All posts by Darren

WS 3Oct16

news

I’ve been waiting a month or so for our Esdevium/Asmodee Borg masters to release Timeline British History. This will make a great starter activity for a class.

At last Escalation the latest datapack for Android Netrunner is hitting the streets. Once I’d seen the spoiler for it I couldn’t wait. I wanted so badly to play with the new Anarch runner Omar Keung.


Look at that ability. Isn’t it awesome?

Simurgh is a great worker placement game. It doesn’t say so, but this has to be a restock. It’s definitely worth getting. 

Finally I really do like the two player play mat for Magic the Gathering shown above. I’m going to have to get this to play my duel decks with when I play Nath. Or anyone else really.

After the last couple of weeks it’s a quiet week. I’m so glad our overlords are being kind to us.

BTN September 2016

by the numbers, Uncategorized

It’s that time of the month to look back and reflect on the previous months gaming again.

So here we go here are the numbers for last month.

It doesn’t feel it but the graph shows the trend on plays is down for a second month. But games played is up. I have played some meaty games last month.

If I’ve counted right eleven of the games last month were first plays of new games or from the pile of shame.

My Game of the Month

I like this award to be a new game. Whether it’s just been released or one that I’ve never played before. However I’m bending the rules!

This month my game of the month is Istanbul with all the expansions. The new expansion Briefs and Siegel mixed in with the Mocha and Baksheesh expansion just take the game to such an amazing level.

Played this way isn’t for noobs to the game or gaming. But if you are a seasoned  gamer, or played before, oh boy this is just mind blowing.

Worst Game of the Month

I think last month must have been a good month for gaming. I don’t think I’ve played any that you would call a stinker or worse deserve a place in the Nantucket hall of infamy, that is current housed in the Nantucket wing at Jonathan’s.

The Pile of Shame Five

So looking at the last pile of shame Five that I named as targets to play only one of them was played.

This time I’m going to deviate away from the usual selection process and have a list of games I want to get back to the table.

  • Five Tribes
  • Imperial Settlers
  • Neuroshima Hex
  • Tiny Epic Kingdoms
  • Viticulture

All great games that are long overdue a return to the table.

The Iron Throne Round Two

Fenland Gamers, game night, game of thrones

Our skirmish over the Iron Throne seemed so long ago. But the memory of the other houses betrayal still stung with how they gave the Iron Throne to Jeff the Baratheon. 

Mid week once I knew how many could still make our planned fight club for the Iron Throne, I ordered the A Feast of Crows expansion for the game. 

This was my clever plan to gain the Throne. A Feast of Crows is a four player only expansion that replaces the win condition for the game, introduces a new house, House Arryn, objectives, a new setup. 

During setup I drew the Starks, Jeff got House Arryn, Jonathan House Lannister, and Diego House Baratheon.

Looking back on our game my tactical error on turn one that I missed until too late, of attacking House Arryn instead of the Lannisters, helped towards giving Jonathan his well deserved victory. If I had gone after the Lannisters I would have completed my special objective for my house and started racking up victory points, while denying Jonathan and his Lannisters 

The others helped towards his victory also by not taking him on, on their side of Westeros.

I liked this expansion a lot. The house specific objectives, the objective deck. Such a great idea. Completing them is the only way to earn victory points. It forces you to be aggressive. You can’t afford to turtle. 

It was a quick game, four turns! Not including setup time, our playtime was about an hour and a half. 

Setup especially contributes to the forced aggression, effectively shutting down the southern part of Westeros. You are also starting off with more developed forces if my poor memory of our first game isn’t playing tricks on me.

This is definitely my preferred way to play with four players now. I’ll happily play the original way. But this expansion for me is a far better playing experience. 

There is a six player only expansion also, which if we get a six player game together I will definitely get. I do wonder why there isn’t a five player expansion. 

The postman bought my Kickstarter copy of Tiny Epic Western Deluxe Edition yesterday morning. So after sleeving the player boards the game along with Bang the Dice Game and it’s first expansion Old Saloon were put in my game bag along with A Game of Thrones the boardgame.

Having seen Jeff usurped from the Iron Throne, only to see Jonathan placed on the throne instead. It was time to hit the old west and play Tiny Epic Western.

Naturally with the game being so new, none of us knew the rules. So this was a learning game, reading the rules as we played! 

