Getting back into orbit

 I arrived at Sam’s to find Ian, Sam, Martin and Adam H having just finished their second game of Strike! This dice rolling arena game has been a firm favourite for the past few weeks, but I’ve yet to have a single game.

Joe also arrived shortly after me and, with all six expected participants, we began a game of Swat. This was new to Adam, and he was given a rules refresher. Five of us sat around with one hand face down on the table like a nervous seance while the sixth one dealt out the cards. When we were happy with what we’d seen, we’d slap the cardboard rectangle and make our claim. At one point me, Joe and Martin swatted just as a negative card was revealed and suddenly we were all very gentlemanly in our insistence that we can’t have been the quickest. I got zero in round one and never recovered. Joe was in the lead from round one and never looked back.

Joe 73

Martin 59

Ian 53

Adam 48

Sam 45

Andrew 31

Then Katy texted to say she’d be here at nine o’clock, which meant we had enough time for a game of So Clover. But what a vexatious game it was. After Joe went clear, we failed on Sam’s with a difficult decoy. Martin went clear despite using “formicarium” as a clue and then I failed miserably with a difficult clover, unwittingly two of my clues, “stink” and “fishy” overlapped, and on top of that a third clue “Pi” was a reference to Life of Pi (Circus/Raft) but only made sense if you’d got the other three clues first. Katy arrived mid-game and she was the first to mention the film. Ian and Adam also failed, despite Adam’s lovely clue of “Tarot” for “essence/forecast”.

24 out of 36

Then Katy arrived and we split into two groups. Ian, Adam and I went for Orbit while Martin, Joe, Sam and Katy played Gambler x Gamble! It seemed to go by very fast, with Joe reaching 14 coins in double quick time. Then the next time I looked, they were all in a position to come first, with Joe winning thanks to his instant win 4 gambler paying out.

Then they played Tiger & Dragon.

Martin 10

Joe 6

Katy 3

Sam 0

And Trendy

Sam 38

Katy 36

Joe 35

Martin 35

And finished off with three more games of Strike, with Katy, Joe and Martin winning one game each.

As for Orbit, I was Japan, Ian was China and Adam chose Russia (although he rejected their black pieces for his usual yellow). I was a bit rusty (like my spaceships, lol) on the rules but it was fine once we got going. 

As always, start with the planets in the astronomically correct place

I stayed entirely inside the asteroid belt for the whole game while Ian and Adam zipped around the solar system willy nilly. Adam quickly levelled up his feul and points statistics to great effect, while Ian slipped back to third after some drawing unlucky mission cards.

Adam 47

Andrew 23

Ian 21

And then, we were done. For once, with no work tomorrow, I stayed until the end. Orbit might have been a brave choice at nine in the evening, but I was in the mood for something more Euro-y so I was happy. Maybe one day I’ll play Strike.

Everything’s better with chips

I arrived bright and early this week, but still late enough to miss two games of Strike. Martin ended the second one in fine style with twice as many dice as he started.

Laura was expected soon, so we split into two groups. Adam H, Sam and Katy played the excitingly-titled Little Town which Martin said was “quite good, considering it’s a worker placement game.” Joe (hosting), Martin and myself played a short game of Narabi.

It’s an odd game, a co-op in which we have to arrange the numbered stones in front of us in ascending or descending order. Each of us had four cards in front of us and each card had a rule restricting how it could move on the back that only we could read but couldn’t discuss with the other players. If the game was supposed to evoke a sense of zen calm, then it succeeded. Maybe I was just tired, but it seemed to drift past quite serenely. We completed it after using only half the number of turns allotted to us.

Then Laura arrived and we changed from tranquil teamwork to mind-reading rivals in Gambler x Gamble! This Japanese game is hard to find, or at least it was until Joe picked it up this week for £12. Laura was introduced to the game but maybe Joe should’ve listening in too. At one point, when making a secret bid, he put his card face up and declared “Zero” which was either an audacious bluff or he’d forgotten the rules.

This time we did away with the game’s tiny plastic chips in favour of Joe’s genuine poker chips. This gave rise to someone uttering the title for this blog post. It was also ironic because, apart from some chocolatey biscuits that Katy handed round, no one brought any snacks at all.

