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Click on the linked names below for those particular games.....
Alhambra and Ancients
Alexandros
Age of Steam (goes British)
'Attack'
'Acquire'
'Amun Re'
'Aladdin's Dragons'
'Attila'
Annual Ragnar Pilgrimage 2007
Asterisked games (*) are reviewed in more detail elsewhere on this website
Phil, Nick and Slade travel down from the far north, where Phil’s family have recently acquired Pepper the puppy. Slade and Nick have never been ones to miss out on cheap, mindless humour: the combination of fish and chips for tea, with Pepper, has rendered them well-nigh catatonic. It promises to be a long drive to Waterhouses . . . and an even longer weekend
Readers of previous Bash accounts will be only too-familiar with Slade’s long-standing aversion to map books. This year Phil gets his blow in early – and brought his own. Much manly dialogue ensues: “Glossop . . . Buxton . . A515 to Ashbourne”. This is the stuff of weekends away from wives. Only a slight wobble disturbs the journey (“Isn’t this the A6 to Matlock?”), but eventually the boys arrive in record time.
The rest of the party are already in action. Gheos and Robber Knights are being given a good going over. The northern boys hang around the periphery, unpacking, pulling on their drinking boots and gleefully beginning to snipe at Dave (It’s his own fault – what self-respecting Ragnar would turn up to a Bash in a pink shirt? Dave continues the theme throughout the weekend: Saturday morning he appears in a check cowboy shirt, for that Brokeback Mountain look).
And so to the gaming.
Pokerface
The Ragnars have been ‘approached’ (read tentatively hinted at) about ‘someone’ possibly being interested in Pokerface: the boardgame. The boys are up for this one. In the manner of almost knowing what they are doing, all three come up with a different version of the game. Kendall, being Kendall, takes his a step further and actually creates a working model. It is now getting its first outing.
Now, part of the appeal of Pokerface is the amusing and interesting variety of trivia questions – in every round there’s a bit of something for everyone. Kendall has decided to get rid of that aspect for tonight: the rounds are ‘Major civilizations of world history’, ‘The events immediately prior to 1066’, ‘The Ragnar Fantasy Football Premiership, 2006-7’ and ‘The Ashes, 2005-2006’, neatly turning the ‘variety angle’ on its head, and ensuring that half the players at any one time haven’t got a clue what the question is about. Phil, who immersed himself in the Great Humbling of the Aussies just as much as anyone else, can only guess (unsuccessfully) as to how many runs Paul Collingwood scored during the 5th test. (Worryingly, he has no such difficulties remembering the name of Michael Vaughan’s wife. Too much reading of Heat magazine, more of which anon).
Nonetheless, a fine time ensues. Questions such as which Viking had their wicked way with the Abbess of Leominster (“it was Sweyn!” to paraphrase the words of Andrew Lloyd Webber in Joseph) are right up the Ragnar’s street. Hill wins a little over £60,000 (and celebrates like a man who actually has won £60,000), Phil is second with Roger a disappointing last - but then what do you expect of a man who folds at the first opportunity in every round? On a curious note, only four of the ten Ragnar’s have actually seen the programme. So much for ITV’s new exciting Saturday night schedule. (Some might say, so much for the Ragnars living in the real world - Ed).
At which point – back to the table. The final game is to be Frank’s Zoo, a card game which the Bingley crowd have introduced to Phil. Basically this is a light frothy version of the Ragnar’s old favourite – Dalmouti. Players have to get rid of their cards by following on from the player before them; instead of cards being in strict numerical value of importance, these are in food chain territory (e.g. a seal can be superseded, or eaten by, a polar bear or a killer whale). The interesting point here is that card play can follow the different branches of the food chain; for instance a goldfish could be eaten by all manner of sea creatures or by a crocodile (which in turn can be eaten by an elephant). Mosquitoes played with an elephant count as 2 elephants (???!), and that’s pretty much it. Phil’s daughters enjoy it, but how will it go down at a Ragnar Bash?
The answer is ‘not too bad’. Given that it is being played by ten players (the box says four to seven players), that Phil has added one of his more abstruse scoring systems as well as a version of the ‘changing partners’ and that it is being played by a bunch of drunken forty-somethings you could upgrade the response to ‘remarkably not too bad’. Dave, being Dave, plays it at the speed of a pre-global warming glacier (“So what can I play on a killer whale?”. Honestly . . .), but apart from that it bowls along nicely. Jason wins, and therefore enjoys it immensely.
And so to bed.
Saturday, March 10th: Day 2 in the Big Brother house.
The boys are woken to the joyous smell of sausages cooked a la Spiller. Over breakfast the conversation ranges widely. Initially Dave’s latest choice of shirt holds sway (see Friday night), but then Phil has the bad idea of saying that he has been reading Heat magazine. Heat? Oh yes, it even reviews hard-backed books. At which point the Ragnars are onto it like greyhounds catching up with the electronic rabbit. Phil goes on to admit that it can also be somewhat tacky – for instance, Celebs going out without their pants on. The stuff of forty-something conversation.
The morning games ensue, and this year a departure from tradition. Two games are in place for the morning, two for the afternoon. Different people have offered to run them; all the rest of the group have to do is sign up for which game they want to play. It works surprisingly well.
Kendall is leading a game of Invasions (*) – the newby from Asmodee. For years the Ragnars laboured over a cloth map, with serviceable cards, cardboard components and a plastic stand to hold your longship. When given the full treatment, it becomes an absolute gem. Plastic vikings are stacked up on ships, fistfuls of full colour Rune cards are drawn and the longships sail majestically across the spacious mapboard.
