Category Archives: Fenland Gamers

Fenland Gamers

Monthly Meetup – November 2018

These meetups come around real quick. Once again our fantastic hosts for the evening were the totally awesome The Luxe Cinema, and it’s amazing staff.

Somehow we managed to squeeze 8 people round the table to play some games. Naturally we split up into 2 groups of 4 for reasons.

Our group of 4 had started off playing 7 Wonders, whilst the other group played Tiny Epic Galaxies.

Not to sound like a broken record but I’ve not played 7 Wonders in 2 years! A new member to the group had said they’d wanted to try the game along with the next game we played. Did I need any better excuse than this to get the game back to the table? Nope.

We were a little cramped on table space. But it didn’t stop us building our empires and wonders.

Myself and the new member dominated the military side of things. Jeff had developed a science community that gave him a massive point injection at the end. But not enough to deny our new member from grabbing the well earned victory.

Next up on the want to try list was a current favourite Azul.

Azul when I’m playing it will always be a 5 round game. I did warn everyone that is my tactic at the start. I like that ticking clock, the pressure it puts on everyone, the focus. It also means I’m not having to worry about when the game will end, or whose ending it.

I thought I’d won. But the end game bonuses when added in gave Jeff the victory.

While we played Azul the other group of players played Deep Sea Adventure. I like this light push your luck game. And so did a couple of that group, who after playing were online ordering their own copies!

Our group finished the evening off with the now out of print Love Letter: Batman (you won’t believe the silly prices the licensed themed copies of the game go for now). While the others played some Rick and Morty card game (can you tell I’m not a fan of the show or the games?).

Jeff once again claimed victory for the game, with myself coming in last. But we had a blast playing the game.

As we packed away, evidence was taken to show that I had been trusted with Diego’s Kickstarter copy of Robin Hood and His Merry Men. Must remember to take it with me next time I see Diego.

But a great evening game, fantastic hosts. A big thank you to The Luxe Cinema and the staff there.

City building


If you had seen Jonathan, Diego and myself get all excited when the young lady behind the counter/bar at The Luxe poured Diego his Guinness, the first words you would have thought of were “Sad gits”. Or words to that effect. You might have put the odd more colourful word in for example.

But it doesn’t get away from the marvellous bit of science going on. I’ve managed to find the official video of what I’ve just found out is called the Guinness Surge.

I’ve had Suburbia in my collection for a couple of years now, and never managed to get it to the table. That is until Saturday afternoon, when at long last I did finally get the game to the table.

I enjoyed the game, despite coming first loser. I think Diego enjoyed the experience of playing to a very convincing victory. However Jonathan had a bit of a mare of a game.

My part of the city had a pretty effective money creating engine going. But there was a period mid game where I was not going up on the population track because my reputation was zero. I did hit a negative value for a turn, but I managed to get a tile to negate it and take me to zero. It slowed me down, and after that there was no real catching Diego up.

However Jonathan fell into a similar trap in the later third of the game but with income that meant he found it very hard to do anything apart from cover the money he would lose at the end of each round. It was almost a negative loop feeding into itself. It really did ruin the experience of the game for him. There was also some misunderstanding on how tiles worked, and one or two tiles and their wording.

It was a learning game. Mistakes were bound to be made. It’s a shame that the experience wasn’t pleasurable for John.

I liked the game. It’s definitely a game I’d like to get to the table again.

After building our city districts we wound down with a game or two of Perudo. We were using the 30th Anniversary Liars Dice instead of my Perudo set. But the rules we used we a mish mash of the 2 games. We used the bidding of Liars Dice, and thus the playmat that comes with the 30th Anniversary Edition to track the bids. But the rules from Perudo for everything else.

I love the components, especially the playmat of the Anniversary edition. But it is so let down by the awful, cheap, box it comes in. Why make all the fuss about it being this 30th Anniversary Edition and then cheap out on the box it comes in?

If you are remotely interested in the outcome of the games you can look on bgg here.

Our final game was a few plays of No Thanks! I don’t think Gavin realised the monster he unleashed when he introduced the game to us at the last Monthly meetup. We’ve now introduced it to two more people. I think so we don’t burn out on the game, we will have to switch back to say Red7 or some other quick, light filler game we can end the evening with. Although Perudo has also filled that spot on occasion.

I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but a big big thank you to The Luxe for once again allowing us to use their premises for our gaming. And yet again another fantastic afternoon gaming with 2 of the best people to game with.

Tides of bees!

The fortnightly gaming meetup started off differently for Jonathan and myself this time. We had been swapping messages discussing games and numbers for the evening. Which turned to whether we would be going for a kebab afterwards. I hadn’t had a kebab in a long time, and fancied having one again.

But Jonathan had been craving a pint and food at Spoons for most of the day. I pointed out that by the time we’d finished gaming he’d be competing for table space with people that would be jacked up alcohol, or just about starting on their night of alcoholic debauchery. Not the greatest atmosphere for enjoying a quiet pint and food.

