Category Archives: Fenland Gamers

Fenland Gamers

United Against Dementia Charity Game Night

charity, Fenland Gamers, game night

It’s on very very rare occasions that we at Fenland Gamers charge to attend a gaming session. It’s in the clubs dna, we don’t believe in charging people to play games. As gamers our games are expensive enough, and it’s hard enough getting them to the table without having to pay to do that.

But for the second time only we ran a session that required those taking part to hand over some dosh. Like the previous time we had a really good reason. We were gaming for charity. So the money paid was really a donation to the charity we were raising money for.

The charity chosen this time was the Alzheimer’s Society who are running an Autumn Gaming event to raise money and awareness for Dementia.

There are a lot of great charities out there. And to be fair I could have gone with several that had a personal link of some kind. But this one had that personal link also. So when club member and manager of our hosting establishment asked if we would run something for this particular one, we jumped at the opportunity.

So last night was the night we chose to hold our charity gaming evening.

Our hosts for the evening were our most excellent regular hosts The Luxe Cinema.

We started off the evening with a couple of rounds of the ‘filler’ game No Thanks! while we waited for Nathan to turn up. It’s a classic, and rightly so. And the evening started off as I hope the rest of the evening would be going with me winning.

As my victory celebrations were coming to an end there was still no sign of Nathan. So we went ahead with playing Wingspan with the first expansion for the game (that had only just arrived through Jonathan’s letter box that morning).

Surprisingly Jonathan had gone a different route to the one I would have gone for a first play with an expansion like this. I would have just used the new expansion so we got to see what it had to offer. Jonathan had mixed it in with the base game. Which is fine, no problem with that at all. After all that’s how it’s designed to be used.

We did get to see some of the new birds and mechanics introduced by the new expansion. Sadly luck of the draw meant we didn’t get to see any of the new end of round scoring conditions.

It’s great to see European birds now in the game. With the new mechanics, new bonus cards and end conditions, it’s more variety for an already great game. And to be honest if you have both, something you shouldn’t be playing without, even with new players. The new overhead to learn and teach is so negligible it’s not worth even considering.


I did use the WingMate scoring app for the first time ever. Which looks beautiful and totally in keeping with the look and feel of the game. However I’m not totally sure about the flow of the app when doing the scoring. But it was a single use, and I need to play with the app more first. But as you can see from the screen grab above Jeff won. With Nathanial and Jonathan drawing for last place.

Next up saw us diving for treasure in Deep Sea Adventure. What can I say about this? I managed to walk that fine line between pushing my luck and getting the treasure back to the surface and running out of oxygen and dropping my loot to the sea bed. In other words I won.

After the underwater adventures it was time to be artisans and create some stain glass windows in Sagrada. Although I did feel like I was being punished and handicapped by my secret objective card. After all how else would you interrupt having to score the sum of the yellow dice you have in your stain glass window? That’s the card Jonathan should of had with his unnatural love of playing that colour.

But after creating our beautiful stain glass windows the scoring judged Jeff’s window to be the most awesome to behold.

Our evening of gaming for charity ended with a couple of games of Rhino Hero. That saw Jeff win the first game, and then share the victory with Jonathan for the second and final game.

We had a great evening of gaming for charity.

Thanks to Jonathan you get to see some wonderful photos below of me on my journey to becoming full unkept hobo dwarf.

Games played: No Thanks!, Wingspan (with new European expansion), Deep Sea Adventure, Rhino Hero, Sagrada

If you feel that you would like to donate to our Just Giving page to help the Alzheimer’s Society fight Dementia you can click HERE.

I’d like to end this post with a big big thank you to those that donated and played, to those that only donated, and our hosts and their staff at The Luxe Cinema. Your generosity and support was most appreciated.

November 2019 Monthly Meet-up

Fenland Gamers, game night

Life likes to throw little obstacles in our way from time to time. Although at the moment I think I could make a good argument it has decided to bunch them all together.

The one we had last night was that the delivery van screwed up delivering the new chairs and tables to our hosts The Luxe Cinema earlier in the day. Which meant that as shown in the photo below there was a single table and two chairs for customers to use. Table wise not a problem. After all we use my fold up table for our gaming sessions at The Luxe. But lack of chairs, despite there being only five of us due to play, was.

