The Suiting Floatcases of Smalmsbury

It promised to be a bumper nine of us at one point, but unfortunately we lost Anja to fatigue. With Katy arriving a bit later - distracted by the Tour de France - just after 7.30 there were seven of us raring to go: Adam T, Ian, Laura, Joe, Martin, Gareth and myself (Sam). We kicked off with That's Not a Hat. 

Each player gets a card with an image on it to start from a deck of distinct images. Then someone takes a new card from the deck, flips their first one over, and passes it to a neighbour (the back of the card instructs which way to pass). When they do, they say aloud the image that's on the card. The receiver then flips their own card over and passes that one, doing the same thing. And so ultimately all the cards are face-down and everyone's trying to remember what their own card is as well as keep track of what the card that's currently travelling around the table is.

If you doubt the accuracy of what the card you've been passed was described as, you can challenge and flip the card over. The loser keeps the revealed card and we go again. First to three lost challenges is the loser, which in our case was... Laura, I think? She seemed to enjoy it despite that. Fun!

We still had some pre-Katy time so busted out Not that Movie, which regaled us with dubiously-monikered cinema such as Pulp in the Hole. In our first round everyone chose the same movie except me. My crestfallen shame was to be diluted though as first Adam, then Ian, fell foul of the same fate.

I think we only got the perfect score once, aided in no small part by the reviews seeming to very much suggest a particular movie:

Then, with Katy imminent, we decided she'd be fine with playing Mille Fiori so Joe Ian and Laura began setting it up. The rest of us tried our hands at Martin's new fave, Hooky. Has Andrew explained this before? I think he has, but with two newbies in Adam and I Martin ran through the simple rules.

Simple rules, but a brow-furrowing experience as everyone tries to figure out what letters everyone else has in order to then figure out what the three 'missing' letters are. We lapsed into long pauses whilst at the other end of the table, the pace was brisker and the mood more buoyant. Katy looks like she's hating here, but I think that's just the curse of my camera.

Hooky ended after an intense hour with all of us throwing up our hands in various degrees of confusion and disgust. It transpired that Martin's workings-out had been thrown by Gareth assuming 'smarm' was spelled 'smalm' due no doubt to his psychological preoccupation with Malmsbury. "It's the only word we didn't spell aloud" Gareth lamented, which was oddly true. I have to say though, smalm made no difference to me. I was chucking stones in the dark at this point, which proved good enough to claim second:

Martin 35

Sam 24

Gareth 23

Adam 8

I enjoyed trying it out, but for my tastes (not to mention brain) it's a bit more like work than fun. It's a curious theme, too, for such a brain-exercising puzzle. 

Mille Fiori ended now too, and Katy definitely enjoyed it:

Katy 213

Ian 204

Joe 190

Laura 152

And we split groups again, with Joe, Martin, Katy and Adam playing Inside Job, new to Katy. 

The rest of us Quantum. A learning experience for Gareth, but his ability to absorb rules and Quantum's exceptions largely being printed on cards meant we were off and running inside ten minutes. 

Laura took an early lead and found herself targeted. I found myself with multiple '3' ships and used them to go around being a pain in the arse for everyone, getting my dominance up to 6 and drawing level. But on the other side of the board both Ian and Gareth did likewise. 

Gareth found a great card combo of deploying for free and removing a ship to gain an extra action. As the game rapidly escalated, I got a belated ass-kicking myself and Ian snuck in ahead of Laura, who was poised to get a cube down. As Ian was primed to win on his next turn - if left unmolested - Gareth snuck in ahead of all of us for a debut victory!

Laura now left us, bound for bed. At the other end of the table, they were still playing Inside Job, but promised us they were on the verge of finishing. We had a couple plays of Win Lose or Banana while we waited, with both Gareth (winner) and Ian (winner) successfully identifying the banana (me) on each occasion. I just have a trusting face. 

I think it was around this time that, a propos Inside Job's intel, someone spoonerised their way to 'suiting floatcases'. It may have been Gareth again? 

Either way, Inside Job's third play ended with:

Katy insider loses
Martin insider wins
Martin insider wins again

Joe was forlorn. "Everyone always suspects me" he said, which I found surprising, as I feel Joe's face is of the largely trustworthy kind (like mine). Adam left to drive home and we remainders gathered into a single group for So Clover. The grumbling was pronounced with this one, especially from Martin despite sitting down last and finishing first. And we did struggle with this opening clover, as there seemed to be not so much too few possibilities as too many. A 3 to begin.

After that however we picked up speed with a fairly rapid bunch of sixes, with Katy spotting that Capital Garbage went well with my clue of 'bankers'. There were some excellent clues from everyone and even a mid-game googling after Martin threw us with a word we were unfamiliar with (sward).