So I suggested I was up for the Spoons thing, how about eating before we started gaming? 15 minutes later we were sitting at a table, food ordered, drinks in front of us and chatting away about life, the universe and gaming.

I did think my food was a little on the cold side, maybe not as hot as it could have been. Possibly a timing issue bringing my plate of food together. I think a couple of items had been waiting for the wings to be ready. Ok I admit it, I do like the wings that Spoons do. I could easily eat just a plate of them.

At The Luxe we got setup ready for our evenings gaming. We just needed to wait for the official start time, and those to turn up that said they were coming. While we waited Jonathan showed me the latest prototype of his Sherlock Holmes reskin (trolling him there) of The Streets of Commonville. I forget what he calls it. But it has those muted colours that suggest Victorian Britain and the setting of the Holmes stories. It’s nice theming. We discussed mechanics, particularly the dice rolling. I suggested he looks at games like Age of War, Bang the Dice Game and Elder Sign for their approach, and even Run,Fight or Die!. But I can see why he’s gone for a more Pandemic the Cure approach. It is his favourite Pandemic I believe.

After the brainstorming I taught John the quick drafting card game Tides of Time.

I really thought I’d played this game before with Jonathan, but I hadn’t. Drafting isn’t one of Jonathan’s favourite mechanics. But this is a quick game, with a slight twist to the drafting. The game is literally over before Jonathan realises he doesn’t like drafting!

For me this was a welcome return of the game to the table. Last time I had played this was before I’d started tracking my game plays. It is a very nice 2 player game. Like many games deserves more table time. But like so many games it’s competing for that limited time. Adding to the difficulty of getting to the table is the fact it’s a 2 player game, and those gaming opportunities are even rarer.

Although as I write this and think of my 2 player games that don’t get nearly as much love as they deserve, I’m rather happy with the fact I think I have a pretty strong 2 player game collection.

By the time we’d finished playing, no one else had turned up. We’d seen a message from one person letting us know they were ill. But there was no sign of the father and son we were expecting. I know life throws things in the way, plans change. But it is annoying when this happens. Part of our earlier discussion was about what games to bring along that were for the appropriate player counts, and audience. This information really does influence what we take with us for people to play. If we’d known it was just going to be Jonathan and myself we would have bought different games.


Our next game was a 2 player game of Waggle Dance. A game new to both of us, and only recently added to Jonathan’s collection. This is basically a gateway worker/dice placement game.

The dice are cute with a bee representing the number 1. On the whole the components are reasonable quality. Although both Jonathan and I think a playmat would be nice for the game.

Waggle Dance plays nice at 2 players, it uses 12 dice from one of the unused colours to occupy 3 random spots on each of the actions that can be selected.

The flow of the game is nice, as is resolving the various actions in the same order each turn during the night phase. It means you have to think about that order so that you have the resources in place to be able to take a later action in the same turn.

The Queen bee cards are the only way to mitigate dice rolls. The only way to get the cards is by putting a die on one of the spots for the action that gets a card. The cards do more than mitigate die rolls. They allow you to get honeycomb tiles, eggs, resolve a honeycomb tile with differing dice, etc.

The cards are pretty important. Jonathan took an early lead on having 2 more dice in his pool, and therefore able to do more on a turn. But I got cards from turn 1. I think it started off with a single die allocated. But after getting a free tile with it, I was allocating 2 dice each turn. The abilities I was drawing negated the advantage of the extra dice, or gave me the advantage. Jonathan started getting cards pretty late in the game, and too late.

The game uses that action selection based on the values of the dice you roll mechanic. Similar to Marco Polo (but not quite) and Covert. I quite like this mechanic, and because it’s not used a lot (well in the majority of games I own and play) it’s refreshing.

I won our game. But it could have gone in Jonathan’s favour. The cards gave me the edge, along with a couple of times Jonathan messed up his turn.

During our game Justin popped in to say hi, so there was a short intermission while we chatted and I hooked his son on Ice Blast drinks. It was great catching up with Justin.

Despite the low turn out this time. We still had a great evening gaming. And once more a big thank you to The Luxe for being our amazing hosts.

Don’t be a dick

It was bound to happen. Until now we’d probably been fairly lucky not to require one. But it was time for Fenland Gamers to produce and issue a code of conduct for members attending club meet ups.

I kind of feel sad that we have had to do this. But on the other hand it had to be done.

Sufferers of this blog will remember a couple of incidents I’ve talked about on a couple of posts recently. But there have been other things (involving other people) that created the need for the code of conduct.

There has been a discussion internally, and also a post getting feedback on the sort of stuff to include on a Facebook group that we trust the opinion of the members (not many online forums you can say that about).

A rough draft was then produced and reviewed, and a final version put up on the clubs Facebook page as a post and a pdf. I’ve included a copy of it at the end of the post for those interested or want to use it as the starting point for such a thing for their gaming group/club.

