Pizza the action

This week's games night consisted of five hardy gamers. The four hardiest arrived on time for a five player game of Marrakech. Except this time they played the variant where you rotate Assam at the end of your turn in an attempt to screw your opponent. 

Andy defied luck a couple of times to fall neatly land on a bare square surrounded by enemy carpets. When he won the game, he made sure to remind everyone that it was a game of skill.

Andy 49

Ian 41

Katy 32

Martin 29

I had arrived mid game and now we were five we decided on a game of Voodoo Prince on playingcards.io. This game of winning three tricks at just the right moment was one of Martin's earliest creations on the site and he had to quickly add a deal button to save us from pawing at the deck of cards at the start of every round like a bunch of hungry hippos.

In rounds one and two both Katy and I won a trick while playing the seemingly perfectly safe Green 6. In round three we were all on two tricks. Andy, the leader, went out first, confident that his advantage was safe. And he was right.

Andy 28

Katy 26

Andrew 24

Ian 21

Martin 16

Then we stayed on playingcards for a rousing game of Mamma Mia. Andy went through the first round having forgot about being able to use cards from your hand in the pizza cooking round. Despite this, he staged a remarkable comeback, ending in what we thought was a joint first until Martin remembered the tie breaker. 

Martin 5 recipes and more cards in hand

Andy 5

Ian 3

Andrew 3

Katy 3

Next we returned to BGA for a game of For Sale. It was a close game and although I came last, I didn't think I'd done that badly, but I still came last.

Martin 55

Ian 52

Katy 50

Andy 48

Andrew 47

Ian set off to bed and the remaining four of us played Buttons, a brand new game to me and one that I didn't really understand until the second round. The idea is to place five stars in a row and you get these stars by placing your buttons on other buttons of the same colour and you place your buttons according to the roll of a diminishing number of dice. It's an abstract puzzle game, basically. Anyone hoping for a Eurogame based on the button industry will be sorely disappointed. 

I approve of the game giving a one hundred point bonus to the first player to place their fifth star, giving the final scores a comedic lopsided look to them.

Andy 108

Martin 10

Katy 6

Andrew 4

I think I'd like to try it again. It seemed like a good game once I was pointing in the right direction.

And then we all peeled our faces off the internet and set off to bed. Thanks all. 

Kingdamnino

I "arrived" at this week's games night a little late, but had earlier popped into the group chat long enough to learn that Martin, Ian, Katy and Sam were playing a game of Love Letter. I even watched a hand or two which was pretty entertaining. Once I'd returned, the game was over and I saw that Martin had gone from joint last on 2-2-0-0 to outright winner.

Martin 4
Ian 3
Sam 3
Katy 2

For my first game, Martin introduced us to a website that allowed you to recreate your favourite card games (or even your own creation) online. He had put together a game of Voodoo Prince. It lacked the artwork of the original but the game itself remained intact. Having everyone's cursor visible on screen as a smallish coloured circle was odd since it felt like I was playing against four little Tinkerbells, all drifting around mischievously. Also dealing cards was impossible, so instead it was necessary for everyone to take the required number of cards from the stack in a flurry of Hungry Hippos type activity.

We played a three round game, and Joe joined us midway through the game as a spectator.

Katy had a commanding lead after two rounds but that didn't stop her complaining when she went out third in round three. She cheered herself up by picking up the token we were using to signify the trump suit and waving it around, much to Martin's annoyance.

Katy 29
Martin 21
Sam 18
Andrew 17
Ian 17

After this, Joe joined us for a game of Fuji Flush, again devised by Martin on this new website. The only drawback was how difficult it was to keep track of how many cards people had left. I was first to get down to my last card, but Martin was soon after me and he was able to seal the deal. Don't know how anyone else did.

Martin 0 cards left
Andrew 1
Everyone else… more than that, I suppose

After the game ended the table descended into anarchy with people moving cards around willy nilly and everyone getting a new rude name. I for one will be very disappointed if this behaviour doesn't continue once we're back in the real world.