Luckily I was able to get hold of Jonathan to bring along a couple of camping chairs, and the very helpful staff were able to rustle up a third chair.

While we waited for Jonathan to arrive with the extra seating. Gavin set up for a game of Flamme Rouge.

I hadn’t played the game before, and it was one I was interested in trying. After all it got a bit of buzz when it first came out a couple of years ago.

I liked it. It’s a solid game.

The deck management side of the game is nice. I like how you need to really think about which card you are going to play. After you play the card it gets removed from the game. So you really do need to think about when you play your big movement cards and when to dump out that low movement card. Add into the mix that certain sections of the track limit the distance you can travel. And the leaders of each pack of cyclists also get to water down their decks with a low value card from the supply.

Timing that push to the finish line becomes a fine art of reading the pack, route and controlling your deck.

Our last game of the evening due to time constraints (our hosts were closing up just after 9pm) we had a game of Citadels. I think this is the first time I’ve played the game with five players. Still great fun. Jonathan managed to grab the win with a single point. Which is despite Katie doing a fantastic move to trigger the end of the game, and blocking anyone stopping her by getting the bishop. No Warlord destroying one of her districts.

It was a fun, although shorter than normal monthly meet up. A big thanks to our hosts and the amazing staff for hosting us once again.

Games Played: Flamme Rouge, Citadels

This weeks gaming

Fenland Gamers, game night

Wednesday saw the Fenland Gamers monthly meet up for October.

It was a small affair, with just 4 (including me) attending.

I don’t get our club sometimes. I may have mentioned this previously. But I’m not sure how we increase attendance to events. I’ve put surveys up asking what days would be best for for members to attend. You guessed it, even those are poorly responded to.

We try and vary when sessions are held. We aim sessions at specific games and different types of games. But we get the same disinterest each time. I flabbergasted and at a loss on how to improve participation at game sessions.

Wingspan as always was a joy to play. Really looking forward to the first expansion coming out next month. European birds, a couple of new mechanics, new bonus cards and end of round scoring tiles. So expect to see it being played lots once I get my grubby mitts on it.

We rounded off the evening with a change from the usual Love Letter: Batman. We played the Hobbit version instead. A couple of slight rule changes. But still a great fun game to end on.

Games played: Wingspan, Love Letter: The Hobbit – The Battle of the Five Armies
Wednesday Fenland Gamers we’re approached by BBC Radio Cambridgeshire if we would be available Thursday to do an interview to use in a piece about boardgaming for the mature gamer that they were doing on Friday morning.

A bit short notice, especially considering people have jobs. But I have some flexibility in my schedule. So I arranged for the interview to happen at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole.

Thursday morning saw John (FLGS owner) and Kath (who helps out at the store) and myself being interviewed about boardgames by a local BBC radio journalist on his iPhone!

So that there were some “gaming” noises going on in the background during the interview, the reporter had John rolling lots of d6 dice and Kath and I playing Connect 4 (the journalist bought a copy with him).

I hadn’t played Connect 4 since about 1988. I was back then pretty good at the game, and unbeaten. And that streak remains. I still got the skills. I won all of the games Kath and I played.

The interview took about 20 minutes. More material than they could use for the 5 minute slot they had planned.

In the end the interview went out about 9:10 on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire (you should be able to listen to it on the BBC Sounds app). It was about 3 minutes long. And concentrated on why we played games. Despite having notes written down, the reporter got who I was wrong, and said Fenland Games, but got it right in the interview itself!

It was an experience, and a little promotion for the club and my FLGS.

“You free to play some light games this evening?”

Not surprisingly I was.

So last night Jonathan and I ended up at The Luxe playing some light games.

We started off with a game of Penny Lane. Which saw my worst score for the game. I just didn’t get the engine side going. My butt was truly kicked.

Next up was the classic abstract game Santorini. We played using just the god cards from the base game, leaving the Golden Fleece expansion in the box. Each player was dealt two god cards, and selected one to use. We got some cool combos, where the god cards were opposites to each other. This is really one of those “just one more game” games. So quick and fun. After an initial run of victories, I hit a losing streak.

