Isle of Games

 Isle of games? We all love games!

Sam picked me up at 7.30 on a clear Friday morning. We set off to distant shores for a couple of day’s board gaming with the old London crew. We picked up Chris along the way, noting with disappointment that he wasn't waiting for us at the window like an expectant puppy, and we sped off across the south of England to Portsmouth and, from there: the Isle of Wight!

Paul had moved there a couple of years ago and now we had the rare chance of taking eight bags of board games across the seas to a whole new island! GNN’s plan of world dominance is working perfectly!

We took the opportunity at Portsmouth to peruse the souvenir stand in the coffee shop and decided to buy Paul and Isle of Wight pencil. A shocking pink one. After all, we couldn’t come empty-handed.

Once over the Solent, which was so calm that you could’ve played Bandu on it, we weaved our way through some country roads to Paul’s home in Shanklin. The only downside of living here is that the name suggested the Smiths song “Frankly Mr Shankly” which, in turn, led Sam to periodically sing “and I’ll meet you at the cemetery gates” throughout the weekend.

As for games, our first (at 2.20pm) was a historical one. Not just because 7 Wonders is set in the Ancient world, but because we were using the last page of the book of scoresheets. Chris said that you couldn’t buy replacements any more since the iconography had changed, so he’d buy a new one and leave this copy on a high shelf somewhere to see out it’s old age in peace. We used our new pencil to mark down the final scores and Sam’s sciences (34 pts) won.

Sam 59

Paul 54

Chris 50

Andrew 47

Paul then tried to choose a game at random by giving Chris directions (“Light green bag, third game from the back”) but that didn’t really work. Instead, I suggested Railways of the World and so we got out the old eastern US map and got to work. Paul chose his baron based solely on the man’s beard. Sam leapt into an early lead as he picked up bonuses and kept his bond count low. I went the other way, being bond-heavy and even having to pay money back once at the end of a round instead of taking income like everyone else. It kind of kept me in the game, as Chris and I fought over second until my seven bonds dragged me back. Chris ended on two bonds and $74,000. 

Sam 64

Chris 56

Andrew 50

Paul 34

Then we played a quick couple of rounds of Cross Clues (20 points and then 24) before I went for a half hour nap and the other three played Planet Unknown. I came in for the final third of the game and became fascinated at how people moved their cubes up the bonus tracks. Sam and Chris rolled them upwards, Sam with his index finger and Chris sometimes using his thumb, while Paul picked his cubes up and moved them square by square. In the end, Sam was one square tile away from completing the planet, hence his comprehensive win.

Sam 75

Chris 58

Paul 50

Then Sam cooked our first lovely meal of the weekend while us three played Cascadia. According to my notes, we indulged in a lot of bad animal puns while playing but thankfully I didn’t write any down.

Chris 98

Paul 89

Andrew 77

Then we ate Sam’s chicken fajitas which were delicious but Sam berated himself over the lack of chilli.

For the evening’s main event, we chose Keyflower. As is usual, Sam and I were taken by the artwork on the little cottages with individual interiors that allowed you to almost make up a story about the occupants.

After a rules refresher from Chris, we got playing. The only setback was caused by the meeple bag and tiles bag both being black such that when Chris went to draw some tiles mid game, he found it half-full of meeples. Paul won, despite having the smallest village. Or maybe because of. I’m not sure.

Paul 48

Andrew 44

Sam 38

Chris 34

Then we played Push It to clear the eurogaming fog in the air. We played twice as teams and Chris and Sam beat Paul and I twice, 11-2 and 12-3.

Paul got the nickname “the hammer” as his forceful play would usually send either the jack or his puck whizzing down the end of the table, occasionally bouncing off my tin of beer with a comedy “boinggg.”

Sam started to make moves for bed until he heard that we were going to play So Clover and he quickly retook his seat at the table.

We did well, 22/24, but were stymied by a cruel decoy on Chris’ clover that had words that would fit perfectly with three possible clues.

Then, with Sam definitely going to bed, we played King Domino. In fact, we played it so quietly that Sam popped back in to make sure we were actually playing.

I got a mine-monopoly for a win.

Andrew 56

Chris 52

Paul 30

And so to sleep.

Saturday morning was clear and limpid. We were all up by 9am and Chris made a fried breakfast before we went for a walk towards the sea, popping into a few shops as we did. 

Finally, at about noon, we played our first game. After a little discussion I said I was leaning towards Imhotep and so it was brought to the table. Paul played a cagey game, relying on the Burial Chamber and picking up cards such that he didn’t score at all until round 5. Chris won the obelisk, I tried to boss the pyramid and Sam relied on end-of-game scoring cards.