After this, we all decamped to another site to play Fake Artist Goes To New York. This has the advantage of no one being the clue-giver, so we were all involved all the time. Joe was the first fake but couldn’t guess “bike”, then Katy was next and was able to guess “hunting” (while disputing that it should be in the ‘recreation’ category) then I was last fake and unable to guess “dish rack”.

Katy struggled with the site on her tablet, saying she had difficulty getting to things in corners. Thus her tablet was dubbed the Samsung Round, a rare circular tablet that couldn’t even scroll, apparently.

Then Katy went to see a gig online for half an hour or so while the rest of us played Just One. Not the old fashioned version with webcams and pen and paper, but a slick web-based version. It worked well, except for not eliminating a duplicate due to a spelling error. We got a few amazing correct guesses with only two clues by Ian and Martin and we finished with 10 out of 13 and the traditional snide remark: “huh, colour me impressed. Was it a fluke?”

Then Sam left and the four of us played the world’s most controversial game of Kingdomino. It was all going smoothly until the last move when Martin had first choice and a prize 3-crown tile which would fit nicely onto his board but instead when he chose it, the website selected a different and completely useless tile which probably cost him the win. He was furious, as you can imagine.

Martin (green) had chosen the lowest tile, but been given the second one

Andrew 52
Ian 47
Joe 41
Martin 37 and fuming

Katy had come back by now, but Ian and Joe left so the three of us played two games of Hanabi to finish off. It works well online, although we were able to do our usual trick of giving clues in a happy or sad tone of voice. Both times, I was the first to ruin the game by discarding a pair of values. In game two poor old Martin only got one clue for most of the game, since his hand was all threes and fours - either couldn’t be used or weren’t worth protecting.

Game one: 20 out of 25
Game two 19 out of 25

Well, it looked like we were getting worse, so we finished up there and left the internet to look after itself. Thanks all!

No shreddies

This week, five fifths of our most regular players arrived at Joe's house for our weekly battle of wits and cunning. The missing one sixth was Katy, but she had recently impressed us all with an email showing her playing Isle Of Skye while actually on the Isle Of Skye.

Meanwhile, we happy five (Joe, Ian, Martin, Sam and me) began with a new game called Irish Gauge that had quickly convinced us with its pretty illustrations and promise of a rule book with only two pages.

Thematically correct alcohol!

Since it was a hex based train game, I was more than keen to give it a shot, but slowly it dawned upon us that something was missing. Martin wondered if we were playing it wrong, not in terms of rules but in terms of strategy. And he had a point: we were approaching it in a very Railways Of The World manner, building up our networks and getting everything in place before triggering a scoring round. Should we have been quicker to get dividends, or more generous with our bids for shares?

Who knows. In this game, Sam wrestled for an almost exclusive ownership of the blue network, but it cost him dearly. Martin kept sole control of his network of orange, possibly because it was the worst on the board. Joe, though, was rolling in money. His yellow network paid out well and he bought an early share into my purple network, and seemed to do very well out of that too. His regretful sigh of "I don't think I understand share games," was met with little sympathy since he was the clear leader at the time.

Joe 133
Martin 111
Andrew 110
Sam 84
Ian 80

We ended with a feeling of disappointment, and we were unable to tell if it was us or the game that was at fault. Lots of mumbling about needing to give it one more try.

We followed this with a rousing game of Stinker. Three whole rounds! I made more notes this time and, assuming that the random nature of the game somehow gives it oujia board type abilities to see the future, I can safely say that...

A cure for insomnia is... Oddbins sale (Ian)
The app missing from your smartphone is... Nob Measurer (Joe).
A greeting you don't want your robot to give you is... Hi pedo (Martin)
The next big thing is... Slappy Bags (Sam)
Your mama is... A real hottie (Joe)
And the eventual undoing of man will be... Christmas Toffee (me)

Ian 53
Martin 28
Sam 25
Joe 22
Andrew 21

After this giddy encounter with over excitement, we kept up the pressure with Voodoo Prince. Ian started badly, winning a hand with a five, effectively giving him two tricks (remember, three tricks in a round and you're out) but he hung on long enough to pick up a decent score that round.

