Like, wow, Holmes

I arrived at the opening week of the season a little late, and found Sam's kitchen crammed with eager gamers. Nine of us were present: Sam, Matt, Ian, Joe, Katy, Chris, Martin, Andy and myself. Also joining us for the first game was little Joe, Sam's youngest. We chose Pairs and Sam teamed up with his son.

There were hardly any occasions when people went out on their second card and, indeed, most people lasted three or four rounds. This was bad for me since my strategy relies on other people being unlucky quickly.

In this race to twenty one, little Joe called the shots in the father and son team, and he made the early running, too. Only a poor third round for them allowed other players to catch up and eventually overtake.

Andy 25
Ian 23
Sam & Joe 21
Joe 17
Chris 14
Andrew 10
Katy 9
Martin 8
Matt 7

After this we split into two groups. Flamme Rogue was still in demand, and Katy , Martin, Matt all joined Andy in a game. The rest of us pondered. Watson and Holmes was mentioned but received a guarded response. But five players is a difficult crowd, and after some umming and ahhing, Chris decided that we should play Watson and Holmes after all, reasoning that if we can't decide what to play then we may as well play something new.

We set up in the front room so we could deduce in peace, away from the rowdy rabble of cyclists.

Sam explained the rules and read out the opening scene. Mr Porterfield was murdered! During a piano recital at his mansion, no less. Whodunit?

I got off to a good start, visiting a location that was dripping with clues. After that, though, I mostly wandered about aimlessly, learning very little. The most exciting moment involved the character cards we're dealt at the start of the game. I took great pleasure in announcing that I was Lestrade! And was therefore able to move all the police tokens currently in play. Didn't help much, but felt good.

Joe was the first to go to 221b Baker Street, and he checked his theories against the game, but turned out to be wrong. Despite still technically having a role in the game, he was tempted away by the other group who'd finished Flamme Rogue.

Katy
Martin
Andy
Matt

Katy credited her win to a cyclist she'd christened Rob, after her better half but then, in case I misunderstood, she specified that she had won, in case I gave Rob a win on the leaderboard.

We remaining four kept deducing until Ian made his move by going to 221b Baker Street and successfully answering all three questions.

Ian wins!
Joe, Sam, Chris and Andrew don't.

Once the murder was solved, Sam commented that all three of his guesses would've been wrong. I only got one right - the murder weapon. It was fun, but it did feel a lot like we were all playing the same solo game at the same time. There was a little more interaction than in the three player game, but nothing pivotal.

In the kitchen, the group that stole Joe was playing New York Slice. I didn't pay it much mind, but it ended:

Joe 28
Andy 25
Martin 22
Katy 21
Matt 13

While they played that, the four of us returned to the kitchen and perched on the end of the table and played Cosmic Run. During this game, Chris and Sam both tweeted almost identical photos of the game. A special treat for anyone who follows both accounts.

I kept losing points for planets, but conquering the five dice planet and having aliens made it respectable. Chris clocked up his first win thanks to a last minute grab for treasure.

Chris 54
Sam 52
Ian 51
Andrew 49

As we finished, the others played For Sale. The 30 came out in the first round (along with two other cards in the high twenties) and Martin made a big bid for it, prompting Joe to ask if he was spaffing his wad in the first round. If I remember right, Andy took the thirty. It didn't seem to help.

Matt 61
Martin 59
Katy 56
Joe 47
Andy 33

And so that meant they wee packing up For Sale as we were ending our Cosmic Run. Which meant only one thing: 6nimmt!

During this game, our collective astonishment at the cruelty of the cards was summed up in the phrase “Like... Wow.” Which Joe had learned from his daughters. Joe had special reason to utter these words as he went from first to eighth in the space of a single, terrible round. Martin also suffered a collapse in form, picking up 37 points in the final round.

Ian 17
Sam 24
Andy 32
Andrew 32
Katy 50
Joe 50
Martin 57
Chris 62
Matt 66

And so, we bid farewell to our host and took turns in the toilet before going back home. For some reason, Joe, Katy and I talked about Coldplay. Perhaps we will never know why.

There’s no Division, what with it being the first week and all, so instead I leave you with the 6nimmt Division, ordered by points ratio. Thanks all!

Grand Theft Loco

Thursday, and Ian, Andrew and I gathered around the table ready to test our wits and indulge our senses in a deduction game: Watson and Holmes. This takes its leave from Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, but unlike the older game it's not co-operative. Instead you utilise various currencies to get ahead: bobbies, whistles, keys, but mainly carriages - as you dash from place to place to pick up clues to solve the crime.

location, location, location

Thematically it's slightly weird to be spending carriages when you're going up and down a train - as we were in our case - but whatever. After a prologue read aloud to establish the case, you're given three questions to answer. In our case it was Who stole from the train's mail car, How did they access it, and How did they get clear without being identified.

Cards are laid out denoting the various locations to visit - when you go there, you get to flip the card and - secretly - read the information it contains. The catch is that you bid carriages to visit a place, and if someone outbids you, you're forced to either up your bid or, as Holmes would say, bugger off elsewhere.

competitive detecting

We all established theories but, under a time pressure to crack the case before anyone else, they became increasingly surreal. Andrew wondered if the felon had hurled his cache from the moving train onto a bridge as he sailed under it. Ian wondered if a dog was responsible - he did have sooty paws, after all.

But I was first to have a stab at answering the questions, and got them all right - or right enough for our little company. It was the man t and he got in through a thing and hid the stuff cleverly.

It wasn't a heavy game, but there was a palpable tension, even though much of it is spent in silence, as you read cards and curse the fact they seem to have no bearing on the case whatsoever. However we agreed that for the bidding to really have any weight to it, you need at least 4 players. With 3 there's simply too many places to go at minimal price - like a deductive avenue full of Lidl clues.

notes

With Holmes back in his box, we went for the other gaming extreme - Martin Wallace's push-your-luck adventure of undead avoidance. I put rather more thought into my choices in the early rounds, having been serially eaten in my previous games. And it seemed to work out, although in the end it was extremely close.

Andrew blasts his way through

With two rounds to go, Andrew succumbed to the zombies when his lack of resources finally counted against him in the worst possible way. Ian - down to his last survivor - saw off four zombies in the penultimate round, and six in the finale - but he was out of strength and options when the final wave fell upon him.

Ian's last stand

Sam: lives to tell the tale - just
Ian: dies
Andrew: dies also