Author Archives: nannyGOAT

Next Meeting – 19th November 2013

Following the fire at the Jockey, our next meeting on Tuesday 19th November will be held in a private house in Stanford.  Please get in touch if you would like to come along and would like directions.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

This week the “Feature Game” will be Coup, which is a very quick little card game of bluffing and back-stabbing, which should give us plenty of time to play lots of other games.

Coup

And talking of bluffing…

Jeff was pulled over by a police officer pulls for speeding.  The conversation went like this:

Officer:  May I see your driver’s license please, sir?

Jeff:  I don’t have one – I was caught for drunk driving and had it taken away.

Officer:  Do you have the vehicle registration certificate, sir?

Jeff:  It’s not my car; I stole it.

Officer:  The car is stolen?

Jeff:  That’s right, but come to think of it, I think I saw the log book in the glove box when I was putting my gun in there.

Officer:  There’s a gun in the glove box?

Jeff: Of course – that’s where I put it after I shot and killed the woman who owns this car and stuffed her in the boot.

Officer: There’s a BODY in the BOOT?!?!?

Jeff:  Well, yes.

Hearing this, the officer immediately called his sergeant and the the car was quickly surrounded by police.  The sergeant approached the driver to handle the tense situation:

Sergeant:  Can I see your license please, sir?

Jeff:  Sure. Here it is.

– It was valid.

Sergeant:  Who’s car is this please, sir?

Jeff:  It’s mine – Here’s the vehicle registration documentation.

– Jeff owned the car.

Sergeant:  Could you please slowly open your glove box so I can see if there’s a gun in it?

Jeff: Yes, sir, but there’s no gun in it…

– There was nothing in the glove box.

Sergeant:  Would you mind opening your boot please, sir? I was told you there’s a body in it.

Jeff:  Of course…

– He opened the boot; no body.

Sergeant:  I don’t understand it. The officer who stopped you said you told him you didn’t have a license, stole the car, had a gun in the glovebox, and that there was a dead body in the boot.

Jeff:  Yeah, and I’ll bet the liar told you I was speeding, too…

5th November 2013

We were relocated once again, so we had six people for the second week running.  Since we are still meeting in private houses, splitting into two games of three was not really an option due to restricted table space, and this limited what we could play somewhat.  For this reason, we started out with one of our old favourites that we’ve played before, Bohnanza.  This is a fairly simple trading game, where players exchange and plant beans to maximise their harvest.  The game was very tight, ending with joint winners on twelve and third and fourth places on eleven and ten respectively.

Bohnanza

Our youngest player left, leaving us with five players for our Feature Game, Hanabi.  “Hanabi” is the Japanese word for “fireworks” (consisting of the ideograms “Flower” and “Fire”) and given the date we felt it was entirely appropriate.  Last time we played, we used the original card version of the game, however, this time we used the new tile version that was released at Essen a couple of weeks ago.   The idea of the game is very simple:  as a group, players must try to lay a total of twenty-five tiles, in number order within their colour suits, thus the red “one”, must be played before the red “two”, and so on.  The snag is that everyone turns their hand back to front so they can see everyone elses tiles, but not their own.  So, on their turn, players can do one of three things:  play a card, give a clue to another player or discard a tile.  If the wrong tile is played, the team lose one of their three lives and there are only eight clues available; although each discarded tile is also worth an extra clue some tiles don’t have any duplicates…

Hanabi

We enjoyed the first game so much that we ended up playing it twice.  The first time a lot of “ones” came out on the first deal, so we had to decide how to guide people to play the correct tiles.  We finished up with three completed fireworks and a total of twenty points.  Any hope that we could improve on our score quickly evaporated when the second game started with no “ones” at all and it took us ages to get started by which time we had run out of clues.  One player was left with the choice of playing or discarding and chose the wrong option and that really set the tone for the rest of the game.  All things considered, it was a bit of a miracle that we finished two fireworks successfully and the game ended with a total of eighteen – not quite as bad as it had looked earlier.

