Old Friends

T'was the games night before Christmas...  an intimate affair, with various regulars absent for a variety of reasons, including flying to the US, landmark family birthdays and gigs. And so just Adam H, Ian and I (Joe) convened at Steve and Anja's at 7.45pm for a night of classic GNN frolics.

While Anja did a bit of  last-minute adulting elsewhere, the rest of us plus Louie played Timeline. It was fun to revisit this old friend (a theme that would recur this evening), and we mostly got things right, until Louie and Adam finished the round with no cards each, forcing a chronological head to head. They both failed this, which meant they had to do it again, and Adam thought he was a shoo-in with the invention of GPS. His swagger turned to dismay as he discovered that it was invented before the launch of the first Space Shuttle (though with hindsight that seems reasonable) and Louie rejoiced in his unshared victory. 

Louie WIN!

Everyone else LOSE!

Anja arrived on the scene at this point, and we debated the merits of a 6 player versus two 3-ers. The 6-ers on offer didn't satisfy Louie's criteria for a 'proper' game - I've never heard the word 'Kites' uttered with such deep disdain - and thus we split into two 3s. Ian, Steve and Anja set up Mille Fiori at one end, whilst Adam, Louie and I reacquainted ourselves with another old friend, Dominion.

We played the 'Big Money' variant, and it didn't disappoint - Louie utilised several Adventurers to explore his deck for coins, whilst Adam used several Laboratories (pronounced 'Bloboratories' for reasons forgotten) to chain some big moves. I set to Mining, and it worked quite well in conjunction with my Throneroom; we launched into the points-harvesting phase of the game with all in contention.

It was close, but Adam took the win with 33 points. I had 30, and Louie 29.

Mille Fiori was drawing to a close, and Ian seemed to have discovered an overlooked rule - that the offer gets restocked at the end of the round not only with players' discards but also one card per player from the deck. I'm not sure I've played that way before, but I could be wrong. Martin will tell us in the comments.

The final scores were Ian winning with 198, Anja a close second with 192, and Steve elbowing various delicate glass objets onto the workshop floor with 162.

Whilst they finished up and Louie retired, Adam and I debated what next for us five. Adam, as noted by Ian, attempted a bit of Derren Brown-style subliminal influencing by asking me aloud what game we should 'railroad' the others into playing.

Perhaps it worked. I'd brought 20th Anniversary Ticket to Ride Europe, and as we got the bits out to admire its sumptuous stylings, positive noises from the other end of the table suggested it might fit the bill. So while the others packed MF away, we tried to understand the implications of the various route tickets, which can be combined for all sorts of variants. In the end we used all the base and 1912 tickets, plus Big Cities. Lots of tickets.

Steve made the excellent suggestion of using the Team Asia card holders; being able to see your destinations all at once really helps, it turns out! We started off all clustered around Paris, for some reason; apart from Steve, who built Roma to Brindisi on his very first go. And then ignored this little branch line for much of the game. Adam adammed, meaning top-decked like a mofo, and Ian followed suit. As did Anja. Ok ok, I did too a bit - what can you do?

The board gradually spidered out from Paris - it was feisty and tense (though I felt relatively un-messed-with), and there were various agonised noises coming from Steve, who seemed to feel unfit for the role of early 20th Century rail magnate.

Here's a distinctly unsophisticated time-lapse of the game...

Eventually Adam blew the final whistle, and on my final turn I gambled on a six link tunnel from Budapest to Kyiv, which paid off. Steve, Ian and Adam had nothing to do on their last turns, and all weighed up the option of taking more tickets, but balked. We turned over the top three to see if they should have taken the plunge, and there was a collective sigh of relief - except from Anja, who it turned out could have made all three!

Anja did take the longest route bonus, however; and then we started the final scoring from Steve, who was in last place. In the final tally, Adam held on to his crown as master of TTR in style, with over 30 point separating him from me in second place.

Adam 160

Joe 129

Anja 120

Ian 111

Steve 73

The final board state in all it's sumptuosity

It was quarter to midnight, shockingly, so we hastily packed away and tootled off (so hastily I forgot my jumper). Thanks S&A - it was a lovely final games night before Christmas, and great to play some old favourites.