Our final game of the was the classic two player game Lost Cities. Jonathan hadn’t played this before. He wasn’t entirely sure about the game after the first play, but I think he had warmed to it after our second game. The actual game itself is simple, and has some interesting decisions to make. It’s the end of game scoring that seems over complicated, and takes a little getting your head around. I’ve been playing this game for years. But the app version, which does all the scoring for me! So you get lazy on that front. I also missed the little card count of the deck as we played. It helps having that info at a glance, knowing roughly how many turns you have left, and can plan cards to play based on that. But it was nice to actually play the physical version against a friend, and not just people online I’ve not met.

We shared the honours one game a piece.

Jonathan and I did have a gaming related discussion about an opinion from a friend on Stonemaier games. Which lead to a brief chat about luck of the draw within Viticulture, and how it can have a big impact on a game. So many games rely on or have as part of the game a luck element. But even if we just consider luck of the draw, lots of games rely on this to varying degrees, such as every Deckbuilder, Magic the Gathering, Tapestry, Scythe, Wingspan, London, Memoir ’44, etc, etc. The list goes on.

You either are going to love that element of luck, and the having to work around the challenge it throws up. Or you hate it, and need to find games that don’t have that element.

I don’t mind it. I like how it adds variety to games, varies the challenge from game to game. And if I get totally screwed by the cards, I accept that from time to time that will happen. I certainly don’t take it to heart and start sulking. Which some do.

Anyway that’s my not some well thought out thoughts on the subject

Jonathan and I had a great evening of gaming to end the week at The Luxe.

Games played: Penny Lane, Santorini, Lost Cities

The Fenland Gamers EDH/Commander Social Contract

Fenland Gamers, Game day, magic, MtG

Yesterday afternoon I spent a pleasant afternoon playing EDH/Commander with a couple of newish club members at our wonderful hosts The Luxe.

This is the second such session that we’ve held now. The plan is to have these monthly, with the next one for October already organised.

These sessions are promoted as casual games, and not competitive.

By casual I mean decks that are a power level no more than a 6 or 7. And to be honest a 7 might be pushing it. To help those planning to come along and play I share the following Commandzone YouTube video.

Which can be summed up with the following image for those that don’t want to spend time watching the video.

The WotC pre-cons each year usually fall in the 4/5 power level range.

I also add the following advice to prospective players wanting to come along and play.

“no mass land destruction and going infinite in a deck is also a no no for casual. It’s not fun.”

I think at the next meet up we need to discuss a cap on the number of extra turns or combat phases a player can do in a row. Trying to tread that narrow path of allowing them, and keeping the game fun for everyone. I think a group consensus needs to be arrived at. My current thinking is 2. But others may have differing opinions.

Naturally there is the unwritten rules such as “don’t be a dick”, and buying refreshments from our hosts and not bringing your own stuff. In fact they are written down now I think about it on the top of the Fenland Gamers Facebook page.

This is basically our social contract for our sessions. Which hopefully means that those attending will have a fun experience.

For me EDH/Commander is my favourite MtG format. I like the social side. Which combines with the political element. The cutting deals, fluid alliances, back stabbing/turning heal! Yes sometimes there is the element of betrayal. Sometimes being good at this part of the game gets you the win, despite having the weakest deck at the table.

There is also an ebb and flow to an EDH/Commander game that I like. One moment a player will be in the ascendancy, becoming the major threat. Deals and alliances are made between the others to control that threat. Once dealt with some-one else usually fills that power vacuum left behind.

I also love that in this format you get to play with cards that formats like Standard or Modern are unplayable. I like tribal decks, or themed ones. My big green stompy, horrors from the deep, and Scarab God zombie decks show this. There are creatures and spells in those decks that just never would see the light of day in other formats.

I’m happy if I get to do something cool during a game. If I win that’s an extra bonus. I didn’t win once yesterday. But I was doing cool stuff. Or I thought it was cool. So I was having a good time. And it can be pretty cool watching others do cool stuff.

