Evolution, Tiny Epic Galaxies and Codenames

The quiz this time is from the box cover of an excellent 2 player game.

The last quiz was Seeland a tile laying game by Ravensburger with the theme being bulb growing and windmill building. Sadly I was absent this week so the report is going to be a little shorter than normal, the evenings photos courtesy of J&P.

Table 1 started with Five Tribes, despite its several appearances I have not given it a try yet and all I know is that you move and place meeples as in Mancala, where you place the last one dictates the action you can take on that tile dependent on the colour of that meeple.

The Gardens of Alhambra (aka Carat) near the games end

Table 1 continued with The Gardens of the Alhambra, a simple tile laying game where the idea is to surround victory point markers through tile placement. It was originally released as Carat in 1993 and has been re-themed under the “Alhambra” banner, it plays very smoothly and has simple placement rules. It is an enjoyable game but I find it a little dry.

Their third game was King of Tokyo, a chaotic dice rolling game where you play a monster fighting for domination over Tokyo and the other players, the only drawback is it is a knockout game so an unlucky early exit can lead to sitting around for a bit.

King of Tokyo with some sort of Ape terrorizing the city

Port Royal made its 9th appearance at the club as the fourth game on Table 1 and is now second position in games most played, this card game I have covered before and plays equally well with any number of players (from 2 to 5).

Table 2 saw the lighter side of gaming and started with Exploding Kittens which is a new card game published via kickstarter. In this card game players try to avoid drawing the exploding kitten cards, other cards allow players to affect how the game is played.

J > Exploding Kittens: The aim is to be able to diffuse an exploding cat. Last human standing wins. There are the same number of exploding cats as players and each player starts with a diffuse card that gets discarded when used. The exploding cat, however, when drawn is placed back into the draw pile at any place the exploded human wants, in secret from other active players of course. There are other cards of course that allow you to look at the top 3 cards on the draw deck or shuffle the cards. You can also draw from other players' cards on special occasions . A very good light game. I've heard mixed reviews but it was fun to play.

Next on Table 2 was Hanabi  and although this is not a favourite of mine you have to admire the gorgeous pieces in the deluxe edition of the game.

J > Hanabi: I brought the tiled version of this game and thought that it would be a good game to introduce to two newer gamers to our table. New players were able to get the concept right away. Unfortunately, it was my gestures near the end that may have cost us a lot of points for a better result. Hopefully, the lessons we learned will make us wiser.

The posh edition - you never see your own tiles until you play them

Tiny Epic Galaxies was played next on table 2, a nicely put together die-rolling game. Players race to be the first to get 21 victory points through manoeuvring spaceships around the planets on display or the players home system. The players take turns rolling the dice and undertaking the tasks shown on the faces, one free re-roll is permitted, die faces used by the player may (at a cost) be copied by the other players. The game initially becomes a technology race, the higher your level the more dice you may roll and the more spaceships you have for taking planets, planets themselves grant either a one-off special power to a visiting spaceship or a continual power triggered by dice by a player who colonizes (captures) the planet.

Player homeworld with a conquered planet (bottom left)

The planets being colonized and visited

J > Tiny Epic Galaxies: A couple of players got the culture stockpile early on and that helped with learning the game quickly. I learned as a sophomore player that I really needed to get into that so I developed my culture engine that gave a net positive culture earnings each time I followed. But alas, I only started to remember what I learned from the first play quite late in the game.

First on Table 3 was Evolution  an excellent game where players try to steer various animals through their early stages of existence adding abilities/traits to help them survive to the end, there is a continual battle for food a lack of which can cause the loss of a species as can being eaten by other players (or even your own) predators. The game ends when the deck of trait cards runs out at which point players earn points for their populations, traits and food in their reserve. 

Two creatures in Evolution (picture from previous game)

S > Evolution I like but I think is much harder to be competitive first time through. I think rushing to spawn more creatures early for card bonuses as well as reacting far more aggressively/defensively when carnivores show up would make it harder for carnivores to take over. I really like how the ecosystem effectively responds to pressure though; that monstrous herbivore was up in the trees racking up points for the whole game and was almost impossible to touch!

