WhaDiYoB? - Space Base (2018)

🕑 6 min read

Welcome back again, to our 'What Did You Bring?' segment! This week will be diving into a game which doesn't seem to have made many appearances at NoBoG in recent times. Space Base by John D Clair, published by AEG. 

In a galaxy, far, far away, but not that long ago - a space base has become home to your space fleet. As the newly minted Commodore of your Fleet, it is your mission to trade and increase your wealth and influence; all in the hopes of ultimately becoming the Admiral of the Fleet! 

Space Base is essentially a race which encompasses a tableaux building dice rolling game, where luck plays a big part along with some quick thinking, and some satisfying tactical choices too. 

This game is fast becoming an ever-green, and is the most popular game by John D Clair, according to BGG. I suspected that quite a few of us may have somehow over looked Space Base, due to there being a galaxy full of other rising stars. So here's my take on it, and why I think you might want to dip your toes in, roll some dice and do some intergalactic exploration if you get the opportunity. 

Space Base is one of those games where learning it is easy, however mastering it will take numerous attempts. John Clair has given to us a highly sensitive set of in-game controls and customisation which imparts immediate feedback. It gives me a sense of excitement and anticipation when I know I am sitting down to play it again. So here goes.

If you have ever played Machi Koro, then you will have a head start on understanding parts of this game. Each player begins with a tableaux (space base) of 12 sectors equipped with the same 12 space vessels. On your turn you roll two six-sided dice. The number on the dice correlates to each numbered sector. So if you roll a 6, you gain the (blue coloured) bonus given by the vessel docked at sector 6. However, alternatively you may split the dice total, for example, if you rolled a 4 and 2, you may collect the individual bonuses on sectors 4 AND 2 instead. Roll a doubles and you get to use the same number twice if you wish. Typical bonuses include additional Credits, increased Income and/or more Influence (victory points). If you collected credits then they are added to you running total. You may then spend credits on a new vessel (only one purchase per turn) bought from a multi-level (tiered) market place. However, even if the vessel you wish to buy is less than your current total, your credits are still returned back to zero for that turn, thus wasting any remaining credits. At the very end of your turn, your credits bounce back up to your last income level. This means, you will have to save your credits for a BIG purchase a few turns down the line. Or, you could concentrate on raising up your income level, giving yourself a powerful launch pad, to be able to afford the expensive vessels found in the 2nd and 3rd level markets. 

In Space Base the first player to 'max out' their influence tracker at 40 points, wins. You can do this by purchasing vessels which give you influence bonuses on yours and other players turns OR by buying some of the single use Outposts which are priced from 1-40 credits. The larger the outpost you buy, the more influence (victory points) they will score you. These outposts usually are acquired towards the end of the game to speedily increase your influence, so you can swiftly and/or sneakily nab a last gasp victory. 

If Space Base was simply just the game I described above then it would still be quite an enjoyable one. However, there is a little more to it. Let me explain. 

You may have been thinking, wait, if I only have 12 sectors, and I buy a new vessel to dock at one, where does my old vessel go? Is it decommissioned? No. It is sent into space (deployed) to explore and trade in the furthest reaches of the galaxy. What this means in game terms is that it is flipped upside down, and slipped under you player board at the same position it was first docked at. You now earn a new (red) bonus from that vessel each time the number is rolled on any of your opponents turns! Not only that, some vessels will give you unique power-ups that can be used to increase or decrease the sector number rolled that turn. So now you have a small engine builder which can help you find some more of the good luck needed to win a campaign. Indeed, how you choose to arrange and deploy your fleet over your space base provides you with a unique path to victory. Plus, just like with Machi Koro, advanced players will be taking note of where their opponents are strongest or weakest, and try to take advantage of this information. 

Final thoughts.

