Category: Games

General discussion of games

Meeting 16 February 2026

Louise is a Smart Ass, Rob is Greedy

A balmy night at Como saw all of us on deck for Smart Ass and Greed.
Louise got two helpings of points by winning Smart Ass and coming 3rd in Greed.  It was Rob who took the early lead in Ass, but then languished just short of the finish line (aka donkey’s bum) while Louise overcame three consecutive encounters with KickAss (move back 3) and then sailed past to take the 100 points.  Interestingly, despite the USA spelling of “Ass” (as opposed to what we would call “arse”) there was a question in which the answer was “Hills Hoist” – a uniquely Oz machine – Peter had never heard of it.

Greed brought up a couple of controversies: first was the limit of three dice rolls to a turn, a rule that we’ve played since forever.  Rob had occasion to carefully read the rules while installing the document on this website, and nowhere in those rules is there a limit on the number of throws.  You roll until you either “sit” or “bust”.  This wouldn’t lengthen a turn much, because one of those outcomes would happen very soon anyway.  Then we discovered (after the game ended) that it isn’t allowed to get say four D’s or three G’s by building them up over multiple throws – we already knew this and have always played it that way, but tonight we forgot.

Wayne proposed a change to Club rule 5.2 that reads:
“It is not usually permitted for a host to choose a game which has already been played twice in the current season.“
His proposed change was to limit games to once per year, his reason being that there are several games on the list that get chosen rarely or not at all, and this might vary the program more.  It was put to a vote and defeated 7 to 1.  Reinforcing the point, Louise has picked tonight’s main game as her choice for the very next meeting.

Due to two of us – Louise and Rob – getting two serves of points, with Wayne and Matt being the other scorers, there were four victims of the old WHP tonight:- Tara, Nicole, Peter and rookie Val.  Louise is now the current leader.

New games for May ’22

It will be Nicole’s turn to host the May 2022 meeting and she is introducing two or three new games. The main game is a teams event called Catan with an alternate called Snakesss if teams can’t be arranged. The backup is called Hues and Cues.

I have added the rules documents for Catan and Hues and Cues to our online collection – look for them in the Games menu. I couldn’t find a rules document for Snakesss, so there is a link to the publisher’s website in the games list.

It promises to be a very interesting meeting in May.

“Bond & Beyond”

Yet another new one from El Prez

I had another visit from Wayne yesterday – this time I let him come in for a cup of tea now that Covid restrictions allow 2 visitors. He has produced another new board game called Bond & Beyond. It is based on his earlier hit game Movie Maker with which you will be familiar. He says there are some simplifications compared to MM, for example Producers and Directors are amalgamated and both are on one card, and in their place one has to acquire a Bond song to put in the movie. Here is the picture…

El Prez shows off his latest game – Bond & Beyond

“Danger Zone”

Another new game from El Prez

With nothing to do but sit at home contemplating the state of the world, Wayne has made one of his famous board games based on an international pandemic. There are testing stations, hospitals, lockdowns, etc. The aim is to save as many lives and lose as few lives as possible – the score tally of lives saved and lost determines the winner. He’s quite pleased with it and can’t wait to give it a run – ironically, that won’t happen until the pandemic we are in has abated!

The picture below was taken without exceeding the maximum gathering size of 2 – me and him on my front porch, and although he didn’t come inside, he might have had a hard time convincing the authorities his trip to my house was essential.

Monopoly anyone?

After a month of home isolation in support of keeping away from Covid-19, I was flabbergasted when Christine suggested we try a game of Monopoly – this has never happened before! But wait, this isn’t the old Monopoly that is banned from SBGA for the reasons you know – too long, and players being ousted from the game with nothing to do. This is Monopoly Here & Now World Edition.
It retains many of the features of the old Monopoly, but there are quite significant differences – some of you might be familiar, but it was a surprise to me. Here is a summary of what it’s about:

– There the same number of squares around the board, but labelled with city names from around the world.
– There is a maximum of only 4 players (or teams)
– The familiar Monopoly money is still used, but only in $20, $100 and $500 denominations.
– Chance is still there with similar penalties and bonuses.
– Community Chest is replaced by Here & Now cards with different actions, and they’re kept till needed.
– There are no railway stations or utility squares, but there are a couple of airport squares that allow you (for a $100 fee) to fly direct to any other square and buy it.
– There are no real estate cards, instead there is one plastic token per property, the more valuable the property, the larger the token – and this counts in reaching the end game and winning.
– There are no houses or hotels.
– Each player has a “passport” which is a plastic holder for property tokens. As one buys properties, the tokens are slotted in order into one’s passport.
– As usual, landing on someone else’s property incurs a rent payment, and the rent is doubled if the owner also owns the rest of that colour group.
– There are 4 “first class” squares on which one can buy a first class stamp token for $100, these count in building up one’s passport.
– There are two dice, and one of them has its “1” dot replaced by a handshake symbol. If that symbol is rolled, one can elect not to move one’s piece, instead, one can swap the last token added to one’s passport with the last token of anyone else.
– Here’s the biggest difference: as one collects properties and first class stamps, adding their tokens to one’s passport, the first player to fill that passport is the winner – game over! …and much more quickly than classic Monopoly. Note that more valuable properties with larger tokens fill the passport more effectively than less valuable smaller tokens.

We played it as two players, and it finished far too quickly, a simple race to buy properties which are plentiful for just two players. We then tried it as doubled – two passports each and double the money at the start. That was much more interesting, as there are just enough properties to almost fill 4 passports, so more turns are needed to finish.

We could consider this as a backup teams game – I think it’s too short for a main game.

The Box. The four player pieces are visible through the windows on the right.

New Silly Game

Genelle introduced a new game at the May meeting. It had no official title, but in her family had been referred to by the most memorable silly phrase at its previous outing. So, we refer to it as Genelle’s Silly Game. An alternative might be “SBGA“, an acronym for Silly Bloody Game Again.

In any case it went over well and was enjoyed by all except El Prez, but he started getting the hang of it and excelled at the charades round.

Rather than describe it here, you can click to read the one-page rules – officially approved by Mother Theresa herself. The games list has also been updated to include it – the only original game in our roster not penned by El Prez.

New Game

Dumb Ass

Since your webmaster will be absent for the September meet, I’m publishing this item about a new game that has come into my possession – a Father’s Day pressie from my lovely daughter’s family.
You might be familiar with Smart Ass – this one is from the same makers and is called Dumb Ass – “Even if you’re a smart ass you can lose” it says on the box. It would work best as a backup game. There are only 16 squares between start and finish, and you must throw the exact number to land on the finishing point, the ass. The category dice determines the type of question – How, When and Which are multiple choice with everyone (except the asker) putting down a marker to indicate their choice, and the who-what-where category is open to anyone jumping in and answering. It looks like fun, can’t wait to give it a try.