Just F(Inis)hed

Here's a belated report of the January shenanigans back on the 4th from Pete!

I arrived to Steve and Anja's on the final Sunday before returning to work, still pretending it was full the Christmas holiday, to find a stack of games on the table for potential selection.

With a whole afternoon before us (there is some foreshadowing here) we (Adam, Anja, Steve & I) selected Inis. We took a little while on the rules, as Adam hadn't played before and the rest of us not for a while, and then started drafting our action cards.

Steve & I both chose to further delay getting into the action by passing our first turns, which Adam professed to be baffled by (pick your guess as to the endgame conclusion now).

The first part of the game seemed to mainly consist of Anja stocking one side of the board with citadels and repeatedly filling them with orange clans. Meanwhile Steve or Adam built some sanctuaries and Adam also held quite a few festivals. I'm not really entirely sure what I was doing. I recall feeling peturbed that I had to keep passing good action cards to Steve, but I don't recall achieving much with the ones I decided were better to keep 😂.

With time advancing we decided we had better pause to arrange dinner - which turned out to feature a succession of challenges including the initially chosen fish-and-chip shop being shut, and the backup choice requiring cash only, requiring various forays. Those of us in the house cleared Inis off the dining table to make way for for a very nice dinner.

After eating we then played Just One to include everyone - so now Lennon, Louie, Laura and Arthur to bring us up to eight.  We got a couple wrong early on but recovered to a fairly convincing win. I don't think I've played it with that many before and we seemed to eliminate less words by duplicating clues than I expected. In fact, I mainly remember it being useful that Adam and I had doubled up on 'diplomacy' as a clue for 'panda', as it turned out this would not have been a helpful clue..

Next Steve, Adam, Louie and I selected Tsuro. Adam and Louie stayed clear of trouble to start with while Steve and I went down one side. The timing worked well for me and I sent Steve off the board before nearly flying straight off of one corner. Fortunately I was able to turn round but then found myself heading for Adam. Meanwhile Louie had achieved a diagonal across to the far corner. Adam and I crashed straight into each other with Louie finishing the winner.

We then performed some successful tectonic shifting to bring Inis back to the table, and resumed with Anja's hoards of orange clustered around the capital and to one side.

The game did reach a climax in fairly classic Inis fashion. I reluctantly vacated the hills and managed to seize the capital, and together with a deed I briefly met one of the winning conditions by ruling over 5 clans. However I didn't hold it long enough to even take a pretender token as Anja and Steve both contested it.

It looked like Anja or Steve could potentially win, before we all realised that Adam had timed his plotting to perfection, making his bid for leadership just as everyone else had largely exhausted their action cards.

An excellent debut win, though long-term stability of ruling various quarrelsome clans in a hotly contested capital has to be questioned.. And where is the food going to come from, with hardly anyone left in the countryside?

We then finished with a fairly successful round of So Clover! - 6 on Anja's, and then 4 on everyone else's. I think my favourite was (Steve's?) escalator for ladder /luxury.

Another very fun afternoon, but then back to work - hence finishing the blog taking a while!

I, Conic

 On the first wintry night of the year, I approached Sam's place and saw a strange shadowy figure moving from house to house, peering at front doors. Was he a burglar staking out his next prey? The bottle of wine suggested otherwise. It was Pete, a newish member of the GNN group, and he and I entered Sam's house together. 

We found Martin at the kitchen table in front of an unfinished game of Conic, a new Knizia which Sam described as “Raj with a map.” They soon ended and, as Martin counted up the scores, Sam's insistence that the game was all luck and chance became ever louder. 

Martin 22

Sam 9

Ian and Joe followed shortly afterwards and, after brief spell where Joe tried to work out if he'd met Peter before, we all sat down to play games. Sam, Martin and Pete played Rebirth while Ian, Joe and I set up good old Mille Fiori.

I know little about Rebirth, except it’s played on a map of Scotland and one minute Martin seems to have two castles in the Outer Hebrides and seemingly the next minute, he’s expanded to six. In the end, it was pretty close.

Martin 180

Sam 177

Pete 169

As for Mille Fiori, in round one Ian found that his choices were invariably taken by other players first. Strangely, we all pile into the markets - usually the least popular area on the board. (Officially, these areas are of the board are called “Townspeople” - I checked on BGG)

Joe ignored the Warehouses in what was a demonstration of a Mille Fiori masterclass. He was first to chain several turns together and did so repeatedly throughout the game. In fact, my smugness at nabbing an “extra action” late on in the game was somewhat tempered by the fact there was only one card left to choose which earned me a single point.