I was introduced to this game a few years back after falling in love with Machi Koro. As soon as I began playing Space Base, I knew I would adore this too. For such a simple game, it really pushes you to be creative with your choices, and try your luck at engineering a smooth running warp core, which works on both yours and your opponents turns. Failing that, you can go for brute force, save your credits up and purchase a super-powered vessel or outpost, and put all your xenomorphic eggs in one nest. 

Space Base sprawls out quite satisfyingly over a large table, and is reasonably priced for what looks like a LOT of game. I suspect that many of us will play this game several times before we manage to grab ourselves a well earned victory though. It is worth saying that since this game is dice roll driven, you could easily benefit from a really lucky set of dice rolls, and artificially get your fleet's warp drives running at warp 9 prematurely.

Space Base will play quite easily in 1 hour, however if you play at the higher player count of 4-5 players, or most of you are first time players, plus some of you are prone to analysis paralysis... then put aside another 30minutes for sure.

See you all later!

Game Night - TAKE THAT and Party?

🕑 8 min read

Hi! Game Night is 'Back for Good'! We're not going to be 'Up All Night', but we are hopeful that it 'Could Be Magic'. For the purposes of this post, all player's names have been changed to protect the victims of both sharks and pirates.

This, was our first Tuesday evening game night of September, and it brought to us another 25(ish) NOBOGlins. After briefly catching up with Gary, I decided that I was going to join in with them and play Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest. Never played it before. Heard a lot of good things. We're all going to be SKY PIRATES! 

After the usual WHADIYOB introductions, we found ourselves with 6, yes SIX players!! OMG... this was going to be an amazing evening, I think 'I Found Heaven'. 

Let's GOOO!!

This game looked impressive, and easily spread out over our huge table. Gary initially warned us that our game might take over an hour; before efficiently ploughing onto explaining the rules. On my left was Howard, Mark, Jason, then Robbie, and finally Gary (on my right). It turns out that a few of us were "old salt" and had played before... not me though.

What a table of riches!

Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest is a fairly recent re-print (and re-publishing) of an older and much loved 2012 version. In case you haven't played before, the cut and thrust of this game revolves around every player starting with the same hand of 6 cards (crew members), drawn from a pool of 40. Then we simultaneously choose one, play it, reveal it, and then deal with them in initiative order. Each crew card also has a unique power which affects the game in lots of cool and interesting ways too. The aim is to collect as many of the valuable loot tokens as possible, whilst avoiding relics which normally penalise you. Plus; force opponent's crew members to walk the plank (die), using your unique crew powers, thus hindering others and helping you to your villainous victory. The pirate with the most loot wins. Sounds easy...right?

My first wake up call that something might be rotten in the state of Demark, was being removed from the island (turn order) by another captain's crew powers and by the cutlass loot tokens. Unfortunately, in this game, if you are stymied too many times during a single round, it can prove to be a problem. Hence my first criticism of this game. When playing a 6 player game, a lot of 'out of turn' take-that powers can and and will be deployed. Resulting in bloody-brawls full of highs, lows and the haunting cries of "Please! Not me again!", "I'm not even winning!" and "Why do you HATE ME?!". "Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!! Batten down the hatches ya bilge sucking land lubbers!"

I had been warned prior, that Libertalia was a festival of 'by the skin of your teeth' escapes, brutal put downs, revenge, and of course clever predictions which lead to great plays. Which all sound amazing fun! So why didn't it 'feel' like that to me? Ok, no more review stuff - what actually happened?

Howard and Mark moved quickly into the lead by a good margin, closely followed by Gary. Unfortunately Jason and Robbie  (poor Robbie) got to walk the plank several times during the first round because "dead men tell no tales". I performed poorly by simply tripping myself up and over thinking, only to find my actions were over-ridden, or weaker than expected. However, when it came to round 2, I was beginning to understand what I needed to do, and was grabbing some valuable loot tokens. Yay me. 

Going into the final round, both Howard and Mark were really beginning to pull away. Gary's plans appeared to have paved the way for a great finish, and Jason was gaining good ground too.  Unfortunately for Robbie and I, we had been "scuttled" a few too many times early on to make a serious dent in our deficits. This is part and parcel of a competitive game like this one, and as the game's "scally wags", our inexperience was showing.