C > Evolution ended much sooner than the three player variant I had played before so it was more of a frantic dash for food than a gradual build up of creatures. The carnivore went largely unchallenged but it was great to imagine it trying to take a chunk out of another player's massive climbing fertile herbivore, who maxed out body size and filled it's fat stores....

Viticulture  was the other game played on Table 3, this worker placement game I have covered before, it is a lovely game which I enjoy playing.

S > Seriously close on Viticulture, I liked the fact that we were all so close despite the original differences in starting position. The cottage can really be a boon if you get it free from the beginning. I also like that a game can be won by a player on their first play through which is what would have happened but for some outrageous luck on the last turn.

The Spring/Summer phase in Viticulture - lots of planting and building work I see.

A player board early in the game

C > A very unexpectedly tense game of viticulture - maybe with 5 players there was more fierce competition for the winter actions which eventually swung it. We played a different edition to the version I initially played, where everyone starts with a different 'inhertiance' of money and building thanks to their specific mama and papa. This possibly impacted the game, as some players started out with more useful structures than others, but it is a nice touch that works with the theming. That is definitely going on my wish list when I have a bit more money to play with!

The last game of the evening was Codenames, another on my “must play” list, an interesting deduction game played in teams where two players know the location of all the spies, double agent and assassin and through one word clues try to lead their team towards identifying the location of their own 8 spies whilst avoiding the assassin.

R > Can't wait to play codenames again!

The viewpoint from the clue givers

Codenames cards - does anyone fancy playing a chaotic variant using Dixit cards?

C > Overall a really fun tonight topped off by Codenames, which is also a great spectator game for watching the team leaders faces. Cheers all!

Looks like I missed a good evening, Viticulture and Evolution I always like playing and Codenames and Five Tribes are both ones I want to try - perhaps next week.

Above and Below, Unexpected Treasures and Roll for the Galaxy

This quiz photo is of a territory claiming game with a flower growing theme.

The last quiz photo was the Box cover of Block Mania by Games Workshop from back in 1987, I know that was ancient times before some of you were born but for those from my era it was one of only a few games that was not “roll the dice and move the dobber” that was available in the UK.

Table 1 started with Above and Below which is really a resource management game the aim of which is to gain the most victory points through enlarging a village and collecting various resources. Each player has a number of workers which usually have either a hammer (used for building) or feather (used for recruiting more villagers).

The 3 workers you get at the start

Buildings usually have some resources, victory points or a method of boosting victory points, however some of the buildings cannot be constructed above ground and need caverns to be explored first (hence the below in the title), exploring is a chance encounter from a booklet the paragraph of which is looked up dependent upon a die roll, this is read out with a list of risk levels which the player uses his explorers (workers) to combat, success brings rewards equal to the risk undertaken.

A players layout with buildings above and caverns below, one of which has been built on.

The other thing a player may do is harvest resources from buildings, these are generally stored for scoring, the more variety you have the greater the rewards. On the whole a very pleasant game the encounter booklet bringing plenty of atmosphere and the mechanisms meshing well to provide a well rounded game which I would place at the lighter end of spectrum.

A Cavern being explored - the die roll indicates which paragraph to look up in the encounter booklet. The 4 workers have been chosen to do the exploration.

BQ > I enjoyed it very much - the combination of the underground encounters and their decisions coupled with building the village was a fresh one for me. I did wonder afterwards how much of a role luck ends up playing if you did what I did and explored a LOT - I was thinking maybe a run of really poor or really good luck could overwhelm any other planning considerations - but reviewing the game in my head, I think that it's simply one strategy you could pursue out of many, and it may have more divergent spread of risk vs. reward but you still need to manage your villager resources well to put yourself in the position of being able to succeed more often than you fail. But then I would say that, wouldn't I?

Table 2 started with a warm-up game of Sushi Go! This is a popular card game well liked by the club and it currently heads the table of games played at the club.

