Mr 75%

Sunday, and after five hours of intense Bristol heat - the world really has changed - watching the boys play cricket, I laid down on Joe's bed and listened to the sounds of children in the gardens playing. When I said to Sally I might have drifted off, she confirmed I did with an allegedly accurate impersonation of my snoring.

But Stanley had been promised a game, so whilst I brewed coffee he set up Raiders of the North Sea. As previous posts have elicited, the basic premise of Raiders is that you gather what you need to go and pillage: violent viking! But subsequent plays have shown there are other avenues of pursuit - staying at home to make offerings for the chief: Sycophantic viking! Or indeed, trying to build a quick lead and then hurry the end of the game before anyone catches you: Lazy viking. If you're clever about it you can even time the killing off of your crew in order to gain maximum points on the Valkyrie track (Psychopathic viking).

I went for the lazy option. Stan asked me to play at 75% (determination to win) but to be honest my head was pretty fuzzy at the start anyway. I tried a new tactic of not bothering with the far-flung, inland raid-able places such as monasteries and outposts, instead blitzing the harbors for a meagre two points reward per raid. Although this didn't build much of a lead, it did give me a shedload of resources. Allied to my Forager - who gave me a steady stream of provisions to raid with - I realized that I was well-placed to go Crap Raiding: taking my rubbish crew to fortresses, and emptying them of resources whilst scoring no points (- the stronger the crew, the higher your points reward for a raid)

Stan pretending to be sad

Stan's tactic was more honorable - if you can call raiding honorable - building a stronger crew, and sacrificing them nobly in battle before building them up again. But seeing I was about to end the game, he changed tactics and quickly made an offering to the chief at home, successfully pulling off the violent, psychotic, sycophantic, blend that marks the true viking.

But when I raided the penultimate fortress though, I'd done just enough to impress the chief. I hadn't killed anyone outside of the harbours or let any crew nobly die in battle but my three offerings at home were just enough to hold off Stan's surge up the track by virtue of all his dead raiders:

Sam 46
Stan 45

We shook hands as Stan resolved to get me next time.

Now Joe joined us for Trans America, which 2 or 3 years ago was the game of choice for the boys before Stan went heavy-Euro and Joe refused to play anything except Spyfall. Halfway through the first round I realized he'd forgotten you don't have to build track contiguously but can go from anywhere, and had to keep reminding Joe as his spirit of adventure saw him striving for new boundaries by himself instead of hitching the available lift.

But once he kept this in mind, he actually beat us. Stan won the first round, but Joe the second by a bigger margin, ending the game (we only played the two rounds) with Stanley and I joint second. Very nice end to a hectic weekend, and a taster for Tuesday...

King of the Castle

Easter Friday, and the games began early. My mum had visited the night before, and having stayed over she joined me and the boys after breakfast for Keltis: The Dice Game. I think the last time this was played by any GNN member outside the Morrison household, it was Andrew and I watching Everton in a pub, back when they were a half-decent team. Long time ago.

It's a really simple game - you have four stones and you're pushing them up different tracks. If your stone stops on an emerald, you pick up an emerald. If it stops on a clover, you get to push any stone up an extra place. If it stops on a leprechaun, you get another turn... it's the sort of thing the Irish tourist board probably have nightmares about. As soon as five stones go past a certain point on the tracks the game ends. Stan and Joe played as a team, and with zero help they wiped the floor with us:

Stanley/Joe 22
Sam 14
Crysse 11

Crysse then headed home and Stan and I played Black Fleet. More easy-going stuff, albeit with the slight edge of getting your pirate ship sunk (by the navy, to stop it stealing goods) or your merchant ship stolen from (by the pirates, to gain doubloons). The game is super-simple: play a movement card and move three ships (both your own, plus one navy ship) and if you choose to, play a fortune card as well. Fortune cards do various bits and bobs. Your aim is to get enough doubloons to flip over all your cards in a tableau in front of you - and as each one is flipped it gives you a special power.

One such power for Stan was the ability to sink my merchant ship with the navy, a politically incorrect move he emptied to effect on his winning turn:

Stanley: all cards flipped
Sam: one card unflipped

In the afternoon Katie and Mark joined us with their kids Peppa and Lula. After a stroll around Narroways in the afternoon, an Easter egg hunt, and several unintended interactions with the mud, we returned for a roast tea.

Whilst Sally began working her magic in the kitchen (Mark and I washed up later, honest) myself, Mark, Katie and Peppa began playing Trans America, the game of semi-cooperative track-laying. We only managed one round before the food arrived, but with a bit of help from Mark on her final turn, Peppa won it. I don't recall the exact scores but I think I was back in last place.

Next we played Linkee. It's a quiz game where four usually-easy-to-answer questions are linked in some way, so the game is really about that bit of lateral thinking. If you get the link you win a card, and normally you play until you have managed to spell Linkee, as the letters are randomly distributed on the back of the cards. We found at Christmas though this can take hours, so just played until someone had five cards.

Mark won every single time, with the rest of us usually back on one or no cards at all. I'd like to say I didn't win because I was questioner, but Peppa took over this role and I suffered the same fate as Katie and Sally before me.

About nine Sally managed to get the kids both into bed and asleep courtesy of a sedate reading of The Secret Garden. Downstairs I'd managed to get Castles of Mad King Ludwig set up and explained the rules to Mark and Katie, so when Sally reappeared we were ready to go.

Sort of.

King Ludvig wanted kitchens, gardens, exits and corridors, and my bonus cards rewarded bedrooms and corridors. So for reasons I haven't really fathomed, except perhaps mild drunkenness due to my inroads on a 5-litre keg of Gem, I started building cellars and utility rooms. Sally, as revealed at the end, was after one of every type of room, and like others before her fell agonisingly short. Mark built a string of gardens - broken only by a large meat locker - leading to a confection of living rooms. And Katie stared at the choices before her, seemingly more bewildered by every passing turn. I watched the equally bewildering sight of Sally explaining a game to somebody, as we chipped in to help.

