Yesterday we held an open Saturday gaming session. The first in a long long time. Usually if we game on a Saturday it’s a prearranged thing to play a specific game. But this time we were holding a session so that the barmaid could try our modern boardgames. She’d been interested on a normal gaming night but not able to join in as she was working. Hence this session on her day off!
We split into two groups.
Jeff, Ben and myself started our gaming off with a game of Three Sisters. Whilst Jonathan’s table started with Karuba. Which after checking the bgstats I have played. I wasn’t sure if I had. And it looks like I won that time I played it to.
Our game of Three Sisters had a surprise winner.
Both Jeff and I thought Ben was going to be the winner. He was comboing off so early in the game compared to us.
So once the final scores had been tallied I was pleasantly surprised that I drew for first loser with Ben, whilst Jeff claimed the spoils of war and victory.
Three Sisters Scores
Our second game was Survive Escape from Atlantis. A game that Jeff warned us was a mean game.
Survive has been sitting in my collection for easily 5 or 6 years unplayed! I’m not proud of that fact. But it’s not the longest inmate in my unplayed pile of shame.
Wow Jeff was right this game is mean and cut throat, but in a fun way. But I think who you play with also helps a lot.
It’s not a complicated game. But has surprising depth right from the start. Like where to place your high value meeples on the island. Or which tile to move, or when to play a tile.
In our game I placed a low value meeple in the middle of the island. Which instantly got dumped in the sea, was next to the kraken for most of the game. As soon as a path out by sea was available I used a dolphin tile to move it to “safety”. The meeple then proceeded to swim towards shore, but sadly was one move away from making it to land when Jeff triggered the end of the game. It was so nearly the heroic story of the game.
What can I say this game is fun.
It’s not going to be another 5 or 6 years before Survive hits the table again.
As you can see I won by a single point.
Survive Escape from Atlantis Scores
Our final game was classic Splendor.
Once again I wasn’t even close to winning.
Splendor Scores
Finally we are back to wrapping up the post with a photo by Jonathan.
Earlier in the week I had an epiphany whilst walking upstairs!
“Why if I’d rather play Dune Imperium every time when given a choice over Lost Ruins of Arnak should I keep Lost Ruins in my collection?”
I even shared this insight on Instagram (which then pumped it out to the other “big” two social media platforms).
Now don’t get me wrong, I really like Lost Ruins. It’s just I like Imperium more. I’ll still happily play Lost Ruins.
This is Inis all over again for me. I enjoyed Inis. But there were three games in my collection that I’d rather play over it if given a choice. So I sold it on.
Was this the time to do the same with Lost Ruins?
Naturally I got some blow back from those that preferred Lost Ruins over Imperium. But their opinion on the matter was undermined considerably by the fact they liked “not a game” Barenpark.
But it was Diego’s reply that sealed Lost Ruins fate in my collection. All he said was if I did decide to sell it he was interested.
So we chatted at work about the game. I came up with an asking price I thought was fair for the base game and expansion that I was selling to a friend. I don’t like ripping friends off. Diego agreed with the price, and a deal was struck.
That little bit of business was concluded at last nights fortnightly meet up. Where goods were exchanged for cash.
We split into three tables. Jonathan leading one of them with Pandemic. And Diego had the other with Potion Explosion (a game I’d like to try).
The game I was playing and with who was decided earlier in the week on our discord server.
Dune Imperium with the newly released first expansion The Rise of Ix was our main game of the evening.
We played with three of the new leaders (you can see who played which below).
Our characters for the game
Wow! I loved Dune Imperium before. But this expansion. Wow!
First off more intrigue cards, more leaders, more conflict cards, more Imperium cards, and for solo/2 players more House Hagal cards. More variety on that side is so so welcome with any expansion. Plus we definitely got to see some of the new cards during the game.
I liked my leader Tessia Vernius. To make use of her ability I really did have to progress on all the influence tracks.
An early tech tile had an end game scoring where I could get a victory point if I had at least 3 influence on all four influence tracks. So I leant heavily into progressing up the influence tracks. That victory point might be the difference between winning and losing. Scores are so tight in this game.
By leaning so heavily into the influence tracks I managed to get 3 out of the 4 faction alliances. Taking into account the earlier victory points for getting 2 influence on a track, 7 points of my final score came from the influence tracks.
Below you can see the 9th rounds conflict card that gave me the final 2 victory points needed to trigger the end of the game. If Julie hadn’t accidentally blocked me with her final action I would have had enough spice to get another victory point. But that’s being greedy.