Table 3 started with Blood Rage, this is a game I regret not backing on kickstarter the models are fantastic and the backers got all sorts of extra goodies, it was everything thatone would hope from backing a game but rarely gets. It does not fall into the category of game I usually play but it has proved to be very popular currently at 40 on Boardgamegeeks ranking system. Players control a Viking Clan, Leader and Ship and take them into battle for glory, the mechanics include card drafting and variable player powers which gives plenty of variety. This is one that is on my “to play” list but buying it and all the expansions will have to wait until I have won the lottery.

The miniatures in Blood Rage are fantastic

J > Blood Rage is already good looking and has the potential to be awesome looking once the detailed miniatures are painted. The game was complex but not too difficult to learn. The theme works really well with it. It was definitely fun to play and I'd play it again.

Table 2 moved on to Roll for the Galaxy a game that ticks a lot of boxes for me, a worker placement game with lots of variety, it plays in about 45 minutes (shorter for fewer players) and it has very little downtime as there is always something to do and players do their actions simultaneously. The aim of the game is to earn victory points through building tiles onto a personal display or undertaking a trading action for victory point tokens, the tiles you build will either provide extra dice or special powers for your position. It is effectively a die rolling worker placement game with the dice being the workers. There is plenty of dice rolling and the rules allow for a limited level of latitude in worker placement which nullifies all but the worst of luck that tend to affect a lot of dice games, this is an enjoyable game in which careful management is rewarded.

My badly managed empire in Roll for the Galaxy, I ended up with just red dice towards the end.

Table 3 played Prohis, so quick was it that I missed it being played, I failed to get photos of the game in progress and know nothing about it – apologies.

J > Prohis was the light game contrast. Players pointed out that it was a lighter card version of Sheriff of Nottingham. It looks like a fun filler.

Table 1 moved on to Abyss with the Abyss: Kraken  expansion, the base game I have covered before and from what I understand (not having played it) the expansion adds some more variety and the addition of black pearls which attract negative points.

BQ > Really enjoyed the new twists that the Kraken expansion brought to Abyss - the Kraken allies are a tricksy thing to manage, given the negative impact of the black pearls, as Rob found to his cost.

Table 3 moved on to Jerusalem another game which I sadly know nothing about.

Part of the Jerusalem board

J > I was able to sneak in Jerusalem to the table finally. I've only played it as a two and three player with family so I was curious how it would play at the club. It's definitely more fun than previous plays. I discovered that the game can bring out the AP in most people when the cubes start accumulating. That means dead time. Still, I had a great time playing with the group and I'd bring it again in the future if anyone's interested.

My table played Unexpected Treasures next, a fun card game where players try to outguess what cards are being played by other players (from a hand of 6 identical cards). If you play a unique card you collect tokens from a limited pile which you can trade in for victory point cards, where duplicate cards are played only one player collects the other sitting out for the round which is decided by tie-break tokens which are swapped by the duplicating players, there is also a thief card to take tokens from other players. Thus with the limited knowledge of what tokens are in play, what victory point cards are available and what tie-break token you have you can make a rough guess at what is best for you and your opponents to play and therefore deduce which card is the best for you to play.

The last game for us was Port Royal (without the expansion) which I have covered before, an interesting night starting off the year with 10 games played and 4 new games added to the clubs list.

Nanuk

I thought I had better update the Blog, Christmas and other events have limited my time drastically. This as a catch-up will be more of a list with pictures rather than the review style I usually adopt. So first off the quiz picture which is about 1/2 of the box lid.

The last quiz picture was of Stronghold (2nd edition), quite a good 2 player attack the castle game.

Dominant Species

The 30th December there was no gaming event however we did have an all day event on the 23rd where we started at midday with Dominant Species an excellent worker placement game by GMT. The players adopt a different species and steer them through evolution to gain victory points. It is not a short game but is very rewarding. The game at the club played for over 3 hours and was won by a substitute player who kindly stepped in to replace an early leaver.

Dominant Species

More players arrived and started a game of Drum Roll, this remains one of my top games it was a hard fought game with only a couple of points separating first and second place at the end.

