Author Archives: nannyGOAT

Boardgames in the News: The Monopoly Community Update

As well as the variety of different editions, over the years, there have been a number of updates to the classic Monopoly game. These include include changes to the iconic cast iron tokens including the popular addition of the cat a few years ago. In the eighty-six years of the Monopoly Brand, however, the Community Chest cards have remained unchanged. Until now that is.

– Image of unknown origin

The original Monopoly game was set in Atlantic City; according to The Monopoly Companion by Phillip Orbanes, the Community Chest was the city’s “forerunner of the United Way” and was a welfare organisation. For this reason, the Community Chest cards mostly give players money (compared with the Chance Cards which usually move players to another space). There are just sixteen Community Chest cards in the classic Monopoly game, and the space is marked by the iconic treasure chest logo.

– Image from
fineartamerica.com

The Community Chest cards currently include include “Bank error in your favour, “Hospital fees” and “You have won second prize in a beauty contest,” and do sound a little dry and out-dated. So, yesterday, Hasbro announced that they will be changing all the cards and asking the public to vote for possible replacements with the new version available in Autumn.

– Image by boardGOATS from
monopolycommunitychest.com

Next Meeting, 16th March 2021 – Online!

Although the spring is definitely on its way, with the current stresses, people still need what social contact they can get, and board games are a great medium for that. Despite the limitations of “remote gaming“, everyone feels it is important to stay in touch, so we are persisting with online meetings. Therefore, our next meeting will be on Tuesday 16^th March 2021; we will gather from around 7.30pm, and start playing at 8pm.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be Das Labyrinth des Pharao. This is a tile laying game in a similar vein to Take it Easy! which we played a few weeks ago, or the Spiel des Jahres nominee Karuba which we last played a long time ago. This game has an Egyptian theme though, with players exploring a pyramid.

– Image by boardGOATS

And talking about Egypt…

Jeff was living in Egypt by the banks of a beautiful ancient river. Every year the river flooded, but Jeff remained certain that the river would not destroy his house. One year, the people of the village tried desperately to persuade him to evacuate, as the floods that year were particularly severe. Jeff would not listen though, convinced he was right. The floods came within the month, however, ruining his house and pulling him, and the debris, into the river. The people, watched from the shores, shouting at him, and yelling, asking him why he didn’t listen. Jeff continued ignoring them—he was still in de-Nile.

2nd March 2021 (Online)

Blue and Pink finished a difficult couple of weeks by missing out on their fish and chips, so after cooking their own tea (shock, horror!), they joined the chatter with Purple, Black and Pine. Once everyone else had signed in, we started the “Feature Game” which was the first Hexpansion to HexRoller. This is another “Roll and Write” style game, but a very abstract one, though based on hexagons (which are the bestagons, obviously).

– Image by boardGOATS

We played the base game before Christmas and, although it is a very simple little abstract game, it went down really well. It’s not very clear why it was such a success, although it plays especially well “remotely” and with lots of people. Burgundy also made a good point when he commented that although it was simple, it has meaningful decisions at every step. The idea is that a handful of dice are thrown, and grouped according to the number rolled.

– Image by boardGOATS

Players then choose two of the numbers and write those numbers on their board the same number of times as it has been rolled. This means if four and six are chosen and they appear once and twice respectively, the player will write four down once and six twice. The player sheets have a play area made of hexagons, some of which have numbers written on them. Once a player has chosen a number, they start writing in a hexagon next to a number already on the board, with every subsequent number written next to the previous, making a chain.

– Image by boardGOATS

The scoring is a bit of a “point salad” with points for filling all seven hexagons in one of the coloured groups; for filling all the orange hexes in the central area; for connecting pairs of pre-printed numbers, and any left over, unused special actions. Additionally, every round a player picks two numbers and one is written in a box in the top row in the bottom left corner with the other written in the bottom row—these also give points at the end of the game. Explained like this, the game sounds extremely complex, however the scoring is outlined on the sheet and in practice, it is actually quite easy to play, though like Burgundy commented, there are meaningful decisions to be made at every step.

– Image by boardGOATS

The base HexRoller game comes with two different layouts with subtly different scoring schemes, to be played with slightly different numbers of dice. Although the dice are coloured, the original game does not use these colours, however, that changed in the first Hexpansion, where, instead of just trying to obtain straight runs of numbers, players are trying to get straight runs in each of the four colours. Additionally, where the base game has three special actions that can each be used once during the game, the first Hexpansion changes this slightly so that each one appears twice and players must use one in each of the six rounds.

