Something borrowed

After a few weeks away, Adam T arrived at my house (Sam's) early enough last night for a catch-up and a best-of-three face off over Toy Battle. I won the first, but he took the next two as Katy ducked out of the rain in time to witness the finale, and remarked that if she hadn't played it already, she'd like to.

Ian and Martin followed, and we had a one-round blast of Jam (or JamSumo) whilst we waited for Joe. This was notable for the serial yipping of Martin and I and the slightly less tentative blasting habits of Ian. Joe came in time to see Katy take the laurels, with Adam T's jam all full of unwanted pips.

Katy 0

Martin 3

Ian 4

Sam 9

Adam T 18

Martin waved one of his new games, Bluffit, around saying it would be good for five (or just good, I can't remember now) and everyone was amenable. In this game, everyone has a hand of cards numbered 1-10 and we are bidding with them for one of a bunch of cards on the table, each taking one of the face-up cards for ourselves. 

The catch is that the bids are face-down, so it can be a bit of a gamble: and if you think you've got a higher bid than someone else, you can take the face-up card they took from them instead. This triggers a Love Letter style secret comparison of values (challenger wins ties) and whoever loses gets nothing that round. After ten rounds, all your previously-won cards are now both your score and your bidding hand:  there's an eleventh round where whatever you get with your last bid will become points. 

Both Adam and Martin forewent easy points in favour of stealing from someone - or trying to. Katy was in feisty mode and when Big T said he'd been up since six she pooh-poohed the concept of sympathy in favour of scathing indifference. I tried an extravagant last round bluff and failed. Martin was best Bluffiter.

Martin 61

Katy 55

Ian 43

Sam 42

Joe 41

Adam 36

As things concluded we got a phone call and a - related - late addition! Adam H could suddenly join us after all. Martin proffered another recent addition in boat-moving cube-flicking Cairo, and Katy and Ian joined him. We decided Adam H would probably rather join the non-flicking group and went to peruse the Alcove of Joy, settling on Istanbul. With impeccable timing, Adam H arrived just as I finished teaching the rules to Big T. Fortunately most of it was fresh in his memory, and it was more fun - I think - than the story these baffled expressions tell. 

Cairo has a lowly rating on our favourite website, but you wouldn't have guessed it from the shrieking and laughter. In comparison our fun was slightly more inscrutable, as we ducked and dived around the titular city and struck deals with the governor and smuggler. Big T pointed out that as all the smuggler is doing is trading the same goods with you as you get at the markets, you could argue he's just another trader, maybe trying to shake off an unmerited reputation. Meantime in the other ancient city, Martin had triumphed by replicating Katy's score in Bluffit. Katy had got Ian's Bluffit score and, perhaps wanting to be different, Ian scored half of Adam's:

Martin 55

Katy 43

Ian 18

They broke out Biblios. I missed most of this action but I did hear some shit-eating going on, and it wasn't making Katy grin.

Ian at one point seemed on the verge of fury, but he clearly recovered from whatever had enraged him - sitting with Katy and Martin, it could have been anything - to snag a tied second place. Katy was now Ms Doctor Biblios:

Katy 5

Martin and Ian 4

Was there a tie-breaker? I'm not sure. They began playing Farm Hand, and the air continued to be thick with insults and the uproarious guffawing of Martin, who loves a trick-taker anyway, so if you add manure he's only going to like it more.

As Istanbul got tense, with Adam and I poised on 4 gems and Joe and Big T on three. Adam couldn't remember if he'd bought a bit of jewellery or not. Joe - who was very tired - and I thought he had, and Adam admitted he'd been drinking before he came here. Who to trust? The exhausted guy, the drunk guy, or the one who remembers everything incorrectly, if at all? Speaking of which I don't actually recall what we decided now. I went to the Black Market, had an extremely spawny roll and ended the game:

Sam 5 gems

Adam H 4 gems

Adam T 3 gems, lots of cash

Joe 3 gems, not much cash at all

Farm Hand ended around the same time, with Martin back on top:

Martin 11

Katy 8

Ian 0

Big T was mumbling about leaving so we tempted him to stay with chocolate - which he turned down - and Wriggle Roulette. It was Katy's turn to be angry now, about not being offered chocolate. Sorry Katy. 

This was as stupidly fun as previous plays, with people accidentally busting themselves - too many eels/snakes - or cashing out when there were still eels to be had. Adam H ended the game with 26 eels, but Martin and I stayed in and pushed our luck. I banked at 27, with Martin back on 22. One by one, he kept drawing eels, despite being as I pointed out "the least deserving person in the room". 

Martin 28

Sam 27

Adam H 26

Ian 17

Adam T 11

Katy and Joe 7 each

We now did lose Adam T, and with Other Adam also ruminating on his bedtime quickly set up So Clover. This was a near-triumph, with Adam H's clover semi-portobelloed when the word alcohol appeared on the red herring card. With one of his clues as 'drink' we plumped for it (it was mouth instead). 