As for Gambler x Gamble!, I won again. It was my turn and I needed any of my three gamblers, 2, 3 or 6, to pay out and then I’d hit the winning score of 15. Meanwhile, Martin had the instawin 4 card in front of him, so I needed to be careful. I can’t actually remember what I did, but it was brilliant and I ended up with 17 points for the win.

As for Little Town, all I know is that whenever I looked over, Adam seemed to picking up the last cubes of a particular resource.

Sam 56

Adam 51

Katy 49

Next we played Schrille Stille, a game “like no other,” promised Joe. It was six-player so Joe and Sam teamed up for this crazy game of music industry mayhem. In the game, we have to influence and also predict the Top 14 of a chart full of fictional artists, with each of us representing a record label. Our votes were given using a large cardboard CD which looked more like a rotary dial on an old telephone. Little wooden disks would be put into the little round holes and then those disks would be dropped into a contraption which could then release everyone’s disks for one particular artist at a time.

It’s all very clever from an engineering perspective, although at one point it did feel like every rule came with its own bespoke piece of equipment. And with six people voting for artists to rise or fall, it was hard to feel like you had any influence in the game. After round one, for example, I was miles in the lead and no one was more surprised than me.

But, like Stock, Aitken and Waterman all rolled into one, my star fell as quickly as it had risen. By round three, Martin was level with me and I scored only two points in the final round as Martin went past the 50 point mark that we’d set as the finishing line.

Laura had to leave mid-game so Sam left his partnership with Joe to take over her ailing record label and he oversaw a swift increase in revenue, taking it from last to second in the final round. Adam didn’t seem to like it and I’m inclined to agree. I had fun, but it was more of an activity than a game.

Martin 52

Laura/Sam 41

Joe/Sam 40

Katy 40

Andrew 37

Adam 32

Next we played So Clover as a nice warm down for those of us eyeing the clock. Sam and I went clear, with my clover being solved so quickly that I was actually a little disappointed. Martin also went clear, albeit after he was obliged to give us a clue. Katy took issue with “fireman,” insisting it should be “firefighter” and she even erased it until Martin objected, saying there was a reason for specifying gender. This led us to the word “big” as one of the correct answers, which I don’t think we’d have otherwise got.

The fastest ever clover?

I think we were wrong on Katy’s but then we somehow navigated Adam’s clover with the clue “Colonel” written on it. Eventually we settled for “Mustard/Pigeon” although we couldn’t think of a reason for Pigeon. Adam admitted afterwards that he couldn’t think of a clue for both words, so he just clued “Mustard” and hoped for the best.

Finally was Joe’s clover in which we got three tiles wrong. This was all the more appalling because we’d had it correct earlier on. The problem clue was “Sam” which we initially paired with “Root/Bike” because he likes the game Root and he rides a bike. But then someone noticed “screen/right” and that worked too because he’s a screenwriter. So we rearranged the tiles and sat back, anticipating congratulations, only to receive opprobrium instead. We went back to our earlier guess and finally got it right.

At first, everyone but Joe and Martin were making moves to leave, but in the end Katy was tempted by one last game of Piece o' Cake. Best decision she made all evening.

Katy 44

Martin 33

Joe 31

Thanks all for a special evening. Same time next week.

Gamers x Games!

 I walked into Steve and Anja’s house a little after eight to find myself immediately thrown into the opening round of 6nimmt. I’d been dealt in and, if I’d remained absence, would’ve gone Dirk until my arrival.  Before then, they (Anja, Adam H, Luther, Sam, Joe, Martin and Ian) had played Strike, which Adam had won.

As for 6nimmt, I thought I’d done okay in round one until I added up my points and found myself ten points adrift in last place, while Joe was the early leader. At the end of the second round (of three) the scores we surprisingly close, with a cluster of players behind new leader Adam on 24, 26, 29, 30, 30, 31, 32.

In the final round, Luther said his heart was beating fast. It was his first game at 6nimmt, I think, and we made sure to explain that the cards were mean to everyone, not just him. We needn’t have worried. While Ian collapsed, Luther went clear and he and I grabbed an unlikely win.

Luther 32

Andrew 32

Joe 34

Anja 37

Martin 42

Sam 43

Adam 45

Ian 64

Then we split into two groups. Sam, Anja, Adam and the newly arrived Steve played Tiger and Dragon, a Japanese game I still know nothing about apart from it having nice pieces.

