Category Archives: Fenland Gamers

Fenland Gamers

My last gaming of 2024?

Fenland Gamers, Game day, game night, Halo Flashpoint

I think that possibly this weekend saw my last gaming of 2024.

This time of year just so happens to be the busiest time of the year for those working in retail.

Which is why after Tuesday I am working 7 days straight without a break. Not only that but for 5 of those days I’m starting an hour earlier (5am) but also finishing an hour earlier (midday).

But on the plus side once I step outside of work Christmas Eve I’m off until the 8th January. Yeah a nice break.

With that earlier start I won’t be making the lcg/ccg/tcg evening Tuesday. Not the “get it to the table” night next Friday. I need to be getting to sleep a bit earlier than I usually do. Which makes evening gaming not an option. Or I could but I’d be shattered the next day.

This past Friday was the regular club game night. Although the discord event only showed 4 interested we ended up with 9 attending. So one of the better attended club nights of recent weeks.

We split into 3 tables of 3.

On my table we started off with a game of Ra.

I do like this auction, push your luck, set collection game. That’s why I backed the last kickstarter to get the Ra Traders expansion. Which I’m looking forward to adding to the game once it comes out.

Luckily I won this game of Ra.

Next we followed up with a couple of games of Cubed: Next Level Dominoes.

This was Colin’s game.

Yes it’s dominoes like but with colours and height involved when placing your tile. But in reality when playing I did not think dominoes.

It was fun, and the player with the lowest score at the end wins. How do you score? Each tile you are left with at the end is worth points depending on number of colours on it.

I didn’t win either of the two games we played.

Our final game of the evening was Splendor Pokémon.

Once again the losing streak continues. I was one more turn away from grasping victory when Colin triggered the end of the game with 18 points. My next turn if I’d had a chance to take it would have netted me 7 points and a total of 20 points. But alas I never got to pull off my power play.

Master Chief broken?

Saturday saw Dave and me playing Halo Flashpoint.

Our first game was a capture the flag game. I had the newly arrived Master Chief on my squad.

This game had a maximum of 8 rounds. With the highest score winning if neither player got to 3 points first. Which I won by a single point. And that was because I actually captured the flag and got it back to a scoring zone in the last round.

Our second game was using the oddball scenario. This is a 6 round game with the winner at the end with the highest score winning, or the first to 11 points.

Dave had Master Chief on his squad for this game.

Once Dave claimed the oddball with Master Chief it was nigh on impossible to get the oddball back.

Master Chief is sooo hard to take down.

I think he’s too powerful. That or I was rolling badly against him.

Definitely for organised play (coming early next year) he needs banning. Without the figure being easily obtainable he is just too much of an advantage to those that got him as the pre-order reward or in the limited supply paint kit.

With the points racking up fast with the oddball in Master Chiefs hands it was an easy victory for Dave.

So that was possibly my last bit of gaming for 2024.

In Too Deep (not the latest Jack Reacher novel)

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night it was once again time for us to get it too the table. A club night specifically for getting those unplayed games from the pile of shame to the table.

This time saw Marcin bring the board game In Too Deep. A cyberpunk themed game with definitely some Philip K Dick A Scanner Darkly vibes.

In this game players play officers of the law infiltrating a notorious criminal gang, trying to collect enough evidence to take the gang down.

You do this by jacking into a criminal and taking over control of them. The perp is then manipulated into trying to complete the conditions of one of the two cards you hold. These cards are a main mission and a side mission.

Once you complete a main mission any criminals you are jacked into are released.

To say this game is chaotic is an understatement. You could try planning your movies whilst others take theirs. But often you may not even be in control of the criminal you had, let alone them being where you need them. The board state itself changes so much it almost feels like luck completing a main mission or side mission.

We did find in the later stages of the game that those of us still holding one of the stage three main missions that there was no way they could be completed. They required too many things to be in place that never would happen with the limited number of actions on a turn, and the constant changing board state.

I forget what the cards are called but when you complete either mission you get these cards that basically behave like corruption. Representing how deep you have fallen into the undercover role becoming that criminal you are meant to be bringing down.

This is an interesting little mechanic because at the end of the game the player with the highest score from these cards gets that deducted from their score (unless another condition isn’t met then they don’t). The cards also act as end game bonuses. You have a balancing act of trying to keep as low value cards as possible but getting the best end game bonuses as possible. Something not made easy with the better end game scoring being on the higher value cards.