I lagged behind early on, and lagged behind later too. The other three took turns in the lead, but toward the end Mark and Katie surged ahead of us and clearly wouldn't be caught. When we added up at the end, my bonus cards did was get me from a horrendous fourth place to a mildly embarrassing one. Katie's bonuses took her momentarily into the lead, but when Mark turned his cards over he overtook her again to claim the win:

Mark 96
Katie 90
Sally 73
Sam 70

With the clock approaching eleven, we broke out one last game - Timeline. New to Katie and Mark but as ever, very easy to play. Sally made the early running with her historical knowledge leading to educated guesses - possibly too educated, as Katie speculated on the privileges of private schooling. But Mark and I managed to catch up and at one point the three of us were hovering over a single card. Katie meanwhile was hampered by her rather ambitious card placements - going for a ten year gap in one turn and a three-year gap in the next. Unfortunately neither paid off.

Mark got his card down and as last player to his left, I had one chance to force a tied win. Could I determine the development of Euclidean Geometry? It was definitely after ceramics, but was it before the cork? I managed to get it down and we celebrated in our joint victory:

Mark/Sam: all cards down
Sally: 1 card remaining
Katie: 3 cards remaining

Including Linkee (with a joint second for the rest of us), it was still a clean sweep for Mark though, meaning he cleans up on the hugely-seldom KMSS leaderboard. Sally also sweeps past me, though The Chiseller, Katie, remains back in fourth place for now...

KMSS						Points
Mark		1	1	1	3	6
Sally		2	3	2	1	8
Sam		1	4	2	2	9
Katie		3	2	2	4	11

Taking it Easy

Last New Year's Eve was the scene of a gaming disaster for me, where I torpedoed the slim chances of Sally ever saying "I love the games of Martin Wallace" forever. The masochistic part of me was tempted to start a tradition; of attempting completely inappropriate games with the close of every year. But I couldn't face the opprobrium.

Instead, with Katie, Mark, Peppa and Lula in attendance, Mark and I scrutinised the cupboard. We agreed on a novel choosing strategy - games that weren't rule heavy (my department), and box artwork that appealed to Mark. Happily that coincided with the game I really wanted to introduce them to: Castles of Mad King Ludwig. Also in the pile was Black Fleet, Trans America, and Love Letter.

Trans America is a favourite of Katie and Mark's, and while Sally beavered away in the kitchen we played a three-player game. I got off to a great start when they built enough track to give me simple connections for my last three cities, and with Katie still ten links away, it only took another round for me to wrap up the game.

Sam 0
Mark 5
Katie 13

After tea there was a brief hiatus as the kids put on a show upstairs, where Stan belied his status as a convalescent by embarking on an energetic drum roll that lasted about 11 minutes. Peppa and Joe played guitar whilst Lula danced. I have tried to upload a movie of it to show how startling the sheer amount of energy in the room, but Blogger has failed me. Here's Katie and Peppa post-huge dessert instead:

Having been blown away by the inaugural Zombie House gig upstairs, we ignored the game stack and broke out Raj. Peppa has played this before and joined us. We simply played one round = one game, and Peppa and Sally won the first. I think Mark won the second and I won the third.

After that I realised the situation was crying out for the simplicity of Take It Easy, and while Katie took a gaming breather myself, Sally, Mark and Peppa played a round. I tried to introduce the rhyming couplets of old, but I think I merely succeeded in looking odd. Or odder.

In compensation I won the first game (a single round) by a narrow margin, and then Katie joined us as we played twice more. I won the second round too, but the third was taken by Mark.

It was now 11pm and the four kids were still up - while Peppa played with us, Joe and Lula were roaming the house in their onesies and Stanley was doggedly watching all the extras on the School of Rock DVD. Mark and Katie decided it was time to head home - but we went out on a high, ending the evening with a rock disco in the front room - School of Rock soundtrack on the stereo, children on the coffee table. We even had the obligatory disco drama as Sally and Katie insisted on listening to the Stevie Nicks track: whilst Stan buried his face in disgust Joe sat it out on the stairs saying it was "stupid".

In the kitchen I looked longingly at Castles of Mad King Ludwig... was it really too late for a two-player?

It was. We watched an episode of Breaking Bad then saw in the new year watching the fireworks, and listening to a neighbour banging a saucepan with a serving spoon in celebration. 2015 was here.

I do normally update on the tiny KMSS leaderboard but I think this was all non-competitive.

The Stockholm Syndrome

Tonight saw ten (TEN!) players crammed into Steve and Anja’s front room. Me, Martin, Sam, Matt, Ian, Andy (from Roll For The Soul, but making his first leaderboard appearance), Adam, Katy and, of course, Steve and Anja.

We split into three groups. Sam, Ian and Matt went on the coffee table for a game of Quantum. Martin was keen to try Istanbul again, and so myself, Andy and Katy joined him on one half (closer to two thirds, actually) of the dining table. The rest of the dining table was home to a game of Thurn and Taxis, chosen only because it would fit.

Steve, Anja and Adam played out a much interrupted game of T&T, with their baby Luther waking up frequently and needing attention. Sam, Ian and Matt had no such problems, and they steamed through their games at breakneck speed. First, as I mentioned before, was Quantum. This was brought to a swift halt by Matt taking two crystals in one turn, ending the game before it had hardly got going.

Matt 5
Sam 3
Ian 2

After this, they went for a rip roaring game of Raj, with a most unlikely scoreline.

Sam 110
Matt 44
Ian –15

Hopefully, they’ll explain what happened in the comments.

After this, they played Take It Easy and the scores were.

Matt 428
Sam 394
Ian 220

After this Sam set off home. Well, he was probably exhausted.

As for us slow-coaches on the dining table, were were still knee deep in our alternative worlds. Istanbul was played with a different layout (cards laid out 1-16) and I can’t say I really enjoyed it. Like this, all the warehouses are together, likewise the markets and mosques, which looks very convenient but is quite frustrating when you want to get from one to the other.

Katy played a masterful game, building her wheelbarrow early, and using bonus cards to full effect to get to four jewels with enough money to saunter over the the gemstone dealer, while the rest of us were stuck on three gems each. In fact, she would have won earlier if she had ignored our advice that she didn’t need the “gemstone dealer twice” card so early on in the game, so she should discard it. If she’d had it, should could have finished all the sooner.

Andy had in interesting tactic of just hanging around the police station and using his family member. Now we know that another player has to send him back, it’s a much more effective strategy. Martin tried a different tactic from the one he won with last time, and he regretted it. He found himself without any options, since he had no assistants left.

“I’ve run out of juice!” he cried. “What kind of juice?” Katy asked, “Money?” No, he’d run out of man juice. And the idea of Martin running out of man juice halfway through a board game isn’t something that should be shared, not even on the internet. But, we’re all friends, right?