Martin, Ian, Joe and I played a new Japanese game, Gambler x Gamble! In this simple yet cunning game, one player plays a numbered tile face up and the other three play theirs face down. Then all the numbers are revealed and added up. The trick is to guess/influence/predict that this total matches one of the gambler cards in front of you. If so, then that gambler pays out. More gamblers can be bought in order to increase your opportunities of winning and they can also be flipped to super mode, where they can win you more. First to 15 coins wins.

Easy, except if no gambler pays out, then that’s a Gambler’s Fumble and the chip leader(s) have to pay half of their money, rounded up, into a special fund which may be redistributed later. This means you don’t want to be in the lead for too long.

I won with a piece of deduction that I’m rather proud of. I wanted my 6 to pay out, Joe had a 9 and Martin’s and Ian’s highest was both 5. I began with a face up 2 and the other three put theirs face down. I was sure Joe would go high, trying to hit his nine, while Ian and Martin would do the opposite. I guessed Joe would play a 3 and the other two both zeroes. Therefore I paid a coin to adjust the total up by one.

I was right! My six gambler paid out, and I hit 15 coins for the win! I was so excited that I forgot to note down the other players scores.

While they finished off T&D, we sped through a game of Trendy, which is basically the game Whale Riders: The Card Game was based on (and was, itself, based on something else). Midway through the game, Martin put down a 3 card when Anja, across the room and still playing T&D, said “three”. We were surprised at such psychic ability and, keen to see if it continued, I put down a card: a 4. “Five,” said Adam. The moment was ruined.

We played twice

Martin 31

Andrew 28

Ian 16

Joe 14

And then

Joe 43

Andrew 42

Martin 34

Ian 32

As for Tiger And Dragon, Sam won one game and Adam won twice.

Then we reshuffled a little. Steve explained that their games collection is loosely divided into two groups: games that Steve usually wins and games that Anja usually wins. Amazingly, Thurn and Taxis was brought out at this late hour (almost ten o’clock) and Anja, Sam, Joe and Adam sat down to play. I preferred something lighter, so I joined Martin, Steve and Ian for a game of Piece o' Cake.

In this game an 11-segment pie/cake or various flavours is split into four by one player. The others take turns choosing a piece and then the splitting player takes what’s last.  Each flavour has a value that you’ll score if you have the most or join most of that flavour. Otherwise you can “eat” you cake/pie immediately and score a point per blob of cream on the slice.

The start of the game was postponed after Martin spilled a little beer on the game. Despite being a small amount of liquid, it somehow managed to get on every single piece.

Ian went big on Chocolate cake, with it’s 11-point value. He collected four early on, which seems like a loss since they had three blobs of cream each and could’ve been eaten for 12 points, but it certainly rendered everyone else’s chocolate cake valueless. I, on the other hand, went for lower scoring pieces and ate the rest. It was lovely.

Andrew 35

Steve 34

Martin 32

Ian 24

I left at this point, and Martin, Steve and Ian played Strike three times. Martin won twice but, when he emailed me, he couldn’t remember who won the third. Then they played High Score

Martin 17

Ian 13

Steve 11

As for late night game of Thurn and Taxis, I got a message from Sam at half past eleven with a photo and the scores.

Adam 26

Joe 15

Sam 11

Anja 3

Thanks for hosting Steve and Anja. See you all next week.

Six Sixteen

With Andrew one of a few late drop-outs, blogging duties fell to me (Sam) and unfortunately I missed the rousing opening of Strike!, Martin's new dice game, arriving only in time to see Adam T's triumph and Adam H's chagrin. The host was Joe, and arriving at the same time as me was Gareth. 

Now a six and destined no longer for any more arrivals, we set up another new Martin title, called King Up. Essentially a series of elections, several wannabe monarchs - the discs - are positioned at the bottom of the board, and on your turn you simply push one up to the next level; assuming there's room to do so - each level can hold four wannabes. Naturally everyone has their own agenda: six aspirational nobles you'd like to either be king/queen, or at least still in the court when the round ends. 

They might get jettisoned when you or someone else elevates them to the throne: as soon as soon as this happens, there's an election with everyone voting aye or nay: only a universal aye will keep them there, otherwise they're kicked out of court. 