All Run Down by the Hillmann Express

The heat bore down like a big hot thing, so much so that Andrew was lost to us and Laura forgot to come and have fun, because she was having too much fun elsewhere. Keeping up slightly sweaty appearances at Martin's house were Adam H, Joe, Katy, Anja and myself. Anja was last to arrive so the rest of us played The Number, which despite the early hour conjured a number of insults, most notable of which was Adam getting called Dick Brain, who we decided sounded like a CIA operative. To be honest, with Adam it does feel like anything is possible. 

Despite ruminating on alleged mistakes he'd made, he still beat us all in a game that I find foggy to the point of breeze blocks. 

Adam 62

Katy 59

Martin 56

Sam 54

Joe 40

Then it was time for A game of selecting seven cards, speedily searching for synergies. I think this one genuinely takes longer to explain than it does to play, but that's not really a criticism as it was over in 90 seconds. I owe Martin apologies for more than once clinging on to cards as he attempted to take them. 

My dirty ways saw me victorious. 

Sam 18

Joe 15

Adam 10

Martin and Katy: 8 each

As I pondered inwardly how low I might stoop in gaming - especially against Martin (or Adam) - Anja arrived and we broke into two groups. Adam was gently cajoled into Mille Fiori by Joe and Anja as I inadvertently, but happily, signed up for Aristocracy thinking it was a six-player game. 

Andrew has explained the game on here before I think, but it bears repeating that the presentation slightly lets down an otherwise simple undertaking. On your turn you flip three tiles over, then choose one tile of any kind and harvest all matching kinds: this might be a literal harvest of resources, or trigger the placing of buildings, or evoke a kind of huffy harrumphing noise that all of us took turns at when we didn't flip what we wanted. "I'm swimming in fish!" Martin complained at one point. "I need to turn over two queens" I grumbled. 

Katy's pink buildings

Scoring is a bunch of overlapping objectives: sets of resources, sets of buildings both bunched together or widely dispersed, and connections made across the board. It reminded me of Sumatra, only the tile-flipping made it more fun. Martin was one tile away from winning when it ended - I was a little further back:

Katy 50

Martin 46

Sam 40

At the other end of the table it was Adam's turn to do a bit of harrumphing as things didn't go his way in Mille Fiori, and he expressed again his lack of enthusiasm for the game. Joe suggested he keep playing until he likes it.

Adam frowning

Joe's considerable record at Mille Fiori remains a thing, as the final count-up was agonising for Adam:

Joe 180
Anja 163
Adam 162

There was a quick bit of seat-shuffling and then Martin and Katy embarked on Mille Fiori with Anja, who was keen to play again. Adam, Joe and I did a pleasurable bit of game-discussing before Joe made the fatal error of suggesting Ticket to Ride and I the catastrophic mistake of agreeing. A strange, distant gleam came into Adam's eye...

We chose the Switzerland map which is best for three. The rules are the same except the usually-wild locomotives are no longer wild but only used for the (plentiful) tunnels; and as such you can pick up two of them instead of the standard one. I got off to a pitiful start when twice I tried to build a single section tunnel and found the roof caved in on me. 

Discard pile of shattered dreams

I distracted myself by taking photos and getting told by everyone that I always make them look terrible. I've no idea what they're talking about.

Just to show I can also take it, here's me as a chinny potato-head. See Adam scheming in the background? 

Adam didn't have time for such trifles as looking at a camera, as he was plotting a Ticket to Ride coup of such preposterous scale that, for Joe and I, it'll probably be our valedictory game, leaving us with not so much memories as PTSD. Things were looking ominous when he needed both hands to hold his cards, and then, like a carnivorous snake unravelling across a children's campsite, he built an enormous yellow train track from one side of the board to the other as Joe and I looked on in concern. 

moments earlier

The game didn't so much end as explode. Adam placed his last trains with a preternatural calm as Joe whitened. We had one last turn, and Adam already had a considerable lead thanks to his dastardly card-hoarding and thinking about things. I picked up routes, and it was a mistake, knocking back my score by a hefty chunk. I can't remember what Joe did. But he counted up all his routes and announced they were collectively worth minus one point. Adam lapped him.

Adam 146

Sam 93

Joe 43

Mille Fiori finished around the same time, I think, with Martin's incessant rewarding himself extra turns making the difference in the long run:

Martin 218

Katy 181

Anja 175

There was just time for So Clover to finish. We were surprised to find Anja had never actually played it and it was her debut game. As always, the act of playing opens with The Grumbling, wherein we all complain that our words are terrible.

