Agamus ludum

There were five of us at Joe's house, all eager for gaming if our timing was anything to go by. Martin was last to arrive at 7.29 as we filled up Joe's kitchen. After some disposable chat, we set about disposable gaming, with Zoo Vadis first on the table. 

I'd played this game of negotiation, votes and bribes before, but the special powers were new to me. My Marmosets could let someone choose any token on the board instead of the one they passed. Martin could move the Zookeeper. Adam could help someone spring further up the paths - from specific locations - and I confess I forget what Joe and Katy could do. Terrified of being locked out of the final enclosure, I sent one marmoset up the paths and let the others dwindle far behind, extracting the occasional coins from others for votes. 

I missed the drama of Martin and Joe combining to move a peacock into said enclosure, as I was having a wee (in the toilet). But somehow they were both safely home with only two spaces left for myself, Adam and Katy. I got there as quick as I could, helped by Martin, who was keen to deprive Adam of a place as we were pretty sure he was the richest - money being the deciding factor, as long as you're in the final enclosure to qualify. Then Joe helped Katy home for similar reasons. Adam was the richest, but he was peacocked out of contention. 

Sam 19

Martin 15

Katy 14

Joe 8

Adam DNQ

The jury was very much out on Zoo Vadis, with Joe and Katy finding it too mean and Martin arguing that it's not really mean because we're only being mean in the game. I guess I was more forgiving, having won, but it is an interesting game for sure. We all made friends again playing Misfits, which was equally dastardly in its own way, but in a less targeted fashion. 

After Joe's repeat collapses and Martin's last-piece bête noir, Adam took a convincing win and we set up MLEM. Again, we included an expansion; the one were certain places on the rocket track trigger rewards. We were all impressed that Joe's magnetic dice tray fit into the MLEM box too, almost as if he planned it that way. 

The extra stuff on the track is sometimes points, sometimes extra movement (mandatory) and sometimes extra dice. These boosters, along with some fabulous rolling, meant Adam as commander led us to deep space twice! And he and Joe both arrived with their deep-space loving cats!

But it wasn't enough to stop me with my collection of cats-on-planets. I unashamedly jumped off the last mission just before it blew up so sneak my way past Deep Space Hillmann:

Sam 38

Adam 35

Joe 32

Katy 27

Martin 22

Then we played Vegas. Once more, there was an expansion! What is happening GNN. Joe mixed in the Slot Machine, a seventh casino that pays out like the others but any number can go in there, as long as nobody's put that number there already. 

Fun though it is, with five players Vegas can plod slightly so we shortened the official four rounds to two. It was enough for Adam to clean up, while poor Joe only got a single payout. At some point Martin told Rudiger Dorn to fuck off, but I don't recall why now. 

Adam £220k

Katy and Martin £180k each

Sam £120k

Joe £40k

We reminisced about the auld days, beginning with memories of Gonz and realising Martin has been a GNNer for over a decade. Joe and I recalled Serenissima and nights of poker. Adam didn't, though I remember him being there. That's another thing time does. Before the tears could roll we quickly played Zero Down.

Martin zeroed down on the very first round, just a few turns in. But we rallied and hauled ourselves back. It was another abridged game with nobody keen to play multiple rounds, despite the absence of expansions. Maybe it's our ages. Joe announced he was getting a sore throat and Adam looked concerned. 

Joe 24

Adam 30

Sam 32

Martin 46

Katy 58

And finally we finished the night with So Clover, which also stuck to the base game, unless you count Katy's optional ornamentation:

It wasn't triumphant, but for a bunch of old farts it was decent, with 24/30 from our first attempt. I forgot to take photos but it was certainly a good score when compared to all the complaints we made about our words. Adam then rode off into the night and the four of us tried again, hitting three sixes in a row and leaving just Katy's clover to get. She cried Oh no! but we were feeling confident. However we struck out on Anakin for Dwarf Master, Katy's reasoning being that he's the young Jedi. "We're all young at the start, that doesn't make us dwarves!" Martin protested. But it was a good haul regardless, bringing home 22/24. And another classic GNN concluded. 