The problem is that although you always keep your aye card, you only have two nays to spend: once they're gone, they're gone, and everyone being hesitant to spend them can mean you end up with a monarch nobody wanted. There are three rounds and when a monarch is declared, all nobles score according to their position: on the throne is ten points, further down the board becomes a more paltry return. Although Martin scored the same as Joe and Adam T, he lost on a tie-breaker:

Joe/Adam T share the throne: 52
Martin - scheming Salieri: 52
Adam H - influential lord: 50
Gareth - noted dignitary: 46
Sam - nodding yes man: 45

A fun game. We then split into groups of three, with Adam T and Martin about to get schooled by Gareth in Rumble Nation and Adam H and I inviting a similar experience from Joe. Both are fairly simple games, but deeper than they first appear. Rumble Nation takes place in two acts, with armies added to the board before its territories scored in ascending order, and winning a territory allows you to add reinforcements wherever you have adjacent forces. Gareth took advantage of the domino effect and won something like seven or eight of the twelve available, as Martin and Adam looked on in despair, and the latter's embryonic winning streak was cut brutally short:

Gareth 49

Martin 37

Adam T 16

Meanwhile Joe, despite protesting he had no idea what he was doing, was trouncing Adam H and I at Tiger & Dragon. The game is super-simple - there are a bunch of numbered tiles; eight 8's, seven 7s. six 6's and so on down to a single one. There are two wilds (the tiger and dragon) one for any odd and the other for any even. Everyone draws X amount of tiles and tries to shed them quicker than anyone else, by playing a tile as attack. If the next player can defend by playing a matching tile, they do so (unless they pass) and now it's their turn to attack. If you play attack and everyone passes back to you, you get to discard a tile face-down, and attack again. 

That's it. But critical is watching what's gone out already and gauging when to pass, when to play low and when to go high. Only the winner of a round scores and they get more points for going out with a high tile (in theory at least, easier to defend against) than a low one. The exception is the 1, with which you shoot the moon and instantly win the game; I'm guessing because although it's the best attack tile it's the worst defence tile. 

We played three times, and Joe won every single round!

Whilst Adam and I were reeling at the dextrous hands of The Berge, the others played Piece O Cake, which they may tell you about in the comments. All I know is that it's the precursor to New York Slice. Whatever happened getting there, it was a resurgent Adam T who finished the experience with the biggest slice of the points:

Adam 42

Martin 38

Gareth 35

While they were finishing that, we'd blasted through a couple of games of Strike! and I now comprehended it. The inside of the box is basically the arena for dice-chucking and you're trying to get matching numbers. A single die starts in the arena and on a turn you throw one die at a time in there. If you don't get a match, you can either keep going - the more dice there are, obviously the greater chance of a match - or pass. If you run out of dice, you're out, and if your turn arrives with nothing in the arena at all, you must throw all of your dice! Additionally, there's no 1s but instead crosses. Any crosses rolled are removed from the game. 

You've little decisions to make - basically, keep going or pass - but it's a lot of fun anyway. Surprising too how many of us managed to actually miss the arena (even the box, in Joe's case) and lose a precious die as a result. I won game one, and Joe game two, before we reconvened as a six and busted out So Clover. And what a triumph this was, thanks in part to the kind of smutty clueage we'd usually only see from Katy. Or Joe. Or Martin. Or Ian. Or me. Anyway, when we opened with 6/6 we felt satisfied. Then as we kept hitting sixes, we grew into optimistic, tense, excited, and finally as triumphant as one can after connecting mustard wand the way Adam did.

36/36! Joe wrote the score into the Legend of Legends or whatever it's called. Adam T had a drive home to think of, so left on a high note. Adam H was looking sleepy, but stayed on for a 5-player crack at Tiger & Dragon. It's not as good at it's maximum player count, as there's very few tiles not in play and the passing option feels less enticing. Adam H got his revenge on Joe though, winning in two rounds even though he was now professing to have no strategic idea what he was doing. 

Then we played Strike! again! Joe won the first game after Martin was out on a single roll, announcing with joyous despair that it was his most fleeting involvement in a game ever. Then Gareth and Adam butted the three of us out to perform an epic, dramatic, swinging ding-dong finale as momentum swung about like a pendulum on time-lapse. Gareth's rolling was preposterous, but in the end Adam nabbed the win and like his namesake, went out on a giddy high. Gareth retired as well and myself, Joe and Martin tried out Lettertricks, where you win tricks to put together letters to then make a word. I wasn't bowled over by the competitive game: even playing badly (as I no doubt did) I ended up with a Z and an L. Joe fared a little better, making a three-letter word (I think) but Martin had multiple letters and trounced us partly by virtue of having lots of late-alphabet letter cards, if I recall. But apparently it's more suited to four.

