Chippencon!

Friday

With Paul J the quiet instigator of the idea, the old London branch of GNN coalesced this weekend at Chris's house in Chippenham: as well as the host, Paul J and myself there was Paul H for the duration, Stuart on Friday night and then Andrew on Saturday. 

But all this was ahead of us as I arrived at midday on Friday and after catching up with Jacquie and the kids, Chris and I shot off to collect Paul J from the station. Then after a second-wave newsbeat, we started gaming! We kicked things off with Babylonia, new to both Paul and Chris but a relatively easy teach. 

We played slightly too open, having the full board instead of the slightly condensed one for three, but that made it an easier learning game:

Sam 149

Chris 147

Paul 99

And now familiar with it, both were enthusiastic for another crack.

My long and arduous master-and-apprentice defeats at the hands of Martin stood me in good stead once more:

Sam 123

Paul 99

Chris 96

Lovely to find two more converts! We moved on to Sushi Go, the game of card-drafting Japanese foodstuffs. Owing to a misunderstanding over chopsticks, I ruled myself out of contention after round one, but it's not exactly a grind.

Paul 72

Chris 59

Sam 46

 Paul began a four-game winning run here, following his Sushi Go triumph with victories in Alhambra:

Kingdomino...

And Kingdom Builder.

Chris was appalled to finish third in every instance, voicing aloud his regret at the very idea of Chippencon. Things didn't improve immediately for him when Paul H arrived, as we kicked off with Tournament Raj and despite a huge last-round haul, he still finished last. Paul J and I slugged it out for first place, but he shrugged me off to claim a fifth victory in a row!

Paul J 60

Sam 51

Paul 45

Chris 33

With tea consumed - thank you Chris and Jacquie - and Stuart freshly arrived, we fancied something a bit feistier now, and so I talked them through the rules of Hansa Teutonica. 

Despite my encouragements to get sabotaging. everyone was very polite at the start and the first couple of rounds were slightly after-you-sir. But soon enough we were getting in each other's way and the cussing ramped up slightly. The initial sense of being hobbled by two actions fell away as we proliferated across the board and engines kicked into gear. 

After an hour of cross-postal interference, Stuart leapt from an innocuous fourth place into joint first with Chris, and I couldn't quite catch them. We checked the rules for a tie-breaker and Chris' fewer actions-per-turn won him the game!

Chris 38 wins tiebreaker 

Stuart 38

Sam 37

Paul H 29

Paul J 25

Now into the meat of the evening, we debated our five-player options. Paul J was understandably reluctant to learn another set of rules at this point, so we alighted on Istanbul, needing a mostly-fringe-area refreshment on rules. I forgot to take any photos at this point, but suffice to say Paul H was now warmed-up and moved through the gears to wrap up a relatively straightforward win, grabbing his fifth gem with the rest of us at least two turns away from doing likewise:

Paul H five gems!!!!

Sam  4 gems 31 cash 

Paul J 4 gems 6 cash

Stuart 4 gems 1 cash 

Chris 3 gems 13 cash 

The hour was getting late so with the request for something 'silly' I suggested Block Party.

Although this meant another set of rules, the fact they only take about 45 seconds to explain meant we were off and running quickly. And Chris made a banana. 

"I tried to bend it" he cried, but it mattered not: Stuart identified it. I guessed Paul H's spider and he saw the fire engine in my creation. We all ran the highs and lows of emotions - my milk bottle was alleged to be a snowman, a mountain, and an igloo - but ultimately the last game of the night saw Chris triumph:

Chris 11

Sam 10

Paul and Paul 8

Stuart 7

Saturday

I surfaced at around 8.15 to an extremely muggy day. We threw opens doors and windows to try and get some air into the house. Chester enjoyed having all these access points to the house. 

As well as the visiting articles to investigate. 

After breakfast, Jacquie liked the idea of trying out Block Party, so we did. Despite some creative performance anxiety, her debut creation was this beautiful pineapple:

However despite a frankly shambolic attempt at a door (in dubious colour choices of grey and pink) Chris triumphed again. I lost track of where Jacquie, Paul J and I finished.

Apart from that intense Block Party workout it was a fairly lazy morning. Paul H returned at 11am and while Chris prepped the chilli for later, he talked Paul J and I through the workings of Imhotep.