For me when competitive EDH/Commander decks are used then we start to lose the elements of the game I get enjoyment from. I appreciate that others may like that side. But the cost of decks goes through the roof, and the game becomes less about having fun, and more about the win at any cost.

There is a reason the format became popular. I believe it is because of the casual nature of the format. Which is captured so well in the official philosophy document.

“Each game is a journey the players share, relying on a social contract in which each player is considerate of the experiences of everyone involved–this promotes player interaction, inter-game variance, a variety of play styles, and a positive communal atmosphere. At the end of an ideal Commander game, someone will have won, but all participants will have had the opportunity to express themselves through their deck building and game play.”

I’m hoping that our groups social contract reflects the formats philosophy, and enables everyone to have fun.

September 2019 Monthly Meet Up

Fenland Gamers, game night

Our hosts The Luxe are not quite there yet with the refit. But they sure are a lot closer than they were back in May. But more importantly now in a position to start hosting us again for game sessions.

It felt good to be back.

We advertise our meet ups on the clubs Facebook page as events. Members then say Going/Maybe/Not Going in response. Well some do. However the responses to events, or even questions such as “what days would you like sessions to be run?” is very low (about a 7% of members responded when I asked that question recently).

Before Jonathan and I leave the house we usually have checked the event to see how many are attending. It helps us decide which games to take along for the evening.

Last night we were expecting 5 in total. It’s that awkward number. Not large enough to split into two groups, and not small enough for the majority of games that are usually 4 players maximum.

With that player count in mind, I decided to take Lords of Waterdeep, and some smaller “filler” games that supported that number of players.

So after arriving early and getting the table and seating set up with the help of the lovely on duty staff. Imagine my surprise when The Usual Suspect turned up, after the day before specifically changing his Maybe attending status for the event to Not Attending. He’d changed his mind!

WTF?!

Gavin arrived with news that Jonathan was going to be late.

So instead of starting a game of Lords of Waterdeep, we cracked open Coup.

I blame Game the Game on YouTube for me throwing Coup into the bag. They had recently put up two episodes of it being played (base game and with the Reformation expansion).

I could have thrown in the Reformation expansion. But considering that the majority hadn’t played before I stuck with the core game.

After losing the first game, Jonathan arrived just in time to join in for the second. Which I also lost.

Our main game of the evening was Lords of Waterdeep. Which hadn’t seen table time for two years. It was long over due.

It was lucky for The Usual Suspect that I also had the expansion with me so it could support 6 players. But to do that I’d have to use one or both of the expansions. I went with just mixing in the Undermountain expansion.

It’s the logical expansion to go with when two thirds of those playing hadn’t played the game before. It doesn’t introduce anything new to the game mechanic wise. You basically get three new actions spaces, and some more intrigue, quests, buildings and lords to shuffle in. Unlike the skullport expansion that introduces corruption, and just over complicates things for the first time player.

So after setting up and explaining the basics of the game, we set off recruiting adventurers, completing quests and hopefully expanding the influence of our secret lord of Waterdeep.

I managed to get the win. Not my best score. But I broke the 100 barrier, so that was something.

Everyone but The Usual Suspect enjoyed the game. But I’m beginning to think he’s not a worker placement type of person. His plays are sub optimal. Like giving me a mandatory quest on the final round, when I had no open quests left. And no intention of getting another one. His optimal play would have been anyone else but me. Because they all had quests they could complete. It’s something I’ve noticed with Viticulture as well. And we won’t mention the Stone-age debacle. There is something about worker placement not clicking there.

Anyway another great evening of gaming.

Games Played: Coup, Lords Of Waterdeep

Fenland Gamers August Monthly Meet-up 2019

Fenland Gamers, game night

“Do we have a venue this month?” asked adult man child Gavin (he will give me grief for that. Oh wait he already gave me grief on the Wednesday).

Such an innocent question. But relevant.

The “refit” at The Luxe has been a tad longer than the estimated 1 week when it was started at what now seems an eon ago. So we have been improvising with using a local school on an adhoc basis. But it’s use is reliant on a club founder/member.

It also helped remind me if we had a positive answer to the question that an event needed setting up pretty quickly.

