Friday evening, must be a Fenland Gamers club night of some description.

This time it was a regular club night.

To which six brave souls braved the cold winter night. Storm Éowyn (so cool to have a Tolkien named storm) barely touching this part of the country. It seems being on the opposite coast of where it hit protected this bit of the fens from the worst of the storm.

In the warmth of the sports and social club gathered the six hardy souls. Beverages in hand we settled in to play some games.

Our first game of the evening was Spectacular.

For a six player game it was a fairly quick play.

The theme of building a zoo/safari in this dice and tile drafting game doesn’t seem that strong. The mechanics really don’t support or enforce the theme at all. Yes the art is there. But it felt like the theme really could be anything.

There is definitely feelings of other games mechanically. Or should I say it has similarities. I definitely got a Cascadia vibe with the tile placement and creating zones.

The drafting and placing tiles in your zoo/safari park reminded me of Moving Wild. Which I think did it better with the cards.

But having said the above it’s still an enjoyable experience. I’d definitely play again.

We had a lot of fun playing the game. Anthony I’m sure was trolling Marcin over the rules and how to play during the game. I was correcting Marcin over the incorrect for using dices throughout the game. Pointing out dice is the plural.

Dave just romped home with the victory.

Our second and final game of the evening was my recently arrived copy of Rebel Princess.

This really is a fun trick taking game.

There are no trumps. So it’s highest value in the lead suit that wins the trick.

Each player has a unique power they can use once each round. Which reminds me the game is played over five rounds, with the lowest score winning. How do you score points? You get points for each marriage proposal (basically prince suit cards or frog prince card) you have in the tricks you won.

Each round at the start you give a number of cards to the players next to you. Plus a special rule is revealed that changes the game for that round. Both determined by the same card.

These two factors of variable player powers, special rule cards give a massive amount of replay-ability.

There is a rule that if you get all the princes and the frog prince in a round instead of getting seventeen points which they add up to (the frog prince is worth five points) you get ten points instead as a reward!

This really is fun. You are trying to get rid of your prince cards whilst not winning a trick that has prince cards played. Which is harder than you think.

Theme wise it’s not that strong. But had me thinking Love Letter because of the shared emphasis on Princesses.

Rebel Princess might after just one play have become one of my favourite trick taking games. Yes it’s that good.

Dave also won this game. A clean sweep of victories for him.

With no more six player games we called it an early night.

It was a great night especially catching up with one or two friends who aren’t able to make club nights as regular as they would like.

Now the awkward end of the post.