5 Battle beers

First up: a lesser known, but still great game drinking game. Battle beers makes the list because unlike other personal favourite Loopin’ Louie, all you need is a few crates of beers and some enthusiasm.

Battle beers is based on the game Battleship. But instead of games, you use beers. Put two or three beers in an empty crate and sit on it. Players take turns guessing where in the crate the full bottles are. If you guess right your opponent will have to down the beer in one go. This game was particularly popular during the pandemic’s lockdowns since it’s easy to play on a video call.

Far apart

That’s how Daniel Antuma (20), student of econometrics and operational research, discovered the game. ‘I wasn’t familiar with it myself, but some old friends who are at uni in Rotterdam introduced me to it. We decided to play it online’, he says. ‘It’s such a simple game really, it’s all just guesswork. But it’s also a lot of fun’, he says. ‘And it was great to play it together even though we were so far apart.’

According to artificial intelligence student Jonathan Oosterhuis (21) the game has several things going for it. ‘It doesn’t require any fine motor skills, unlike beer pong or caps. Plus, you usually get it right pretty quickly.’

Boris ter Beek (20), student of mathematics and Greek and Latin, experienced this for himself. ‘With us, every strike meant downing a whole beer, so we drank a lot. We had to take a break halfway through. I don’t really remember how the evening ended. It’s kind of a miracle I survived.’

4 Kings

Kings gets my number four spot. Why? It’s much more a party game than the other drinking games. Kings involves a deck of cards in a circle around an empty glass: the King’s Cup. The loser has to drain the glass. The game also involves a host of assignments and mini games, which the players agree upon beforehand. 

‘It takes a lot of creativity, and you make real contact with people’, says medical student Reineir Alberts (25). ‘One time, there was an assignment where we had to copy the person who’d drawn the card. This guy actually went into a Portaloo. Everyone had to do the same. In the end, ten of us squeezed into the Portaloo just to avoid having to drink. It was amazing.’

Disgusting

Law student Henk de Vries (19) once had to drink a terrible King’s Cup. ‘It had yoghurt, vodka, and orange juice.  I had to drain the whole glass. I’ll never forget it’, he says, laughing. ‘It was so disgusting. It was really thick and didn’t go down well.’

Menno Velthuis (27), a history student, once played a game of Kings where he had to stick out his pinkie every time he drank. ‘I still do that whenever I drink beer. I don’t know why, but it stuck.’

3 Mex

The bronze in my top five goes to a game that nearly every student in Groningen knows: Mex. There’s a reason it’s a classic, since all you need are two dice. As well as lots of beer, of course. The objective of the game is to throw a 2 and a 1 as often as possible. This is called a mex. I personally love the game because you can play it anytime, anywhere. For years, I would carry a set of dice in my jacket’s inside pocket. 

Daniel is a fan of Mex, too. ‘I love it because it’s such a relaxed game. You can play it to avoid just sitting around in a circle and talking, but you can still do other things at the same time’, he explains. ‘It’s like taking a walk with a friend instead of just sitting on the couch.

There are various ways to play Mex, something history and philosophy student Jesse Dusseljee (23) also noticed. ‘Different people have different rules for the game. Arguing over the rules has pretty much become part of the game, which I enjoy’, he says. 

136 sips

Upon hearing the word Mex, Reinier is reminded of the year did board work. ‘We were having drinks and were about to play Mex when the president of the KEI board showed up and asked us if he could join. We said okay, but only if he drank twice as much as everyone else. He kept ending up in the super round: not just once, not twice, not just once, not twice, In the end, he had to take 136 sips in total.’ He laughs: ‘He drained three beers in a row before he realised he wasn’t going to make it. He left after the first round.’

Boris has seen even worse. ‘In one game, someone had to take 1,024 sips. It was insane. They’d ended up in multiple super rounds in which people kept getting the mex score. We weren’t sure what to do, because we couldn’t let them drink an entire crate of beer. In the end, we converted their score to anytimers.’

2 Caps

Caps is deceptively simple. Four glasses of beer are put on the table, joined together in a square. People try to get their caps into one of the glasses by hitting their hand against the table and launching the bottle cap from within the palm of their hand. The move is more difficult than it sounds, which is exactly why the game is so addictive and why it’s number two in my top five. 

Henk often plays it at home when he’s preparing to go out. ‘It’s a great way to start the evening and create a nice atmosphere’, he says. ‘One time, we were playing and for four whole rounds, everyone kept hitting their caps into the glass. It was bizarre, people were going nuts. In the end, we drank with the loser in solidarity.

Flexible

Law student Thomas Langeler (23) says the game is especially great because it’s so flexible. ‘You can play it at the dining table, but also at a coffee table in a corner. You can decide for yourself how much beer to put in the glasses and you can easily quit when you get too drunk.’

Caps can be treacherous if people keep winning. ‘I had the worst hangover of my life after a night of playing Caps. Every time the train moved, I thought I was going to throw up. I think Caps is by far the fastest and most aggressive drinking game. Beer pong also involves a lot of drinking, but it’s not as fast’, says Boris. 

Technique

In spite of all this, philosophy student Thomas Velvis (22) enjoys Caps. He has a few tips to help you succeed. ‘If the table is really thick, you have to make the cap cross a greater distance, so you have to try and make it arc. But if the table is on the thinner side, all you need is the right move to just plop the cap right into the glass.’

The best technique is a subject of much discussion among fanatics, he says. ‘I like to put the cap face-up on my palm, so it doesn’t stick to my skin. I also like to hit it high into the air, so there’s less of a chance of it bouncing off the rim.’

1 Beer pong

There was only ever one game vying for first place in my personal top five. Beer pong is the obvious winner. Many students are familiar with this game that is originally American and is played at house parties. The reason it’s so popular is because it’s sporty and competitive. That’s exactly why I love it so much.

I’m not the only one: Daniel is well known among his friends as being very good at the game. Last week, he even won a beer pong tournament. It’s not surprising, considering he even plays the game with his family. ‘My father is a pong fanatic. He usually wins because he’s allergic to gluten and can’t drink as much.’

Trick shot

Menno has also spent many an hour playing beer pong. One time, he even won 10 to nothing. That particular game only lasted two minutes. ‘My partner and I won after only three throws.’ He also got the ball in the last cup with a trick shot behind his back. ‘I was lifted up and carried through the club house as though I’d won the Champions League.’

Jesse plays beer pong every week with his association board. They even tracked the results, noting victories and the number of cups people hit. ‘The club still does this, even though we’ve long left the board.’

Loosen up

Beer pong doesn’t need to be competitive, though. ‘If you’re at a house party with people you don’t know very well, it’s a great way to get rid of that awkwardness’, says movement sciences student Anne Mae Schokker (20). ‘It’s a great physical game that loosens people up.’

Jelger Bijma (23), physics student, doesn’t take the game very seriously, either. ‘I was in the same tournament as Daniel, but I lost in the first round. I always enjoy the game, but I’m just not that good at it. But you win when you hit a cup and you win when you drink. That’s the great thing about beer pong.’