Then, in round two of three, Ian was then second to last to pick up his third trick, giving him maximum points. He was, by now, the man to beat. "We need to fuck Ian up," said Martin while yawning, sounding like a decadent dictator idly requesting the assassination of an enemy.

But it was all for naught. Ian got maximum points in round three as well.

Ian 31
Martin 21
Sam 19
Andrew 18
Joe 14

Next up was Zero Down, a game that simply eludes me. I assume there's a strategy, but I am entirely unaware of what it is. Joe, however, has a better grasp of the matter.

Apart from Joe's serene stroll to victory, the rest of us spent our time cursing the player who'd just picked up the card we needed.

Joe 5
Ian 13
Sam 24
Andrew 34
Martin 46

During this game, someone described their luck as being a car crash which we misheard (for comedy purposes) as "cock rash."

And also, between games, Joe informed us of some adverts he'd seen for a new product: fart filtering pants. The testimonials from apparently happy users made it very difficult for us to tell if the product was genuine or not. But these adverts gave rise to the phrase "no shreddies" which now adorns this blog post.

Ian left after Zero Down, but we remaining four had one more game in us: Memoarrr. It is a simple memory game that demonstrates with such clarity your lack of short term memory that you may start to suspect oncoming dementia.

It's so simple, 25 cards, in an array of 5 by 5 with one removed (the scoring cards go in its space) and all you have to do is remember what is where. And you have seven rounds to do it! Couldn't be simpler, but I struggled massively. Great fun and I was slightly amazed how quickly my memory vanished once the cards had all been turned face down again.

But it was great fun, despite my complete inability to get anywhere with it.

One round went all the way until the end... Didn't help me, though

Joe 6
Sam 5
Martin 4
Andrew 0

And with that, we were done. Time for us all to stumble home, full of the thrill of battle and alcohol.

Five go mad in Butte

Games night without Joe and Sam is bound to be fallow. With Adam H and a string of other apologies this week and doubts about the fitness of my car, there was a time when it might have been just Martin and Katy. Instead we were five in total: the two aforementioned and Ian, Adam T and myself. Katy and I were late, and when we arrived we found a game of Eggs of Ostrich just ending.

Ian 7
Adam 6
Martin 3

Once we were all settled around the table we looked at the stack of games already laid out that would be good with five. We started with Northern Pacific. It was new to Adam but Martin insisted he could teach it in a minute. It began in a feisty mood. Katy began and placed a cube. Martin immediately moved the train past that cube, rendering it useless.

It was all very cagey stuff, apart from the fairly obvious jokes about putting things into Butte. Round three saw a lot of spread betting as everyone tried to put off moving the train for as long as possible. Katy spent a lot of time saying she was just happy being in third, so you can imagine how happy she was when she finished in second.

Ian 28
Katy 26 (wins on tie breaker)
Adam 26
Martin 23
Andrew 21

After this was Mamma Mia, chosen by Katy who was already in a state of high excitation at the possibility of being dealt the Mamma Mia card. She actually got it in round one and then theatrically dealt out the stack of cards in a broad Italianish accent. It was Adam’s first go at this game, too, and halfway through round one he said he’d worked out how you can play well. Ominous words and they preceded an amazing comeback in round three that had us checking the rules for a tie-breaker. I hoped it was “the quietest” who won, but instead it was “most cards left in hand” so Katy squeaked a win on one of her most loved games. Martin, meanwhile, insisted he used to be good at it.

Katy 5 (won on tie breaker)
Adam 5
Martin 3
Ian 3
Andrew 2

Then we played Nakanuki Paradise at my request. This game of guessing the highest value to bid without the total value exceeding the target is such a simple, clever game. Far too clever for me.

Martin 22
Adam 21
Katy 17
Ian 15
Andrew 13

Time was ticking on and for Adam’s last game before he departed, we chose a three-round game of Voodoo Prince. In round one Katy clearly had no trumps and was heading into a last-player-standing showdown with Ian, with only one trick to her name. Ian made things simple by showing her his remaining three cards: all trumps. She was out last and with only one point to her name.