But I think our code of conduct and many others (including the book The Civilized Guide to Tabletop Gaming: Rules Every Gamer Must Live By Teri Litorco) boil down to one basic all encompassing statement (and semi made popular in board gaming circles by the geek/nerd version of marmite Wil Wheaton) , and also the post title “don’t be a dick”.

For me when you read the code of conduct it all seems common sense. Don’t get me wrong I’m not claiming to be an angel and without blame. My mouth often gets me into trouble. I suppose I never really did learn that lesson Dad used to say to me “engage brain before opening your mouth”. However I do try to not swear or other inappropriate language, out of respect for my fellow gamers, and the public place that we use for our meet ups and the people that are outside of the group using the location we are at. I may not be 100% at that, but I hope I’m close to it. We did stop using a location because of the inappropriate language/views of the some of its staff.

I’m hoping that this is the last time as a club we have to address this issue, that these help us remain a friendly, inclusive gaming group.

At the time of writing, the post about the code of conduct, out of about a 100 members of the Facebook group, only 37 have viewed it. So slightly more than a third of the group. A little disappointing, but then again this is Facebook and it works in mysterious ways when deciding what to show in people’s timelines.

So here it is for your reading pleasure, the…

FENLAND GAMERS CODE OF CONDUCT

Gaming is supposed to be an enjoyable experience for all, so please don’t ruin it for others with your behaviour when gaming with us. There is a lot of overlap on this list, but please read through and if you see yourself in any of the sections, please take them on board. Each section is summed up by five rules:

1. Treat other people’s property with respect.

2. Play to your best ability.

3. Concentrate on the game.

4. Remember your environment and know your fellow gamers.

5. Respect our group rules.

1. TREAT OTHER PEOPLE’S PROPERTY WITH RESPECT

Our hobby is an expensive one. Games cost money; sometimes a lot of money (the average game being about £40 – £50. Please treat other people’s games as if they were your own. However, if you treat your games badly, then don’t treat other people’s games as if they were your own! If you’re spotted mistreating other people’s games, expect to be called out on it. If you damage a game then you should be prepared to pay for a replacement.

A game’s owner sets the rules on how the game is to be handled (i.e. food around the game) and must be respected.

Stop being heavy-handed and bending the cards. This is really frustrating and you can be expected to be called out on it.

If you have a drink on the table (and we encourage you to buy at least a drink from our generous hosts) please be extra careful with it. Where possible, use a side table to stand your drink on.

If you damage another person’s game, you should expect to replace it or pay for a new copy.

Don’t riffle-shuffle game cards; it doesn’t matter how good you think you are at it!

Stop eating those greasy foods while handling any games and be aware that barrier creams and hand lotions are also sometimes grease-based.

2. PLAY TO YOUR BEST ABILITY

Don’t cheat. There are times when we get a rule wrong, or unintentionally ‘cheat’; if this happens during a game and is noticed, either by yourself or other players, it should be called out as soon as it is noticed. The group playing will agree upon an acceptable solution. However, if you’re caught deliberately cheating then you can expect to be removed from Fenland Gamers without warning, and asked not to attend again. We don’t play games with cheats.

Losing is all part of gaming. Be gracious when you lose. Remember we’re supposed to have fun and it’s only a game.

When you begin a game, you are expected to play for the duration of it (unless all players decide to end the game early). Play to your best ability and play to win. Make the best move possible to improve your position in the game, even if you have no chance of winning.

3. CONCENTRATE ON THE GAME

Please listen while the rules are being explained. I know there’s a lot to take in and, if you are unsure of something, clarifications will be given while playing, but it gets tiresome when the rules are being explained and those participating are not giving their undivided attention (especially if they start asking lots of questions once the game begins).

It’s OK to have a phone at the table and the odd text is acceptable, as is taking photos and using a score tracker to record end-game scores, but to be constantly checking your phone while gaming is rude. Even more so when it’s your turn.

4. REMEMBER YOUR ENVIRONMENT AND KNOW YOUR FELLOW GAMERS

Banter around the table can be fun and its kind-of expected when gaming, but once again, know your fellow gamers. If someone asks you to stop, please make sure you do so. What’s acceptable to one person, might not be acceptable to another.

Harassment will not be tolerated. Any misconduct will result in you being removed from Fenland Gamers without warning, and asked not to attend again.

Please make sure you have permission to take photos, especially if they are to be used on social media.

Please bear in mind that we play at a public place, so think before you use those expletive words (you know what they are). I know you can’t help it, but some people find bad language unacceptable when used in a public place.

As we welcome members from the age of 12 (when accompanied by an adult with parental responsibilities), please be extra careful with your expert language skills when under 18s are present.

Know your fellow gamers when planning on attending gaming night. The likelihood of getting that ‘down-the-pub’ game played at gaming night is slim.

If you participate in a game, please offer to help pack the game away when finished.

Please have good personal hygiene.

5. RESPECT OUR GROUP RULES

When gaming with us, we expect you to abide by any rules set down by those hosting the game (i.e. when playing at The Luxe Cinema, the cinema has the right to set rules for its own establishment while we’re gaming there).

