This week, I'd just got a copy of The World Cup Card Game 2010 which, unsurprisingly, is a card game version of the board game The World Cup Game, centred on the 2010 tournament. Designed by Shaun Derrick and published by Games for the World, it is simply a deck of cards and a two page rule sheet.

In our game, we slightly varied the initial allocation of teams: The rules say teams are dealt out at random but I decided to split the top eight seeds so that all six of us got at least one decent team. Thankfully, everyone got a team through the group stages, although I was down to my last team, Argentina, having only drawn five teams (rather than some others receiving six) and my others being the mighty North Korea, South Korea, Chile and Japan.

In the round of 16, we saw two penalty shoot-outs with Ivory Coast defeating Switzerland 4-3 and my own Argentina scraping through 7-6 against Mark G's France. However, my luck came to an end in the Quarters and both Mark K and I were relegated to spectators for the rest of the game. England (Guy) lost in the semi-finals and inevitably lost to Uruguay (Mark G) on penalties in the third place play-off. The final ended up being a goal-fest with Cameroon (Nige) eventually overcoming The Netherlands (Steve) 6-4, although Nige's top decking skills in the final had to be seen to be believed. Great fun.

Our second game of the evening was Diamant, which always raises lots of laughs/groans. This time was no exception as the tunnels seemed particularly dangerous this time. Steve got a sizeable early lead and then, as soon as he got the merest whiff of poisoned gas, he scarpered. However, his sense of smell was impeccable as time and again the braver ones among us succumbed to the green mist. Guy was the only one to really challenge him but scaredy-cat Steve had done enough to hold him off for a good win.

We finished off with one of our staple end-of-evening games, Liar's Dice, which I normally play pretty well. Not so this time, although I think I only made one small miscalculation which cost me a die. However, with others challenging spot-on bids left right and centre, I was inevitably pulled down by others' poor judgement (nothing to do with my own of course - I was so unlucky!) However, Nige and Guy faced off for the final with a single die each and Nige emerged triumphant for possibly his first ever win at this game.

I wasn't able to make this session but Nige recorded the scores. Quite close between three of them and Mark W records his first win of the year.

Nige recorded the scores for this game. Again, Mark K was so far off the pace, it left the others wondering why he'd bothered turning up.

We were expecting seven tonight but Mark W rang to say he was running a bit late so we started off with this fun, push-your-luck filler. However, this time our luck-pushing seemed to desert us most of the time so this took way longer than normal. It looked like a three horse race between Mark G, Guy and myself but then Nige got a ruck of points that would allow him to bank a total just below the magic 333. However, he was lured by 'just one more throw for the win' and inevitably struck out. Eventually, I scraped across the line and nobody was able to overcome my total with their final throws. Lots of laughs in this game make it a good filler choice but hopefully it will take less time on its next outing.

We then split into two groups and Mark G, Mark W and Guy tried Dominion: Intrigue, which Mark W had not played before. I don't know much about this one other than it turned into the longest game of Dominion I've ever seen at about 90 minutes. I think Mark G concentrated too much on action cards and didn't get enough money to buy points. Guy ran out the eventual winner and Mark W said he njoyed it although thought he had got picked upon a bit.

Hansa Teutonica report to follow.

First session of the year and Mark Walmsley joined us for the first time since 2001. So long ago, I can't even remember the Elfenland game we played together. Unfortunately, I'd thought there were only going to be five of us so a quick change of plans saw us try Stimmt So! This is an old game that was the basis for Alhambra and I thought we'd played before at the Club but was surprised to find afterwards that the last time I played was in January 1999. Wow!

Anyway, the game is a light share dealing game where you are trying to gain majority shareholdings in various companies in order to score points when the 'Wertung' scoring cards appear. Three scorings occur with the first two roughly one-third and two-thirds the way through the game, with a final scoring at the end when the shares run out (not the currency!!!). And each scoring gives progressively more points.

Mark K looked to be doing really well as he grabbed majorities in the high scoring companies. However, the final scoring was crucial and I was able to collect three shares right at the end to gain lots of points I, and nobody else, had really expected. I like Stimmt So! and even though Alhambra is the more popular version of the game, I think I prefer the pared down nature of its older brother. Although I rated it a 7, it's bordering on an 8 and a variant suggestion on BGG looks like it would make it even better (drawing multiple cash cards up to a value of 5 or a single card over 5).

We finished off with an old favourite, Medici, which Mark G remembers with fondness by bidding 40 on a last round lot, which was scoffed at by the others, only to find he'd still won the game. Mark W had not played before but soon picked it up.

This game is very much a group-think game. Nige and Mark K were very much bargain basement hunters at the start which set the tone for the rest of the game. Mark K had such a good first round that I suggested it wasn't worth carrying on as he had it wrapped up. However, I had forgotten the 'Grimesy' factor, who was determined to get the 30 points for most valuable cargo whatever happened and, in a low bidding game, it naturally was a good move as he managed to tie with Mark K. A joint win, which sees them off to a good start to 2010.