Five Get Over-tired

Originally, there were going to be ten hardy GNNers around the table last night, but something happened in the firmament and one by one, people dropped out. It were Ian who begun it, followed swiftly by Andrew, then Andy Bate, on whose hot heels came Steve, and finally Laura. Looking at each other in shock and dismay were Joe, Katy, Adam T, Martin and myself. Still expecting Laura to arrive as the curtains rose, we'd begun with Gold Fever. Martin said it was a terrible game. I said what made it so great is that when people turn up at the door halfway through, nobody minds packing it away.

Joe began badly, twice pulling out matching gravel. Adam did the same and said "this is why I hate this game". Martin was tickled no end, and reversed his opinion on it based solely on Adam's discomfort. However he was less enamoured of Katy's decision to repeatedly throw her gravel in his bag. I made my way to three gold as the pair engaged in a battle of grits, but surprisingly the winner was actually Adam, who reversed his opinion of the game just as Martin decided it was shit after all. Either way, it packed a lot of drama into ten minutes.

Adam: Gold!

At this point we discovered we'd lost Laura, and all Joe and Martin's carefully packed bags for six people went up in metaphorical smoke. Instead we debated what to play from the Alcove, with Katy pooh-poohing Tulip Bubble and Martin ignoring my suggestion of Orbit, even as Adam murmured approvingly at the idea. We finally settled on Taj Mahal, the classic Knizia of yore!

It's been so long since we last played it (it seems to appear once every 30 months) we needed a refresher from Martin. The essence is simple - play cards containing various suits; if when your turn arrives you are leading in any particular suit you can choose to drop out (-you can also drop out in misery as well) and gain the rewards. Four suits allow you to place palaces on the board (points) potentially scoring more (points!) if you link to previously-placed palaces in other regions. One suit allows a 'Ghost' palace that can share foundations with an otherwise solitary palace of another player. And one suit (elephants) allows you to collect the goods from that region - more goods of the same previously-collected type will score collectively, and repeatedly, and it was this route that Adam took...

But the early leader was Joe, with such dizzying speed and economical frugality that everyone was reeling with alarm, Martin in particular. Katy started badly, getting into a 'pissing contest' that she lost. "Beowulf is more fun than this" she pointed out.
"Yes, this is more cerebral" Martin conceded.

I tried to play a kind of guerrilla tactic, picking up what I could when I could whilst building a reasonably strong hand... the problem with that approach is that dropping out early hands easy picking to the other players - oh Reiner! Joe meanwhile was claiming palaces all over the shop and chaining them together like a bunch of point-scoring brick-built daisies. Adam was shrewdly building his goods collection, whilst me, Katy and Martin were mostly complaining about Joe, who in turn was complaining about having a card that scored him 2 points every time he played it, which invited even more scathing from the other side of the table. Joe defended his observations by reminding us how cerebral the game was, and in his position we might understand.

Suddenly Adam surged past him and into a six-point lead. Katy and I got into an expensive pissing match that I lost, and it cost me seven points. "Katy!" I wailed. "What about me?!" Katy shrieked back, pointing at her score marker. At this point my sympathy wasn't overwhelming, though. We were like the kids playing with the adults, who were now clearly going to finish way ahead of us.

Another pissing contest between Adam and Martin went the latter's way and Adam suffered a devastating fate - not only did Joe surge past him again, but Martin had kept an enormous chain of cards of the same colour (points!) for the end game scoring, and barrelled by him as well for a sneaky second!

Joe 46
Martin 39
Adam 38
Sam 33
Katy 28

Adam had time for just one more game, so we let him choose, and the choice was the thematically appropriate Just One. We've played this so much now we're getting a little bit familiar with the words, and sailed to an impressive score even despite our final word not providing a single clue for Katy: Joe and I wrote 'fiddle' Martin and Adam wrote 'Stradavarius'. With nothing to go on at all, Katy guessed water, completely ignoring my charades-style violin-playing on the other side of the table. Maybe she thought I was being sarcastic.

Martin then started canvassing for The Crew before Adam had even got his coat on, and by the time he reached the front door we were already laughing about the rulebook's "gazing at Uranus". We started with a new mission - it didn't matter who won what cards, as long as no player had two tricks more than another player at any one time. It proved very tough, taking us four attempts to pass. In between the tense space-ship repair and anus-related laughs, there was also time for Martin and Katy to continue calling each other c**ts in inventive new ways.

