Just a brief post to share which games I played this weekend.
Friday was club for Fenland Gamers and I got to not only meet Dave and his partner Clack. But also got to play a couple of games with them.
I had a blast introducing them to Libertalia Winds of Galecrest and Survive Escape from Atlantis.
Libertalia was a four player game that saw the first two days with three of us playing the same cards. But more worrying for Clank was we played the same cards for the whole of that first voyage. No one wants to be on the same wavelength as me! That way leads to madness.
I did manage to scrape the win by a point, and introduced Dave and Clank to the name “first loser” for the runner up/second place. Jeff I will forever be grateful that you introduced me to that name.
Survive for such a mean game is so much fun for everyone playing. But I guess that does depend on whose playing to some extent.
All I know about our game Friday night was we had great fun playing the game. What’s more I some how managed to win! That’s back to back victories for me playing either of the Survive games. I’d like to claim it was due to skill but considering I don’t have a clue about the value of which survivors I get to safety it’s pure luck.
Saturday illness human and canine took out two of the three of our D&D group that could make the planned session.
So Luke and I met up, grabbed a burger (double quarter pounder with cheese, and cheesy chips), before playing Red Rising.
I really do like Red Rising and the choices you have to make during the game. How I ever thought this wasn’t for me I don’t know.
In our two games that we played (we both won one a piece) I needed a red card to trigger the end game bonus on one of my cards. Did any come up during either game? Not one. Between games I had to check the deck to make sure there was some there. Luckily I had a card that allowed during the end of the game allowed you to choose a colour.
I did use some new functionality within the bgstat app that is in beta testing and that is score sheets.
For some of the games in bgstat with the score sheets functionality enabled when recording a game play or viewing one you will see the little score sheet icon (see magnified bit in the image above).
Click on that icon and you are taken to the score sheet for the game, where you can enter or view the score sheet for that play.
I really liked how the score sheet worked for Red Rising. This is really cool. If they end up charging me to use this in the future when it’s ready for prime time (which it seems it is) I’d happily pay for it.
Bgstat just gets better and better.
Right got to end this post, plan next weekends gaming (hoping to get Doom to the table) and rearrange D&D.
I know my usual posting schedule has once again gone out the window.
Despite having had a half term to recharge the batteries. This past week I’ve been particularly tired in the evenings. Often falling asleep whilst watching something.
I’m not sure folks appreciate how draining the day can be. Especially when you are still adjusting.
However yesterday was the end of the week and once again the fortnightly Fenland Gamers Friday game night.
Which means I go straight from work to where we meet up and play some games. Well that’s the new routine for club night considering the time I finish on a Friday, and it’s on the way home.
Plus it means I get there early, and have time to get something to eat before the majority arrive. I also get to set up the tables ready for some gaming.
Last night I got to play a four player game of Portal.
I’d been wanting to play the game with more than two players.
Our game was shorter than I expected and not as cut throat. But I put that down to one of our players not being a “gamer” and not really paying attention to what was going on. More importantly putting all their eggs into one basket so to speak by having both of their test subjects in the same test chamber. Which opened them up to Ben placing a turret in that chamber and ending the game. At that point in time Ben had the most slices of cake out on the laboratory. Giving him the win.
The second game of the evening saw Ben grab his second win of the evening when he won Alien Frontiers.
The latest edition to the collection, Murder of Crows was my final game of the evening.
The game had only arrived the day before. So naturally I hadn’t had time to read the brief rulebook.
So as I shuffled the cards Ben quickly read the rulebook, and was first player. After all first player was meant to be the most shady looking person!
Murder of Crows is a nice light take that card game, that plays in less than thirty minutes.
It definitely has a spot in the roster of filler games in my collection.
A week into the new job and already I’m seeing a difference in what I can do in my spare time.
Finally I made a Friday Night gaming session in 2023. I know it’s only two that I missed but still that number would have gone up. In fact I don’t think I would have got any of this weekends gaming (apart from maybe todays) done if still in my old job.
My first game of the evening was Survive: Space Attack!
Somehow I managed to win the game. It wasn’t by design.
I don’t look at the values of the survivors at the start, or care which one gets placed where. During my turn if I get to place a monster/alien I combine the rules “shits and giggles” and “rule of cool” for placing it. I have no plan.
And yet I won this time. Don’t figure.
We followed up my victory with a game of Long Shot: the Dice Game.
I really do prefer this to Camel Up! for my racing, placing a bet, style game.