I’m rather proud that I didn’t go to the fountain once during the game. Still didn’t win, though.

Katy 5 gems
Andrew 3 gems + 37 lira
Martin 3 + 21
Andy 3 + 19

Another interesting game. I think Istanbul has lots of potential. I look forward to the time when we’re all proficient enough to play on random boards.

Then we played Indigo, Reiner Knizia's Tsuro-esque game where instead of avoiding death, you're transporting gems along paths back to your side of the board. At least, that's what you're supposed to do. Instead whenever we noticed that a gem was about to get anywhere near the edge of the board, we'd join up its path with another gem, and they'd destroy each other. This made for quite a low scoring game. And, frankly, not a very satisfying one.

Martin 2
Katy 2
Andrew 1
Andy 1

As we ended, there was still no sign of Thurn and Taxis so the six remaining gamers set off on a game of Trans Europa, a game that Andy helpfully described as being like Trans Amercia, but in Europe.

I got hugely lucky with my cards in the first round, with Riga and Helsinki (neighbours) and Marseilles and Barcelona (also neighbours) in my hand. And I got fairly lucky with the second hand too. I didn’t win, but only suffered three points damage.

Martin, on the other hand, had a nightmare second round, starting deep in the south-east, he was miles from anyone else's network, and had only just linked up to the main railway routes when Katy announced she’d won. He went crashing out, and the two Andrews shared a win. As we packed away he cursed his tactics, and especially his inability at getting anywhere near Stockholm. "I've never been there," he seethed, "and now I never will."

Andy 10
Andrew 10
Katy 9
Ian 6
Matt 5
Martin 0

And during this, Thurn and Taxis finally ended.

Adam 23
Anja 21
Steve 19

The monthly Division does take game length into account when calculating its scores, however that is the game length according to Board Game Geek, and doesn’t take into account stoppages for babies. Pity, because Adam would’ve scored a load of points.

After that, all was left was for me take Martin home via the scenic route and the night was done.

						Points
Andrew	1	2	2	1	1	7
Katy	2	1	1	1	5	10
Matt	4	1	2	1	2	10
Sam	2	1	2	4	2	11
Martin	5	1	3	3	2	14
Anja	2	1	1	5	5	14
Joe	3	2	3	3	1	14*
Adam	1	4	4	3	3	15
Chris	4	2	4	4	1	15
Ian	3	3	3	3	4	16
Hannah	2	2	2	5	5	16
Andy	1	2	4	5	5	17
Stanley	4	1	5	5	5	20
Steve	3	3	5	5	5	21

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

Pre-holiday fun

The day before Sam heads off to lovely Cornwall with the clan, he and I met up at my place for a little two-player gaming. He brought the games and some milk. I pushed my cardboard boxes further into the corners of the room and made the place presentable.

Sitting at the bottom of Sam’s games was Lords Of Waterdeep. I’m always keen to get this onto the table, if only to enjoy the economic ergonomics of the box design. Having set it up, we got stuck in, running through the streets of Skullport, recruiting rogues, wizards, whoever we could get our hands on, really.

I noticed a lack of buildings being built and, for me at least, a lack of money. Sam built up on plot quests early, giving him a series of bonuses so complicated he should’ve written a flowchart. During the game itself, I kept pace quite easily, but when it came to the Lord bonuses I saw Sam shoot off into the distance.

Sam 211
Andrew 172

After this, we pondered on our next choice. Sam had brought Trans America with him and, since it had been a while, we decided to give it a go. Sam has said before that he doesn’t do well at this game, but tonight must’ve been an all time low. Call it fate, call it karma, call it civil engineering, but I polished off my network first each time, leaving Sam one or two cities behind.

Andrew 0
Sam 15

Sam cursed Trans America for being too luck-based, even though only half an hour earlier he’d tried to downplay his win on LoW by saying there was a lot of luck involved. And with that, the evening ended, and Sam will head of to the south-west for the next week or so. No Sam, no Joe. If it’s just me and Adam at the next games night, I’ll be impressed if I manage second!

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.

Nine hours of games

While Sam's family were away, he took the opportunity to host a day-long games night. Sadly, Joe was unable to make it but Adam and myself arrived at Sam's at three, eager to take advantage of the good weather by sitting indoors all day. Anja, Steve and Hannah were all expected in the early evening.

The first game brought to the table was Toledo, in which you have to forge swords and collect art in an attempt at getting prestige points. In this game, the players create the board and move along it at the same time. The game begins with a featureless street leading up to the palace on the hill. Placing shops along the street gives the characters a place to stop, and the playing cards in your hand allows you to move multiple times each go, but only if the value on each card is the same.

It's a bit like Ludo according to Wallace, since landing on another character sets off a duel, and the losing piece goes back to the cathedral. The game ends when one player has three men in the palace. It was okay, but I found I didn't get the cards I needed to progress how I would've liked. But isn't that just like life? Adam and Sam had no such problems.

Adam 22
Sam 19
Andrew 12

Then we went back to an old familiar, Alhambra. We considered playing with one of the extensions, but no one seemed terribly keen when we looked at them, so we stuck to the original, pure and simple. It's definitely not a very sociable game, and there were a lot of tense silences as we all weighed up our options. In the end it was very close with me just squeezing past Adam by the slenderest of margins.

Andrew 126
Adam 125
Sam 121

Then we went outside! First we played headers and volleys. Sam's passing skills were a little wayward, and he explained that he was used to passing into space for people to run on to the ball. He then demonstrated this by passing into the ample space of next door's garden.

This was followed by cricket, which wasn't leaderboard since we were making up the scoring system as we went along, but Adam kept mentioning it throughout the evening when he was asked how many games he'd won.

Adam 19 not out
Sam 10 out (B.O.F. – ball over fence)
Andrew 4 not out

Back inside, we sat down for another new game, Biblios. This is a card game, where you collect books of a certain type (including mucky books – or Forbidden Tomes as they're called in the rules) which then score you points at the end of the game. It's a case of choosing a category or two and then trying to push up the scores for them by using special "church cards" and hoping no one is also collecting the same things. It's okay as a game. I didn't really get what was going on,though. Adam did.