Within a turn of playing I think we had the majority of the rules down. 

So we have an area control, worker placement, set collection, variable player powers game with a poker element too!

Yep there’s a lot of boxes being ticked here. But it works.

I like the duelling, although I think I only duelled once! It’s a cool way to resolve control of a space on the board.

Having player aids on the back of the character boards is a good use of real estate. Which means unused boards instantly become player aids. 

I loved the poker element of the game. It was rare I wasn’t with a five value card. So rare if I was wearing a long sleeved top the others would be rolling up my sleeves checking for cards.

The unique player boards with their player abilities is a nice touch. The four we were playing with didn’t seem over powered. 

Being the Kickstarter deluxe edition we had extra bullet dice, one in each players colour. But the whole overall component quality was good. We also got a plastic wanted card with a see through window. Which looked better to me than the standard included card.

I liked the wanted card as it encouraged duels. Ownership went to the winner of the last duel. It gives a bonus if you have it on phase three of the game, and if you have it at the end of the game two victory points. 

We did find the rule book a bit confusing in places. It was handy having a mini FAQ inside the box.

The only thing I regret is not buying the optional playing mat. But I’ll correct that soon.

Tiny Epic Westerns is a nice game. I like it, and definitely can see it coming to the table again. And I’m not saying that because I won!

So is this the best Tiny Epic game? Does it beat Tiny Epic Galaxies? 

For me I think TEG is still the best Tiny Epic game. But this easily takes second spot.

A great day gaming. Plus we pigged out on Krispy Creme donuts!

FEG@WL last day of September 2016

FEG@WL, Fenland Gamers, game night, Uncategorized

It’s Friday, it’s been a long, hard week. Only way to start the weekend, and blow away that built up stress from the week then has to be play some games with great company and an ice cold beverage.

Diego, Jonathan and I were gathered at the White Lion to do just that. 

Our first game of the evening was The Great Heartland Hauling Co.

We played with one of the alternate three player layouts and the truck stops expansion.

I made an instant dash to the GPS truck stop to buy that and gain the ability to move diagonally once per turn. However that left me with no ability to move and buy goods to trade. Which meant I was stuck at the starting point for three turns until I was able to draw fuel cards!

It was that bit of rashness I think that gave the advantage to Diego. Who went on to get the win. Although I came second, I was happy because I’d managed to sell everything I was transporting. So I didn’t get any negative points.

Jonathan had a complete disaster of a game. His truck must have been robbed of its tires at a truck stop and left on cinder blocks.

Our next game was Grifters. Oh this was a game of frustration for both Jonathan and me.

Jonathan just wasn’t getting the specialist cards to do much. While Diego was buying job cards just before I was about to, or blocked a plan I was going execute with a specialist action. Like grab the Blackmailer card off the top of discard pile but putting utter junk on top of it on his go.

As you can guess Diego romped home to the win.

Our final game of the evening was a new one to Diego and me. It was Skyline, a light dice game where you are building skyscrapers.

This has a push your luck element on the dice roles similar to Age of War and Elder Sign. Where if you want to reroll the dice you lose one if you are unable to use at least one.

Diego triggered the end game by claiming the 36 point building tile. I got lucky and was able to score a final 16 point building, while Jonathan was not able to score any big points to boost his score.

I have to admit that in this final go I was only looking at getting a higher score than Jonathan. I had assumed Diego had the win sewn up. So imagine my surprise when we totalled the points I had won by a single point.

Somehow I’d broken Diego’s amazing winning streak!

Skyline is a pleasant quick filler game. I enjoyed it.

Well you know how the evening ended after the games. We celebrated our wins and losses by consuming dodgy meat wrapped in naan, with salad (the token attempt to make it healthy, and ease the feelings of guilt) and some chilli sauce.

Tomorrow we attempt to usurp Jeff from his Iron Throne when we play A Game of Thrones the Board Game.

You are all colours

Fenland Gamers, game night

So Airlines Europe is a game I’ve never played before. It is however a game in Jonathan’s game collection. And also the game he chose for us to play at last nights mid week gaming session at the White Lion.

Airlines Europe is a game by some guy named Alan R Moon. He apparently created a game called Ticket To Ride that seems to be popular with a certain devil may care attitude to life and a hippy haircut.

Our game was a four player one with three of us having not played it before. So it was upto Jonathan to explain the rules and stress several times you are all colours and not just one colour when building routes.

