Back to the Masonic Hall for a chilly weekend. (Well, in the outside world anyway.)

Friday

In spite of panicky weather warnings, a very smooth drive and no sign of the Stockport floods of the previous few days (I gather it was mostly residential areas that were affected.)

We quickly got settled in with some Sea Salt & Paper, and then with some more players progressed to Deadly Dowagers (I still think "Waspish Widows" is a better title). Three out of four players went for the Duke in the same round…

Then on to Moon, not the sort of game that usually appeals to me, but it worked rather well. Interesting tradeoffs between gaining production (gets you stuff that you can spend) and flags (gets you a status that you have to have, but don't spend).

This is Haakon Gaarder's successor to Villagers and Streets, and it's basically about drafting, but with enough special effects to keep things interesting. I went all-out for the achievements and pulled off the win that way.

Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition next: Nightmist, Expatriette, Argent Adept and Unity took on Omnitron in the Pike Industrial Complex. This was a tough fight, and it looked grim, but we pulled off a win in the end—the best sort of Sentinels game.

Finally for the night, a few rounds of SCOUT, Not quite sure why, and I know other players enjoyed it, but this fell very flat for me; perhaps I was just tired.

Saturday

We started with Imperium: Horizons, Olmecs vs Japanese; I seemed to run away with points as Olmecs, by keeping my Stone Masks in circulation until the last possible moment. (After all they're only one point each in History.) I had an engine that I could run effectively and which depended very little on the luck of the draw.

On to Sea Salt & Paper as a breather after that, and then Lemminge, still one of my favourite light games.

Then a marathon session of Xia: Legends of a Drift System, in which it was my turn to blind jump into the sun. (Well, the player who usually does it couldn't make it.)

"This is Cinderbeard. I put one outlaw ring on the miniature because I don't have two."

And on to Rock Hard: 1977, which I seem to be at least mildly good at. (They said I had to go to rehab…)

Some lighter games after that as we were all getthing quite tired: Landmarks, with more curses than amulets…

and PUSH (which I think of as "what Normal People games probably look like in Germany").

Sunday

There was some very light snow on Saturday night, but nothing to obstruct travel in the morning.

After more Sea Salt & Paper, we settled in for a four player Imperium: Horizons: Mauryna,s Minoans, Macedonians and Greeks, the latter two with new players. I think I'm getting better at explaining this, though it's tricky because there's a great deal of variation even among the simple civilisations.

Solstice: when the Great Beetle eats the sun.

"They laughed at our effete ways. Well, who's dying of cholera now?"

The snow was melting slowly (about an inch deep on unsheltered parts of the car) and the trip back was smooth: some puddles on the motorway, at least one of which was frozen, but the car coped very well.