We then tried Uptown, which I’ve been itching to play for a long time. Designed by Kory Heath and published by Funagain Games, it is a very clever abstract game of placing your tiles to form the fewest connected groups as possible.

The rules are so simple that you could be deceived into thinking the game is also simple. Far from it. There is a lot to think about every turn, even though you know all the tiles you will need to play, the order in which they appear can make or break how you’re planning to make your tiles connect. Nige was really impressed with this, his rating improving the more we got into the game.

We played a relatively friendly game but I suspect on future playings, people will mess more with other people’s positions as there is good opportunity for blocking moves. Steve illustrated this very well by blocking Mark K at a critical point and ensuring he was unable to connect up his two groups. I managed to keep one step ahead of the others in terms of keeping my long chain of tiles connected and, even though Steve tried to scupper my plans on the last round by replacing my joker tile (which I’d played just the round before, I was still able to keep just one connected group and take the win. Excellent stuff and, even though I’m not a fan of pure abstract games, this one really does hit a sweet spot.