I do feel that these new leaders you have to lean heavily into their abilities. For example I don’t think Julie was aggressive enough and winning enough combats. She was the first to get a dreadnought but didn’t get the second. I think only one of her victory points was from combat!
I love the new interstellar shipping spot. What a great addition. Plus it makes getting Solari much much harder by removing the sell spice action. So getting the third agent/swordsman is much more of an effort to do. Still necessary but harder. Plus to get the more powerful action spot you need 2 influence with the spacing guild. Making the influence track more important.
I like the tech tiles. I ended up with 3 in the end. One early one as I said above synergised really well with my leader.
Dreadnoughts very cool. I like what they bring to the table for combat. Probably the lesser of the three new changes to the game. But still pretty good.
Our game made it 9 rounds before I grabbed victory and control of Arrakis.
Final scores
I really like what Rise of Ix brings to Dune Imperium. Can’t wait to play it again. I’d love to try the new Epic game variant in the rulebook. Plus using the official Direwolf app there are two further variants! to try.
After my glorious victory Diego’s table and ours joined together to play Perudo.
It was fun to get this to the table again. It was “too noisy” for our previous hosts. No such restriction here.
In the end it came down to a head to head showdown between Diego and myself. My two dice to his one. Then it was one a piece. But for once I was able to pull off a win. Historically if memory doesn’t fail me, more often than not I’ve lost more than I’ve won in these stand offs.
Back to back wins! It truly was a good evenings gaming for me. So I called it a day while I was ahead! Plus I’d told mum I’d be back by about 9:30pm.
No photos from Jonathan, however we do have a new photographic correspondent from last night and now proud owner of Lost Ruins of Arnak, Diego!
Last night was a Fenland Gamers Friday club night.
I know what you are thinking. “Gaming twice in one week, what’s going on Darren?”
Hey what can I say? It’s been a good week.
A really good week.
Early evening Jeff messaged he would be arriving early, ordering some food, playing a game and possibly leaving early depending how he felt.
This was amazing news.
So I made a point of getting to our new host early so someone was there.
It was so good seeing Jeff again after the massive curve ball life threw at him. Although it’s only in reality been a couple of months, it has felt so much longer.
After food we split into two groups. John’s group played Sagrada and we played Kingsburg.
This was a first for me playing the game.
Kingsburg
I think it was inevitable that I’d like this dice placement game. After all the other one that I really like with a similar mechanic is Marco Polo.
I like the catch up mechanics the game has. The extra die, or the ability to build two buildings or use an occupied space are great to get when behind but not over powered.
For much of the game I was last on the victory point track, but a late surge meant I came in third, not too far from the front two.
But the main take home of playing this game was how much fun it was to be playing a boardgame again with Jeff. And amazingly it was the first time I’d played a game with his wife playing too!
Jeff’s “gamesmanship” has been sorely missed. I don’t think Colin was ready for the Jedi mindtricks, and being talked into blocking the only space Jeff’s wife could go to with her final die. But despite that sort of shenanigans Jeff’s wife won.
The scores for Kingsburg
After Kingsburg had finished Jeff said good bye and retired for the evening.
Which left Colin, Julie and me to play a game of the latest addition to the Love Letter family, Star Wars: Jabba’s Palace – A Love Letter game! What a mouthful. I’ll just call it Jabba’s Palace.
As a first play we stuck to the traditional end of game objective of having the highest valued card in hand wins.
Although that’s one of the first notable changes in this version. There are four end of game objectives. One of them allows for two winners!
Another change is each card has one of two faction symbols on them. They are either belonging to the rebels (good guys) or Jabba’s crew (bad guys).
The faction a card belongs to does make a difference. Not only for three of the end game objectives, such as most rebel cards in front of a player winning. But also for card abilities like the Jabba’s the Hutt card (see below) that defeats a player if the card they are holding is a rebel card.
Star Wars Jabba’s Palace – A Love Letter Game
You’ll also notice that Jabba the highest valued card is not like the Princess card in regular Love Letter. You can actually play the card.
In the GameBoy Geek’s review of Jabba’s Palace he would have liked the game to have used one of the more recent Disney Star Wars movies for its basis. What utter tripe no one buys stuff for that, the only Star Wars stuff Disney sells is original trilogy or Mandalorian. Plus we all know what a train wreck the Disney trilogy is.
Anyway. I really like how this version played. And not just because I won!
Jabba’s Palace scores
It was a great evening gaming. Even more so with Jeff being able to get along.