I went out in similar fashion in round two and Adam in round three. But what of the other end of the scale? The winners? It was Ian versus Martin as we went into the last round, with Adam one point off the pace. Katy, buoyed up by her ten point haul in round two, kept asking if it was possible for her to win. Possible, but unlikely. Almost as unlikely as there being no trumps left in the game once there were only three players left. Katy did finish round three with most points, putting her in a respectable second, but Ian was third to last out for ten points while Martin was out first for five.

I had no trumps at all in round two

Ian 28
Katy 22
Martin 22
Adam 17
Andrew 13

After Adam left, we ended on a baffling round of QE. We bid for points, but those bids increased our chances of losing. Oh, the irony. Ian and I struggled to buy anything at first, and then Ian went on a spending spree that would make the Sultan of Brunei blush. He and I both tied for identical winning bids on one round: Katy had set the starting price at 20,000 and we both put in bids of 20,001. In the end, just like last time, Katy won by miles. A game she excels at, but might have difficulty finding people to play against in future.

Katy 37
Martin 29
Andrew 23
Ian OUT (but had 19)

And with that, we were done. All back homewards with more memories than we can plausibly keep except as a general warm glow of recollection.

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.

Railing against the Dying of the Light (Railway)

Once upon a time we may have laughed off the future as the trifling concerns of others, but last night Joe and I (Sam) rolled up to the kerb outside Martin's house swapping mid-life medical worries, before going inside to eat chocolate and bombay mix. We were joined by the host, of course, along with Ian - now living south of the river - and Andy.

Although before Andy joined us, the quartet snuck in a round of Yokai Septet, the team trick-taker that debuted a couple of weeks back. Martin and I were paired against Ian and Joe, and we pretty much swept the board in the opening/finale:

Martin and Sam: Three tricks, four Sevens
Joe and Ian: Two tricks, no sevens

Whether they would have come back at us to win a full game, only an alternative universe can tell. In this one, Andy arrived, and we started the evening proper with some Cadbury's Fruit and Nut and a five-player assault on Mini Rails. Assault is the operative word, too, as despite the exceedingly light rule-set, every action carries ramifications. Build track and you might help someone else. Take a share and it may cost you points.

But building track and taking shares are the only actions you can do, so you want to be careful that the companies you have shares in pay their taxes: companies that don't count against you.

We all negotiated that particular challenge, avoiding penalties, but table-talk was prevalent as we tried to talk each other into screwing over someone else, rather than us. Joe - was he the only player to take two shares in the same company? - saw his investments in the grey track pay off big time:

Joe 15
Martin 14
Sam 11
Andy 8
Ian 6

Ian then suggested Powerships, but Martin seemed reticent. I seconded, but Martin still havered. We kept saying Powerships as a kind of social experiement, and it turned out Martin's uncertainty wasn't about the game itself but the challenge of setting up the board, which always foxes him. Fortunately Andy was there to pitch in and in no time at all we'd constructed the solar system. Now all we had to do was fly around it.

I began well, shooting off into an early lead. Martin assured everyone I would "fuck up at some point" though, and I agreed he was probably right. But as first Andy and then Ian slalomed involuntarily around the cosmos, I circled buoy one and two and headed for three, with only the green ship of Martin visible in my rear-view mirror.  He was still sure I'd make a mistake, but I, foolishly, had begun to feel confident.

On the last turn around buoy three I needlessly rolled my die, hoping to turn my 2 into a 1. I rolled a 3 instead and ended in a cul de sac of yellow arrows, floating in space. Martin shot around right behind me, straight into an arrow. There followed a period of confusion, as the arrow was supposed to push Martin back - but I was in the way. Did he move back at the start of his next turn? Or stay where he was and ignore the arrow? Much frantic BGG-ing ensued, which ultimately made no difference. Either way, I now had fucked up, and ceded ground to Martin who claimed the win.

1 Martin
2 Sam
3 Joe
4 Andy
5 Ian

Ian, as he foretold, came last. Joe and I noted how the winning spaceships seemed to be engaged in some kind of group hug/orgy. Andy missed the fun as he was still reading the Powerships forums.