With four players the game has its backwards and forwards as everyone tries to manipulate the race. For a longtime I thought my two horses were going to take the top two spots, but in the end Colin and Jonathan managed to out manoeuvre me and get their horses into those spots instead, leaving me with a third place finish only.
Jonathan like his horse romped home with the win.
After nearly a two month hiatus our D&D group finally got back round the table on Saturday afternoon. But I’m not going to write about that in this post. You’ll get to read all about it in the post mortem.
This afternoon (Sunday) saw Julie and me meet up to play a game or two.
We started out with a learning game of Mariposas. Yeah the game by the Elizabeth Hargrave.
I think Mariposas was always going to suffer from what I can best describe as “second album syndrome” after having such a big hit with Wingspan.
What I like about Hargrave is her using less common themes for her games. Mariposas is about butterflies and their migration. I think her next game is based on some Russian experiment where they were breeding foxes to domesticate them. Themes that have a very broad appeal.
I have to say I was surprised how light Mariposas was. It felt very gateway like.
The game also played very quickly. It takes place over three seasons (aka rounds). You start off taking only four actions on the first round, five on the second, and finally six on the third and final one.
Add in end of round objectives, a bit of set collection, and you have a pleasant gaming experience.
At under £30 for a copy it’s not bad value.
Our next game was a first play of Motor City.
Once you get over the iconography this game feels very different to Three Sisters. Its definitely more puzzley and a lot less combotastic.
I liked the game a lot, and needs unpacking in-depth in another post after more games have been played.
We finished off the afternoons gaming with a game of the flip and write Silver and Gold.
It’s been a great weekend of gaming. Something I’ve not had in a long time.
Last night was the first and only session of the Christmas gaming program for Fenland Gamers that I could attend this year.
Traditionally there are three gaming sessions organised. However work rotas meant I had shifts during two of them. It was just luck that I was on an early yesterday and thus able to attend.
It was really great to be seeing friends again and playing games with them.
After some catching up, Katie, Jeff, and myself played Dune Imperium ALL IN!
By that I mean not only was it the core game and the first expansion Rise of Ix. But also the second and latest expansion Immortality.
Wow is this a table hog now.
For me Dune Imperium is like Istanbul. A great core game, that gets better with the expansions.
Granted when teaching to new players things might look daunting. But after a couple of turns, or just the first round, everything clicks into place.
I love what Immortality brings to the game. More decisions to make, more options.
In our game it was looking like Jeff might trigger the end of the game on the ninth round. I had decided not to go for one of my intrigue cards end game scoring conditions as I just didn’t think I would get a chance to complete it.
I had decided instead to try and get as close as I could to ten points and hope that my end game intrigue cards would be enough to snatch victory away from Jeff.
In the end after some beautiful minding it, I managed to grab three victory points to trigger the end of the game, and get two more from end game intrigue cards.
But that moment was all down to stealing an alliance token from Katie, and grabbing a couple of others by winning the combat, and doing research that enabled me to progress up faction alliance tracks.
It was not an outcome I had planned on that turn. But as I got closer to triggering the end of the game, one false move and we’d have gone to another round. Which would have given Jeff a window of opportunity to grab the victory instead. Everything had to be done in the correct order. Luckily I didn’t slip up.
There is still plenty to explore with the Immortality expansion before I talk more about it. But so far after this initial game I love it.
It was great to be gaming again. Tomorrow I’ve spending New Years Eve with Nathan so there will be a game or two there (even though it’s a whistle stop visit).
Now to start putting dates up for the next regular Friday evening gaming sessions.
Friday evening was once again a club night. Attendance was more pre-pandemic numbers than post. Whether that’s due to illness, time of year (it is the busy run up to Christmas) who knows?
Our first game of the evening was the classic, destroyer of relationships, Survive Escape from Atlantis.
This is such a fun game, and a members favourite.
Despite being victimised by the others (it’s so easy to make that claim in this game) I didn’t come last. I only got one survivor to safety but it was enough to put Marcin into last place with his lower scoring two survivors. At the other end of the survivor safety spectrum (more than three getting to safety) Ben managed to pip Colin to the winning line by a single point.
Our second and final game of the evening was Last Will.
Ben was declared the winner of this game. We still had a round to play. However with our hosts wishing to close up we had to finish the game.
The deciding factor in declaring Ben the winner was he needed one more action to trigger the end of the game, whilst the rest of us required more than that.
A fun evening, lots of banter.