I liked the share element of the game, and pushing the value of your stock up by building routes. 

You have to be aware of what your opponents are investing in, not just for scoring but also for which airlines you are going to advance in value. 

I benefitted a lot from Debbie pushing up the value of stock I had the majority in or was second highest in. 

I love the randomised mid game scoring. It means you have to try and second guess when it’s going to occur, do you invest those shares in your hand now, or do you still have time to push their value up? Jonathan and I got caught out by this during the game. Having shares in our hands that we failed to get out in time to allow us to score points. 

The red and orange planes are so close in colour it’s easy to confuse one for the other. I also thought the colour of the cards could have been a bit easier to tell, especially from the opposite side of the table. The iconography of the player aids could also be improved. 

This a solid game. I’d definitely play again. But I’m not sure I’d be able to repeat my stunning victory of this playthrough. 

Oh yes I WON!

A great evening once more of gaming.

WS26Sep16

news

It’s that time again for a new set of Magic the Gathering cards. So the coffers of your FLGS will be over flowing this weekend.

Dreamwell is a game that is on my radar just. I love the art work. That box art is lovely.

Sam Heely from The Dice Tower really liked the Old Saloon expansion for Bang the Dice game. I enjoy the game, and my students have also liked it when I take it in. So this will be a no brainer.

The Dark Tales game and its expansions is another game that’s on my radar. And to be honest sitting closer than Dreamwell. So this Cinderella expansion peaks my interest in the base game and the expansions.

Still sitting in my pile of shame is Coup G54 Rebellion, and I’d already got this Anarchy expansion for it from kickstarter. However if you like Coup G54 Rebellion this adds more of the same with more characters.

The Resistance The Plot Thickens is for edition three owners really, as it adds the expansion that was in the second edition but not the third. There are some other little bits but in reality I wouldn’t say this is a must have. But then I’ll be getting it.

That’s it for this week, lots of interesting expansions. If these have half as much impact on their respective games as the last one for Istanbul. Wow these games will be awesome.

To the max

Fenland Gamers, game night, Uncategorized

Istanbul is a bloody good game. That’s a fact. 

Adding in the “mini expansion” the kebab shop makes it a little better. It replaces the Fountain tile and I wouldn’t play the game without this now. 

Playing with the first full expansion Mocha and Baksheesh adds new and interesting elements to the game. Such as coffee and it’s alternate path to victory, and the ability to block routes.

But how would the latest expansion Brief and Siegel that came out this week effect the game?

Well Jonathan broke his self imposed game buying ban for the month to buy it, and he had it delivered Thursday. 

So with an exit pass granted Jonathan and I met up to throw everything Istanbul and the kitchen sink on the table for a mega epic version of the game.

With all the expansions in play set up takes a little time. And moving from four by four tiles to the four by five grid of tiles with the first expansion to five by five makes the game massive. 

Placing the rubies on the board on the relevant tiles, they now look lost! Dwarfed by this increase in size of the board. 

The new expansion introduces letters and seals, that are not only another way to get rubies but also away to get extra turns. 

Naturally you get letters by visiting one of new tiles (there are two of the new tiles that give letters out), or from the courier (which acts like the coffee trader,smuggler, and governor). Each letter has an “address” or tile number on it. When you get the letter it’s worth one seal, deliver it to the “address” it’s worth two seals. Visit the Secret Society tile, and you can trade six seals for a ruby and possibly between three and one coins depending when you get there. Or you can use three seals per round to take an extra turn.

Jonathan used his seals well to get that extra turn at key moments. I’d been using this new scoring opportunity early on to take an early lead.

I scored all my rubies between letters, coffee and the odd guild card that gave me cheap ways to buy a ruby pushing the value up for Jonathan. 

During the game I made no effort collecting lots of goods and trading. The only goods I collected were enough to purchase/fuel certain powers. 

My first tactical mistake was with my companion (a new addition to the game) where I moved him too far away from the Caravansary and the Guild Hall (which were next to each other). If he was in position whilst I was exploiting the tile combo Jonathan had stumbled across on the opposite side of the board (see below), I could have still been drawing the guild cards and bonus cards, and get extra coffee counters.

