as he took first in a four-played game. Sam 7, Adam 4, Gonz 2, Chris 0.

Anja and Steve went into the kitchen to prepare dinner, we split into two. Chris, Gonz and Jon went onto the dining table to play a Discworld game, Ankh-Morpock. Chris won. In fact, he didn’t realise he’d won until two rounds after he’d actually done it. He finally worked it out just as Gonz was going to declare his own victory. Jon came third.

While this game carried on, the other four of us went for 7 Wonders sans expansions. This time, I failed to get going since the wonder I had, Stonehenge, was a bit rubbish, frankly. Hannah came second, to her delight, and Sam had two high scoring guilds to push him into first.

Sam 66
Hannah 53
Adam 52
Andrew 46

After this, Hannah and I played Mr Jack. I won the game but Hannah found it so stressful that she went home afterwards. I have that effect on women.

Finally, after food, people began their final game of the night. Adam, Sam, Anja and Steve went for a new option New England. The rest of us discussed and debated and finally settled on Spartacus. I’m not a fan, but it was either that or more discussion and debate. At least I wouldn’t have to learn any rules.

It was slightly better than before. Gonz’s rule of the loser of the first initiative roll goes straight to the middle of the board sped things up and avoided the humiliating sight of one gladiator chasing another one around the edge of the arena.

I’m still not a huge fan, though. The card game bit reminded me of I’m The Boss, and the fighting bits were just like the wars in Risk. It’s possible to win without winning any fights at all, which Gonz achieved.

Gonz 12
Andrew 11
Jon 10
Chris 9

On New England it finished,

Adam 37
Sam 36
Anja 35
Steve 21

We went home, tired but happy and very well fed.


Sunday


Today, Chris went home after he, Sam and Adam all played some Sunday football against the amusingly named Bathelona. Sam couldn’t make it today, and nor could Gonz, but Joe was able to escape from his lovely family for three short hours.

In attendance was myself, Joe, Jon, Anja, Steve and, finally, Hannah. When Joe and I arrived, Jon, Steve and Anja were giving Kingsburg a go. It was quite pretty, but hard going. Mostly because of the many interventions of baby Luther, who was not being the little angel he’d been the day before.

While they finished their game, Joe and I played Agricola: All Creatures Big and Little. Joe had recently been practising, honing his skills against his young daughter. And it showed. He glided through the game, twice picking up six lots of wood in one fell swoop, while I was left picking up scraps he left behind. He won 44-30.

When Hannah arrived as we were nearing the end of the game, she told us that Sam, Adam, Chris et al had lost 7-1. Adam would be along soon. He probably needed some time to himself. He had, however, won man of the match so that should have cheered him up.

Then the guys at the big table decided to give Kingsburg another go. Now they felt confident of whizzing through it at the sensible pace. Hannah, Joe and I played a new game, Spyrium, from the maker of Caylus. This game of putting pieces down and then picking them up again doesn’t sound great, but once you get going, it starts to make sense and it’s quite fun.

Hannah got the hang of it first, powering past us with two technique cards that gave her cheap buildings. So many, that Joe was pushed further and further to the corner of the table.

Hannah 75
Joe 67
Andrew 62

Our game ended as the game of Kingsburg finished and, now that Adam had arrived, we were ready to change partners, as it were. The two games of Kingsburg ended:

Anja 35
Steve 25
Jon 20

Steve 36
Jon 35
Anja 34

The winner of the second game was effectively chosen by a roll of a die at the very end. They could have saved all that time, and just said “1, 2, or 3, I win” right at the start.

Next, Steve and Anja went to start work on food and Joe returned home to force his kids to learn things. The four of us remaining decided on Power Grid: Jon’s favourite game. We chose it while he was out walking the dog, and you should’ve seen the look of joy on his face when he came in. It was like Christmas!

While we played, Steve and Anja found enough time to play three rounds of Cube Quest, with Steve winning 2-1.

As for Power Grid, I had a better idea of what I was doing, but it seemed awfully similar to last time I played it: Hannah didn’t have enough money to power all her cities and Jon spent way too much money on a power station and then sat there in a daze, saying “I shouldn’t have done that.” Adam showed us his blister. I’m sure that didn’t happen last time, though. I would have remembered that. It was quite a monster, and it explained why Adam was walking around on the heels of his feet, waddling along like a penguin with a magnificent beard.

At the end, Adam, Jon and I all built and powered 17 cities in the same round. It came down to the money tie-breaker. However, I had only one single note in reserve. Personally, I think this shows efficiency and good planning and therefore I should have won, but the rules said otherwise.