Joe 216

Ian 203

Andrew 156

While we waited for Rebirth to end, the three of us played a quick Tsuro. Ian painted himself into a corner while Joe and I faced off. I got some unlucky cards and could only kill myself in the final reckoning, giving Joe another win. But then he keeps going, guiding himself around the board until the final tile sent him off the board. Another masterclass.

1. Joe

2. Ian

3. Andrew

Now we were all together, there was a reshuffling. Pete wanted to try Orbit and Martin and Joe joined him. My only notes for this game is Martin’s quote “Is there anything I can fuck up?”

Martin home first

Joe and Pete, 2 planets left to do

Ian, Sam and I brought out the much-scuffed and oft-played Quantum. Ian and I quickly get two cubes down, and then Sam manages to wipe Ian’s fleet off the board. With no green dice on the board, I forget that Ian’s still playing and I begin my cleverly thought out move when it was actually his turn. What a faux pas!

Later and with a full fleet back in play, Ian mused to himself that he could win by placing a cube, picking up a card that gave him 2 dominance and let him place a second cube.

He paused.

“In fact, that’s what I will do.”

Ian 0 cubes left

Andrew and Sam both 2 cubes left.

While Orbit ended, Ian Sam and I played a couple of rounds of Misfits, made all the more unpredictable by the occasional tremors, eventually discovered to be caused by Martin’s elbow on the table. 

There was another masterclass, this time from Ian, who placed a series of seemingly impossible pieces on our collective tower while (mostly) me and Sam suffered the consequences. Sam escaped one perilous situation, though, placing a piece, the tower moved notably. Without removing the piece, Sam slowly “walked” the piece to a position of safety.

We played twice. Ian won the first and I think Sam won the second.

While we played Misfits, Joe, Pete and Martin played Conic, which Pete seemed to be doing rather well at as I pulled my coat on and got ready to leave.

Pete 16

Martin 9

Joe 6

Without me, the five of them played Champions. 

Sam 24

Martin 20

Pete 18

Ian 15

Joe 15

I’d love to know who, out of Ron Sexsmith and Gary Lineker, buys books but never reads them.

Then they finish, of course, with So Clover.

26 out of 30

Thanks all, see you next week.

10cc on a plane ordering snacks

 This week’s GNN started unusually early for two lucky gamers, with Ian joining Sam at around half six for a two player game of Quantum before Joe and Katy arrived and enjoyed a rousing game of Perudo.

When I finally did get there, the table was set up for a five player game of Free Ride, with Joe, Katy and Ian the newcomers on board.

Compared to the only other time I played it, we started much more centrally, which meant a lot more blocking and nationalising of routes. Ian barely moved at all, preferring to stay in Napoli and make lots of money with his sensibly placed routes.

Katy went through a smorgasbord of emotions, at one point saying she was pleased and angry at the same time. She also said she enjoyed it. Joe was the other moneybags, as he almost monopolised East Europe and the Urals. My track in the UK was totally ignored for the entire game.

Sam zipped around the map, only briefly distracted by a wine spillage which dampened an Oslo card and some coins but not his enthusiasm for the game. At the end, as we counted up our scores, he revealed he had no duplicate cities in his stack of cards. Professional level gaming.

Sam 100

Joe 92

Ian 86

Katy 82

Andrew 81

After this the next (and my last) game was a co-op game of Wavelength. In this variant you score points for being in the Segment of Correctitude (possibly not it's official name) but only a perfect hit will get you another card and the chance to increase the score further.

It was fun as always. Katy wanted to know how long a clue could be; could it be a sentence? And that's when Sam uttered the blog title by means of an example of how long a clue could reasonably be. Trying to ignore the image of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme arguing over peanuts or olives, we began.

There were a few duds. I can't remember if we thought Katy's example of "buying your mother imported flowers" was more or less ethical than she did, but we were definitely wide of the mark.

Sam's clue of "day old bread" for "smelly in a good way/smelly in a bad way" seemed very specific but a bullseye eluded us. My clue "beer" for "guilty pleasure/openly love" was the shortest of the evening and was close but still no cigar.