Fenland Gamers operate on the ethos of being ‘free at point of use’, therefore we do not charge any subs or fees for our meet-ups. However, we do ask that any food or beverages are purchased from the venue (usually The Luxe Cinema). Do not abuse this by bringing your own food/drink to consume.

In the ‘Events’ section of the Facebook group, you’ll find our planned sessions. Please use this to register for the event itself. It’s not always necessary or possible to do so, but if you can, it helps plan what games to bring along. If we only think that 4 players will be in attendance, it’s often difficult when 5 players turn up, as games are often selected for their player count.

Generally, an open gaming session is for any number of players to attend, but a closed session is by invite only.

Please try and be punctual. However, if you are running late, drop us a message and let us know as soon as possible. If you arrive late and a game has begun, you may not get a game until the current game is finished. We usually will spend about 10 minutes chatting after the advertised start time and before a game begins, to allow for late arrivals, but there is no guarantee of this. We’ll try to be accommodating where possible but if you’re late, you take the risk of not getting a game.

We welcome members between 12 and 112, but please note that to comply with the law and for safeguarding purposes, members under 18 must be accompanied by an adult with parental responsibilities (that is a parent or legal guardian). We do not accept ‘in loco parentis’.

WARNINGS

This Code of Conduct should be pretty easy to follow. If your behaviour is really far from it, though, we might decide to try not to game with you again.

If you break our own personal expectations, we might choose not to play with you.

But if you repeatedly break the Code of Conduct, here’s what we’ll do:

First occasion will be a warning.

Second time you’ll get a warning and a three month ban.

Third time and you’re out! We want to keep Fenland Gamers safe, fun and welcoming.

If your behaviour is deemed as serious (i.e. harassment or deliberate cheating) you’ll be removed from the group without warning.

Targi, Perudo and Small Detectives

Have 2 weeks passed already? A Friday evening gaming and a monthly meetup in the same week, that’s always a good week. Jonathan had repaired the table. Which I’m very grateful for. He saved the day.

According to the Facebook event we were expecting to be a total of 3 turning up. But ended up as 7 in total. It’s a bit annoying when this happens because we generally use the information from the event page to help guide what games to take along.

We split into 2 groups. James and I played a learning game of Targi. Whilst the other 5 played Forbidden Sky. I bought Targi as a purchase of opportunity at Tabletop Gaming Live the other weekend. It had been on my radar since Zee looked at it on the Dice Tower YouTube channel earlier in the year.

Targi is a 2 player worker placement game, with some set collection thrown in. Because of the number of players playing the other game James and myself were playing on a table that was just big enough for the main board. We had to use chairs for the player tableaus.

I liked the robber mechanic used in the game. It acts as a timer for the game for starters. Once the robber has completed a circuit of the board the game ends, unless the other game end trigger happens first. The robber is also used to block actions. As the robber moves on to a space, that space is not available for selection that round by players. And finally there are 4 spaces (the corners) on the board that when the robber lands on them trigger the players having to give up resources,gold or victory points.

The whole taking turns to select actions on the outside of the board, and not being able to select a row column occupied by the other player is nice. Because you are also getting to take the tribe or goods card in the middle where your Targi intersect, you are having to try and balance between choosing actions you really want and getting the goods/tribe card in the middle you really want. Sometimes these are mutually exclusive. I love the fact you only take the actions selected at the end of the round when you remove the counter. You get to select the order things resolve. That way you get to make sure you have the resources needed to buy that tribe card.

It’s cool the middle area of the board is constantly changing as you use the goods or buy the tribe card there. Especially when the used card gets replaced by its opposite. So a tribe card gets replaced by a goods card, and vice versa.

There is no resource hogging in this game, you are not allowed more than 10 goods and 3 gold to carry over between rounds. Any excess gets returned to the general supply.

The set collection element of the tribe cards for your tableau is nice. The fact they only score on complete rows of 4 is a great touch. Either player getting 12 tribe cards in their tableau also triggers the end of the game.

You can probably tell there is a lot to this game. I haven’t covered everything, about 80% or 90% of it. It actually took longer to play than I thought it would for a 2 player game. Maybe that’s because it was our learning game. But still it was a very enjoyable game, and definitely one I’m glad to add to my collection of 2 player games. The only issue with this whole game category is they don’t get played often enough.

Oh the history books will record that James beat me by a narrower margin than I thought it would be. I think there were 4 points between us, and that’s despite him having a complete 12 card tableau to mine incomplete one of half the cards.

As luck would have it both games finished at roughly the same time.

Our second game of the evening was a members favourite, the dice bluffing game Perudo. This time I was able to bluff my way to victory.