The Balance Of Trade

I arrived at Joe’s at the tail end of a game of Zero Down. It’s been a while since I’d seen it. So long, in fact, that I didn’t recognise it. I recognised everyone sitting around the table, though. Sam, Martin, Ian, Adam T, and Joe.

Martin 7

Ian 9

Joe 19

Adam 34

Sam 45

After this, Martin and Adam were keen on Impulse and I happily joined in, which Martin was relieved about since Impulse is not an easy game to teach. Adam sped off into an early lead, trading cards for big points. But it was too big a lead and he made himself a target. I happened to have a cruiser in striking distance and so, goaded by Martin and with Adam within easy reach of a win, I set off to vanquish him. I’m not a big fan of player elimination, but I didn’t have a huge amount of choice.

We went into battle and our initial card from our hand totalled up to the same amount. It was all o
n the draw of a card each from the deck. Adam drew a 1, I drew a 2. I won, and Adam rued his decision to hold back a card that would’ve tipped the war in his favour.

But then Martin went from 9 to 18 points in a single move, just two away from victory. I needed ten points, and I was certain of six. I had to rely on lucky draws from the deck for a tradeable card for those extra few points but, unlike Joe, I am not known for my lucky draws and I came up short.

Martin 20

Andrew 16

Adam out

Sheepy Time was coming to an end so we quickly sped through a game of Whale Riders: The Card Game.

Andrew 61

Martin 61

Adam 59

As for Sheepy Time, Ian won. Not bad for someone who, early on, noted that he was twenty points behind everyone else. A check of the rules told us that, officially, there are no second or third places.

Ian won

Sam and Joe lost

Now Adam made sort of going home noises, but was tempted to stay on for a game of So Clover. Adam impressed by writing “Dragula”, leading us to match “Camp” and “Myth”. Joe lowered the tone when he matched Shower with Golden. We were going okay until we slipped up on Ian’s clover, thinking Spartacus clued the word “alliance,” but it was just meant to be “old”

Score 34 out of 36

With Adam still making moves to go home, we tempted him with a rousing finale of Stinker. We all gave ourselves a rule-stretching 23 letter tiles and got cracking. Sam began with six ‘A’s in his pile of letters. Highlights were:

Real reason for world war two – Goebbels stole a razor (Martin)

Substitute for under pants - toasted gonads (Adam)

First thing to do on Jupiter – Radiate Smugnity (ian)

Title of a new Bond Film – Time to Strangle (Joe)

How to avoid the draft into the army – Run, dig a hole, scream (Sam)

My answer to "The road to Hell is paved with..."

By the end, our misspelling was very creative with Sam using a B on its back as an M and I had an A pointing right as a D.

Ian and Martin won with three cards each.

Adam and I left at this point while the other played High Score (but surely every game could be called High Score) using a collapsible dice arena.

Martin 13

Joe 12

Sam 11

Ian 6

And finally they played Cross Clues and got 19 out of 25.

Thanks all. See you next week.

No shreddies

This week, five fifths of our most regular players arrived at Joe's house for our weekly battle of wits and cunning. The missing one sixth was Katy, but she had recently impressed us all with an email showing her playing Isle Of Skye while actually on the Isle Of Skye.

Meanwhile, we happy five (Joe, Ian, Martin, Sam and me) began with a new game called Irish Gauge that had quickly convinced us with its pretty illustrations and promise of a rule book with only two pages.

Thematically correct alcohol!

Since it was a hex based train game, I was more than keen to give it a shot, but slowly it dawned upon us that something was missing. Martin wondered if we were playing it wrong, not in terms of rules but in terms of strategy. And he had a point: we were approaching it in a very Railways Of The World manner, building up our networks and getting everything in place before triggering a scoring round. Should we have been quicker to get dividends, or more generous with our bids for shares?

