Sunday was a work day.

Which was going well right up until the moment my head came into contact with some fibreglass sheeting at force as I stood up. You can see the results of said impact in the photos below.

Lots of paper work for the shift leader and additional plasters to stop bleeding later the shift ended.

After the shift I had arranged with Ben and his wife Allie to play new arrival Grail Cup.

Very tired I arrived at their house having never had a chance earlier in the day to read the rules. A flaw in my plan. I never really had a break during the 9 hour shift.

Although this was a minor hurdle to overcome, luckily the rulebook is very quick to pick up and learn from.

The thing that attracted me to Grail Cup was that it shared the card drafting mechanic from Citadels by Bruno Faidutti. Which isn’t a surprise because he designed Grail Cup too.

The art for Grail Cup is by the awesome John Kovalic. He of Munchkin and Dork Tower fame.

We played a couple of three player games and a four player game. The main difference being the number of cards you get to play in a round. In the three player game you get to play two cards and four players or more just one card.

Otherwise each round starts with players drafting the card from the ones available they wish to play that round to move their standee along the race track.

Then the second half of the round has players playing their card and carrying out the instructions on the card.

First player to get their standee to the finish line wins.

This is light, and quick to play. Which I love. It’s easily a game a family could play together.

I like the addition of the dragon that can be moved by players to slow or stop other players in their tracks. The clover spaces with the random clover token that can be either a really useful boost or a boon that has a negative effect. The farm spaces get you rolling a die that can see first player change. Or a bonus of some kind.

Deciding starting positions on the board is based on the card you draw during setup. The person furthest back becomes first player.

I think that we played three games back to back shows how much we enjoyed it.

Next up Ben introduced me to his hard to get, not released over here yet Oink Games new game Tiger & Dragon.

I want a play or two more of this game.

I enjoyed playing it.

But by the time we started playing tiredness and the head injury were starting to take their toll.

I don’t think I was getting as much out of the game as I could.

As an Oink game this is not one of their famous small box games. But that hasn’t got in the way of it being highly sorted after in the West.

I can see why. It is a nice game. One that may end up in my collection when it becomes more easily available.

I had an enjoyable couple of hours with friends that kindly hosted. Hopefully we can do this on a semi regular basis.