We played two more missions after that, before ending the game with co-operative Wavelength, where Gwyneth Paltrow's vagina still proves to be a surprisingly apt clue for so many cards, as Katy pointed out. Maybe a bit embarrassed about our Uranus behaviour though, we resisted. It was as fun as it always is, but we did very badly, gaining zero bonus cards and finishing on nine points. Lowlights were Joe's "late afternoon" being dramatically light, and Martin's "Michael Gove" being unexpectedly acceptable. "I'd forgotten how reactionary you all are!" Martin complained, when we practically aligned Govey with the Nazis by twisting the dial all the way to Least likeable living person. "I mean, I don't like him" he quickly added.

I also clued Doctors as a fairly bad TV show, only to have the others decide it was pretty much the worst TV show ever even though they'd just been discussing Naked Attraction! Where everyone picks partners based on the appearance of their shaved nobs.

Everyone: 9 - dismal failure!

And that was that. Thanks all, a miniature classic. Hopefully everyone else got a good night's kip and we'll see you soon!

A funny thing happened on the way to the mausoleum

As the holiday season kicks in, this week's GNN was a sparse affair. Five of us revelled in the uncommon amount of space around Sam's kitchen table. Sam, of course, and Katy, Ian, Martin and myself.

Ian, Sam and I were the early birds. Usually when the three of us get together, it involves whiskey feuled games of Biblios. In deference to the early hour, we went for a barely tipsy game of Grabbell.

This is one of the games you can play with the Wibbell deck of cards. The game has each player picking up cards as fast as possible, as long as they match one of the letters or the border of the card you already have in your hand. There is an additional rule where you can bail out early for a ten point bonus, but the last player left automatically gets the remaining cards, worth one point each. It adds an element of brinkmanship to the proceedings.

Sam 28
Ian 21
Andrew 21

Then we played again, with a baffled Katy watching.

Sam 25
Ian 23
Andrew 20

Now there were four of us we decided to play Fuji Flush, reasoning that Martin was bound to turn up halfway through. In fact, he arrived while we were dealing so, without further ado, he was dealt in.

It was a feisty game, with plenty of occasions when a chain of low cards was quashed by a mean old high card or two. Ian played his hand well, using his twenty to full effect, and then jumping on a series of fives to push through to the win.

Ian 0
Katy 1
Martin 2
Andrew 4
Sam 5

So what was our main course going to be? It was between Beowulf and Taj Mahal and, using logic that I can no longer remember, Taj Mahal was chosen.

I've played this underrated favourite several times, but so infrequently that I listened in to Martin's expert rules explanation, given for the benefit of Ian and Katy.

I took an early lead as I built up a three-region link of mausoleums. But that fell away mid game as Katy sped ahead. The bonus cards were keenly fought over, especially the Princess who nets a cool two points every time you play her. So popular was she that Martin assured us that “everyone has a go on the princess” much to Katy’s disapproval.

Me (brown) in the lead!

Katy's strong tactics were somewhat undone by her own honesty. Ian withdrew from a bidding war, but forgot about winning the purple guy (or "the perp," as Katy called him) and so he could place a Taj Mahal. He did so in a place that would've got Katy six points if she’d gone there and, according to Martin's gloomy prognosis, would've been Katy’s game-winning move.

Katy (burgundy) in the lead!

Later on, she fell back and Martin took the lead despite (or because of?) his warnings that Sam's elephant-heavy strategy would definitely win if not stopped.

Martin 45
Sam 39
Katy 37
Andrew 36
Ian 25

Next up was Polterfass. This game of luck and betting always seems to have a whipping boy: one player who has clearly angered Lady Luck enough that she wants to see you humiliated in front of your friends.

This week it was Katy. Her, shall we say, unique strategy comprised of veering between very low and very high bids. She got hit by minus thirteen points on three separate occasions.

I played like a loose cannon. I deliberately ended a round early, just for fun and then in another round, after my first roll of the barrels, I immediately shook them again, and left the cup upside-downon my beer mat so that any bets would be made with the knowledge that another roll would definitely be revealed. What larks.

But the plaudits go to Ian who, despite Sam’s constant threat and a last minute bid from me, won the game when he was the Polterfass and simply gave out enough beer for him to win, confident that we would have all big high in an attempt to catch him.

He was right.

Ian 79
Sam 71
Andrew 69
Martin 54
Katy -1

Polterfass ended slightly too early to call it a night, so Sluff Off was chosen as a nightcap. Perhaps we'd forgotten how long it was, since five rounds was quickly truncated down to three.