Hanabi

Learning Outcome:  Sometimes “feelings” can be very misleading and you can be doing much better (or worse) than you thought.

Next Meeting – 5th November 2013

Remember, remember, the fifth of November,
Gunpowder Treason and Plot!
I see no reason, why Gunpowder Treason,
Should ever be forgot…

Given the date, the “Feature Game” could really only be Hanabi, which is an unusual cooperative game about fireworks.  It was also awarded the coveted German Game of the Year award, the Spiel des Jares for 2013.  The original incarnation is as a card game, however, one of the toys brought back from Essen was the “Deluxe” version with tiles, so that may get an outing.

Hanabi

As normal, following the fire at the Jockey, our next meeting on Tuesday 5th November will be held in a private house in Stanford.  Please get in touch if you would like to come along and would like directions.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

Oh, and talking of fireworks…

After having their eleventh child, Jeff went to the doctor and told him that he and his wife didn’t want to have any more children.

The doctor told him there was a procedure called a vasectomy that would fix the problem, but that it was expensive.  He said, a less costly alternative was to go home, get a firework, light it, put it in a beer can, then hold the can up to his ear and count to ten.

Jeff said to the doctor, “I may not be the smartest guy in the world, but I don’t see how putting a firework in a beer can next to my ear is going to help me.”

“Trust me,” replied the doctor, “It will do the job.”

So Jeff went home, lit a banger and put it in a beer can.  He held the can up to his ear and began to count, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5…” then he paused, thought a moment, and placed the beer can between his legs so he could continue counting on his other hand…

22nd October 2013

We were back to our usual location for our first meeting on the alternate week.  This meant we had an extra person, but in addition, we one of our more distant members coming down on his way to Essen.  He was held up in traffic, so we started out with a quick game of Eight-Minute Empire.  This is a quick little area control game, though in truth, eight minutes is only possible if everyone really knows what they are doing and nobody suffers from “Analysis Paralysis”.

Eight-Minute Empire

Each player has a limited number of coins, three wooden city pieces and a handful of army cubes.  The idea is that players start by picking up a card:  they can choose whether to take the first available card which has no cost, or take another and pay the appropriate number of coins.  Each card is a resource which provide points at the end of the game, the number depending on how many of that resource the player has;  each card also has an action associated with it, which can be place armies on the map, move them about, ship them across the sea, build a city etc.  Players score points for having the majority in a countries and controlling the most countries in each continent, as well as for sets of resources.  The game was a clear victory for Red who finished three points clear of Blue in second place.

Eight-Minute Empire

As we finished, our long distance traveller walked through the door and without missing a beat sat down to join in the Feature Game, Tsuro.  This is a path laying game that is similar, though strangely opposite to Indigo, which we played a few weeks ago.   Both games are beautiful with a simple mechanism:  players play tiles and any stones that are on paths that are extended by the tile are moved to the end of the path, however, that is where the similarity ends.  In Indigo, you have hexagonal tiles and only draw one at a time, however, in Tsuro, the tiles are square and you have a hand of three for as long as there are enough tiles available.  More importantly though, in Indigo, the object of the game is to navigate stones to your gate and collect them whereas in Tsuro each player has one stone must try to keep it on the board and be the “last man standing”.  We enjoyed the first game so much that we played it again with the winner of the first game coming joint last in the second, and Blue, who came fifth in the first game winning the second, meanwhile one person managed to remain the bridesmaid in both, coming second twice!

Tsuro

The last game was one we have played several times and were mostly very familiar with, Alhambra.  In this game, players can either collect money or buy tiles, however, while they can always overspend, if they pay the exact money, they get an extra turn.  The snag is that there are only so many of each type of tile and the player with the most of each type scores the most points.  The other challenge is placing tiles:  they must form an area unbroken by walls, on the other hand, the longest continuous wall scores lots of points. Playing with so many people really seemed to disrupt some of our plans and the end result was a run-away victory for White who was thirty-six points clear of Blue and Orange who were joint second (with sixty-seven).