Chris 42

Paul 41

Andrew 35

Sam 34

Chris was delighted at his win at this game - his bette noir of board games. A then, after that, they went for a quick walk while I made pizza. On their return, Paul suggested playing Push It, but this time using an old magnetic football pitch that once belonged to Sam but Paul found it while moving house. The fact that it had borders seemed to dissuade Paul from his hammerish ways and he played a more measured game, posting a last minute comeback that was just a little too late.

Sam 12

Chris 9

Paul 8

Then, while the pizza was cooking, we played Cross Clues but did really badly: monkey and cow were both in play, as were plate, tomato and orange.

After pizza the table was slowly moved away from the wall to allow us enough space for a game of Xia: Legends of a Drift System. Sam set up the table and side table, requesting that no one ask him any questions while he did, so Paul and Chris did the washing up.

Paul (and I) got a rules explanation. Then, in the game Sam went exploration crazy while I just traded. I played a very chilled game, so that when I got a mission to kill an outlaw I rejected it for being out of character.

Chris was an early leader and the first to get a tier 2 ship. But Sam was close behind him, especially after he rolled a 20 and got another fame point. 

Paul turned rogue, after he was caught trying to transport prisoners across a planet border. Sam was out exploring when he was caught in a gravitational anomaly that dragged him into a star. 

While Paul chased after a non-player ship, Chris became an archaeologist, rolled a 20 and then reached 12 points, our target for this game. Sam needed to get two fame points to match Chris so he went on a crowd pleasing journey across as many borders as possible hoping to roll a 20. Which he did! But he picked up so much damage that the next scratch on his ship killed him. 

Paul went crazy with his last turn. Attacking me (but my shield, useless until then, repelled him) and then attacked Sam too. Finally he also tried a border crossing technique in search of the elusive 20, which he got but only slightly before his ship disintegrated.

Chris 12

Sam 10

Paul 8

Andrew 5

We ended at 5.15, a little under 3 hours of play. It's always a satisfying feeling after finishing a big game even if, as in this case, we lowered the winning score from 20 down to 15 and then 12. Still, a lot of fun.

Paul started prepping his chicken for the evening meal so Sam, Chris and I played Bandu. I thought I was being mean with my choices for Chris but clearly not being mean enough.

Chris

Sam and Andrew out in the same round

Then while Paul's curry was cooking, we played Fun Facts. We learned that we all have similar ideas about how grown up we feel (between 60-75) and that Sam and Chris hardly ever carry cash.

As Paul cooked, I took a shower and after a quick chat about politics, we sat down to eat. It was lovely although Chris bit on the only chilli in the mix and needed a moment to recover.

Next up was another epic: Northgard. Chris insisted on using the miniatures, not the cubes. "It needs the plastic vikings," he asserted. Paul quickly made three enclosed spaces and ran off into an early lead. It actually started very peacefully until Sam got his third big building and I was able to defeat him with the last card in my hand.

After that it was a ding-dong battle between me and Sam with Chris lurking nearby, hoping we'd weaken ourselves enough that he could pounce.

We made it all the way to round seven. REM on the stereo sang "The time to rise has been engaged," which seemed appropriate. Paul passed first, clearly the points leader. 

I get my third building off Chris but in the end only Sam has cards left in his hand. He attacks Chris first, but fails. Then me, but again fails. Finally, in an audacious tactic that even Napoleon would have loved, he took one solitary viking and sent it against my least defended building (only two vikings) needing some luck with the dice.

He didn't get it and I hung on for a win. Phew, another epic.

But, for the record the points were

Paul 84

Chris 64

Andrew 47

Sam 37

Finally we thought we'd wind down with Decrypto. Surely after two epics, this would last a more manageable length of time.

How wrong we were as it went all the way into round eight. Chris and I definitely got one of their words and were good at selecting another, but two of theirs eluded us. They, too, struggled to pin down our words. 

At one point Chris scared me by reading the wrong numbers when he announced his guess but he quickly corrected himself.

Finally in round eight, Sam and Paul had their second miscommunication and Chris and I were weary winners.

Chris and Andrew, tapping your phone line

Sam and Paul, tapping their feet

Another post midnight finish for the four of us.

Sunday began for most at about 9am although Chris had been up with a stomach ache for some time. Too much rich food and port, he said.

