After a long and, ultimately, aborted attempt to try War of the Ring (no-one had read up on the rules beforehand and after nearly 3 hours, we’d only just completed Turn 2!!!!!!), we decided to turn to something much more straightforward: Basari. Only Mark G had not played before but it’s a very easy game to pick up with lots of second-guessing over which actions other players are likely to choose and a nifty negotiation mechanic when two players are fighting for the right to perform the same action.

In the first round there was lots of jostling for position. I benefited from circling the track in no time at all due to an unusual (for me) run of rolling 5s and 6s. The second round saw Nige and me demonstrating an uncanny ability to pick the same action several times. Just before the end of the round, I looked to have a comfortable lead in red gems but didn’t account for Nige being able to land on the one square where he could pick up 3 red gems to tie for the lead. Unfortunately for me, choosing the gem action wasn’t a helpful option and I had to settle for the dice action to complete my circuit of the board and share the spoils of the red gems with Nige. The third round was all Mark G. He managed to amass gems all over the place while the other three of us seemed to keep cancelling each other out. As a result, Mark G ran out a very comfortable winner.