After a group messenger chat between Gavin, myself and Jonathan we had a venue for the Monthly meet-up. It was time to get the word out to club members.

Wednesday evening, Jonathan had unlocked, and was ready for members to arrive. But he’d forgotten one important thing on Monday when he answered in the positive. No kids at home, meant his partner was expecting to go out. You know, be adults for a rare occasion. Apparently playing board games isn’t on the radar for going out. Hopefully Jonathan wouldn’t be residing in the metaphorical dog house too long.

Not long after my arrival. Katie and the usual suspect arrived.

Whilst waiting for their other members to arrive we started a game of No Thanks! I made a major boob at the start of the game, I hadn’t realised Katie hadn’t played before! The number of games we have played and with who, I had just assumed we had played the game with her before. So after a quick run through of the rules play started.

While we were playing the other members arrived. One of whom bought a very pleasant surprise with them. That surprise being in the form of Ice Blasts, packets of sweets, tea bags and coffee for those that wanted a hot beverage. Wow! Colour me grateful and impressed. So I think a big big thank you is in order for Nathan and The Luxe Cinema for their generosity.

The new arrivals formed a second play group and after some chat and a sushi supper for a couple of them , started playing some games (and you can see which ones at the end of this post along with some photos).

After 2 games of No Thanks! the honours where shared between The Usual Suspect and myself.

Our groups second game of the evening was Men at Work. Which Jonathan had tried at UKGE and liked so much he bought a copy.

Jonathan and I disagree about this game. But there is also some common ground. Which is we both think that the game is fun. Where we disagree is that I prefer Tokyo Highway. I think Tokyo Highway is more tactical. And I enjoy that element more.

Don’t get me wrong there are some nice extra elements to this game. Such as the deck of cards that control what action you have to do on your go. Some of the actions can be quite fiddly. Basically you are either placing a worker or a girder on your go. But placing that worker could be made more complicated by the fact you have to also balance a brick and/or a steal bar on that worker. The cards also tell you the colour of girder(s) that you have to use as well. So the worker may have to be placed on only a white girder on your turn.

I like how you have 3 lives, that you track using little card board contract tokens. You lose a life if anything touches/falls to the ground on your turn or you control the building site. As soon as something falls off, control passes to the next player, you lose a life, and the next player has to clear up the debris before they can take their turn.

Not sure how I feel about the bonus point mechanic, that kicks in once a particular card appears in the deck. You earn these points for adding a new highest point to the structure.

The records show that Katie won this without losing a life. She was the last one standing.

Our next game was a blast from the past, a game that hadn’t seen the table for 3 years. That game was Traders of Osaka. It’s still a good game. I still think that the payday scoring is over complicated. But from last place The Usual Suspect managed to grab the win with a couple of really well times paydays that saw him grab lots of victory points.

Whilst the others played Throw Throw Burrito (it looks a very exhausting game, and not my cup of tea), Katie and I played Penny Lane. For much of our game Katie had the lead on victory points and I thought I was going to lose the game. But I did manage to catch up and trigger the end of the game. My last action was the top decking of a building that allowed me to complete a victory point icon, taking me to 11 points. Katie sitting on 8 points at that moment, managed to then grab a final 2 points taking her to 10. Talk about lucky. I basically top decked the win with my last action.

Thanks to Nathan I can share some of his photos that he took from the evening as well.


A great evening, I think everyone had a good time. Once again a big thanks to The Luxe for their generosity for providing the refreshments for the evening.

Games Played: No Thanks!, Men at Work, Traders Of Osaka, Penny Lane

Games Played by others: Get Bit!, Dead and Breakfast, Throw Throw Burrito

Visitors from the Rhine

FEG@WL, Fenland Gamers, game night

Yep it’s been one of those weeks with not much on the gaming front going on. Which explains the lack of posts this week. Think of it as having a much needed holiday from my ramblings.

Earlier in the week Jonathan set up the Facebook event for the evenings gaming session. I posted a suggestion on the comment section for the event of playing Viticulture again but with the Visit from the Rhine Valley expansion.