Adam 9
Sam 5
Andrew 2

Then reinforcements arrived, in the shape of Anja, Hannah and Steve! Sam took the opportunity to start making some pizzas, while the five of us played Trans America. It was apparently Steve and Anja's first time playing the vexation rule but they seemed to take to it very quickly.

Adam 4
Steve 6
Hannah 7
Anja 9
Andrew 15

And so, having eaten well, we split into two groups of three. We insisted that Steve finally play Stone Age, and he joined Sam and Adam for foraging larks. Hannah, Anja and myself chose San Marco. I can't remember why. Hannah and I explained the rules to Anja, and then watched in helpless bemusement as Anja took us to the cleaners. In the final round I think she scored in every region.

Anja 78
Hannah 57
Andrew 34

Meanwhile, Steve seemed to be getting on fine with Stone Age. He was a long way up the score track and was even calling the starting player marker "Brian Blessed". It was if he'd been playing it all his life. And there was no last minute sprint up the score track from Sam or Adam, so it ended:

Steve 214
Adam 169
Sam 161

Those two games ended at similar times, so there was a brief period of discussion before we split into groups of four and two. Anja wanted something a bit more thinky, so wanted to play Ponte del Diavolo, while I wanted something silly and decidedly not thinky, so I suggested Mord im Arosa.

So Steve, Adam, Hannah and myself went looking for (and hiding) clues to the murder of two small red cubes. It's a game that requires listening skills and, most of all, a good memory. Something that Steve insisted he didn't have. But he still came second. Sort of.

Adam 11
Hannah 11
Andrew 21
Steve 21

Meanwhile, Anja's lack of experience with the scoring system on Ponte del Diavolo was surely an aspect in her defeat.

Sam 21
Anja 10

By now it was half past ten. Usually the time of the evening when we consider a quick game to finish, or maybe even calling it a night. But not tonight!Tonight is a special night where push towards midnight with a Martin Wallace double bill! Toledo returned to the table, and Tinners' Trail, too, was chosen.

I was up against Hannah and Adam on the Tinners' Trail half of the table. They'd recently bought this game as a joint birthday present to themselves, so they clearly had an affinity to the game. Certainly, Adam cleverly played it so that he ended the first and second rounds in a position to buy a cheap mine. I never really got going, with my mines all over Cornwall. And Hannah was hurt after putting money into buying a new mine, only to discover an underground lake.

But no one could have foreseen the crash in the market in the last round. For me, it meant that mining copper would just break even. I may as well sell pasties

Adam 131
Hannah 104
Andrew 92

Grr. Adam again!

Over in Toledo, Steve and Anja showed Sam that experience is no substitute for beginner's luck.

Steve 23
Anja 19
Sam 17


All of which makes the Form table look very different. Unfortunately, I played so many games that my early win of the day has already been replaced by other, more recent more regrettable results. Adam, meanwhile, equals the best ever score.

						Points
Adam	1	1	2	1	1	6
Hannah	2	1	2	3	2	10
Steve	1	2	1	2	5	11
Sam	3	1	3	2	3	11
Anja	2	2	1	4	5	14
Andrew	3	2	3	5	3	16
Joe	4	4	3	3	4	18

Venice Envy

Well, I hoped you all enjoyed the break, as we return fresh for a brand new season. Due to scheduling issues, this week's games night was brought forward to Monday, and four of us were able to gather at Sam's for an evening of table-top tactics and a chance to sample Adam's delightfully arranged Pringles. They were in a circle, and it looked like the ruff of an Elizabethan nobleman. Until we started eating it.

I arrived last, and San Marco was already set up, ready for play. It was a first time for all of us, so we picked our way through the relatively simple rules and got stuck in. The game involves using your aristocrats to gain influence in Renaissance-era Venice. This involves moving coloured cubes around a nicely designed map (not sure why there's a cat in it, though).

The main game mechanic is that one player gets all the cards, and then splits them into groups for the opponents to chose. Once the choice is made, each player has to action all the cards in their hand. Obviously, this means no group can be too awesome, otherwise they'd be picked up immediately, meaning there was a lot of Analysis Paralysis to try and work out how to make one group look good while secretly wanting the other group.

There was a lot of downtime between goes. Enough for me to start describing the action in the style of David Attenborough and for Finn the cat to get more attention than usual. Perhaps it was because we were new to the game that we took so much time over our decisions. Or maybe as we become more savvy, those pauses will get longer. As the game closed, Hannah come out a clear winner.

Hannah 78
Sam 71
Adam 59
Andrew 53

Then we chose a quick game to round of the evening. It was either Poison or Trans America, and since Hannah was keen, the train game was chosen. Sam had reservations, but he brought it to the table. As it turned out, his fears were justified. I'm usually far more drunk when I play this game, so I did well. I was helped by tonight's lucky combo (the three-colour neighbours: Santa Fe, Phoenix and San Diego) which, by chance, Hannah also got too.

Andrew 5
Hannah 8
Adam 12
Sam 13

						Points
Hannah	2	1	5	5	5	18
Andrew	1	4	5	5	5	20
Adam	3	3	5	5	5	21
Sam	4	2	5	5	5	21

Trans-Datum

Friday night Sally and I had Mark and Katie over, which meant I was allowed to raid the games cupboard. Sally has an interesting take on games, in that if you don't talk all the way through them you're not playing properly. Usually this talk will at some point hit upon the appalled realisation that the game is lasting 'ages'. But we chose a fairly speedy game so I was spared opprobrium.

The actual choosing of the game was a game in itself, inspired by my wonderful present from Katie, the delightful 70's piece Madame Planchette's Horoscope game, modelled coquettishly here by Sally:

Both of these women got paid for this

In what was either an inspired bit of improvised gaming or a deviously pre-planned scheme to play Trans-America, Mark laid out four crisps on the table and secretly assigned them a game: Alhambra, Ticket to Ride, Carcassone and the aforementioned railway game.

Where's Tinner's Trail?

Katie then chose a crisp (the big one) which turned out to be her favourite, Trans-America. There was talk of playing Madame Planchette herself, but nobody was in the mood for learning rules, even if the first line of them is the delightful "Before play begins, everyone makes a secret wish."

So off we went, railroading our way across America, only to tear up all our good work in disgust and start again whenever someone made their connections. The classic sensation of playing Trans-America is when you look at your cards and think "how in the wide world of sports am I going to link these up?" - and certainly that was pretty much how I felt throughout the game.