We finished the evening off with Small Detectives. A great little find by Jonathan, and still enjoyable. I think this was the first time I’d played it at the full player count of 5. Not sure if the optimal player count is 3 and 4 for this game. 5 players meant I was being blocked a lot of the time, I saw only one tile before Jonathan correctly guessed the solution. So it worked out in his favour, he got to see enough to make a correct guess. I did suspect and was proved correct afterwards that one player (the tablebreaker) had been cheating and making a note of the suspects and weapons they’d seen on their phone. It’s a memory game, you have 6 things in total to remember. I’m not impressed by this person as you may be able to tell. Still no apology for breaking the table. Although Jonathan did make a brave attempt at defusing any tension, and the elephant in the room by making light of the table incident. Jonathan compliments me quite well, he’s a better human being than me. I still had as little to do with the tablebreaker as possible.

It was a great evening of gaming. The staff at The Luxe were super amazing as usual. Fantastic hosts.

Monthly Meetup October 2018

Last night was the October monthly meet up for the Fenland Gamers at our amazingly generous hosts The Luxe Cinema.

The evening started off well. Jonathan had finally joined the Ice Blast Crew! It’s the drink of choice for the group. Jonathan and Nathan had a rare opportunity to direct the banter at me. I give as good as I get, and it’s nice for them to get this rare occasion where they have the upper hand. My turn will come again.

We split into 2 gaming groups, a group of 4 and group of 3.

Jonathan, Gavin and myself started off playing Kingdomino. I hadn’t played Kingdomino before. I know it had a bit of buzz when it came out, and it’s got an expansion and a follow up, was even nominated for an award or two. But it had not made my radar for something to play. Gavin was keen to try it, and I was happy to give it a go.

Wow. How much fun is the game? Lots. It is quick to teach, simple mechanics to grasp, and quick to play. I love the tile selection mechanic used to determine the order of choosing in the following round. It presents some nice tough decisions to make with such a simple mechanic. Do you go for that tile you really need and chose last next time? Do you hate draft to block someone else? Which could also potentially mean you get to chose last. Or do you try and get that first selection for the next round because there is a tile you really must have?

Then you have the placement mechanic working along the lines of the pub classic dominos, and being limited to a 5 x 5 grid, and getting an end game scoring bonus if your start tile is in the dead centre of a completed 5 x 5 grid.

That is literally all there is to the game, a handful of simple mechanics that seem to work so well together to create a fast, fun game.

Somehow in our 3 player game I managed to run away with the victory. But we then added a fourth player, taught the game in seconds, and we were back playing. This time I was getting less of the selections I really wanted. A few rounds I was finding hard not to be the one choosing last, because that was the only option I was left with. There was very little denial drafting going on. I thought Jonathan was running away with the game, he had large scoring areas that we had failed to prevent. Sadly those scoring areas were also ones I was going for early on also. But when it came down to the final scoring, I lost to Jonathan by 4 points. That was a lot closer than I thought it would be. So yes I was first loser.

Our second game of the evening was another new game to me, No Thanks!. Wow another simple game to learn, but so much fun. You either take the current card or pass and place a token on it. If you have no tokens in front of you, you can’t pass. So you are forced to take cards until you get some tokens. The idea is to have at the end of the game the lowest score. That’s an over simplification of the card bit, which involves collecting runs of cards, say 33,32,31,30 but you only score the lowest value of the run. So that example run would be worth 30 points. I also didn’t mention that there are 9 cards removed at the start of the game from the deck. So there may or may not be a run, and you get stuck with a high value card. Sometimes you need to take that high value card because there are just too many tokens on it, that the points it will give you out weighs the fact you need those tokens. I lost the first game we played on the tie breaker. Gavin won our second game, and I won the third and final game. And yes it was that much fun.

For me No Thanks joins the ranks of Red 7, The Mind and Love Letter: Batman that are fun little filler games that should always be in the bag. So yes this will be joining the collection real soon.

Our final game of the evening was The Resistance. 8 resistance fighters, but they had been infiltrated by 3 traitors. A fun way to have everyone playing together at the end of the evening. Luckily I was using my copy of the game that I use with students. With the mess that the Ice Blast drinks create from the ice on the outside melting, and one or two players being less than careful with game components, this worn copy of the game was the ideal one to use. And these two points are starting to become a bit of an issue on club nights. Our hobby is an expensive one, some of the games we own and play are beautifully made and expensive. So you would hope/expect those playing to show a little respect to using someone else’s game. Sadly it’s not happening. Which does make you reluctant to bring games along to play.

However back to our hunt to find those traitors to the cause, who were sabotaging our missions. Our first mission was a roaring success, despite us having to refresh our memories to the rules. Mission 2 was foiled, there was definitely a traitor in our ranks. But who? Mission 2 had 2 people from the initial mission and 2 newbies. It had to be one of the newbies. Mission 3 was a roaring success. I’d been on all 3, and I think by now the majority had been on a mission. So despite having been on 2 successful missions I was under suspicion. Mission 4 I wasn’t on, but somehow a traitor had managed to sneak on to the team and once again sabotage it. It was all down to the final mission. We thought we knew who weren’t spies. The final missions team was selected, and it was a failure. The traitors had won. when the smoke cleared, we had identified correctly 2 of the traitors. But Jonathan had done the con job of the century and managed to avoid suspicion the whole game.