– Image by boardGOATS

Like the base HexRoller game, the first Hexpansion also comes with two layouts, with different starting number layouts and slight changes to the scoring. The remarkable thing is how these two small tweaks make a substantial difference to the game play and the decisions players have to make during the game. Like last time, we played both layouts, starting with side “A” and moving on to side “B”. For the first one, everyone agreed that it wasn’t possible to connect more than one or two numbers. Although everyone agreed that connecting more was possible on side “B”, there was a big debate between the rounds as to how many could actually be connected. In the end, we gave up on the discussion and left people to prove their point during the game.

– Image by boardGOATS

With only six rounds the game trots along quite quickly, and it wasn’t long before people were taking their shoes and socks off as they tried to work out their score. As often seems to be the case, Ivory was the first up setting a target of eighty-one. Also as often seems to be the case, it quickly became apparent that it was a target that was unlikely to be beaten though Pink thought he had a draw until he realised that he was out by ten. In the end, Blue and Burgundy were the closest with seventy-six and seventy-three respectively.

– Image by boardGOATS

The second game was even quicker, and again, Ivory was the first to post his score of eighty-two. This time though, his target was quickly overcome with both Pink and Black scoring in the high eighties. Green pitched in with what he thought was an unassailable round hundred, until he was disappointed by Blue who just beat him by three points. There was a little chit-chat about how important all the little decisions were, and how misplacing a two had cost Pine sixteen points for example, then we moved on to deciding what to play next.

– Image by boardGOATS

Tiny Towns was an option, this time including the monuments, but even though HexRoller was a quick game, time was marching on. As it has been a while since we last played Tiny Towns and we’d need to revise the rules, the preferred option was Railroad Ink, a game we have played a few times. This would have been fine, except that Blue got all excited about playing with one of the mini-expansions that comes with the Deep Blue edition. Having played with the River last time round, her beady little eyes lit upon the Lake expansion.

– Image by boardGOATS

The base game itself is quite straight forward: Four white bespoke dice are rolled and players draw the four features in squares on their player areas. All four must be drawn, and they must connect correctly to part of the pre-exisiting travel network, or added to a starting point on the edge of the board. On three occasions during the game, players may also fill in a fifth space from one of the special actions each of which can be used once. The game finished after seven rounds after which players score for the longest continuous sections of rail and road, for connecting entrances onto their board, for filling in the centre nine spaces and lose points for any “hanging ends”.

– Image by boardGOATS

The Lakes and Rivers expansions each add two optional blue dice that are rolled with the white dice. While the Rivers add a sort of third route, the Lakes expansion adds another way to score points and connect route together. There were some gaps in the rule book, so rather than spend a lot of time trying to find the correct rules online, we decided to “House Rule” them. The rules say that Lake spaces do not have to connect to other spaces, but we played that any Lake dice that had road or rail segments had to be connected to a road/rail network.

– Image by boardGOATS

Any road or rail that ends at a pier on lake is deemed to be connected to all other roads attached to a pier on the same lake, making it easier to score points for connecting the together starting entrances. They also give points in their own right as players score one point for each space occupied by their smallest lake. Inevitably, therefore, most people started with the plan to create one large lake and connect their road and rail networks to it. Of course, in practice, his turned out to be easier said than done.

– Image by boardGOATS

Firstly, using the Lake dice meant that board real-estate was quickly used up making it harder to accommodate the compulsory white dice. After three rounds Burgundy commented that we were halfway through. Green objected and it was then that we realised he was somehow a round ahead. It’s possible that it was because Pink had moved some dice to make it simpler for someone else, only for Green to assume it was a different round. So, there was a brief hiatus while he rectified things and grumbled about how he didn’t understand the rules.

– Image by boardGOATS

It wasn’t long before we had completed all six rounds of “nipples”, “plungers” and “suction pumps” (which is what some of the faces of the Lake dice looked like to us), and everyone tried to work out their score. Ivory once again posted his score first, a very creditable fifty-eight, but he was immediately beaten by Green with sixty. Pink out pointed Green with sixty-nine, but he was just pipped by Blue who top scored with seventy-one.

– Image by boardGOATS

Ivory took his leave and everyone else moved onto Board Game Arena and settled down to a game of No Thanks!. This is an old favourite that has recently been ported to the platform and fills a similar niche for us as our old favourite, 6 Nimmt!, but works better with smaller numbers of players. The game is just as simple though: On their turn, players take the card in the centre or pay a chip to pass the problem on to the next person. At the end of the game, the player cards score negative points, offset by any left-over chips.

– Image by boardGOATS

There are two things that make the game special. Firstly, anyone with an unbroken sequence of cards only counts the lowest when scoring. This turns the game on it’s head as it means that a player with twenty-five and twenty-seven actually wants the card in between, where everyone else doesn’t giving them the opportunity to try to milk everyone else for chips. Secondly, the deck is numbered from three to thirty five, but some of the cards have been removed at random. This introduces a nice little bit of chance into the game, which just makes it special.

