No train, no gain

With the threat of 80 mph winds and driving rain, six gamers (mostly Eastonites) congregated at Adam's place for the weekly fix. At first there were five of us: Adam, Martin, Katy, Ian and me. Railways of the World sat temptingly on the table and I immediately made my preference clear, with Adam in agreement . The other offering was Azul, which Katy was keen to try, having watched a couple of games and Martin was happy to join in too. So, the games were decided. All that remained was to decide the line-ups. With Steve expected shortly, we thought it fair to wait and give him a choice. But Ian suddenly decided that, actually, he'd prefer Azul after all. Thus,when Steve arrived, he was thrown in at the deep end in a game of RotW, a game he'd played maybe once a few years ago.

After an all-too-brief rules explanation, we were off. I grabbed an early Railroad Executive as my first move and so was able to complete two more actions. This confused Steve who now thought you took all your actions at once. It would not be the last time that Steve needed on-the-fly guidance about the rules.

"So, this... What does this do again?"

Adam's strategy could be conservatively called Feisty. He (and Steve) both used depot cards to plonk their carriages on other players' tracks, but then Adam went on to grab the Guadalajara Hotel card in order to profit cheaply off my brilliantly planned four link connection from Brownsville.

Talking of which, after a promising start, Steve found himself becalmed in the corner of the board down by Mexico City. We advised him that he needed to get to Brownsville, but he did not have the infrastructure in place to fully exploit it. By the time he had, both me and Adam had built in the vicinity. Adam's track took a course that seemed designed to cut off Brownsville from the south. Steve, though, had a plan. Unfortunately, his plan involved building six pieces of track in one action, which we had to tell him was illegal. He was appalled, insisting that we hadn't told him that at the start. We might have done, or we might not. We might have just mumbled it, who can say? We offered to let him take his move but his pride wouldn't allow such a flagrant discard of the rules (“Brownsville ain't worth nothin' to me now,” he declared) but, after some contemplation, he completed it in two actions, just like the rules insist.

By now Azul was over and they all enjoyed it. Martin tried to think of anyone who'd played Azul but didn't like it. He couldn't.

Katy does shadow puppets!

Martin 49
Ian 37
Katy 27

Than they began a game of Kingdom Builder. Another debut for Katy, and apparently she struggled with remembering some of the terminology during the rules explanation. But it's not a very intuitive game for the newbie. Even Ian had to be shown when he was already “touching canyons.”

As it was, Martin and Katy ended the game with the same score, being a lovely display of teacher and student unity. Pity that Ian ruined it by beating them both.

Ian 65
Martin 61
Katy 61

Katy said she liked it, but mostly because she hadn't lost to Martin.

Around now, the heavens open and dropped a whole load of water of Bristol. We looked out onto Adam's decking and saw pretty much a solid wall of rain hitting the ground.

But Railways ploughed on. For a long time we were two empty cities from ending the game, but then a New City card came out or someone Urbanised, so the endgame lasted longer than any of us expected.

On the other table, while waiting for us, Martin had had the idea to snap Katy out of her anti-Ra world view. With few other gaming options available (she admitted she didn't know Takenoko well enough to teach it) she agreed. Such a good sport.

During Ra, with it's song-related catchphrases - “Smooth Pyramid” to the tune of “Smooth Criminal” and, of course, gold (“Gold!”) - prompted Martin to tell us that he'd once sat next to the bassist of the Sisters of Mercy. And he was very nice.

At the other end of “very nice” was our game of Railways of the World.

By now, Steve had largely run out of options and most of his points were from Adam using his track. Adam, once his victory was assured, toyed with the idea of making Steve second. Maybe he still felt bad about not telling Steve about the four tile maximum rule. I, meanwhile, had fallen into temptation with one of those Bounty cards giving extra points for deliveries to certain cities. I bid high to go first, built the link but then wailed in despair when I realised that Adam could deliver there using my track. Which he did. Bastard. He insisted he hadn't noticed until I'd said it, but I'm sure he'd have worked it out.

I managed to complete two scoring links and complete my bonus Baron to keep a healthy distance between me and Steve, keeping a little dignity for myself.

Adam 77
Andrew 65
Steve 58

I feel a bit of sympathy for Steve, since it was a bit of a baptism of fire. I hope he comes back again soon. Not every GNN is as arduous as this one was. Adam was kind enough to thank us, but I enjoyed it. Adam also pointed out that he could've been much meaner, which makes me think it might be interesting idea to try an overtly nasty, bare-knuckle game of Railways, just to see how it plays out.

Since Ra was still mid-game, we played Mapominoes. A card game where you place countries next to other countries that share borders. I found it quite drab, I'm afraid. Apart from me and Steve making up accents for each country. Most of which were fairly similar, as I recall.

Steve 0 cards left
Adam 1
Andrew 2

The third epoch of Ra was notable for the large number of Ra tiles pulled from the bag. It ended the game in short measure, leaving Martin regretting what might have been, if only that last tile...

More shadow puppets!

Katy 58
Martin 53
Ian 43

To fill in the time while we finished Mapominoes, they played Push It. On a tiny table. When they stopped, the score was 3-3-1, but I'm not sure who to.

Once Mapominoes was over, Martin was up for another game with the six of us, but it was quarter to eleven, and most of us were keen to bed. Or at least to get back before another cloudburst hit. Martin seemed dazed by the speed that we got our shoes and coats back on, but a collective decision had been made.

Thanks all. It was a special night.