Saturday afternoon saw me playing a two player game of Scythe with Charlene.
It was meant to be a three player game but illness meant the third player had to drop out at the last moment.
I was going to use the Automata as a third player. But I need to read the rules on running the Automata first before doing this.
We did use the modular board and that was the best idea of the afternoon.
Additional rules used
After randomly placing the faction markers round the board (all but one go out if using the Fenris factions as well, I removed that remaining faction from those that can be chosen), Charlene and I randomly chose player boards. Despite having the higher board I let Charlene chose first.
This will amaze folks but I did not go with my one of my favourite factions. Instead I gave Vesna a try.
Factions played
After choosing our factions we removed two of the modular boards. That was why using the modular boards was a great decision.
I had previously played Scythe two player with Jeff but that was with the “regular” board. Which isn’t best for a two player game. You can be on opposite sides of the map, never bump into each other.
With the modular board removing two of the boards shrinks the map so you are closer together, and you are more likely going to have to battle it out with the other player for spaces.
The way the map tiles were the Vesna river walk was useless and an early mistake for me. I should have built the tunnel first not the mech. Charlene had an easier time and was able to access more of the map without having to do either!
I liked the resolution tile Deja Vu. It was fun. And how our end game was triggered. If Charlene hadn’t triggered the end of the game this way I would have triggered it on my next go by placing out my sixth objective star.
After the dust settled and money counted, I won.
If I play Scythe two player again it will only be with the modular board.
We finished off the afternoons gaming with a game of Splendor Duel.
I hadn’t played Splendor Duel before, nor had Charlene.
This is a two player only version of Splendor. Yes Splendor can be played two player. But sometimes like 7 Wonders Duel, the two player version gives you the same experience as the original but just takes it to another level.
I really like this as a two player game. Like it’s bigger brother it appears I’m not very good at it. I haven’t won a game of Splendor in a long time. And this two player experience was no exception and continued my losing streak.
I can see this being added to the collection to play with Nathan. Or on the rare occasion I get to play a two player game with Jonathan.
That was my gaming over the last couple of days.
It’s back to work for me now, and gaming when it can be fitted in.
Compared to the previous game there was much more conflict going on. This was mainly due to the early conflict cards giving a victory point to the winner. Something we didn’t see in the previous game. The conflict cards giving control to one of the three city spaces along with the victory point also came up, along with the later cards being worth two victory points. You really couldn’t ignore combat in this game.
I was playing the Baron for the first time. I do like the choosing two factions ability he has. It’s a hard decision to make. I chose the Spacing Guild as one of them. The thinking was once triggered it’d help me get two influence on the track and open up the second space on the shipping track.
I ended up buying mainly emperor related cards in the trade row. These were giving me card draw. I was getting turns where I was drawing two or three extra cards.
Luckily I drew an intrigue card that allowed me to buy a dreadnaught for three solari early on. This helped greatly in those all important battles at the end of the round.
My purchase of my third agent was delayed by a round when Charlene took the space I needed on the shipping track as my first turn. But that’s the point of worker placement mechanics.
I triggered the end of the game with two rounds to spare by winning a combat worth two victory points.
Final scores
Four of my victory points were from the influence track plus an alliance, I bought one with an intrigue card, plus I got one from an endgame intrigue card. The rest of my victory points came from combat.
It was a good evening gaming. I just need to try and swap shifts so I can make the next one.
Friday evening was another really well attended club night.
It saw the return of a missed member, new members attending for the first time, and regular faces.
If the head count was accurate then there were seventeen like minded individuals gathered round tables, rolling dice, playing cards, and exploiting any misplay made by others.
Surely it won’t be long before we break into twenty plus members attending a club night.
You already know that Gavin and I have entered into a deal that sees me exchange hard earned mullah for his copy of Marvel Champions.
My first game of the evening was the latest Stonemaier Games release, the tenth anniversary co-op micro game for two players, Smitten, with Jonathan.
The art on one of the Smitten cards reminded me of a card in MtG. A quick search found the card I’d been thinking of, it was Arcane Flight. Take a look at the two cards side by side below, what do you think?
Am I the only one that sees a similarity?
The game does play really fast. And very quick to learn.
I love the limited communication you are allowed.
I was definitely getting some The Mind vibes whilst playing Smitten.
For me this is another great example of what can be achieved with just eighteen cards, like Love Letter.
Smitten might have just become my go to two player filler game.
Jonathan and I failed. But we enjoyed ourselves.