– Image by boardGOATS

This time, Purple managed a very impressive final total of minus fifty-seven thanks to a gap between thirty-three and thirty-five meaning that both scored. At the other end, Pine was the only one in single figures taking victory with a score of minus four. Pine and Pink were ready for an early night, but were persuaded into playing another game before they left. This time, it was all a lot closer and with a complete reversal of fortunes, this time Purple finished victorious with minus six, two points clear of Pine who took second place.

– Image by boardGOATS

It was just as they left that the dreaded IT gremlins returned, this time with Green as the victim. While everyone else focussed on playing Coloretto, he tried all sorts of things to fix it to no avail. Coloretto is another simple card game, this time where players take it in turns to either reveal a chameleon card and place it on a truck, or take a truck and add the chameleons to their collection. At the end of the game players score points for each set they collect with the three largest sets giving positive points and the rest scoring negative points—the bigger the set, the more points it is worth, which is good for the biggest three sets, and not so good for the smaller ones.

– Image by boardGOATS

Purple did well with only three colours, a wild and a handful of bonus cards, earning herself second place ahead of Green and Black who tied for third. As the only one collecting green cards at the start of the game and one of only two collecting blue cards, Blue had an advantage though. She was able to put cards together safe in the knowledge that no-one else wanted them and that gave her a full set of blue cards and a winning total of thirty-one points. By this time, Green had rebooted his router and sorted out his internet issues, but everyone had had enough and it was time for bed.

– Image by boardGOATS

Learning Outcome: You usually score better if you concentrate when the rules are explained.

Boardgames in the News: Asmodee’s Plan B

When Asmo d ee acquired F2Z/Filosofia/Z-Man Games etc. in 2016, the then owner of F2Z, Sophie Gravel, activated her “Plan B” and set up a new company, Plan B Games. This company was successful almost straight away, winning the Spiel de Jahres Award & Deutscher Spiele Preis just two years later, with Azul. Since then, Plan B has released the follow-up games Stained Glass of Sintra and Summer Pavilion which, although not as popular as the original, were still very successful in their own right.

– Image by boardGOATS

Plan B were also responsibly for the three Century Games (Spice Road, Eastern Wonders and A New World) which were all variously successful, and the more recently released games, Beez and Alma Mater. In 2017, Plan B Games acquired German publisher Eggertspiele, the publisher responsible for many well received heavier, strategy games including Great Western Trail, Mombasa (Deutscher Spiele Preis winner), and Village (Kennerspiel des Jahres & Deutscher Spiele Preis winner), as well as the lighter Spiel des Jahres winner, Camel Up.

– Image by boardGOATS

Given the quality of all these games, almost inevitably, just five years after they acquired F2Z, this week Asmodee announced they have now acquired Plan B and their subsidiary brands (Eggertspiel, Next Move Games and Pretzel Games). This time Asmodee are absorbing the whole team including Sophie Gavel, perhaps avoiding the necessity of acquiring her Plan C in five years time…

– Image by boardGOATS

Next Meeting, 2nd March 2021 – Online!

Although the signs of spring approaching are clear, with the current stresses, people still need what social contact they can get, and board games are a great medium for that. Despite the limitations of “remote gaming“, everyone feels it is important to stay in touch, so we are persisting with online meetings. Therefore, our next meeting will be on Tuesday 2^nd March 2021; we will gather from around 7.30pm, and start playing at 8pm.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be the first Hexpansion to HexRoller. This is another “Roll and Write” style game, and this one is very abstract, though based on hexagons (which are the bestagons, obviously). This game should be quite short, so will give time to play something else afterwards.

– Image by boardGOATS

And talking about shapes…

When Little Jimmy came home from his first day at big school, his father Jeff, trying to be a good parent asked his son, what had happened.

Little Jimmy answered, “Well Dad, we had a geometry lesson today.”

His father responded, “That’s really interesting son, what did you learn?”

Jimmy looked a little uncomfortable for a moment and thought for a bit, but eventually replied, “We learnt πr².”

Jeff looked at him and frowned, “Don’t be silly, everyone knows pies are round and it’s cakes that are square…”

16th February 2021 (Online)

Purple and Black were the first to arrive and chatted with Pine when he popped up. There was some chit-chat about where Mulberry and Red were at the moment and eventually Green, Lilac, Burgundy, and Ivory also joined the party. In a return to the “Roll and Write” style of game, the “Feature Game” was to be MetroX (aka メトロックス), a game based around routes on the Tokyo and Osaka underground maps. People were gamely mispronouncing the names of the lines when Burgundy asked which map we were going to be using, which was when Blue realised that she had sent out the wrong file. There was a brief hiatus as people fired up their printers and Pine explained how one of his friends had said he “looked like a row of sheep’s arses”, and then with the correct paperwork, we could get started.

