When you don't know your Mars from Uranus

Friday, and after a month pretty much out the GNN loop I (Sam) was looking to squeeze in a game or two, despite tonight's Time Of Crisis looming. Luckily for me, Chris and Adam were also keen, and after some debate over which space-themed game we'd play (Quantum and Sol were also under consideration) we settled on Orbit: The International Space Race. Three space agencies - Japan, USA and Russia, head for the stars to try and claim achievements of fly-bys, orbits, landings, and even the hard-to-do return to Earth. It was new to Chris, but the rules are pretty surmountable.

What wasn't surmountable - for me, as the CCCP - was distinguishing Jupiter from Venus, and I set off into the outer solar system towards one thinking I would reach the other. Adam and Chris graciously allowed me a do-over, but the Russians struggled for the rest of the game, unable to shake off their status as laughing stock of the international astronomy community.

Chris left Earth and headed for Mars, only to find by the time he reached it Earth had appeared again and Japan (Adam) launched to reach Mars before him. "Sorry" said Adam, but he didn't sound sorry.

I, as the Russians, found myself lagging and so picked up Mission cards. All of them pointed to doing things with the inner planets, something Adam was already busy with. "Adam, you're doing all my achievements!" I wailed. "Sorry" said Adam.

Meanwhile Chris as the firmament-newbie was actually playing a rather canny game. I realised when I was giving him some advice that I was probably, having mistaken Jupiter for Venus,  not qualified to help and left him to it. I think Adam gave a couple of pointers, but Chris ran away with the game and it was mostly his own work. I spent most of the time focused on an 11 point mission card, and realised three turns from the end I'd need an extra turn to complete it. Bah!

Chris 41
Adam 28
Sam 18

I do love Orbit. Even when it goes wrong.

Next up, after some discussion, was Villagers. Here everyone is drafting and 'building' their own village, with the eponymous villagers represented by cards; the catch being that, just like life, craftspeople need materials to craft with, so you can't have a cooper without a carpenter, or a glassblower without a miner. Stan has repeatedly rinsed me at this, but at least those experiences stood me in good stead here, as Chris and Adam were both new to it.

something like
Sam 61
Adam 51
Chris 50

Both seemed to like it and I think it may be seen again.

We ended our trio of trios with a couple of cracks at NMBR9. I can't remember what happened now, but I think Chris won the second game, and Adam said he had finished second in every game of the evening.

Adam left for home with the clock chiming eleven, but Chris and I had one last game in us, which was Yokai. This is part-memory, part-Mind as you co-operatively try and move four randomly-dealt 'tribes' of face-down cards to orthogonal adjacence in a 4x4 grid: every turn you can look at two cards, you must move one card (any card, it doesn't have to be what you looked at) and then either place a clue card on top of a tribe card (hinting at its colour) or flip a new clue card.

The clue cards though mostly tell you what colour the tribe card underneath it isn't, rather than what it is, so you need to watch your fellow player/s carefully and remember what you've seen. Run out of clues and the game ends - or you can declare earlier if you think you've achieved a victory.

It's quite easy to get wrong but we ended the night on a triumphant victory. I didn't take photos, but here's me and Little Joe playing it in France...

And with that, we were done! Thanks chaps. 

Unlucky thirty

What manner of cruel fates were lined up against us this week? On Monday, it promised to be a bumper crop, with nine of us expected. Then Katy's two friends bailed out before Katy herself decided that exhaustion had got the better of her and she, too, declined. Then Joe, while moving a book case, had it fall on his head and he had to go to hospital to have it checked out. Finally, my neighbour found water dripping down through her ceiling so I stayed until the maintenance guy arrived and sorted everything out meaning that I would be late if I arrived at all .

That's why, at the regular time, only four players sat around Sam's kitchen table, which Sam had pulled away from the wall and put stools around to accommodate far more people. The four in question were Sam, Martin, Ian and Adam (of the T variety).

First they played EQ.

Sam 41
Ian 30
Adam 25
Martin out, but scored 32

Then they played Panic Lab. I arrived just as it was being put away. I don't know the scores but judging by Ian and Sam's air of bamboozlement, I think either Martin or Adam won.