My second, but the others I was playing with first game of the evening, was Wingspan.
I used the official app for the final scoring instead of the supplied score pad. Probably the first time in actual anger.
It worked well, very little overhead in using, with the only setup being selecting which expansions if any you are using, and player names.
I really like that quick setup and straight into using.
It didn’t change the final result with me coming in last.
My final game of the evening was a couple of games of Sushi Go! Party.
Because we were all experienced gamers we went with “gamie” oriented menus.
Game 1 Menu
Game 2 Menu
These were fun.
I love how the different menus just shake things up depending on what sort of game you want, or who you are playing with.
If you just look at the wins and losses, then the evenings gaming was a bad day at the office.
But that doesn’t tell the full story.
I had a great evening gaming with friends, did and saw some cool turns.
And that’s the more important thing. Winning is just icing on the cake.
Last night it was that time once again for Fenland Gamers to meet up and play some games.
I’d been lucky with my shift for the day with it finishing at 6pm. Which meant I was going straight from work to the club night. But also I wouldn’t be missing the evening of gaming.
Club night would mark the start of four days off. I couldn’t think of a better way to kick off the much needed r&r.
This was another really well attended evening with seventeen folks turning up. Which included four new faces.
Charlene and myself played Tapestry with three of them.
This wasn’t my copy of the game so we were playing with only the Arts and Architecture expansion. The cards were also unsleeved. Oh the horror of naked cards!
My Leaders were conquering artists. Sadly I got my butt handed to me, the sixty point victory point starting position for The Chosen was too much. But I did get my personal best five player score!
Our second game of the evening was the WotC “filler” card game Dungeon Mayhem.
This is a really fun card game. It’s quick and easy to play.
However it does have one “mechanic“ in it that I really dislike. That may not be a strong enough description but it’ll do for now.
That “mechanic” is the physical activity. For example I had a card in my deck that required players to perform a little dance. Charlene had one that required players to give her praise.
Why? It’s not fun!
But despite that major drawback it is a fun game. And even with players getting knocked out they are still semi involved in the game play.
This will have to join the rotation of games going into the game bag for club nights.
With the game of Dungeon Mayhem I completed one of my gaming challenges for the year.
Yep I’ve played forty new to me games this year so far.
I still find it hard to believe that I’ve played that many new to me games.
As it stands at the moment approximately two thirds of the games I’ve played this year have been new to me.
With roughly forty five percent of those new to me games being games owned by others.
Don’t hold me to those percentages I’ve spitballed those figures as rough guesstimates, they may vary by a percent or two if I actually calculated them. But they are close enough.
Using the 3×3 functionality of the bgstat you can see what those forty games were below.
I’m not going to increase the challenge even with three months of the year left.
But it will be very interesting to see how many new to me games I actually do end up playing at the end of the year.
Not our usual (post lockdowns) numbers with only seven attending.
But then again with her majesty the Queen passing away the previous day and the new King, King Charles III making his first official broadcast to the nation at 6pm.
Was it any real surprise? Even the numbers in the bar area were down (considerably) and no food as they decided to close for the night as a sign of respect.
The positive side of all this was I got to play some games with Jonathan.
We started off playing a quick game of Riverside. I’m still really liking this roll and write.
Our second game of the evening was a three player game of Santorini New York.
Chris our third player hadn’t played the game before so we started off with the recommended role cards for new players to the game (see below).
Recommended role cards for new players
Our first game saw Jonathan eliminated from the game with all his workers removed from the board. I won that game. It felt like a double win with Jonathan being knocked out like that.
The next game saw a determined Jonathan wanting to redeem himself. Which he did by winning.
Our third and final game I decided to shake things up a little and select new role cards for the game (see below).
Role cards used in our final game
I chose roles that looked interesting and fun to play.
Which they were.
Chris won this last game.
I really do like Santorini New York as that multiplayer version of the original game. However the rulebook does leave a lot to be desired especially on clarifying what is classified as an unoccupied space.
Santorini New York
Our final game of the evening was Sushi Go Party!
We went with the “Party Sampler” menu.
Sushi Go Party! Menu played
Obviously we played over the standard three rounds.
I fell behind the other two during the first round trying to play the long game with the green tea ice cream. Hoping to make up any short fall in the final scoring with them.
Alas that was not the case, the gap was too much. Chris ran away with the victory.
Who Won What Game
Yes it wasn’t an evening of heavier games. But they were fun games that we played. And just important we had a good time.