With an eye on our 11.30 departure time, we played only a couple of games. First was Alhambra. Among the money dealt to Paul at the start of the game were several '1's, giving him flexibility when buying tiles. Chris seemed to poo-pooh flexibility as he quickly built a wall around his small Alhambra, giving him a lot of early points for a long wall but few options for expansion.

Paul 120

Andrew 101

Sam 95

Chris 83

We packed up the car and had 40 minutes left so we ended with a game of So Clover. And what an amazing experience it was. All I can say is that So Clover is not a morning game. We all did badly, and we even managed to get every single guess wrong on Paul's clover and then only one right on our second guess. 

Everything is wrong

9/24

Shocking. We could blame the looming deadline but I don't think we'd have done much better with more time.

And with that we set off into the storm and back to home. Thanks for the weekend, Paul, and thanks to everyone for the memories. It was special.

In space, no-one can hear you eating too many chipsticks

Long-mooted and anticipated, yesterday at the early hour of 3pm Ian, Chris and I sat down to play Xia: Embers of a Drift System (unofficial tagline: it rhymes with higher). Ian was new to it, so we spent about ten minutes going through the basics, before embarking on an odyssean journey through space, time, and shitloads of dice. 

In this sandbox game, everyone starts out as 'unknown' but, like needy D-list celebrities, have a yearning for notoriety, and seek it through a variety of ways: exploring, trading, completing missions, mining for relics, blowing stuff up, upgrading their ship, helping others, buying their fame, or even just being lucky: a roll of 20 on a d20 instantly pushes you up the Fame track. Whenever the points leader hits certain junctures on said track, events or titles are triggered: the former as you might imagine (things happen/parameters change) and the latter offer faming opportunities for whosoever completes the criteria: first to do three blind jumps (exploring without looking) on a single turn, say. 

Everyone's ship has room for outfits (engines/weapons/shields/etc)  and any un-outfitted ship sections are basically room for carrying cargo. The ships are varied, and each come with special powers options: Chris, for instance, could never be stopped by planetary shields (although he could take damage from them, as he was repeatedly reminded by fate) 

I thought I was off to a good start in my Puddle Jumper ship until I blind-jumped into a star at the end of my first turn and died. Chris and Ian began with more caution, and were rewarded with life. But Ian's Numerator ship attempted to mine and failed, taking on a huge amount of damage. Xia does not ease you in lightly...

It also doesn't offer enormous amounts of luck mitigation. Over a long game, it balances out to some degree - or one would expect it to - but Chris' ability to repeatedly roll low numbers for everything he attempted was something to behold. Even when he rolled high, Xia laughed in his face: 

"I get a fame point if I roll a 20?" he clarified.

"Yes" I said, before he rolled a 19. 

That said, Chris was first to upgrade his ship (The Krembler, which Ian referred to as the crème brûlée) and Ian swiftly followed with his new Skimmer. Whilst they pimped up their rides, I was taking a more opportunistic approach, zipping around the outskirts of space, picking up points for exploring and doing the occasional but of mining on the side. I was managing to keep a slender lead on Ian in the Fame stakes while Chris, aided by his relentlessly bad rolling, was still dawdling back at the start points-wise. 

After an hour of pootling around picking up the odd point, players (and the three non-player characters: trader, outlaw and law enforcement dude) start to get a bit busy. Titles are available to claim, Missions are being completed, and people feel confident enough to kill each other (and claim both points and bounty for doing so). 

I nurdled my way to the 15point winning condition, but we were all enjoying ourselves so much we agreed to play on to 20, which was when things got really political. Ian killed Chris. Chris respawned and killed Ian. He upgraded his engine and killed the trader by ramming into it at high speed. I ran away, and by exploring and being the first player to do X (eg use the space-jumping gates) pushed myself within reach of the win. But Ian and now Chris were both hot on my tail, and when I failed to successfully mine for victory Ian nearly grabbed the win by looking for Signs of Life on a dead world, but he didn't find it. I saw there was a way to triumph, but I needed to grab the final two exploration tokens on the board, and thanks to some fortuitous rolling, I grabbed the 20th point and victory with it!

But stop-press because as I write there's a stewards' enquiry: I realised last night (at 2am obviously) that I might have (literally) cheated death on my penultimate turn when a comet moved handily out of my way. I'll have to clarify that on the rules, but either way a rematch feels most welcome. 

Plus, it was extremely early in GNN time, so we had the evening stretching before us to dispose of, and dispose of it we did. Whilst I read a story to Joe, Ian thrashed Chris at Pickonimo:

Ian 15 / Chris 4

Not as shaming as my historic 18-0 drubbing at the hands of my brother-in-law, but clearly Chris' rolling hadn't improved on land. Then we played a new Ticket to Ride-style game of spies: Spy Connection. 