I went to the loo and when I came back unwittingly was the winning vote on Abluxxen, once often-seen on the table in these parts. We all needed a refresher, and Joe in particular seemed bamboozled by it. It's like Fuji Flush in a way, but without the teamwork: play a single card or set of (matching) numbers to the table, get busted if someone else plays a card or set of a higher number. The key is to try and build big sets by getting shot of singletons to pick up cards that match your hand.

We only played a single round, at the end of which cards on the table score a point and cards in hand score minus points. I thought I was on the verge of a spectacular seven '4's, (having just played seven '8's) to put me on 14, when Ian ended the game by getting all his cards down!

Ian 17
Joe 9
Martin and Andy 4 each
Sam 0

We ended our evening as a quintet with current trick-taking favourite Voodoo Prince. I think I usually do ok at this game but last night I fell victim to a first round last-out having no trumps, and then when choosing trumps on the next round had four sets of high numbers and a bundle of blacks - too many to safely imbue with trump power. I tried to bluff that I was going for an early trick, but nobody fell for it - I won the early trick. It fell apart swiftly after that.

For the others things were much tighter though, and on our third and final round the scores between them were tight - anybody could have won. In the end Ian - who was first out in round one - picked up his second win in a row as Martin and Joe tied for second, with Andy hot on their tails. I did at least win the last round to add a bit of respectability...

Ian 27
Martin and Joe 22
Andy 21
Sam 15

Martin enticed Andy to stay for one last game, whilst the decrepit (me and Joe) and the long-distance traveller (Ian, now headed for Bishopsworth) hit the road. Whilst we reflected on the evening and the state of the world - Bishopsworth in particular - Martin was whupping Andy at Patchwork:

Martin 46
Andy 10

Until the next time...

The Alms Race

Tonight's games night began with a real rarity: a crossword puzzle. Specifically the crossword that Joe had devised and posted on GNN. Sam and Martin were poring over Joe's clues and, with help from the quizmaster himself in times of difficulty, they finished it off. It was an impressive creation by Joe, although he was disappointed in himself for letting a couple of mistakes slip by.

As a quartet, we filled the time until Ian arrived with a game of Orongo. This game, like San Marco, has a name that prompts people to adopt Australian accents. This is despite, also like San Marco, the game has nothing to do with the land down under.

Instead, it is set on Easter Island, where each player is a tribe eager to build their statues (or moai) before the others. This is done by placing a trail of counters on the map, connecting suitable resources to a space on the coast. And the placing of these counters is decided by secret auction. The winner loses all of their seashells (putting them in the reef where, hopefully, they won't roll off the board) but places first and puts down three counters. Second place keeps their seashells and places two tiles. Third and beyond place just one. But if you bid no seashells at all you get to take whatever is in the reef, which is usually the winning bid.

Except if more than one player bids zero they share what is in the reef and Joe and I demonstrated our synchronicity by bidding zero together on several occasions. It would have been touching were it not so annoying.

Sam, meanwhile, began in a corner of the island that saw few resources being drawn early in the game. Martin built a statue with his very first move, and always looked good for the win. In fact, if he'd bid a little lower a couple of times, he could have wrapped up the game earlier. He still wrapped it up, though.

Martin 0 statues left
Sam 1
Andrew 1
Joe 2

It was a nice game, containing plenty of Reiner Knizia's finest ingredients. In fact, Martin brought a whole pile of Knizia games, leading me to remark wittily that it could be called a Reinerssance. Any pleasure I had from my pun was dashed by learning that several people, including Martin, had already used it in the past.

Ian arrived at the dying stages of Easter Island's flawed social system and next up was Chickwood Forest. This game has been offered as an option for some weeks and now, thanks to its ability to accommodate five players, it got its chance to shine.

After a rules explanation, where we learnt that you have to specialise in treasure chests, gain unique garments, and grab as much jewelry as possible. This is done by playing cards to one of six castles, some face up and some face down, and then choosing them. Are the face down cards evil (such as henchmen, bust chests or maybe even a kind of chest/garment you'd rather avoid) or are they rather good and just pretending to be evil? That's the dilemma.

At first, with all this talk about treasure, I said it was very "inchesting" which, for a short while, was the front runner for the blog title. Then we learnt about the part of the game where you get points for alms. At first, my quip of "two alms to hold you" had unseated "inchesting" but then Ian remarked that it was a bit of an "alms race" and the decision was made. Thanks Ian.