Robbie's not a fan. But we love him still. 

I'm not entirely sure, but I may have been witness to some frustrated plays made by Robbie. They began to unleash 'The Flood' on some of us by purposefully selecting the cutlass loot token and began "swabbing the deck" with extreme prejudice. I was here for it. I would have probably hi-fived Robbie if I got chance, but they made a speedy exit after the game (probably to utilise some of their notoriety and pursue a solo career). Suddenly our plucky six-some was now a band of five. Howard won Libertalia, closely followed by Mark. A predictable end, to a 2 hour game.

Afterwards, I was reliably informed that playing Libertalia several times is mandatory for a good time, and I do love me a good time. I enjoyed the table banter, and yes, I do look forward to giving it another go in the future.  

Next game please!

Fantasy Realms, one of my favourite short (filler) games. 5 players went into this game, and 3 of us had played it before. It's a super fast hand management and set collection game which has the tendency to end way too fast. Rome wasn't built in a day, but a Fantasy Realm can be built in 20 minutes. 

Each player is dealt a hand of 7 face-down cards. When it is your turn, you simply either pick a card from the remaining deck, or pick a face-up card from the discard pile. You may only have 7 cards, so you have to discard one before the turn moves on to the next player. All discarded cards are arranged face-up on the table, and when there are 10 cards left discarded on the table, the game ends immediately! How you decide which card to pick up, what to keep and the one to discard is all based on the strength of the hand you currently have. The idea is to build the most valuable (strongest) fantasy realm before the world ends. Each card you have has a strength value, and when added together, they become your final total. Some cards work together to multiply up strength, some cards penalise you for having particular cards and of course a few cards penalise you for not having certain other cards. It's a complete mess for new players - but a game plays so fast that it is entirely possible to rush through 2-3 games without even blinking.

Try it. Try blinking. I've already played 3 games of Fantasy Realms. 

After explaining the rules, I let everyone know that a score of over 100 was great for first timers, and if you managed to get to 150 then you did very well. Scores of 200 or more were available for experienced players, as knowledge of the deck is key to optimising your hand for a godlike total. 

What a starting might look like

Our winner from last game, Howard, scored an impressive 199 points! Plus Howard managed to make good use of the Gem of Ordering card, which provides massive bonuses for a set of cards in numerical order. Always satisfying when a player manages to do this. Gary and Mark (our first timers) scored well with 135 and 150 points. I remember finding it quite difficult to get anywhere near 150 on my first few attempts - so this was a amazing to see. Jason, who was our other experienced player (with 20 games under their belt) did exceptionally well with a score of 239! However, I managed a rare win by scoring 2 more points, totalling a huge 241, which a BIG number for me - so I was delighted. 

In our last game we all had to endure multiple 'take-that' actions which took their toll on our fragile plans. Fantasy Realms is not particularly known for hostilities. BUT experienced players know when to hold onto certain cards to deny other players big totals, and when to focus on their own burgeoning realms. Jason though, was witness to me picking up the Candle card, which when combined with the Book of Changes, Bell Tower and any one Wizard, adds a massive 100 points to your final score. Unknown to me, was that Jason had the Bell Tower, and decided to hold onto it for the entire game, denying me my bonus 100 points. HOWEVER... what he didn't know was that I had the Mirage card, which can duplicate the Bell Tower.. thus giving me the bonus in the end. I also managed to find the Necromancer which added another card to my hand at the very end just before scoring AND the Collector who added another 40 points for having 4 Wizards. Game over.

NEXT!! 

The Origami artwork is stunning.

Fast becoming one of my favourite short, set collection games, we reached our final game of the evening, the beautiful Sea Salt and Paper with 3 players, Howard, Gary and me. This was my 4th, maybe 5th play, and I still hadn't quite worked out how to defeat others yet. I do love it though. Simply, each player has an option of either picking 2 cards from a face-down deck, discarding one, and keeping one for their hand. OR, pick up one of the face-up cards from either of the 2 discard piles. Easy stuff.