Then we go off in wildly lateral directions before hopefully coming to a productive conceptual compromise. And after an uncertain start where the rest of us weren't quite in tune with Anja's clues, it was a more than decent attempt, scoring 30/36. Mainly though we got to tease Adam about taking ages over his clues. Does it make up for Ticket to Ride? 

Probably not. 

Malmesbury!

A return to Steve and Anja's in Easton occurred last night after a couple of weeks delay, caused by a) gaming fatigue and b) quite serious illness (possibly brought on by playing Feast for Odin).

A few regulars were missing, but by the time Katy and I (Joe) arrived we were seven plus little Louie: Steve, Anja, Martin, Adam H, Gareth, Katy and me. Conversation eventually turned to the business of the evening, with Louie keen to max out his promise of one game before bed into something an hour long. We quickly established that we had nothing for 8 players, so Anja, Martin, Gareth and I slunk off to the other side of the room and played a couple of hands of Hit. Fortune smiled on me in both games... not so much on Anja. We enjoyed the bittersweet delight of choosing to stick when the next card was revealed to be a bust, even though that inevitably meant you lost all those points to the next player.

While we made like grizzled Old West poker players, Steve, Katy, Adam H and Louie had settled on Barenpark, the lesser-spotted polyomino zoo-building game.

They seemed to have only just begun, so when Hit ended we four turned our attention to something a bit deeper. I'd brought my home-made deluxe Ra set, for which I've (finally) found the perfect draw bag. The bag that came with the deluxe tiles was too silky and gaudy, and the painted tube I replaced it with was too constricted and flaky. On a recent trip to Ikea I spotted a woven bag that seemed just right, and it is! Not too floppy, easy to delve into without looking; I can't now find it on the Ikea website, let's call it Göldiloks.

Anja had played long ago, and it was new to Gareth, so Martin taught while I assiduously stiurred the draw bag to mix the tiles. The only thing missing from my set is a player aid showing what scores what; in fact that's the hardest part of Ra to remember for new players, but Martin did a good job of teaching it, and Anja and Gareth an excellent job of keeping this in mind. With the civilisation tiles, Martin explained, it's theoretically possible to get all five for 15 points; "but that's never happened in any game I've played". 

The first epoch was notable for the absence of Ra tiles among those being drawn, which is always portentous. Anja and then Gareth bowed out fairly early, followed by me, leaving Martin to clean up on his last sun tile with five Ras still to come. And out they all came, leaving him to cash in his 12 for a meagre 4 tiles. Later he rued his lack of gumption, feeling he should have kept going. Personally I think he was wise - we can all instinctively tell when an epoch is on the cusp.

The second epoch was an absolute corker for Anja, who ended with the fabled five civilisations, and more points to boot. I was nursing the 1 tile, and showed the newbies what to do with it - call Ra whenever it's your turn, basically. Not that it worked out especially well for me, I think I scored 0 on the second epoch.

Barenpark had finished, and Katy and Adam dabbled in a bit of Strike (a tie, apparently) while Steve checked on Louie.

Barenpark

Katy 97

Steve 82

Adam 81

Louie 72

On his return, they sat around and seemed at a loss with what to do with their time, waiting for us to finish. "Just play a game!" urged Martin, and after another go at Strike, they eventually gave up waiting for us and got to work on Ticket to Ride Germany.

Strike

Adam 2

Katy 1

Steve 0

Meanwhile in ancient Egypt, I was sure the third epoch wouldn't last long - Ra tiles must have outnumbered everything else in the bag. The game was also notable for the large number of monuments that came out, and a decent three way fight over the Pharaohs, which I eventually won. As the third epoch closed out in a flurry of angry Ra's, it was clear we were fighting for second place to Anja. Gareth's third epoch was hurt by a lack of floods to hydrate his large stack of Niles, but he at least took 5 points from me for highest sun tile total.

Anja 62

Joe 47

Martin 36

Gareth 29

Ticket to Ride Germany was in full swing, and Gareth bowed out, saying something about Malmesbury. From now on I think anyone leaving games night before the end should just announce "Malmesbury" and disappear in a puff of smoke.

Keen for a Knizia triathlon, we broke out San Francisco. This was new to Anja, and we again settled into a routine of Martin explaining while I laid things out and handed him relevant bits like a bald little Debbie McGee to his Paul Daniels (Martin has not sanctioned this analogy).