We stumbled slightly at the end but still pulled off a more-than-decent 31/36 to finish the night with a flourish.

Mad Kings go Bananas

This week was to have been at Adam and Hannah's but, due to a last minute slight illness, was quickly rearranged to Sam's. Six of us attended. Apart from Sam, there was Martin, Andy, Ian, and Katy. I arrived several minutes late, causing them to have a conversation while they waited. Apologies for that.

Our first game was a six-player, just to get us started. We went for Pairs. My luck with this game has never been great, so I stuck as soon as was possible, much to Martin's derision. Katy, though, had no such troubles. Staring down Lady Fate at every opportunity, she won the first three rounds for 18 points, and then did just enough in the fourth round to edge past 21 points for the win. Meanwhile, my slow and steady tactics got me second. Martin and Andy saw their luck evaporate with a string of instant busts as they were dealt pairs almost immediately. Ian managed to avoid a score of zero in the last round by sensibly ignoring Martin's advice to keep twisting.

Katy 22
Andrew 14
Sam 11
Martin 9
Andy 5
Ian 5

Then we decided to split into two. After some discussion Andy, Sam and Ian went for The Castles of Mad King Ludwig, while Martin, Katy and I went for Impulse. It was Katy's first play, and I wondered how she'd do against two experienced Space captains like me and Martin. Before I wrote this blog post, I went back and read how my first impressions of Impulse were not good and it wasn't until the third game that I felt like I knew what I was doing. Katy seemed frustrated by the experience, and I empathized as she stared at her hand, the map and then at the reference card in blank confusion.

She did well, though, building up a healthy fleet of ships, even if she was short on cards that would move them. Martin kept himself to himself, preferring to fly in circles, triggering point-scoring cards as often as possible. My plan was almost identical to his. As such there were no battles and only sporadic sabotages.

Martin 20
Andrew 18
Katy 7

Will Katy ever play it again? Will I score higher than 18 ever again? Tune in for the next episode in the space epic Impulse.

On the other half of the table, castles were being built. Andy's was quite a sexist castle, separating the ladies' rooms (knitting or something) from the gentlemens' rooms for billiards and an audience room (whatever that is).

Ian's rooms were mostly purple and indicated a luxurious, leisure-filled lifestyle. Exactly the type of king who'd be first against the wall come the revolution. Sam's castle was clearly the maddest and therefore a worthy winner.

Sam 138
Andy 123
Ian 120

We'd finished Impulse a while back, so I was introduced to the wonders of Trumps! Trick! Game! This is a simple trick-taking game. The twist being that everyone wins four tricks at the end of each round, therefore if you win tricks early, you'll just be giving away what's left in your hand. All this changes in the last round when you can win as many as you like in a last-gasp stampede for points.

There's more to it, for example the trumps, but it's quick and simple. It's another classic trick taking game for Martin to add to his wall of fame.

Andrew 148
Katy 132
Martin 110

While we were playing that, The Castles of Mad Ludwig ended, and they set off on a 3-player 6nimmt. This time, however, Andy persuaded Sam and Ian to try the “professional” rules of 6nimmt, where cards can be added to either end of the row. And so they played a much quieter, thoughtful game of 6nimmt. No doubt dreaming of riches in their future careers as professional 6nimmt players.

Sam 33
Ian 34
Andy 46

While we waited for them to finish off the last few rounds of 6nimmt, Martin, Katy and I played a brief non-leaderboard game of Win, Lose, or Banana. This is a bluffing game, in the style of The Resistance, or Coup or Look Out I’m a Werewolf! But with all the storyline nonsense stripped away. Three cards are dealt out: a win card, a lose card and a banana card. The person with the win card declares who they are and the other two have to convince them that they have the banana card. Simple and fun. And the ironic thing was, Katy actually had a banana at the time!

Finally, we were all together again for a final six-player game: Flowerfall. In this game, cards are dropped onto the table from eye level, with each player hoping to land their flowers overlapping (but not covering) cards with point scoring cards on them. It was very silly. Sam’s only point came from him dropping a card which had one of his flowers and one point scoring flower. Katy, however, couldn’t even manage that and ended with no points at all.

Martin 8
Andrew 7
Andy 2
Ian 2
Sam 1
Katy 0

And with that, that night was over.

On the Division, Katy’s lead is slashed from fourteen points to nine and a bit as Sam moves up to second. Ian moves up to sixth and is right on Joe's shoulder. Martin takes the medal table, and absent Joe hangs on to Points Ratio. And I’ve reinstated the Bracknell Bunch since I forgot about them last time.