Alhambra

Learning Outcome:  Sometimes if you win spectacularly on the first play you can lose the next just as dramatically.

Essen 2013

Although Essen is a small German city in the industrial heartland on the River Ruhr, it is used by gamers to refer to the largest games fair in Europe and, arguably, the world, The Internationale Spieltage (which is held in Essen of course).  The fair runs for four days every year and everyone who is anyone goes.   As in most years, a lot of new and exciting games are released at the Fair.  This year, amongst other things, this includes an expansion for one of our favourite games, Keyflower.  The expansion is called Keyflower:  The Farmers and introduces animals to the game.  There are also expansions being released for Snowdonia and Tzolk’in:  The Mayan Calendar, both of which are excellent games and have been enjoyed by members of the group.  In addition to expansions to known games, there are (of course) lots of exciting new games, including Rockwell, Glass Road, Expedition: Northwest Passage, Amerigo and loads of others!  Those of us that are lucky enough to be going are sure to bring back some exciting new toys to play with over the next few weeks.

Essen

Next Meeting – 22nd October 2013 – WEEK CHANGE!

In order to help one of our members come more regularly, we are switching weeks. So, rather than miss two weeks, we thought we would meet on consecutive weeks instead.  Following the fire at the Jockey, our next meeting on Tuesday 22nd October will be held in a private house in Stanford.  Please get in touch if you would like to come along and need directions.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

This week the “Feature Game” will be Tsuro, which is fast and simple game where players take turns to lay tiles to extend the paths of their own stone trying to keep it on the board longer than anyone else.  However, as the board fills up this becomes increasingly difficult as there are fewer empty spaces left, fewer tiles to choose from and another player’s tile may take your stone in a direction you’d rather not go…

Tsuro

And talking of stones…

Jeff was on a tour visiting Ireland and on the last day they arrived at the site of the famous Blarney Stone.   Now, the tour guide was a very attractive young blond and Jeff was desperate to catch her eye and had been making a bit of a nuisance of himself all week.

“Good luck will be following you all your days, if you kiss the Blarney Stone,” the guide explained. “Unfortunately, it’s being cleaned today and so no one will be able to kiss it, but perhaps you can come back tomorrow.”

“We can’t be here tomorrow,” Jeff responded, “We are going home.”

“Well now,” the young lady said, “It is said that if you kiss someone who has kissed the stone, you’ll have the same good fortune.”

Jeff really thought his luck was in now, “And I suppose you’ve kissed the stone?” he replied enthusiastically.

“No,” she answered without missing a beat, “But I’ve sat on it…”

15th October 2013

We had a change of location for the evening which meant that one of our younger members could join us for the first couple of games of the evening.  So, while we were waiting for people to arrive, we had a couple of quick “warm-up” games of Dobble.  Clearly most of us needed quite a lot of warming up as we seemed to spend a huge amount of time staring blankly at cards, leaving the door open for bit of a white-wash.

Dobble

The next game was our Feature Game, Zooloretto. This is a cute little game based on the same set collecting mechanic as the card game, Coloretto (which we’ve played a few times before).  The idea is that on their turn, players draw an animal tile from a bag and place it on a truck.  There are the same number of trucks as there are players, and each truck will hold a maximum of three tiles.  When a player sees a truck they like, instead of drawing a tile, they can take that truck and add the animals on it to their zoo.  The snag is, only one sort of animal can go in each pen (to prevent a massacre apparently) and each zoo only has three pens, but there are a lot of different animal types!  Any animals that don’t have a pen, have to go into storage in the barn.  Instead of drawing tiles and adding them to a truck, you can also pay money to expand your zoo, or to move animals about or even buy one off another player.  Players score points for full, or very nearly full pens, and negative points for each different animal type in they have in the barn at the end of the game.  So, the trick is to set up a nice full truck with animals on it that only you want an hope nobody else pinches it.  Apart from Blue who finished a long way behind the rest, the game was really quite close, second, third and fourth finished within a point and the winner was only a few points clear.