I think I played this about eight years ago, and I found it's piece-of-string machinations just as opaque this time, as players choose whether to add cubes to boats, or sail a full-enough boat to one of several possible destinations. It's fun, but I am really awful at judging anything being a good decision, and my focus on building a massive Burial Chamber didn't match up to the canny shenanigans of the Pauls, with Paul J claiming a debut victory!

Paul J 49

Paul H 41

Sam 39

Then with Chris back at the table, we returned to Babylonia. 

This was a corker, as leads between the Pauls and Chris ebbed and flowed whilst I languished back on a measly five points, hoping to draw enough farmers to use my ziggurat power. They didn't arrive and I had to focus my efforts building a central network that Chris spotted was going to haul me in some juicy points when they started paying out. I agreed, but I didn't think I'd close the now huge gap between Paul J (at this point) on something like 110 while I was back in the 30's somewhere. But as it turned out, it was damn close!

Chris 138

Sam 136

Paul J 130

Paul H 107

A baptism of fire for Paul H, then, but the next game - after our classic Lunch of Beige - was one he knew intimately: Eclipse! 

This was Chris's second-edition version, with some minor rules modifications (and one less round) and some faction asymmetry, but largely the same narrative: early rounds are developing tech and kitting out ships, building towards a massive bunfight at the end. Except here the bunfight never really materialised: Paul H and I established an alliance, and Chris and Paul J did the same.  Chris considered attacking Paul H, but decided against it because it looked like a death wish.

My dreams of peaceful expansion were undone by poor planning and ill fortune and I spent a few rounds only doing two actions and then passing early. The others expanded more successfully and built monstrously-violent death machines of the cosmos in a sort of cardboard cold war.

Then at the death Chris attacked the central hex and quickly reenforced his dominance there. He tried to take some hexes off me but didn't roll what he needed and we all eyed him warily. Oddly, his aggression went unrewarded in the sense of point-scoring, with Paul H's 'In Bed With the Ancients' faction grabbing victory:

Paul H 33

Paul J and Sam 32 each

Chris 30

Though it was certainly not a damp squib, I didn't enjoy Eclipse as much as I used to. It's a long haul to get to the more-exciting finale (caveat: my adjacency to that was more my fault than the games') and at times it feels a bit like a slightly protracted drum-roll. There's a lot to consider as well, and if it's a more elegant construction than Xia's everything-by-dice, it doesn't feel as stupidly fun. 

Speaking of dice, though, next up - after the very delicious chilli, and a quick sortie to the shops - was Las Vegas. It's not a game that supplies quite the epic narrative Eclipse does, but it was a nice pallet-cleanser:

Sam $510k

Paul J $470

Chris $380

Paul H $280

We knew Andrew was imminent, but just had enough time for another four-hander in the little-seen (by me at least) Timeline! I couldn't help but notice a seam of dark comedy in the images, with a number of characters looking vaguely psychotic.

Paul H won this. I discovered the refrigerator was invented much earlier than I'd anticipated, but now with crushing inevitability the exact year escapes me.

Paul H wins

Sam and Paul J 1 card

Chris 2 cards 

Andrew arrived just as we finished and after the briefest of catch-ups the discussion of what to play as a five began. Dominant Species? A bit long. Twilight Imperium? Very long. Istanbul? A bit short. We settled on Lords of Waterdeep. With no Martin or Ian present I elected to play green, so the colour/game combo made it feel a bit like 2010, as Prince used to sing.

Early on it was fairly even - I shot off on the scoretrack to 32 but had a bunch of skulls that made my actual score a current 14. Paul H pulled ahead and played some dastardly intrigue that balanced out revealing his Lord with the fact we couldn't target him all game. That was a bummer. Meanwhile I pulled ahead again, and Chris targeted me with one of those bastard mandatory quests that I'm definitely not still sore about. Andrew mostly chuckled at the names of the quests.

Incredible scenes at the end as Paul H pulled so far ahead it was almost embarrassing. My late game recovery wasn't enough to catch a resurgent Chris, and a briefly-dominant Paul J found Andrew had enough to sneak past him in the final count.