We tried the co-op version, where you collaborate to spell words as you play, hampered by both a lack of vowels and having to follow suit. We succeeded in winning (scoring more than the required 12 words) but to me it felt like an unsuccessful cross of Letterpress and and The Crew. Maybe because I was getting rather tired though, and I bowed out, leaving Joe and Martin to finish the evening with a head to head of Hanamikoji. Martin won the sixteenth game of an action-packed night!

 

Games night of the living dead

 I arrived at 8, just in time to see the final stages of La Fiesta de los Muertos, the game of guessing identities according to clues based on clues based on clues. I was handed a card and asked to pair clue to personality as best I could. The scores (and this may as well be how I introduce everyone) were

Adam (H), Sam, Laura (hosting) 5

Joe, Ian, Katy 4

Me 3

Then we played 6nimmt (the zombie version). Once this would have been the big end-of-evening crescendo but, with so many of us leaving early these days, the only chance to play a large scale version is at the start of the evening.

It was a disaster. Maybe we weren’t drunk enough or maybe we've relied on Martin too much as an arranger/adjudicator but there were a few confusing moments when cards were played to the wrong row or in the wrong order. Katy told everyone that “it’s not so bad” when they picked up a row of five or ten points but then was appalled when she ended round one with 16 points. Joe spent most of round three trying to skim his cards across the table into the correct place, which never worked but he did go clear in that round so perhaps, in a way, it did.  He also tried to Faro Shuffle the entire deck in one go, threatening to give him hand cramps.

Finally, we stumbled to the end. Laura’s first ever game of 6nimmt was a brutal introduction.

Joe 11

Katy 27

Ian 32

Andrew 38

Adam 49

Sam 49

Laura 85

So we put that away with a firm resolve to not play it unless Martin was here, and decided on our next adventure. Katy was keen to continue the zombies theme with Hit Z Road, and she persuaded Laura, Joe and Ian into a jaunt across America. Sam, Adam and I revisited Gold West. This game hasn’t been seen since 2017 and, amazingly, the last time I played it, the other half of the table was hosting Hit Z Road as well!

Sam explained while Adam and I listened, but Adam clearly listened better as he sped off into an early lead. It was close, though, and at the end of round eight (out of twelve) I was in the lead by a single point. Adam went big on metal for cards, while Sam did a lot of looting, which is what you have to do if you don’t have the resources to build a settlement. I hoped for those end-of-game bonuses on having the most discs of each colour.

Adam 103

Andrew 94

Sam 80

But Hit Z Road was still in it’s final stages. Katy had long since died, like a character in a TV series who has to die early on otherwise the zombies just won’t seem threatening. Pity. She’d even lined up her meeples in single file, with her at the back.

I left before they reached the ocean but apparently it ended

Ian

Laura

Joe… all made it

Katy… will be remembered fondly

Then they played Skylo twice

Adam 4

Ian 16

Sam 22

Katy 23

Joe 24

Laura 35

And

Joe 13

Ian 14

Adam 15

Sam 18

Katy 27

Laura 31

Thanks all. See you next week.

Bremen over with enthusiasm

 I arrived at 8, during a four player (Sam the host, Ian, Joe and Gareth)game of Kiitos. They cut it short for my benefit so I only got to see one word completed: "Codger" whose points went to Gareth.

Gareth 6

Sam 0

Ian -5

Joe -5

Since we were a fivesome we chose Hansa Teutonica as our main event. It’s a recent returnee to GNN and, after ten years, I needed a rules explanation and so did Ian and Gareth who were both new to the game.

We began in feisty mood, getting in each other’s way, hoping to have our counters bumped off routes so we’d be able to place two counters in adjacent routes. Gareth seemed to be a quick learner and made some shrewd moves but then, a few rounds later, he was still in last, with Joe a distant leader and Sam, Ian and I clustered around the mid-point between them.