Visit from the Rhine Valley was a small expansion that both Jonathan and I had picked up at the UK Games Expo over a year ago. Which as you can guess from the previous post we had not played. In fact my copy until Wednesday was still sealed.

Visit from the Rhine Valley is an alternate set of visitor cards for Viticulture. However these cards focus more on wine production than producing victory points. Setup is dead easy. You use these visitor cards instead of the ones in the core game.

I enjoyed these new cards, and their focus. They did seem very combo like. Earlier on I was able to play 2 Summer visitor cards that would unknowingly payoff and get me the (spoiler) win. Using the Vine Trader I was able to discard 2 cards to get €6 to take my coins up to the required €9 that I needed for the Premium Wine Dealer. Which in a single play gave me 7 champagne without the large cellar.

That would turn out to be a great play for later.

I love cards like the Skeptic where you could age something and fill an order. That card was a life saver. I was short by one for an order and would have had to wait until the next year before filling. But this card let me fill the order and get that all,important residual payment. But that card would easily combo with others that would allow you to make wine to use for using the Skeptic.

I was in the lead in our game, but Jonathan wasn’t far behind. I needed one more contract to complete to trigger the end of the game. Sadly I didn’t have the wine to complete any of the ones I had in hand. So I took the draw contract action, got to draw 2 cards. One of the two needed 9 champagne to complete. Wait I had 9 sitting in my cellar. That 7 I’d initially got had now aged into 9 bottles. I could complete an order. What a fortuitous top deck. And seeing that earlier play pay off. Wow. Until that point I hadn’t seen any contracts that needed champagne to complete.

It was enough to trigger the end of the game, and give me the win.

If I had one complaint about this expansion it’s the wording on some of the cards could be clearer.

One or two of the cards were worded like the example above. It wasn’t really clear was it pick just one, or could you do the first and one of the last two? We house ruled it was the former.

But this was a fun expansion. Loved the focus on wine production. Definitely a must buy for fans of Viticulture. Especially if the game has been played a lot, and you want to spice things up a little.

Our last game of the evening was Love Letter: Batman. It’s still a great game. Definitely a group favourite as a way to unwind at the end of an evening of gaming. Sadly Jonathan was able to grab the win.

A great evenings gaming.

Games Played: Viticulture, Love Letter: Batman

Wine and Cities

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night at the Fenland Gamers temporary home for gaming we held a Friday evening gaming session.

Our main game of the evening was a long over due to the table favourite of both Jonathan and myself, Viticulture.

Checking with my game stats this hasn’t hit the table for 14 months. I like that the app I use allows me to check this sort of thing out (I have about 4 years worth of data now). However in situations like this you can’t help feeling guilty when you see just how long it is between plays of games you really like.

We played just the basic essentials version (without any Tuscany stuff other than that included in this edition already) plus the Moorland Visitors shuffled in. Although funny story Jonathan asked about that whilst we were playing and I had no idea. But Jonathan recognised one or two of the cards. So they must have been shuffled in!

Jonathan won with a no wine production strategy. Gaining that victory point each turn from the turn order track, and various visitor cards. I think he completed a single order. I finished a whole 4 points behind him, which an extra couple of actions would have been closed and forcing the tie breakers. I’m not sure the usual suspect really got the harvest/wine/order side of the game. He came in a far and distant last.

Such a great, great game.

Our second and last game of the evening was Citadels.

Now I won this. But an interesting question happened at the end. I triggered the end of the game with 7 buildings. However on the final turn of the round Jonathan was the warlord and destroyed one of my buildings. It wasn’t clear whether Jonathan destroying my building stopped the end of the game or we finished and scored.

I ruled the game ended, because it had been triggered on my turn. And there wasn’t anything that said otherwise. And that Jonathan was only denying me points in the end scoring.

A great evening gaming, with classics hitting the table, one long overdue. And thanks to Jonathan for the photos above.

Games Played: Viticulture, Citadels

Rivers, Empires and Heroes

Fenland Gamers, game night

Friday evening saw Jonathan, Diego, myself and the usual suspect meet up at a temporary gaming space to have a club gaming session.

