Strike then Hit

 I was only slightly late to Joe’s this week, but at least that meant I arrived at the same time as Katy, saving Joe a trip up and down the stairs.

In his kitchen I met Sam, Adam T and Martin and with only brief formalities while Katy assured us she was stoned and that she’d forgotten some zines and then realised that actually, no, she had brought them, we quickly got into a game of Herd Mentality (I was especially pleased by the fact we'd all happily agreed to play, thinking maybe that meant we'd already won). In this game, a question is read out and if your answer is among the most popular, then you get a point. 

It started well. Adam cursed his decision to go highbrow on the question “favourite bodily noise” as everyone else said “fart.” On the question “Name a brand beginning with A” Sam scoffed at Katy’s choice, insisting that “Apple isn’t a brand name,” before he remembered it was an extremely famous one. Alas, the questions took a turn towards multiple choice which kind of ruined the fun, but otherwise it was nice.

Adam 9

Sam 8

Martin 8

Katy 5

Joe 4

Andrew 4

After this we split into two groups of three. Katy was overjoyed when Joe and Adam agreed to play Yokohama while Martin was introduced to First Rat by Sam and I.

While First Rat is at heart very simple, there is a lot to keep track of and Martin’s opinion of the game was that he liked it but there were about three too many things going on. Sam agreed, saying it was a bit like a dog throwing up Christmas tree lights, but he personally never found it overwhelming. I took advatage of Sam’s explainer’s curse and Martin’s inexperience and I copied the strategy I’d seen Adam H use only a couple of days before. Thanks Adam.

Andrew 95

Martin 87

Sam 84

Yokohama had, at this point, barely begun so the three of us embarked on an odyssey of short games. First up was Sea Salt and Paper, a game that looks lovely but I sort of struggled with the scoring system and was never quite sure about how many points I had. That was all academic, though, as halfway through round two Martin stole a mermaid card from me and declared that he had all four mermaid cards and therefore won instantly!

He was amazed, having not seen anything like it despite having 20 plays under his belt. 

Then we played Strike! which I still hadn’t tried yet. It’s simple push your game, rolling dice one at a time into a tiny amphitheatre hoping to get matching values so you get those dice back. Should you be unlucky enough that the person before you emptied the amphitheatre, then you have to roll all your dice. This happened to Sam, who was obliged to throw his five dice and amazingly he got a pair and a three of a kind (a full house, I suppose) and was able to take them all back.

We played three times, Sam won games one and three and Martin won game two.

Then after Strike! we played the similarly named Hit. A very simple set collecting game by Knizia. Draw a card from the deck and decide to stick or keep going, but after three cards any duplicate values mean you are bust. Those cards you stuck with might then be stolen by the other players, though. Then just add up the value of the cards you were able to keep.

Martin had terrible luck, going bust regularly and the most ignominious example was when he drew 3, 1, 1, 2, 2. Still, he did better than me.

Sam 133

Martin 71

Andrew 61

Next up was Dandelions. Roll all your dice and then chose which dice to use as you flit from petal to petal, dropping dice behind you as you go. It’s kind of area control as most dice gets to score a particular petal. Sam got some truly awful luck as he landed on the “reroll dice” space and rolled 1, 1, 2 which meant he couldn’t actually go far enough to leave that petal. That kind of limited his scoring potential.

Andrew 75

Martin 52

Sam 42

Then we learnt that Yokohama was halfway through its final round which meant we had enough time for another game. We chose Hit again. This time a stack of 3s got passed around and around getting longer and more exciting each time until Sam went bust with them and they all got removed. Heartbreaking. I was able to steal some 10s and won the game hansomely.

Andrew 128

Martin 57

Sam 41

Then we watched as the last moves of Yokohama were played and the scores totted up. Katy remains in charge of this particular hub of international trade, but only just.

Katy 143

Joe 138

Adam 114

Lastly we ended on So Clover. Martin and Joe both went clear and Joe’s clue of “Eye” for the words “triangle/pumpkin” was very smart. I was unsure of my clues, since they needed a bit of lateral thinking: I had “Circus” for “circle/cotton” referencing Billy Cotton’s circus. But my decoy card contained the words “show” and “top” and poor old Billy Cotton never got any consideration at all.

Adam was also stymied by the decoy card which contained “cushion” when the real answer was “couch.” Or vice cersa, I don’t recall. And talking of not remembering, Katy forgot what her original answers were. I think that testifies as to how brilliant our guess was. Sam, last to complete his clover, realised that one of his clues was actually a word on a different side of the clover. An easy mistake to make, although Martin had said earlier that game that he’d almost done it.