I liked that when completing a main mission you got a choice of a safe reward or a risky reward. The risky reward drawing you more of the above cards than the safer option.

I think the theme came over nicely. The miniatures of the criminals were really good. Great sculps.

The game did take over three hours including teach. With some turns by players taking a looong time.

I really enjoyed the game. Plus I won.

It was a fun evening.

Another 2 player evening

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night was club night. Or I thought it was.

I rolled up at the usual venue just before the allotted time. Got my usual, two cans of Coke, glass with ice, and two packs of jelly babies.

No one else was there yet.

So I looked at the event and saw the start time was an hour earlier, and no one had said they were coming. When was this changed? Thinking about it I think discord screwed up the start time on the clocks going back.

But still it was looking like I was going to be billy no mates. Luckily after what felt like an age but in reality ten minutes, Dave walked through the door.

Boy was I relived and glad to see him.

Luckily I had a couple of games that would play two players.

Our first game was Splendor Pokémon.

One more turn was all I needed. One more turn and I would have ended the losing streak. But no Dave triggered the end of the game. That turn I needed never to happen. And the losing streak continues.

Our next game was Castle Combo. Would this work as a two player game?

Setting up there were no changes necessary to the setup to cater for two players.

Castle Combo worked really well as a two player game. We just saw less of the cards and had to use more keys to reset the rows to try and get favourable cards.

Dave took the honours on this one too.

We finished off the evening with a few games of Strike! Even at two players it was extremely fun.

It was an earlier finish than planned but full of fun and laughter. Just disappointing that no one else could make it.

A loud and crazy evening

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night was the “get it to the table night”. A game night whose purpose is to allow us to get those unplayed games sitting in our piles of shame to the table.

So why did we end up playing two games that had been played (several times) before?

Numbers.

With the maths wrong I had mostly four player games with me. However there were five of us. It could have been worse there could have been six. But current life events means Marcin was unable to attend.

Luckily I had three games that played five players.

The first one we played was Strike!

Our games of Strike! were such a blast. We were also later we would find out from a regular at the social club louder than usual. Yes this game brings out the boisterous nature of those playing.

Our games were filled with incredible against the odds rolls, a variety of throwing/rolling styles, and lots of laughter.

Somehow an hour later and fourteen games or so we decided to play another game.

That follow up game was Sushi Go.

It’s been a long while since I’ve played with the maximum number of players for the game. The end of round scoring is much more meaner with seven cards. Getting more than 15 points in a round is virtually impossible. Hitting around 10 points or over is achievable but can be a struggle. Getting the multiple cards for say dumplings, sashimi, or tempura which give big points becomes much harder.

We decided to call it an evening after our third game.

We had a really fun evening. There was so much laughter. Yes no games from the pile of shame got played. But that didn’t seem important.

Got to catch ‘em all

Fenland Gamers, game night

Another club night.

I took Splendor Pokémon and Tonga Bonga with me.

We split into a group of four (playing Power Grid), and a group of three (Dave, Colin, and myself).

We started off playing Splendor Pokémon on our table.

Whilst we set up a man came over asking what we were playing, and made a derogatory comment about being too old for Pokémon. And when we were asked if we played Monopoly I didn’t reply but Dave and Colin pointed out what a poor game it was. Shooting this man down. His partner came over and said their son collected Pokémon cards. The implication clear. It was obvious they thought grown men shouldn’t be playing “kids games”. I didn’t really interact with them. I thought it best not to. If they wanted to be ignorant and try and make us feel bad about playing games. They didn’t deserve my time.

A little known fact about the Splendor family of games (classic, Marvel, and now Pokémon) I’ve never won a game! If I include the two player Splendor Duel I have won a single game.

Despite having such a bad run with the game I really enjoy playing it.

Yes I no longer own the classic version. I didn’t see much point keeping it after getting the Marvel edition. I preferred what the Marvel edition added.

Splendor Pokémon is an import from Korea with no official english version of the rules. I had to rely on translated rules from the bgg website.

If you know how to play Splendor then you know a good 90% of the games rules.

You can only purchase the rare and legendary cards (which also can’t be reserved) if you have a master ball. So at some point you have to reserve a card on your turn to get the master ball to enable you to buy one of the face up or legendary cards.

