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 Big Band Theory

 Katy, Ian and I simultaneously arrived at Joe’s door under a steady downpour. Downstairs in the kitchen, Martin was already there and, to my surprise, the five of us were the entire attendance for tonight.

Five is always an award number for games, and Martin refused one new game – Franchise – on the grounds of its ugliness and so we played Zoo Vadis again. It was Katy’s introduction to the zoo-based game and she initially asked if it was ethical. Martin reassured her that the animals were in charge of this zoo and Katy seemed happy with that. Then again, when she learnt that the game involves buying votes, she didn’t have a problem with that but I suppose we all have our own red lines.

This time we played with the animal powers. With this extra rule, each animal has a power but they can’t actually use them – they can only sell them to other animals. Katy’s power of immediately moving a piece that had landed in a 1-space area was popular. Oddly, Joe’s tunnelling power wasn’t used at all. I stayed out of a lot of negotiations, only occasionally asking for help. Ian, though, came up with a nice plan that got both of us into the final area.

Joe was the last to arrive in the pivotal final area (anyone not there at the end of the game automatically loses) and Martin tried to bargain with him to squeeze out an extra coin. But the negotiation wasn’t too successful since Martin secretly thought he was winning and Joe was pretty sure he was going to be last anyway. In the end, Martin lowered his price because he just wanted the game to end while he was in the lead.

Martin 28
Andrew 21
Ian 20
Katy 16
Joe 15


The next game was Ethnos. We had to remind Katy that she had liked this game the last time she played, since she only remembered its bad first impression on her. Martin wondered if maybe it could do with a retheme since, as it stands, Ethnos is some pretty generic fantasy elements and a traced map of Slovakia. We also mentioned the notion that the big scores were to be found in the bands of cards you play – the bigger, the better – and not by area control on the map.


But as a game, it’s a lot of fun. In round one, I built up an impressive 6-strong band of halflings while Martin focused on getting pieces onto the map.


Round two was the longest possible as the third dragon turned out to be the last card in the pack. At least this gave Joe enough time to remember that it was okay to collect groups of the same colour, not just of the same type. In round three, a song came on the stereo about “safety Joe” which amused us, but maybe he played too safe. Katy’s impressive array of bands of 4, 5 and 6 cards was enough for a sizable win.

Katy 110

Martin 97

Andrew 75

Ian 67

Joe 65

Only two games played, but it was already after 10pm. We decided to play So Clover. Long story short: we were not perfect as both Martin and I failed. We mismatched Grenade/Device with Bomb on Martin’s clover and I thought that “Cock-a-doodle-doo” was such a good clue for Rooster/Siren that the others wouldn’t mind that the adjacent clue wasn’t terribly good. But they did mind.

 32 out of 36

I left at this point, and so did Ian, leaving the other three making noises about a second attempt at So Clover. Who knows how it panned out.

Thanks for another fun evening. See you all soon.

Rhino Knizia

 I knocked on Laura's front door on a wintry evening, pleased to not have to negotiate the summertime entrance: the grassy side passage which, today, was pitch dark and featured plenty of scaffolding.

She let me in and I found Martin, Ian, Sam, Joe, Adam T and, apparently, Laura's young daughter Maddie all playing Skyjo. Then Laura took her seat and I realised that she and Maddie were a team. 

Skyjo seems simple enough. You want as few points as possible as you pick up and discard from the 4x3 grid of (initially face down) cards in front of you. But a column of three of a kind will vanish, making your chances of winning all the better.

Towards the end of the game, Adam discovered that cards that were still face down did not count as zero but would score whatever their hidden value was. He had five left and suddenly he looked in a very precarious position.

But he needn't have worried. Martin triggered the end of the game by having no more face down cards. But this game has a mean sting in the tail: anyone who ends the game but doesn't have fewest points will have their score doubled. And this is what happened to Martin. Adam discovered that his face down cards were all pretty benign. Laura and Maddie, on the other hand, had played a perfect game!

Laura & Maddie 0

Adam 15

Sam 18

Ian 21

Joe 29

Martin 46

Maddie was allowed to stay up for long enough to watch us set up the next game. What a treat! Martin suggested Zoo Vadis because it could play all seven. It's a negotiation game by Reiner Knizia where players move their meeples from area to area by convincing the other players to vote for them. If they do agree, they get one coin from the bank and whatever the negotiator promised. 

It's an oddly themed game. Apparently it was once about senators in Ancient Rome but then had a retheme whereby we are animals in a zoo. A zoo designed to look like a bit like ancient Rome.

Adam began by promising to be absolutely terrible at this game and then proceeded to be very adept at getting a good deal from Joe. Martin sent one of his meeples up a solitary track but that meant it wouldn't have to negotiate and therefore wouldn't make any money. This explains his shockingly low score.

Adam 28

Joe 18

Andrew 17

Laura 17

Ian 16

Sam 14

Martin 5

Then we split into two groups. Ian, Adam, Laura and Joe did some old school gaming with Zombie Dice while Martin, Sam and I played Big Top.

This auction game has you bidding on cards and if you bid a number showing on the card in question, that number is covered by a coin, making the card even more valuable.

Sam had a huge lead mid game. I ran out of money and Martin had few completed cards until later on. In the final tally, Sam's lead vanished as Martin had collected several big scoring end of game bonuses, pushing his score from a mere 15 up to...

Martin 71

Sam 58

Andrew 46

Zombie dice ended

Adam 15

Laura 5

Joe 5

Ian 3 (but almost 11)

They'd also played The Crew Deep Sea Adventure while we finished off big top. No idea how that went. But soon we were all finished and ready to mix things up.

Misfits was mentioned, but I didn't think I could cope so I joined Martin and Joe in a game of Accuse. It's a sort of cross between Coup and Cluedo. Coupdo, if you will.

It's a small game. So small that Martin had accidentally packed it away inside the box for Big Top, and that's already quite small itself. But there was some nice deducing inside that small pack. 

Joe was first to accuse but got the wrong suspect. After the first accusations, the other players have to (secretly) decide how many cards they need to reveal before they can make an accusation. I said one and Martin said none so he went first and was successful!

Ian won Misfits. It produced some typically crazy structures but Ian's winning move was simply to put a cube on top of two blocks z after Sam had a catastrophic collapse on his turn.

Adam left at this point and the rest of us played Team Rankster. This game of deciding who out of three random historical/fictional characters would be best in certain situations was new to me but very easy to learn. 

Interesting to note that Laura wouldn't want Da Vinci to design her house because it'd be too crazy, choosing instead Jon Snow. From Game of Thrones, not the newsreader.

Martin, Laura and Andrew 3

Sam, Ian and Joe 1

After this, even though So Clover was on the table, I had to leave. It was difficult to resist, especially with Sam saying “I'm taking the lid off!” as I put my coat on, but I was strong.

I later got the score (27 out of 30) and a photo from Sam with the note: “Martin, at one stage: All I can see is cabbage”

Thanks for hosting Laura and hope to see everyone again soon!