Jon 17 cities and £26,000
Adam 17 cities and £15,000
Andrew 17 cities and £1,000
Hannah 15 cities

After this, we all sat up at the big table and ate a lovely roast dinner. It was just after nine when we’d finished and cleared away the dinner things, so we decided to wind down with a quick game of The Resistance.

I say “quick”, but I mean “agonising”. This is a bunch of gamers who love discussions, and boy, does it show. The spies were me and Steve, and we were sitting next to each other. To make it harder, I had to start. First, I sent in innocent Jon, and we succeeded. Then, Steve sent in himself, me and Hannah. Another clear round.

Steve’s choice of sending in two spies seemed to work wonders as now everyone thought we were innocent. Unfortunately, too innocent, since both of us were sent on the third mission, too. We both put in fail cards. And now the discussions began.

The main debate argument in our favour was that Steve sent me on a mission with him, and a spy wouldn’t send another spy on a mission in case they both chose “fail” and blew their cover. The argument against that, from Anja, was that Steve may not have known what he was doing.

The whole game rested on how clever we thought Steve was. What should have been a jolly game of bluffing and guessing suddenly came very close to us dissecting exactly what we thought of our friend. Adam was the leader on the critical round, and he had to chose. He asked each of us our opinion. I simply said what he’d said earlier, thinking if I agreed with him, he’d send me. He did. But not Steve, thankfully.

I put in a Fail card. My cover was blown, and there was no point in hiding it. Now it was just a case of who the last spy was. Hannah thought it was Steve, so the rest of them went on a successful mission and the evil government was overthrown.

By now it was half past ten, and Jon had to get back, kindly giving me a lift most of the way. The crisp November aired filled our lungs as we stepped outside after two days of farming, quests, revolution, building, trading, and sheep. What a world we’ve built for ourselves!

On the division, it’s all about Adam, as he tops the table in Points and Points Ratio and also on my silly two-player division as well. This guy has to be stopped somehow. Maybe he’s trying to fit as many wins as he can into the time before he becomes a dad and he has more important things to think about.

Hey That’s My Fifth! (win in a row)

For the second week in a row, Adam hosted. For the first time this season, Steve and Anja could make it and like a weird DC/Marvel crossover, Chris came all the way from Bracknell to Bristol for work, and stayed for the evening too. With me and Sam in attendance too, that made six of us.

At first we were just four, as we had to wait for Anja and Steve to arrive. We dug out Hey That’s My Fish! As a quick filler beforehand. It may have the appearance of a silly kids game, but it hides strategies and challenges that deserve deep ponderous thought. At least that’s how we play it.

At the end, it was Adam wot won it.

Adam 28
Sam 25
Andrew 23
Chris 19

And this meant that The Perfect Five had finally been achieved! Five wins in a row for the creeping custard, and this means an extra special look at the form table before this rare phenomena disappeared!

						Points
Adam	1	1	1	1	1	5
Joe	2	3	2	1	2	10
Gonz	5	2	3	2	1	13
Sam	2	3	4	4	3	16
Andrew	3	4	5	5	2	19
Quentin	3	5	5	5	5	23
Chris	4	5	5	5	5	23

Look at all those ones in a row! Look how pretty they are!

Anyway, the form table marches on, and with no sign of Anja or Steve, we broke out Bananagrams, an amusing game of wordplay, as long as your not playing against Scrabble experts who know all the two-letter words. I gave up halfway through the first game.

Sam
Adam
Chris
Andrew

I sat out the second, and watched as Sam and Chris battled it out, with Adam left in their dust this time.

Chris
Sam
Adam

After this, Steve and Anja arrived. To be sociable, we played a couple of games of The Resistance. Round one, the resistance won convincingly when Chris was one of the spies, and had no idea about how to react. He was quickly unmasked and the other spy, Sam, was never chosen to go on a mission. Viva La Resistance!

Then for round two, Adam began by asking people if they were spies. When Steve and Anja said yes, I thought it was a clever double bluff, especially when Steve kept saying he was a spy. In fact, it was Chris and Sam again who, by some nice acting and clever play were able to keep up the pretence. Viva la Dictatorship!

Then we split into two groups. Steve, Anja and Sam went for Tinners’ Trail, while Chris, Adam and I went for Agricola. Adam’s recent form on this game has been pretty poor, so maybe this was went he got his mojo back? Not when you’re up against Farmer Smith. We played with Occupations and Minor Improvements, and I started to get worried when he seemed to know what each card did after he’d only heard the card’s name.

Chris plays Agricola like Richard Clayderman plays the piano. Suave, smooth and in a nice suit. Everything went together nicely in Chris’ farm while Adam and I bickered over the starting player. Adam cursed his luck in the final round as Chris took an option that would’ve netted Adam a tasty seven points. He only had himself to blame, though. Him and his family of five farmers.