As you collect your set of cards you are given opportunities to play pairs of cards face up to score points and gain additional actions from doing so.  For example: have another turn, or blindly pick another face-down card for your hand etc. In this game though, the 'take that' shark/swimmer combo pair was being used profusely. It would appear that blood was in the water again and it was time to 'Pray'. 

This game is played in rounds, and ends when one player reaches 35 points or more. Each round is curtailed by the players themselves. Once you have at least 7 points in your hand combined with any pairs played on to the table, then you can simply call STOP! Everyone counts up their card set values and adds them to their running total. There are a few more rules surrounding this, but I'll save that for an up and coming review. 

In our game, ATTACK was the only form of defence as each player proceeded to plunder the other's
hands; fishing for Mermaid cards and probing for valuable Penguins. In the first round I was shark attacked twice, leaving me with only 3 cards when STOP was called. So, I got a big fat zero. Cue the grumpy face. 

Amongst the very, very funny banter at our table, we also experienced a hilarious situation when Gary picked up 2 cards and immediately played them both as a pair, declaring loudly that he would be using his Shark & Swimmer combo to steal a card from my hand... again. This was a 2-fold mistake. Firstly, you can't pick up 2 cards and play them both in that same turn, you have to discard one first. So, a disappointed Gary pocketed the shark card and discarded the swimmer card. Secondly, I had a shark card in my hand, so of course I picked up the rejected swimmer, and immediately dealt Gary some 'rough justice' with it. It was amazing good fun, and my only regret was that we didn't get to fully finish the game before 'turfing out time' was upon us. In the end we called it a draw... but somehow I lost. Not complaining though, as it was a memorable night. 

This evening was FULL of highs and lows, frustrations and so much 'take-that' that it was difficult 'Holding Back the Tears' sometimes. I may have my criticisms of games which encourage such gratuitous amounts of player smack downs, however, sometimes you gotta 'Get Ready For It', and 'Don't Say Goodbye' too early. 

We will return next week; with more cutlasses and sharks than ever before. Just you wait!

All fingers and thumbs - a dexterity night

It seems a long time ago now [ed: yes it is Ian, better late than never I suppose], when 6 Noboglins bravely decided it would be fun to try out some different dexterity games. First up was a sneaky game played by early arrivals on the Tuesday, a recently arrived Kickstarter game in the Itten games 'funbrick' package. 5 different games, with this one a game arguably the standout game in the campaign, but does it live up to that promise?

Viking See-saw follows a design that's been done before, of balancing a see-saw, by adding items and trying to avoid it tipping over to the other side. What sets this aside from all the others though, is the quality of the components. There's real variety in the items you need to add, from a plastic gem and ball, through quirky wooden meeples, the wooden cargo that serves as the game's timer (and punishment for failure), through to the stars of the piece, metal cubes that might look like Terraforming Mars cubes, but represent the quality that game was mocked for missing. The brass one in particular is intimidatingly weighty, making it quite the decision as to when to use it.
Wobbly hand rating: Challenging but far from impossible

Then onto the games proper, and Men at Work is notable for its quality components as well, and dexterity games do seem improved by having quality, rather than flimsy pieces.

The premise is you're working on a building site, where there is a 'laissez-faire' attitude to health & safety, but making that worse, employees want to show off when the boss eventually turns up, by building higher than anyone else has built before, plus if they cause an accident, it's the next player who has to clean up the mess before they take their turn. What could go wrong? Lots, but often the wobbliest construction is still remarkably resilient... until eventually it (catastrophically) isn't. Many of you will have played Jenga, and felt frustrated by the laborious setup before play commences. This game solves that by laying out a just 3 grey chunky 'supports' and then laying out a mere 3 chunky coloured wooden 'girders' resting on them. The game is ready to play inside a minute or two. On a player's turn, a card is turned over revealing whether they're placing a worker or a girder, plus whatever additional criteria they have to satisfy. Some are easier than others, with girders touching other girders being a blessed relief for the naturally clumsy, but the workers carrying 'bricks' and/or little wooden 'beams' usually eliciting great apprehension.
Wobbly hand rating: Sometimes easy, sometimes verging on impossible

We followed this with an evocatively titled game game that plays in a similar way to Men at Work.