I really enjoy this recent Reiner; the contracts provide just the right sort of tension in whether to add or grab, and we all admired the decision to keep the overall scores as low as possible by having half points. Anja focused on cable cars, and was lightly dismayed at the end to discover she got all of 2.5 points for them. Martin and I fought over Master Builder status, and in the end his win may have teetered on him dumping two cards that would have been good for me, and despite my ire at discovering that was even a tactic, me failing to return the favour on a subsequent turn, allowing him to grab a 3rd 'scraper and the master Builder point.

Martin 13

Joe 11.5

Anja 8

Whilst we were in the final throws of San Fran, Ticket to Ride Germany had ended. I know nothing of what happened, sorry. It seemed to involve a lot of meeples, which I've never seen in a TTR game. The scores are pleasingly uniform, unless I wrote them down wrong.

Adam 182

Steve 172

Katy 162

While we packed away, Adam H Malmesburied and Steve and Katy chatted.

We knew it was time to go when a weary Steve was overheard saying to Katy "All it takes is a child to have a poo at the wrong time and your whole day is screwed." We bade our lovely hosts goodnight and headed out into the chill. "The moon!", cried Katy, and told Martin and I that this week's full moon is called Alan. Alan R Moon, perhaps? Who knows. 

Thanks for a lovely evening, and sorry to miss so many regular faces. And especially big love to Sam, whose mum passed away earlier this week x

Take it from the top

 I arrived at Joe's at eight o'clock and watched the tail end of a game called Regicide. It must have been co-operative since when Joe died at the hands of a Queen, the game ended.

Now, with my arrival, we were a fivesome: Joe, Sam, Adam H, Ian and myself. And we cracked open the 15th anniversary edition of Ticket To Ride. And it was huge. A great big map that was 1:1000 scale or something absurd like that, and separate tins for our new super sized plastic trains.

This old favourite had been absent for so long that we needed a rules refresher. Adam's technique of taking two cards from the top of the deck until he had about one third of all cards in play was very familiar, though. Sam starts off in bold fashion with an early tunnel which, unfortunately, takes two attempts to complete. Is it a coincidence that people mostly stuck to their half of the board? Any attempt at building in Russia for me (sat next to Spain) would’ve meant practically walking across the room.

Halfway through the game, Adam started building tracks and then people started to panic, convinced that his masterplan was swinging into action. Then Joe’s cat did a stinky poo in the litter tray. I don't know if that put Adam off, but he was siting nearest. 

In the end, we were all very close apart from me, because I’d forgotten I needed to get to Sevastopol. That cost me eight points, but I wouldn’t have been anywhere near the leading pack anyway. Sam overcame his initial tunnel trouble to take the win.

Sam 121

Adam 115

Ian 110

Joe 103

Andrew 63

After this we played Colorful, which is like Wavelength except far simpler and all the answers have to be colours. Joe began in typically cryptic mode when his clue for “Long” was “Whale’s penis,” trying to prompt us to chose Blue. But I was trying to remember what colour a whale’s penis actually was. That round ended in failure.

In round two, Sam used his extensive knowledge of Marvel characters to say “Vision” was a clue for “red,” except I had no idea what Vision is, let alone what they wear. Another failure. Finally, in round three we got it right. Well done us.

Finally, with the time just after ten, we started a game of Ra. Joe’s deluxe edition, which he is inordinately proud of even if he is considering exchanging the tile bag for a fez. He also brought out some snacks that he called “bread squirts” which did not endear us, even if it was accurate.

Round two was extremely short while the third epoch went on for a long time. Ian had a great final epoch, picking up civilisations and pharaohs in a bumper final round.

Ian 47

Joe 42

Sam 28

Adam 22

Andrew 20

A great evening. Thanks all. See you soon.

My other mage is a necromancer

Martin hosted and Joe, Adam H, Katy, Ian and myself guested in this week's games night. Joe and I were late and got there just as Katy lost a game of L.A.M.A. Deliberately so, she assured us, so that Joe and I wouldn't be standing around waiting. How clever of her especially since she managed to lose just as we were walking into the kitchen.

Adam 7
Martin 12
Ian 16
Katy 42

We began with a period of chat, during which, Adam and Katy kept the games torch burning by flicking coasters across the table at each other.