You can also on your turn evolve your captured Pokémon (if the evolution is available). I like this a lot. The old card is replaced with the new evolved Pokémon. With the old card going face down under your trainer.

I like this version of Splendor and the little tweaks it added.

Dave won.

We followed up with a game of Tonga Bonga.

I do like this game. It’s very clever and deeper than you initially think.

But this time we never got to complete the game. We were in the closing round or two, when Colin had an emergency call that required him to leave immediately.

Dave and I called it an evening at this point leaving the other table playing Power Grid. The decision had been made easier with the fact I had no two player games with me.

Another fun club night despite the interaction with the “public”.

Gladiators in an arena

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night was the fortnightly club night.

I took a bag of games on the lighter side. Amongst them was the recently arrived English edition of Strike! from the US Amazon store. This was a replacement for the european language version I had and was unable to find at home.

It’s the usual story for me. I’m unable to find something. Spend ages looking for it. Then over the following days the thought about it just naws away in my mind. Forcing me to keep looking at the oddest moments. Eventually to stop this driving me mad I have to order a replacement.

Then after the replacement item has been dispatched and can’t be sent back. Magically the missing item turns up in precisely where I’d been looking for it. This is how I’ve ended up with three copies of Knizia’s dice games book.

It was as I was leaving last night that the european version of Strike! turned up.

So now I have two copies. Not a total disaster. I could run a mini Strike! tournament at a future club night.

With only five of us able to make it. Or to put it another way. Only five of us with no social life outside playing games for this time of year could make it.

Yes the whole American Halloween fixation and traditional fireworks means a lot of folks have social commitments this time of year. So having five of us able to make it was a miracle in itself.

We started off playing Castle Combo. A frustrating experience at times. Some of which I’m sure was expert level trolling. Some of which was just annoying analysis paralysis. But still it’s a fun game. Despite Dave’s coin strategy, Marcin won with having a lot of keys.

Our next game saw Strike! getting to the table for the first time.

Strike! has been a thing for the Rolling Dice Taking Names guys for a few years now. Marty and Tony are split on their opinion on it. Is it dice in a bowl or gladiators in an arena? So to decide who is right they hold a yearly contest with listeners of the podcast split into two teams representing the opposing viewpoints at Gen-Con. The winning team means Strike! has to be referred to the opinion they represent for the year.

The reason I wanted to own and play it was as part of the research for my game idea. That is on the back boiler but not forgotten.

We had a blast playing Strike! In the end we played five games of it. There was laughing, banter, incredible dice rolls. For such a “simple” game of just throwing dice into a bowl it was so much fun and addictive.

Our final game of the evening was Sushi Go which saw Anthony win this card drafting, set collection game.

Another fun club night.

A Couple of Gaming Sessions

Fenland Gamers, Game day, game night

Friday evening was once again club night.

For me it was a light evening of gaming with my friend Jonathan.

That’s right Jonathan had made it to club night, and it was great to be able to game with him. It’s just a shame that Diego was on the other table. Then it would have been like the old club days.

We started off on our table with a game of Castle Combo.

Apparently this game had been getting a bit of buzz which had completely passed me by.

I quite liked this card driven tableau building game.

You are building this 3×3 grid, so in total you are getting nine turns before the game ends. So in that time you are trying to purchase cards that generate you money (to buy further cards), get keys, and meeting end game scoring conditions.

The symbol reference card is handy and very much needed through out the game as you learn the iconography.

It’s fun, accessible, fairly quick. And probably why I ordered a copy this morning. At £17 plus postage not that expensive either.

Our follow up game was Big Shot. My copy had arrived that morning. It was an odd experience with Martin our third player not taking out any loans, not winning a single bid, and finishing with the original money token he started with.

We finished off our evening with a game of Sushi Go. What more can I say about this fun drafting game? It’s a great filler game.

Sadly it was a clean sweep of victories for Jonathan. But great to share the evening gaming with him.

Sadly our Saturday afternoon plan of playing Cosmic Encounter was a three player game.

I used the Cosmic combo cards to select the alien races we would use for this session. After scanning through the 34 cards I settled on the quick-start set up.

I do like these Cosmic combo cards. They are a great way for 3-5 players to choose alien races around a theme such as trade or really aggressive. Shame FFG didn’t make these available as a separate print on demand deck for existing owners of the game.

