Love Ys...

Saturday saw a gap in the clouds, a break in the traffic, a window in the schedule. Sam sent out the call for any available gamers and Ian and I arrived at his just after eight.

When I arrived, I was fully expecting Five Tribes to be the night’s choice. Imagine my surprise when I saw that Ys had been chosen. This game was new to Ian and it was so long since we’d played, it was as good as new to Sam and myself, so we went through the badly written rule book to refresh our memories.

Once we’d got over that ordeal, the game itself is pretty straightforward. Your bidding for control of areas, with the proviso that each area gives a different bonus and it can be hard to remember what gets you what, especially the market. We also pondered the historical accuracy of using a queen to lock an area, unless this particular queen spoke like Ray Winstone, yelling "This 'ere area's locked daaahn, you slags!"

Ian went for black gems and cards mostly, getting a couple of decent super-powers such as placing all meeples face down or always winning ties. I went for points on the board early on, and then a late investment in yellow gems, pushing it from last into third. Sam pushed his blue gems up into first place while complaining that the cards he’d got weren’t as good as he’d thought. Still, they and a handful of black gems seemed to do the trick.

Sam 91
Andrew 89
Ian 85

A nice game once you get going, and a close result meant that everyone was satisfied.

Then we broke out Five Tribes. It’s been played as a four-player, and as a two-player. Tonight was its debut as a three hander. No need for the rule book this time, and we set about reuniting the five tribes of wherever it is. Sam looked good at the start as he went for a djinn-heavy tactic. I went after resource cards and Ian... well, Ian had a trick up his sleeve.

During the game, Sam thoughtfully mused,

“We should have a games night...”

“Every night!” I gleefully suggested.

“... Cheese board.” Sam finished. And true to his word, he brought out some crackers and cheese for us.

As the game neared its end, my position looked good. I had lots of Viziers and the djinn to make them three points each, plus plenty of camels on the board, PLUS lots of resource cards. Sam had an entire army of djinns lined up alongside him. I thought it was between me and Sam, but you ignore Ian at your peril.

When it came to counting up, Ian started very strongly, having a cool seventy points in money. Sam and I hardly had any, effectively giving Ian a huge lead. No one saw that coming at all (according to Ian, not even him, but we don’t believe that for a second). I got 44 points for my viziers and Sam’s djinns scored 38.

Andrew 147
Ian 140
Sam 127

What an ending to the game, and to the evening. Full of excitement and woe, and we didn’t even break out the whiskey!

Maybe next time.

						Points
Joe	1	2	1	2	1	7
Andrew	1	2	2	1	3	9
Martin	3	1	1	3	1	9
Chris	1	2	1	3	5	12
Adam	1	1	4	3	4	13
Sam	3	1	2	4	3	13
Ian	2	3	4	3	2	14
Hannah	3	4	5	2	2	16
Matt	4	3	2	3	5	17
Paul	2	2	5	5	5	19
Steve	1	5	5	5	5	21
Katie	3	3	5	5	5	21

The Accidental Spy

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, so much more than just a day.

This week, games night was at Adam's house, and five of us (me, Adam, Hannah, Sam and Joe) convened in the early evening. With Anja expected later, we started on a quick (?) non-leaderboard game of The Resistance.

This game of bluff and double bluff (most of which goes on in Joe's head) is a lot of fun, but this game had a twist in the tail that John le Carré couldn't come up with, even if Frederick Forsyth and Ian Fleming had double dared him to come up with a really surprising ending that no one would believe.

Sam (easily detected) and Adam (remained covert) unveiled themselves as spies after Adam had ruined my mission. Adam then admitted at one point he had mistakenly played a Success card instead of a Fail card. This error, which Sam admitted he thought was a stroke of genius, was enough to confuse me so I took him on our last mission, much to Joe's dismay.

1= Sam
1= Adam
2= Hannah
2= Joe
2= Andrew

Anja arrived during this game and patiently sat through our bickering, and at the end we split into two. The Easton contingent (Adam, Hannah and Anja) chose Ys while me, Sam and Joe went for Village. We were keen to try this again after struggling through our first encounter.