Ian's clue for "normal greeting/weird greeting" was to say "helloooo" in a high pitched slightly Irish accent. Our mistake was misjudging the frame of reference, thinking it only slightly weird especially compared to a punch in the face as a greeting, and we put the Indicator of Opinion in the normal half. But Ian thought that slightly weird meant it should go in the weird half. 

I think we scored 11. And Katy discovered that you could run on custard.

By now it was 10.00 and my choice was a sensible early night or risk a late one, so I took the easy option and went home. Sam messaged me the late results.

The rest of them played For Sale twice.

Joe 62

Sam 61

Ian 51

Katy 40

And...

Sam 79

Ian 59

Katy 49

Joe 37

Then they ended with good old Tsuro.

Joe and Ian die in first 

2 Sam

3 Katy

Thanks all. Special as always.

This Goose is Raw

Saturday night, and Tin Goose sat on the table awaiting the attentions of Andrew and Ian: the history of American's airways playing out over several decades, as players expand their networks, build their fleets and rid their reputation of the bureaucracy of Regional Management. 

Tin Goose's interesting aspect is that as Fleets become available, everyone bids on them. As the end goal is to be the richest polluting airborne industrialist, the bids both tempt and appall you: the last thing you want to be in the game is cash-poor, as someone - probably Ian - will play an Event card that costs you money you don't have. 

Over seven rounds everyone takes a single turn. This consists of playing a card, either to auction off a fleet (active player bids last) or prompt the event on it. Then you've three actions to spend: pushing up your income, expanding your network, taking Labor chips (in case of a shitty event) or serving the financially alluring (but action-heavy: it costs two actions) international destinations:

Everyone begins with five shitty cards that hamper your airline: Regional Management, Rural Stops, Hazards and so on. If you add a fleet to your airline (as opposed to upgrading an existing fleet) you get to shed one of these cards and get two new planes. But upgrading is also tempting, because improving your planes gets your hazards and oil consumption down: events won't hit you quite as badly.

The planes come with hazards and oil consumption, as well as tiny descriptions: "This fleet is prone to metal fatigue" Ian announced at the start of an auction, perhaps trying to keep prices low. "This one's a bit crashy" said Andrew. Timing of events is everything, and Ian did it well, forcing me to take a bond at the worst moment. I'd managed to establish a lot of overseas connections, but having two bonds was not good news. Ian only had one, and Andrew none at all. In the end, his shrewd frugality made the difference:

Andrew $289
Ian $283
Sam $236

I think we all liked Tin Goose. Outside of a modicum income-track management, it's an accessible set of rules and a deceptively interactive and screwy game. 

It was still early so although Andrew had an early start he suggested Raj, and we played three rounds with winner's reward. Ian won the first convincingly, as Andrew's enormous set of tiles gave him the sum total of one point:

Then I took the second and third rounds as Andrew briefly flirted with negative points!

It ended with some measure of Goosian revenge:

Sam 80
Ian 46
Andrew 12

And we moved swiftly on to the lesser-seen Tsuro, as the second part of Andrew's one-two request of short games to finish. 

It was so short  - Ian won, with me second - we even had time for a three: Dragon's Breath, where players take turns as 'Daddy Dragon' melting the top ring in a tower of ice:

As the ice melts, everyone gets to predict what colour gems will fall on this particular turn, and the player with the most gems wins. Andrew proved Best Dragon by a considerable margin:

Andrew 24

Sam 17

Ian 14

And then with his 5am alarm call looming, Andrew bade us goodnight and headed out the door. Ian and I still had a little gaming in us, though, so I introduced him to Paolo Mori's (of Ethnos fame) CAESAR! Seize Rome in 20 Minutes. Terrible pun, but an excellent game as it turns out, as Caesar and Pompey battle for control of the empire.

The board is a map, and the short-term goal is to control regions of it; the winner is the first player to get all twelve control markers on the board. Turn by turn, players lay influence tokens on the borders of regions: there's a number either side that denotes the influence you're playing into both regions. As soon as all influence markers are played to a particular region, the player with the most influence there gets to place their control marker on it, and a control marker on the border of any adjacent regions they might already control. 

There's a twist in those yellow tokens, though: the player who plays the last token to a region grabs them, even if they don't win the contest there. These are kind of manipulation-manifesting moments, as you get extra turns, extra tokens to choose from, flip an opponent's control marker face-down or - best of all - the Senate tokens let you place extra control markers. 