In the end, though, it wouldn’t have mattered. Chris reigned supreme.

Chris 45
Adam 31
Andrew 23

Tinners’ Trail ended

Sam 135
Steve 128
Anja 113

Then Chris, Sam and I drove away, reliably informed by Talk Sport that Arsenal are going to have to finish above Chelsea if they want to win the league this year.

						Points
Sam	1	2	1	2	3	9
Adam	2	3	2	1	1	9
Joe	2	3	2	1	2	10
Gonz	5	2	3	2	1	13
Chris	1	1	3	4	5	14
Andrew	3	4	3	4	5	19
Steve	2	5	5	5	5	22
Anja	3	5	5	5	5	23
Quentin	3	5	5	5	5	23

On the end of month leaderboard, surely it is merely a procession towards Adam’s ultimate victory.

Jonny finally showed

It’ll take a little more than steady late-summer rain to keep us gamers away from a table. Especially when it means a return for old-timer Jonny after a lengthy period of paternity leave from GNN. It was he, I, Sam, Adam and Hannah in attendance. We decided to play Ra, since Jonny had played it before and we wanted to avoid that old situation of Jonny having to learn a new set of rules every games night. Mind you, it had been so long since he last played that he needed a reminder anyway.

Adam brought snacks (or, more accurately, left overs) of ciabatta bread, and Sam laid on a small bowl of olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping. Jonny also brought sea salt and Chardonnay vinegar crisps. Horrendously middle class, but it did taste nice.

Ra began with a nightmare scenario. Ra after Ra was pulled from the bag, and before we knew it, the round was almost half done with most of us not having bid for anything. Thus, it was slim pickings and anyone who ended the round with more points than they started with was doing well.

Not nibbles: that's the discard pile

The second round, for me, was just as bad. I had weak tiles and came away with little. Hannah, though, noticed that there were far fewer Ra tiles coming out, so she hung back and waited until she was last. She had two tiles unused and so was able to take her pick of tiles that she drew from the suddenly very generous bag.

That was the turning point for her, and put her in prime position at the end of round two. And during the scoring I actually dipped down to having just one point, but I scrambled back some dignity with a nile. I was still convinced that I was heading for last place.

I did, however, go into the last round with strong tiles. I bagsied a bunch of buildings and Sam jealously guarded his lead on Pharaohs. Adam had a long Nile and buildings and this time, he was the one to have the auction track all to himself at the end of the round. But this time, there were fewer Ra spaces, and the round ended before he had a chance to pick up some final tiles. He then ruefully looked through the undrawn tiles, trying to work out where it had all gone wrong, and what might have been. Like a ruined man at a race course staring at the losing betting slips in his hand.

Of course Hannah won, and Sam a comfortable second.

Hannah 51
Sam 40
Adam 25
Andrew 21
Jonny 12

After this was a spell of everyone’s favourite battle against game theory The Resistance. The rules were explained to Jonny, but it was a strange introduction to the game. Sam spent most of the first round away from the table, making tea. Plus, Jonny himself was a spy, which is always difficult. It was made harder by Adam’s decision to put in a Fail in the first round, labelling either me or him as spies. This meant Jonny had to talk his way into the game and that was a lot to ask for a newcomer.

In the end, although I very nearly persuaded everyone that I was a spy, the Resistance won and the dystopian future was made all better. Nice to see that The Resistance is just as confusing for five players as it is for ten.

Winners: Sam, Hannah, Andrew
Losers: Adam, Jonny

One last game before we set out into the night. Tsuro was chosen as being quick and simple. I was in trouble early on, boxed in by Adam and Jonny but I lasted long enough that Sam was knocked out of the game first. Adam finished off Hannah and then he and Jonny found themselves face to face in a world without exits. If it sounds like a John Woo movie, it shouldn’t. It just means they came joint first.

1. Jonny
1. Adam
2. Hannah
3. Andrew
4. Sam

Adam now leads form table but it’s tight at the top. Jonny edges ahead of Quentin. Only a couple of weeks before the season’s end!

						Points
Adam	1	3	2	2	2	10
Sam	3	2	3	1	1	10
Andrew	3	4	1	3	1	12
Hannah	2	1	3	3	4	13
Steve	2	3	3	3	4	15
Anja	3	2	5	1	5	16
Joe	4	4	4	4	2	18
Miles	2	3	5	5	5	20
Jonny	1	5	5	5	5	21
Quentin	3	3	5	5	5	21
Lizzy	2	5	5	5	5	22

No Mining in Cornwall

One week in Cornwall with Sally's family; several games.