Hands across America

Staring forlornly at the board appears to make no difference, however, so I simply cursed the urban development of San Diego, Houston, Duluth etc and watched as Mark and Katie gallivanted their way to convincing 1-2 finish:

Mark  3
Katie  6
Sam   8
Sally 14

Sally's suggestion that we get Andrew to write up the night felt just a bit too presumptuous though, so here I am.

On Saturday we played games too; this time with Becky and Dan, who had come from Chesham for the night. I discovered that Becky loves games! Perhaps that was the moment when they became respectable in Sally's eyes. We'll see.

I didn't take any photos that night, so here are Stanley and Joe.

Anyway, Becky, Dan and I managed a 13-all draw in Mord Im Arosa as Sally was collared for the murders with 15 points. Then Becky won Tsuro, with Dan second and Sally third as I crashed out first, giving me a weekend wide 3-1-4 spread. This is all non-leaderboard though, right?

"One Snack Rule" yet to catch on

After last week's games night both Sam and I said how ill we'd felt the next day. We didn't blame the alcohol, but suspected the salt-heavy, MSG-laden snacks may have been a factor. But this week, rather than restraining ourselves to one snack like sensible adults, we munched our way through chips, crisps (Kettle Chips, though. They're almost healthy, right?), and two types of chocolate. Oh well. We'll see how we feel tomorrow.

Thanks to Sally being on bedtime duty with the kids, we were able to start a little earlier than usual, and Sam, Adam and I chose Stone Age. Even though Sam and I had played it only yesterday we agreed since Adam seemed keen. And the best time to play a game against Adam is when you've practiced it in the previous 24 hours.

Playing with a third player changes the balance of power. I abandoned my usual hut tactic after Adam got an early multiplier, and for a while I was at a loss as to what to do next. In the end, I plumped for fields after I was able to pick some multipliers for cheap. Adam, however, struggled with some terrible luck on dice rolls. Ones and twos were the order of the day whenever he went looking for food or wood, which on two occasions left him unable to complete a hut.

I admit, with that display of misfortune, I thought Adam wasn't a threat and spent most of my time watching Sam. However, when the points were finally added up, the result was as surprising as it was close.

Adam 147
Sam 145
Andrew 145

If he wins when he has luck as bad as that, what would he have done if he'd rolled fives or sixes?

Towards the end of Stone Age, Jonny turned up. For our next game we decided on a new but simple game – Portobello Market. This game of setting up markets and manipulating the police is easy to learn but takes a lifetime to master. If you only play it once every few years.

Adam's tactic was simple – put markets in the way so anyone who wanted to move the Bobby had to pay him. I went for putting down my scoring tokens as soon as it was worth it. Sam specialised in customer placement. Jonny did a bit of everything, and towards the end, he put down an aristocrat that scored for three of his streets at once. When the game ended (rather suddenly. Very much an "Okay, that's it! We're done!" kind of moment) Jonny's lead was insurmountable.

Jonny 109
Andrew 98
Sam 71
Adam 70

It still felt quite early, so we had a game of TransAmerica. It'd been a while since I'd played it and I sort of remember it being quite quick and light-hearted. Not tonight, as we studied the map, lost in thought, and our tracks seemed to act like repelling magnets whenever they came close. In one round, all four of us built parallel tracks for the first few moves, waiting for someone else to make the first move across the map.

In the end, the game ended when Sam accidentally finished Jonny's network for him. That was enough to give him his second win of the evening, and leave Sam and Adam at the tail of the pack again.

Jonny 9
Andrew 13
Sam 15
Adam 15


This changes the complexion of the Form Table quite dramatically. Jonny leaps up the table with just one week to go with a great performance to steal top spot from Quentin on the "best most recent score" rule. Despite an indifferent performance, Sam gains a point and I am the new Mr Consistency, with an evening of second places, edging me ahead of the old Mr Consistency, Steve. Adam sees both his pride and his position dented. And it all started so well...

						Points
Jonny	1	1	3	1	3	9
Quentin	1	3	1	1	3	9
Sam	3	3	2	1	1	10
Andrew	2	2	2	3	2	11
Steve	2	3	2	2	2	11
Adam	3	4	1	3	3	14
Joe	4	4	1	3	3	15
Hannah	2	3	5	5	5	20
Anja	5	5	4	4	3	21

Life in the Hotel Arosa

You know if you can't get your wives to play games with open invitations, one must use subterfuge. To that end, Joe and I arranged a dinner on Saturday evening at my house and underwent lengthy nods to polite society in the form of conversation, food (cooked by Sally - I'm shameless), glasses of wine, et cetera. But of course at some stage we had to get a game on the table, and our pre-arranged plan* meant that Joe was the one to propose it.

*Our pre-arranged plan was actually Joe suggesting it and me being too scared to, suspecting Charlotte secretly loathes me for introducing Joe to Settlers of Catan about 5 years ago. You know the rest.

I would have tried to work up to such a daring proposal, but Joe, his self-respect long-since burnt to hell in a household of game-skeptics, just came out with it. But as it transpired both Charlotte and Sally had been primed, and were resigned to indulging their goonish husbands... And so we played Mord im Arosa, the game where players listen out for the sound of tumbling wooden cubes in order to solve a mystery, and then accuse each other of the murders.

I'm not great at this game, as my method seems to be instantly forgetting anything I've just heard and guessing wrong, meaning more of my cubes go in the tower, and subsequently being more open to accusation. Sally and Joe, having played before, were alive to this in-built ratio, but Charlotte blew us all out of the water by constantly predicting where her own cubes where and eliminating all but the most minimal suspicion of her on the investigation sheet. Sally came in second, Joe third, and I was last, implicated as the most inept murderer ever, leaving my bloody fingerprints on the banisters as I made my way down the fire escape.

*

On Sunday we had Mark and Katie over for tea, and so the games commenced fairly early. I'd been hoping to show them The Downfall of Pompeii, but Katie had a hankering for Trans America. As that's fairly quick, we managed to squeeze in two other games as well.

We started with No Thanks, which was new to everyone but me. The rules are simple, though, and everyone was quickly up to speed. Especially Mark, who ran out a clear winner. Tactics now slightly clearer, we had another game, which I can't remember who won (I think it was Mark again) but Katie played a very nice final round, letting the card she wanted collect about 20 coins before picking it up as everyone cursed her chutzpah. She and Mark both liked this, whereas Sally was less enamoured of it, being innately suspicious of numbers.