Zooloretto

We were all quite tired so we decided to go for just one more, familiar game and an early night, so we picked Ticket to Ride.  We’d all played this many times before so we only needed a quick clarification of the specific rules for the Europe version (Only one face up loco? – Yes; Locos can be used anywhere? – Yes!  And don’t forget about stations and tunnels…) and then we were off collecting train cards.  Black was the first person to claim a route and went for the six-card line from Palermo to Smyrna.  Unfortunately, since it was a ferry it needed two locomotive cards so Black had to think again and picked up the train card he needed instead.  Out of fairness, since we hadn’t mentioned ferries in the summary, instead of claiming the route, Green gave Black another chance (which he took).  The rest of us were less sympathetic however and over the next couple of turns, the area around Italy, Greece and the Balkans filled up rapidly and Green, struggled valiantly, but ultimately unsuccessfully to make the connections he needed and ended up resorting to using stations.

Ticket to Ride: Europe

Meanwhile, Red was trying to get from Erzurum to Købenavn and Blue was trying to get from Edinburgh to Athena via Berlin.  Blue was the first to pick up more tickets, quickly followed by Green and eventually red, however, Black kept on claiming routes and before long was well in the lead with only two trains remaining.  Everyone scrabbled to get as many points as they could from the cards they had in their hand before the final recount and scoring of tickets.  Green (who won Zooloretto) came off worst as not only had he been forced to use stations, he also struggled to complete some of his tickets and was left ruing his kindness early in the game.  Black and Blue tied for the European express bonus given for the longest continuous set of trains and the difference between them came down to tickets which gave Blue the win with 122 points (and made up for her terrible game of Zooloretto!).

Ticket to Ride: Europe

Learning Outcome:  You can lose spectacularly at one game then win at the next, or vice versa.

Next Meeting – 15th October 2013

Following the fire at the Jockey, our next meeting on Tuesday 15th October will be held in a private house in Stanford.  Please get in touch if you would like to come along and would like directions.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

This week the “Feature Game” will be Zooloretto, which is a set collection and “zoo building” game where each player uses their cute animals to attract as many visitors as possible to their zoo.

Zooloretto

And talking of zoos…

Jeff was delivering 500 penguins to London Zoo, however, as he entered the city, his truck broke down.

After about 3 hours waiting for help, he flagged-down another truck and offered the driver £5,000 to take the penguins to the zoo for him.

The next day, Jeff was driving through London when he saw the same truck driver crossing the road with 500 penguins walking in single file behind him.

Furious, Jeff jumped out of his truck and asked, “What on earth’s going on? I gave you £5,000 to take these penguins to London Zoo!”

The truck driver replied, “I took them to the zoo, and I had enough money left over so now we’re going to the cinema…”

boardGOATS Get Thirsty!

So, we still haven’t been able to arrange our special group outing to the Oxford’s first boardgame café, the Thirsty Meeples.  However, individually, we’ve been unable to resist its lure and one by one, we have been visiting. One of the GOATS went along for during their “Week of Wonder”, and managed to snag a game of Relic Runners with its designer Matthew Dunstan.  Actually, he enjoyed it so much that he managed a sneak a second game…

Another couple of GOATS made it on Saturday evening and played Mr. Jack in New York and Carcassonne:  The Castle.  This was also a memorable event thanks to a power cut that closed all the other businesses in central Oxford, including the Cinema.  It left only the Thirsty Meeples open in the whole of Gloucester Green, thanks to its particularly effective emergency lighting.

All visitors were very impressed and resolved to visit again soon.

Thirsty Meeples