Didn’t note the score. 27 maybe?

With that I was up those stairs like a whippet up a drainpipe. Thanks all. See you next Tuesday.

Going to the docks

Another week of remote gaming saw eight people involved. At first, four of us (Martin, Katy, Ian and I) played Tea Time while we waited for the others to arrive. It's a nice game, but I don't really get it. When Ian began with a move where he picked up two cards that cancelled each other out, I thought that was a smart move so I did likewise (having no cards is better than having one or two), only to then learn that Ian had mis-clicked and my admiration had been entirely misplaced.

Martin 43
Ian 37
Katy 33
Andrew 30

During this game, Adam T and Andy B arrived. With still more to come, the six of us chose For Sale as a nice little filler before the evening's main event.

I couldn't tell if Katy's eagerness to play was sarcastic or not, given her poor history at the game, but she did mention the "joint second" that she achieved last week. She started by picking up a 24 card for free band she disparaged bidding exchanges as "dick wars". At this moment Joe joined us, and he must have wondered exactly what game we were playing.

As for the game, Katy got her first win while Adam said "I am able to confirm that there are two zero dollars cards."

Katy 48
Martin 46
Ian 45
Andy 41
Andrew 40
Adam 38

Sam arrived too and we split into two groups of four. Sam, Ian, Katy and Martin played American Bookshop.

Katy 8
Martin -3
Sam -8
Ian -15

While me, Joe, Andy and Adam decided on a real challenge: Yokohama. It had been ages since I played and I made a few sub-optimal moves, as well as forgetting how to score points. Adam, too, was working hard to re-familiarise himself with the game, which lead to "It's all coming back to me now" by Celine Dion going around his head. Andy worked as adviser to the rest of us, since he'd played the online version before. Joe's recent real life game against Katy must have been great preparation since he strode away from us almost from the start.

Joe 131
Andy 113
Adam 70
Andrew 49

During the final stages we noticed Martin, Ian and Katy popping in to watch but never staying long. I hopped over to Google Hangouts, only to see that Ian and Sam had already packed up for bed and Martin and Katy were playing Mandala.

Finally, we were all back together, but only enough for us to bid farewell. I was frazzled after Yokohama, so I popped off first and the rest must have gone soon after because a few minutes later Discord sent me a notification of Martin’s last words of the evening: “Can anyone hear me?... Bye then” which gave me the image of him as an astronaut drifting into deep space.

I'm sure he'll be fine. At least by next week.

The six o'clock special

Six o'clock in Joe's studio. That's when the evening began, although when I arrived at 6.20, Joe was out getting pizza and Ian, Sam and Adam T didn't seem to have begun a game yet. After some polite chat, we began team Push It, me and Adam against Sam and Ian. It was a whitewash, with Sam and Ian picking up the maximum four points in one round as they glided towards victory.

Sam and Ian 11
Adam and Andrew 1

Joe returned with pepperoni pizza and Adam H arrived too. We split into two groups of three. Adam T, Sam and I went for Kodachi, card game based on the combat section of Ninjato. Adam H, Joe and Ian played Kribbeln, using Das Exclusive as the dice arena for that extra touch of class.

Adam H 20
Joe 18
Ian 15

As for the three of us, Kodachi was clipping along at a fair old rate until we found ourselves stuck in a rut. In order to finish the game, certain cards needed to be played but these needed to be bought and, for whatever reason, we never seemed to have the resources when they were available. To add to this, Adam found himself with an increasingly middling hand, full of cards that scored points but weren’t much use in a fight. This all meant that the game outstayed its welcome which is a shame since it started brightly.

Sam 74
Andrew 62
Adam 48

During Kodachi Martin, Steve and Katy arrived and so the five of them set up the card table while we three stayed on the big table - something wrong there. But anyway, they played a game whose name I didn’t write down which seemed to involve grabbing sticks from the table according to the criterion on a card. According to Katy, the winning order was...

Katy
Martin
Steve
Adam
Ian
Joe

It was loud and chaotic, and was followed by a game of Happy Salmon which was also loud and chaotic. Katy won that, and then they played Silent Happy Salmon. Not sure who won that.

Then they played Team Play. Still as a group of six, and still on the tiny card table. Kodachi had ended by now and we played Memoarrr just as a filler. Adam T said he wasn’t keen on memory games, but not liking them is clearly not the same as being bad at them. Early on, Adam and I teamed up to leave Sam with a blue walrus card, which he consistently failed to find a match for.