We also used the tech cards (and associated rules), flare cards (played wrong btw) plus the reward deck.

Three players was fun, but a very different experience to our first game.

I liked the tech cards, and will probably include these in future plays. They give an additional choice to make if you win an encounter as the aggressor. Do you initiate a second encounter or draw new tech cards to gain new tech?

Charlene managed to beat Anthony and myself.

Our afternoon of gaming was finished with a game of Big Shot. Yes it’s fastly becoming a favourite filler game. Quick to teach and play. I managed to win this one.

A great afternoon of gaming with plans starting to get TI4 to the table.

Fallout the board game

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night was the fortnightly club night.

Still numbers are not back up to the heady heights that we were seeing earlier in the year. Marcin even commented so when he arrived.

That being said the seven of us that were there had a good time playing games.

We split into two tables. Four on one table playing Azul, and Camel Up. Whilst Marcin, Dave, and myself were on the other table playing Fallout the board game.

I’ve owned this game for a few years now, and it’s sat there on my pile of shame ever since.

It was only recently that I purchased the official play mat, plus the second expansion Atomic Bonds. This second expansion makes the game co-operative. Something I’m not keen to include. But you never know. It was a completeness purchase.

However the first expansion New California remains elusive. Mainly because the English version is out of print (you can pick up a German version very easily).

I think what has made the situation for New California even worse, and also driven demand for the base game is the popularity of the Amazon tv series.

I have played the modern third person version Fallout 3 back in about 2010 on my 360. I didn’t complete the game, or even get close. But I did enjoy the experience. I even went back and played a little of the original turn based rpg Fallout on a pc.

Obviously I enjoyed the recent Amazon tv series based on the Fallout games. Unlike a major trend over the years of adapting video games badly to the silver screen, Amazon actually did a decent job.

Last night we played Marcin’s copy of the game that had the New California expansion mixed in.

We played the introductory scenario Welcome to the Commonwealth with the extended map. I was playing the robot Mister Handy, Marcin played the Ghoul, and Ben was the Brotherhood Outcast.

The game was great fun.

I think it captured the theme really well through the art, miniatures, quests, and mechanics.

On your turn you get two actions. One is exploring. That allows you to flip over an adjacent unexplored tile. So you get that exploring feel, discovering new areas, revealing new threats.

The quests or encounters you can go on have some great thematic text to read out.

Combat is simple and quick. You roll three dice, hopefully getting the required bits of the body to defeat the enemy and not get any hits in return. The “AI” to move/activate enemies on the board was very simplistic. Which involved turning over an agenda card and looking at icons on the bottom of the card for what gets activated.

With the learn of the game, it took us roughly three hours to play.

Obviously I want to play some more of the game. I really did have great fun playing it.

I survived!

Fenland Gamers, game night, life, the universe, and everything, star wars, Star Wars Unlimited, still alive

It’s Saturday morning. I’ve been awake from bloody early a.m. on my day off.

The status update of my McDonald’s breakfast seems stuck on “picking up my order”.

I’m just too knackered after my seven day tour of duty at work.

I’ve come out of it feeling battered emotionally. I won’t go into details but the frustration levels have been through the roof.

So I feel I’ve earnt this lazy start to my day off.

Yesterday Mini Rails arrived from Zatu without any problems. Which has been my experience with them every time I’ve ordered from them. That will shock some. But for me my experiences have been positive.

Also through the letter box came the new Zelda game The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Where I think for the first time you can actually play as Princess Zelda. Another entry in my long to play list.

Last night was a “get it to the table” night for Fenland Gamers. Which saw Marcin, Anthony, and myself play Marcin’s copy of Coimbra. Which frankly I’m shocked he owns based on its theme alone! It’s not exactly post apocalyptic.

However it’s a fun game that has dice drafting, and then using those dice to do something, with the value of the die being used determining the cost of what you purchase. Plus the colour of the die comes into play in a later stage of the round.

Each round player order changes based on number crowns each player has accumulated that round.

You have a bit of engine building going on with the cards you purchase. Add in also trying to move a pawn round a map to collect bonus tiles, and racing up four influence tracks to try to have the most in each. This a lot to try and do with the three dice you draft.

It’s also only four rounds and plays very quickly.

It is a fun game.