Who knows. In this game, Sam wrestled for an almost exclusive ownership of the blue network, but it cost him dearly. Martin kept sole control of his network of orange, possibly because it was the worst on the board. Joe, though, was rolling in money. His yellow network paid out well and he bought an early share into my purple network, and seemed to do very well out of that too. His regretful sigh of "I don't think I understand share games," was met with little sympathy since he was the clear leader at the time.

Joe 133
Martin 111
Andrew 110
Sam 84
Ian 80

We ended with a feeling of disappointment, and we were unable to tell if it was us or the game that was at fault. Lots of mumbling about needing to give it one more try.

We followed this with a rousing game of Stinker. Three whole rounds! I made more notes this time and, assuming that the random nature of the game somehow gives it oujia board type abilities to see the future, I can safely say that...

A cure for insomnia is... Oddbins sale (Ian)
The app missing from your smartphone is... Nob Measurer (Joe).
A greeting you don't want your robot to give you is... Hi pedo (Martin)
The next big thing is... Slappy Bags (Sam)
Your mama is... A real hottie (Joe)
And the eventual undoing of man will be... Christmas Toffee (me)

Ian 53
Martin 28
Sam 25
Joe 22
Andrew 21

After this giddy encounter with over excitement, we kept up the pressure with Voodoo Prince. Ian started badly, winning a hand with a five, effectively giving him two tricks (remember, three tricks in a round and you're out) but he hung on long enough to pick up a decent score that round.

Then, in round two of three, Ian was then second to last to pick up his third trick, giving him maximum points. He was, by now, the man to beat. "We need to fuck Ian up," said Martin while yawning, sounding like a decadent dictator idly requesting the assassination of an enemy.

But it was all for naught. Ian got maximum points in round three as well.

Ian 31
Martin 21
Sam 19
Andrew 18
Joe 14

Next up was Zero Down, a game that simply eludes me. I assume there's a strategy, but I am entirely unaware of what it is. Joe, however, has a better grasp of the matter.

Apart from Joe's serene stroll to victory, the rest of us spent our time cursing the player who'd just picked up the card we needed.

Joe 5
Ian 13
Sam 24
Andrew 34
Martin 46

During this game, someone described their luck as being a car crash which we misheard (for comedy purposes) as "cock rash."

And also, between games, Joe informed us of some adverts he'd seen for a new product: fart filtering pants. The testimonials from apparently happy users made it very difficult for us to tell if the product was genuine or not. But these adverts gave rise to the phrase "no shreddies" which now adorns this blog post.

Ian left after Zero Down, but we remaining four had one more game in us: Memoarrr. It is a simple memory game that demonstrates with such clarity your lack of short term memory that you may start to suspect oncoming dementia.

It's so simple, 25 cards, in an array of 5 by 5 with one removed (the scoring cards go in its space) and all you have to do is remember what is where. And you have seven rounds to do it! Couldn't be simpler, but I struggled massively. Great fun and I was slightly amazed how quickly my memory vanished once the cards had all been turned face down again.

But it was great fun, despite my complete inability to get anywhere with it.

One round went all the way until the end... Didn't help me, though

Joe 6
Sam 5
Martin 4
Andrew 0

And with that, we were done. Time for us all to stumble home, full of the thrill of battle and alcohol.

Self-Raising Flowers

What once threatened to be eight players (Paul and Anja dropped out, Andrew turned out to be Not in the UK After All) settled into the classic GNN conundrum that is five - what to play, when so many games out there only go up to four? As it was the enthusiasm from myself, Joe and Martin, persuaded/bamboozled Ian and Adam into giving Tulip Bubble a go.

businessmen

This is based on the first ever speculative bubble brought about by over-enthused tulip-investors back in 1637, when the craze for tulips bottomed out and the market crashed (I'm probably getting all these terms wrong, but tulips are definitely involved). Martin shrugged off his unfamiliarity with the rules and bashed through them in about 20 minutes - something that would take me an hour at least. His ability to process information at speed would come in handy - but so would luck, as we shall see.