After the game as we were clearing up, I was once more the brunt of banter from my good friends. This time teasing me about being a fanboy who wouldn’t sell out. So yes that time had come again real quick. Twice in the same evening. I must be getting old. I enjoy the banter, it’s good fun, nothing nasty. Although I forgot to pay Gavin back for his awful joke on Twitter the other day. It was truly awful and deserved retaliation. Ok the joke was “which spice girl can carry the most petrol?”, “Jerri Can”. See it was bad.

Then the evening went tits up once more. The frickin’ idiot who I talked about previously, broke my folding table I use for gaming. The folding table the club uses for our game nights now at The Luxe. Snapped two rivets connecting the legs to the supports that keep them in place when set up. The support collapses, is held rigged by a sliding metal ring. But no if it won’t collapse, just repeatedly force and break it. Not a word of apology, offer to fix it, or replace it. To say that I was not happy was yet again an understatement. I really don’t know what to do about the guy.

Jonathan kindly offered to take the table home and fix it. The earliest I could even start to look at repairing the table was Sunday. Which would totally screw up our planned Friday evening gaming session at The Luxe. Hopefully it is just a matter of replacing the broken rivets with screws or bolts, and that no other damage was done.

Otherwise it had been a great evening of gaming.

A new gaming experience for me

Last night was the fortnightly Friday evening gaming session at our now current home for gaming The Luxe Cinema.

Our first game of the evening was a learning game of Lost Cities:Rivals. I’m a big big fan of the original game Lost Cities. It has a great app (that makes me lazy on the scoring). But it’s a 2 player game only. So to hear that there was this game based on it, with an auction mechanic, that plays 2-4 players, yeah I was going to get it.

There is a surprising depth to the game once things click. But it’s a learning game so it takes a round or two for things to click, it’s expected.

On your go you either add a card to the market from the pile, or start an auction for the current cards in the market. And that’s the first big decision you have to make based on the market. Just how many or badly do you need any of the cards in the market? Do you risk adding to it, or try and get the cards with an auction? The amount of money you have, and of the others could also influence that decision, you may not even be able to afford to bid. Running out of money means until you get through the current pile of cards you just have to watch as your opponents take cards that you may need. When a pile of cards runs out, money that was spent in the auctions gets redistributed evenly amongst players. Which is a nice touch. I also,like the hate bidding to try and force up the price, and take out opponents so you have free reign of the cards. I also like that the winning bidder can also remove a single card from the market from the game. A great opportunity to deny another player a card they may need.

Amazingly Jonathan and I tied for top spot. I enjoyed the game, definitely want to play it again.

Our second game and final one of the evening was the evergreen gateway worker placement game Stone Age. I’d only played this game once before, which was nearly 3 years ago (before I started logging game plays).

I went back and read my thoughts on Stone Age from that first play. I still agree with them. Although it’s great as an entry level worker placement game, I did kinda think it was an average one on the whole. There are worker placement games I enjoy a lot more. But after our game last night I think calling it average is doing it a disservice, above average is more accurate. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still an enjoyable experience.

Our game last night was a little one sided with the real battle for first place between Jonathan and myself. Despite sitting behind the pack on the score track for most of the game, Jonathan was in striking distance of a big points rush during final scoring. Which I knew would be coming because he was going for the set collection end game bonus.

The reason for it being between Jonathan and myself was the other 2 players hadn’t played the game before, and I didn’t think my previous play really gave me an advantage, being so long ago. But being a more experienced player, and fan of the worker placement mechanic did help. Jonathan naturally was the more experienced player of the game, and he did point out key strategies of the game during explaining the rules, and during play. Also advice from both of us was given through out the game.

But that didn’t stop one player making a couple of really dumb ass moves during the game. The first was mid game on his first player turn not taking the farm, and allowing Jonathan to nab it and gain an advantage on the food front. Until the late game, that farm track is important. You need to hunt less to feed your tribe. Allowing you to gather more resources, grab more buildings etc. It also allows you to add more tribe members and yes get to do more on a turn. That was a massive move for Jonathan, and allowed him to get that extra worker.

The second dumb ass thing had me nearly rage flipping my table! I don’t think I’ve ever called another player a “twat” at the table before. But I did last night. Basically in the fading memory I have. We had a building pile down to one tile, the ass hat was first player. If Jonathan put a worker on it he’d block it to allow an extra turn or two, something he needed to allow him to get cards to complete that massive scoring set he was going for. I knew he was close. Ending the game this turn, was in my interest and give me a chance. The other two were not in the running. They hadn’t been grabbing end game bonus cards, and only had a couple. Their final points wouldn’t be too far off where they were on the score track. If they were to stand a remote chance of finishing above Jonathan they too needed it to end this turn. There was no benefit for the person to drag the game on for a couple more turns. No way they were going to get back in the running. Their first move was a worker on the final hut. During the rest of the placement stage they put another worker on a hut, and we played out our placements. Then when it came to resolving the workers, they didn’t claim the last hut! WTF! Did they just do that? This was handing the game to Jonathan. And then to justify it with “I don’t care, this is payback for D&D (dire wolf cleaning his privates jokes)” was just twattish. It really felt like they had just given Jonathan the game. We were now looking at another 2 rounds. Exactly what Jonathan needed.