– Image by boardGOATS

The game is quite simple: a card is turned over and players assign the number to a line and “build” that number of stations along the line. When a player completes a line, they score points with the first player (or players) scoring more points than those to finish the line in later rounds (similar to the scoring for columns in Noch Mal! and Noch Mal So Gut! which we played a few weeks back). There are four different types of cards, but the most common are plain numbers which allow players to just build stations and these are numbered two to six, with fewer of the high numbers. With each line restricted so that only two or three number cards can be assigned to it, Pine was quick to point out the obvious flaw and with it, the whole point of the game.

– Image by boardGOATS

Each line has roughly ten to fifteen stations, so while some could be completed with three high numbers, it is not possible to complete them all outright without an awful lot of luck (and/or some very bad shuffling!). However, most stations appear on more than one line, so the game is about using lines that run parallel creatively, sacrificing some to ensure others score well. There are catches though. Firstly, each line must be extended from the start end (the end with the “Indicator Boxes”, marked in red on our paperwork). This means that although stations can be built in the middle of the line because they are part of another line, stations cannot be added beyond this point (where the lines diverge) unless all the earlier stations have been completed.

– Image by boardGOATS

Secondly, normal number cards cannot “skip” completed stations. In other words, in a line where the first two stations have not been completed, but the third has, if a “Six” is used to build the first two, the third cannot be jumped, and the remaining four are wasted. So efficiency is the order of the game. There are a small number of special cards with a circle round the number that allow players to skip completed stations, but these are few and far between and are only low numbers. There is also a wild that allows players to fill in one station anywhere on the board without filling in an indicator box.

– Image by boardGOATS

In addition to scoring points for completed lines, players can also score a lot of points for intersections. In the deck of just twenty cards, there are three “Star Cards”. These allow players to build just one station at the cost of one Indicator Box, but instead of writing a zero in the box, they write a number that corresponds to the number of lines that go through the station. With some stations forming the intersection of four or five lines, these can be very lucrative, but of course these are in the middle of the board and therefore need careful planning and a bit of good fortune to be able to make them really count.

– Image by boardGOATS

People were not really taken with the rules and particularly with the fact they couldn’t see how it was going to work, generally didn’t feel it was “possible”, and that they were going to end up with negative points. Everyone was happy to give it a go though and we started with the Tokyo board. We started with a lot of high numbers which made the game seem really straight forward at first. About half way through though, we discovered that Green had misunderstood the rules (again!) and there was a bit of clarification and a pause while he tried to rectify things.

– Image by boardGOATS

Purple was the first to complete a line, claiming Fukutoshin. That focussed everyone’s mind a bit as they realised it wasn’t quite so impossible after all. Drawing a six triggers shuffling in the discard pile, and although Pink shuffled the deck thoroughly, the high cards returned, at least initially. Eventually, we drew some “Stars” and people were able to start picking up bonus points for intersections as well. Despite all his comments about how impossible it was, Pine soon claimed Namboku and Lilac claimed Chiyoda.

– Image by boardGOATS

The game ends when there are no Indicator boxes left, and it was as Pink and Burgundy started a count down of how many cards there were left that some players realised that they’d failed to fill them in every time. There was a bit of a flurry as people tried to correct things and then it was all over and everyone started adding up their scores. As usual, Ivory was first to post his score, and as usual, it was very competitive. Pine wasn’t convinced his score of thirty-four was right, especially as it was one more than Ivory’s, but either way, they were both beaten by Pink and Black with thirty-seven and Black took it on a tie-breaker.

– Image by boardGOATS

Now everyone had got the hang of things, we decided to give the second map, Osaka, a go. In contrast to the last game, the first card was a “Star” and the other two came out shortly afterwards, making it very difficult for players to score lots of points for intersections. Despite that, players still seemed to make good progress. In fact, there were five claims for completing four different lines in one round with Pine, Green and Ivory completing Midosuji, Sakaisuji and Yotsubashi respectively, and Black finishing Yotsubashi as well and New Tram.

– Image by boardGOATS

It was just as the game was coming to a close that the gremlins from a month ago came back to victimise Black and Purple. Unfortunately, we weren’t quick enough to spot it this time, and Pink had shuffled the deck before we noticed. The game was close to the end so it was sad that we couldn’t see whether Pink or Black did better in the rematch, and everyone else decided to finish up while they sorted out their problems. Like Take it Easy! a couple of weeks back, by the end, the players were desperately begging for particular cards they needed and as they got what they wanted there were sighs of relief, while other groaned when they got something they couldn’t use.