Yes our regular hosts The Luxe are still going through the drawn out pains of their refit. So have no seated area for us to play in. I had during the afternoon, and on the way to the gaming session tried to get my gaming table from them, but they were shut. Which was a bit odd, because they were still showing films. It was also damn inconvenient. Although on my way home I did see a member of staff in the reception area.

Our first game of the evening was The River. A new game to me. Last September at the damp squib Tabletop Gaming Live I was able to get a play of it on one of the demo tables.

Jonathan picked this up second hand at the expo. I think it was even sealed! I’m glad he did.

So what do we have here with The River? Basically it boils down to two mechanics worker placement and engine building. Both mechanics I love.

Naturally the point of the game is to score the most points. And you do this by constructing buildings (that have a resource cost to build, and have a point value that’s scored at the end), which gives you a bonus token (worth points, unless you get a zero value one), have matching terrain tiles in a column, and the good ol’ swap resources for points. Some of the terrain tiles also give bonuses at the end, such as points for certain types of terrain. Or the one that helped me out, that made all bonus tokens worth one extra point (yep I didn’t mind zero point bonus tokens).

Those bonus tokens, are interesting as a mechanic. Only about half are worth any points, with half worth zero. The top of the pile is worth the most (6 points, and only one of those) then they decrease in value, until they are value less. Construct a building and take the top most token. So it pays to construct quickly to maximise the points you get for doing it. I had a really explosive first round and built a building and grabbed the 6 value token way before the rest were ready. I don’t think they built until round two.

The game also plays fairly quickly. Which is nice.

As your engine gets stronger I like how you lose workers at certain points. So like Wingspan, as certain actions get more powerful you get less of them to do.

This is a fun, solid intro style worker placement/engine building game.

For the record and the history books I won.

Our second game of the evening was Imperial Settlers: Roll and Write. Diego chose this one because he wanted to try it. Since I shared my thoughts about the game Portal Games have released rules so that the Adventure mode pads can be used in multiplayer games. You can read those rules here. It was kind of fitting that the history books will sing about Diego’s glorious empire. Yep he won.

We finished off the evening with another new game for me, Rhino Hero.

Mash UNO with a dexterity game and you have Rhino Hero. I think that says all you need to know about the game.

I enjoyed the game. Just as I did years ago my game of Exploding Kittens. I’d play it again. But it won’t find a home in my collection or list of games to add to the collection.

After going to extra time, and then penalties, Diego won.

It was a fun evening, great company. Great to try some new games. I think next time to balance things out, we should try and get games not played for a while to the table or something from our piles of shame.

Games Played: The River, Imperial Settlers: Roll and Write, Rhino Hero

Some recent gaming

Fenland Gamers, Game day, game night, magic, MtG

It’s been a busy week for gaming. Wednesday was the monthly meet up for Fenland Gamers. Friday was the regular fortnightly gaming session. Then Saturday was the start of the final season of Standard Showdown.

The monthly meet up was well attended. But bit of a disaster on the planning games wise.

Earlier in the day Jonathan had posted on the club Facebook page a reminder for members to let who over had set up the event that they were going. It makes planning what games to take along easier.

Sadly after that did Jonathan and I take any games? Not really I took some small games, like Love Letter, No Thanks!. Jonathan had none. Our excuse? Others had said they were bringing stuff.

In the end there were 6 of us. Sadly the games bough were max head counts of 4. We could have split into 2 groups and played. But we didn’t. After a period of chatting and indecision Jonathan nipped back to his car and got Saboteur. One of a small handful of games he still had in his car. He used to have a lot more games stored there.

So the evening was spent playing a few small games that played 6 people.

Games played: Saboteur, No Thanks!, Perudo

Friday was a gaming session Jonathan and myself had been waiting for. We were both looking forward to playing Root that another member was bringing along.

While we were waiting for that person to arrive, we played a quick game of the Archer themed Love Letter. It’d been a while since I’d played this version, and it’s still one of my favourites. I like the mechanic it uses where the card that is removed at the start is used in the game.

Root. What can I say? Did it live up to the expectations and the hype? Kinda, I’m not sure!