Some context first: the Arthur Clan love nothing more than a good chat, a conversation that can last for several hours, or ideally days, is the key ingredient to a good holiday. Whereas I start to flag after the initial niceties are over and pine for something involving cubes, where I can passively sit back and disengage from the world. So it was with some optimism that I packed seven or eight games for the trip.

However there were reasons not to be pessimistic. My brother in law Matt likes games and indeed, keeps threatening to come along to a GNN night one day. He's a pastor and our ongoing game used to be him attempting to convert me to Christianity and I tempting him with atheism. But we gave up when we realised neither was budging and I couldn't understand the books Matt was lending me. Matt's kids Joel and Anna are 13 and 11 respectively and hence are candidates for a game.

We kicked off on Saturday with Lords of Waterdeep. At this stage Matt and Joel hadn't arrived (having appointments with both God and Cricket) so it was a two-hander between Anna and I. Anna picked it up very quickly and was soon delivering Orcs to Mooport to the manner born. I thought I had it in the bag but my lack of Lord-appropriate missions meant she caught me at the end, and we shared an unlikely 158-all draw.

On Monday Anna and I cajoled the others into playing The Resistance, a game that went down well with the Arthur Clan a couple of Christmases back, partly due to Sally's mum forgetting her own identity. This time the early-game orders for tea supplied the confusion, as Sally immediately gave herself away by returning a face-up mission card. We restarted and this time there was barely time for debate as the Resistance got off to a decent start. One sabotaged mission later and we guessed who the spies were, and successfully overthrew the government.

On Tuesday Anna wanted to play Lords of Waterdeep again and I obviously wasn't going to protest. This time Sally's sister Suzie joined us, along with Matt and Joel. Anna and I went through the rules and I caught a glimpse of the future, playing something like this with Stanley and Joe in eight years time, as Joel - treated to a glass of wine earlier in the evening -  found it impossible to concentrate and decided the game would be improved by playing snippets of music on his ipad very loudly and farting and blaming his sister. As Suzie tried to stem the flow of testosterone Matt remained a picture of paternal calm, taking his time over his turn and as such, earning the scorn of his family.

We ended on round seven and Matt's pondering had earned him a win. Joel was second - although his game was pretty much a joint effort - and I was third, followed by Anna and Suzie. Matt professed to be a fan, although he's so laid back about everything it's hard to glean exactly when he's genuinely excited and when he's merely being polite. And Joel despite his apparent boredom wanted to play it again the next day! Kids, eh?

Joel, Anna and I also played Coup (I won), Anna and I played two games of Biblios (one win each) and Stanley and I had a go at cards-face-up Trans America (Stan won). On the last night I was hoping to pin down Matt on a game of A Castle for all Seasons but after a day of body-boarding, beach cricketing, sun-burning and getting Joe to bed at 9.45ing I was too shattered to play anything.

And in-between all the above we played about 10 games of Cube Quest.

And I got a cricketing lesson from Matt and Joel - literally and figuratively. I can now hold a bat the correct way and swing wildly like a tail-ender.

A sandcastle

Hammer of the Peckhamites

Whilst a number of the other GNNers were cavorting down south on friday, my family and I headed east to London, to stay with our friends Henry and Rachel and their three girls in Peckham.
After catching up and eating and getting drunk no-one was in the mood to learn rules, so we opted for our four-player favourite, Lords of Vegas.

I sped in to the lead on account of my brown casinos paying out multiple times, but then found myself floundering as the others caught up and overtook me. It was a tense, taut game, and it ended as it so often does, with the feeling that one player had it sown up, but that a couple of extra rounds could have changed the landscape considerably. As it was Henry was the clear victor, and I think I was third or fourth.

On saturday, Henry was keen to sample the various new games I'd brought along, and we played three games of Battle for Hill 218 followed by Traders of Carthage. Hill 218 is a brilliantly clever and unique WW2 card game where you try and creep round the titular hill (titular hill?) to infiltrate your opponent's base whilst they do the same to you. There's no bluffing, just alternate playing of different types of troops, and Henry took to it in an instant, winning the first game. I can't remember who won after that, but then we tried out Traders, last played by Andrew and me at Stabcon in Jan. I like it a lot, though it feels slightly odd going from two-player direct confrontation to the more oblique passive-aggressive euro tactics, and as soon as we finished we broke out Hammer of the Scots.

This seminal block war game from Columbia Games sees Edward Longshanks attempting to quash the Scottish rebellion fronted by William Wallace - I was the english, Henry the scots.
We both needed a rules refresher, and it is brilliantly simple for a war game, though there were a fair few visits to the rule book throughout.
Despite a strong opening couple of rounds, by round four Wallace was dead, and Henry, unable to crown a scottish king or send in the french knights, was on the back foot. I had learned an important tactic since our first game last year, that the English infantry and knights raised each turn need to be brought up and used to soften the scots, since they return to England each winter. This realisation formed the backbone of my strategy, and the game was over within six or seven rounds, unlike the last game which went the distance. It is a real classic, this one, and I can't wait to play again.

