Magenta Devine Reflected in the Back of a Spoon

Despite his monthly Time of Crisis battle looming, Andrew was good enough to join me Friday night and bash out some two-player games on the spotty tablecloth of destiny.

First out of the blocks was Transatlantic. This is the game Mac Gerdts designed using his card system in Concordia but replacing the generic Mediterranean Trading theme with a marginally more specific Age of Steam vibe, as you manufacture steam ships from 1870 onwards (including the Titanic!) until the game ends with the arrival of the combustion engine ship (or something) around 1915.

Just like Concordia, you have a hand of cards to play and each played card is out of your reach until you play the specific card (the Director, in this case) that returns all previously-played cards to you. The cards are used to purchase ships, load them with coal, transport their freight (for cash and points!) and invest in various companies - these investments will define how much you score for your ships when they get too old to be competitive any more, and are bumped from the seas like yesterday's iron-riveted dreams...

We both preferred it to Concordia, because despite the underwhelming appearance - Concordia's ugly sibling, one might say - it plays faster and despite lots of interactive possibilities with ship-bumping and trade-house-building, doesn't stall with Concordia's potential for analysis paralysis. Not for two anyway. Andrew surged into a lead despite doing very little trade, instead focusing on building ships as often as possible and cashing in on his aged fleet when the opportunity arose. But as the game entered its final stages, he found his ships coalless and I sailed past him for a narrow-ish win:

Sam about 170
Andrew about 150

Next up was Wordsy, the rapid fire word game of thinking of words. Andrew again began the stronger as I snatched up the timer, thinking of the word fastest, only to have him outscore me and claim a bonus for doing so. But I came back into contention near the end and just about snatched a win.

goes too fast for photos

Then I introduced Andrew to the two-player delights of Kami. We tried this as a 2v2 a couple of weeks back and were underwhelmed, but the two player version is more engaging. Each player has eight cards and it's a race to be rid of them, scoring the points of your last-played card. Each turn has a defensive play - negating the attack of your opponent by playing a matching card - and an attacking one. With two players the sixteen spare cards become 'mercenaries' - at your disposal to use as defence or attack - the caveat being, of course, that doing so isn't making your hand any smaller.
Andrew took this one:

Andrew: Lord of the Spirit World
Sam: not

Before at Andrew's suggestion we broke out Knit Wit, which has no been played for many a moon. You create a venn diagram of overlapping loops, each representing a word. Inside the loops are spools - maybe in one loop, maybe in two or more.

Then you write a definition for each spool: for instance, a spool might be Electrical, Bitter and Curved or Narrow and Funny. I wasn't sure it would really work with two players, but it was hilarious. We played twice. I can't remember who won - I think it was me but only by dint of being faster. Andrew's definitions were funnier.

Sam: Knit?
Andrew: Wit

We'd drunk our fill of wine, delighted in padron peppers and stuffed our faces with cheap crisps, so it was time to say goodnight. Shortly after Andrew left though Sally arrived home, so we had a quick game of Wordsy too. A fine Friday night.

Red Dead Recreation

It was the first Tuesday meet of the year for us at GNN and, after a couple of days of emails that saw the potential attendance fluctuate, we finally settled around Joe's kitchen table as a sextet: Joe, Ian, Sam, Adam, Andy and myself.

Joe was touting for players to join him in a new game, Western Legends. It received such a positive reaction that there was the chance of maxing out its six-player capacity. But it was decided that this would be foolish for a first play, so Sam, Adam and Andy went to peruse the games shelves while the rest of us got ready for some Wild West shenanigans. While Joe set up Ian and I swapped stories about our experiences on Red Dead Redemptions 1 and 2 and we found out we'd both dressed our avatars in nice clothes and spent hours playing poker. An option which, tantalisingly, was available in this board game.

The game itself is a collection of mini games, giving players the chance to gain Legendary Points for their success in poker or gold mining or killing bandits or spending money at the "theatre". Each player can good or bad and how well you do at this can also get you Legendary Points.

Two game characters clearly feeling the effects of a high wind

There's a strong sense of theme running through it and each player soon finds themselves creating their own western fable. For example, I was a Marshall, but a somewhat ineffective, comical one who spent more time at the poker table than hunting down criminals. Ian impressed us with his strategy of depositing gold at the bank and then immediately trying to rob the bank. Joe started by buying a big hat and then he hung around town until he robbed Ian of gold (he took half, rounded up, just like real bandits did, I expect).

Ian was first to hit the game ending score of 15 legendary points and in the final round (which saw both Ian and I race across Dixons Creek to spend money on enjoying the "cabaret") he saw off a late challenge from Joe.

Ian 26
Joe 19
Andrew 12

It was a fun game and I perhaps should have taken my peace keeping duties more seriously. Joe and Ian, however were much better at being rough tough rootin' tootin' outlaws.