After Drum Roll Table 2 played Sushi Go! followed by Family Business. Table 1 and 2 then came together for an 8-player game of Nanuk  an interesting push your luck game. Each player gets dealt 3 cards which can be one of 4 different animals or a Monolith. Then bidding starts going around the table, a player must raise the bid either in quantity of animal of a specified type or days hunting raise the bid they can state that the hunt will fail, as soon as there is a doubter all the players vote whether they are joining the hunt or joining the doubter.

All those in the hunt then donate cards face down to the hunt which are then shuffled and revealed, the players are trying to reach a total of correct animals as bid, the number of days bid is the number of cards added from the face down deck however the latter cards may have polar bears which can only be fended off monoliths. The cards then become prizes for either the successful hunters or if they fail – the doubters. The idea of the game is to collect sets of animal cards for points. This was a good fun game and ideal for the occasion.

We split again and Table 1 played Homeland: The Game  followed by One Night Ultimate Werewolf. This latter game requires players to sit around a table with their eyes closed, each in turn dependent on their character open their eyes to undertake a specified task with the cards on the table. What was amusing was whilst they were all sat with their eyes closed the barstaff came in and cleared the empty glasses away along with a couple of half full ones and no one noticed until the game was over. The last game on Table 1 was Mission: Red Planet .

Mission Red Planet

My Table Played Epic Resort, Port Royal,  Sushi Go! and Unexpected Treasures. The whole evening ended with a couple of games of BANG! The Dice Game.

I missed games on the 16th, thankfully a fellow gamer chronicled what was played and provided a few photographs. I will just give a short summary here :-

Table 1: Port Royal: Ein Auftrag geht noch..., Fürstenfeld, Sushi Go!
 

Port Royal

Furstenfeld

Table 2: Pax Porfiriana, Bohnanza

Bohnanza

Table 3: Lords of Vegas, Welcome to the Dungeon, Splendor

Lords of Vegas

Nitro Glyxerol, Das Speicherstadt and The Grizzled

This quiz picture clue is that this is a second edition two player game.

The last quiz picture was of Mijnlieff by Andy Hopwood a nice 2 player abstract strategy game playing in 5 minutes but has quite a lot of depth for its simplicity.

The evening started off with a few light games, Table 1 began with No Thanks! a short card game in which players have to give up victory point chips to avoid taking cards, all cards score negatively but if you have a run only the lowest of the run scores against you. The idea is to get the most points (very rare) or least negative points.

Table 2 went with Welcome to the Dungeon a lovely filler of push your luck which has been covered before, knowing your opponents and how they are likely to play helps but does not guarantee success.

The mix of monsters in Welcome to the Dungeon

Table 1 then played Midnight Party another excellent 20 minute game where Hugo the ghost chases partygoers around a mansion, the idea is to get as high a score as possible however as with No Thanks it is generally the least negative score that wins. This game also has the advantage of playing 2-8 players however you do not have to stop there, I have doctored my edition to play with up to 22 players and I have had the joy of playing in a 24 player game.

Hugo chasing a yellow piece whose legs can be seen in the top left of the photo, meanwhile Hugo has had a very successful round, his victims are shown on the stairs to the cellar

With that many players the game developed into sub-games with some trying to win properly, some  trying to get the biggest negative score (not as easy as it sounds with that many players), others were trying to end the game on exactly -50 (not a point more or less) some exactly -100. Anyway our nights’ game was just 5 player playing to normal rules (ie 3 rounds).

Table 2 moved onto The Speicherstadt by Stefan Feld a card collection game but with an interesting bidding mechanic. The players are trying to collect cards which help them to accumulate victory points, the easy way is to collect a contract card then collect the two, three or four goods cubes which are required to fulfil the contract, the cubes (drawn randomly from a bag) come on ship cards in batches of three. There are also cards which change cubes for cash or give a few victory points, some specialist cards and some fireman cards. The latter are required as every now and again a fire card comes out of the deck at which point the player with the most Fireman gets some points whilst the player with the least loses points.