Adam T 7
Andrew 6
Sam 2

Team Play ended

Team Play, but Martin and Joe still seem to 

be playing Happy Salmon

Katy & Adam 31
Joe and Martin 30
Steve and Ian 28

Now there was a chance to reshuffle the groups, and Andy M called to see if there was a game going on, so he was soon on his way. Sam, Martin, Adam T and I set up Babylonia. The other five then six (still on the card table) considered I’m The Boss, but Joe got the rules sweats halfway through explaining them so instead went for Incan Gold/Diamant. I was lucky enough to witness Steve pushing his luck beyond all reasonable boundaries and also watch Joe and Andy go further into a dungeon together, not daring to be the first out.

Steve 61
Joe 39
Andy M 34
Katy 26
Adam H 24
Ian 18

Babylonia went all Martin’s way as he got a continent all to himself, picking up a load of early cities. At the end of the game, Adam mused that there were two strategies: either play your own game and let Martin win or try and stop Martin and let someone else win.

Martin 153
Sam 105
Adam 102
Andrew 71

Then Katy beat Adam T in paper, rock,scissors and insisted I write it down. Adam T then left. Not because he lost at paper, rock, scissors: he was leaving anyway.

Now the groups changed again. Ian, Joe, Steve and I played Ra. During it, I experienced a strange kind of better’s fallacy whereby I called Ra to trigger an auction with every intention of paying 7 for it. But when the only competing bid for it was a 2, it somehow seemed like a waste of a 7, and I let it pass. With that kind of clinical thinking, no wonder I did so badly. Steve did well on his debut, picking up monuments and Niles, but no one could stop Pharaoh Joe from taking top spot.

Joe 31
Steve 28
Ian 24
Andrew 17

On the card table, Martin, Andy and Sam played Sissi: Die Bohnenkaiserin. I’m sure that Martin likes German games only so he can say the titles in a theatrical German accent. And because he wins them.

Martin 27
Andy M 24
Sam 23

Adam and Katy played a head-to-head game of Yokohama. They started setting up at about 9.30 and the first points were scored at 10.10.

They were done by 11 o’clock when Katy claimed victory while admitting Adam might have won.

Katy 108
Adam 105 (or 109)

Lastly, the other six of us joined together for a final game: Wavelength. This time we weren’t quite as in tune as previously but when the chips were down, and we needed them to fail and us to pick up a point to keep the game alive, Joe got the only perfect score of the game: cluing “sloth” to “stationary/mobile”.

Andy felt he needed photographic evidence to prove

that such a game actually existed

Joe, Ian, Martin 12 (estimated)
Sam, Andy, Andrew 8 (I think)

And so we were done. We picked up our crisps packets and beer cans as if we were obeying the country code and left Joe’s studio almost as we found it. Thanks all. It was a good one.

Yoko splits the band

Tuesday! You know what that means. But with no Andrew and no Martin, who would provide the acerbic commentary and euro-related disdain? As it happens, Katy stepped up to do both.

Hannah was our initial host, with Adam upstairs trying to lull Arthur to sleep. Joining her at the table were Adam T, Ian, Katy, Joe and myself. Before we knew what was happening we'd been talking for a full five minutes and realised we should probably play a game. Owing in part to Hannah's recent experience with five-player Root, Just One was chosen. I didn't take many pictures, but I recall three people clueing Girls for calendar, but Ian getting it anyway thanks to Gregorian and Advent. Everyone was thrown by Katy's clue for glasses (Hearing Aids) but again, no damage was done. In fact two turns later Joe clued "Hearing Aid (singular)" for glass. Strictly speaking that's three words, but we weren't counting. Except for our points - we ended on a shabby 8 ("average") when I encouraged Joe to guess on his final turn and he got it wrong. "I should be good at this game" he ruminated. "I like words"

With Arthur still circulating somewhere above us, Adam and Hannah swapped over and a debate broke out over Yokohama, which Katy asserted was her favourite game ever, but didn't want to play it because of the time it took. Joe and Adam T were keen, though, and eventually she was reluctantly persuaded, prophesising a late finish as she sat down. Joe said they'd be done by half ten and started explaining the rules to Adam T.