– Image by boardGOATS

When the last card had been revealed, everyone moved on to the scores. Once again, Pine, was right up there finishing with a total of thirty, but Burgundy, one of the most improved finished one point ahead with thirty-one. There was some chat about the game while Purple and Black rejoined us, and it seemed it suffered from “marmite factor” with Green saying it wasn’t for him (though if he’d got the rules right it might have helped), and Pine saying that although he’d won, he hadn’t really enjoyed it. On the other hand, Blue, Pink, and Burgundy thought it was clever and liked it. While we were chatting, Violet joined the group to talk about a new venture she was considering.

– Image by boardGOATS

She wondered whether there would be any interest in custom dice featuring the boardGOATS logo. There was some discussion about weighting dice correctly so they are truly random and how the market would be, as nobody wanted Violet to spend money on something that would not give a return. With Purple and Black back from their gremlin-bashing, Ivory took his leave and everyone else moved on to playing the inevitable 6 Nimmt! on Board Game Arena. We normally play this at the end of the evening, but this time, with lots of people, it put in an early appearance.

– Image by 311matman on instagram.com

While we waited for Violet to sort herself out with an account, Pine pointed out that Green had been playing games, so Green had started investigating Pine’s profile, marvelling at the number of experience points he had. It was then that he pointed out that Pine was 24^th in the overall rankings for Cribbage. It’s true that most people who use Board Game Arena probably play Euro games rather than traditional games, but all of a sudden we realised we had a bit of a celebrity in our midst. Eventually though, we got over being star-struck and actually started playing…

– Image by boardGOATS

We’ve played 6 Nimmt! an awful lot, so it needs only a little introduction: players simultaneously choose a card from their hand and they are revealed at the same time. Starting with the lowest value card, the cards are added one at a time to four rows – the player who adds the sixth card, instead takes the other five which become their scoring pile. On Board Game Arena, we now play the “Professional Variant”, where cards can be added to both ends of the rows, causing mayhem when least expected.

– Image by boardGOATS

It takes a bit of time to get used to playing with the additional layer of complexity, so it wasn’t really a surprise that poor Violet won the race to the bottom, although he father, Green wasn’t really all that far behind. The winner was Pink who picked up just ten “nimmts” and finished with fifty-six points. Black was joint second with the inevitable Pine, who always does well at this game, though this time they were twenty points behind Pink.

– Image by boardGOATS form boardgamearena.com

Time was marching on, and with plenty of people still about, that limited our choices of game somewhat. Before Christmas, we had given Incan Gold (aka Diamant) a try, but strange card draws had let to a very odd game. As the dust settled, we decided to give it another go. The game is a fairly simple “Push your Luck” game where players are exploring a temple. Players decide whether they are going to stay and explore, or leave the temple and take any treasure with them.

– Image by boardGOATS

Players who stay in the temple will get shares in any treasure cards that are drawn that round, but if they are present when a second Hazard card of any given type is drawn, the temple collapses and buries everyone in it and they lose any treasure they have collected. In the first round, Black left first followed by Green and then gradually everyone else except Pine and Pink decided discretion was the better part of valour. Inevitably, they got caught, so in the second round Pink was the first to leave (quickly followed by Purple).

– Image by boardGOATS from boardgamearena.com

When a treasure came out everyone else tried to leave and take it with them, but as nobody left alone nobody managed to get it. Eventually, only Pine, Burgundy and Blue were left in and when Blue and Burgundy left too, Pine was all by himself. When he turned one last card he got fifteen gems all to himself and left with a total of twenty and the treasure as well, much to everyone else’s chagrin. In the third round Black managed to escape alone to take a treasure and Pine and Green got caught by a couple mummies and while everyone else escaped, nobody scored very well.

– Image by boardGOATS from boardgamearena.com

In the fourth round, Burgundy almost managed to repeat Pine’s effort when he was last in the temple and turned over a fourteen so took all of it, leaving with seventeen gems. The final round was a bit of a dud, with only Pink and Violet scoring and even they didn’t get much as they left together after the first round, so shared the seven gems left on the floor. They did better than everyone else though because the fourth card was a second snake and that was that. It was very close, but the winner was Burgundy, just one gem ahead of Pine. Black made an excellent third, proving that consistency is important as well as big wins. And with that, it was time for bed.

– Image by boardGOATS

Learning Outcome: It’s a great shame Henry Beck never worked in Japan.