Paul H 166

Chris 148

Sam 144

Andrew 134

Paul J 131

After twelve hours of gaming I suddenly got hit by an ocular migraine, and had to play my final game (Incan Gold) with my eyes largely closed and Chris communicating events to me ("Zombie Lady!"). Paul J and Chris lacked our frugal conservatism and, falling behind, risked life and limb - and ultimately lost life and limbs - in wild attempts to recover.

In the end, however, it was Paul H who took yet another win!

PH 34

Andrew 32

Sam 26

Chris 20

PJ 0

And at this point, with my vision no better, I had to take myself to a dark room. It was a bit of a underwhelming way to end Chippencon and I was gutted to miss Chris and Andrew take on the Pauls in Decrypto! The Pauls won, though what the words and dramas were maybe we'll learn in the comments.

Thanks to Chris Jacquie and kids for putting up with us all, and everyone attending for making it fun.  

The Suiting Floatcases of Smalmsbury

It promised to be a bumper nine of us at one point, but unfortunately we lost Anja to fatigue. With Katy arriving a bit later - distracted by the Tour de France - just after 7.30 there were seven of us raring to go: Adam T, Ian, Laura, Joe, Martin, Gareth and myself (Sam). We kicked off with That's Not a Hat. 

Each player gets a card with an image on it to start from a deck of distinct images. Then someone takes a new card from the deck, flips their first one over, and passes it to a neighbour (the back of the card instructs which way to pass). When they do, they say aloud the image that's on the card. The receiver then flips their own card over and passes that one, doing the same thing. And so ultimately all the cards are face-down and everyone's trying to remember what their own card is as well as keep track of what the card that's currently travelling around the table is.

If you doubt the accuracy of what the card you've been passed was described as, you can challenge and flip the card over. The loser keeps the revealed card and we go again. First to three lost challenges is the loser, which in our case was... Laura, I think? She seemed to enjoy it despite that. Fun!

We still had some pre-Katy time so busted out Not that Movie, which regaled us with dubiously-monikered cinema such as Pulp in the Hole. In our first round everyone chose the same movie except me. My crestfallen shame was to be diluted though as first Adam, then Ian, fell foul of the same fate.

I think we only got the perfect score once, aided in no small part by the reviews seeming to very much suggest a particular movie:

Then, with Katy imminent, we decided she'd be fine with playing Mille Fiori so Joe Ian and Laura began setting it up. The rest of us tried our hands at Martin's new fave, Hooky. Has Andrew explained this before? I think he has, but with two newbies in Adam and I Martin ran through the simple rules.

Simple rules, but a brow-furrowing experience as everyone tries to figure out what letters everyone else has in order to then figure out what the three 'missing' letters are. We lapsed into long pauses whilst at the other end of the table, the pace was brisker and the mood more buoyant. Katy looks like she's hating here, but I think that's just the curse of my camera.

Hooky ended after an intense hour with all of us throwing up our hands in various degrees of confusion and disgust. It transpired that Martin's workings-out had been thrown by Gareth assuming 'smarm' was spelled 'smalm' due no doubt to his psychological preoccupation with Malmsbury. "It's the only word we didn't spell aloud" Gareth lamented, which was oddly true. I have to say though, smalm made no difference to me. I was chucking stones in the dark at this point, which proved good enough to claim second:

Martin 35

Sam 24

Gareth 23

Adam 8

I enjoyed trying it out, but for my tastes (not to mention brain) it's a bit more like work than fun. It's a curious theme, too, for such a brain-exercising puzzle. 

Mille Fiori ended now too, and Katy definitely enjoyed it:

Katy 213

Ian 204

Joe 190

Laura 152

And we split groups again, with Joe, Martin, Katy and Adam playing Inside Job, new to Katy. 

The rest of us Quantum. A learning experience for Gareth, but his ability to absorb rules and Quantum's exceptions largely being printed on cards meant we were off and running inside ten minutes. 

Laura took an early lead and found herself targeted. I found myself with multiple '3' ships and used them to go around being a pain in the arse for everyone, getting my dominance up to 6 and drawing level. But on the other side of the board both Ian and Gareth did likewise. 

Gareth found a great card combo of deploying for free and removing a ship to gain an extra action. As the game rapidly escalated, I got a belated ass-kicking myself and Ian snuck in ahead of Laura, who was poised to get a cube down. As Ian was primed to win on his next turn - if left unmolested - Gareth snuck in ahead of all of us for a debut victory!