On the other table, our little band turned our faces to the stars. I talked Ian (NASA) through the rules to Orbit as we (I was Russia) prepared for our imminent defeat to Adam H (China). While I was concerned with the movement of the planets, Adam - perhaps inhabiting his China role a little seriously - became distracted by the feng shui of the room, eventually getting the denizens of Yokohama to rotate their table 180 degrees for the better to see Adam T's face with.

Back on our board, I made an error right at the start, calculating that I couldn't realise my Pioneer card (flyby of Mercury) as both Adam and Ian had already set off toward it. However my calculations were incorrect, as when Mercury came around I was the starting player and could have grabbed an early three points and an upgrade. That would come back to haunt me - much as failures at basic maths would haunt a real rocket scientist, I like to think.

Adam completely ignored point-scoring early on, focusing on getting his fuel, speed and build capacities up while Ian and I pottered around getting single points here and there and establishing a lead that looked, to us, disturbingly surmountable. I picked up Missions. So did Adam. So, eventually, did Ian. He looked at the cards like they had just shat in his astronaut suit.

On the other table, things had started moving around the city about a quarter-way through our game, but they were now picking up speed. Katy moved pieces around with the confidence of someone who was playing their favourite game, and expected to win it. At this point, everyone seemed happy.

Except back on the Orbit board Adam was, as we anticipated, moving up through the gears. He was even picking up more missions and not making any annoyed noises about them, which was doubly concerning. Ian said he was losing anyway, so picking up more missions couldn't hurt. But it did. When I took the same risk, the only plausible (I thought) mission was landing on the inner planets, but as it turned out I needed one more round to get to Venus, and when we counted up the 3 point failure was critical:

Adam 44
Sam 42
Ian 27

Yokohama was still going strong, so we had a quick game of Flotsam Fight. It's a very Oinky Oink game: a numbers-propelled mechanic enabling plenty of oh shit moments and paltry scoring of 2pts, 1pt,  and -1pt for first, second and third. The story is you are entitled rich folk loading your trinkets onto a series of lifeboats as the ship sinks - seems kinda topical - and the person who loads all of their goods first wins the round. In a bizarrely surreal twist, however, each lifeboat - there are eight - can only carry certain goods, and may brusquely refuse your Persian rug to keep space for someone else's Ming vase.

It's weird. We couldn't figure out exactly how much control there was, reminding me of my first couple of plays of Maskmen. "But Maskmen is better" Ian pointed out. I don't know; I do think Flotsam Fight is less random than it first appears, and that suspicion is backed up by the fact Adam came back from second place to win on the final round...

Adam 4
Sam 3
Ian -1

As we packed that away to mutterings of various moods, Yokohama finished only a little way past Joe's predicted end time with Katy upset that she hadn't won. "They cock-blocked me - twice!" she cried, and rejected suggestions she might have enjoyed playing anyway with a firm "No." Are her euro-playing days done? Joe seemed happy, and I think Adam was enamoured enough to try it again... but when? Yokohama has a habit of disappearing for a year at a time, so who knows. We didn't note down the scores, but it was a triumph for Joe, who later added happily "I didn't even get the rules sweats". That's some Yokohama-ing.

Joe
Adam
Katy

Ian and I were getting drowsy and Adam has a five-year-old, so with 11pm looming we called it a night. There was just enough time for Joe's smutty riff on Caylus - the game your wife won't play with you - on the way home to endanger our lives as I nearly lost control of the car. Fortunately, we live to play again!

Yokohama Tires

This weeks' Tuesday shenanigans were hit by late dropouts due to work and illness, with Andrew, Matt and Ian all belatedly unable to furnish us with their presence at Hannah and Adam's house. Nonetheless we were still a six, with Adam, Katy and Joe (who drove me there in his new car) setting up Yokohama on the big table, and Hannah, Martin and myself (Sam) set up Martin's new acquisition Medici the Card Game on the coffee table.

The card game is unsurprisingly reminiscent of the original Medici - players spend each of the three rounds filling their boats and scoring for boat value, plus the set collection. Unlike Medici there is no bidding - the push your luck comes from flipping cards, as you can take up to three from the communal area, but must always take the last card you flipped. There are also some rogue cards mixed in that help with either boat value or your sets, but take up no space in the boat.

It was a pleasant enough game - I kind of missed the bidding of Medici. But then I didn't miss Medici's terrible board. I'd play it again, and hopefully slightly better:

Martin 130
Hannah 120
Sam 105

Yokohama was still going strong...

...so we moved swiftly on to The Quest for Eldorado, Reiner Knizia's card-drafting game. This was new to Hannah but she took to it as one might expect - surging off into the lead - the caveat of course being a geographic lead can be overhauled with a couple of decent rounds with decent cards.