History will record Marcin won on a technicality.

Along with Mini Rails the final cards of my two new decks arrived.

Those two incomplete decks got an outing on Tuesday just gone when Marcin and I play Star Wars Unlimited (SWU) using our Twin Suns decks. I suppose you could say that this was the SWU equivalent of the popular MtG singleton (one one copy of a card) format Highlander.

The two incomplete decks worked well. Or I should say as intended. So I have three Twin Suns decks. Marcin has two. Which means if we have a fourth player join us we can lend them a deck if they have no deck of their own.

I now need to write up these decks.

New Games To The Table

Fenland Gamers, Game day, game night

Despite me starting this epic seven days of work without a break (currently on day 4 as I write this post) I’ve managed to get some gaming in.

It was club night Friday evening with only five people able to make it along. Is this the new normal? Why has attendance slipped?

The only five player game we had was Tribes of the Wind. So I was glad to be able to get this latest addition to the collection to the table.

This is a nice game. It even played well at five players, despite one of those players being well known to suffer from analysis paralysis (ap). Even with an ap inflicted player we played the game in about an hour and three quarters.

Although on the table space we had five players was rather cramped.

Production is great, and I really like the art by Vincent Dutrait. He has also done the art for After Us, the Amun-Re 20th Anniversary Edition, Broom Service, plus many more. The three mentioned I also own, and love the art.

I love how you need to take into account the cards your neighbours are holding. It means that whilst you can plan your next turn while waiting for others to take theirs. That plan might go out the window because the cards held by a neighbour have change meaning you can’t play that card you wanted to.

It’s cool that when you build a village you get to choose a village card that is duel use. You can either use it for an immediate benefit, or for its end game scoring bonus.

Each player board is unique. Well in which conditions you need to complete to be able to select one of the four unique guide cards each player has. You get up to two of these cards. They act like ongoing special abilities throughout the rest of the game.

They are also unique in the distribution of pollution on your player board.

The uniqueness is continued with the starting tiles that give differing starting resources.

The iconography is easy to pick up, as is the learning curve. As I pointed out in just under two hours we learnt and played the game.

Yeah I liked this game a lot. Sadly I didn’t win, the ap inflicted player did.

Afterwards I had to pack away and get home rather quickly. My curfew was way earlier than Cinderella’s. With work and the start of the seven days the next morning I needed to be in bed and sleeping by 9:30pm.

Sunday saw me round Ben’s as soon as work had finished. Diego and Charlene would be joining us.

I had suspected Charlene might be. So I had put Stamp Swap in the car.

After punching the cardboard Ben and I set up Stamp Swap. By which time Charlene had arrived. Not long after followed by Diego.

After going through the rules we started stamp collecting.

This is a fast game. The three rounds flew by.

I loved the drafting of the stamps in the first phase. Especially with some of the stamps being facedown unknown to anyone. The I split, you choose of the second phase. Great fun and just as tactical as the drafting. Followed by the puzzle bit of fitting the stamps in your play area. I really enjoyed how these three mechanics had been melded together.

That last phase is heavily influenced by the four goals and the final scoring goal. At the end of each round you select one of the four available goals and score it. Once selected you can’t select it in further rounds. Plus you only get to choose three out of the four.

Each player may has a unique end of round scoring card, also directing your focus of stamps to draft.

Yeah for me this is another Stonemaier hit. Who knew stamp collecting could be so much fun.

Having been robbed of a joint victory by a bs tie breaker we followed up with a game of Mini Rails.

I hadn’t played Mini Rails before. But I liked this share based game.

Each round you get to do two actions once. Build a track, take a share. Which share or track you buy/build determines your turn order for your actions next round.

It’s not a heavy game or a massive high scoring game. But it gets very tactical because the share/track you want might not get you where you want in the turn order next round. Plus the trying to manipulate the share price.

How much did I like it? Well a copy is now on its way to me. Zatu have it for under £20. A big discount. Might be due to a new version due to hit kickstarter soon (fancy meeples, and new cuter art, same game). But I’ll take the cheap option.

Our final game of the afternoon was Nokosu Dice. Love this trick taking game that utilises cards and dice. Which apparently is hard to get hold off, and if you can it’s for silly money.

Charlene just smashed this one breaking Diego’s run of wins for the afternoon.

It was a great afternoon of gaming, with great friends.