Ian took the first game with a convincing win: it was so fast we had a rematch, which I - as Pompey - snuck a much tighter victory in a close-fought finale. We'd packed a lot of games into three hours, so although it was only 10.15 (on a Saturday!) we called it a night. Thanks chaps!

Merry Christmouse

Christmas comes round earlier each year, they say, and this year it came round at two o’clock in the afternoon. I arrived only a little late and found Laura (masked, overcautious, due to being a contact of a contact of a covid case, but asymptomatic (something like that, anyway)), Katy and host Sam. The first game was the Lateral Flow Test Game which has some pretty harsh player elimination rules for those who fail, but both Sam and I won so that was okay.

Our first real game was Whirling Witchcraft, a game I’d watched last week but couldn’t quite work out. It’s pretty simple: you have to keep using ingredients in your cauldron to make more ingredients, but the stuff you make ends up in your neighbour’s cauldron. If they can’t fit it in, then it comes back to you as points. There’s more to it than that but that’s the jist. 

We were mid-way through the first turn when Adam H arrived so we paused the game while he was given a rules explanation from Sam. Katy took the opportunity to indulge in some snack demolition, cleverly combining two separate snacks into a soft cheese and Japanese cracker sandwich.

Once Adam was up to speed, the game commenced and we swapped cubes with cheese-feulled abandon. Katy was first to reach four points, just one off the game winning total, but then she stalled and, two rounds later she found herself very disappointed with the final result, complaining that “all that cheese has gone to my head.”

Adam 8

Andrew 7

Sam 6

Katy 4

Laura 4

Next we played a co-op game: Siege Runedar, in which four players (Katy and Laura teamed up) try to escape from a castle that is under constant attack from orcs.

Before long we remembered why we rarely play co-op games, as failed dice rolls were greeted with sarcastic comments regarding the rollers suitably at orc-repelling. Adam was first to kill, but after that his luck ran out. Given his lack of fondness for dice rolling and co-op games we should have cut him a little slack. But we didn’t.

Mid-game Laura had to go somewhere and while she was away Katy kept the orcs at bay by herself, stating “Laura would be proud” after a particularly successful roll. Then we thought the game had ended, killed by a catapult while Katy was answering the front door, but we checked the rules and found that we’d been far too hard on ourselves: a quick reset and we recommenced.

We lasted long enough for Laura to return (in a new mask) but were soon in a hopeless situation, as we were only one mistake away from triggering any one of four of the game’s criteria for losing. In the end, the monster deck was exhausted, which did us in. Still, lots of fun.

I had to dash off at this point, promising to be back later. In my absence, more games hit the table...

They played Wavelength and got a world record [citation needed] 23 points. Ian won Tsuro, beating (in order of bestness) Adam, Katy, Sam and Laura. Sam won Heck Meck: Sam 7, Laura 6, Adam 4, Ian 1, Katy 0. Finally, Adam won Avenue: Adam 66, Katy 44, Ian 26.

By the time I get back it was 7.30 and Laura had gone, replaced by Martin and the aforementioned Ian. The next game had already been decided for me: Tinners' Trail, and I was up against Ian and Adam. Martin, Katy and Sam played Brian Boru, the game of medieval Irish matchmaking, or something.

In Cornwall, it had been so long since we last played that we had to reference the rule book several times. I started in audacious fashion by selling a pastie. Not sure if that’s a good move. Anyway, Adam bossed round one while Ian was king of the hill in round two. I was in dead last, worried that I might not even hit 54 points – the score you’d get if you only sold pasties all game. But I did have four mines on the board, compared to Adam and Ian’s two each.

Brian Boru was ticking along nicely. “It really builds up,” commented Martin. “Yeah,” agreed Sam, “as the board fills up, those high numbers become really important.” And then Martin said he was referring to the spicy crisps. Sam clarified he was merely externalizing his internal monologue rather than replying but, still, that’s one for the sitcom.

Back in Tinners' Trail I made a comeback of sorts (even getting past the 100 point on the money track), and I scored more in round four but by then the gap was too big to bridge. In the closing stages, Adam was convinced Ian had nabbed the win and he was surprised at his comfortable margin.

