There was still a bit of a buzz from Knavecon 3 in the air as we sat down to game some more, like sharks that can’t stop swimming or they’ll DIE, we’re like gamers who can’t stop gaming our we’ll DIE probably of boredom.  Once you’ve warmed you brain up with gaming it’s hard to step away from it.  It’s like a mental workout you get addicted to without the sweat or foot rot.  But I digress.

I’ve never understood Mexican Standoffs in movies, I get the idea fine, just the way they play out , two parties are aiming guns at each other and it’s gets all tense.  Why doesn’t one person just pull the trigger before more people are added into the equation?  It’s like an overlord gloating when they have the hero trapped, just kill him, be done with it.  So with that in mind we sat down to play a game I’ve wanted to play for a while  Ca$h and Gun$

Cash and Guns (because I refuse to keeping type $) is a simple push your luck and bluff game.  It’s a bit like Letter of Marque but obviously better. 

You start the game with a hand of 8 cards that consist of 2 bangs, 1 bang bang bang and 5 click cards.  Each round Random money cards are drawn out to form the pot and players secretly pick one of their bullet cards from their hand and at an agreed 1,2,3 GO! all simultaneously point their gun at another player.  The players now confronted get a chance to chicken out (taking a shame token for their trouble) and those left resolve their bang, bang bang bangs and clicks acquiring wounds if they’re unlucky.  Those left unwounded share the pot.   Rinse and repeat for 8 rounds and you’re done.

Click cards do nothing, they’re just there to bluff with, bang does a wound and bang bang bang cards do a wound but go off before regular bang cards and stop the regular bang cards from happening.  Use them wisely. Three wounds and you’re out of the running.  Most money at the end wins.

So it’s a bluffing game and it’s good fun.  There’s a couple of advanced rules ALL of which should be added, particularly the hidden cop in the ranks which adds a werewolf type slant to this simple and fun filler game.

Now I didn’t Have a copy of the game and it’s impossible to get so it was carefully (not) crafted with playing cards, sticky labels and a selection of kids toys as guns.  Didn’t ruin it but when it comes back in print I’ll definitely get a copy of it.  It’s fun, it’s simple and nothing beats a stand off and having someone back down when all you had was a click in your gun

After Knavecon, we’d all loaded up on games from a variety of sources and decided to have a lash of something else short,  POO!

Poo is a gentlemanly game of monkeys throwing their faeces at each other in the hope of being the least splattered. Nice. It reminds me of Lunch Money but a lot less sinister looking.  You get a hand of cards and chuck attacks and counters at each other. It’s fine, it’s relatively fast and we’ll probably never play it again.  We might I don’t know.  It’s a silly game, but it’s meant to be obviously and it’s hardly diplomacy but it’s a filler and that’s fine.

The real meat of the night was Imperial 2030. This is still a cracker of a game. We must have played it a dozen times now but it’s still fresh and it’s still really satisfying.

Despite repeating the mantra of “you don’t own the country you just invest in it” people still thought they owned the country and well they lost.

EVERY time and I do mean every time we play this game we find a rule we’ve played incorrectly.  EVERY time. This session was no exception.  It’s funny how despite playing a game slightly off it’s still a great game.  Maybe that’s the mark of a good game.  Bit hard to test though.

This time around when we played the game had a lot more conflict going on.  Countries rose and fell.  Ones that were doing badly at the start under let’s be honest, poor management, shot ahead later on.  Just like every time we play it the game ends abruptly, but not it has to be said in a bad way.

There was anger, there was tears, there was backstabbery but that’s only to be expected.  At the end one of the players, not me, won, it was close, it was bloody close, I should have won it had another round gone on. But I didn’t and I have to live with losing the game, for the rest of my life.  I don’t really want to talk about it, it’s only been days since it’s happened and the pain is close.  we WILL play this game again and vengeance will be well, anyone’s, there’s no shortage of vengeances waiting for an airing at my table

Right then, get back to what you were doing, reading rules maybe

Huzzah!

Vic