Sam, the man-who-ver y nearly beat me at Manoeuvre

Whilst other GNN gamers Andrew and Adam were busy pogo-ing to Bucky at Cafe Kino (how was it chaps?), Sam and I convened for a spot of two-player cardboard, erm 'mayhem'. If that sounds tame, I can tell you there was also some plastic involved. You could have an eye out with those Ingenious tile racks!

I finally got a chance to introduce Manoeuvre, my favourite short two-player direct conflict game, to Sam. Sam, Manoeuvre; Manoeuvre, Sam. Cautious handshakes, muttered pleasantries.

After Andrew's problems galvanising the Dutch-Belgian English regiment last time we played, I offered Sam the French, as a slightly more reliable starting army.
The game usually starts gently, with lots of quick turns as both player's units head for prime positions on the middle of the board, ready for the mid-game stand-off. Except that as soon as my Cavalry arrived Sam punched them in the face. A rookie error, I thought - not waiting to build up a co-ordinated attack.
But it set the tone for the whole game; lots of opportunistic attacks, whittling down and battling back units, though Sam definitely had the edge, having taken one of my cavalry units and two infantry against my prize of a single French infantry unit. It became clear that neither of us was likely to win by attrition, so we both did a last minute dance to get the best position on each others side of the board and claim the nightfall victory. In the end it was so close we thought it was a draw, but I pipped a win by a single VP.

It wasn't the best iteration of this lovely game with which to woo Sam - a little more bitty and indecisive than usual, but I think he quite enjoyed it - no doubt he shall tell us in the comments. Still, he grasped the fundamentals (ouch) with ease, and dominated my side of the battlefield well into the second half.

It was only nine, so we cast about for a shorter two-player game, settling on perennial fave Ingenious, a Knizia classic. We played two games, Sam winning both - several times I had to refresh my hand, and in both games I realised my opportunities for scoring a particular colour were dwindling fast. There's a very steep drop-off once the board starts filling up, and in the second game we were both being far more circumspect in placing each tile, looking for ways to keep colours open and close others down.
It's a deserving classic - but I do wish the tiles and board were prettier. God I'm shallow.

A good combo of games for a thursday night, and nice to get a chance to play Manoeuvre again.
If we can get the other GNN-ers to learn the rules, perhaps we could have a Euro-style competition - all eight armies playing each other over several rounds, quarter and semi-finals, and then we could all stand around watching two people play the grand final. Hmm, maybe not.