Luckily Jonathan was first player and didn’t block that hut with his first worker placement. Naturally I did with my first worker. But it was a great last round for me, and also for Jonathan. I got a great end game bonus card.

As expected during end game scoring Jonathan had a 7 card set for a massive points jump, and some bonuses. I had a 4 card set, something I’d gone for as a way to try and mitigate that big points gain I knew Jonathan was getting. What I hadn’t been tracking was my bonuses. With 7 huts, and two 2 value tools and one 3 value tool my multiple bonuses really added up and shot me to the win. I ended up with 197 points. My tools bonuses gave me that win. Jonathan ended up second with 152. Without the tool bonuses I would have been a close second.

But I’ve decided I’m not going to be playing with that player again. Even before the dire wolf jokes in D&D I had the feeling that they were targeting me in games. I don’t need that agro. I never thought I’d be writing something like this, let alone thinking it. I’d like to reflect why I feel this way, and the root cause. But that’s not me, I’m a force of nature like my attack chihuahuas Nico and Loki.

Despite that little blip, it was a great evening. The Luxe and amazing staff, were fantastic hosts.

Coolest meeple on the zombie apocalypse block

As yesterdays say nothing post pointed out, last night was the monthly gaming meet up for Fenland Gamers at our amazing host The Luxe Cinema.

I started my evening of gaming by being way too early. I should have checked the start time. For some reason I thought it was a 6:30 start instead of it’s actual 7pm start. Which is ironic really because I’m the one that created the repeating event on the clubs Facebook page! Instead I enjoyed the company of the staff with some banter, an iceblast, and some warm flavoured nuts.

It was a good turn out for a monthly meetup, with club regulars and some new faces.

With my copy still in the dhl transit system in the US (I’ve been stalking my package via its tracking number), we got to play Gavin’s copy of Tiny Epic Zombies that had arrived a few days earlier.

Had either of us actually read the rules before hand, or watch any how to play videos? don’t be silly, this is Fenland Gamers we are talking about. This was the first time the contents had been out of their seals and plastic bags. I did have some sleeves with me, so I presumptuously sleeved the cards for him, whilst he read the rule book about setting up the game.

Katie was given the honour of choosing how we would be playing the game. So Katie chose the competitive mode, with AI zombies. But there is a variety of modes you can play the game, so if the competitive side isn’t your bag, then there is a co-op mode. don’t like AI, then you can play one against many. With the one taking on the role of the zombies.

I think we got the basic turn structure right, and the core mechanics. But I’m also sure that we made some rules mistakes as well through out our game.

Gavin wasn’t too impressed with the rule book. But in the past I’ve not had an issue with other Gamelyn Tiny Epic rule books. I’ll have to reserve judgement not this until my copy has arrived and I have had a time to read through it.

Gavin and I did find that the text on the objective cards was a tad on the small side making it hard to read. But then again this wasn’t helped by the lighting. And I’ve found that an issue with one or two other games, in perfect lighting the smaller text is readable (just for the these aging eyes), but in less than optimal lighting it’s a hard task to make head or tales of things.

Component wise it’s up to the usual high standards you’d expect for a Tiny Epic game. The ITEMeeples look super cool with the weapons attached. Mine looked really epic with a chainsaw and machine gun. I didn’t care if I won or not, I had a cool looking ITEMeeple. The motorbike also has that “wow, cool” factor. And looks awesome on the game board. These have that wow factor now, but will that wear off over multiple plays?

Katie and I both managed to complete one of the three objectives needed to win. But the game clock for the AI kicked in meaning that everyone lost. The AI clock for us was the search deck (not clear on how the call it, and no rule book to confirm) running out. I did like this as a mechanic for stopping the game from just going on and on. Although I’m not sure with the objectives we had how they could have been completed in the time given.

It certainly was a fun experience. Definitely going to get more plays, and trying out some of the other ways of playing the game.

Our second game of the evening was another new game for me, Smash Up. I know I’m very late to the party for this one. But I really enjoyed playing this.

I was playing ninjas and an Irish lepicorn mash up. So I was able to like put curses on bases to punish other players, or punish them for destroying a minion with the lepicorn cards. But with the ninja side I was able to play cards when bases were being scored. Gavin had zombies as one of his decks and that had graveyard (or discard pile) shenanigans. Very thematic.

The whole majority control fighting over bases works really well. And it was fun discovering how the mash up of decks worked. I thought mine worked together really well. Despite that I don’t think I was playing it optimally, and my last place only emphasised that.