Like Hab & Gut (other stock-manipulation games are available) the gist of the game is buy low, sell high. There are three colours of tulip (red, white, yellow) and each colour has a type (A, B, C) with the ABCs also having subsections of B1, B2, and so on. It sounds like the ingredients list on a jar of Marmite, but it makes sense after the first couple of rounds.

the market

There are three rows of flowers, the Next Shipment (not available to buy yet, but en route) the New Arrivals and the Just-Sold. Players can bid for up to three flowers in each round from the latter rows, using bidding chips. In the subsequent rounds, they can sell the flowers, either back to the market or to a collector: collectors want specific groups of flowers, but pay more in return. In essence you're trying to get rich, or wither trying.

rich enough to buy the Queen of the Night? Do it and instantly win the game!

The catch is between the buying and the selling the values of the flowers will change: the flower colour with most cards left behind after the buying's done will decrease in value. Conversely, the colour with the fewest cards will increase. And after that, an event card will trigger a rise or fall for at least one colour as well, meaning you are speculating on tantalisingly incomplete knowledge. This went badly for Ian, who splashed out on a gorgeous red tulip only to see it bottom out instantly, and well for Martin, whose three yellow flowers shot up in value just before he sold them to a collector.

The clergyman wants three B tulips of the same colour

There's some nice little mechanisms around that central idea: players can get the bank to pay for a card and hope to resell it at a higher value, claiming the difference for themselves. The catch with that is doing so occupies one of your bidding chips, so you're now you're short one (or more) bids in the buying. If multiple players bid on a flower, the losing bidders will usually get a small pay-off, and that encourages a bit of brinkmanship on bidding for flowers you might be happier without in order to force some pennies your way. And the game ends in extremely unnerving fashion: somewhere in the bottom three event cards is the Bubble Burst - the game ends instantly if this is flipped, leaving everyone on a knife edge as to when exactly they should stop bidding at all; as the flowers themselves obviously are worth nothing when the bubble bursts.

Ian, in hock

Joe spent most of the game borrowing from the bank and not selling anything. Ian decided from the first round he was fucked, and when Martin later said he was fucked, Ian reminded him that that was Ian's catchphrase. Adam made use of my lack of attention to detail by encouraging me to bid for yellows, meaning his yellows would then be worth more. But this trickery backfired when there was a crash and yellows market value dropped dramatically. Joe recovered from his lack of commerce to finish strongly. But in the end, Martin's oranges made the difference...

Martin 102
Joe / Sam 74
Adam 64
Ian 49

Tulip Bubble had taken us a while but the verdict seemed broadly positive. I'd certainly like to play it again. And Joe and I tying for second began a feature of the evening - every game featured a tie somewhere in the placings.

about to go zero!

Joe suggested Zero Down next, so we blasted through that. I began the first round with a zero, but fell apart after that. Martin cursed his cards. Adam scrutinised silently. Ian scored the worst in the first round but then zeroed the second and scored minimal points in the third to grab a win:

Ian 21
Joe 35
Sam 38
Adam/Martin 40

Next up was Mamma Mia, the game where I always refer to pineapple as cheese.

spot the difference

Sorry everyone. It does look like cheese, to be fair. Martin told Adam it was Rosenberg's best game, and Adam gave him what can only be described as a look. Joe completed a single pizza the whole game - surely there were walk-outs in his trattoria?  Ian repeated his Zero Down trick of starting innocuously only to super-charge his way over the line, or in this case, out-pizza us with his ingredient-manipulation and reserves of memory.