Laura now left us, bound for bed. At the other end of the table, they were still playing Inside Job, but promised us they were on the verge of finishing. We had a couple plays of Win Lose or Banana while we waited, with both Gareth (winner) and Ian (winner) successfully identifying the banana (me) on each occasion. I just have a trusting face. 

I think it was around this time that, a propos Inside Job's intel, someone spoonerised their way to 'suiting floatcases'. It may have been Gareth again? 

Either way, Inside Job's third play ended with:

Katy insider loses
Martin insider wins
Martin insider wins again

Joe was forlorn. "Everyone always suspects me" he said, which I found surprising, as I feel Joe's face is of the largely trustworthy kind (like mine). Adam left to drive home and we remainders gathered into a single group for So Clover. The grumbling was pronounced with this one, especially from Martin despite sitting down last and finishing first. And we did struggle with this opening clover, as there seemed to be not so much too few possibilities as too many. A 3 to begin.

After that however we picked up speed with a fairly rapid bunch of sixes, with Katy spotting that Capital Garbage went well with my clue of 'bankers'. There were some excellent clues from everyone and even a mid-game googling after Martin threw us with a word we were unfamiliar with (sward).

We stumbled slightly at the end but still pulled off a more-than-decent 31/36 to finish the night with a flourish.

Without a wordle

 When I arrived at Joe’s kitchen, a group of gamers (Joe, Ian, Martin, Gareth, Sam, Adam H) were in the final stages of a very tricky Cross Clues. The 5x5 grid was full of gaps and a look at the words along the edges explained why: Box and Chest were next to each other and, just for good measure, Wood was on the other axis.

16/25 with a regret that they hadn’t changed one of box or chest before they'd started.

Laura was expected in ten minutes so we simply re-dealt ourselves a new game and started again. We did much better this time with only a couple of mistakes. Ian clued “crown” which we immediately selected King and Hat, but it should’ve been King and Cauliflower. And Laura came in mid-game, was given a card and she clued “spur” before she’d even sat down and we got it wrong. But Ian made amends with a nice clue of Italy for Ma and Ankle.

23 out of 25

Next the eight of us split into two groups. Sam swiftly attracted three gamers when he casually asked if anyone fancied an apocalyptic death race. Sam, almost as swiftly, had to explain that wasn't the actual name of the game but it might as well be. Him, Laura, Ian and Adam set up for Thunder Road.

Meanwhile, Hooky got back onto the table with Me and Martin joined by newbies Gareth and Joe. Martin explained the rules while Joe provided the pens, although Martin asked for his brown crayon to be replaced. “It’s not a precision tool,” he maintained.

Hooky was played mostly in silence. The pauses were so long that when Gareth didn’t realise it was his turn, no one noticed for a good few minutes.

By means of contrast, the other end of the table was alive with action, as they spoke about shrapnel, mud, slams and airstrikes. Sam was eliminated before the game ended and Adam asked where the finish line was. In the end, Laura yelled “What is wrong with these dice?!” and Sam declared “we’re all equal losers.” It must’ve been carnage.

On the other hand, Hooky trundled towards a conclusion. Martin started thinking about how he’d redesign the player pads, since it is quite faffy to track each discovery in several different places.

Sam, Laura, Ian and Adam embarked on another race, this time the Quest for El Dorado. Adam got a rules refresher and then they set off across the jungle. I don’t remember much except for it being very close mid-game. Finally I heard whoops of victory and learnt that Laura had won, with Adam then Sam following. Only Ian couldn’t end, despite being closest to the finish in the last turn.

“Joint second?” Sam suggested to Adam. “Take it up with the judge,” he retorted.

1. Laura

2. Adam

3. Sam

4. Ian

By now we’d finished Hooky, with another lengthy bout of concentration for our final guesses, the only noise coming from Joe who complained that he'd run out of letters. But we got to the end, dazed and confused.

Martin 48

Andrew 25

Joe 25

Gareth 19

Next we played High Score, since it was a dice roller with little cognitive load. It was new to Gareth and we rolled them bones with the usual crazy examples of luck (or lack of) that you’d expect. In the end Martin won by the “most golds” tie-breaker.