Playing in the kitchen whilst overseeing cheese toasties for ten! Truly heroic.

It's all but over for the Scots now . . .

After a brief sojourn into the freezing rain, we set up Commands and Colours: Ancients. Henry and I played this once in Wales last year, but after that stuck to old favourite Manoeuvre. Having re-discovered its charms recently I was keen to have another go.
We played Tacinus River, the same scenario Adam and I played a fortnight or so ago, and this time it was a decided victory for me, winning both games 6-4 and 6-3. I think Henry enjoyed it, and suggested  he'd like to play a different scenario next time.
Matilda had been itching to play Coup all weekend, and so we then played four four-player games back to back - this is a real favourite with my girls, and Henry's eldest two really enjoyed it. Can't remember exactly who won, but I think it was a different person each time.

My sister and her partner joined us for a fabulous dinner, but despite Henry's best efforts, were too exhausted to play a game, so that was it for Saturday.

Sunday was fairly busy, but my two eldest had been introduced to Pandemic by Henry and Rachel's girls, and I think they played four times over the weekend. I'm thrilled about this, since I've been thinking it would be a good one to play with them myself, but selling the theme would be an uphill struggle. Now they know they like it I expect we will get to play soon!

Around lunch time, Henry and I managed to find time to play 7 player Incan Gold with the girls, followed by four games of The Resistance. The latter was a real hit - all four games went to the resistance, which I felt bucked the trend, though I might be wrong.

Henry and I then played a best of three return to Hill 218, and then, whilst dinner was cooking, tried out String Railways. Despite it's uniqueness this hasn't seen a lot of play, and this was only my second game. In the two player game each person takes two colours, the best single colour wins. It was fun, but the best bit remains the emergent 'artwork' you end up with . . .

I love the way you can discern each player's strategy from
the final 'board'.

A grand weekend, and lovely that our kids went off and played by themselves too, racking up the afore-mentioned Pandemic, plus Shadows in the Woods, Coup and (I think) Zombies, alongside the games they played with us. JB

We gamed, we swore, we conked-out

Games weekends are to GNN what oases are to Nomadic tribes in the Sahara. A chance to group together, shelter from the harsh realities of life and, mostly, have a drink. This weekend was called to squeeze in as much gaming time into Anja and Steve's lives before the pitter patter of tiny feet starts waking them up at ungoldy hours.

I forgot my notebook, so my recollections may be vague or even just plain wrong. I managed to squeeze all the results onto both sides of an Agricola scoresheet, but in no particular order. In fact, there's one set of results that I don't know what the game is. It's the one with Ghent in it. That's all I remember about it, really.

We arrived at the cottage on Friday afternoon and soon noted how much smaller it was than the last one. Sure, it slept five quite comfortably, but we were entertaining up to nine (ten, including little one-year-old Tristan) so it was a bit of a squeeze. Plus, the bathroom was Condensation City, with the walls almost permanently wet.

No room in the fridge? Lucky it's cold outside!

The first issue on arrival was the curious situation of: no mobile signal, but we did have wifi. We were, at the same time, connected and yet not connected to the outside world. Adam went out to payphones and high hills, looking for a way to call people, but with no success. He ended up going all the way to Jon's house to tell him where the cottage was, but while Adam was out, Jon, Steve and Anja all arrived.

As for the games, what were the highlights?

In Ascending Empires, Jon spends ten minutes convincing Steve to attack Sam, not him. Finally persuaded, Steve flicks his ships in Sam's direction only to find he doesn't have enough firepower. When Steve challenged Jon on this point, Jon responded with "Why did you listen to me?"

My gaming achievement of an otherwise poor weekend was beating Sam twice at Mr Jack within three rounds, once as detective, once as evil killer. Meanwhile, Steve enjoyed Mr Jack but he criticised the game's lack of genuine Whitechapel atmosphere.

Mid-Cuba

Power Grid: In the final decisive round, Jon, Adam and Morag were chasing two houses. Bidding wars were fierce and when Jon found out he'd paid too much for the house and couldn't afford to power it, he simply bought up everyone else's fuel as a spoiling tactic, thus handing the win to the forward-planning Hannah.

Stanley's taste in films proved to be a hit.

Stanley was adorable when he explained how he didn't usually play all the rules to Ascending Empires because he was "a little bit smaller". He did, however, come third in a five player game of Carcassone (above Steve and Morag) and beat his sleepy dad at morning games of two-player Agricola and Carassone. I hope that made up for him having to eat on the floor because there wasn't a scrap of table-space left in the house.

