All posts by Darren

Building a better tomorrow

Fenland Gamers, game night

So there I am driving home from a hard day at work. The Secret Cabal Podcast blasting out of my cars radio. I’m thinking I thought these guys were more cool than they were letting a video game company dictate to them when their reviews can go out. I’m not a fan of these NDA timed release of reviews. But hey if they want to encourage this bad practice in the board game industry who am I to complain? I mean they weren’t the only ones that shamefully participated in this cheap marketing trick, where reviewers get early access and told when they can release the “review”. Oh yeah say something bad about the game, suddenly you are out in the cold, no early access next time, strangely calls don’t get returned etc. Yeah let’s encourage this in the hobby. 

Anyway my train of thought was broken by Jonathan calling to invite me to meet him at The White Lion to play games. Naturally having no life, my hectic social calander had a gap, I was able to be there.

Our game of the evening was one Jonathan had just got second hand off the UK trading and selling page I also buy from. That game was The Builders Middle Ages.

I do like the tin the game comes in. It’s colourful, looks great and that nice portable size that means you can chuck it in your page on the spur of the moment. I’d say it’s the same size as the tins used by the Timelines games.

Playing this game was similar to playing Splendor. It had that feel to it. And after my defeat, it was more or less the first thing I said. To which Jonathan replied that was the first thought that struck him too. 

This is an average game, not as good as Splendor. But it’s portability is it’s strength. You want that Splendor like experience on the go, this gives you that.

Our next game was Kodama. This was also a first play. Sadly since getting it from backing it on Kickstarter it’s sat on my pile of shame. 

One of the things that attracted me to the game initially was the the Ghibli-ish Princess Mononoke tree spirits look. And the whole look, graphic design is beautiful. 

We did find initially the rules a little confusing especially on the scoring. But once we got it sorted it made sense and Jonathan sailed ahead to a victory.

There are some nice elements to the game like each of the three seasons have a unique rule chosen at random at the start of the game and revealed at the start of that season. I like how the first player changes at the start of a season, with it going to the lowest score. The Kodama cards are cool, you have a hand of four of these at the start of the game. During the scoring phase at the end of a season you get to play one to hopefully give you a nice points boost.

What you can’t escape is your finished tree does look awesome.

This is a nice game. It worked well with two players (it plays more). I’d play it again. Mainly as a change/break from some of the other two player games I have that I adore. 

The final game of the evening was an old friend Tiny Epic Galaxies (TEG). Since the current Kickstarter for its expansion Beyond the Black (yes I’ve backed it) started up I’ve been craving to get this game back to the table.

Our game of TEG was my only victory of the evening. We played with the mini expansion Satellites and Super Weapons that came with my Kickstarter copy.

It was interesting playing the game with the expansion because at first we ignored it. We didn’t make use of the super weapons cababilities or try destroying it for points. 

The super weapon we had out allowed you to force opponents ships back two spaces on any planets they were trying to colonise. I like that extra opportunity to mess with others, screwing with their plans, hopefully swinging the momentum your way. 

Plus destroying the super weapon gets you two victory points. That’s nice. Like the load bomb card in The Manhattan Project Chain Reaction that two points could be enough to push you over the finishing line, as it was in our game. 

I liked this mini expansion. It’s a nice little addition to the game. Well worth the trouble getting from the bgg store if you didn’t get the Kickstarter edition.

To top off our mid week gaming session apparently it was also Debbie’s birthday. So we were celebrating her birthday also by playing games without her! 

I needed this nice mid week distraction from the pressures of the working week. Thanks Jonathan for inviting me along.

Friendly trolling!

Uncategorized

It’s when your friends troll you with tweets like this…


I think we all know how I feel about this game (for such a small game it’s a pretty large pile of poo, for those in any doubt).

Jonathan has even taken on board my name for his crap game corner of his game collection of the Nantucket Wing. 

So it’s pretty easy to troll me on this one!

WS16Aug16 

news

So how are our Esdevium overlords planning to separate us from our hard earned pocket money this week?

First up is a game that I’d love me to try, Captain Sonar. But if I bought it wouldn’t get played much. This is a game that needs the max amount of players to get the best out of it.