Early on I felt stranded next to a cave, taking three whole turns without being able to move even a single hex. But I twice dumped cards from my hand to finesse my deck a little, and this turned out to be my saving grace; in the latter part of the game I sped past both Hannah and Martin to claim the win. Though it must be said, if Martin had remembered to use one of his cave tiles at the optimum moment, it could have been very different...

Sam: wins!
Martin and Hannah - too close to call second

With Hannah tiring, and Yokohama still yet to finish, we blasted through a quick game of Eggs of Ostrich. I picked up the win thanks to a golden egg, and Martin's burst sack:

Sam 12
Hannah 10
Martin 7

Before Hannah said goodnight, with Yokohama still unfinished.

But much table-talk was breaking out over, among other things, Katy's insistence over scoring the whole game before she took her final turn. She pointed out that it might affect what she did with that turn. Joe and Adam got up and wandered around the house. Martin and I played two-player Azul, and I realised that the next time I play it, I really don't want to sit to Martin's left:

Martin 72
Sam 48

Which lasted long enough for Yokohama to finish! And what a finish it was, it literally could not have been any closer without resorting to tie-breakers.

Joe 107
Katy 106
Adam 105

I'm not sure what tie-breakers are in Yokohama. Last one up the stairs?

They also bashed out a rapid game of Eggs of Ostrich, ignoring Martin's cries of "It's finished! It's finished!" as he packed away Azul. There was still much debate over the relative value of Yokohama, with Katy swinging from declaring that she would never play it again to suggesting perhaps it was best with two. "Or none?" suggested Martin, before adding that Yokohama's relative value might be discovered in its combustive powers.

Our gaming nightcap was Avenue, which Adam didn't look massively enthused about playing. But it played five relatively quickly and would allow him to go to bed relatively quickly too, so he succumbed. He needn't have worried - while much teeth-gnashing was going on all around the table, Adam sailed to an absolute trouncing, racking up a score I think may stand as an Avenue record for a good while:

Adam 133
Sam 59
Martin 51
Katy 45
Joe 40

And with that, another GNN night drew to a close, with Martin weaving his way home happy with a Huddersfield victory and Katy and I treated to another lift from Joe. Amazing leg room in the back of that car.

I'll Tichu a thing or two

Christmas at Joe's was actually Christmas at Joe's parents, who were away and allowing their offspring to party while the house was empty. By party, I obviously mean play games, which began with three of us - the host, Stanley and myself (Sam; Andrew will take over narrative duties when he arrives). And by empty, I mean there was some Michael Crawford style comedy of Joe being unable to let Stanley and I via the back door, so we passed games through a gap under the window before walking around the block to reach the front door.

Finally in, there was some further comedy - less Michael Crawford, more Friday Night Dinners - about getting the heating working, before we finally stood perusing our options. I was keen to play Rajas of the Ganges, Stan suggested Pulsar, but Joe proposed we begin with lighter fare in the form of Majesty: For the Realm.

Generation game

Each of us has a tableau of cards forming key buildings in a village (Inn, Barracks, etc) and on your turn, you simply add a card from the display beneath one of the buildings to gain points and sometimes some other benefit. But claiming the cards uses the same economy as Tribes or Firenze - the further up the display you go, the more expensive the card is.

Cards!

Joe focused on his castle and the chaining of this rewarding multiplier offset the attacks from Stanley (via Barracks) and my mish-mash of different cards. If Stan had managed to get himself a single castle card he might have claimed a debut win, but as it was the host's calculated castling got him the victory:

Joe 190
Stan 184
Sam 179

It was quite a sweet game, and I definitely prefer it to Splendor. And with the palette-cleanser out of the way, I suggested Rajas of the Ganges again, but no joy. Joe was keen to play The Quest for El Dorado though, and this was met with murmurs of approval from Stan and I.

forgot to take a photo

If only we'd known then how Joe was going to show us a clean pair of heels and sail off to the most convincing victory I've seen yet, with both Stan and I miles behind him. Stupid game!

Joe wins.
Sam probably second.
Stan most likely third.

With time on the afternoon session running out, the possibility of playing Rajas of the Ganges looked remote and so we had a few rounds of Zendo, doing the easy and figure-able-out rules.

plastic!

Katy arrived at the tail end of it when I was master, and guessed the rule before either Joe or Stan did. Then it was time to take Stanley home for tea, which I did, hoping that when I returned, perhaps we'd play Rajas of the Ganges!  We bumped into Andrew arriving as we left, and it is he who will now tell you the story of What Happened Next.