There were six of us and so a 3-3 split seemed sensible. Adam, Joe and Martin chose Res Arcana while, after some struggling with indecision and my implacable refusal to play Discworld, Ian, Katy and I went for Azul.

It was a ding dong battle in Azul between Ian and I, swapping the lead while Katy insisted she was bad at this game. I lead after round four but collapsed in the final round while Ian racked up a major score. A score he took several attempts to calculate properly. "It IS important," he insisted, refusing to be satisfied with a rough approximation of his convincing win.

Ian 66
Katy 52
Andrew 51

Over on Res Arcana, things were still ticking along after Adam was introduced to the rules. Joe announced his intention to "tap my horn of plenty" to childish giggles around the table.

We three tried a game of Divinare, the game of being a Victorian psychic (and which takes up more table space than I remembered). Ian, though, found his energy levels waning and he was unable to get much of a grip on the game. He always seemed to be in the right place just before he was forced to move somewhere wrong. Katy did better, getting the hang of it after the first round, once she knew the rules.

Katy 25
Andrew 20
Ian 3

Res Arcana had ended during Divinare and Joe had managed to finish the game just before Martin could do his mega move.

Joe 11
Adam 7
Martin 5

While explaining his winning strategy, which mostly involved tapping his horn of plenty, Joe uttered those words now adorning the blog title but which would also make an amusing car windscreen sticker.

They squeezed in a quick game of Ticket to Ride London and Joe had the unique opportunity to play a TtR game against two players who hoard cards. "I'll just shuffle the discard pile, shall I?" he said, picking up the few cards lying there, which had mostly been played by himself.

Martin 36
Joe 31
Adam 19

Now we were all together so a rousing game of Team Play was suggested to shake Ian from his torpor. The teams were Adam and Katy, Joe and me, Martin and Ian. J&A went into an early lead while Martin got stuck on his opening mission card (is that what they're called?) of a full house. Katy, likewise, couldn't clear her "pair of ones, pair of sevens" and was not pleased to see Adam use those cards to finish the communal mission card instead of passing them to her.

In fact, that was Adam's tactic, as he focused entirely on the communal cards and never finished the mission he was dealt at the start of the game.

Then Joe finished our eighth mission card by drawing a card blind from the deck. A bit of luck but expertly managed luck, I like to think. Ian and Martin's collection of high scoring missions threatened to unseat us from first, but it was not to be.

Joe and Andrew 26
Ian and Martin 23
Adam and Katy 20

Martin then pushed for Karate Tomate, while Katy pined after 6nimmt. Joe was keen to see if Push was any good with six, so we chose that.

The dice were brutal, and Ian, Joe and I all banked but this time fortune favoured the brave as the non-banking Martin took first place.

Martin 53
Joe 43
Adam 42
Ian 36
Andrew 34
Katy 32

Finally we played the oft suggested Karate Tomate. It was a bit of a damp squib with six. It only took two players to decide they wanted to pick up cards and everyone else would instantly get to pick up trophies. And knives. This made for some very short rounds and a sudden ending when Adam revealed he'd scored twelve trophies. Joe, Katy and myself had not picked up any knives at all,

Adam 12
Martin 8
Ian 5
Joe, Katy, Andrew 0

And then we were done. Time to head home with the heady thrill of victory still coursing through our veins. Thanks all.

No Peking

This week's GNN started with trauma. I arrived to find Joe receiving some first aid due to a nasty burn on the back of his hand caused by scalding hot oil and water. Ouch. He played through the pain, though, with his hand smothered in ointment, wrapped in clingfilm and then topped off with a single glove.

As for the games night, we were six in number: Joe, Ian, Martin, Sam, Adam and me. Martin had brought Ticket To Ride Asia, the team version of Alan R Moon's cash cow. I wasn't keen at first, having only recently played Ticket To Ride New York but the general consensus was favourable, so it was chosen.

The teams were Ian and Sam versus Martin and Joe versus Adam and me. The rules do not allow collaboration between the two players, only a little 'light chat' while you play. This rule was somewhat stretched when Martin pointedly asked Joe if a card he had just picked up was going into the communal card between them.

Ian and Sam raced into an early lead after Ian completed a six link route. And he also brought along  thematically appropriate crisps, too. He looked like a strong contender. Adam refused to give any information regarding what he wanted to his opponents (or indeed, to me) by almost always choosing two face down cards from the deck.