Despite Martin trying to get us in the mood by reading the introduction to the rules explaining the whole ethos of Sluff Off, I didn’t really get into it. Perhaps because it’s not a end-of-evening party game. There was quite a lot of thinking which was a struggle this late in the day. Not for Katy, though.

Katy –6
Sam –8
Andrew –8
Martin –9
Ian –17

And so, a bit later than perhaps was ideal, we were done and released out into the wild. Thanks for hosting, Sam!

Large Mahal

Sam was (is) unable to attend the usual Tuesday meet, so he sent out a call for a Monday get-together. Ian and I (Andrew) were able to make it.

First, we played Taj Mahal, a game of trick-taking set in the North-West of Iandia, although the map is somewhat lacking in detail or atmosphere and I noted it might as well be set in Staffordshire. It’s a game that doesn’t get to the table very often here at GNN towers but, when it does, it’s usually a treat.

Sam and I needed a big rule refresh, and Ian hadn’t played it at all, so Sam took the risk of getting Explainer’s Curse and went through the rules. It’s a nice trick-taking game of quitting while you’re ahead, but it would’ve been nice if it had been a little bit more in character. As we moved around the twelve unnamed provinces, taking anonymous cities and fortresses, it all seemed a bit shallow. Sam commented Taj Mahal would get played more if it looked nicer.

We also had to stop halfway through when we realised we hadn’t been scoring for links between provinces. We’d assumed that it was some big end of game bonus, but when Sam double checked the rules, he found we should have been doing them as we went. We spent a few minutes trying to recreate our moves, and readjust our scores accordingly.

In the end, it was the elephants what won it. Ian and I went for economic power, while Sam when for chains. Ian snuck it right at the death. Grrr.

Ian 61
Andrew 60
Sam 42

After this, we wondered what to play to finish the evening off. We chose Citadels, figuring that with three players, it wouldn’t be that long. Sam explained the rules to Ian, and we were off. The assassin seemed to have quite a grudge against the merchant and, as such, it was not a quick game. Halfway through, I suggested we finish on the seventh building, not the eighth and happily, Sam and Ian agreed.

But eleven o’clock, I was in a position to build three shitty districts and trigger the end of the game. It wasn’t quite enough, though. Sam only build six districts but they were all high-scoring and he got the rainbow bonus, putting him in first and cocking a snook to Explainer’s Curse.

Sam 27
Andrew 26
Ian 25

Three hours of play, and only two games. I won’t be fooled by Citadels again.

Hmm, the moment I get some free time, I’ll have to sort out the Form Table...

Elephant Memory

Friday night saw the three of us resume gaming competition following the holiday break. Carrying on with our new 'out of the hat' selection process, Jacquie adopting the role of glamorous assistant drew out Taj Mahal and Trans Europa. We only needed the briefest of rule reminders before playing and felt quite pleased that we didn't make any mistakes the whole time.

The time gap since the last play had been sufficient to prevent any of us remembering any solid strategy although I justified my statement of "quite loving elephants" to take the early goods tiles. James grabbed the plus 2 points special card which he used to great effect whereas Paul fell behind after losing out to some aggressive bidding from me. His time was to come however as the game has this lovely balancing mechanism that means staying in the bidding sees that you collect fewer cards therefore reducing your ability to compete later on.

And so it was, the daunting lead generated by James and myself was clawed back and passed by Paul and his massive fist of bidding cards. When it came to the final visit I was down to two cards. I put one down that would entitle me to place two palaces, nick a few special cards and be the first to take my new cards from the 5 on the table (You score special cards and the colour you have most of at the end) and hope that the guys would contest the resources and lay elephant cards. The planets must have been in alignment because my luck held out and thats what happened. The finest of margins are the difference between final scores in this game as I pipped Paul by 2 points.

And thats how it finished folks.

Chris - 59
Paul - 57
James - 49

We then hastily set up Trans Europa. The game pretends to be a quick light game but it always takes longer than you think. After we each won a round the scores were 7 for James and myself and 9 for Paul. That was how it ended as time ran out. James and I decided that we would rejoice in our shared victory.

Our table looks like so.
Chris-3
James-2
Paul-0.

Bad case of the runs.

Last Wednesday Paul accepted my call to arriving a little earlier to try out Netrunner. After my inconclusive opening session with James I was keen to have another stab with the rules still fresh in my mind and that new game excitement still bubbling away. In the days since playing James I had been swotting up on the rules and trawling the forums to gain clarification on some aspects that had befuddled me.