*

I arrived at around five o’clock, just in time to pass Stan and Sam leaving the house. Inside I found Joe and Katy about to embark upon the grand tour of Joe’s parents’ house. Soon after this, Adam arrived so Katy and I decided that now would be the best time to go and get chips. We set off, with promises to get Adam some chips too.

But the chip shop was shut so we went walking to find other food establishments. We looked in the local shop, but did not fancy limp sandwiches and crisps. Instead we found a “multi-cuisine” place that did wraps. And fries too, so we were sorted.

We returned and ate while we watched Adam and Joe play Azul.

Joe 60
Adam 54

“And that's the only time I will ever beat Adam at Azul.” said Joe, referring to the fact that it was Adam’s first game.

We were still waiting for Sam to return for the evening session, so we decided to start playing a game of Tichu. The last time I played it was a while ago, and I didn’t care for it (I don’t like old card games given a few new game-breaking cards and then sold as a brand new game) but I was happy to try again.

We split into teams according to how we were sat around the table, and began. There were a few occasions when I sighed at Tichu's fiddly rules, and Katy kept playing a card or set of cards by mistake and then putting them back into her hand meaning that we all knew what she had. It didn’t seem to help us, as Joe completed an early Grand Tichu and put them into an early lead.

Katy and Joe 295
Adam and Andrew 105

Then Sam returned and we finished off the hand we were playing while he satisfied his curiosity by investigating the cellar. Once we were all together we decided to play a five-player before the inevitable split into smaller components. Five players is a tricky number and, in this mostly gameless house, our options were more limited than usual. But Sam had brought The Godfather: A New Don so we set it up and he explained the rules for the newcomers.

It was fun, and there was a nice amount of muscling in on each others’ patches but there was confusion about when you can re-roll and, like the last time we played, the grimy pastel colour scheme lead to some confusion about where the boundaries were.

Adam won, despite having never been the Godfather while Joe came pretty close despite having only a handful of soldiers on the board. Perhaps there are hidden depths to this game under its murky surface.

Adam 15
Andrew 14
Sam 14
Joe 13
Katy 8

Nice, but a bit too long with five.

So now we split into two groups. Katy cradled Yokohama in her arms long enough to tempt Adam into a rematch. The board looks tiny when it’s set up for only two players.

Sam, Joe and I played Paperback since Joe couldn’t find his copy of Movable Type that he thought he’d brought with him. Paperback is a word building game.

I found it a bit dry. You make a word that gets you enough money to buy a new letter card which, if you use that in a word later on gives you even more money to buy cards. It was a “get stuff to get stuff” mechanic pasted onto a word-making game.

Sam 46
Joe 39
Andrew 29

Yokohama was still in full swing, so we played Azul. Such a nice game, with opportunities for evil. Sam told Joe to “stop looking at my board!” But I got two columns completed for a win.

Andrew 62
Joe 51
Sam 45

As for Yokohama, Adam didn’t score any points at all while Katy raced into a 44-0 lead. Adam said he was “trying something”.

Whatever it was, it almost worked. I remember him making a long and complicated mega-move near the game end and, during the final count up, it was quite close.

Katy 129
Adam 124

In the after game discussion, Adam worked out that he could’ve won if only he’d played his last turn differently.

Then Katy neatly put the game away. Into the box lid. She just closed it anyway, and flipped it over so it was the right way up again, to Joe's appalled wails of dismay.

Than Sam decided he would probably go back and, in indecent haste, Joe said “We can finish Tichu!” before he remembered to thank Sam for joining us.

Katy was not keen, preferring instead Divinare but Joe had already said he wasn’t in the mood for new any more rules. She was also unwilling to lose their 295-105 lead. "Come on, we'll take it home!" said Joe, encouragingly.

So we recommenced our game. It was an epic. Adam and I came out of the traps running, winning the first two hands in first and second for two 200-point bonuses. Then I got cocky and failed a Tichu, allowing J&K back into the game. Joe Grand Tichued again, under extraordinary circumstances. When he picked up the card given to him by Katy, he pointed out that if your partner declares a Grand Tichu it’s usually the done thing to give them your best card.

But despite Katy’s lack of help because she wanted to keep the two straights she had (we later found out she’d given him a five) and despite having no aces in his hand, Joe still managed to complete his Grand Tichu to edge them back into the lead.