Adam and Joe now went home but, fortified by whisky, the remaining trio played Martin's third new game of the night: Jungo. This is a Scout-esque card-shedder where first to empty their hand wins a round, and winning two rounds win you the game. 

As with Scout, you can't rearrange your hand at all and can play escalating sets - although only matching numbers, no runs. If you can't or don't want to play, you can draw from the deck and either discard or slot it anywhere into your hand. If you do play, you can either discard the set (or single) you just beat, or add that to your hand. There's a fair bit of luck in what good stuff/crap you begin with, but enough manipulation involved that it's not devoid of decisions. 

I won the first game in two rounds, and then Ian took the second in the same manner if I recall correctly. We downed the last of our whiskies and called it a night. A nice mix of old and new games, one borrowed (JamSumo) and all the players supplying the blue.

Fishing and Farming

 As I prepared to go to Sam's this evening, I pulled on my waterproof trousers to guard against the driving rain falling outside. But once I'd reached my front door and stepped outside, the rain had finished. I decided against going back inside and changing, and instead spent the entire evening playing games while securely protected from the elements. 

With Sam, me and my waterproof trousers were Martin, Joe, Andy B, Adam H and Pete.

We started with a group game of Wriggle Roulette,  which we'd played last week,  except this time with a difference. Previously, pulling eels from the bag was a thoughtful deliberate process in which each player counted out the number of eels/snakes they wanted. But this time, thee was a careful rereading of the rules and it's descriptors of “grab” and “plunge” when talking about pulling things from the bag. And so we adopted a more carefree and random approach. 

This meant that several of us went bust after pulling out 5 items at once, and it wasn’t unusual to end up with nothing at all. This happened consecutively to Sam, Pete and Andy in one round. 

Another new problem was what to do about the eels poking out between fingers when you pulled your hand from the bag. But despite this, the new rules turned it into a different game. Less of a thoughtful push -your-luck and into something more devil-may-care. Martin, who got no points at all the last time we played, seemed to prefer this new version.

Martin 21

SAm 20

Andrew 11

Andy 11

Pete 8

Adam 8

Then we split into two groups. Sam, Adam and Martin played Farm Hand. I know little about this apart from the mysterious chanting of “E - I - E - I O” and then Sam's dismay as he apparently showed the wrong number of fingers when making his bid.

Martin 17

Sam 6

Adam -7

Pete, Andy and I played Shallow Regrets, a fishing card game which, at 20 minutes long, certainly doesn’t outstay its welcome. There’s a tableau of six piles of cards, you can turn over two and hope that you can catch at least one using the strength of the fish cards you’ve caught in the past. It was okay. I don’t think I really explored the interactive nature of the game until the very end, when I swapped one of my fish with Andy’s and came joint first. 

Initially, I wasn’t interested in a tie-breaker but then I found out that I’d actually won by that criteria so I’m happy to let the records show

Andrew 10 (plus fewest foul fish)

Andy 10

Pete 9

With Andy’s eye on the clock, we played Magical Athlete. This was chosen because, if Andy was clever with his pick of athletes, he could leave and let his game play on without him. I started appallingly, with my athlete almost immediately eaten my Martin’s mouth. In round four, Andy left us with his athlete, Sysiphus, being one that needed no choices - just don’t roll a  six. I can’t remember how well the absent Andy did since I was too excited by my second place - my only points of the game - and by Pete’s win, which was enough to secure a comfortable overall win.

Pete 13

Andy 9

Martin 5

Andrew 3

Adam 2

Sam 0

Without Andy, and now with my eye on the clock, we played a five-player game of River Dragon. We rechecked the Dragon Card rule and discovered that it doesn’t follow turn order and thus can stop a player that turn regardless of whether they were before you or not. 

Martin got himself into a winning position as so, of course, we were all expecting a flurry of dragon cards to stop him. Amazingly, no one played a green dragon in the first turn of the round and Martin, thinking we would, played a non-commital card that would be fine if it was blocked. But then in the next turn, three of us played a green dragon. The only one who didn’t was Adam who smartly used his move to guide his piece home for the win! 

With that, I was on my way, leaving the blog duties in Sam’s hands.

* 

After Andrew left we debated what to play next, and ended up on Zenith, Martin's new birthday lane-battler about controlling the galactic senate. It's a two-player or two teams, so he and Pete paired off against myself and Adam. 

Ostensibly it's a lane-battler where you play cards to the lanes of the planets to sway them - politically - towards your side of things. If the planet comes so far that it falls off the board, you've won it - three planets of the same kind, four of four colours of five of whatever colour is enough to win the game. 