I am the Elon Musk of Cornish tin mining

Adam 148

Ian 135

Andrew 120

But if he was surprised by his win, then that was nothing compared to the surprise when cries for help emanated from the front room. Sam leapt into action and Adam followed. The rest of us stayed seated, not wanting to intrude, and soon found out that Sally had seen a mouse. Charlie the house cat, meanwhile, was nowhere to be seen so Sam had to catch it. Which, amazingly, he did and he took it, in a cereal box, outside to the end of the garden.

What an exciting episode. And after that, he sat down and finished of Brian Boru. By now, Martin had married twice (Niall and Connell) while Sam bagged himself Estrid, Princess of Denmark but it didn’t seem to help him.

Martin 45

Katy 41

Sam 28

Getting ready for the quiz

Finally, with mice ejected and everyone calmed down, it was time for the annual Christmas quiz. With five of us, it didn’t make sense to split into teams so we sort answered as a co-op team. Round one was “Spot the fake BGG comment” which we did well at, detecting 7 out of 8. Sam simply doesn’t have the sort self-righteous stupidity that the true internet hermit possesses. Then we did a GNN round, based on the post-online meetings. I was surprised how much I couldn’t remember but it was nice to be reminded that “cock-flavoured sand” was once used in Wavelength as the Worst Thing To Put In Your Mouth.

With the quiz done, we played a couple of six-player games. First was So Clover. We got 32 and we could’ve done better with a little more thinking. Ian’s clue of “Webber” made us think of Formula One, but we really should have noticed “cat” and “theatre” to make us think of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Adam’s clue of “Fishnet” for “String” and “screen” was well received.

Martin's

Finally we played Texas Showdown. For a long time it looked like either Ian or Katy would be the ones to go past the game-ending score of ten tricks as the game was swiftly rechristened Texas Bullshit. But they both had good fourth rounds and the game went on long enough for Martin’s form to collapse. Meanwhile, Adam and I vied for first place until I got stung in round four meaning the final round was a cakewalk for Adam.

"The sphincter of safety" (c) Sam 2021

Adam 2

Andrew 5

Sam 9

Ian 11

Katy 11

Martin 12

And with that, Katy and I were done. And, after I came back from the toilet, I discovered that so was everyone else. But what a great day. Sorry that so many weren’t able to attend but there’s always next year. Or did I say that last year...?

Thanks Sam for hosting and quizzing. See you all soon.

I think we're not in Canvas any more

I rolled into Sam's place a little before 8 just as the already-full kitchen of gamers were finishing up Cross Clues. Andy, Martin, Ian, Katy, Adam H and Laura had joined our host. Adding me and an en route Joe, we would number nine in total. 

As we packed away Cross Clues (the score was 17) Martin suggested Biss 20 as a reasonable filler until Joe arrived. Adam had never played but since this is a game where you literally explain the rules as you go along, that wasn't a problem.

The game involves repeatedly counting from one to twenty with numbers slowly being replaced by gestures. Two of those gestures were folding your arms and shaking your head and since Andy was usually doing those things anyway, he did quite well. The game was fun, but there was a genuine cheer of relief when Joe's arrival meant we could play something else.

Katy, Ian, Joe, Martin and Laura played 49. A very interesting looking game that everyone wanted to try but it only plays up to five. It's basically four-in-a-row but you bid on the square available for auction. Katy seemed to be enjoying it even before the lid was off the box. Then she bamboozled everyone by taking green as her colour, giving us the rare sight of watching Martin playing in yellow. Curiously, Katy insisted her counters weren't green at all, more blue. Or teal.

The game was pretty raucous. Everyone except Martin had chances to win, while Martin seemed to spend too many moves stopping other people from winning. Laura was first to reach match point but got locked into a bidding war with Martin until they eventually decided to see how much money Laura had and if Martin could beat it. He could. Finally Katy won by buying a square for 177. And to think the first square only cost 8. Mind you, at when I heard someone mention 177, I had assumed they meant decibels.

At the sophisticated end of the table we played Canvas. In this simple game, you buy half finished paintings and then layer them up in order to achieve certain criteria, such as one of each colour or two triangles. Just like real art appreciation. 

I thought I was doing well, while Adam professed that he wasn't sure what he was doing. A bad sign if ever there was one. The game was sweet (with tiny wooden easles) and had certain role playing opportunities as we revealed our works complete with pompous name. 