Paul absorbed the rules impressively quick although an open hand set of turns was necessary to embed the process. I took the role of the Corporation as I felt it was a little trickier to handle first time round. My one game experience showed as Paul understandably hesitated over which cards to lay however the battle lines slowly drew up and turns rotated faster.

By now Paul was making frequent runs to search for my elusive agendas and coming away with nothing or only information on what my next cards were. Still I was getting stumped by exactly what some cards where telling us. In some cases it became clear, after a discussion, the appropriate action to take, others we left to be clarified later. In the meantime I was scoring agendas and had built a formidable defence. However, one area which I had left weakly covered was my deck of draw cards (R&D). Paul played an event card which allowed him to access the three top most cards on my deck on completion of a successful run. Swatting aside my flimsy protection he accessed the deck and revealed two agenda cards worth 3 points each. We were tied at six points each, the next score out would win the game. Two turns later I had it. 8 - 6.

The game was still missing something. Paul felt that a lot of his cards were too weak or too specific to be of any use. On my second game I still felt that it was crying out for a list of card explanations. 

I'm going to give it one more go to see if I can get to grips with it. Last week I was excited to play again but after my second game a lot of my enthusiasm has wained.

We then had 30 minutes to squeeze a game in before the kids turned up so we opted for little Agricola. Paul's rustiness on this game was greater than mine coupled with a nasty tactic I employed where I nicked the extra expansion field and compacted his farm.

Chris - 50 odd

Paul - 40 odd.

After dinner had been eaten and children packed off to bed, James arrived ready to play our second instalment of Taj Mahal. This one was another nail biter with the scoring positions remaining close all game. James even admitted toward the end that he was actually pretty tense as we went into the final round. However James it was who had managed his hand, done the maths and made the special cards work for him the best at the end trotting out the winner.

James - 54

Chris - 47

Paul - 43

Paul was then offered the choice of games to play next due to his third place in Taj Mahal (Which we might make a thing). He selected a strong favourite of his Alhambra and showed why by wiping the floor with both of us. Scoring a wall of twenty plus in each scoring round is never a bad thing. I did my usual trick of walling myself in, using up vital moves in rearranging the tiles and James had one of those games where he just couldn't get started.

Paul - 178

Chris - 128

James - 98

Elephant in the room

Last night saw the welcome return of Taj Mahal for the Bracknell collective. Paul and I had played it once yonks ago and James was new to it therefore we spent the first 20 minutes or so in a crash course rules refresher. The rules seem to hint at a complicated game but as with the first time I played it, after the first round the mechanics become straight forward. Keeping abreast of the different scoring possibilities proved tricky for us and at one point we had to perform a count back as we were adding a point for every palace placed.

James and I were quickly into a bunch of heavy bidding wars for early territories while Paul sat back waited to see where the dust settled. James identified link between the provinces to be a key to victory whereas I felt getting goods and the elephant tiles as the way to go. As the game developed Paul came more into it. This game has a lovely balancing mechanism where winning a round of bidding can see you dominate a province but repeated wins means you retain fewer cards and are left with just one to add.

Everybody loves the Palace colours

Cards mean power in the bidding and thus it proved that I lost out in the latter stages to Paul's fist full of cards. Such as it was that my game trailed away like a toy boat pushed out to the middle of a pond. The initial shove showed great direction and promise but eventually it just ended up floating around aimlessly going nowhere. Unlike that cracking analogy! Inbox me if you require similar - it's no trouble.

I really fancy a curry

So Paul's late surge made the game a lot closer than it maybe looked half way through, James' Palace links making the difference.

James - 55
Chris - 48
Paul - 45

Then with time short we chose one of our favourites, Medici. There must have been some rustiness as I was allowed to load fairly generous cargos for relatively little money. Although it must be stated I was lucky with one draw where I needed a 5 to win the ships total for my last space and actually drew it out!

Chris - 163
James - 121
Paul - 114

Season ends on an Indian Summer

The weather was balmy and warm, and while we enjoyed an Indian Summer outside, we also enjoyed an evening of Taj Mahal inside. I'll admit to feelings of apprehension as the board was set up on Sam's kitchen table but with four out of the five of us (myself, Sam, Quentin, Adam and Joe) keen to try, it was the only choice especially after the buzz created by last night's post.