Ian 5
Martin/Sam 4
Adam 3
Joe 1

With the clock ticking on what was left of the day, Adam now departed and left us as a quartet. We finished the night with Kribbeln, as Martin challenged us to work out his Decrypto word from the weekend from the clues Mountains, George, and Ska. Answers in the comments below!

Back on Das Exclusive though,  Ian began poorly again, but this time didn't recover. Everyone went bust at some point, but in the end it was yet another tie - this time for first place!

Joe/Sam 23
Martin 20
Ian 17

And with the time now well past eleven, another mini-classic came to a conclusion.

The Comeback King

The rain hung in the air as a fine mist this Tuesday evening, the kind of rain that doesn't get you wet unless you move. I joined the gamers at Joe's place a few minutes late and found them (Joe, Sam, Ian and Martin) playing Destination X, the game of geography and deduction. Joe was the spy hiding in a country and the other three whittled away the options by asking him about this country's biggest export (nutmeg), major industry (food) etc. They got it down to Grenada or Eritrea, and then guessed right.

Ian, Martin, Sam successfully sought.
Joe finally found

Now we were a five (the Familiar Five, you might say) so we broke out Ethnos. Always on the sidelines, itching to come on, tonight it finally got its moment of glory before everyone forgot the rules.

I needed a rule refresher, but that didn't stop me from scoring low in round one. Everyone else had a go on the giants and scored big for the bands of trolls, minotaurs, dwarfs in front of them. Martin went big on trolls in round one to win any ties while Sam pulled off a mega move by chaining together a load of centurions allowing him to place four tokens in a single go.

In round two, I went big on trolls but my best move was to draw the third dragon from the draw deck, instantly ending the round just before Joe or Sam could've unleashed their game changing mega move. Ha.

In round three Sam collected a hand of ten remarkably dissimilar cards, such that his best move after all that was to play a pair. Ian's lack of fingernails meant he had difficulty picking the cards up from the table. In the final reckoning, Martin won, as was obvious from the end of round one, and I was pleased with my comeback.

Martin 92
Andrew 76
Sam 58
Joe 56
Ian 56

Next up was Druids, a trick taking game that made its debut recently and its not immediately obvious strategy made it rather intriguing, even if the artwork is less than appealing.

A druid miming being stuck in a glass box

We played a full five-round game after giving Joe a rules explanation. Sam cursed his unfamiliarity with the rules when he lost in round one having forgotten you can lead with a special card and pretty much guarantee not winning a trick.

Despite being a newcomer, Joe was given little mercy and the game ended on a hand where either Sam or Joe were about to pick up their fifth suit and therefore lose three points. "Who will be kicked in the balls?" asked Martin, rhetorically. At least I assume he was being rhetorical.

It was Joe who was kicked in the balls.

Andrew 46
Ian 39
Martin 28
Sam 13
Joe 9

Joe wasn't sure what to make of it. I think he thought it was tense but without a great deal of control. I'm not sure because I made a dash for the toilet at this point and, when I came back, Auf Teufel Komm Raus was set up on the table. It's a rare sight which is a shame for such a fun luck-pushing game where you pull coals from a cauldron, adding up the total until you reach your bid, hoping a little red imp doesn't appear to ruin everything.

Joe began poorly and did little to improve. He relied a lot on making a deal with the devil by being in last by himself and getting fifty points whenever one of us went bust. I even took a photo mid game to show how little progress he'd made compared to the rest of us.

But to mock Joe is to tempt fate and halfway through the game, Joe stopped timidly picking out the coals one at a time and instead he pulled them out without even thinking about it. And it seemed to work, since he started to make his way up the score track. Still in last, but more on that later.

Ian looked like The Man Most Likely To... after a bid of 200 paid off handsomely but he fell short of the game-ending score of 1,600. In the following round, we all did so badly that we started falling back down the score track so we decided that the next round would be the last.