I definitely can see myself playing this again. I think it might even be good enough to add to my collection.

It was a really fun evening, great to see knew and old faces. Our hosts The Luxe Cinema were awesome as usual. And we are really grateful to them for allowing us to game there.

Hold them for 7 days, is that too much to ask?

It just so happened that the fortnightly gaming session for Fenland Gamers fell on the very last day of the month. That’s about the only interesting thing I can say about the day really.

Earlier in the day I’d bought some PVA glue, and a cheap 20p brush to apply it with. Just before I was due to go out the door to the club night I decided I’d try doing the base of one of the painted walkers. I was quiet impressed with the results. So much so I had to do the remaining 5 before leaving.

It’s amazing how a little thing like this transforms the mini. I know there are errors in the painting of these figures, which are glaring when viewed up close. But when not looking at them really close, I’m beginning to really like how these now look.

I arrived a little early at our hosts for the evening The Luxe Cinema to get set up ready for everyone else. But the fantastic staff had already got my folding table out and put up. Not only that they had cleaned the surface too! The staff really are amazing at The Luxe.

While Justin and Edmund co-led a game of Vast: The Crystal Caverns, Jeff, Jonathan and I sat down to play Jeff’s birthday present 7 Days of Westerplatte.

7 Days of Westerplatte is a co-op game where the 3 of us played the polish trying to hold off the German invaders in basically what was I believe the start of WWII.

Jeff gave us the choice of wimpy easy mode or tough as nails hard mode. Naturally we decided to show how insanely stupid we were by choosing the tough as nails mode. Hey if we are going to fail, let’s do it spectacularly against overwhelming odds.

I can see where Jeff gets his tower defence like comparison from. Jonathan and I both really enjoyed the game.

Naturally the first 3 days seemed relatively easy, we were handling the invaders, and it would seem that the game is designed to lure you into that false sense of security before hitting you hard and fast.

This was so quick to teach, and get playing. There are some fantastic decisions to make as a team. Sometimes real tough ones.

We only just made it to the seventh day before we were worn down by the Germans and our positions over run. This may have jumped into first spot as my favourite co-op game.

Our second game was the latest addition to the Ticket to Ride family, Ticket to Ride New York. Jonathan had said it’s quick to play, and it is. It was ok, it gave you that quick fix of Ticket to Ride if that is what you are looking for. I suppose it might fill that filler game spot. But the game didn’t wow me. Jeff won the game.

We finished off our evening of gaming with a couple of games of the best version of Love Letter, Love Letter: Batman. The honours were split between John and myself.

Once again a great evening gaming, at a great location. The Luxe really are fantastic hosts.

Bringing Out The Inner Mad Max

Last night it was that time once again for a Friday night gaming session. For the second time we were once more graciously hosted for this session by the wonderful The Luxe Cinema.
Our evenings gaming started off with a new game that Jonathan bought at this years UKGE but hadn’t got to the table yet, called Road Hog: Rule the Road.

On the whole production wise the components are pretty high quality really. The only slight negative would be the flimsy cards. The game tiles for the track are really pimped out. They have a rubber backing! No need for a play mat here. There was one issue with the cards with what turned out to be two cards stuck together. When separating them there was a little damage that left the back of one marked. Not cool. Solved by sleeving. But replacements needed really from the manufacturer.

Luck plays a large part in the game from the roll of the two dice, to the cards that you get. For some this luck element may be a turn off. In our game it worked in my favour.

There is also a big take that element. Which also for some is a major switch off. Once again something I’m ok with. In our game it was more a one against many. Me against the rest. Mainly because I was the one in the lead for the majority of the game. For example I was getting boxed in my the traffic in an effort to slow me down, and even stop me. But luckily I had the cards and dice rolls that mitigated this and allowed me to escape the traps.

There is a lot of variability potentially between games with the unique placement of cars and trucks during setup that players will then need to negotiate during the game, plus which tiles that you use.

We could have used a longer track. But for the type of game that this is, it felt about right with the 6 or 7 tiles that we used. Anything that was longer I think would have been too long play wise and warn out its welcome. It is a light game. But still a fun experience. And I’m not just saying that because I won it comfortably.

As you can see I’ve tried experimenting with my camera angles for photos during gaming sessions. I quite like the results.

Our second game of the evening was a return to the table for King of Tokyo. I think the last time I played this was with some students a couple years back. I think, apart from a couple of promo characters I have everything for this. I just need to merge back in to the second edition the 2 characters that were left out from the first edition. We played just the vanilla version of the game, no power ups. Well we were playing with 2 new players to the game. Although to be fair, we could probably have played with them. They aren’t that much of an overhead to learn. Jess narrowly won by being the last monster standing.

Our final game of the evening was the classic Perudo/Liars Dice. Yeah a club favourite, and a great way to end a great evening of gaming. Somehow Jonathan won without losing a single die.

We had a great evening, great selection of beverages and great hosts with The Luxe.