Trans America. In the third round, three of us had cities in the north-east but it seems that each was waiting for the others to build there first, allowing Anja to take the round, go from third to first, and send us all crashing out. In terms of proportion, it was the biggest win of the weekend (Anja 7, Steve 14, Andrew 15, Sam 17).

The Resistance offered up it's usual mix of drama and disaster. Drunk, tired and emotional. That's my excuse for accidentally playing a success card in the final round, when I should've played a fail. These sort of things happen all the time in espionage. Also, why didn't we see the signs in game one when Adam went to check something in the instructions, and his hands were visibly shaking?

Fimo cows and wooden sheep

And after a very long Saturday, which involved swimming in the morning for some and ended in The Resistance until half past midnight, there wasn't much energy for gaming on Sunday morning. I slept until ten, and Adam and Stanley mostly played games on Adam's computer before we packed up and ended the weekend at Jon's house with a big brunch and a final few games.

As for the ultimate weekend winner, let us all throw our hats in the air and give a loud "huzzah" to Hannah, who won both points and points ratio to walk away as the undoubted champion. Sam won on the medal table.

Viva la revolution(s)!

Christmas is a time of cheer and, if last night was anything to go by, also a time of intrigue, subterfuge and conspiracy. Six of us arrived at Sam's festively decorated kitchen for a special games night, complete with mince pies and a quiz. A quiz!

As I arrived, Quentin was setting up Eclipse. I assumed that an executive decision had been made, and that this would be tonight's main event. But others began to have doubts about the amount of time you'd need for six newbies to play it through. Also, when would we get to do the quiz? In the end, it was put away in favour of two three-players games. Something simpler that we're all familiar with. That was the plan, at least.

We began with a six-player game of Coup, which Joe had been name-dropping since his arrival. This is a simple game of bluff, as each player had two hidden cards and can make moves according to those cards. But, of course, you can pretend you have a different card and do something else. Someone then has to challenge you, and that's where the fun begins!

I had two pretty useless cards, and then I lost the slightly less useless one, leaving me with the Contessa. I just sat there, hoping someone would assassinate me so I could change my card. But the other players were more concerned with each other. Sam tried to assassinate people, but they insisted they had the Contessa and his assassin backed out, apologising and saying he must have the wrong house.

In the end, it was me (with six coins) and Quentin (with less than six). Quentin had no choice but to assassinate me. Thank God I still had the Contessa.

1. Andrew
2. Quentin
3. Joe
4. Sam
5. Adam
6. Hannah

Then there was the quiz! Sam put together some questions to see if we'd been paying attention during the past year or so. It was Joe "The Knowledge" and Quentin versus me, Adam and Hannah. We couldn't match Joe for the "Match the designer to the game" section, but we snuck past in our knowledge of GNN related trivia.

Adam, Hannah, Andrew 26
Joe, Quentin 25

Then we split into two factions. Hannah, Quentin and Sam played Lords of Waterdeep and me, Adam and Joe played Pax Porfiriana. It's a game by Phil Eklund, the same man who brought us the joys of High Frontier, and by all accounts he'd brought the same level of obsessive detail we saw before to revolutionary Mexico.

It was a bit of a hard slog, and not terribly intuitive at first (or even second) glance. The cards are packed with text, some of which has nothing to do with the game. Plus, it's very combatitive. Almost every card effects an opponent, but that may give them an Outrage point and actually do them some good. There are four different ways to win, and I wasn't sure how to achieve any of them. I was especially baffled when Joe said it was okay to attack yourself. I looked jealously across the table at the other group placating statues and raiding undermountains, while we were dealing with Mormon Lumber and the Democratic Chinese Exclusion Bill.

While I was impressed with the depth and how much game there is in the small box, there's no clear route to success. The best way to win is to try to topple the regime and hope everyone is too tired to put up a fight, which is how Adam won.

1. Adam
2. Joe & Andrew

Sam, however, may have less rosy memories of his time in Waterdeep. As I glanced over jealously, I couldn't help but notice that the three score tokens seemed to be quite some distance apart, with Quentin apparently languishing with barely ten points to his name. However, I soon learnt that he'd already been round the score track once and it was Sam who hadn't really got started. Hannah made a late dash for victory, but not enough to take first.

Quentin 166
Hannah 154
Sam 98

But a wounded Sam is an angry Sam (or, at least, slightly peeved), and he brought out his gaming muse, Biblios to play while we three struggled with "U.S. surplusing", whatever that is. It didn't let him down and pride was restored.