Then it’s followed up with a restock of (queue Axl like screams, Slash like guitars) Welcome to the Dungeon. 

Istanbul is a fantastic game, love it. I liked it so much after playing it was instantly added to my collection. Anyhow the second expansion for it Brief and Siegel hits our shores. Yes I’ll be getting this. Not as if I need a reason but this gives a great reason to play the base game and first expansion again.

Lotus just looks stunning from the photos I’ve seen on Instagram. I’d be buying it just for its art. 

This final one in the piccy above is one you need to rush out and buy. In fact I played it yesterday. Yep Thiefs Market is out. 

And then we have Forgotten King: Super Dungeon Explore.


OMG how much? I paid £24 earlier in the year in one of those amazing Amazon offers. It had a rrp of £80 then. Btw it’s £50 at the moment on Amazon.

Oh and yep I feel super smug nabbing my copy at that super cheap bargain price.

Anyway that’s the new stuff hitting this week. Another pretty strong week. 

Long over due Costa Gaming

coffee shop gaming, Fenland Gamers

This afternoon Jonathan, myself and special surprise guest gamer Luke played games and enjoyed hot beverages at the local Costa.

So because three of us were gathered in one place, and it is the law, we played Thiefs Market. 

Since getting the game I’ve played the game four times, and I just love the splitting the spoils phase so much. 

It’s not just the hard delicious choices you have to make. But also the ones your decisions then pose to the other players.

Despite me building up an intimating engine of cards that if fueled correctly could buy four cards a turn, I still came last. While Luke stole my short lived title and became the new King of Thieves.

Our second game (queue Guns ‘n Roses music) was Welcome to the Dungeon. 

We vied to see who was the bravest, boldest one amongst us to take on the dark dungeon and it’s monsters as a barbarian. 

My timid play saw me again claim last place. While not exactly being brave, more like not being quicker than Luke and myself running away, Jonathan won.

I still believe that this game should never, never, ever be played with only two players. I know that you can’t avoid that situation in a three or four player game. But this is not a two player only game. And if/when you got down to two players that is the least enjoyable part of the game.

We had a great afternoon gaming. 

About last night…

FEG@WL, Fenland Gamers, game night

It’s been a busy week, with only one post! Yeah that’s like me having the blogging equivalent of losing my voice or a sore throat.

Last night there was no FEG@TA arranged. Instead a plan was hatched to have a look at The White Lion. 


Jonathan and I were both running a tad late. But Debbie wasn’t there waiting for us, so we were able to be a little guilt free.

But Debbie wasn’t there! She was going to be there. She’d thumbed up on the mornings invite about meeting up. She never responded to a “where are you?” message on Facebook. How odd? Had she been kidnapped by space pirates? Or was she so guilt ridden she felt ashamed to respond? Who knows or cares? Jonathan and I had a large table that was well lit, two bags brimming with games, and our pints of cider. Debbie who?

So while we waited for Debbie to arrive in case she too was running late, Jonathan and I played Qwixx. Even if I hadn’t taken three negative marks during the game Jonathan would have beaten me, he had built up a comfortable lead to absorb any attempt at a come back.

Jonathan and I next played a game that he got in a trade and had been sitting in his pile of shame for a long long time, called Wurfel Express.

This was a German edition of Wurfel Express, with a poor translation of the rules. I do admire and appreciate that a bgg member has taken the time to translate the rules and make them available. However, (there is always a however) I wish they would take longer to not just do a straight translation but also make the rules readable!

This wasn’t the worst game I’ve ever played. That title is still held by Nantucket. But it this is a game that would never set the world on fire.

It’s got that push your luck Yahtzee  rolling of dice mechanic. And that’s about as exciting as the game gets. 

I know this is meant to be a family game. So it should be appealing to young and old. Which is totally possible to do. Apparently a good example would be the Stronghold Games Spiel des Jahres recommended game Animals on Board. I say apparently because I’ve not played it. But by all accounts it appeals to both young and seasoned gamers alike. Hey even Pixar produce films that appeal to all. Sadly this game doesn’t hold much to appeal to the more mature player.