At this point, Joe was still in last and, as such, had a deal with the devil. The rest of us all went bust, giving Joe 200 points, and then finally it was up to Joe to try and make his absurdly high bid. He plucked coals out so quickly that you would almost think they were actually hot. He got within a hair's breadth of success when he paused. Would this break the mojo? Would the next coal have an imp? He reached for another coal.

Success! Joe's completed bid meant that we all made ours too, but with bonuses and all, Joe got 820 points in the final round to see him take a narrow victory.

Joe 1480
Martin 1450
Ian 1370
Andrew 1220
Sam 1040

From last to first in a single round. Astonishing. It made my Ethnos comeback look tame in comparison.

Finally went chose Zero Down to finish. Three rounds and then home to bed. I admit, the winning strategy for Zero Down eludes me although I'm sure that Martin's mid-game tactic of putting down a card for all to see (it was a blue 1), saying "no" and then picking up it up again probably isn't an optimal strategy.

Joe seemed to have a plan though as he went clear in round one and then only had eight points when someone knocked for the second time in round two. In round three, Ian amazed us by how quickly he got clear, leaving the rest of us with a pile of points to our name. It made Ian's score more respectable, but couldn't dislodge Joe from his pole position.

Joe 27
Sam 38
Andrew 39
Martin 43
Ian 46

And with that, we were done. Off into the evening (maybe it was still raining, I was too drunk for it to register) to recharge our batteries for the first of two games weekends on Friday.

Monster Hunch

Tuesday night, and with Andrew a late withdrawal due to a cold, it was myself (Sam) Joe, Andy, Ian and Martin sat around the table. Joining us for the first part of the evening was Stan, and whilst (big) Joe coaxed another game of Carta Impera Victoria out of Martin and Andrew, our trio began the night with Welcome To... which I'm beginning to feel could be continued with ...the mildly underwhelming roll-and-write. But as we didn't play the entirely proper rules, I could be doing it a disservice...

The game sees you as rival developers building estates and scoring points for pools and trees and pleasing the city planners. Like Avenue, it's a roll-and-write with no rolling. Unlike Avenue, it's a mite fiddly and we had to keep referencing the rules. It feels a teeny bit bland - for me the fun of a roll-and-write is all about that sense of frustration and hoping your numbers come up (literally, in this case). It doesn't need this amount of options. I don't think my opinion was influenced by the score, but feel free to draw your own conclusions...

Ian 87
Stan 60
Sam 52

On the other half of the table, CIV was in it's final stages, and a second play didn't seem to be really changing Joe or Martin's mind. Martin said it was clever, but not much fun. Joe was quietly reflecting on the opinions of Space Biff, whose review had convinced him to buy the game. I'm not sure what Andy thought.

Martin 3 (wins on tie-breaker)
Joe 3
Andy 1

With those palette-cleansers out of the way, and Stan off to bed (in theory, he snuck down later) we combined into a five to play Cryptid.

Like CIV and Welcome To... this also had its GNN debut over the last week, but possibly to a more appreciative crowd. The board is set up; the cryptid occupies a single hex on it; no-one knows where. But everyone has some information, such as the cryptid being on one of two types of landscape, or in proximity to a bear. And a picture of its location is gradually revealed over time. That's the idea, anyway. It was a bamboozling affair, with all of us scratching our heads. I confess I found it hard to remember my own clue, let along figure out anyone else's. And it came to a sudden end as Joe searched for the cryptid and found it in the first place he looked!

Joe - wins
Everyone else - disappointed the cryptid isn't better at hiding

I was amazed that anybody had any theories at this point, seeing as when I look at the board all I can ascertain is some kind of DNA structure that I can't possibly understand. We all saw the comparison with Zendo, but weren't sure if it was a favourable one.