The game plays magnificently. Phil contrives to win, despite his longship being savaged by the ever-popular (amongst the other players) sea monster on the way to Bjarmaland. He squeezes in as victor after a somewhat flukey final turn in the far West, with Nick “Bloodaxe” Child in a dogged second place. There are one or two blips (house rules already in place), but who cares when there are so many dramatic moments (Hill having an entire crew of Vikings butchered in front of Rome being a case in point).
Elsewhere, Power Grid (*) is playing out to a conclusion with Dicken cruising to an easy victory (it helps to know the rules – ed.), so there’s time for a quick Ticket to Ride (*) (very quick – you’re not allowed even to think if it’s your turn). Amazingly even Dave seems to manage to play it at what would be normal speed for any other human being, and the game flies by in less than three-quarters of an hour. Nick romps home again – is there no stopping the man?
The afternoon sees the return of Freidrich (*). Now this is a big game, and despite the German feel to the systems (build up your hand of cards; the more of a suit the better you can fight your battle in a particular sector of the board) it does feel to be quite an old-fashioned game. A good wodge of afternoon hours have been set aside to give it a really good seeing to, and – boy! – are they needed. Time seems to stand still as players each take their turn. Almost inevitably it is Dave who offers to take on the role of Frederick himself: he does a good job, but with eight field armies in play, each turn involves a great deal of down-time for the other players. It’s a strange game: by the end, Phil, Gary and Richard have had enough, but Dave and Hill are still eager to finish playing it out. As the experience has already lasted three hours, and the players are no more than half way through, it is put to bed. Very frustrating. It feels so like you want it to feel, but who can find six hours to play through the entire game???
Pre-pub, the Ragnar’s latest creation is given another outing, although most players take time out to jeer at Middlesboro and Man Utd’s efforts in the FA Cup. It’s been a heavy day of gaming.
The pub proves to be everything the previous year’s meal out was not, right down to a roaring inferno for warmth (“yes, you too can recreate that scene from Tom Brown’s Schooldays”). Suitably replete, it’s back to base for Kendall’s “I got it for Christmas” intro quiz. Holding off the challenge of Hill (“I’m sure I’ve got that CD in my car”), Phil, Dicken and Slade ease to victory. Roger sits and reads the rules to Caylus (*), briefly galvanising himself into action when ‘Rabbit’ by Chas and Dave is played (“by his deeds shall ye know him”). Artistically satisfied, further gaming ensues. Leonardo (*) plays to mixed reviews, most of which revolve around the I-need-to-play-it-again theme. It’s going up to one o’clock for the second night running, but Kendall still finds two volunteers for another run at an earlier design of his. For the record, Spiller and Hill are the two idio - sorry, playtesters in question.
Sunday, March 11th: Day Three
And it’s the same recipe as yesterday. Sausages, Heat magazine, games.
The party splits into three, with Dicken, Roger, Spiller and Slade building castles in Caylus, Phil, Richard and Kendall inventing away in Leonardo and Nick, Dave and Hill trundling along in back-to-back games of Ticket to Ride. Caylus proves the slower, indeed the Leonardo party are already a couple of turns into their game when they notice that Dicken is still explaining rules. By the time Kendall has utterly trounced Phil and Richard (Ed. Can you spot the seamless transition between reporters?), there is still time left to make-up a six player game of Powergrid, leaving the Caylus crew to hack on until lunch. Not too sure if Caylus has ever been finished yet!
Phil has had a hard week-end. Heat magazine has taken its toll and teaching Friedrich and Leonardo (twice) can’t have been easy. Early success in Invasions has not been sustained and so he approaches Powergrid like a punch-drunk boxer. First Richard explains the rules and then Kendall chips in; but nothing seems to stick. His anxiety levels rise. Kendall urges him not to expect to understand every nuance of the game before playing it; but to no avail.
The first power station is put up for auction – the 5-pointer. ‘5’, ‘6’, ‘7’ (getting a bit expensive) ‘8’. Phil looks satisfied with his purchase and begins to relax. ‘Can I buy another now?’…’Just the one, Phil’…’Oh’.
Resource buying goes pretty smoothly, but the nightmare continues when hitting the map. ‘Can I ask a strategic question?’…’Go on..’…’Where would it be good to build?’… There are other new players at the table, but even Dave is simply getting on with it.
Back to the auction and Phil is first in again, buying something that no-one else particular craves, for another eyebrow raising price. Now he starts having problems with organising his money to buy resources and new cities. Still, the player in last place does have chance to catch up if they play clever. If…
Next auction and Phil’s eyes light up at the sight of a nuclear station – ‘Would you trust this man with nuclear power?’ Kendall puts it up for auction and Phil gobbles it up. Of course the rods are still filthy expensive, so Phil’s soon out of sequence again.
The game ends (prematurely) at lunch. It’s a close thing between Kendall and Richard, which goes to prove that this game responds to the hand of experience. Phil’s promised that he can borrow the game for a few weeks.
Yet more food is produced for lunch (a BIG thanks to Dicken this year) and a round Robin of favourite game of the week-end ensues. Roger can’t resist naming a favourite and then a reserve, Spiller starts to wax lyrical about his top three (but is shouted down by the assembled company). Top spot goes to Invasions (three cheers for Ragnar Brothers!), closely followed by Powergrid.
And so to the cars and hearty farewells. The general consensus is that this has been the best year yet; plans are already afoot for 2008.
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