I took my place at the table, exhausted, and waited for the games selection to be brought in by the others.

A sparse games night

Martin and Adam brought in a couple of clever area control/set collecting games while Sam brought in Villagers and his son, Stanley. I went for certain last place by agreeing to Traders Of Osaka (hoping that the method of choosing starting player was Last Player To Visit Japan, but it wasn't) while Ian got involved in a battle between father and son.

Martin gave a rules explanation, prefacing certain aspects with phrases like "the tricky bit is..." "the mean bit is..." And so on. It all seemed typically devious. Simple, yet difficult enough that I struggle to summarise it here.

The main premise of the game is the market - a row of cards. You can buy everything or take only one card and use it as money later. Of course, if you take a card then you make the market cheaper for others. A delicate balance. Buying cards pushes ships of that colour from Osaka to Edo and, once there, those cards will pay out.

There's more to it than that, but I spent most of the time juggling personal needs with communal benefits. There was never any doubt about first place, but Adam's initial reticence to use his reserve token may have cost him second place.

Martin 18
Andrew 11
Adam 10

Villagers is, I believe, about rebuilding a village after the plague has hit and that's all I know. They ended at the same time as we did and although Ian ended with a good score for a debutant, Sam was more concerned waiting for his son to count up his score.

"Thirty eight," said Stanley.

"Really?" remarked Sam, full of hope.

"One hundred and thirty eight." Stanley clarified.

"Go to bed," Sam ordered.

Stanley 138
Sam 133
Ian 66

After this we were a group of five. What to play next? We chose Voodoo Prince and what a tense event it was. We played three rounds and in round two we were all poised for victory/defeat/humiliation with two tricks each. One more trick would see anyone have to bow out and take whatever points were available. In the end it was Ian. But his haul of eight points got him considerably more than the player who never scored that third trick, Sam, who got only two points.

And this is how slow and steady Ian, never last, never first, won the game. Adam must take some of the credit, though. He was in stone cold last as we entered round three and he fell on his sword to spite the current leader Martin; he was the first to get his third trick just to stop Martin from winning. In fact Adam sent Martin from first to fourth.

Ian 25
Sam 24
Andrew 24
Martin 23
Adam 17

Now Adam left, as heroes should, on a high. The remaining four played L.A.M.A. We chuckled as we remarked on those short sighted people on Board Game Geek who seemed to think that the game required no decisions. Then we demonstrated what they meant by playing a round where no one picked up a card and the starting player (Martin) went out.

Martin 12
Sam 17
Andrew 27
Ian 46

Ian left at this point, and the three of us set off on a game of Flotsam Fight. Another gem from Oink Games and with a gossamer-thin theme draped over the game mechanic. Basically, there are eight lifeboats, numbered three to ten. Each player has a hand of cards of numbers between (I assume) 3 and 99. You can only put the cards in lifeboats that are a factor of the card. For example, the card 12 could go in the boats 3, 4 and 6. The factors are listed on the card, so you don't have to work it out yourself.

It was fun and more subtle than I initially thought. Amazingly, the mathematically minded Martin didn't win.

Sam 5
Martin 2
Andrew - 1

And what about a finale? We chose the old favourite, The Mind. Again, Martin regaled us with some of the dumber criticisms of the game from BGG including one reviewer who'd interpreted the silence during the game as being passive aggressive. "It's a co-op game," Sam sighed.

Some people, eh?

The game was amazing. We got through a tough round one (39 - 45 - 51) and in round three Martin managed to slide a 69 under the 70 that Sam was about to put down.

In round eight we lost a life when a 27 got stuck to the back of another card in Sam's hand, only revealing itself far too late. Despite this, we went into round ten with two lives left. We could almost smell the Dark Mind. Alas, we lost those two lives. Both to close calls, as I recall.

And then we were done. Despite my late start, it had been worth it. Keen to give Flotsam Fight another go, and Traders... too. And thanks to all for attending. Commiserations to those who didn't.