But they say you learn from your mistakes, and since I made many mistakes last night, I must have learnt a lot. Early honours went to Sam, who sped off with the apparent aim of repeating his recent victory. I got into an early scrap with Joe, but with five players it was rare that there wasn't some kind of battle for one item or another during each round.

Halfway through, Quentin sat back and declared that he now understood the rules and that he thought it was a very clever game. Adam played a wildly romantic game, refusing to back down on battles, even if it left him with only two cards. Despite his apparent confusion with the rules, he proved himself to be the king of links, with a snaking line of palaces crossing many provinces which helped him pick up many points each time he added to it.

Meanwhile, I carefully nurtured my hand of cards which left me in a position of power for most of the later part of the game. By then I was able to exploit my collection of elephants and pick up some goods in several late rounds which catapulted me up the score track.

Andrew 60
Adam 40
Sam 36
Quentin 36
Joe 32

The offer of another quick game was declined by Sam who was suffering from daddy-fatigue and needed an early night, and so we went out into the sweet warm September evening with another season finished.

So, all that remains are the scores for these past three months. It's been another successful season for Adam, taking first in Points, ratio, absolute points (all points scored in a game added together) and in points weighted by length of game. Sam came second, and I scraped a third place position right at the end with my sudden run of form (three wins out of four). Hannah came first out of the irregulars, with Quentin a close second.

However, there was a surprise winner in the absolute points ratio in the shape of Paul, who scored an average 61.5 points in his two games. And Quentin won points ratio for games weighted according to length, showing his preference for long, involved tactical battles.

I won by points weighted by how well/badly players did last season, indicating that I made the best improvement in the last few months. But it's a sobering sight to see Adam in second place even on a leaderboard where he's penalised the most! Jonny won points ratio on this scale, coming away with a very creditable five points on average. Finally comes the Olympic style leaderboard, which shows Adam and Sam in first and second as usual, but also Hannah in third – clearly demonstrating her skill at table-top strategy and resource-management.


The leaderboard...

	Played	Points	Ratio	Absolute	Abs ration	Weight	Wt. ratio	Length	Lth. ratio
Adam	24	116	4.83	1071	51	69	4.31	88.3	3.68
Sam	26	107.5	4.13	982	42.7	67	4.19	84.5	3.25
Andrew	24	81.5	3.4	567	27	72.5	4.53	61.3	2.56
Joe	20	80	4	574	30.21	50.5	3.37	70	3.35
Hannah	10	44.5	4.45	504	56	21.5	3.58	30.9	2.81
Quentin	10	41.5	4.15	351	39	22	3.14	39.7	3.97
Steve	9	33	3.67	256	32	28.5	4.07	32.5	3.61
Jonny	7	28	4	284	40.57	25	5	26.5	3.78
Andy	2	7	3.5	120	N/A	3	N/A	4	2
Paul	2	6.5	3.25	123	61.5	6.5	3.25	4.75	2.38
Chris	2	5.5	2.75	116	58	5.5	2.75	5	2.5
Sally	1	3.5	3.5	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.88	N/A
Matilda	1	1.5	1.5	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.5	N/A

The Olympic leaderboard...

	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Adam	11	9	4
Sam	9	6	3
Hannah	4	1	3
Joe	3	8	4
Andrew	3	2	11
Steve	2	0	4
Quentin	1	5	3
Jonny	1	2	2
Andy	0	1	1
Paul	0	1	0
Sally	0	0	1

Bringing the Taj to Bracknell

image nicked off the net from somewhere

Last night Andrew, Paul and me (Sam) made the trip to Chris' house for a bit of extra-curricular gaming. Andrew and I warmed up in the car with a few word games so we arrived raring to break open Taj Mahal, as Chris had spent the afternoon swotting up and was keen to play.

But Chris had parenting duties to take care of first, so the three of us got a couple of games of Trans-Europa in while Chris' children stared through the kitchen door at us asking what on earth we were doing. As this is the same response we get from most adults we were well-drilled in justifying ourselves, but I'm not sure they were convinced.

Anyway, I - finally! - managed to win a game of Trans-Europa, taking the first game with some elán if I do say so myself:

Sam 1

Paul 12

Andrew 14

But then train-buff Paul called in his all his experience to bludgeon us - Andrew especially - into a pile of twisted iron and splintered sleepers:

Paul 4

Sam 11

Andrew 21

By now Chris had packed his children off into the dungeon of fluffiness and we were ready for the main event: Taj Mahal. I'd actually bought this game for Chris many moons ago, but only today did he pop open the cardboard bits. Deferred gratification allied to iron discipline, or indifferent waffiness? You decide.