It went a lot smoother, as you might expect, but it was clear that only one of us learnt from our experience. I more or less did the same as before – focusing on the market – but this time I ignored the chronicle. I was very sparing with my men and managed to make them last.

Joe, meanwhile, was like the Grim Reaper on a bonus scheme as his meeples died out quickly, getting their names in the history books before anyone else. Sam's meeples also died out quickly, but not fast enough and they usually ended up in a pauper's grave, forgotten to future generations.

As it was, Joe's strategy was a masterful display and left Sam and I fighting over scraps.

Joe 61
Sam 34
Andrew 33

Since Ys still hadn't finished, the three of us indulged our dice-rolling needs with King Of Tokyo. This game gives you three rolls, allowing you to keep any number of dice, as you try and build up hands of six dice to score points, earn cubes or deal damage to your opponents. It's not a game of luck, insisted Joe: it's a resource management game. The resource in question being luck.

Joe pushed his luck too far, and when the dice turned against him, it gave Sam a chance to steal first place.

Sam 20
Joe 18
Andrew 13

I'll leave it to the others to describe the ups and downs of Ys, though I wonder if Adam will want to relive that game, as he ended in a distant last.

Hannah 112
Anja 96
Adam 75

After this, Hannah and Anja called it a night so it was left to us brave boys to fight it out in one more game: Biblios. Sam now has something of a reputation for doing well in this game, and so it was once again.

Sam 5
Adam 3 (wins on colour)
Joe 3
Andrew 2

						Points
Steve	1	1	1	2	4	9
Sam	1	1	2	3	2	9
Anja	2	3	3	1	1	10
Adam	2	3	1	2	3	11
Joe	3	2	1	2	3	11
Hannah	1	1	5	5	5	17
Andrew	4	3	3	4	4	18
Jon	3	5	5	5	5	23

Ys! We have no bananas!

Continuing the current trend for new rules and exciting new challenges, tonight saw another débutante arrive at the table. Namely, Ys, a game that's languished unplayed and unnoticed in Sam's games cupboard for some time. It also saw Quentin return to GNN action after a lengthy absence.

Ys is ostensibly set in Brittany, but any sense of location was quickly lost after the instruction mentioned something about dragons, and the city was split into the not-so-historical names of neighbourhoods 1, 2, 3 and 4.

The game is about worker placement, using your team of eleven advisors of varying values to take control of areas on the board. Half of your advisors have their values hidden, so there's an element of bluffing involved.

It's a little bit Agricola and a little bit Biblios, as part of the game involves you manipulating the market values of the four different goods. For most of the game we were constantly reviewing the rules. I played quite an obvious tactic, of trying to get as many points as soon as possible. I ignored the market, and also the black cubes, which act as bonus points at the end of the game if you have a lot.

Perhaps this was to be my downfall, as I saw my commanding lead whittled away by all three players as Adam made good use of his "Character cards" (or super powers) in the last round, and Quentin's and Sam's hoards of black gems pushed me into last.

Adam 89
Sam 76
Quentin 71
Andrew 67

"Room for one more?" asked Sam. I'm paraphrasing, of course, otherwise he would've sounded like a good old-fashioned bus conductor trying to cram one more commuter onto the London Omnibus. But he did suggest we end with Biblios, the game of baffling card-collecting that has us all in its thrall.

It was Quentin's first go, but Biblios is a game that is a great leveller in terms of experience: having played lots of times before is no guarantee that you know what's going on. As it was, he came in last, but only by a slender tie-break decision. Adam beat Sam by a similar decision, only in the other direction, of course.

Adam 4
Sam 4
Andrew 3
Quentin 3

A double win from Adam sent him home in raptures, and sent him back to the top of the table. Quentin makes his first appearance at the bottom of the form table and, apparently, with no chance to improve his standing next week as he can't make it.

If there is a next week, that is. See you on Friday for the weekend game-a-thon!

						Points
Adam	1	1	1	2	1	6
Sam	2	2	1	1	3	9
Joe	2	2	1	2	3	10
Anja	3	3	2	1	4	13
Andrew	3	4	2	1	3	13
Hannah	4	3	4	1	2	14
Steve	3	3	2	5	4	17
Dan	1	5	5	5	5	21
Quentin	4	3	5	5	5	22