Now began The Great Ethnos Debate, as Martin disappeared into the front room and returned with the game Katy hates Most Of All. Martin said it needed some love, and I was amenable. But the other side of the table seemed unstirred. Ian said he'd need a rule refresher. Joe said he'd be ok with it, but without much zeal. And Andy said he could play it, in the same way one says I could unblock the sink. It looked like Ethnos was to be packed away again, but in the face of incredible odds, Martin persisted. He kept persisting when it seemed the whole table was swaying towards Beowulf instead. Twice the lid of Ethnos was heading onto the box, but eventually we set it up and played. Kudos to Martin.

In Ethnos we are in Slovakia a far distant fantasy island, struggling for control over six differently-coloured regions by building bands of warriors - in our case, Wingfolk, Merfolk, Giants, Trolls, Orcs and Centaurs. The basic scoring is simple - area majority on the map, and the size of the bands you build, which can be all of a colour, or all of a race. The catch is when you build a band, you must discard all your other cards, which are now available for everyone else to pick up. Do you play patiently, and hopefully? Or do as Joe does and 'whack off a Merman'?

Some extra wrinkles in scoring come off the back of your band's leader - the much-sought-after Centaurs allow you add a second band, Trolls break ties in the area-scoring and so on. It plays really fast, as if you're not playing a band you're simply picking up a card. All of us were surprised by our turns arriving seconds after we'd just had one.

After the first age, Martin was out in front but I was hot on his tail. After the second, we were level and the others seemed far behind. But the third and final age saw Martin streak ahead as I picked up what I could only describe as the Bash Street Kids of Ethnos - very little matching colours or races! Meanwhile Ian went from last to third (and briefly second!) with a strong finish.

Martin 88
Sam 75
Ian 73
Andy 58
Joe 55

Considering the table-wide pre-play reticence, Ethnos seemed to go down pretty well. Joe did say he enjoyed it, but didn't like area majority much. Martin announced that he loved area majority. I said the only thing I didn't like about the game were the plastic markers. Ian and Martin said they loved the plastic markers. Martin tried to get the plastic markers back in the box, and changed his mind.

With the whisky now flowing (a decision my feet are reminding me of regretfully today) we finished the night with Zero Down, Knizier's Rummy-style puzzler where points are bad.

Everyone receives nine cards and begin a series of swaps with a card from the tableau on the table, until people get a decently low score and start knocking, and a second knock triggers the end of the round. Ian began badly with a 23 point haul, whereas Joe set the pace with a piddling 5 points. In the second round Andy thought he'd zeroed (completed a point-free hand, which instantly ends the round) but had miscalculated. Then in subsequent rounds Ian and I zeroed. With a round to to go, Martin led with Ian in second and me third. A dramatic swing saw them fall second and joint-fourth!

Sam 39
Martin 40
Andy 46
Ian and Joe 48

And another GNN came to a respectable 11pm close. Until next time...

One more time around the world before she leaves

This week's games night was Katy's last one before setting off on a crazy bike ride across America. It seems only fitting that the games we played had a globe-trotting theme, taking us to deepest Cornwall, the Scottish Hebrides, South American jungles, Japanese bamboo groves and a slightly dubious re-imagining of some Caribbean Islands.

Adam and Hannah's house was the venue and, along with the hosts, we were: Katy, Sam, Ian, Matt, Stuart, Martin and me.

We split into two groups. Martin, like a jovial shepherd of fun, corralled three other players into a game of Tonga Bonga. This is a race game where four players speed around some regrettably named Caribbean Islands ("Samboa Bay"? Really?) and the richest player wins. In that sense, at least, it is a remarkably accurate portrayal of the development of modern sport.

I didn't watch it much, but at the end Sam was surprised to see how far off the pace he was and Katy was just pleased to not be in last by herself.

Martin 149
Ian 121
Katy 110
Sam 110

On the big table, we were playing Isle of Skye. With five players. What an adventure! We had all played it before, but so long ago that we needed a rules refresher. Cue Adam and his laid back method of pointing at things and saying what they are while others point at other things and ask what they are.