Then we played Trans America as agreed, and despite Katie's first-round error of announcing her connections when she still hadn't reached Kansas City, it was another strong showing from the Chiseller. We ended after two rounds with Mark beating Katie by one space on the score track, Sally third and me way out in last place.

My gaming chops feeling particularly droopy, I wasn't confident of winning Mord im Arosa but was looking forward to playing, guessing that Katie and Mark would like it. And they did, though with some reservations. There's something intangibly confusing about the rules that disconcerts everyone on first play, and that was the case here, but after an extended search for the second corpse (who still seemed curiously mobile) we slowly got to grips with it, and were soon accusing each other like old hands.

I finally won a game too, despite leaving several clues next to the victims. We had thrown so many cubes in searching for that second victim that we had implicated ourselves on almost every floor - though of course, we still managed to do the odd sloppy investigation too. Mark was second, Sally third, and Katie was the murderer.

So a weekend of gaming came to an end and I hadn't, as far as I knew, alienated anybody. Katie and Mark were even talking about buying Trans America/Europa for themselves - and Katie mentioned again her temptation to come to Stabcon in January. We must work fast, friends, as going to StabCon too soon might be a tactical error. She doesn't joke about meeples yet or know who Dirk Henn is. The best tactic is to let the geek grow from within, so confronting a hundred hairy fat men quoting Blackadder will seem an inconsequential side-show to the pleasure that is gaming...

Wanna get in on the brown action?

Six gamers perused the games cupboard tonight: Sam, me, Joe, Jonny, Anja and Steve. Adam was off sick, perhaps the excesses of Stabcon finally caught up with him.

We split into two groups of three. Joe was keen for more dice action and so he, Steve and me decided on a game of Lords of Vegas. Sam, Anja and Jonny chose Tinners' Trail for their evening's entertainment. I'll leave it for one of them to fill in the details of their game later.

But on the other half of the table, it was all about glitz and glamour as the three of us engaged in turf wars over some prime real estate along Sunset Strip. I made the early running, thanks to a purple casino that paid out a lot early on, but before long my tiny little two-square casinos weren't doing it any more, and Joe and Steve both overtook me.

Despite some desperate trading (hence the title, since brown casinos became pretty desirable late in the game), and a fair bit of luck on gambling, I couldn't close the gap on Lucky Joe or Steve and his glittering Golden Palace right on the strip which was bound to pay out, and it did. Joe spent too much money trying to gain control of any casinos he didn't already have, and when that didn't work and the game ended in the next round, it left Steve in a fine position to win on a tie-breaker since he had the most money.

Steve 44
Joe 44
Andrew 26

The results for Tinners' Trail:

Sam 154
Anja 113
Jonny 107

And they had a short spell on TransAmerica while we finished off Lords of Vegas

Sam 1
Anja 3
Jonny 12

						Points
Sam	1	1	2	2	1	7
Joe	2	1	1	3	1	8
Adam	3	4	2	3	1	13
Steve	1	1	2	5	5	14
Andrew	3	2	4	3	4	16
Anja	2	2	4	4	5	17
Jonny	3	3	4	3	5	18
Quentin	1	3	5	5	5	19
Hannah	2	3	5	5	5	20

New year, new start

Tonight was the grand opening and it saw an attendance of eight sat around Sam’s extending kitchen table. Current man-of-the-moment Quentin returned, and Hannah, Steve and Anja also swelled the ranks.

Before Steve and Anja arrived in their car (which was, apparently, on a meter which made me think it would suddenly cut out after a set time) the six of us managed to squeeze in a game of Tsuro. This sedate version of Tron’s Light-Cycles game was pretty tense, but soon saw my early demise at the hands of – who else – Quentin. Hannah couldn’t get out of a corner, so span off in fifth and then Joe took out Quentin in a crazed suicide pact, leaving Sam and Adam on the board. Unfortunately, Sam’s lone tile took him straight off the board allowing Adam a comfortable win.

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

When Steve and Anja arrived, the group split into two groups of four. Quentin, Hannah, Anja and Steve played Batavia: a jolly game of trading with the exciting new market of the Indian sub-continent. Hopefully one of them can fill us in with the details later.

Joe, Adam, Sam and I played Chinatown. In this game, each player has to build up businesses which then bring in money. This game is reliant on negotiation and I’m simply too laid back to haggle. My first transaction with Sam brought forth insults and derision from Joe and Adam who insisted we do it again with a proper price this time.

Before long we started to get more into the swing of things. Sam built up some nice businesses early on, so Adam’s tactic seemed to be bleed Sam for whatever he could get. Joe was Mr Quiet, building his empires unnoticed. Although we thought he was in the lead, even we were surprised by the bonus he reaped in the last round with his newly completed businesses. I just muddled along, man. It’s only money, after all.

Joe $1,210,000
Sam $1,060,000
Adam $990,000
Andrew $650,000

The game on the other half on the table ended at almost the same time, with Quentin continuing his good run of form.

Quentin 62
Steve 39
Hannah 30
Anja 22

Quentin decided he had to dash, and so he bade is farewells. The seven of us split again into groups of three and four. Steve, Hannah and Joe played TransAmerica while Sam, Anja, Adam and myself chose Poison. The two games played out in near silence as the tension rose. In our game of Poison it was a close run thing from the start. However, in TransAmerica Steve ended the first round very early. Joe pointed out to our colour-blind comrade that he hadn’t picked up an orange card, and so one was quickly given to him from the remaining cards. Steve wasn’t down-hearted for long since he then linked to this last station with his next go, sending Joe and Hannah hurtling up the score-track towards the train shed of doom. After that, it was just a case of hanging on for grim life for Hannah and Joe as Steve ran out a comfortable winner in three rounds.

Steve 1
Hannah 13
Joe 15

In our game of Poison, Adam started badly but cleared the last round with no points at all. It wasn’t enough to close the gap on Sam, though.

Sam 13
Adam 14
Andrew 17
Anja 23

I wasn't going to add a leaderboard so soon, but since we managed to squeeze so much into one evening, I may as well...

						Points
Sam	1	2	2	5	5	15
Adam	2	3	1	5	5	16
Joe	3	1	3	5	5	17
Steve	1	2	5	5	5	18
Quentin	1	3	5	5	5	19
Hannah	2	3	5	5	5	20
Anja	4	4	5	5	5	23
Andrew	3	4	6	5	5	23

What Frodo Did Next.