4 boats are up for grabs here (more cards are to the left) blue is looking at paying 2 for the 3rd boat if purple does not buy it for 3 first

At the beginning of the round cards are dealt to the board, each player has three bidding tokens with which to lay claim to a card with, when a player makes a bid their token is placed above any other token which has already made a bid for the card, none of the cards though are given out until everyone has used all their tokens at which point each card is taken in turn. The player who placed first at a particular card has a choice of buying that card at a price equal to all the tokens there, if not wanted at that price they take their token off and the next player can pay a price equal to the remaining tokens, this continues until the card is bought or everyone has withdrawn. Cash is always short and bank balances in our game tended to be between 2 and 5 coins so you rarely get to buy all you want and even more rarely at the price you want. It is an interesting game, plays well and is balanced for any number of players, the others new to the game all liked it and I am hoping it will get played again soon.

Table 1 played A Study in Emerald a game I have yet to play but this is the second week in a row where players have almost queued up to play the game, I am quite intrigued and want to play. Unfortunately for those of you who wish to know more about this game you will have to wait a little while longer. BQ commented

• I took away a couple of things from last night's play. First, I think it feels a bit more tactical than strategic - you just have to grab your chances where you can, I feel. Second, it's the kind of game where having played before does confer a greater advantage than usual, but it's still no guarantee of victory.

The next game on Table 2 is one that I have come to like quite a bit, it is The Grizzled a co-operative card game set in the trenches soon after the outbreak of WW1. Unlike a lot of other co-operative games this one does not have a solo version and in fact its strength comes from playing with 3 or more players (the box says 2-5 players). The players win if they can clear a small deck of cards by playing them all and having no cards in their hands at the end of a round, however as the deck gets topped up with a few extra cards every round from a reserve deck it is not that easy. The game is lost if the reserve deck is emptied. There are two types of card in the game, the first is a threat card which will have some of the six threat emblems used in the game, this could be snow, rain, night, whistle, gas mask or shell, these cards are played to a central area however if any emblem appears more than twice the round is lost.

The flanking cards are threat cards whilst the 2nd card is a hard knock card whilst the third is the only positive card in the whole deck.

The second card is a hard knock card and these are played on the players character the hard knock cards contain phobias which add permanent symbols for the no-mans land tally whilst other cards have special effects such as forcing players to play all their cards. Should any player end a round with four hard knocks then the game is lost. The game is therefore a balance of everyone playing as many cards as possible but not the cards which could lose the group the round or the game. Winning a round allows one of the players to lose two of the hard knock cards whereas losing the round gets the cards played to no-mans land shuffled back into the deck in either case at the end of the round as many new cards are added to the deck as players hold in their hands. That is the nuts and bolts of the game there are a few more bits which I have not covered such as lucky clover or giving a speech, you will just have to play the game to find out what they are about. The game is interesting and the tension builds nicely, I enjoyed playing it 5 player and look forward to playing it with that number again.

Table 1 made their last game Taj Mahal a bidding game where you lay claim to prizes based on cards played in front of you, on your turn you can play one or two cards down in front of you provided you raise the bid on one of the prizes, the cards have symbols at the top which dictate what prizes you get for the turn, when you drop out of the bidding you get a choice of replacement cards, the earlier you drop out the better the choice. Points come from various sources however the real art of the game I tend to think is to avoid bidding battles, losing a bidding battle not only deprives you of points on the round you have the battle but because all bid cards are lost, win or lose, it will take another turn or two to gather together enough cards to lay claim to prizes again. BQ commented

• Taj Mahal I had not played in quite a while, and was glad to do so. Ra last week, Taj Mahal this week...which ancient Reiner Knizia game will I try to foist on people next? (Tigris and Euphrates, I hear you say? Well, why not? :p).

Taj Mahal in progress, the prizes are shown in the yellow box on the board at the bottom of the photo

The next game on Table 2 was Nitro Glyxerol a new dexterity game from Zoch each player has a large plastic flask in which 5 glass cubes are placed, at the beginning of each round five cards are randomly placed on the table in a row then within a limited time period given by an egg timer players must try to shake the cubes into the handle of their flask in the order given. You can drop out at any point to take a turn over card.

some of the cards in the deck only 5 are put out - 1 of each colour.