Later Adam put down a 12-card run, which was nice.

Soon after that I noticed that midnight had passed and, since this was the closest to a New Year’s Party that I was going to this year, I wished everyone a happy new year!!

Katy was keen for the game to end, and seemed disappointed that Adam and I, regaining the lead, ended a round a mere ten points off the game-ending 1,000 point mark.

Surely it would end in the next round. And it did, but only just, as a lone king in our stack of tricks gave us the ten points we needed to close the game as winners.

Adam and Andrew 1,000
Katy and Joe 800

And so we were done. Phew, what an evening. What a year! Well done everyone for getting to the end. Let’s do it all again next year.

Happy New Year!

As always, Azul ways

Tuesday. The most frequent blog writers being unavailable I asked the question "Who is
blogging tonight?" and thus it fell to me, Ian, to cast some words to page to record the
events in perpetuity. They say pictures are worth a thousand words, but as I didn't take any
this will have to do.

Seven of us convened at Hannah and Adam's. After some discussion regarding Christmas
travel plans we split into two groups. Katy, Adam and Joe were to play Yokohama. Hannah,
Andy, Martin and I opted for Flamme Rouge, with the Peloton expansion that Andy had
picked up earlier in the day.

The Peloton expansion seems to add a couple of new terrain types - cobblestones and a
refreshment area. Cobblestones act in a similar way to mountains as they prevents slip
streaming. Unlike mountains they don't have a speed penalty, but they create a possible
choke point as they are only one space wide in places. The refreshment areas acts in a
similar way to a downhill section, every card being worth four in speed.
Despite Martin attempting an early break away, it was ultimately Hannah who crossed the
line first and claimed victory.

Hannah Wins
Martin, Ian and Andy do not.

We then played Squirrel Or Die. Hannah received this game as part of the secret Santa last
week. It's a realistic approximation of the struggles a squirrel faces in it’s existence.
Essentially, there are a series of cards that either have FOOD or DEATH on them. We
spend the first half of the game placing the cards face down in a grid, trying to remember
where we placed the FOOD or DEATH. The second half we pick up the cards and receive
either FOOD or DEATH. Pick up three DEATH cards and your squirrel dies.
Of course, I forgot what card I placed where almost instantly, and so picked up cards semi-
randomly.

One by one we squirrels succumbed to the DEATH cards. In this game, as in the
Christopher Lambert-starring film Highlander, there can be only one (winner). And that
winner was Hannah.

Hannah wins
Martin, Ian and Andy do not.

Yokohama was still in full swing, so we four set up Azul. Whilst the game was being set up
Katy responded to a sentence I can't quite recall with the innocuous phrase "As always!" I
queried if this was some sort of pun based on "Azul ways". I can't recall if Katy claimed this
as a witty intentional pun or not, but either way it gave me a blog title.

I think Azul has been documented before on this blog by better writers than I, so I won't
describe the tricksy wall-tiling game, but it was a close outcome. I steadily scored points throughout, but Martin scored more points from bonuses at the end and won. Final scores
were:

Martin 78
Ian 76
Andy 62
Hannah 45

By this point Yokohama had finished. Despite Katy's certainty that Adam would win it proved
not to be the case, but there was a notion bandied about that Adam had let Katy win to
ensure that she would play again. Joe didn't seem convinced by this idea, and described
Katy's performance as a "masterclass". However they came about, the final scores were:

Katy - 144
Adam - 122
Joe - 89

Hannah retired for the evening, and the rest of us joined together for a final game, a bit like
how those robot lions in Voltron join together to form a giant robot for a climactic battle. And
that game was Auf Teufel Komm Raus. Some disastrous bids saw Katy and Myself lose all
our money in the very first round.

Alas; my notes for this game are even more scant than for the previous games of the
evening so detail is entirely lacking, but I do recall Katy, after going bust, turning over coals
to see how many devil's remained, despite Martin still waiting for his turn, leading to a cry of
"No Katy!"

The game ended early, with Andy's break for victory falling just short, but we decided it was
close enough, and late enough, for it to be a victory.

Andy - 1580
Ian - 1480
Martin - 950
Joe - 950
Adam - 650
Katy - 650

And thus ended the final Tuesday Games Night before Christmas 2017.
Thanks to Hannah and Adam for hosting this evening. As it's the last Tuesday games I'll
make this year I'd like to say thanks to everyone for the all the fun over the past year. Let's
do it again next year!