Last night the call came to Bag End - it was time to set out on a long and dangerous journey; four brave hobbits would be needed to take the one ring to Mordor and chuck it in the volcano.

However we had to make do with two in the end as Merry and Pippin were apparently busy - IKEA in the latter's case. Perhaps Gandalf shouldn't have disguised the dire warning of evil dominions afoot as a 'game of Torres' - as that turned out to be spectacularly untrue.

Instead Andrew and I, still smarting from defeat to Sauron last week, took the little bastard on again. Andrew was Frodo and I was... Sam. If anyone hasn't played this, the game takes place over four boards, and during each one you have to negotiate your way nearer and nearer to Mordor, while the forces of darkness infiltrate the 'event' tiles and try and stop you. All the time Sauron is trying to drag the Hobbits toward the dark, and move himself to the light. Should the two moral opposites (represented by colourful Hobbit pieces and a one-eyed, kitten-esque Sauron) meet on the influence track, it's game over.

How this all works is through card-management, so it's kind of a fire-fighting game in the the vein of Year of the Dragon, except of course it's co-operative.

So how did we fare? Last week, we had managed to get ourselves to Mordor with nary a frayed nerve, but were left with a hollow feeling as a succession of event tiles at the start of the last board saw Sauron march to the final event, where he simply took the ring from us and laughed in our faces like a spoilt brat.

So this time, having taken a few hits stocking up on cards at Helm's Deep, we arrived at Sauron's house and decided the best bet was speed. We would expedite the destruction of the ring, post-haste! Ignoring the threat of Orcs, Gollum, and a sprained ankle, we hurried along the main track and within 5 minutes I was hurling the ring into Mount Doom. Hooray! Middle-Earth is saved.

Fuck you, Sauron.

But saved for what end? Just as with our previous defeat, the victory left us a little hollow. It's so abrupt; one moment you're trying to save the world, the next you're looking at the time and thinking should I have another beer, or would the sensible option be tea?

For me, this is LotR's downfall. During play it's quite fun, and the cooperative element feels novel - at least for our little group. Knizier manages to ramp up the pressure as the game progresses, but when it's over, it's - over. Like a shallow sexual experience for two people who don't really like each other, your relationship with the game feels not entirely worth the effort. It would be great if this final show-down had more oomph to it - it's own little board, perhaps, a game within a game, where suddenly there could be a competitive element between the Hobbits. Maybe I'll drop Reiner a line and suggest it.

So what did the hobbits do next? We played Trans-America, and Sam kicked Frodo's ass!

It's not the game, it's the stigma

Tonight, the gamers who arrived at Chez Sam were greeted by the sight of the kitchen table brought out from against the wall and fully extended, in expectancy of a bumper attendance. And so it was, despite a late apology from Dan there were seven around the table in two groups.

Sat at one half of the table was myself (Andrew), Joe and Quentin – making his début this season. The other half consisted of the leaderboard front-runners Sam and Adam and Jonny and Andy, also making his first appearance of the season. But if I was thinking that I'd escaped the sternest opponents that Games Night can offer, then I had forgotten about Quentin's steely-cold logical mind.

They chose Alhambra and Sam explained the rules to the newbies. Meanwhile, we chose a new game, Oregon, and Joe talked us through the game. Quentin initially claimed to be confused, but by the end of the first round, he said he'd worked out some of the subtleties of the game. At this point Joe and I should have just thrown down our cards and welcomed our new Oregon-playing Overlord. Instead, we battled on, watching helplessly as Quentin played the cards like a maestro. Before we knew it, he'd placed all his men calling an end to the game.

Quentin 59
Joe 55
Andrew 44

We glanced across at the still unfinished game of Alhambra, and we thought we had time for another game of Oregon while it was still fresh in our minds. We set off again to ruin the beautiful nature of the state of Oregon with mines, buildings, railway stations and people standing in the middle of nowhere hoping someone might put a point-scoring building right next to them.

If Joe and I thought that our familiarity with the rules may rein Quentin in, we were in for a sorry lesson. Quentin sped ahead by an even greater score than before, leaving me to rely on coal mines to just edge me past Joe in the final count.

Quentin 73
Andrew 56
Joe 52

I can't say I'm in love with Oregon. There is an awful lot of luck involved, and it's possible to find yourself staring at a hand of four cards which do nothing but offer your opponents some free points. Perhaps we were too eager to use our jokers and our extra goes too quickly. When I say “we” I mean “me and Joe,” of course.

By now, Alhambra had ended. I'll leave it to the others to describe the vicous battle over choice real estate that must have taken place. But the results were

Sam 113
Jonny 86
Adam 84
Andy 78

... but before we had ended our second game of Oregon, they had already begun a game of Trans America. Quentin bowed out of a quick game of Hey! That's My Fish, preferring to get an early night (ie, keep his points ratio intact). Joe and I played a quick non-leaderboard game of Citadel (won by Joe by enough of a margin that we didn't need to count up the scores) until Trans America had ended. This time Adam had wreaked terrible revenge for his third place in Alhambra with a whitewash of his opponents.

Adam 0
Andy 10
Jonny 12
Sam 14

This leaves the leaderboard looking more populated, with two new names added. Not much has changed in terms of position near the top, but Quentin wondered about not turning up to any more games nights, just to keep his points ratio nice and healthy. Luckily, Joe lent him Ascending Empires which means he'll have to make at least one more visit to the GNN tables to return it. And then we'll get him, good and proper.

Right, guys?

The leaderboard...

	Played	Points	Ratio
Sam	16	72.5	4.53
Adam	15	69	4.6
Andrew	17	59	3.47
Joe	10	35	3.5
Jonny	3	10.5	3.5
Quentin	2	10	5
Dan	2	8	4
Andy	2	7	3.5
Sally	1	4.5	4.5
Steve	1	4.5	4.5

When your creations turn against you

Tonight, games night had a slightly different atmosphere. Instead of playing the latest game bought by Sam or Joe in a moment of weakness, we were play-testing Sam’s very own gaming creation, Henchman.