A players flask showing a red counter in the handle/nozzle

Once time is called the players compare the order of their cubes to collect the cards as victory points with the turn over cards breaking any ties, so sometimes it is worth dropping out quick to secure the early point cards, effectively the longer you stay in the round the more cubes you must get in the correct order to score points. It is light entertainment and makes a great end of evening 20 minute game.

Last game on Table 2 was Family Business, this I have covered before, all I have to say about this game was that I became the target of the other Two players and was wiped out in a very short space of time.

Spirits of the Rice Paddy, Tokaido and A Study in Emerald

The quiz photo this time is of a 2 player abstract strategy that plays in 5 minutes and is of British design.

The last quiz photo was of Spirits of the Rice Paddy which was one of two new games that adorned the tables this week at the club.

• Just a reminder that other players comments are bullet pointed in bold.

The other was played on Table 1 and was the 2015 release A Study in Emerald , a revamp of the 2013 game, this is not one I know in either of its guises, however everyone enjoyed the game agreeing it had quite a bit of depth.

• A Study in Emerald...well: I enjoyed it very much, but - like some others around the table - when the game ended I was scratching my head a bit, thinking "What just happened...?". And what happened, I feel, was that we played a game with a lot of interlocking mechanisms that it will need a couple of plays to get to grips with, but which, I suspect, will reward that commitment with some very interesting and fun decisions. For example, we pretty much ignored one of the central mechanisms of the game (the Loyalist/Restorationist tracks) until right at the very end, when some last-minute actions meant that the final scores (which are affected by the positions on those tracks) changed quite a bit. Now, had we all known the game better, I think *maybe* we would have been keeping a closer eye on the tracks, and the Loyalist players would have countered that threat...but then again, maybe they wouldn't have: one of the things I liked about the game is that there's the potential to pursue several paths to victory, but without it feeling like the "point salad" of some other designers' games.
• Game of the night for me was A Study in Emerald. I really want to play it again to explore it further. The game is beautiful with a great theme, easy to learn and hard to master.

Table 2 played Tokaido, an interesting game of set collecting where the board consists of a pathway along which are a large number of stopping places of various types for example a Temple or an Encounter, on a turn a player moves their piece east along the path to an empty stopping place and then takes a card from the relevant stack.

The board in Tokaido

As you can never travel back along the path and never share a stopping spot with another player planning your route is important to get the maximum benefit from your move. The idea of the game is to gain the most victory points by collecting sets and for each category of set there is a bonus to win, the cards themselves mostly provide between 1 and 3 victory points. There is no direct interaction between players but with limited stopping spaces it is important to choose carefully where you are going to move, usually  to either maximise your set collections or secondly to prevent opponents getting to theirs.

A closer look at a section of the board, the small round spots are the playing piece stopping spaces

• I think I like Tokaido, but both times I have fallen a long way short of the leader. Not sure if this a design flaw, where if you start in a good position you can run away with it, or poor strategy on my part....would happily accept a replay sometime to find out!

My table played Spirits of the Rice Paddy a recent release from APE Games, as the title suggests the game is about growing rice the tokens of which also double as the victory points and the cash, it is essentially a worker placement game with some card drafting, the only pain is that the rules explanation is lengthy there are many interactions which need explaining but once you get into it the game plays quite smoothly.

My player board midway through the game, the worker options are on the right side of the board

On a turn everyone simultaneously selects a power card, these are then revealed which dictates turn order for the round then everyone uses all their cards that they have played so far for various bonuses, everyone then assigns workers to different jobs such as building walls to create paddy fields, removing rocks, weeds and pests, harvesting or planting rice. Dependent on the tasks your workers or livestock are to complete the paddy field needs to be either flooded or water free and there are only 2 phases in which water is permitted to flow through the paddy’s.

