Take it to the Bridge

Notwithstanding Sam's epic journey through gaming on his holidays, it has been and remains a quiet summer here at GNN Towers. This week, like last week, we were three in number. Martin and I were returners, while the ailing Ian was replaced by Joe, back from his travels across game-friendly Germany.

I was late in arriving, and caught the second of two games of Omega, the game of surrounding your enemy that's a bit quicker than Go. In this game, cards are placed according to certain matching rules. You have to make a path behind your opponent while, of course, stopping them from doing the same to you. The game was notable for its tension, for Joe's lightning quick blitzkrieg at the end, and for the roll of kitchen towel that delineated the edge of the game.

Joe and Martin: one win each.

Next, Joe enticed us into trying Welcome To Centerville. This game of dice rolling and point collecting had its debut recently. Joe explained the rules to us and we were off.

I had no idea what a winning strategy was, so I just did what the dice told me. This lead to me being big in the world of politics despite my lack of ambition. Joe made an early grab for the media tile, only for Martin to steal it from him immediately.

Joe got hit by explainer's curse badly, as he saw his score shrink in the first round down to $8 and 4 Prestige while Martin and I were up in the twenties.

Then there was some luck for Joe as disaster struck, but he had the tile that kept him safe. Martin and I lost three buildings in the city, which meant Martin had no presence there at all. If that weren't insult enough for Martin, Joe repaid Martin's earlier deviousness by pushing him off the high scoring bridge and putting himself there instead.

This seemed to help, as the next scoring round was triggered and Joe suddenly had more money than any of us. He was still lacking in Prestige but his then current level of 18pts was a huge improvement.

As the game entered the final round, Joe turned into a new political movement, at one point controlling five of the six offices. I turned my attention to trees and buildings while Martin's tactic was thrown into disarray when Joe kicked him off the bridge again. It ended...

Andrew 67
Martin 52
Joe 47

It had a mixed reaction. Martin found it too Points Salad-y and called it "Long Yahtzee", and I was bemused for most of the game although I did find it quite tense once I realised I might actually win. Joe liked it.

I requested a game I already knew so the next up was Azul. It was a low scoring game. I entered round three with a very loaded board, and Joe and Martin were not forgiving in their tile choices. I maxed out the negative points row, with -14. Even though, I found myself at the end of the round in joint first, 20-20-17.

But by the end, the tiles eluded me. Martin got two colours and a column, Joe got a colour while I got a mere couple of rows.

Martin 66
Joe 51
Andrew 50

Next was Illusion, the fun game of area surveying. The game consists of a pack of cards. Each one has an abstract pattern consisting of red, green, blue and yellow. In each round a colour is nominated randomly and then the players have to play their card to the table, in a Timeline kind of way, in order of amount of that colour on the card. Or, you can challenge if you think that someone's made a mistake. Then the cards are turned over, revealing the percentage of each colour, and any mistake counts in the challenger's favour.

Green is the colour...

Are these really ascending amounts of green?

It's insane and you find yourself squinting at cards or trying to squash the shapes mentally to guess if one card has more red circular area than another card's multiple thin red lines.

In round two, I forgot what colour we were playing and Joe challenged me immediately, but I was right! That was the only point I got. Otherwise, it was between Joe and Martin with Joe finally winning. Still, since he could apparently discern a difference between 23% and 24% in the amount of a colour, so perhaps he deserved it.

Joe 3
Martin 2
Andrew 1

The next game we chose was Kribbeln, and so Das Exclusive was brought to the table in all its pomp. Just like Welcome To Centerville, Joe suffered a poor first round with it ending 8-8-2.

And, also just like Welcome To Centerville, his spirited mid game revival wasn't enough to get out of last.

Andrew 20
Martin 17
Joe 14

By now we'd all won two games, so what was the tie breaker? It was Face Cards, a strange game of trying to make pairs out of your six-card hand of completely dissimilar faces.

Separated at birth

Each player takes two cards from their hand that they think match. They keep one card in front of them and the other goes into a communal pile with the other players' and a few cards from the deck.

If your pair is successfully guessed by another player, then you both get a point. If your pair of faces come from different categories (ie, human face paired with animal face) you both get two points.

It was a lot of fun. I can't believe no one got my Martin Luther / Manta Ray pairing. I thought it was obvious.