In this game, each player has to gain favour with the King by winning control of various parts of the castle. To do this, each player places his pieces in turn, but the pieces’ identity (and, thus, their scoring potential) is kept a secret until the end of that round. Then, once everyone’s pieces are identified, it’s possible for each player to send in their henchman (in the form of cards you have in your hand) to try and tip the balance in one area. A cross between Stone Age and El Grande, really. The King is dying (yet is still surprisingly mobile) and the winner gets to be the King’s heir!

Once we started, we soon ironed out any unfair, incomplete or unworkable rules in the first round so that the rest of the game ran pretty smoothly. Once I got into it, I started to enjoy it and I liked the idea of just sending a single weak piece into one area with the hope that your Henchmen can force a win. When I was starting player, I had the chance to place the King, so I put him in the Throne Room, hoping that the lure of maximum points would entice the other three players into a big fight while I scored points in the other areas. As it turned out, that didn’t happen and I was able to win it quite easily, giving me a healthy score for that round which carried me through to the end of the game.

Andrew 84
Adam 81
Jonny 62
Sam 45

Sam’s distant last place made him cry out “I’ve invented a game I’m shit at!” which means that he joins Dr Frankenstein (creator of his monster), Dr Faust (his deal with the Devil) and Simon Fuller (the Spice Girls) in creating something that quickly grew out of his control.

But I’m sure that with a little fine-tuning, there’s definitely a neat little game here. There is a dungeon area on the game board, but no real way to send pieces there. If you could do that, then it may add a little spice, as those in the lead get pegged back by those desperately floundering in fourth.

After this, Jonny left and the three of us decided to have a quick leaderboard game because, God knows, we don’t have enough points on there already. Sam and Adam chose Trans America and although I’m shockingly bad at this game, I agreed. For a while (ie, the first round) it looked like my fortunes may be changing as Adam kindly helped me link all five cities. But following that, the game fell back into a familiar pattern as I crashed out in two rounds (scoring eight and six points).

Sam 3
Adam 10
Andrew 14

Meanwhile, the leaderboard continues to reward those who have nothing better to do with their weekday evenings so for just one day, I've decided to order it according to points ratio.

The leaderboard...

	Played	Points	Ratio
Sam	12	54.5	4.54
Sally	1	4.5	4.5
Adam	10	44.5	4.45
Dan	2	8	4
Andrew	12	41.5	3.46
Joe	5	16.5	3.3
Jonny	1	2.5	2.5

Just another day in Junkie Town

Like alcoholics pretending that there’s nothing wrong in having a sixth drink because you’ve already finished the fifth and because you’re going to have a seventh, the GNN regulars sent out a call for any attendees this evening for a quick game. Myself (Andrew) and Adam heeded the call and, for the third time in four days the Leaderboard was called into action.

We chose Eketorp as our first game of the evening. This game of Viking-placement is still new and with naive excitement coursing through his veins, Sam started out by sending five of his men to pick up one bit of granite. While he got the piece of granite, it did mean that Adam and me were able to take the rest of the materials without too much opposition. This left Sam in a position of disadvantage that he never really recovered from.

As a three-player game, the balance of the game changed slightly, and there seemed to be far less combat this time. Adam picked up high-scoring materials almost without opposition. Before long, Adam had five -sixths of his castle built and Sam and I were playing catch-up. But Sam turned against me in the final round in a last desperate attempt at getting second place, and although he managed to scurry away with some turf, it was too little too late.

Adam 43
Andrew 30
Sam 15

It’s quite a different game with fewer players, and think it may be better the more people there are. It’s a bit difficult to say, since we’ve only played it twice.

We then searched for another short-ish hour-long game to fill up that annoying final forty-five minutes before we really should have finished. We chose Trans America, and discovered that this was the first time that Adam played the “Vexation rule”. Unfortunately, it was second nature to him, and he easily strode to his second win of the evening.

Adam 2
Sam 8
Andrew 13

I can have no complaints about my third place. In the first round I had some very lucky cards, but spent too much time fretting over my one far-flung station to wrap the round up as quickly as I should.

Although the leaderboard may look a bit daunting for the newcomer, don’t forget, there are plenty of ways to win apart from not having anything to do with your weekday evenings except endlessly racking up points in one game after another.

The leaderboard...

	Played	Points	Ratio
Sam	9	38.5	4.28
Adam	7	34.5	4.93
Andrew	9	30.5	3.39
Joe	5	16.5	3.3
Dan	2	8	4

Bite my finger

The call went out this afternoon for potential gamers since Sam found he had an evening to himself. Myself (Andrew) and Dan (a gamer from the pre-GNN period of our history) were available. And in our eagerness to get as many names on the leaderboard as possible, Sam and I decided that this was an official GNN evening. So we got out the referee’s armbands, whistles and timepieces and got down to work.

We chose Citadels as our game. Easy to learn, yet tense enough to make you mistrust your fellow man. We explained the rules to Dan, and the game commenced. I found myself on the receiving end of both the assassin and the thief in round one, effectively giving the other two an one-round head-start. But that’s all part of the game, isn’t it? Dan generously missed a go in the next round when he forgot he was the thief until it was far too late. Sam built lots of green buildings but then was too scared to chose the Merchant since he figured it would be a prime target for the assassin.

I battled back, with two “six coins for eight points” cards boosting my score, and Sam went for an early shut-out by building a lot of lesser cards. In the end, the game was surprisingly close. If the Bishop hadn’t been killed in the final round, I would have won. Meanwhile Sam discovered in some post-match analysis that he could have come first if he’d used his Warlord instead of building. But in the event Dan came away winner.

Dan 35
Sam 34
Andrew 31

A “quick” game of Trans-America was suggested. Again, Dan was a newcomer to the rules, but this is a game that needs barely any introduction, and he was soon up to speed. I started well, winning the first two rounds, but then I was stung for nine points in the third. Sam won the last two rounds to take first place overall.

Sam 5
Andrew 13
Dan 14

Oh, and the explanation for the post title? During the evening, Dan told us about some unused footage from the documentary about monkeys he’s currently making, which involved an alpha male monkey bumming another monkey while a third monkey pushed his finger in his mouth in some weird primate fetish. Unfortunately, some people taking photos can clearly be seen at the edge of the screen. Otherwise it may have been usable.

Bloody tourists.

The leaderboard...

	Played	Points	Ratio
Sam	5	21.5	4.3
Andrew	5	17.5	3.5
Adam	3	14.5	4.83
Joe	3	10.5	3.5
Dan	2	8	4