On the other half of the table, the others had chosen Hab & Gut. It required a little ingenuity to decide how to best arrange the racks of cards but once they did, the whole thing went smoothly.

What with a new game in front of me I didn't pay Hab & Gut much attention, but even I couldn't miss Adam's good natured frustration at donating least to charity by a margin of only fifteen marks.

Sam 715
Andy 625
Adam OUT! He didn't even bother counting up how much he had.

After this I think we in America were barely starting, so they started another game, Tag City. Sam's artwork had an air of Keith Haring about it, so I made sure to take a snap.

Adam 66
Sam 51
Andrew 50

Sam said that Adam handed out a bit of a pasting. Perhaps he should have said "a bit of a painting." A ha ha. Oh, my sides.

Next up, they tried Wordsy, the game of word creation with limited means. Andy failed to come up with a word at all in round one but a bad round or two is of no consequence in this game and he was right on Sam's shoulder by the end.

Sam 99
Andy 94
Adam 84

Then, while perusing the rules they discovered that they had got one wrong. So, since it was already there in front of them, they played again.

Sam 121
Andy 115
Adam 100

Finally, we were all together again and a six player finale was in order. For Sale was suggested, but Texas Showdown won the day. So, Ian, Joe and I metaphorically put our stetsons and tassled suede jackets back on as we embarked on our second wild west themed game of the evening.

It was a game of cruel fate, as you might expect, but also of surprising discoveries. Namely, the fact that Joe has two automated card shufflers, one for the home and one for the studio. Astonishing. And well done to Ian for not opening his final beer so late in the day.

As for the game, Adam fell into an early slump, only to be replaced by Ian who picked up four then three tricks in consecutive rounds. Then, right at the end Joe picked up five tricks to propel himself into last.

As for the race for first, it was always Andy. There was one round (the penultimate one) when he shared the lead with Sam but then he went clear while Sam picked up a solitary trick allowing Andy to seal the win.

Andy 5
Sam 6
Andrew 8
Adam 9
Ian 10
Joe 12

And so we ended. And at a relatively sensible time (ie, not nearly midnight) too. Thanks to all. It was special.

Sumter Enchanted Evening

On Tuesday nights we at GNN like to rock up a storm with some unhealthy drinks and cheap crisps. This week there were five of us: Joe (hosting, with German beer), Sam (wine), Martin (craft beer), Chris (passion fruit juice) and me (Korean soft drinks).

We began as a foursome, with Chris still on his way, playing a new game, Carta Impera Victoria. It's a tableau building game, where you play cards to the table in front of you, trying to get seven of a type or, failing that, the majority in several types. Each suit has its own power that you can use if you have enough of those cards in your tableau. There are also powers for discarding a card, which are more powerful but, then again, leave you with one less card.

It was a bit ho hum. Maybe on the first play the more subtle aspects aren't readily apparent, because it mostly drifted past. As I write, I'm having a hard time coming up with something.

Chris arrived mid game and we eventually finished, having doubled the suggested playing time on the box, when Joe neatly used some special powers to put down two culture cards in one go, such that he had seven and had won the game.

Joe wins!
Martin, Sam and Andrew don't.

So, what next with five? As is usual, I suggest Santiago, but it never gets much support. Ponzi Scheme was poo-poohed with lightning speed by Chris and I and I must admit I felt a little brotherly kinship at meeting another gamer who disliked it as much as I do.

Instead, Martin was keen to try Sam's copy of Fort Sumter, a two player game. It's from GMT, the company that brought us Time Of Crisis, and it looked like a war game, except there wasn't much of a map and a lot of talk about "breaching".

It ended with Sam calling the result "a whitewash."

Martin 10
Sam 5

The remaining three of us considered our, options. Welcome To Centreville was cautiously put forward, as was Lords Of Vegas (surely this game is on a year long sabbatical while Katy is away) but in the end we chose Azul.

It's such a lovely game to look at, it's hard to believe there's a dark underbelly of dickishness hiding below the surface. We were all constantly keeping an eye on our neighbour's player mats. I got hit in the final round. Joe was the only one who could trigger the end game that round and he did. I scrambled to complete my dark blues but, at the end, Joe decided not to take some tiles that would fill a row but actually score him no points while he could take other pointless tiles and force me to take those tiles, giving me minus twelve points. Very harsh but, in all honesty, his only sensible move. It gave Chris the win. Joe afterwards wondered why he'd triggered the end game when he was in no position to win.

Chris 76
Andrew 72
Joe 55

Then we were all together so we played Wordsy. This is a tense game of word creation was given an air of officialdom by the presence of a Scrabble dictionary on Chris's phone.