Some of the cards from Spirits of the Rice Paddy

Most of the skill in the game is controlling the water flow through your paddy’s ensuring that you have the water in the correct place for the tasks you wish to undertake, timing of the harvests can also be significant as there is a good bonus for the last round harvest, the power cards you take can assist greatly and choosing wisely to fit in with a specific game plan can be crucial to helping you win. The game plays well, I have played it several times now both solo and with two, three and four players, each time I have enjoyed it and it is one I would recommend others to try.

• I really enjoyed Spirit of the Rice Paddy. Once you got past the lengthy rules explanation, the gameplay was actually rather neat. I would be interested in playing it again, with a better idea of how achievements and spirit cards all interact.

Table 2 moved on to Nations: The Dice Game which I have covered before and has been a repeat game at the club several times, it is well liked and nicely balanced.

• I like Nations Dice more each time I play it, having a dozen multicoloured dice to roll is very satisfying. My impression that is that it's best to keep everything ticking over to stay in contention - get blue dice early to keep yourself ahead on the book track, and to ensure you have enough stone to build wonders regularly, pick up some of the countries to get you reroll tokens to try and go for both the famine and war bonuses if possible....lots to think about and meaty without being weighty.
• Nations dice is always fun for me. Me and the missus have played quite a lot 2 player, and I think it scales well across all player numbers...

Table 1 played Cacao next, it is a nice simple tile laying game which requires a small amount of preplanning, in the end game you get to overlay up to three of your own tiles so some preparation needs to be done in not only collecting the special tokens enabling you to do this but also having tiles placed in key areas which by overlaying gets some high scoring done.

Cacao towards the end of the game

• Cacao is wonderful as always. I have fun playing it even though I haven't figured out how to win yet.

Whilst other tables were finishing their second game my table had a quick dabble at Sushi Go! This nice filler card game currently leads the clubs list of “most played games”, this was its eleventh appearance four games ahead of its nearest rival which co-incidentally was the next game we played. There were three of us battling it out and going into the third round we all had 3 puddings so we were all trying to keep a straight face as we all looked at hands bereft of the crucial last puddings.

One of the Pudding cards we were all looking for in the 3rd round

At the end of the evening we amalgamated the tables for the diehards to play BANG! The Dice Game, this lovely dice game is a lot of fun. In the first game I was the Sheriff and with no pretenders the Deputy was easy to identify, this helped solidify our alliance and together we dealt with the rest of the players quite rapidly although one was particularly tenacious hanging on to his last life point. In the second game I was lucky enough as an Outlaw to get 4 shots to hit the Sheriff in the first turn, thus by my actions I had identified myself  NOT to be the Deputy I had also significantly weakened the Sheriff, on their turn the other Outlaws also piled in, the Sheriff did not last long.

This character deserved a medal after surviving a hail of bullets from the Sheriff and then the Deputy

• Bang: the Dice Game is always fun to play with the group. I learned that I'm an excellent Deputy but a terrible Sheriff
• As for Bang, after getting only 2 rolls between both games, its obviously not my forte, although at least I was better at that than Skulls and Roses!
• Bang is always good fun, I'm glad you and I could put our differences aside Kevin in order to beat sheriff Jeric

Dice for Bang the Dice game

The last game of the evening was Skull a deduction game which I can just cope with as it deals with probability choices as well as making deductions on other players decision making. You have 4 tiles (large beer mats) three of which have roses and the other has a skull. Everyone places on tile face down then on a turn players either place another tile or start a bidding round, however once someone starts bidding no more tiles can be added by anyone. You are bidding to declare how many roses you can find among the tiles in play, if you are the winner of the bid you start by flipping all your own tiles after which you can choose which other ones to flip, you immediately fail if you reveal a skull. Two successful bids and you win the game.

One of myCoasters which may have a rose or skull on the reverse

Winning a bid when you have played a skull yourself is generally bad however the games winner did exactly that with two tiles played and a bid of only one.

• I was surprised to win Skull. This was the longest game we've played. We had 2 people eliminated in a 6 player game.
• Skull should be mandatory weekly playing, the mind games are outstanding.