This was a learning game for everyone. I do like that there is a manual and sheet that is designed for new players, and takes you through your first couple of turns. I do like this trend that has emerged over the last couple of years or so, that for the more “complicated” games you get a beginners guide and reference guide.

I like the truly asymmetrical factions. It does make teaching and learning I would imagine a nightmare. I think I got lucky in getting the vagabonds. They were an easy faction to get to grasp. I liked the political element of the faction. But despite winning, I didn’t really use the faction to it’s fullest.

Root is one of those games like Cry Havoc, that I think is going to reward you for playing the game multiple times with the same faction, so you truly master the tactics and learn the cards.

I love the meeples used (photo below) they have a cute factor. As does all the art used as well. Which is an interesting design choice. The art style would be attractive to a younger age group. But it’s not a game you’d play with a younger age group.

One thing I did not like about the game was the amount of down time between turns. It’s long. I’m hoping this is explained away by the fact this was a learning game. But I can see this still being an issue once a player knows the game better.

Root is an interesting game. I didn’t dislike it. But I didn’t leave the game raving about it either, or thinking I must play another game straight away. It needs more plays for sure.

Games played: Archer: Once You Go Blackmail, Root

Saturday was the first Standard Showdown in the final season of Standard Showdown.

I managed to get some casual games in before the Showdown started, and tinker with the Simic deck. But I was undecided on which deck to play. The choice was between mono red aggro (the upgraded 2019 Challenger deck) and my Orzhov deck.

I decided to go with the Orzhov deck after seeing that a friend was going mono red aggro (with an upgraded 2019 Challenger deck). I wanted to avoid if we did end up playing against each other a mirror match up.

It was bound to happen sometime that I would face off against Andy Hall in a first round. His Selesnya token deck just walked all over mine. My deck just didn’t get set up quick enough. More annoyingly, Andy threw that deck together quickly before leaving the house to come to the Showdown.

Round 2 saw me playing John and his Simic merfolk Simic Ascendancy deck. This was a good match up for me. And it was a by the numbers game. I got Liliana out in the first game, that gave me the edge to get the win. While in game two Sorin gave me the advantage. Being able to bring back the creatures I had in my graveyard, and the lifelink very powerful.

Round 3 against Kar-Fai was draining. I took our first game. But it could have gone either way. The second game was a real back and forth. The first half of the game I had the upper hand, but ran out of juice just as Kar-Fai started to get answers. Then it was me holding on looking for answers. It was such a long game. Which saw Kar-Fai claw his way to victory just as the time buzzer went off. This was a true draw. Our decks very evenly matched.

The final round saw me up against another mono red aggro deck (another upgraded 2019 Challenger deck). So I knew what was coming. The first game was close, but the second game with Tibalt out screwed me over. As predicted it shutdown my life gain shenanigans. I destroyed one, only for it to be replaced with a second the following turn.

My casual games afterwards with my friend saw me testing the Simic deck against the dreaded mono red aggro. I was happy how it handled itself. Sadly in our third game I never drew into my solutions for the Rekindling Phoenix, and with 2 of them out I stood no chance.

Casual Games

Paul: Win 3-0

Bob: Win 2-1

Standard Showdown Stats

Participants: 13

Rounds: 4

Round 1: Andy Hall Loss 0-2

Round 2: John Win 2-0

Round 3: Kar-Fai Draw 1-1

Round 4: Simon Loss 0-2

Record: 1-1-2

Final Position: 10th

Prizes: 1 participation pack plus a Standard Showdown pack.

In the Showdown pack I pulled a foil forest basic land, a foil new Jace, and a Rekindling Phoenix. So very happy with that.

I’m now in the process of trading Jace for Orzhov check or shock lands. And I’m also doing the same with the Bolas I have. I’d like to keep Bolas. But the only way to improve the Orzhov deck is to make it faster, and that needs the lands.

Saturday evening I was listening to the Top Level mtg podcast and they were talking about how good Narset was against mono red aggro. It basically shuts down Experimental Frenzy. Luckily I have 3 of these! So I may have to adjust the sideboard once again for the Simic deck. Which at the moment is looking as being a lot of counter spells. Although I may add Carnage Tyrant back in for countrol decks.