However there's shenanigans galore with a diplomacy action available (get the Leader token, plus a bonus) and tech tracks to move up for powerful actions on the planet board. There are three currencies of a sort - credits, zenithium and planet movement - plus a semi-fourth in the cards themselves which can be passed between team-mates using diplomacy. As you can only play cards to your own quarter of the board - something I inevitably forgot last night - this can be key. 

There's a lot of iconography and it took us a good hour - but including teach I think - to wrap up. Adam and I obliterated the opposition with a 5-1 win, although my inadvertent cheating (above) took the gloss off somewhat. But this was fun. 

We then lost Adam to the night but finished off with So Clover, picking up a crappy red herring on Pete's clover to prevent ourselves hauling in an 18. I was blessed with some pretty easy combos, but there were some nice clues elsewhere. 

And that was that. 

Eel of Fortune

 It was games night, it was Tuesday, it was Sam's. 

The evening began early with a quick game of Chu Han between Ian and Sam. 

Shortly they were joined by Joe, Ian, Katy and Martin before I and then finally Pete arrived. We began with a game of Dice Pool Party. 12 dice of different colours and sizes are shaken in a dice arena shaped like a swimming pool. These dice are revealed for three seconds before being hidden again each player has to use whatever memory they have of those dice. Did the Purples score highly? Or the 1s, 2s and 3s combined?

In order to keep track on our scoresheets, we needed 7 pens. Cue such scrabbling around in the back of Sam's chair where the struts are little wooden troughs capable of holding all manner of things. Pens, you would hope, but Katy initially found a toothbrush, a candle and some nail clippers. “It's not looking good,” she sighed.

As for the game, I played pretty poorly, scoring below average in most categories I chose. Initially, Katy and Martin chose identical categories to score. But Martin displayed the better observational skills in the end. 

Martin 207

Katy 196

Joe 170

Sam 167

Ian 166

Pete 165

Andrew 151

Then we split into two. Katy was keen to play River Dragons again after having tried it on Sunday with me and Sam. He, Katy and Ian set it up. Meanwhile, Pete, Martin, Joe and I set up Bomb Busters - the first mission of a new box! Who knew what excitement lay before us once we’d opened up the box containing the game’s next levels.

Well, some stickers, allowing us the chance to award each other “most hot-headed” or suchlike. As it turned out, none of us were in the running for that particular category since we spent a lot of time thinking over our choices. There were four bad wires out there and this round’s special rule is that one random safe wire is placed out of order on the far right on your rack. Pete was our captain and he kept us motivated with phrases like “I’m reasonably confident we’re not about to die” as we eventually succeeded in our mission!

Over on the other end of the table, River Dragon ended with a victory for Katy. This happened only a few minutes after Katy let fly with a high-decible expletive after Sam blocked her move. She declared that she won “quite convincingly" and wouldn’t be persuaded otherwise even when Sam pointed out he was just one card away from finishing too.

Then they played Farm Hand, that I know little about except for Ian saying “perfectly judged… I get 2 points” which seems like a fairly meagre return on a perfectly judged move.

Ian 17

Katy 8 

Sam 7

Next we tried Trick & Snipers as a big group, which we played with a Skull Queen deck of cards. Very simple trick taker which involves winning tricks with a 7 in them or cleverly playing off-suit so that values add up to 13. These will get you a point and 2 points are enough to win.

Andrew 2

Pete 1

Everyone else 0

Katy expressed a concern that it was getting late, so for her finale we played Wriggle Roulette. This push-your-luck game is very dramatic and exciting - two qualities that I entirely failed to capture with my only photo of the game.

It involves pulling black eels from a bag, and everything is fine until the fifteenth red snake is pulled out. Then, the greediest player(s) lose everything and the round ends. Joe amazed us with his singular life as he told us three stories about eels. Surely an autobiography is required. As for the game, Martin pushed his luck a little too far and went bust in every round. I started so badly that people reminded me to collect my points from round two and I grimly admitted that I already had. Katy looked like a certain win, only to be pushed into fourth in the final round.

Joe 22

Andrew 22

Pete 21

Katy 20

Sam 11

It was fun and we will have to play again, if only because we only just remembered to play Eels on the stereo in the final stages of the game.

Katy left and the remaining six gamers got out Magical Athlete for a rousing end (for me, anyway) of the evening.

Magical Athlete is fun but it does feel a lot like watching a game rather than participating in it. The trick is to chose your athletes well and hope that their powers can exploit their opponents’s moves. It’s a fine line, though. For example, round two saw Joe win with Scoocher, an athlete that moved forward whenever someone else used their power. It was a commanding victory so, in round four when I had an athlete that could copy a previously used power, I chose Scoocher. But this time I was undone by Sam’s magical power of swapping places with another player so any lead I built up quickly evaporated.

Joe 16

Sam 10

Andrew 8

Pete 5

Martin 2

Ian 1

That was it for me, but the guys banged out a quick game of So Clover.

Thanks all. Another special evening.