The almshouses were an interesting part of the game. The player with most cubes got most points, but ties were broken according to who was in last. So it was possible to ignore it for the first part of the game and then pepper the village with your cubes in the final stages.

This is what Joe did and this strategy, coupled with his collection of five green chests (worth 25 points), gave him the win.

Joe 70
Sam 67
Martin 64
Ian 52
Andrew 43

There were cautious murmurs of approval for the game. If I recall right, Martin called it "a perfect example of a modern eurogame," which is as non committal as you can get.

Next to the table was Voodoo Prince. This game, perfect for five, is usually played in a truncated manner at the very end of an evening. This time, though, it was given the full five rounds.

I got a bit of luck in round one, putting down the purple 15 thinking I was bound to win, only to see Ian had put down the purple 0: the only card that could have saved me. Then in round two, Joe tried to flush out the black cards by leading with high blacks in the first two tricks (and winning them) and then playing a low black in the third trick. Unfortunately for him, no one else had any black cards left and no one trumped him, so he got his third trick in the shortest possible time. At the end of the round we checked the undealt cards and saw how unlucky he was: there were four black cards in the ten unused cards.

Round three was very cagey and, at one point, everyone was on two tricks. Joe was able to redeem himself somewhat when he netted the maximum twelve points for that round. Then in round four, it ended with Martin versus Sam. Martin had the seven in the trump suit which would see him go from one to three tricks, thanks to the seven’s special power. But Sam had the 15 and 14 in the trump suit and Martin’s plan was foiled.

Round five was just a case of me waiting until enough points were available to win, and then bailing. Which I did.

Andrew 45
Martin 38
Sam 36
Ian 26
Joe 21


Lastly, we went out on Dead Man’s Chest. A remarkable game, as they usually are, in which I got my first Dead Man and we witnessed luck at its most peculiar: Joe bid 2-2 and handed to Sam. Sam shook the box, looked, shook the box again and handed it to martin, bidding 3-3. Martin challenged and it was 4-4. Amazing.

Ian out first, challenged Martin’s 1-1
Sam out, challenged Joe’s 6-1.
Martin out when I challenged his 6-5
I went out when a wrongly challenged Joe's 2-2.
Joe wins!

Thanks all for another great evening. Will the fun never stop?

This is a photo of fun not stopping.

Little messages

This week's games event was postponed by two days after an England football match, a wife's birthday and my visiting brother all combined to make Tuesday a non starter.

In the initial stages, there were six of us: the host, Sam, his kids, Stanley and Joe, Ian, Martin and me. We began with something quick and simple, Destination X. A game of deduction and geographical knowledge. Eight cards, each representing a country, are dealt out face up. Each non-spy gets three Question Cards, with a question on it (how high is the highest peak? What's the first letter of your capital city? etc) The spy, in this case Joe, secretly chooses a location and answers our questions on the subject using a handy guide book. We, his pursuers, MUST eliminate one country each round. The idea is to identify the correct country without accidentally eliminating it.

We played this lightning fast game twice. In game one we caught Joe in Thailand and in game two we tracked down Stanley in Suriname.

After this, gamer Joe was expected shortly so we bashed out a game of Doodle Rush. Each player has the same number of little wipe clean boards that they can draw on. Their target words are on the back of two randomly drawn cards. There are alternating periods of quiet, intense drawing followed by a raucous bout of guessing, with every one shouting their guesses while at the same time trying to hear what people are saying about their drawings. Get it right and you keep that board.

The scoring system is Number Of Other Players' Boards You Collected minus Number Of Your Own Boards Left In Front Of You. I didn't everyone's score but Martin won it with 7 points. I guessed most of his including a minimalist Napoleon and a very naive art version of the Mona Lisa.

Once that game was done, one Joe left us and another one arrived. How poetic. Stanley stayed with us for one more game, though. That game was Orongo, against Sam and Martin, which was something about building those statues on Easter Island, mixed with bidding sea shells for some reason. I didn't follow it too closely but I remember Sam telling his son that it would be over soon, such was the lead that Martin had.