Ian and Sam's lead was slowly whittled away and there was a lovely moment when we were all on 49 points. If only it could have stayed that way as Martin and Joe's gambling on route tickets paid off.

Martin checks the scores with lightning speed while Joe's

single white glove shines in the dark.

Joe and Martin 207
Adam and Andrew 130
Ian and Sam 124

Then we split into two groups. Sam, Ian and Martin played Dragon Castle.

Sam 40
Ian 38
Martin 37

Meanwhile, Joe, Adam and I chose Twenty One after I said I was in the mood for a roll and write game. What a fool I was. Twenty One is a game where everyone uses the same dice values to mark off dice on their differing score sheets. Ideally, you want to match exact values of the dice with the ones on the sheet. Unfortunately, my attempt at rerolling my dice because they were beneficial to Joe usually ended in them being even more beneficial to Joe.

Joe 106
Adam 94
Andrew 82

After this, we were back together as a six. Ian was tempted to stay for one more game with For Sale. In the property round, I spent all my money, Ian played it cagey at first before picking up the 30 for just 10 chips. Then in the cheque round, Joe was sunk by a zero dollar cheque when he'd bid a 15 on it. He never recovered. Sam, though, picked up his third For Sale win in a row!

Sam 50
Adam 47
Martin 46
Ian 45
Andrew 42
Joe 37

After this Ian and Adam set off home while the remaining four played Troika. It's such a simple game that Joe and Martin had no difficulties with it and it seems like a winning strategy came to them quite easily, too.

Martin 3
Sam 2
Joe 2
Andrew -1

And that was that. Thanks to Joe for hosting through the pain (or at least, some discomfort) and well done to everyone for just being you.

Bring your own birthday

This Tuesday saw the leatherette fliptop diary of the modern world crammed with three vital appointments: The meaningful vote in the Commons on Brexit, the weekly GNN meeting and Ian's birthday. Ian celebrated his new orbit of the sun by wearing a dapper brown waistcoat and by promising to drink all his beers this evening.

We began as a six. Sam (hosting), Stanley, Martin, Joe, Ian and me. Steve was expected in around fifteen minutes. Our first game (after a brief attempt at a 'conversation') was Bring Your Own Book. This fun game involves everyone taking a book (luckily, Sam's house is full of them) and looking through them to find a phrase that would suit a theme drawn at random from a deck of cards. The winner of the round is the funniest. Like a genteel Cards Against Humanity, basically.

For example, the first criterion was "The Meaning of Life," which was ironic since Joe was using a Douglas Adams book. Martin (Streets of Loredo) said "wisdom came too late," but Ian (Among the Thugs) had "underpants full of dodge marks."

Sam's other son, Joe, joined us halfway through and, using a Charlie Brown book, he found the perfect response for A Name For A Cat: "stupid dog." Steve also came in halfway and did great things with a book about knots. We ended when it seemed like we were ready for something more substantial, with Ian getting a birthday win.

Ian 2
Sam, Andrew, Martin, Joe, Joe, Stanley, Steve 1

With one Joe departing for bed, the other Joe successfully corralled Steve and Sam into a game of Western Legends. Meanwhile, Martin, Ian, Stanley and I chose Blue Lagoon, another Knizia mind melter. The rules could hardly be simpler: place settlers and villages across a map to get resources, link islands and gain territory. But my brain is not built for such games and I scored fewer points in the whole game than Martin did in round one. Stanley, too, seemed to dawdle across the map and was kicking himself at the end when he misremembered that he had built a link to another island when, in fact, he hadn't. Martin's win came despite only placing three villages and Ian's last minute comeback wasn't enough to stop him.

Martin 169
Ian 161
Stanley 105
Andrew 94

Meanwhile in Darkrock, Sam was vocally regretting his career choice as an outlaw having lost three games of poker. Joe was the only law giver in the game, the role I had failed at last time. I seem to remember him heading off to the doctor to see him "about my hand size."

As for us, Stanley set off to bed and we remaining three went to peruse Sam's games wall. After spending a few minutes trying to find Ra, all of us convinced that Sam owned a copy, we chose Azul instead. Back in the kitchen, we were shocked to discover that Sam didn't have a copy of Ra, despite our conviction that he had. Clearly a glitch in the matrix.

Anyway, we sat down to play Azul. I started slow (one point in round one) but got stronger, with Martin predicting a win for me mid game. But either he spent too much time looking at my board, or I spent not enough time looking at Ian's, because he snuck past us both at the end for another birthday victory.