Adam 44

Andy 37

Andrew 34

Sam 25

The night was still young but by now we’d already demolished four big bags of crisps as well as a number of tiny cup cakes.

My glass of sake, tiny easel and mini cup cake all made me feel like a giant.

The four of us had a quick game of Spicy to tide us over until 49 ended. I won thanks to clearing my cards at the end of the game to pick up a 10 point bonus.

Andrew 20

Sam 18

Adam 11

Andy 10

Then we all reorganised. Martin, Andy, Joe and Sam played Die Crew. Not sure which version and I’m not sure how far they got. Great blogging.

Katy was in need of some relaxation, so Tsuro was brought out again. Can’t say it was too relaxing, watching Adam win twice.

Adam

Katy

Ian 

Laura

Andrew

Adam

Andrew & Ian

Katy

Laura

Then came a quick game of Avenue before I left. Sam had to be parachuted in from Die Crew for rules explaining purposes, but we were mostly okay after that. Apart from Ian who had cut himself off by the end of round three. I, meanwhile, came tantalizingly close to glory.

Adam 52

Andrew 44

Katy 41

Ian 23

And so I dashed off at this point, with Adam heading out too. The rest, I am told, played Colt Express which Sam won narrowly…

And then another game of Cross Clues, with a (new high?) score of 23 points.

Thanks all. See you next tuesday.

 

Passport-Packing Power-grabber Pax Pamir's Poetry

Pamir's - Pam Ayers? Yes?  No? - No. Fine.

Last night I introduced Adam H to the joys/hell that is Pax Pamir 2 as we faced off, two-player, over the historical future, if I can put it that way, of Afghanistan.

For the uninitiated, three coalition powers are hoping to claim the country - or most of it - for themselves: Afghans, British and Russians. The players are tribal leaders hoping to both manipulate events in their favour, and be sure to either A. be aligned with the strongest coalition when points are scored or B. be the busiest player (most discs in play) if no one coalition is dominant.

Although each turn is simple, it's a game of ifs and buts. You always have two actions, but can get extra ones if your cards match the current favoured suit. You can purchase cards from the market with an action, but you have to pay rupees to take them from anywhere outside of the left-hand column. You can play cards to your court (face-up on the table) but if you're playing a card with a region that another player rules on the map, you have to pay for the privilege. Your court limit is three, but you can make it bigger by playing purple (political) suited cards. Your hand limit is two, but you can make that bigger by having blue suited cards in your court. Red-suited cards break ties, but when the red suit is favoured, cards from the market cost more. And so on. It is all, to be fair, thematically sound, but it's also somewhat inscrutable with a fair bit to remember on a first play. I haven't even mentioned spies, who can sneak around the table and destroy opponent's cards, or how influence is measured come the scoring (patriot cards, gifts, prizes) or how you can change your allegiance at the drop of a hat, or how hard money is to come by.

Just like Martin and I on Tuesday versus Adam T, Adam H found himself cash-poor at times whilst I played taxes cards early and kept a steady trickle of rupees flowing. Adam aligned himself with the Afghans whilst I favoured the British, and my previous experiences helped keep my brain from imploding whilst Adam, in contrast, seemed to be getting a migraine. He wasn't helped by the fact the market was getting clogged up with Russian and British patriot cards that he didn't want, causing him to briefly change allegiance to the Russkies before later changing back to the Afghans. One area he was comfortable on was the map, where the Russians were nowhere to be seen and I had to keep chasing after the Afghans with British pieces to keep Adam from hitting an instant win when a Dominance check (scoring card) was activated. I managed to do so, and after the first Dominance card activated my tribe established a 3-1 lead.

actually from Tuesday, but I forgot to take pics

Adam was still scratching his head, but I sensed a sea change away from confusion and towards percolation. He realised he'd done something wrong - I hadn't spotted it, but then I was busy with my own plans - which was a worrying sign. He nearly won the second Dominance check, but was one rupee short of what he needed to pay for. I glanced down at my one hand card and saw I could play a spy with it, and outnumber Adam on discs in play (-discs are spies or tribes depending on their location) and having done so, I activated the next Dominance check for a sudden 6-2 win: any player four points ahead of other players wins instantly. I only wish I could say I'd planned it.