So Jonathan can tick this game off his pile of shame and add it to his new gaming wing of crapness that takes it name from its founding entry The Nantucket Wing.

Our final game of the evening was the excellent small box pick up and deliver game The Great Heartland Hauling Co.

This game has a lot of replayability. In our game we used one of the alternate board layouts for two players called ‘Black Dog’. But there are two other two player alternate layouts, along with three and four player alternate layouts. You can play with the Badlands expansion (which adds a fifth player and two new location cards), and/or the truck stop cards (which offer upgrades you can purchase). We played with the truck stop cards last night.

During our game I got the truck stop that allowed me to move diagonally. Whilst Jonathan got one that when he stopped on the starting location he could draw five additional cards and then discard five cards. Jonathan’s was handy for that trying to draw to find the cards you need. But it doesn’t help if you are unlucky in your deck diving!

I triggered the end game, and when all the points were tallied I had won by a single mighty point. 

So after an evening of great company, drink, a fantastic gaming location, we took off to grab a wrap of dodgy meat for our supper.

That time of month… Again

Fenland Gamers, game night, Uncategorized

Last night was the second Wednesday of the month, and thus the time of the monthly get together of The Fenland Gamers.

My first game of the evening was Bohemian Villages.


My opponents and attempting to stop my path to glory were Katie and Jonathan’s daughter.

I skilfully manipulated Katie and my young opponent using my Sith force powers to delay the game long enough for me to complete the village I had the town hall in.

It’s hard to gloat about beating an eleven year at the game. But this was my arch rival which made it a bit easier to do.

Our second game of the evening was the totally awesome, not so new and shiny The Manhattan Project Chain Reaction.

I got to set a new record during our game. Previously my games the greatest number of cards is managed to play on s turn was 16. Last night that was blown away when I managed to play 20! Yes you read that right I played 20 cards. I was drawing new cards, stealing cards, it was amazing.

We’d all managed to score bombs but I was in the worse position because I had no plutonium whilst the other two did. 

However one great turn and not only had I managed to catch up but was looking at grabbing a bomb that would trigger game end.

In the end I had scored enough points to hold off a late point rush from Katie on her last go to win by a single massive point.

While we were playing our games Jonathan, Debbie and her Nathan played our groups hot game of the moment, Saloon Tycoon. Which he somehow managed to win!

Our next club monthly meet is the 12/10/16 for those interested. 

They seek him there…

Fenland Gamers, game night

For the record

Let the history books reflect that I in fact won our first play of Saloon Tycoon on Friday at FEG@TA.

Saturday on the Fenland Gamers Facebook page Jonathan pointed out we had misplayed a couple of things. Sadly after a soak in the bath Sunday morning reading the rules ready for the afternoons play, we had miss played a few things! Like the outlaw cards for instance. But the one that gave me the win was the end game turn. I had triggered the end game on my turn, a turn in which I had stole Jonathan’s character from him. On his final turn he stole it back. But according to the rules this action was not allowed. So in fact Jonathan had scored five less points, and I’d scored five extra points. Thus I had scraped a win by one single point. 

So Sunday afternoon saw Jonathan, Matt and myself get together to play some games!

Our first game was Saloon Tycoon. This time we had the expansions mixed in also. I don’t know why you wouldn’t have them in, they add in more of the same. 

I grabbed the gardens tile early, to do so got me the outlaw that gave me minus one gold nugget each income stage. That got cancelled when I completed the gardens tile, which gave me an extra gold nugget. I then moved that outlaw to Jonathan to cripple him. But I’d need to grab that outlaw back near the end to complete my secret objectives.

Jonathan was struggling to do stuff because he ended up with three of the outlaws. I nearly gave him the fourth too, just for the giggles, but I needed to slow Matt down.

My inability to get the outlaw and character I needed to complete my objectives cost me the game? If I hadn’t triggered the end game I might have got one of the needed cards to get one objective completed and the win. 

Instead I lost to Matt by a point. While Jonathan coasted in to last place.

A bit like the law that whenever more than one Python fan gathers together they will perform the parrot sketch. It is fast becoming a law that if ever three to five Fenland Gamers should be in a room together they will play Thiefs Market.

