It seems the gaming has stalled this month. The difference between last night and the previous Friday was gaming took place a week ago.

Last night no one apart from me was free! Life happens as they say. I can’t be too disappointed because it meant I got extra doggy snuggles.

There was also a chance to game session today but it starts too late for me.

But the previous Friday gaming did take place with initially five of us, that grew to six while we played our first game.

Our first game of the evening was my recently arrived copy of Lure and its Deep Waters expansion.

I decided to go all in even for this initial learning game because the expansion added an extra die for each player and some cards.

This is an interesting game where players using their dice are bidding to go first in attempting to catch the fish cards in the middle.

So secretly each player selects a number of their dice (hidden behind their screen) with lure tokens and everyone reveals the amount they selected at the same time. The player with the lowest number of dice goes first in attempting to catch the fish. This reminds me of that old game show Name That Tune where contestants bid to name a tune using the least number of notes. With the lowest bid getting the attempt to name the tune using the number of notes they bid.

A player catches fish by rolling the dice they used for their bid. If the total of the dice and lure tokens is greater than the value on the fish cards, and they meet any other criteria on the fish (such as having a die with the value of 2 in the results, or all odd value dice) the player can capture the fish. In fact any of the available fish they qualify for.This means it’s possible for a player to take multiple fish, even all of them, leaving none for the other players. In this situation the other players get a lure token.

There are special dice that are not six sided. But if you use them you lose them for a turn. Kind of like a cool down mechanic.

I do like this mechanic. It makes a nice change to the bidding mechanic. You have to weigh up when to use your special dice, how many dice you need to capture the current fish, if you are going to use lure tokens.

(Shipp, 2024) provides a definition of “Theme in hobby board games is a subject in a setting (that may be unspecified) with at least one connection point to the mechanisms which results in an undetermined progression of events at both the mechanical level and the thematic level.”

So the question is does Lure feel thematic?

Obviously the art of the game helps convey the theme. Here the cards have drawings of fish on them.

There is no setting in the sense we can assume it’s a current day fishing trip of some sort.

But I do feel that there is connection mechanically and thematically with the dice rolling and catching fish. Not meeting any of the fishes criteria does feel like you failed to catch anything. Using your special dice feels like you are using a fancy special lure to catch a fish.

It’s definitely not the strongest of themes. But it’s there. It doesn’t feel pasted on.

For the record I won the game.

Our second game of the evening was Tiny Towns.

When Tiny Towns first came out there was some buzz around the game. At one or two points in the months afterwards I nearly pulled the trigger and bought a copy. I can’t recall why I never did.

But I was glad that Charlene bought her copy and we got to play it.

It’s interesting thinking about the game. I liked it. It was fun. But I felt that this game abstracted the theme a bit too much. To such a level this almost felt like an abstract puzzle game. It’s hard to make cubes thematic. And we constantly referred to the cubes by colour over what they represented. Maybe if they had used wooden tokens that were coloured and shaped like the resource they represented.

Somehow Diego won this game.

My final game of the evening was several plays of the trick taking game Seas of Strife.

This really is a good example of a themeless game. The art on the cards really has no connection with the mechanics of a trick taking game.

However because there is no theme does not mean the game isn’t fun.

The twist from your usual run of the mill trick taking games is that you don’t want to win the trick.

But after a handful of fun games it was time to head home.

It was a fun evening of gaming. Sadly thanks to life not repeated this week.

Shipp, S. (2024) Thematic integration in board game design. Boca Raton ; London: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group (CRC Press guides to tabletop game design).

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.

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.

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”.

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.