Martin 12 (2 golds)

Joe 12 (1 gold)

Andrew 10

Gareth 9

Then, just to fill time while El Dorado ended, we dug out The Mind. Such hilarity as we stumbled through one round after another. Round 5, at least, was us back to our brilliant best and we got through that in fine style. Lost in round 6, though.

With that, Adam, me and Laura went and the remainers played So Clover and, according to Sam’s late night message, got 28 out of 30.

After this, Sam and Gareth left with the hardy final gamers about to commence a game of Sea Salt and Paper. No news of any results, though.

Thanks all. Next week, yeah?

I want it noted

Last night I beat Adam at Caverna. I had played it more recently than him, and he was distracted by children demanding crisps/first aid as well as more grown-up conversations with eye-witnesses, but let's face it this will never happen again and it should be noted.

Mwah ha ha ha etc

Playing hooky

 I arrived at 8pm, having received pics and news of the already attending players playing Fuji Flush (Martin won) and then Pairs (Martin lost then Ian lost). A nice retro start to the evening – remember when we always played these games? Happy days.

 

Two games were already in preparation when I walked into Sam’s kitchen. Sam, Adam T, Adam H and Gareth were at the beardy end of the table, setting up a game called The Staufer Dynasty.

 
Adam T gave the other three a lengthy rules explanation, during which Sam wilted visibly. Adam admitted he hadn’t played in about seven years. “Two more final things...” I heard him say as he checked something in the rule book.
 
At the other end of the table, Martin, Ian, Laura and I chose The Quest For El Dorado. It was new to Laura, so Martin gave a quick run down of the rules before we set off on our campaign of competitive exploration. Ian, Martin and I all buy a Captain, thinking its three-water value would help in what was a pretty blue map but all of us cursed its complete uselessness as we either got stuck in a desert (me and Ian) or circumnavigated it completely (Martin). Laura also got stuck in the desert and she mostly stayed there after Ian and then myself extricated ourselves from the sandy tar pit.

Martin was the first to reach the last part of the board, but then spent a turn dawdling such that Ian caught him up. One turn later, I was also on the final stretch and in a good position to win with my next go, when Ian crossed the finish line. Since he was the last player to start, the game ended immediately. Martin said he couldn’t get to El Dorado with his next cards anyway, despite being closer than me to the end so I suggested that meant that I’d actually finished 2nd because I could. Martin disagreed.

 
1. Ian
2. Martin
3. Andrew
4. Laura
 
Despite her last place, Laura seemed to like it a lot.
 
The Staufer Dynasty was still in full swing, so we dug out a game that looked for all the world like a light piece of fun. Hooky is a letter deduction game and the basic premise is that out of 26 cards with the alphabet on, three cards are removed from the game and eventually we have to deduce which letters they are. The players are dealt five cards (with letters on) each. By giving a player a five-letter word, they have to tell you how many times that their letters appear. Make notes and draw conclusions and make noises of despair while you think about what word to ask.

It was fun, although I did terribly. Another way of scoring is to guess what five letters the other players have and I was reduced to guessing letters based on personality, for example, Martin is just the kind of person to have a Q in his hand. And he did. One of the few correct guesses I made. Laura did slightly better than I did while Ian, who’d declared that he’d be surprised if he got any points at all, came second. Martin won, which is fair since he seemed to be most tortured over his choices by the end.

 
Martin 46
Ian 32
Laura 16
Andrew 15
 
Then the Staufer Dynasty ended.

 

Gareth 73
Adam T 62
Adam 61
Sam 58
 
Despite the early hour, barely past 10, I set off early having been woken by a car alarm that morning at 5.30. Laura and maybe Adam T (?) left too. The evening ended with a game of Insider Inside Job.
 

The agent won.

 
And then, of course, So Clover
 

22/24

 
Thanks all. See you again soon.

All Run Down by the Hillmann Express

The heat bore down like a big hot thing, so much so that Andrew was lost to us and Laura forgot to come and have fun, because she was having too much fun elsewhere. Keeping up slightly sweaty appearances at Martin's house were Adam H, Joe, Katy, Anja and myself. Anja was last to arrive so the rest of us played The Number, which despite the early hour conjured a number of insults, most notable of which was Adam getting called Dick Brain, who we decided sounded like a CIA operative. To be honest, with Adam it does feel like anything is possible. 

Despite ruminating on alleged mistakes he'd made, he still beat us all in a game that I find foggy to the point of breeze blocks. 