And so it was. There was three of us, and Thiefs Market was played. 

As the photo shows I ended up winning and claiming my first win, and the title King of Thieves. Now I will have to defend my title against all pretenders.

Matt had to go after witnessing my glorious win and coronation. However Jonathan and I carried on gaming with our first play of Spectre Ops.

Spectre Ops had been sitting on my pile of shame for over a year now. It felt good having this opportunity to play the game at last.

Jonathan played the infiltrator while I played the hunters. My team for this game were The Beast and The Prophet. I chose these because they would work well together I thought in locating the infiltrator. 

What I like about Spectre Ops over Letters for Whitechapel is that the hunters do have unique powers, they aren’t just the same. Ok Jonathan didn’t “enjoy” being on the receiving end of those powers. But I felt they were balanced out. For example the Prophet had a post cog ability that if he didn’t move allowed him to see where the infiltrator had been two moves previously. The balancing bit was that the Prophet had to be stationary to use that ability and couldn’t act upon it straight away, but had to wait until their next turn before they could move. 

I felt this was the same for the Beasts abilities, and the motion sensor of the car.

This as a two player game worked well as a game of cat and mouse. Which along with a simpler turn order than Letters from Whitechapel for me was a more enjoyable experience.

In our game there were moments where I thought I knew where Jonathan was. But turned out I was completely wrong.

The hunters won in the end but it was close. Jonathan had completed all three objectives.

So with two hidden movement games down our next one to play surely must be the infamous Fury of Dracula.

This was such a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. 

WS12Sep16 deep pockets alert 

news

It’s that time of week where I pick through the scattered remains left by Esdevium on the side of the road, and choose the tastiest morsels for our table. 

There are some pleasant surprises this coming week. 

Having just got my Kickstarter copy of Saloon Tycoon I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was so soon hitting the shelves of your FLGS so soon. I was a little smug also to see I’d saved a little money on the game too. You can see what I thought of the game by scrolling to yesterday’s post. 

Another pleasant surprise was that Grifters, another recent arrival from Kickstarter is also coming out. This is a nice card game with a cooling off mechanic for played cards. 

The third instalment of the Valley of the Kings game Last Rites is out. I like the original game, the theme, and it’s drafting mechanic. The only draw back for this is I understand it’s just more of the same, not introducing anything new mechanics wise. 

A game that had a bit of buzz at GenCon and does sound fun is Potion Explosion. 

They were bound to release this next one at some point despite the low opinion fans have of the source material. So next week Timelines will see an edition out that covers the Star Wars prequels. 

Spiel des Jahres winner Codenames sees the anticipated follow up Codenames Pictures out. Plus in the US there was a Target exclusive edition of the game called Codenames Deep Undercover, which we are also getting the chance to buy. This is an “adult” version of the game with some risqué adult words and blank cards to add your own words. I’ll only probably bother getting the Pictures edition.

Like Pandemic? Like Cthuhlu? Well you will love this next game coming out in the week. Yep the much hyped and anticipated Pandemic Cthuhlu mash up Pandemic Reign of Cthuhlu is finally out.

Finally the Android novella Monitor is also out. As you know I LOVE Netrunner and the Android universe. So you can be sure this will be ending up on my book shelves.

So you can see our table is full from the abundance of games this coming week. With Essen approaching fast, and GenCon stuff starting to come, I think we are going to see our table overflow a lot in the coming weeks.

UPDATE: forgot Covert is also out next week. I’ve only just watch a video on it and it looks good. 

Oh and Blood Rage is restocked, and the poorly reviewed by The Dice Tower Ticket To Ride Rails and Sails. Which holds no interest for me.

FEG@TA Saloon Entrepreneurs 

FEG@TA, Fenland Gamers, game night, Uncategorized

You have just received your Kickstarter copy of Saloon Tycoon (hand delivered by the photogenic Jonathan), you are in a pub, what could be more thematic than playing the game in said pub?

I felt a bit guilty while we were setting up Jonathan’s copy of Saloon Tycoon. He’d still got some cardboard popping to do, cards were still in cellophane. 