Catch the Moon starts with two wooden ladders, and each turn adds another, in the manner of Southern Italian builders

The only constraint is a die roll with 3 possible instructions on it. It seems simple, but unlike the relatively obvious areas of stability/instability in Men at Work, those ladders had a nasty habit of twisting around when another ladder was added to it, which is an absolute nightmare when instructred to add the 'highest ladder yet'.
Wobbly hand rating: Deceptively and surprisingly variable

Next up was a very different game, that goes under a few different names, but involves mechanised plastic monkeys throwing rubberised coconuts into coloured plastic cups. I think ours was called Crazy Coconuts

It also comes with some optional cards, which we quickly decided were a poor addition to the game, adding annoyance that distracted from the fun. This was probably the surprise package of the night, for what is ostensibly a children's game, it was a bundle of laughs, and again it came down to a good choice on components. You remember the mention of rubberised coconuts earlier? They were crucial, as it enabled laugh out loud trick-shot moments of a coconut landing perfectly in the cup, but bouncing out again. Or the reverse of initially missing the target, but a friendly bounce finding a cup nonetheless. The greatest trickshot however, from the winning team's star player, was a shot that landed in one cup, bounced out, only to then land in an opponents' cup, thus stealing it from them. Definitely one for 'all ages who can enjoy a giggle'
Wobbly hand rating: A winner, as there's a bit more force and a little less delicacy required

Finally, we closed with flipships, a very different beast.

It's themed on space invaders, where you flick your cardboard ship tokens through the air, trying to land them on the cards that represent the invading aliens. Each ship has a special ability that might make it easier to hit an alien ship; be more effective when it does; or help you assault the mothership (landing the ship token inside the cardboard constructed mothership). It's a game that can be a little tough to get the hang of, finding that right angle to lauch the ship, so it threatens the target and not the adjoining table (or in the words of Monty Python, does not so much fly as ... plummet).
Wobbly hand rating: Avoids the pitfall of requiring delicacy, but it's definitely an acquired skill

A nicely eclectic mix of games and as a side-note, two of these games I'd never played before, but was able to quickly work out the rules in the last ~ 5 minutes of the previous game, in order to be ready to teach it. For someone who prizes simple rulesets, dexterity games can be ideal. An evening of purely dexterity gane is not something I'd want to do every week, but as an occasional thing, something I'd look forward to again, especially if I can persuade Paul to bring along Flickfleet (flicking dice from plastic ships, at opponent's ships, and massively more fun than I imagined). Also to look out for is the game 'Push It!' that Alison has brought along, that's arguably the perfect pub table dexterity game. Damn! I'm starting to get excited for a follow-up....

Game Night - Heck! It's the Fearsome Time Travelling See-Saw

🕑 8 min read

Zoinks! It's Game Night! For the purposes of this post, all player's names have been changed to protect the pillaged and hen-pecked worms. 

On this eventful Tuesday evening in August, almost 30 NOBOGlins turned up and played on 6 tables! After the usual introductions, several of us broke away and managed to pull out and play 4 medium/light-weight games. Our 1st game was with 3 players; 2nd game with 4; then our final 2 games were with 5 whole NOBOGlin players! Like I said, it was eventful.

Let's GO!!

IT'S ALIVE!!