Ian 72
Martin 69
Andrew 65

But perhaps most amazingly was my phone's predictive text correctly guessing Martin's score in Azul.

By now there were signs that Sam's game was picking up, with Steve referring to him as Billy The Shit, after being on the receiving end of a hold up.

After Azul, we played Ticket To Ride New York. A sort of mini TtR that doesn't take up a whole evening. Trouble is, it's a bit too short. I misjudged when the game would end badly, failing on my big route while Martin successfully completed two of his.

Martin 38
Ian 27
Andrew 13

Then we played an odd little game called "Good Little Tricks." It's hard to describe without the game in front of you, but the basic premise is that as tricks are taken the cards played are laid out according to suit. If someone wins a trick that leads to all of the cards of a suit being on the table, then they take those cards. And cards are bad. However if you pick up all of the cards, then you actually score nothing and your opponents are lumbered with 27 points each.

I had little idea what was going on, despite my best efforts. Strangely, I was dealt the trump suit (just two cards, a 1 and a 2) all three times.

While I did badly in round one (a familiar pattern by now) falling into a 0-6-21 last place, I then managed to Shoot The Moon in the next two rounds, so it ended...

Andrew 21
Ian 54
Martin 60

Western legends had ended now. In fact, it had appeared to be in the closing stages for some time with Sam one point off the game ending 15 point mark, but unable to dig out one more legendary point to trigger the final round.

Instead it was Honest Joe who did that and then gained four legendary points visiting the "theatre" to seal a win.

Joe 25
Sam 21
Steve 19

Now we were all together we had a rousing game of Fuji Flush, the only game I have any kind of form in, despite it being pure luck. In the first game we began with 2, 2, 2, 3, 3. With the table poised so delicately, which team would Ian chose?

He chose neither, and put down his big swinging dick: a seven, clearing the table. But Martin also put down a seven, and then Joe too, calling it "a greasy twenty one" referring to how easily it would slip past. And he was right. It clearly set him off on the right foot.

Joe 0 cards left
Sam, Andrew, Steve, Martin 1 card left
Ian 2 cards left

Since it had been a very quick game of Fuji Flush, with people pushing through almost every round, we played again. This time my 50% success rate* was maintained as my final card, a 12, piggy backed onto Martin and Joe's 12s.

Andrew 0
Martin 1
Joe, Sam, Ian, Steve 2

Then Martin and Steve left but the others stayed for one more game to give Ian a chance to finish off the last of the three whisky miniatures he'd been given for his birthday (the three beers had been finished long ago). I was fortified by Sam reminding me about a bottle of Sake I'd left here before Christmas.

We played Love Letter. I did worry that Sam's aging, threadbare, much-loved copy might not have enough red cubes for four players, but it turns out there were just enough.

In round one, Sam won on Highest Card with only a Baron! Then in round two Ian asked if I was the King. I confidently said "no" but then checked out of habit. I did have the King after all.

But Sam could not be stopped after his audacious Baron win.

Sam 3
Joe 1
Ian 0
Andrew 0

And with that Ian and I gratefully accepted a lift from Joe. We were both quite drunk by now, as illustrated by Ian suddenly veering off towards the flower beds as he walked down the garden path. Happy birthday indeed.


* I should probably check this.

Toad in the crokinole

On those rare occasions when GNN allows itself outside the confines of a single evening, it’s usually a cornucopia of different games. But this time, despite starting at eleven in the morning and ending after midnight, only six games were played in total.

I arrived at Sam’s in the morning, while he was strapping a bike to the roof of his car, sending his family off to a skate park while, inside, Coimbra was already set up on the kitchen table. This is a recent acquisition and seemed interesting enough that I asked to try it when Sam texted me at 10.10am to ask what I fancied playing.

Despite the board being the usual Euro smorgasbord of tracks, maps and icons, it’s pretty simple fare once you get into it. The storyline apparently concerns us being powerful families in the Portuguese town of Coimbra. Sam, determined to make the Pilgrim tactic work for once, sent his meeple off around various cities picking up bonuses while I dabbled in end-of-game scoring cards.

It was fun. The two-player version has spoiler dice placed in various sections, recreating the feeling of another player taking stuff you want, which makes for a tenser experience. I didn’t stand much of a chance but found it very enjoyable and suggested that it be put in Sam’s bag of games to take to Joe’s studio.