Goats in the News: Escapees in Stanford-in-the-Vale

Last Friday there was a report of a couple of escaped goats in Stanford hiding in someone’s garden. Today it looks like they have escaped again and are currently gambolling about in Joyces Road. Maybe they fancied playing MetroX with us last night, but if so, someone should tell them that at the moment boardGOATS is meeting online so they can join in from wherever they are as long as they can get a decent inter-goat connection…

– Image from facebook.com

Next Meeting, 16th February 2021 – Online!

Although the signs of spring approaching are clear, with the current stresses, people still need what social contact they can get, and board games are a great medium for that. Despite the limitations of “remote gaming“, everyone feels it is important to stay in touch, so we are persisting with online meetings. Therefore, our next meeting will be on Tuesday 16^th February 2021; we will gather from around 7.30pm, and start playing at 8pm.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be MetroX (aka メトロックス). This is a return to the “Roll and Write” style game, and in this one, players are trying to get the most points for completing the routes and joining the most lines on their underground map.

– Image by boardGOATS

And talking of the underground…

Jeff was walking from Monument Station to Bank via the underground tunnel when he heard a busker. As he approached he thought how beautifully the girl was playing the piano. As he got nearer, however, he felt a little put off by the weird looking child with a dunces cap sitting on top of the piano.

Suddenly, the strange kid with the pointy hat jumped up and scurried off, and the pianist abruptly stopped playing.

Jeff asked her, “That was beautiful, why did you stop playing?”

She replied, “I cannot play the piano without my metro-gnome…”

2nd February 2021 (Online)

There was a bit of chit-chat as people turned up clutching their brown, manilla envelopes, delivered over the previous few days by Purple Packet-force or Pink Parcel Post. At 8pm, everyone opened their envelope to find the bits and pieces for two games: the “Feature Game” Take it Easy!, and Das Labyrinth des Pharao (with the Sphinx und Triamide expansion boards) which we will play in a month or so. There was also a little chocolate, so as people munched, Blue explained the rules to Take it Easy!.

– Image by boardGOATS

Take it Easy! is a tile laying game where players have a pile of hexagonal tiles which they place on their hexagon player board (because hexagons are simply the bestagons). Each tile has three pipes crossing it, in three different colours. There are a total of nine different coloured pipes, three in each different direction. Tiles are drawn from a stack one at a time, and each player adds them to their personal player board. The rules are simple: the tiles can be placed anywhere on the board but must be placed so the numbers are the right way up so that the directions of the nine different coloured pipes are fixed.

– Image by boardGOATS

Players score points for any pipes that contain only the one colour, and the number of points is dependent on the colour of the pipe (the number on the pipe) and the number of tiles in the pipe. Thus, a yellow pipe, five tiles long going straight down the middle scores forty-five points, while a black pipe, along the edge, just three tiles long would only score three points. There are a maximum of fifteen pipes, but it is almost impossible to complete all successfully, especially as there are some tiles that are not used, so there is an element of chance as well as hedging bets. Blue and Pink drew tiles and displayed them for everyone to see.

– Image by boardGOATS

The pieces the players used had been modified with the addition of letters to make it slightly easier for players to uniquely identify the individual tiles. We were about three or four tiles in, when someone’s comment suddenly made Green realise that he’d started with the wrong tile. Having form with this sort of thing, Green got a certain amount of stick for “cheating”, but having found it early, he corrected his mistake and we carried on. As the game drew towards a conclusion, the number of spaces players had left progressively decreased, and increasingly, players needed specific colours and then specific tiles to complete their pipes.

– Image by boardGOATS

Pink was particularly desperate, but inevitably didn’t get the yellow pipe he so desperately wanted, which ultimately cost him thirty-six points. As everyone else was still taking off their shoes and socks to add up their scores, Ivory gave his total as one hundred and ninety-four, to howls of distress from everyone else, who clearly felt they were nowhere close. Indeed, the closest score was a hundred and eighty-two from Green in second with Blue four points behind him. Although everyone believed Ivory’s score, they were keen to see how he’d done it so we looked at the photo he’d sent in and admired his layout and looked sadly at their own.

– Image by boardGOATS

Take it Easy! hadn’t taken very long to play, indeed it was only quarter to nine. Everyone had really enjoyed it and now they felt they understood the game a little better, they all fancied another chance to see if they could catch Ivory on the second attempt. So, this time everyone had their plan and they were keen to get going. As the tiles were drawn there were variously coos of delight when a desired tile came out and teeth sucking when the tile was difficult to place. Again, as the game progressed, the teeth sucking and pleas for particular tiles got more desperate.