Feeling Gravity's Pull

What happened to tonight? Were the planets out of alignment? So many minor things went wrong. For example, Tuesday night was at Joe's this week but, in total auto pilot, I was halfway to Sam's before I remembered. Then there were the many occasions of people dropping bits of games (hence the blog title), and now I come to write this up, I cannot find the piece of paper I wrote the results on! It’s all down to my memory today. Sorry about the lack of numbers.

Luckily, despite my detour, I wasn't late and I arrived after Sam and Katy but before Martin and Ian. We began as a six, with a game of Stroop - a quick fire Dobble/Snap style game where the cards have words on them, possessing certain qualities like colour, size, solidity. The aim of the game is to get rid of all your cards by quickly putting them face up on a pile in the middle, but only if they obey certain rules such as the meaning of the word on the card must describe a characteristic of the previous card. Or not.

Six. Blue. Small. Hollow. Oh, and three letters.

So we played. Well, at first we watched Martin play as he put down one card after another. By round two some of us had roused ourselves enough to clear our draw piles too. I was quite pleased with my third place until I realised that Sam and Joe had stopped playing, and Ian hadn't started at all.

Martin
Katy
Andrew
Sam, Joe and Ian retired, unimpressed.

Next, Katy angled for a game of Yokohama, reasoning that if we left it much longer, we'd have to learn the rules from scratch again. And nobody wants that. Joe and I joined her, leaving the other half of the table to play something "more fun".

They played Sagrada, a game that Sam compared favourably to Roll Player in it's dice-based puzzling qualities. The dice, of which there are ninety, were new and shiny and - judging by the number of times they were dropped on the floor - apparently frictionless.

Meanwhile, we set up Yokohama as swiftly and efficiently as possible, with Joe scattering the game money across the table in his haste. We were underway before too long. But any fresh memory of the game had not helped Katy. In fact, maybe it hindered her, as the sharp pain of a recent defeat lead her into analysis paralysis in the opening few rounds. One of her turns was long enough that I was able to  get up and help in a search for scattered dice on Joe's kitchen floor.

As the game progressed, the moves quickened, and we were heading up the score track, quicksticks. We all took turns in last place, but found myself drifting further behind as the game went on.

The other three played Capital Lux, which I've seen played before, but it's a game that doesn't make much sense from a distance. Ian seemed to know what was going on, though.

Ian won, somewhere in the eighties I think.
Sam and Martin trailed in the sixties. Could be more. Could be less.

At this point, we told them we had another hour before we finished, so they played Flamme Rogue. I was absorbed in Yokohama by now, so I missed a lot of the race. In fact, I had to text Sam just now to find out who won.

Flamme Rogue in the background

Sam won
Martin a close second
Not sure if Ian crossed the line.

Suddenly, Joe ended the game by putting the fifth assistant in the Customs House. Both Katy and I had not expected that, and we suddenly had one turn to maximise whatever resources we had left.

Katy did not have a great final turn, but her lead at that time was enough to keep hold of first place.

Katy 120ish
Joe 110? Maybe?
I was stuck in the nineties. Story of my life.

Since Yokohama and Flamme Rogue had ended more or less simultaneously, we ended the evening as a six. Martin suggested another new game House of the Borgias, which we said in a broad New York accent because that meant “Borgia” sounded a bit like the surname of our genial host Joe. How funny we are.

The theme is that the Pope is dead, and we each have a cardinal that we’d like to succeed him. We have to sneakily get influence counters on our cardinal without anyone guessing who we’re supporting.

The game itself is Perudo, but instead of simply surviving if your guess is not challenged, you get to carry out an action. The action depends on the suit of dice that you chose. It was quite tense and I found it a lot of fun. Trying to judge a guess that sounded plausible that you’d get to do an action, but quickly became implausible as the bet ramped up, so almost no one else got an action, was pretty difficult.

I had a lot of fun, but I have no idea who won. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t me.

If any of you can help, pop it in the comments.

Update long after anyone has stopped caring...

I have found the piece of paper I wrote the scores on. And they were:

Sagrada
Martin 57
Sam 37
Ian 32

Capital Lux
Ian 82
Martin 70
Sam 65

Flamme Rogue
Sam 1st
Martin 2nd
Ian 3rd


Yokohama
Katy 128
Joe 116
Andrew 106

(so I did go past 100. I’d completely forgotten.)

House of Borgia

(or “Seven Bribes for Seven Brothers” as we quickly dubbed it)

Ian 19
Martin 16
Sam 15
Andrew 11
I think Katy and Joe were both found out.