Adam professed not being enamoured but I hope this was first-play-blues. He did sit and stare at the board with the air of someone thinking next time... and reflect on the experience, so I hope that's the case.

I tried to make up for my indulgences and encouraged Adam to choose the next game. We pondered the alcove for a while before settling on the lesser-seen Tsuro: the tile-laying game of dizzy dragons where the last one standing survives. This is an old favourite of ours and it was a shame Andrew wasn't there to see it hit the table again - but we made up for absences by inventing a Team Tsuro variant: both of us had two dragons and two hands, which gave a potential for teamwork between partners: one could push the other into a convenient place to go 'on the attack' and push your opponents dragons into a corner, say.

It was quite lovely to watch - like two sets of dance partners twirling a ballroom intent on assassination. However Adam's end came first at his own hand, as he sent his white dragon flying into the void with little assistance from me. After that he was outnumbered, and my dragons forced him into a narrow corridor from which there was no escape:

Sam wins
Adam doesn't

We fleetingly discussed a third game to round things off, but with 11o'clock approaching and Sally also returned from her night out, we ended things there.

Deep Fried Calimala

Thursday, and our occasional sorties into the wide wild world of euro-gaming continued apace. Apace? you say, eyebrow cocked. A euro? you say, a smirk playing at the corner of your mouth. Yes! Because tonight's euro-game was Calimala, thematically so euro-y as to be almost invisible to the eye, but mechanically rather more explosive.

We - myself, Andrew and Chris - are silk merchants in Florence, intent on being the silkiest merchant come the game end. We do this by delivering silk - obviously - to far-flung climes such as London by boat, or Hamburg by wagon. But the brick and wood we use to build trading houses or ships can also be used (as can marble!) to contribute to the building of the great cathedrals of our home city, where notoriety is just as good as silk.

Two things are unique to Calimala - one is the action selection, where if an action you've selected in a previous round gets chosen again, you get to do it again too. The second is the scoring rounds, which are triggered the third time this duplicate-choosing occurs. It's a hard one to explain in simple text, but pretty simple to pick up in practice, and the upshot is that after 20 minutes or so of euro-dawdling in an area-majority kind of way, suddenly Calimala wakes up and with the merest hesitation, torpedoes its way through the fifteen scoring rounds with nary a pause.

Each scoring round is for majorities in the various destinations and their attendant delivered or contributed goods - silk for the far-flung climes and wood, brick and marble here in Florence. But the triggering itself happens so fast you barely have time to say "Shit, I never delivered to Lisbon", before Lisbon scoring is done and dusted and you realise you never contributed any marble to the cathedrals either - and they're just about to score.

The only end-game scoring has a slight sting in the tail too - everyone has an area they know will score again (more rewardingly) but they will score for everyone, not just yourself. And this proved to be decisive as Andrew's storming tactical lead was pegged back by my more strategic silk-based shenanigans. At the final scoring we were delicately poised on 42 points each after our own end-game bonuses popped out, only for Chris' reveal to favour me in the most fortuitous fashion.

Sam 47
Andrew 43
Chris 26

Andrew and I really liked it, and the whole thing included rules-explanation took 80 minutes - so brief, we decided to play Azul, or, as I like to now call it, Andrew's Revenge.

I kept smiling to myself during the game as the tiles seemed to favour me reaching not one, but two completed colours in bathroom tiles and chewits. But at the end of every round my smile froze rictus-like as Andrew racked up point after point with his now classic clustering tactic, accumulating points like a rogue ball of pizza dough accumulates all the little bits of crap on our kitchen floor.

Chris and I kept looking at each other in despair as Andrew's mastery deflated our optimism. Even me making him pick up seven blue tiles made no difference.

Andrew 88
Sam 63
Chris 56

At Andrew's request we finished with a couple of games of Tsuro. He won the first as I sent Chris spiralling into the abyss, only to be pushed out to the edge of the board with no escape route:

Andrew
Sam
Chris

And Chris came storming back to claim a win in the second game - partly I might add due to my largesse, when I forewent killing him off to claim a guaranteed second as it also meant a guaranteed not-first. Rather than hand the game to Andrew, I kept Chris alive and went nobly hara-kiri. However after that the two old stalwarts circled each other warily in a dance as old as time, until Andrew fell over.

Chris
Andrew
Sam

Good stuff gentlemen! Have a great couple of weeks all and see you one Tuesday soon... ish.