In Spy Connection you're completing missions by getting your spy (big meeple) to visit them. But your spy can only visit them if they're on your network, which is established by your agents (little discs). It's easy rules-wise: you either take another mission from the available four, or expand your network: when you expand you can move your spy before and after doing so. The catch is your only have fifteen agents, and they have to do a lot of work: as well as making your connections (which can cost two agents per connection if another player is already there) they also keep tabs on where your spy has been on your mission cards, and might also be needed to pay for taking a mission card in the first place.

Fortunately, you can drag as many agents back off the board as you need at any time on your turn. Unfortunately, doing so breaks up your network, arrgh! It's quite a nice combo of simple-rules and head-scratchy decisions that doesn't take too long. Ian completed the game-ending 7 mission target before anyone else, and Chris and I couldn't catch him with our last turns:

Ian 32 / Chris 29 / Sam 24

It was about 9pm now so we felt, with Andrew due at the unseasonable hour of 10.20, we had time to squeeze in a game of Quantum. We put together a tight, claustrophic board and were very quickly in each other's ways and faces.

 Ian was roaming around beating people up and pushing up his dominance. I established and early lead, and became Furious enough to hold off several Hickman-driven attacks. Chris seemed to be in neutral, but suddenly got a fourth ship out and a power than gave him four actions if any two of his ships had the same number. He powered past Ian and I for a win so fast we were packing away about 27 minutes after we'd started!

Chris - wins / Sam 2 cubes left / Ian 3 cubes left

With time on the clock we broke out (to my mind, the underrated) Menara, a co-operative tower-builder where you place columns to add levels and try not to make the whole thing collapse. Unfortunately, the levels were coming out at us in fairly unhelpful order, with a series of little ones followed by a series of big ones: it was like trying to construct an inverted pyramid, and we should have taken the option of expanding our base (if I'd thought to suggest it). Things were looking sort of navigable, if not easily-so, when I caused the entire thing to collapse right after Chris said "That should be fine". 

Everyone loses. 

We had a fairly average (15 points) crack at Cross Clues, and then Andrew arrived! Straight from work, I offered him a cup of tea but he said he would prefer whisky. Ian and I joined him as we played Cross Clues again, this time with an assemblage of words that seemed more fluid and the mind of Endersby to pitch in, strutting our stuff with an almost-entirely non-cheating 25!!!

Although Andrew had only just arrived, he was already making noises about going home, but we squeezed two more games out of him and ourselves. I managed a win at a fairly low-scoring NMBR9:

Sam 66 / Andrew 47 / Chris and Ian 42 each

Before we wrapped up an epic session with High Society. Chris came back from the dead here having spent the vast majority of the game with the "Minus one card" card in front of him. I was points-leader but spend too much. Ian compiled a decent score but then took the minus 5. Andrew sailed to victory through a stormy sea:

Andrew 18 / Chris 8 / Ian 5 / Sam BUST

And eight hours after we started, we were done!

You only Die Thrice

On Saturday night Andrew, Chris, Joe and I converged for our long-mooted, 50th-birthday-marking game of Xia: Legends of a Drift System. This is a sandbox-in-space: everyone starts off as a lowly nobody, and like their pathetic earth-bound brethren, all they want is to be famous. Points are fame points. How do you get points? Let me count the ways...

In the beginning

You can trade, buying commodities at one planet and delivering to another. You can explore new lands space, collecting Exploration tokens for minor rewards. You can take on Missions - some fair, some foul - and complete them. You can upgrade your ship. You can gain Titles by being the first to do X. You can buy fame, you can stumble into it (roll 20 on a d20) you can even assist each other by donating energy to a stranded player, lost in space. Or you can blow each other up.

Clockwise from yellow: Chris, Andrew (black) Joe (red) and me (blue)

In doing these things however, you're expending energy and often picking up damage. As long as you end your turn on a planet, you can recharge for free. Out in the cosmos, however, such assistance is harder to come by, and your resources slowly drain away. 

There's also quite bit of luck. Each 'outfit' aboard your ship - engines, weapons, shields - represents a number of die rolls. It's possible to simply roll low, and plod along in a very non-Star-Warsy manner. And the other potential spanner in the works is your legal status. Everyone starts out lawful but the game is engineered to tempt you into going Outlaw: it's just so much easier to crash through barriers and sell cargo at Outlaw planets. Being lawful takes a bit more effort. But the less lawful you are, the more the bounty on you grows, and the more tempted everyone is to blow you up and claim it.

