Last night it was that time once again for a Friday night gaming session. For the second time we were once more graciously hosted for this session by the wonderful The Luxe Cinema.
Our evenings gaming started off with a new game that Jonathan bought at this years UKGE but hadn’t got to the table yet, called Road Hog: Rule the Road.

On the whole production wise the components are pretty high quality really. The only slight negative would be the flimsy cards. The game tiles for the track are really pimped out. They have a rubber backing! No need for a play mat here. There was one issue with the cards with what turned out to be two cards stuck together. When separating them there was a little damage that left the back of one marked. Not cool. Solved by sleeving. But replacements needed really from the manufacturer.

Luck plays a large part in the game from the roll of the two dice, to the cards that you get. For some this luck element may be a turn off. In our game it worked in my favour.

There is also a big take that element. Which also for some is a major switch off. Once again something I’m ok with. In our game it was more a one against many. Me against the rest. Mainly because I was the one in the lead for the majority of the game. For example I was getting boxed in my the traffic in an effort to slow me down, and even stop me. But luckily I had the cards and dice rolls that mitigated this and allowed me to escape the traps.

There is a lot of variability potentially between games with the unique placement of cars and trucks during setup that players will then need to negotiate during the game, plus which tiles that you use.

We could have used a longer track. But for the type of game that this is, it felt about right with the 6 or 7 tiles that we used. Anything that was longer I think would have been too long play wise and warn out its welcome. It is a light game. But still a fun experience. And I’m not just saying that because I won it comfortably.

As you can see I’ve tried experimenting with my camera angles for photos during gaming sessions. I quite like the results.

Our second game of the evening was a return to the table for King of Tokyo. I think the last time I played this was with some students a couple years back. I think, apart from a couple of promo characters I have everything for this. I just need to merge back in to the second edition the 2 characters that were left out from the first edition. We played just the vanilla version of the game, no power ups. Well we were playing with 2 new players to the game. Although to be fair, we could probably have played with them. They aren’t that much of an overhead to learn. Jess narrowly won by being the last monster standing.

Our final game of the evening was the classic Perudo/Liars Dice. Yeah a club favourite, and a great way to end a great evening of gaming. Somehow Jonathan won without losing a single die.

We had a great evening, great selection of beverages and great hosts with The Luxe.

Yesterday was the second Wednesday of the month, so yep that time of month again that sees members of Fenland Gamers get together to play some games.

Last nights monthly session was kindly hosted by Wisbech’s premier cinematic experience The Luxe Cinema. Which was a change from our regular venue (for the last couple of years) The White Lion. New owners will be taking over The White Lion at the end of the month, and apparently it’s facilities will not be open to “outsiders” (guests only?). So we have at the moment lost our free gaming location. Which means we are looking for a new forever home(s).

Part of the club ethos, nah DNA is that members should not have to pay to play. Our hobby is expensive as it is. But finding locations that are suitable and free is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack.

Luckily the great manager at The Luxe is a tabletop fan, open to trying new things, and a visionary (I hate saying nice things about him, his ego will get as big as mine, although his dress sense is worse than mine, just) and wants to see the cinema as a hub for the community. After a chat at the tail end of last week, we came up with a plan which saw us arranging a trial “date” or two. Which is how we ended up playing games at The Luxe last night.

Part of the unwritten contract we have with our hosts like The Luxe, The White Lion and Fen Rock is that because we are being allowed to use their facilities for free, that we will purchase our beverages and snacks from them. With our current heat wave, the fact I could purchase a large Tango Ice Blast at The Luxe was really nice.

When I arrived at The Luxe an area had already been cleared for me to put my folding table up. Knowing the size of the table, the number of potential people coming to play, a warning was given earlier about bringing small foot print games. Table space was going to be a premium to fit everyone in. No large games this time.

We split into 2 groups, Jonathan taught and played Pandemic the Cure with one group. While the rest of us played the latest Kickstarter hotness to be delivered to one or two of us, Mint Delivery.

With great timing both games finished within seconds of each other. I’m not sure if Jonathan and co managed to save mankind. But I suspect that they doomed mankind to a plaque ridden doom. James in our group won our game.

After replenishing our beverages, our groups changed slightly, with James joining the others to play Bohemian Villages. Which left Gavin, Katie and myself to play the other half of Gavin’s Kickstarter delivery, Mint Works. The second edition has been tweaked from the first. The tin is deeper to match that of Mint Delivery. Plus the red mints that represent 5 white mints, are now included. Before this second edition the only way to get the red mints was in the promo pack that was printed. Which also has a second edition that does not include the red mints now (they forgot about this on the Kickstarter and they are having to send out red mints separately for those backers that bought the promo who had the first edition of Mint Works and needed the red mints). I like the improvements, the game hasn’t changed, they are just tweaks really that are cosmetic. I crushed this one and was victorious.

Because Mint Works is that quick worker placement fix, we were finished well before the other group. So I broke out Love Letter: Batman. This is definitely my favourite version of Love Letter. Although The Hobbit version comes pretty close. Our game came down to a tense final round, where the game could have been won by either Katie or Gavin. I wasn’t close at that point. But luck was on Gavin’s side and he took the victory. Which meant we had finished once more as the other group were doing final scoring. No idea who won. I suspect Jonathan.

That bought us to about the right time for finishing the evening of gaming. The initial after session post-mortem with the manager was positive. But there will be more trial “dates” and more post-mortems before both parties make any final decisions/commitments.

A big big thank you to The Luxe for hosting us for the evening. You were amazing hosts.