But here we are once again at another Friday evening Fenland Gamers club night.
We weren’t up to the heady club record breaking attendance numbers of the previous club night. But we were at a very respectable eleven. Which is about our average these days.
This weeks game night was a rarity indeed because for the second session in a row I got to play with Jonathan once again.
Our first game of the evening was a new addition to my collection, the roll and write Riverside.
On the roll/flip and write spectrum of complexity Riverside is most certainly on the lighter side. Which isn’t a negative. I enjoy lighter roll/flip and writes as well as the much more complex ones. The important thing is whether they are fun to play. And Riverside most definitely is.
Despite its simplicity compared to some in my collection, there are some nice mechanics in this roll and write.
I love the modular board set up that means no two games will be exactly the same.
The use of the median die to move the cruise ship standee around the board is cool.
This median die also determines the rounds temperature and whether dice are in the heated area or not. The importantance of this is that to use a die in the heated area requires you to cross out fire symbols. If you run out of fire symbols or don’t have enough left you can’t use a die in the heated area.
This gives some interesting choices to make such as when and if to use dice in the heated area. Running out of fire symbols means you can no longer use the green die (which is always in the heated area, and can be added to the other dice) or use one of the base dice in the heated area.
I also like the restriction on scoring trips that each time you score a trip it has to be a higher score than the previous trip of that type.
Add in the captains boat and the points switch that adds at the end of the game. There are some lovely little touches that makes this a fun game to play.
Next up was a new game to Jonathan and myself Colorful.
This game had a Codenames vibe to it. But we loved it.
The game plays very quickly. Is quick to teach. We learnt and played two games in less than fifteen minutes. A perfect little filler game.
I loved that the game starts out as a co-operative game as long as everyone is giving the same answer to the clue. But as soon as there is a difference in an answer then it switches to a competitive game with a single winner. A very nice twist.
Our third and final game of the evening was another new arrival of mine and current hotness Brazil Imperium.
In the run up to playing this I had seen Brazil Imperium being mentioned in the same breath as Scythe. Many comparing it with my favourite game of all time.
Having played it I can see there are some similarities but there are enough differences that Brazil Imperium is it’s own game with room for both in a collection.
I like the modular board setup with the rulebook having several layouts to choose from based on player count and if you want an aggressive game or not. There are additional official maps that can be downloaded off the bgg game page.
However there does seem a basic rule for designing your own maps that the number of “big” tile pieces to use is dependent on the player count. Then the use of the smaller tile sections, positioning of capitals is all then dependent on how confrontational you want your game. So it is possible to randomly generate a board.
Map used for our game
The first similarity with Scythe is the action selection for a turn, and not being able to repeat the same action on the next turn. Add in the ability to upgrade those actions by placing an appropriately shaped product on the action using the manufacture action. You can’t escape that Scythe comparison.
You could argue the player boards and the variable powers of the unique leaders are also Scythe like. But with Brazil Imperium you decide which side of the leader board you use for the game. Plus leaders are linked to a board by colour. So only the blue leaders can be used with the blue player board. I’d like to see more leader options in the future.
When you build a building the resources it generates remain on the tile until used. However if an opposing army occupies that space they get to use any resources there. Also very Scythe like.
Who played which leader in Brazil Imperium
Having the combat cards and gold cards have not only a gold or combat use, but an alternative ability such as end game scoring or some other in game power, is a really nice touch.
The use of era cards that set an objective for you to achieve gives you a focus during the game. Getting era cards that compliment each other and your leader is key. Although you start with an era card for each of the three eras, it is possible to get additional era cards. Completing an era then gives you a choice of which palace to build, opens up more buildings to build, and gives another upgrade for one action spot.
The paintings cards add a great power up mechanic. And another thing to look think about. Some improve production, others break rules, some give combat bonuses. You get the idea.
The exploration tiles are a nice touch, giving some sort of bonus. Along with a feeling of exploring the unknown.
Combat is quick and simple. Which is a plus.
This is a great engine builder that does give a great feeling you are building an empire. I almost want to say this is a civilisation type game. In some ways it does feel like one. Thinking about it it doesn’t feel too dissimilar to Civilization A New Dawn.
Yeah I really like this game.
Winners of the games played!
It was about 9:40pm when I and Jonathan left. The others were still playing games like Gaslands. But I had a 5:30am shift start the next morning. Which means the alarm going off at 4:10am. I needed some sleep before work. Granted not much. But some!