Sam (“exculpulated”) and Joe (“xenocidal”) fell foul of this dictionary early on as his word was successfully challenged, but since every player's two lowest scores are ignored, it wasn't the set back he'd initially thought. Part of me thinks that Joe's "xenocidal" maybe should be a word.

The presence of L and Y in the selection of letters gave rise to a lot of words ending in "ally". Meanwhile, the high scoring Q and W left everyone trying to come up with a word that included those to letters.

At the end, there was a lot of predictions of fifth place, including me. However when Joe was the first to announce his score I happily declared that I wasn't.

Martin 125
Chris 118
Sam 110
Andrew 110
Joe 95

Next up, we chose Decrypto. Sam and Martin teamed up again, still looking for their first win as a couple, while Joe, Chris and I formed the other team.

Decrypto is a difficult game to explain to a newcomer, and Chris did well to get into the swing as soon as he did. I do wonder, though, if Joe's lengthy ruminations on the use of a plural in Sam & Martin's first clue was actually the key to the word in question, was maybe a clever ploy to make them over-cautious. But, on reflection, it probably wasn't.

We won by the skin of our teeth, getting two interceptions to their one. It was close because I went a bit obtuse (although I thought it was obvious) in my final round. My team couldn't get it but, more importantly, neither could our opponents so we stumbled over the line.

Chris, Joe, Andrew: know their semaphore
Martin, Sam: bad at charades

Finally, there was enough room in the evening for one last game. It was Mamma Mia, and what a peculiar band of pizza chefs we were, contrasting moments of perfectly guessing the ingredients required with long stretches of getting in each others’ way. I don’t think anyone completed a 15+ pizza.

Sam 5
Joe 4
Andrew 4
Martin 4
Chris 3

And that was that. Another fun filled evening. Thanks to all, especially host Joe and hope to see you all soon.

Ages and Ages

A Friday evening had been pre-arranged to give three hardy gamers: Sam, Joe and myself, a decent chance to try Through The Ages, an epic of a game taking in the entire sweep of human history.

I got to Joe’s at 7.30 and the game was already set up. Sam talked us through the rules, due to a handy six-page crib sheet of all the salient points of the game. It’s a bit of a monster, and it involves expanding your population (yellow cubes) and your resources (blue cubes) in tandem so that your society never runs out or has too many of either. In order to do this, you can expand/upgrade your buildings which give you boosts in science or culture which, in turn, allows you to upgrade to more buildings. This happens across four stages: the short Antiquity stage followed by the main meat of the game: Ages 1, 2 and 3.

We began by weighing up our options with leaders (“Homer looks nice.”) which would give us special abilities. Sam and I made a pact, allowing Sam to turn one resource in a food and me to turn a food into a resource. Joe discovered iron early on, but fell behind on sciences.

I came up with a tactic, in which I worked out that two soldiers were better than one. Then Sam thought of a better tactic that had three soldiers in it.

As we moved through the first age, I fell behind in military so I invented knights. Couldn’t come up with a tactic that involved them, though. I guess they just went into battle willy-nilly. Joe came up with the scientific method while Sam’s population were very happy with their Hanging Gardens and Great Wall.

Time was ticking on, though, and as the second age dawned it was almost ten o’clock. We decided to finish at half past, since the game hadn’t grabbed us and show no signs of picking up speed the more we went on. Luckily for me, my leader was Christopher Columbus who allowed me to discover an island I had in my hand of cards. This “Historic Island” (with electric lighting, if the illustration was anything to go by) got me 11 culture points, putting me in an unassailable lead. The final two rounds played out in a perfunctory manner, with the charms of the game never quite justifying it’s slow progress. Sam thought that Historia scratched a similar itch in half the time while Joe thought it had made the historical events a little too abstract for his liking. I think that’s what he meant, anyway.

We packed the game away, keen for something silly to finish off with. We chose Castle Crush as it’s a game that rarely gets the attention it deserves. It satisfies the desires to create and destroy. We built our little castles for our king and general.

Mine did so well in round one that I more or less kept the same design for the next two rounds, too. Almost worked, except one decisive blow at the end sent my king flying.

Sam’s third round edifice was his strongest, keeping his two meeples safely ensconced.

Meanwhile, Joe managed to put a level three block in his building for six bonus points at the end.

Nice to revisit this game after so long.

Joe 75
Andrew 66
Sam 63

Finally, we introduced Sam to the game of Wordsy. With Sam’s fondness for Boggle, we were expecting it to be a hit, but instead Sam found it rather stressful. Perhaps it was the late hour and he was too fatigued after Through The Ages. He still did well, though.

Andrew 116 (best word “Friendship,” 25 points)
Sam 109 (“Requesting,” 23 points)
Joe 105 (“Masquerading,” 23 points)

And so, we were done. What an experience. It’s hard to see when we’ll find the time for a full game of Through The Ages, but it was nice to give it a try. Thanks all.

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.