– Image by boardGOATS

When the last tile was drawn the stress was released and everyone settled down to count. Ivory was first to finish his arithmetic, and when he commented that he’d done better than last time, everyone else’s hearts sank. Ivory set a new target of two hundred and two, but aside from him, almost everyone else failed to improve on their first score (Lime’s excuse was that he was missing the help of his assistant). Lilac was the most improved though, increasing her score by sixty to take an excellent second place with one hundred and ninety-six, with nobody else coming close.

– Image by boardGOATS

We had all really enjoyed Take it Easy! and we’ll definitely give the game another outing, but in the meantime it was still quite early, so although Lime took an early night, everyone else was keen to play Cartographers. This is a game we’ve been trying to get to the table since before Christmas, but have been unsuccessful thanks to the IT gremlins last time, and On Tour and electing the Golden GOAT taking longer than expected. However, even two plays through of Take it Easy! had not taken over-long and with everyone familiar with the rules, we thought there was time to squeeze it in.

– Image by boardGOATS

That was before the gremlins returned, this time to kybosh Ivory’s printer. It looked like plans would have to be revised, but after a bit of poking he persuaded it to cooperate and everyone settled down to concentrate on their artwork. Cartographers is a “Roll and Write” type game or perhaps more accurately a “Flip and Colour”, as the game is driven by cards instead of dice and players are colouring terrain blocks, fitting shapes together in a Tetris-style. This is similar to other games like Second Chance and Patchwork Doodle, but is definitely a step up thanks to goal cards revealed at the start of the game. There are four goals two of which are scored at the end of each round in a way reminiscent of the scoring in another game that is popular with the group, the 2016 Kennerspiel des Jahres winner, Isle of Skye.

– Image by boardGOATS

This time the four goal cards were Stoneside Forest (three points for each mountain terrain connected to another with forest), Shoreside Expanse (three points for each lake or arable that is not adjacent to water, farmland or the edge of the map), Great City (one point for each space in a player’s second largest city) and The Cauldrons (one point for each single, empty space completely surrounded; the only goal card that was different to when we played the game back in September). Goals A and B are scored at the end of the first round, Goals B and C at the end of the second and so on. The game proceeds with players drawing their choice of shape and terrain from the card revealed, trying to score as effectively as possible for the current round, but also with an eye to scoring in later rounds.

– Image by boardGOATS

The game is made more interesting in that cards give players a choice of terrain or shape and sometimes both, increasing the decision space over games like Second Chance and Patchwork Doodle. Additionally there are Ruins cards which restrict where players can play for a turn, and Ambush cards which force players to put negatively scoring shapes on their board. In the past, we have used the house-rule that instead of introducing one Ambush every round we only add them from the second round onwards to give people a chance to settle into the game. Additionally, because we are playing remotely, we play the Ambush cards using the solo player rules.

– Image by boardGOATS

Although we like the spice the Ambush cards add, they can swing the game quite a bit and add a bit of randomness. Part of the driving-force to play Cartographers was the desire to try out the alternative, “Wastelands” map, so because of the additional challenge we thought this would add, we again used the house-rule, and only added three Ambush cards during the game. The “Wastelands” are an area of the map that is inaccessible to the map-makers and as such is terrain already filled in, but is space that cannot be used. It quickly became apparent that this meant players filled up their maps much more quickly so it became harder to place the bigger shapes from a much earlier point in the game.

– Image by boardGOATS

For some, this was an advantage when it came to the Ambush cards later in the game, as it meant there wasn’t sufficient space to add them to the player board. The first round was full of Water and Farmland, which was useful for the Shoreside Expanse goal (at the end of the first and second rounds), but keeping them separate with the additional obstacle of the Wasteland was difficult. Worse, this caused obstructions for players trying to score for connecting their Mountains using forest (Stoneside Forrest, scoring in the first and final rounds).

– Image by boardGOATS

There was also a lot of Settlement early on, with Woodland relatively scarce. There weren’t any Ruins until later either and with the first Ambush card only appearing in the third round, players could mostly do what they wanted in the early part of the game. When the Ruins came towards the end, some players had no choice where to place them while others benefited from being unable to place them at all. The same was true for the Ambush cards with some players being unable to play them at all and therefore not picking up negative points at the end of the game.

– Image by boardGOATS

When everyone was feeling the pinch the Marshlands card appeared, which is one of the biggest shapes. Purple’s distressed cry of, “It won’t fit, I can’t get it in!”, was followed by Black’s dry response, “It’s too big…” which had everyone else in stitches. From there it wasn’t long before the game came to an end. Ivory was once again the first to report his score, posting a massive total of one hundred and eight, which most people felt would not be surpassed. Indeed, that was the way it stayed with nobody else exceeding a hundred (after Black’s goblin-related recount), until Pink, giving his score last, sneaked into the lead with one hundred and twelve.