Martin all statues built
Sam two statues left
Stanley four statues left

Ian, Joe and I played Wordsy, the game that looked enough like a book that Sam's wife picked it up, interested, before realising and putting it back down again.

The game was new to me and Ian, but there aren't a great deal of rules to remember. It basically concerns making the longest or highest scoring word from a group of eight consonants.

During the game, I pointed out Joe's habit of saying "Nice" to every word (although possibly not Ian's "ham", which Ian later blamed for his poor showing). Once I had done this, he stopped doing it which I now feel a little regretful about. Anyway, in the final reckoning, he was the nicest.

Joe 107 (best word, Swivelled)
Andrew 104 (Underwhelming)
Ian 88 (Savagely)

At this point Orongo was in the final stages so we cracked out a game of Kribbeln. In this lightning fast version (practically a speed run) Joe scored 35 with his first round attempt but didn't fulfil the criteria. How cruel.

Both Joe and I completed all four of our kribs, but a strong mid game was enough to keep me out in front.

Andrew 16
Joe 14
Ian 11

Now we were all together we went for Decrypto. Sam and I were a team, while Ian, Martin and Joe hoped that numbers would be enough to balance out our lengthy friendship.

It was, frankly, intense. Four rounds passed with no interceptions and no mistakes. Sam and I hit upon the tactic of making our three clues read like a sentence. Thus "If / a man in health / travels abroad," "Track down / Napoleon / living as a caretaker," and "I taught / the blues / to Gareth" all seemed to frustrate the other team.

We got the first interception on round five, leaving them on a knife edge. They squeezed past thanks to some clever play. Hats off especially to Joe whose clue of Cat Poo threw us off the trail. It referred to the word "message" and, indeed, Sam did mention that as a possibility while we pondered but we chose another option instead.

Then in round seven, they got a successful interception. Now it was the Decrypto equivalent of a penalty shoot out. One last round. They also had a mistake among one of their guesses, giving us the upper hand, but there was still work to do.

In the end, we made a mistake. But in a gentlemanly fashion. While Joe discussed my clues, Sam realised he'd misunderstood my clue. He went to change it, but then stopped, saying it wouldn't be right. Joe did point out that, according to the rules, getting help from your opponents is fine and, if anything, he should have been more careful. But Sam's resolve wouldn't be changed. And he was right: he was wrong. And the other team successfully intercepted our message.

This meant, after eight rounds, we were tied. The tie breaker was how many words we had worked out, but that was two a piece. There were no more tie breakers and we were forced to enjoy our shared victory.

Then we played a three round game of Voodoo Prince, with Martin giving Joe a very quick rules refresher. But it’s a game that easy to learn but a nightmare to understand. I squeaked a first round victory thanks to winning a trick with a 7 blue, giving me two tricks. But then in the next two rounds I was out first both times. Pretty high-scoring “first outs” but still a little galling. There was a brief discussion if my expression of “I’m getting wanked,” was actually part of the rules and decided perhaps not. Trick-taker king, Martin, was in first at the end of round two and then just did enough in round three to win the game. There was an impressive comeback from Sam who had a lowly two points after round one.

Martin 27
Andrew 24
Sam 21
Joe 17
Ian 16

Then we ended with The Mind. If this game shows how well you know each other,t hen we must be pretty well acquainted. In round one we successfully navigated 13, 14, 16! Rounds two and three both ended with Martin and Joe. There uncanny empathy meant they were able to play 88-89 in the right order.

We lost our first life (I think) in round four during a sequence containing 43-44-45-46. Then another went in round five. Round six ended with Martin and Joe again and they successfully played 98-99!

Now we were into the Dark Mind. Round one was clear, as we managed to navigate a 19-21 pair of cards. We then battle through round two, losing two lives, before falling during round three. Just out of curiosity, we decided to see how well we’d do at round four. It was pretty hopeless.

But nothing can take away our achievement. Round two cleared on the Dark Mind, maybe thanks to Sam’s offer of whiskey mid-game. We left with the warm feeling of having our friendships reaffirmed. By board games.