Clearly, this guy has just thought of a funny but entirely inappropriate joke

Sam 130
Andrew 101

Then, after poached eggs on toast, we had enough time for a game of NMBR9 before leaving the house. Sam shocked the gaming world by going up on only the third tile so I, foolishly, followed suit with the fourth.

He then had issues with keeping his tiles flat on the table. With all these distractions, it was a low scoring game.

3D NMBR9, anyone?

Sam 67
Andrew 32

Then we had a walk into town to Joe’s spacious studio, complete with shelf of daunting two-player strategy games at one end. One of the boxes wasn’t even a game – it was the rule book to a game you had to buy separately.

The three of us had a little time before Adam, the fourth and final gamer for today, arrived so we played a game of Ticket To Ride: Switzerland. This three-player version of the old familiar has a smaller map and much greater emphasis on getting tickets to score bonus points. In the end, I only had six tickets while Sam had fourteen tickets and managed to complete each one. But even this wasn’t enough to beat Joe.

Joe 145
Sam 131
Andrew 105

Then Adam arrived and here we all were: the core four, as we used to be. I couldn’t tell you how long it had been since the four of us crossed swords, but it seemed like a historical moment. So why not reflect that in our game choice: Time Of Crisis since now seemed like the only chance to introduce Adam to the joys of Roman upheaval.

Complete with dice terminus at the end of the table

I was the only one to not begin in Europe and from the start tried to defend myself with support rather than armies. This was mostly fine against the other players (apart from Egypt which Sam and I ruled on some kind of time-share basis) but the Nomads, Sassanids and even Goths didn’t seem impressed. In fact, it was a very barbarian-y game, with at least three of all types massed on our boards at one point.

Adam started well and was first Emperor after Joe couldn’t take advantage of the neutral emperor’s low support: he had five blue points, but no spare governor.

We paused for Sam, Adam and I to go out to get pizza and pop into Tesco (where I found someone at the back asking people if there was still a group of boys hanging around outside) to get more crisps. By the time we got back, Joe must have been studying the map since he soon pulled off an impressive move where he knocked Adam out of Thracia, beat Sam’s army in Italia and became Emperor despite forgetting that he had two basilicas.

Sam became emperor for the first time ever, when he unseated Joe using a Pretorian Guard, getting eight votes with nine dice. I pootled about in North Africa and the Middle East, far from any real action, constantly worried by the ever-increasing sassanid horde on my border. When the game ended there were five of them and a barbarian leader.

Joe was reinstated as emperor on the turn he passed sixty points and, at 8.00pm the game ended. I think it might have been a bit too long for Adam but I found that those four and a half hours flew past.

Joe 78
Sam 62
Adam 58
Andrew 45

Next up was Team Crokinole, Joe & Sam versus Adam & Andrew. J&S won the first round and A&A won the second, perhaps because Sam was distracted by trying to find evidence online of his belief that the hole in the centre was called the toad. He found it.

It looked like A&A were going to win the whole thing when we sped to 80 points in round three, but J&S are nothing if not persistent and they whittled our lead away. The score went from 95-55 at one point to 95-65, 95-85, 95-100. They’d stolen the win right at the end!

Joe and Sam 2 rounds
Adam and Andrew 1 round

At this point it was half past nine and Sam left for home, mindful of a drive to Devon tomorrow morning. The remaining three broke out Railways of the World: Mexico.

An early delivery bonus to Culican pushes up the opening player bid, and Joe finally got it for $9,000. He then built somewhere else, allowing Adam to take the delivery bonus and get an early lead. I went bond heavy which had the unintended effect of convincing Joe it was okay for him to take bonds too. I think my income only very briefly got into double figures.

But a railway executive and a delivery bounty to a city I was already connected to saved my bacon, and mid-game, I was the one to beat. Joe and Adam upgraded their engines in an unseemly display of funnel flaunting. My end of game strategy was to get the last route and complete my baron bonus, but Adam kept getting in my way. I spent a little more money than I’d anticipated but it turned out to be worth it.

Adam in my way part one

Adam in my way part two

Andrew 50
Adam 49
Joe 42

Although I think my best move was an early depot card, meaning I shared in the points from Joe’s network. That move must have got me ten points by itself.

And now it was almost midnight, it was time to pack up and go home. Thanks for a lovely day, and thanks to all for a lovely year!