And that brings me to the companion another new feature of this expansion. Because of the size of the board now, this is a much needed addition. It does give you a choice each turn, do you move your merchant or your companion once you have them. The companion acts like the merchant except it can only move one tile at a time, he works alone (can’t pick up assistants) and any tiles/bonuses that show the merchant don’t apply to the companion. With the companion you are able to leave him on the other side of the board to your merchant. 

The Kiosk tile is awesome. It gives you a letter, plus it has kiosk mini tiles that have bonuses on them. You draw one more than the number of players, you pick the one you want, carry out that action. Then the other players do the same in turn order. Then the last tile left you get and action. I was using this a lot. 

With the increased board size the tavern bonus tile that allows you to move any number of places in a straight line is a must.

Once Jonathan hit the tile combo shown below he soon caught me up on the ruby front. I joined him in exploiting it too late. Although throwing the barrier in his way to slow him down and make his life a little difficult did work. If I’d have remembered I could jump the barrier (the draw back of not having played the game for a while) along with my other “mistake” I could have won.


In the base game the “Black Market and Tea House should have a distance from each other of at least 3 places.”  We felt that there should be a similar ruling for the above combo. Otherwise it’s too powerful a combo. We may house rule this. I think Jonathan is going to bring this up on bgg also. (He did here)

In the end this was a very close game with Jonathan pipping me to the post and the win. But I may have got the win if not for my two “tactical” errors.

Unless I’m playing this game with a new player I will not play this game any other way than with everything in play. The base game is a bloody good game. But with everything it gets taken to a new much, much higher level. The multiple avenues to victory, the random layout of the board each game, there is just so much variety and replayability. 

It should be noted that apparently according to bgg there is a camel driver mini expansion that for completeness I will get but wasn’t used in this game because we don’t have it technically! 

Three from series 16

lego minifigs

I think they are on series 16 now, but whatever the series number I got three blind packs today of the current one.

Not too bothered about the cyborg like one. But the Devil suit Halloween one I like mainly because of the pumpkin bowl(?). 

I’m so stoked about the female boxer, that comes with a separate hair piece also.

Totally schooled

FEG@WL, Fenland Gamers, game night

We are totally loving our new location for our Friday night gaming sessions. The White Lion are fantastic hosts, provide fantastic facilities, great beverages, what more could you want?

Last night Debbie, Jonathan, and Diego provided that last element needed for our great new location to play games, great company.

During the week we had become aware of an injury to Debbie. Apparently due to a hair brain stunt she did (going for the world record for possum juggling). Debbie had fractured a finger. A cunning plan was hatched to take advantage of this by playing manual dexterity games such as Flick ‘Em Up, Pitch Car or Ice Cool (or whatever that new game is called). Sadly there was a flaw in this cunning plan. Jonathan and I didn’t own any of these games.

I don’t know what Diego made of this banter at Debbie’s expense. This was the first time I’d met him. Although Debbie and Jonathan had met Diego before at a previous Fenland Gamers monthly meetup. Maybe he thought I was a bit of a dick. Not an inaccurate conclusion to arrive at.

Earlier in the week Jonathan and I, who were the only ones at the time going, decided to choose which games we were going to play. So between us we had decided on Saloon Tycoon, Guilds of London, and Five Tribes.

So our first game of the evening was Saloon Tycoon. 

Considering Diego hadn’t played the game before and had only read the rule book that morning, his victory was just totally awesome. Now if I said Diego crushed us, I’d be doing him a disservice. He destroyed us. We weren’t even close.

I took second place, while Jonathan managed to steal last place after a late surge in points from Debbie. Who had been hanging way way back on the score track for all of the game. That late surge almost got her second place. But I managed to hold on by four points.

This was the first time we played the game with the max player count. And it still played well. 

Debbie made some excuse about having to go see her boyfriend, and made a fast exit.

Still there were three of us. And Jonathan and I both had our copies of Thiefs Market with us. So we decided to play a game of it, and then go get the end of evening celebratory kebab.

Wow did I totally suck playing this time. I failed to buy intelligently. Too many turns where I wasn’t buying anything or getting gold/noteriety instead.

Like Love Letter Batman I think we need to start rationing our play of Thiefs Market. The danger I want to avoid is burning out on the game.

The new King of Thieves was Diego. 

Wow a clean sweep of victories for Diego. Whilst Jonathan and I both walked away with a bottom of the pile.

A great evening of gaming again. So same time and place next week?