– Image by boardGOATS

It was quite late, so Ivory headed off to bed as did Lilac, but there was still time for the rest to play a game of our current end of evening favourite, the Professional Variant of 6 Nimmt! on Board Game Arena. This is so simple yet so much fun: players simultaneously choose a card from their hand and then add them to one of the four rows in order. The fast play, lack of down time, and the illusion of control together with the sudden disasters that befall people who are doing well, just hits the spot for the group.

– Image by boardGOATS

This time, Burgundy started the race to the bottom, but was quickly joined by Purple. Her efforts were outstripped by Burgundy though who had high cards when he wanted low ones and low cards when he wanted high ones. As a result, he finished with a very impressive minus twenty-seven. At the other end, Green, Pink, Pine and Blue were neck-and-neck, until Green started collecting nimmts. Pine, who always does well in 6 Nimmt! held the lead for most of the game, but with the end in sight, it all went wrong for him leaving Blue to take the glory just ahead of Pink. Thanks to Burgundy’s prowess at collecting nimmts there was still time for one last game.

– Image by boardGOATS from boardgamearena.com

There was a lot of discussion about options, but when someone pointed out that No Thanks! had had been added to the list of games (albeit in beta), everyone was keen to give it a go. As Blue set up the game, Pine asked whether there was a “drop a token between the floorboards option” in reference to a memorable evening that had ended with a round of Hunt the Game Piece only to find that it had dropped seamlessly through the gap to nestle in the dust under the floor of The Jockey. That sort of diversion aside, we all know the rules and the game is (usually) quick to play, so we thought we’d give it a go.

– Image by boardGOATS

No Thanks! is an extremely simple game: the top card from the deck is revealed and the first player has a simple choice, take the card or pay a chip to pass the decision on to the next player. When a player takes a card, they also take any chips and then turn over the next card and start again. The cards have a face value between three and thirty-five, but nine cards are removed at random. When the deck is depleted, players sum the face value of their cards and subtract this total from the number of chips they have to give their final score—the player with the most positive score is the winner.

– Image by boardGOATS

The really clever part of the game is that players who have a run, only count the lowest card. This means cards have different values to different players and there-in lies the tension and the fun. Further, since the number of chips players have is kept secret, players have to decide whether the card they want will still be available when their next turn comes. The version of the game we usually play, nominally only plays a maximum of five people. The more recent version plays up to seven, as does the Board Game Arena implementation.

– Image by boardGOATS from boardgamearena.com

The first thing we discovered was that the “Spend a Chip” button was perilously close to the top of the cards which meant it was very easy to “sausage-finger” and accidentally take a card without meaning to. Black was the first to fall foul of this, but he was not the only one. The second thing was that somehow, playing online somehow took away some of the tension, perhaps partly due to the automatic bidding, possibly contributed to by the fact we were playing with six, but probably mostly due to the fact that players cannot see the angst of their opponents as they try to make the simple decision.

– Image by boardGOATS from boardgamearena.com

Success in this game is always achieving a rare positive score. This time, Pink hogged all the chips finishing with nearly half the total in the game. This put pressure on everyone else and even the winner finished in the red, albeit with a lot more than the minus sixty-four scored by the player at the bottom. The winner was Pine, with minus six, some nine points ahead of Burgundy in second place. Although we all enjoyed playing, somehow it didn’t have quite the same effect as 6 Nimmt!, so the search to find another game we can play at the end of the evening continues.

– Image by boardGOATS

Learning Outcome: Never assume the name of a game is a guide on how to play it.

Goats in the News: Goats on Zoom Make a Mint

Back in October, boardGOATS celebrated our 8^th birthday. We always have a bit of a party and play Crappy Birthday, but the current situation meant that this year it had to be held online. So, to make it a bit more memorable, we had a special guest: Elizabeth from Cronkshaw Fold Farm. As well as entertaining people with yoga, Elizabeth and her friends from Rossendale in Lancashire are TV stars from The Great Staycation.

– Image from cronkshawfoldfarm.co.uk

Back in April, when everyone was stuck at home and so many meetings moved online, Cronkshaw‘s Chief Goat-Wrangler, Dot McCarthy, came up with the idea of hiring out members of the flock to “butt in” on conference calls. What started off as a joke has now resulted in thousands of calls, all over the world, earning over £50,000. When so many people have been furloughed, this has enabled the farm to keep on two employees full-time. And the goats have brought a little bit of much needed fun into so many people’s lives; certainly, Elizabeth made a valued contribution to our birthday celebrations.