Sam 7
Hannah 6
Quentin 4

We ended with a couple of games of The Resistance. However, having just spread intrigue in Italy and tried to overthrow the government in Mexico, I was in no mood to zip into the future and do the same all over again. To my dismay, I was a spy both times. My tactic was to try and stay awake and hope that somehow the others would incriminate themselves. No such luck.

Game one:
Win to the resistance! Sam, Joe, Quentin, Adam
Spies: Andrew, Hannah

Game two:
Win to the resistance! Sam, Hannah, Quentin, Adam
Spies: Andrew, Joe

But that's life! Sometimes the good guys win after all. But for me, the major event of the evening was the look of horror and joy on our faces when we realised it's just one week until Stabcon 2013!

Next stop Stockport!! Woo hoo!!

City of Horrid

Tonight saw the heavens align and Bristol and Bracknell came into conjunction in the house of Joe. Yes, Chris and Paul made the journey down the M5 for one glorious evening of cross-country gaming.

We began with recent favourite, The Resistance. Sam was a late arrival so we set off on our quest to topple the evil government with five in the team: me, Chris, Paul, Joe and Adam. We began with a successful two-man mission (me and Joe) and from then on, it was easy street. Stumbling onto two genuine revolutionaries in the first go is a real boon, since it makes the spy's turn much harder (and there'll be a 66% chance the next will be a spy) since they have to fail the second mission or risk having to fail three in a row in order to win a game. In the end, Adam and Chris were thwarted and the revolutionaries won! Victory went to the Free!

Sam arrived and we played again. This time it was a tense affair, made all the more tricky when a four-man mission went off without a hitch with the other two insisting that they weren't spies, honest. It was enough of a smokescreen for the two spies to get selected for the final two missions and scupper them both. Chris and I were well rewarded by our glorious leader for our devilish subterfuge. With Pringles.

Then Joe wanted to try out a new game, City of Horror, which is apparently good with six players. We set it up and early signs were good. The board fits together like a jigsaw, allowing a bit of randomness and it's nicely designed with evocative scenes of post zombie-holocaust streets.

Then Joe read out the rules. They seemed straightforward, but I wasn't sure how I was going to win. Then we started playing and any thoughts of winning were replaced by wanting the game to be over as soon as possible.

They key to success is all about bargaining, and forming alliances. But if you've nothing to bargain with, then there's nothing you can do. It seems to rely heavily on two strokes of luck: getting good cards at the beginning, and having a chance to be starting player. The only bits I liked where when the game focused on a building where I had no characters.

Playing this game is like being at a party where there's an attractive woman who you'd really like to speak to but instead you are cornered by a fat sweaty geek who's determined to explain to you in minute detail where George Romero went wrong. In the end, I came last, which was fine since I don't want to be good at a game that's this bad. Other people weren't as dismissive as me, but their comments seemed to be along the lines of "Well, it wasn't a complete waste of time."

Adam 9
Chris 8
Paul 6
Sam 5
Joe 5
Andrew 2

In the end Joe suggested a final game as a palette cleanser. We chose Incan Gold, the game of luck-defying scavenging. For a while it looked like Sam would win with a decent haul when he was deep in a temple all by himself, but then in the last round Chris, Adam and Joe all left at the same time, leaving Paul in the temple with an artefact and a 15 jewel card all to himself.

Paul 38
Sam 34
Andrew 25
Adam 23
Joe 11
Chris 7

An interesting evening. Nice to see Paul and Chris again, and they got to see Joe's electronic shuffler in action which, by itself, is worth a journey across England. My biggest regret is because we played six-player games, we didn't have the excitement of using Joe's secondary back-up games room. Maybe next time.

						Points
Steve	1	1	1	2	4	9
Anja	2	3	3	1	1	10
Sam	2	4	1	1	2	10
Adam	4	1	2	3	1	11
Joe	5	4	3	2	1	15
Hannah	1	1	5	5	5	17
Andrew	3	5	4	3	3	18
Paul	1	3	5	5	5	19
Jon	3	5	5	5	5	23
Chris	6	2	5	5	5	23

The Accidental Spy

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, so much more than just a day.

This week, games night was at Adam's house, and five of us (me, Adam, Hannah, Sam and Joe) convened in the early evening. With Anja expected later, we started on a quick (?) non-leaderboard game of The Resistance.

This game of bluff and double bluff (most of which goes on in Joe's head) is a lot of fun, but this game had a twist in the tail that John le Carré couldn't come up with, even if Frederick Forsyth and Ian Fleming had double dared him to come up with a really surprising ending that no one would believe.

Sam (easily detected) and Adam (remained covert) unveiled themselves as spies after Adam had ruined my mission. Adam then admitted at one point he had mistakenly played a Success card instead of a Fail card. This error, which Sam admitted he thought was a stroke of genius, was enough to confuse me so I took him on our last mission, much to Joe's dismay.