As I hope we'll be playing this on a GNN night soon, here's a quick summary of the rules.

The game takes place over 12 rounds, each round represented by a region of India to be contested by the players. How? By playing colour-co-ordinated cards (there are four suits and each player is (usually) obliged to stick with the colour they first lay) and hopefully winning at least one of five categories - Elephants, Viziers, Monks, Generals, and Princesses - all of which are represented on the cards in various combinations. Win the Elephants and you get to pick up goods (more of which in a minute), win any other category and you get to place a Palace - placing a palace scores you a point, and making a chain of palaces through different regions during the course of the game will give you more points. Win more than one category - place more than one palace. Great. But remember you only get one point per region for palaces, so multiple palaces in the same region do not get you multiple points.

How do you win? By having the most of something at the point you withdraw from the bidding. Your used bidding cards go into the discard stack and you place a palace, scoring your point. You then replenish your hand by two cards from a display (or one if you're last to finish) and you're then done for that round. Watch the other players throw their cards down with abandon, possibly weakening their hand in the process!

Winning Viziers, Monks, Generals or Princesses will also mean you get a little character tile of the category in question. You only need to collect two identical tiles to trade them in (involuntarily) for a special card. The special cards can help you in different ways; extra elephants (always helpful) extra victory points (ditto) changing card-colour during card-play (normally forbidden) and an extra Grand Mogul.

Oh, the Grand Mogul. He's a category but unlike the others he doesn't give you a tile or win you a special card. What he does is allow you to place a palace in the region (and score for it as normal) but rather than being tied to available spaces you can place the palace on any space you like - even an occupied one. The benefit of the Grand Mogul is really the fact it can help you make chains of regions even after someone has tried to block you.

So the special cards are very helpful, and unlike normal cards you don't have to discard them after bidding. But you can - and will - get them pinched off you by someone else when they get the two tiles needed to qualify for it. So the special cards can move around a little bit between players.

Back to Elephants then. They look like the poorer brother of the Viziers etc but actually they tend to be the most hotly contested category of all. Partly because they appear on the cards more than any of the other characters, and partly because when you win the Elephants, if you remember, you pick up goods. These score a point each, but crucially, pick up matching goods from another region and you not only score for the goods you picked up, but the chains of goods you're making. Pick up a rice to add to the two rice you already had and that's 1pt for your new good, and 3pts for the chain you've made. In a game of relatively low scores, these can be pivotal.

So that's about it. A couple of things about bidding though - the general rule is you bid one card at a time (and have to follow your own choice of suit) and wait for the bid to come back to you before either adding to your bid or withdrawing. But there are several white cards which are jokers, and you're allowed to lay one of these in addition to your suited card. Having a couple of these in your hand can be very helpful, as you can be a bit bossy with them about what you want.

If you withdraw from the bidding without laying any cards at all, you pick up three cards instead of the standard two. (Last out and you only get one, remember).

Finally there are some little extra chits dotted about randomly that will give you an extra card, an extra good, or an extra couple of points when you lay a palace on them. And finally finally the cards in your hand count for something at the end of the game - 1pt per white card (special cards and jokers) and 1pt-per-card of the suit you have most of.

We really liked it. Andrew did think that it encouraged card-hoarding, but I'm not so sure. If you're not laying cards, you're not picking up points, so it's more about trying to maximise what you get from as few cards laid as possible. If you only have 2 or 3 cards in your hand you'll look weak; if you have quite a few you'll look strong, so there's a little element of bluff to the game as well.

Chris led the game for most of it only to be caught on the final straight as I stampeded into round 12 on the back of my yellow elephants:

Sam 44

Chris 42

Paul 36

Andrew 24

I hope if we play it tonight we can be a little more grown-up about the euphemistic possibilities the game offers. Paul stating that "I can't beat Andy's little man, so I withdraw" had the rest of us sniggering like schoolboys.

We still had time for one last round of Trans-Europa - with 4 players this time - and again Paul came to the fore, finishing just ahead of me as Chris and Andy were swatted off the board:

Paul 3

Sam 4

Andrew 13

Chris 17

So, like the song goes, Reiner's done it again. Thanks to Chris for hosting, I was almost hallucinatory on the drive home so not sure I can make it a regular thing, but it was good to have a change of scene - and a change of game too.