Boy does this game take up a surprising amount of space. The table was just about big enough. If there had been another player we would have been screwed. Basically we’d have had to have put it away and play something else.

We have some beautiful looking games these days. You just have to look at Ashes or Hit Z Road as examples of the heights companies are reaching. However there is just something about a game that has a 3D element to it. Colt Express, Camel Up! and Imhotep (to a lesser extent) for example just have this visual impact that draws people to them. Saloon Tycoon joins that list of games that have that pleasing 3D visual impact when you build floors on parts of your saloon. I think it’s one of the things that attracted me to the game in the first place. For me this 3D element of the game, with each player board area being different, really works, both visually and game wise.

The rule books could be better. Probably with a reference book explaining the cards. Or more clarifying how they work. 

The player aid cards included I like. They provided a nice concise summary of a players turn, and scoring during play and game end.

Jonathan had an issue with the graphic design of the player score board. He thought it was a mess and hard to use. It was less of an issue for me. Although I think it could have been bigger! Score spaces are only big enough for a single cowboy meeple. At a minimum they should be big enough to have two meeples on a space.

A game turn is simple enough, I like the card driven play, but also being able to do something that doesn’t require a card, like draw more cards or take gold. 

With the cards controlling actions, you are able to get combos and have a little interaction with your opponents. Mostly in the form of taking cards from their hand or taking gold. There is also a bribe action that allows you to steal characters from other players.

It grates that when counting floors we are forced to use the Americian numbering. It’s just wrong, like the way they write dates and spell colour.

It’s also cool that each room type has some sort of one time bonus you get to perform when you complete building that floor/room. Before you can buy some of them they have prerequisites like you will need a specific room built already or have a first floor for instance. So you are not only deciding what to build on cost, but bonus and if it allows you to build a more expensive powerful room also.

I like the secret objectives players have, along with public ones anyone can go for. This goes a long way to adding to the games replayability. 

It was the secret objectives and completing his that made the difference and allowed Jonathan to come from behind and win.

As you may have guessed we liked playing the game. It continues a run of kickstarters that we backed that lived upto or exceeded what we thought they would be.

After building our Saloons it was time to hit the road and cross the zombie infested badlands of Route 66 in Hit Z Road. 

This time Jonathan made it to the end of the journey but fell short on the points front. Jonathan definitely faught more zombies than me, whilst I avoided them as much as possible. Yes I was more care free with my survivors and ended up with one making it to the west coast and safety. 

I’d also managed to amass more resources than Jonathan and was in a better shape for the last leg of the game. Plus it meant I was able to claim three of the four bonus cards at the end. Which was more or less the difference between our scores.

Yep this was just another Friday night of great games, friendship, finished off with dodgy meat covered in token salad and a liberal dash of chilli sauce. 

Star Realms on Penny Arcade

star realms

Woke up to find the following Penny Arcade strip in my social media timeline. 

Obligatory link to the source here. 

They really have captured how great and addictive the game is. It’s no secret how I feel about the game, I’m getting a warm tingly feeling just thinking about it now (Bill Hicks reference there).

After teaching Nath the game he too was hooked. He asked if he could have it for his birthday. This is a grown up early twenties, video game addict (like his dad) and he loved the game. 

We normally have three or four games in the amazing app of the game on the go. When I visit it’s normally the first game to hit the table. 

And it’s that app that has helped make this great game so popular. Like the physical game it offers great value for money, is available on several platforms, games can be played against anyone irrespective of the platform they have the app on. Plus the app really implements the game well. 

Physically and digitally this game is just such a great two player deck builder that doesn’t break the bank. Ok once you start buying the expansions, play mats, storage box and sleeves it adds up. However I’d say you don’t need them all at once, they are still cheap as expansions go. But just the base game has a lot of game play in it, whilst even adding like the Crisis expansions just increases that exponentially. 

You play with everything mixed in and you can get some crazy games. 

This is a game that definitely creates moments you talk about after the fact.

That madness, the cost, the in your face take that game play, oh and it has great art work too, backed up by an awesome app. It’s no wonder I love this game.