Adam 62

Katy 59

Martin 56

Sam 54

Joe 40

Then it was time for A game of selecting seven cards, speedily searching for synergies. I think this one genuinely takes longer to explain than it does to play, but that's not really a criticism as it was over in 90 seconds. I owe Martin apologies for more than once clinging on to cards as he attempted to take them. 

My dirty ways saw me victorious. 

Sam 18

Joe 15

Adam 10

Martin and Katy: 8 each

As I pondered inwardly how low I might stoop in gaming - especially against Martin (or Adam) - Anja arrived and we broke into two groups. Adam was gently cajoled into Mille Fiori by Joe and Anja as I inadvertently, but happily, signed up for Aristocracy thinking it was a six-player game. 

Andrew has explained the game on here before I think, but it bears repeating that the presentation slightly lets down an otherwise simple undertaking. On your turn you flip three tiles over, then choose one tile of any kind and harvest all matching kinds: this might be a literal harvest of resources, or trigger the placing of buildings, or evoke a kind of huffy harrumphing noise that all of us took turns at when we didn't flip what we wanted. "I'm swimming in fish!" Martin complained at one point. "I need to turn over two queens" I grumbled. 

Katy's pink buildings

Scoring is a bunch of overlapping objectives: sets of resources, sets of buildings both bunched together or widely dispersed, and connections made across the board. It reminded me of Sumatra, only the tile-flipping made it more fun. Martin was one tile away from winning when it ended - I was a little further back:

Katy 50

Martin 46

Sam 40

At the other end of the table it was Adam's turn to do a bit of harrumphing as things didn't go his way in Mille Fiori, and he expressed again his lack of enthusiasm for the game. Joe suggested he keep playing until he likes it.

Adam frowning

Joe's considerable record at Mille Fiori remains a thing, as the final count-up was agonising for Adam:

Joe 180
Anja 163
Adam 162

There was a quick bit of seat-shuffling and then Martin and Katy embarked on Mille Fiori with Anja, who was keen to play again. Adam, Joe and I did a pleasurable bit of game-discussing before Joe made the fatal error of suggesting Ticket to Ride and I the catastrophic mistake of agreeing. A strange, distant gleam came into Adam's eye...

We chose the Switzerland map which is best for three. The rules are the same except the usually-wild locomotives are no longer wild but only used for the (plentiful) tunnels; and as such you can pick up two of them instead of the standard one. I got off to a pitiful start when twice I tried to build a single section tunnel and found the roof caved in on me. 

Discard pile of shattered dreams

I distracted myself by taking photos and getting told by everyone that I always make them look terrible. I've no idea what they're talking about.

Just to show I can also take it, here's me as a chinny potato-head. See Adam scheming in the background? 

Adam didn't have time for such trifles as looking at a camera, as he was plotting a Ticket to Ride coup of such preposterous scale that, for Joe and I, it'll probably be our valedictory game, leaving us with not so much memories as PTSD. Things were looking ominous when he needed both hands to hold his cards, and then, like a carnivorous snake unravelling across a children's campsite, he built an enormous yellow train track from one side of the board to the other as Joe and I looked on in concern. 

moments earlier

The game didn't so much end as explode. Adam placed his last trains with a preternatural calm as Joe whitened. We had one last turn, and Adam already had a considerable lead thanks to his dastardly card-hoarding and thinking about things. I picked up routes, and it was a mistake, knocking back my score by a hefty chunk. I can't remember what Joe did. But he counted up all his routes and announced they were collectively worth minus one point. Adam lapped him.

Adam 146

Sam 93

Joe 43

Mille Fiori finished around the same time, I think, with Martin's incessant rewarding himself extra turns making the difference in the long run:

Martin 218

Katy 181

Anja 175

There was just time for So Clover to finish. We were surprised to find Anja had never actually played it and it was her debut game. As always, the act of playing opens with The Grumbling, wherein we all complain that our words are terrible.

Then we go off in wildly lateral directions before hopefully coming to a productive conceptual compromise. And after an uncertain start where the rest of us weren't quite in tune with Anja's clues, it was a more than decent attempt, scoring 30/36. Mainly though we got to tease Adam about taking ages over his clues. Does it make up for Ticket to Ride? 

Probably not.