First up was Fearsome Floors, with Shaggy, Fred and I. Now, this game only usually takes 30-45minutes however we found the slow-lane and finished our session after a gentleman's 90 minutes of play (including a 10 minute intermission - more about that later). Our mission was to escape a dungeon with as many of our party members as we could (beginning with 4 each) before a monster caught up with us. Shaggy was the 'monster standee' builder this game, and what a handsome businessman monster 'Mr Conjunctivitis' was. The race started out pretty standard, an orderly wave of kidnap victims emerged from their cells slightly dazed and confused. Then quickly followed by a forced 'skedaddle' when Mr Conjunctivitis unexpectedly ploughed into Fred's escaping party, ultimately sending 2 victims back to the beginning. Good start. 

3.2.1. SKEDADDLE!!

From then on, Shaggy and I slowly but surely sneaked towards the exit, however, my 'Old Fonzie' stumbled and was captured; back to the start with you old man! Shaggy was now the one to beat. I tried my best to divert the attention of Mr Conjunctivitis towards Shaggy's party members, but the all I could do was claim yet another one of Fred's characters and bring the monster toe to toe with one of Shaggy's escapees. Rats!!

It was at that point we had our intermission. A fire alarm went off and all of us NOBOGlins vacated the bar and onto the street, leaving behind one metric tonne of cardboard and wood to feed a potential fire. Luckily the alarm turned out to be false, thus saving our games from either burning to ash, or becoming water damaged. 

It's Behind You!!

Returning to the game with a renewed vigor, we had to confront the fact that our pal Shaggy was on a cakewalk to victory, but not on my watch! I immediately went into action sacrificing my 'Zombie Fonzie', who went to the big 'garage apartment' in the sky along with one of Fred's party; before lining up yet another 2 kills, my 'Fonzie Fonzie' and at last, one of Shaggy's. I was playing for a draw! Unlucky for me, Fred was having none of it, and saw a way where they could win the whole game by sacrificing their puppy (who exactly IS the monster in this game Fred?). My 'Old Fonzie' bit the dust permanently and the pressure was now on! I was excited because from here on in, the game was Fred's to win or lose. C'mon Fred!!

Fred lost. Shaggy won.

HOORAY!?! All my machinations came to nought. It was at that time Velma joined us, and we went into our 2nd game of the evening with 4 players.

The Viking See-Saw. 

Our winner from the first game, Shaggy, brought along a BEEEEeeutiful stacking dexterity game by the one and only Dr Knizia. This game is very simple. Each player starts with identical piles of cargo, then in turn, places one of their pieces onto the tipped up (high) end of a pink viking boat. Yes, after a busy campaign of dating and pillaging, nothing says gender neutrality better than sailing away on a powder pink boat of peace and love. #NotAllVikings

Japaneses Viking Boat

IF, you manage to place your piece of cargo safely onto the boat, NOT tipping it over, then congratulations - your stolen (sorry, re-distributed) items may actually make it back...to... I wanna say Sweden(?), but it could easily be Norway. Nope wait, apparently these are Japanese vikings, all the way from Japan. That's kinda terrifying actually. 

Next player then tries to balance their loot on the boat too. This continues until a player tips it over and/or unsettles the boat, thus dropping some cargo into the sea. Now they have to pick up a mystery box (brown crate), and/or any items that fell into the drink, adding it back to their pile again. I think you get the idea. First player to stow-away all of their loot (or 'luggage' if you want to gas-light the entire UK - thanks BGG) wins the game.

This game was a lovely and exciting puzzle, especially since the pieces of cargo (luggage - lolz) are a variety of sizes, shapes and weights. Unfortunately I think our new player Velma ended up with more cargo than they started with, obviously due to the choppy waters of the North Sea... and our current champion Shaggy, managed to get another win under their belt. The scores so far: Fred 0, Shaggy 2, Velma 0 and Me 0. Next game please! 

I like being centre of attention

So the next game started and ended pretty fast as it was Timeline, the game made infamous (not a thing) for making some of us look incredibly well read and studious... and others (me), look stupid and ignorant. Our resident cargo kleptomaniac Velma brought in this game, and explained it very well to us all....including our new player Scooby!! Now we were 5. 