Before long, we were off. Despite the high number of players, it went pretty fast. I lead for most of the game, which meant I was cash poor. But I kept scoring every round. Stuart began slowly before charging up the score track in the final two rounds. Hannah impressed everyone with her extensive collection of lighthouses, bothies and farm houses but not a huge amount else. Matt was in contention mid-game but slowed down as the game wore on. In more ways than one. He fell into analysis paralysis in a big way on his final turn, prompting me to declare "This is going in the book!" as I grabbed pen and notepad. All that thoughtfulness couldn't save him. Adam won the game having spent the whole game at my shoulder in second place before easing past me during the end of game bonuses.

Adam 55
Andrew 50
Stuart 49
Matt 42
Hannah 42

Before we'd ended, the four on the other table had started a game of The Mind. I feel I should apologise for their weak showing, since just as they started round six I announced I'd brought A Fake Artist Goes To New York, and I waved it about a bit. This was enough to distract Ian who failed to put down his 4 before the 6 and 7 went down in quick succession.

Then again, to be on your last life on round six... Poor show, despite their elaborate method of 'palms on the table, lifting them up together' method of synchronising psychically.

There was now a bit of a reshuffle. Adam, Martin and Ian chose The Quest for Eldorado. Sam, Stuart and Matt went for Tinners' Trail. Katy, Hannah and I, for old times' sake, chose Takenoko.

There were rules explanations for Tinners' and Eldorado, and a rules refresher for Takenoko. In fact, the reason Takenoko has been away for so long was due to the fact there was always a rule we'd misunderstood or misapplied.

I think we got it right this time, though. We didn't move the panda so much, meaning the bamboo grew strong and fast. Katy triggered the game end and was far enough ahead that neither Hannah nor I had any chance of catching up.

Katy 37
Andrew 32
Hannah 29

The Quest For Eldorado ended in uproar, with Martin declaring that Adam had broken the game and there was no point in playing it any more. At least not with the tile containing two base camps next to each other. Since these allow you to trash cards, Adam went back and forth between them to give himself a supremely efficient hand of just five very powerful cards. He ended the game a full two tiles ahead of Ian or Martin, who were languishing in a second or third place so distant there was little point in distinguishing between the two.

Adam wins
Martin/Ian not even close

They finished before we had finished Takenoko, so they had a one round sudden death game of Krass Kariert. Ian lost, apparently.

Then us Takenoko-ites joined them while Tinners' Trail played out its final stages. Hannah retired to bed so the rest of us played a one round sudden death game of Zero Down.

Katy 0
Martin 7
Adam 7
Andrew 11
Ian 19

Now we were all together, since Tinners' Trail had ended. Despite sharing a table with it and actually being quite jealous that they were playing, I didn't follow the game. Where it was won and lost will remain a mystery. Unless someone tells us in the comments.

Sam 71
Stuart 58
Matt 43

Now we were all together again, and keen to end on Fake Artist. After a quick rules explanation to the newbies, we began with me deliberately choosing Matt as the fake artist, and Theatre as the subject to be drawn. But Adam was chosen as the fake, apparently because he doesn't know how to draw a stage with one line. Matt couldn't guess the word, though, so we won!

In round two, Katy shuffled the clue cards so she didn't know the fake. The topic was "places" and the actual word was Mexico. Cue lots of abortive attempts at drawing a cactus or sombreros. A circle in the sky became a sun and then a football but all this was not enough to distract the fake artist, Martin. He was correctly identified, but was able to guess what we were drawing.

In the third and final round, the word we were drawing was "helicopter" and, between us, we pretty much drew a helicopter. I seem to remember that it was identified as the fake artist. Wrongly, of course. The true fake was Stuart (memory is a bit foggy here) but he was easily able to guess the word.

And once that was done, so were we. And so was Katy! There were hugs and goodbyes and a promise that she will blog if she gets the chance to play a board game or two in America. Bon Voyage and Happy Trails, Katy, or whatever they say these days. As for the rest of us... same time, next week.