We listened to Nick Lowe, who sounded like a number of different artists, and who Spotify believed only has a few songs. We were slowly getting to grips with Hansa Teutonica when Gareth completed the east-west route, pretty much in a straight line. We really should have stopped him earlier. This nabbed him a whole bunch of points and pushed him into joint first. Then my twin towns around a privilege action started scoring me pairs of points and I edged into the lead. In fact, the game ended when I reached 20 points, thanks to Joe completing a route with a town of mine on it.

But my lead was short-lived. Gareth’s bonuses pushed him further and further ahead, leaving us all with a sense of having been thoroughly schooled.

Gareth 51

Joe 37

Andrew 32

Sam 27

Ian 27

Next up was So Clover. Alas, we fell well short of perfection thanks to some unfortunate decoy cards. My clue for “feed/poison” was “Assassinate” but I was distraught when the decoy had “witness” on it, especially since it had a second word that kind of fitted another clue too.

Ian was also tripped up. His clue was “wattle” and we paired it with “rooster/mud” and just as we were congratulating him on such a clever clue, he reached over and removed the “mud” card. We got the right answer next go, but that was a cruel stroke of luck. Only Gareth and Sam got 6 out of 6, with Joe struggling with the pair “cream/needle” and finally he went for “vinyl”. Because of Cream, the band, see?

30 out of 36

Then Ian and I set off home while Gareth, Joe and Sam polished off a quick game of NMBR9

Sam 76

Joe 68

Gareth 38

And then finally, after Gareth had also departed, Sam and Joe played Kiitos again.

Sam 29

Joe -16

Thanks all. See you next Tuesday.

The only way is F6

 By the time I'd arrived at 8 o'clock I'd already received a picture of the evening in full swing, as Ian, Martin, Katy, Sam and host Joe began with Cross Clues, scoring 24/25.

By the time I'd arrived (seconds after I received a second photo of them having finished another game 22/25) Martin, Joe and Sam had settled on Hansa Teutonica while Ian, Katy and I pondered our options. Quite limited options, as it happened, and Katy rued not bringing Isle of Skye. In the end we chose something we all knew: Lords of Vegas. 

My initial plan was to sprawl early, nabbing F6 and F5 to make a lovely six-tile casino up on Harmon Avenue and Strip. Ian started well while Katy tried to boost her meagre cash reserves by gambling, failing three times in a row. But then the strip paid out and then her three tile gold casino paid out twice in a row. This meant she was able to exploit all those empty lots near Ian's casinos and before long she was in an unstoppable position. 

Ian and I jostled for second. Ian completed an audacious reroll of my five tile casino with only one of his dice in it. But I got it straight back. Katy ended the game building more casinos than she had dice. Finally the game over card appeared just as I was about to unleash my winning strategy (which would've still only got me a closer second place).

Ian's amazing reroll

Katy 49

Andrew 36

Ian 32

As for Hansa Teutonica, I remember little except remarks about how boring the food was on the little plate tokens and Sam remarking that the person complaining most was the one in the lead, before clarifying that they were all complaining.

Martin 54

Sam 52

Joe 38

Martin remarked it'd probably be a really good game once you knew what you were doing.

They'd finished before us and they filled the time with a quick game of Don Carlo. A game so apparently simple that you may be able to work out the rules just by looking at the photo.

Joe 76

Sam 51

Martin 50

My departure was growing near so I was pleased to hear So Clover as a suggestion. We played with the usual amount sighing, especially from Joe who took so long that Katy suggested he just pass. But everyone struggled and I took the chance to be the first one to complete all four clues.

Ian and I - a solid start

Meanwhile, Sam had to resort to googling something to help him out. My clues and Ian's were successfully deduced. Then Katy, too, scored six out of six, but I'm not sure how since one of her clues relied on a film titled "the silence of killing" only to later be told it was actually called "the act of killing."

Sam's googled clue was a success but he was undone by trying to clue "beer/detergent" with "toilets". Finally, after Martin went clear, we came to Joe's Clover that almost defeated him. And we cleared it! The tricky couple in question was "royal/flour" which he eventually decided on "chapati" because… Indian food is sort of regal. Something like that. It worked, though.

34 out of 36

With that, I set off home. They finished with American Bookshop which Sam won. Joe second and Martin last, with Ian and Katy somewhere in the middle. Results to follow, maybe.