We started around 4pm, and agreed to wrap up at 7.45. I began, and realised that in excitedly kitting out my ship to the gills I'd kept no cash back for trading. Instead I nabbed an exploration token and picked up my first mission. Everyone began on a similarly tentative level, as we explored the space around us and the board began to grow.

But this gentle existence didn't last long. Chris flew into Ferrin's Call and was sucked to his death in short order, although at least he explored twice on the way. Then Andrew died too. They were both disappointed that dying wasn't recognised in the point-scoring, and when Andrew died a third time he cried "I must be famous now!"

But no. I also took a risky flight across what looked like murky space but turned out to be a star, and died as well. Fortunately for all of us, dying isn't as problematic in Xia as it is in some other games - or indeed life. But as our knowledge of the galaxy grew, so did the risks, with three non-player-chartacters triggered into action at various times. One hunted down outlaw players, one went after innocent law-abiding citizens, and the other followed a trade route, accruing cash as it did so and becoming more and more tempting to blow up as a result. 

As we gathered money, we also upgraded our ships, with Chris buying Occam's Razor - small hold, but an exceedingly destructive gun on board. "It's only fair to warn you" he pointed out, slightly ominously. 

Andrew meanwhile was having some crappy luck with the dice, and remained behind us on the Fame track, as lowly 'space scum'. Joe and I had already made 'humble skipper' - which Joe confusingly misread as sphincter - as the competition hotted up. Events - triggered by players reaching spots on the fame track - and Titles (same) where starting to pop up and give the game a bit of extra dirt. The Scoundrel caught Joe and dealt him damage before running away ("like a child" - Andrew). I completed two missions and gained a title by being first to deliver cargo to a particular planet. Joe and Andrew started a race to get to various mission points around the galaxy, which I inadvertently won after finding I'd failed a mission. 

Before we knew it, space was explored, pizzas had been consumed, Chris had had three cups of tea and it was 7.45! 

Sam 10

Joe 9

Chris 7

Andrew 2

Chris and I loved it. Joe and Andrew had some understandable caveats regarding the luck-heavy dice-driven engines, but Andrew said he'd like to play it again. Maybe we can tempt Joe too - not sure if this is a Tuesday night game but I think Ian, Matt and Katy would all like it. 

Unfortunately however on the night Joe had to dash, which left Chris, myself, and an imminently-departing Andrew. When we saw that Chris' very generous birthday present to me - Tapestry - only had four pages of rules, we poured ourselves another tea/wine and dove in. 

It calls itself a civilisation game but it's not recognisably so in the sense of something like Civilisation. Tapestry is more abstracted, and... kinda weird. Each player has their own faction (I was the Historians)  and are simply spending resources to move up four different tracks - science, military, exploration and technology. Once you're out of resources, you take an income turn (gather resources) and go again - after everyone's fifth income turn the game ends. 

player board

Apparently the designer wanted a simple civ game where the rulebook would be short and sweet, and although I'd debate the sweetness of the rules, it does succeed on the latter. They're so brief that having read them we weren't entirely sure what to do, so watched a clarifying video and then cracked into it. From what I knew - or thought I knew - of these games, it was worth taking hits early on in order to get yourself to the juicier actions further up the track. I concentrated on Science and Exploration, while Chris' early moves were more military-minded, as he built a big presence on the map. I was of the opinion that the map barely mattered until I realised I couldn't explore any more unless I expanded first...

whoops

Whilst I puzzled that out, Chris was surging up the scoretrack at a rate of knots, hitting 60 as I idled around the high twenties. Some spots on tghe track reward the first player to reach it with landmark buildings, that - like standard buildings - you can use to populate your city. The bigger the city, the more likely you are to get points at the income phase. But I was determined to get into space before the game ended, but I'd neglected two tracks to such an extent that Chris had claimed all the landmark buildings, and I didn't even know how to make a hammer. 

However, I did know how to make a rocket - as I had no metal, possibly out of card? - and I darn well made it into space anyway. Where there's a will, etc. Disappointingly, the epic point-scoring opportunities I hoped to find there were sadly absent, instead the firmament simply applauded me for having markets back home. Thematic nonsense!

The thematic nonsense is in part what civ-building players object to, I think, with Tapestry. I find it quite funny. It doesn't have the lurching silliness and dramatic narrative of Xia - what does? - but puzzly fun all the same, and I think a few GNNer's might enjoy this one - no, not you Martin! Chris rinsed me though:

Chris 115

Sam 90

And with that, the night concluded. Thanks all for coming and making it very special.