1= Sam
1= Adam
2= Hannah
2= Joe
2= Andrew

Anja arrived during this game and patiently sat through our bickering, and at the end we split into two. The Easton contingent (Adam, Hannah and Anja) chose Ys while me, Sam and Joe went for Village. We were keen to try this again after struggling through our first encounter.

It went a lot smoother, as you might expect, but it was clear that only one of us learnt from our experience. I more or less did the same as before – focusing on the market – but this time I ignored the chronicle. I was very sparing with my men and managed to make them last.

Joe, meanwhile, was like the Grim Reaper on a bonus scheme as his meeples died out quickly, getting their names in the history books before anyone else. Sam's meeples also died out quickly, but not fast enough and they usually ended up in a pauper's grave, forgotten to future generations.

As it was, Joe's strategy was a masterful display and left Sam and I fighting over scraps.

Joe 61
Sam 34
Andrew 33

Since Ys still hadn't finished, the three of us indulged our dice-rolling needs with King Of Tokyo. This game gives you three rolls, allowing you to keep any number of dice, as you try and build up hands of six dice to score points, earn cubes or deal damage to your opponents. It's not a game of luck, insisted Joe: it's a resource management game. The resource in question being luck.

Joe pushed his luck too far, and when the dice turned against him, it gave Sam a chance to steal first place.

Sam 20
Joe 18
Andrew 13

I'll leave it to the others to describe the ups and downs of Ys, though I wonder if Adam will want to relive that game, as he ended in a distant last.

Hannah 112
Anja 96
Adam 75

After this, Hannah and Anja called it a night so it was left to us brave boys to fight it out in one more game: Biblios. Sam now has something of a reputation for doing well in this game, and so it was once again.

Sam 5
Adam 3 (wins on colour)
Joe 3
Andrew 2

						Points
Steve	1	1	1	2	4	9
Sam	1	1	2	3	2	9
Anja	2	3	3	1	1	10
Adam	2	3	1	2	3	11
Joe	3	2	1	2	3	11
Hannah	1	1	5	5	5	17
Andrew	4	3	3	4	4	18
Jon	3	5	5	5	5	23

I'm ready for my close up, Mr DeMille

Tonight was a slightly strange games night as two of Joe's friends, Chris and Alex, joined us. Not as eager participants (although they do both enjoy board games) but as potential directors of a feature film documentary about us board games and they were doing a bit of talent spotting research.

We began with the six of us (me, Alex and Chris, Joe, Sam and Adam) playing The Resistance. Since Chris had come down the M4 in driving rain after a long day at work, we decided something with simple rules would suit him best. However, this didn't stop Joe from first describing the rules to a similar but different game first. He sheepishly had to ask him to forget all that, because the rules to The Resistance aren't the same.

But once we'd got started, it all became clear. After the first round, in which Alex and Chris were the successful spies, they had a better idea of the bluff, double-bluff and counter-double-bluff that goes on during this game.

So we started a second game, and this time Sam and I were the spies. I thought I blew it when I referred to the spies as “us”, but no one was listening to me. Sam retained his air of bemusement well enough to deflect any suspicion and we were victorious in our triumph. I enjoy The Resistance, and found it quite difficult to be a spy and not ruin everything (which I almost did).

After this, Alex and Chris decided to become observers, and had the dubious pleasure of us working our way through the rules to a brand new game, Village. After about half an hour, they made their excuses and left. This turned out to be the best move anyone made all evening. We ploughed on, and begun the complicated game of worker placement. It's not unlike Caylus, if you can imagine that game being played with pieces that suddenly drop dead after a while.

The longer your players stay on the board, the more powerful they become, but each meeple has an expiration date and before long will die, and need to be replaced. It's a delicate balancing act of trying to keep them alive as long as they're useful, and letting nature take its course.

There are many ways to score. The council house, the church, travelling, money and market tiles. Sam, Adam and Joe crowded into the church, and went travelling too. I didn't score at all during the game, but I launched myself up the score track with all the tiles I'd bought from the market. In fact, I was one mistake away from being first, since I could've bought a tile before Adam did, and thus make him lose four points while giving me an extra four. Just call me Kingmaker.

Adam 56
Joe 54
Sam 52
Andrew 51

Remarkably close. Either this game is cleverly balanced or we were all equally bad at it.

On the leaderboard, Adam puts more pressure on the leader.

						Points
Steve	1	1	1	2	4	9
Adam	1	2	3	2	1	9
Anja	3	3	1	1	2	10
Sam	3	2	2	3	3	13
Joe	2	3	1	5	3	14
Andrew	4	4	3	3	4	18
Hannah	1	5	5	5	5	21
Jon	3	5	5	5	5	23