The idea of this game was to empty our hand of 4 cards into the timeline in front of us. Each card depicts an event of historical significance, all we had to do is place it in chronological order, without knowing the year shown on the back. As the timeline gets longer, the chances of getting rid of a card becomes tougher. If you fail to guess the right place in the timeline for your card, it gets discarded and you draw a new card into your hand. I enjoyed this game, and it was educational for about 30 seconds (my memory span). Velma won, closely followed by - I wanna say Fred. However in this game, being second is just the first loser, Fred. Look haven't you got an adorable puppy to kerb-stomp somewhere?! I didn't manage to take a photo of our game, however I did an artist's impression of how the game looked and went. Enjoy. NEXT!!

Past game photo

Lastly, but by no means least we played Pickomino (or Heck Meck if you're cool like the Fonz). Another Reiner Knizia classic; this game is a push your luck, dice rolling, take-that extravaganza of groans, hubris and victory dances. I will cover the rules better in a WHADIYOB post at a later date. It's a game not to be dissed or missed. I brought this game in, so was quietly confident that I could get a win in, to save some face...

All you need to know are these rules: 1. Roll some dice (Yahtzee style) but you can roll as many times as you like - or until you bust. 2. Bank only dice of the same number (or worms). 3. When adding up your banked dice and taking a tile, a worm counts as 5 points, and you MUST have at least 1 worm to have a legal total or go bust 4. Collect the numbered 'worm tiles' by rolling the their exact number and create a single 'stack' of them in front of you. 5. Rolling higher numbers is great, as it earns higher value worm tiles and protects your 'stack'. 6. You can steal tiles from other players by rolling the exact number of their uppermost tile on their stack. 7. If at anytime you 'bust', then you lose your uppermost tile to the table again and the highest numbered tile on the table gets flipped.

Shaggy rolls dice fine.

Let's Roll. The game started out pretty well for both Shaggy and I. We immediately captured tiles in the low thirties! Amazing start. Fred, Velma and Scooby were not quite so lucky though, and Shaggy and I proceeded to steal tiles from them, quite profusely I might add. Shaggy finally moved into the lead after a particularly vicious onslaught of Velma's vulnerable stack. Velma impressively kept their cool though. Good on them. 

Eventually, as always, someone flew too close to the Sun and just as Icarus famously did, they had their worms stolen and/or busted. That 'someone' was Shaggy. Their screams were not of anguish at all, they were of course, screams of delight. Delight for an exciting rollercoaster ride of both victimisation and hubris.

The next Icarus in the line of fire was me. Yes, I had slowly been building up my stack, diligently protecting it from foreign hens, coming over here and stealing my worms, blah blah blah...then I lost. I stumbled at one of the last few hurdles of the game, but not only did I lose, I came LAST. I had no worms and was hen-pecked to oblivion... not even dust remained! I think my opponents would have pecked out my soul if the game allowed them to. To be honest, I think they did - they stole a part of me that evening. Especially Fred. 

Against all the odds, our very own Velma won, by a healthy margin. 

The final scores were as follows:

1st (Joint with 2 wins each) - Velma and Shaggy!

Last - The rest of us losers.

Well I had a great night, and I'm pretty sure all the rest of the gang did too. Plus it is worth mentioning that no-one was made fun of or belittled at all. Just in case my jokes fell flat. 

..and they celebrated.  

So there we have it; my preference has usually been for getting several light weight games on to the table and then finish with a filler, but that's not for everyone. Fred remarked that they regularly chased 'gaming nirvana' via the route of heavy, crunchy euro-style games.

"..one game to rule the entire evening!"

However, they did confess that they really enjoyed the bloody, salty, aged and wormy 'palate cleansing sorbets' which were served up this fine evening. Hooray for everyone, we did good!

See you all at NoBoG* another night!

*Please feel free to drop by the Google listing for NoBoG and review it :)