Wednesday 13 September 2017

Nicht noch einmal!

This week's GNN was looking to be reasonably populated, only for work and weather to cull us back to five: Ian was first in out of the heavy rain at my (Sam's) house, followed by equally sodden Martin and Katy, before Joe strolled in looking catalogue dry. The evening began in most un-GNN-like fashion as we sat with Sally and the boys chatting and eating apple pie, almost as if there were no games to be played.

But there were, and our plans of Clanking or Rocketing (Stephenson-wise) were abandoned for some five player options: we started with The Chameleon, the cross between Spyfall and Codenames.

Like Spyfall, cards are dealt during each round that denote who the chameleon is, whose task to A. not reveal themselves and/or B. work out what the word of the round is. The other cards and a set of dice decide on the word, which is one of about 16 visible on a face-up card - and the visible words are of a theme: animals, music genres and so on. Everyone but the chameleon knows which word is the chosen one, and after a short period of "thinking time" everyone says a single, ostensibly related, word. Then everyone discusses and guesses who the chameleon is. If they choose wrong, the chameleon wins. If they choose correctly, the chameleon can still win by identifying the word.

 chameleon not pictured

The latter was the case for us half the time - in all but one round we nailed the chameleon, but half the time they guessed the word anyway - like Spyfall, you're trying to give the impression you know the word without actually giving it away to the chameleon, and we were being rather obvious. In the final round I was the chameleon, and I decided to go fairly random and just say the word "Orange", hoping to bluff my way out of it. But as luck would have it, I was last to speak and the other words revealed to me that the correct word was Christmas. I stuck with orange, happily remembering that oranges - or satsumas, as Joe correctly pointed out - appear in stockings. Thanks to kismet and some vague words from Ian and Katy, I pulled off the only outright chameleon win of the night!

We moved on to the meat of the evening, which was Beowulf. I rarely request this but I always enjoy it, and last night was no exception. The very first bid turned into an epic battle where everyone felt too committed to drop out, and as a result cards were a scarce commodity from early on. Joe and I both took scratches and wounds, but I managed to pick up a couple of scrolls as well, whereas Joe was bereft of them.

Oh, Beowulf

Ian and Katy both managed to build themselves enormous hands of cards at some stage, whereas Martin and I seemed short of them. Halfway through I sensed it was a battle between Katy and Martin, as Joe looked to be struggling still and Ian seemed too forlorn - but I had forgotten that is merely Ian's natural demeanour.

But spare a thought for Martin, who gallantly reminded Ian in the final, epic battle - where both of them successfully risked into existence numerous cards - that when Ian's risk finally failed him he had a special card to play that negated the risk and allowed him to go again. He did, and it proved a crucial moment in determining the victor, as Martin's risk response did not fare as well:

Ian 28
Katy/Sam 26
Martin 23
Joe 14

Martin's successful risks weren't quite enough...

After the tension of bidding in Beowulf we went for a different kind of tension: bidding in Perudo. This perennial classic showed all its qualities - apart from the Calza rule - as we bluffed and brinkmanshipped our way through another twenty minutes of GNN history. Despite Joe's death spiral, it was Martin first out as the others shed dice down to palafico status and I somehow held on to all five of mine. Ian and Joe soon exited too, although my dice were depleted by the time I faced Katy thanks to two moments where I wanted to call Calza (and would have been successful) but had to raise, and was successfully dudo-ed.

It was now a face to face between Katy (one die) and myself (two). I rolled a 4 and 6 but bid one 5, hoping Katy wouldn't bid a single six. It was risky, but it paid off as she went one ace and I dudo-ed her out of the game.

Despite Joe, Ian and I agreeing we were collectively 'pooped' Martin corralled us into one more game, which was Noch Mal ("Again" in German), one of Joe's roll-and-write purchases that have been making their way to the table recently. I was curious, since I really like Rolling America and Qwixx, but was less impressed than everyone else by Kribbeln. It was new to everyone but Joe and Katy, but the game is pretty simple: six dice are rolled - three numbered, three coloured - and then the active player chooses a combo of colour and number to cross off boxes on their Noch Mal pad. All the other players then choose one of the remaining combos for themselves, with the caveat that if they can't cross off adjacent boxes exactly (i.e. they can't access those boxes from previously filled ones, or they don't have enough space) then they can't cross off anything. Players completing a column or all the boxes of a particular colour score points, and certain boxes are minus points if they end the game un-crossed.

Pre-game-boxes

I thought it was a decent game, but compared to Qwixx or Rolling America it did seem to go on for a while; long enough for some to feel it out-stayed its welcome somewhat. Everyone eventually ran out of the helpful 'joker' spaces on their pads, meaning there were turns were you could do nothing but stare balefully at the table. I think a second play would change a number of tactics and alleviate this, but I didn't get the impression it would get played again soon... Ian hated it so much he lost all his powers of arithmetic and thought 12 + 2 was twenty.

Sam 22
Joe/Katy 18
Martin 16
Ian 14

Early-game boxes. Note that columns further from the centre 
(where you must start your box-crossing) score more points. 

And everyone - bar me - stepped into the windy night. Despite the underwhelm of Noch Mal, a very fun evening. Thanks all!

3 comments:

  1. Thanks For hostin' 'n' bloggin' Sam.

    Chameleon seemed fairly fragile, in a similar way to Spyfall - but I did enjoy it. I like the aspect that a player who believes they've got another player's reference can 'vouch' for them, as Martin did, with varying results; on the Christmas round he convinced me that it couldn't be you. I think we'd begun to get to grips with the strategy . . .

    I found Beowulf slightly gruelling - I feel like it goes on a wee bit too long - but I do usually enjoy it. Even Perudo felt stressful - I think I was feeling in a non-feisty, faintly fragile mood - so Noch Mal was just my speed, though I was clearly out of sync with the general vibe. I like the Tooty Fruity-esque colours.

    Special thanks to Sal for homemade apple pie with apples from the garden! Very delicious.

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  2. I'd agree that Beowulf can feel long - I think that's why I never suggest it, as it seems like it should last 60 minutes, but it goes for more like 100. But I did enjoy it.

    Although I didn't do it as much as some, I think without the Risk rule Beowulf would be pretty bland hand management. The risks really make it.

    I enjoyed Chameleon and would happily play that again. Noch Mal too; although that also felt slightly longer than necessary!

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  3. Thanks all!

    I really enjoy Beowulf. It could possibly be a bit shorter, but I don't think it outstayed it's welcome.

    I can imagine enjoying Noch Mal at, say, the start of an evening, but as a late-night finisher it sadly didn't do it for me.

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