Martin 17
Joe 16
Andrew 9

A very enjoyable evening. Thanks, guys.

Pyramid Schemes

"Sam's at seven thirty" was the call heeded by six over-excitable board gamers this week. Apart from Sam, there were Joe, Martin, Ian, Andy M, and me. Andy hadn't arrived when we were all around the table, so we avoided any awkward silences (or even more awkward conversations) with one round of Texas Showdown. It couldn't have been closer.

Sam 2
Andrew 2
Joe 2
Ian 3
Martin 3

With Andy's arrival, we split into two groups of three. Joe, Sam and Ian chose a new game, Welcome To Centerville. It is by GMT, the same company that gave us Time Of Crisis but, Joe assured everybody, not nearly as complicated.

Martin, Andy and I chose Azul. It was new to Andy but he'd seen it being played before and was intrigued. And so the kitchen hummed to the sound of two simultaneous rules explanations. One was somewhat shorter than the other and before to long, we'd made a start on Azul.

I got off to a flier because, being the starting player, I picked up a set of four with my first turn. A nice way to begin and one that Andy referenced whenever he played a spoiling move against me, saying he couldn't really forgive me for it.

We ploughed on amiably, and reached round three just as the other half of the table were beginning their game. I found Welcome To Centerville impenetrable, and couldn't follow their talk of benches and rivers. I was, however, very appreciative of the pitta crisps that Ian had brought.

Azul ended in the fifth round, and you can imagine my delight at the final scores.

Andrew 62
Martin 61
Andy 54

And well done to Andy on his debut. Last, but a decent haul of points.

When asked about their progress, Joe stated that they were about a third of the way through. In that case we chose a medium game, with Ra being the preferred option.

Another new game for Andy and he admitted little experience with auction games. In round one, Andy went big on monuments, I went for rivers and Martin had a little bit of everything thanks to a very lucky final auction when he was the only one left.

If that weren't enough, he began round two with tiles of 2-11-12-13. A fortunate situation. I broke out the wasabi crisps that Sam kept eating, just for the experience. There was also a moment of discomfort when Ian's and my hands touched as we both reached for crisps. We reacted like grown ups, though: swiftly retracting and saying "urgh!"

Ra ended with a bit of a trouncing. Much as I want to put it all down to luck, it probably isn't.

Martin 68
Andrew 40
Andy 31

Since Welcome To Centerville was only just entering the end-game (or "just-screw-me-over time," according to Ian) , we filled the time with a game of The Mind. We reached round five and my only notes about the game read "a very fraught experience."

Centerville finished...

Sam 105
Joe 57
Ian 55

What was Sam's secret? Hopefully he'll tell all in the comments.

Next, as a six, we went for Decrypto. Martin, Joe and Sam (team name: Prasynki (approx)) versus Ian, Andy and I (Up Yer Bum). Sam failed to tell an anecdote about his son since it involved a complicated four way conversation that he couldn't remember properly.

Round one, all clear. In round two our guesses were of an entirely speculative nature. 'Just throwing maggots in the river, " I said.

But then we made a mistake. Ian and I thought Andy's clue of "BMX" referred to "joy" when in fact it was "Extra Terrestrial" the film. You see.

But then they made a mistake! But then they got an interception. It was very close and required some deep thinking. Clue-giver Martin assured Joe that he had enough time to poo before the clues would be ready.

In round six, Up Yer Bum were finally discovered thanks to another interception and so our trans Europe network of spies was ruined. To make things worse Prasynki pretty much got each of our words while we were largely clueless about theirs. A sound beating.

Joe, Ian and Martin left but I was persuaded to stay for one more: Bandu. A typically tense affair with lots of "Bandu Breathing" (turning your head up and away to exhale after placing a particularly difficult piece).

I was just out first and then it was a ding-dong battle between Sam and Andy, involving extensive use of coins. Finally, Andy's edifice was the first to crumble.

1. Sam
2. Andy
3. Andrew

Finally, at 11.45pm, I left, but Sam and Andy had one more game in them. It was Avenue. I got a text the next day from Sam with the scores and the news that it ended at half past midnight. Amazing scenes.

Andy 52
Sam 33

Thanks all for another night of adventure.