Last night although technically the second Wednesday of the month was not the monthly meet up.
That was last week. Or would have been if enough people had said they were coming along to it. Sadly due to working that night (I was working 10pm to 10am doing stock take) I wasn’t able to attend. So it was cancelled.
However I was back to having Thursday as my day off this week. So at the weekend I created an event to see who was up for playing some games last night.
The numbers were looking pretty good. But life likes to through challenges in our way, and one or two had to drop out on the day. Still we had six people turn up. Which is pretty decent.
We split into two groups of three. The group I was in played Lost Ruins of Arnak with the “new” Expedition Leaders expansion. Whilst the other group played Stone Age.
Lost Ruins of Arnak with Expedition Leaders
We played with the three leaders that the rules said were the easiest to play. Who had which of those leaders was decided randomly.
I have to say I like Arnak much more now with the leaders. I love the unique ability/power each person has. Each player has a unique starting deck. You are trying to play to your leaders strengths. Which for mine was buying the item cards and playing them.
For me this should have been in the base game. Not sure I’d play the game without the leaders now.
Naturally the expansion adds more cards, ruins, guardians, etc. which is always welcome. Plus there is a new double sided research (I think that’s what’s it called) board that overlays the one on the main board. More variety. Never a bad thing.
Has this expansion given Lost Ruins of Arnak the edge over Dune Imperium? No. It’s closed the gap (until the Dune Imperium expansion comes out). There were five ruins explored this game (a first for one I’ve played). But it still felt like it was a race up the research track. Plus although I do really love how the game handles buying cards and having them go to the bottom of your deck. Deckbuilding still feels very tacked on.
Anyway Marcin kicked ass and romped away with the victory. As you can see I didn’t even get close.
Final scores showing my humiliation
Meanwhile the other table were playing the classic worker placement game Stone Age.
What would one of these posts be with out Jonathan’s photos?
The Fenland Gamers Friday night gaming comes around quickly.
Unlike the test session I was there first, and tried the burger and chips this time. That was much better value for money, and hit the spot. It was also followed by sticky toffee pudding with custard (the only way to have it).
Whilst eating the planned player count fell from twelve down to nine. Life happens and throws curveballs to disrupt even the best made plans.
With nine gamers eager to game we split into three tables of three.
My table was definitely playing what can only be described as games being on the lighter side. Quick to teach and quick to play. But definitely fun to play.
There were no new games played by me. I’ll just put the bgstats summary below to list what they were.
I think it’s suffice to say we all had fun, some giggles and a big laugh at Colin scoring over 140 points in the second round of No Thanks! It was pointed out the idea was to get the lowest score.
Whilst our table where playing “light” games. Jonathan and Gavin where on a table playing Cape May (photos below). The third table led by Diego was playing Snow Tails (sorry didn’t get a chance to get any photos).
As I left a game of Splendor was being started by those that had more stamina than me. Ok I was knackered. It’d been a long day.
It’s that part of the post where I finish with the photographic efforts of Jonathan.
Last night a new potential host for the Fenland Gamers gaming sessions was tried.
A handful of us gathered at the Wisbech St Mary Sports and Community Centre to try their menu (yes they do food), sup a beverage or two, and naturally test the gaming facilities by playing a game or two.
After consuming our food orders (I tried their steak, whilst others had burgers) we split into two groups to play games.
Our group, Ben, Rachel, Colin and myself played Ben’s copy of Takenoko. Whilst the other group were playing a bluffing card game of some sort (I’m sure Jonathan will leave a comment sharing which games they played).
Records show that I last played Takenoko back in June of 2018. They also show that out of the four times I’ve played the game I have not won a single game.
The current printing of Takenoko is slightly different to the one I had owned (now in the possession of Jonathan after some dodgy back alley wheeling and dealing). Ben had also got a “deluxe” upgrade pack from our FLGS when he purchased it. I believe the upgrade pack had alternate models for the panda and gardener, plus clear blue plastic for the irrigation instead of wood.
The bit I didn’t remember and think is a new addition to the game are the improvement rings. But this could just be my poor memory here.
Apparently adding the wrong improvement ring to a bamboo shoot, or eating a shoot to remove it from a space so nothing grows there again to stop others scoring is a dick thing to do! Ok it might be. But that’s all part of the friendly banter at the table.
Here is the evidence that I suffered my fourth defeat in Takenoko, and that Ben managed to grab victory.
After wards we all gathered round a table to discuss our thoughts about using the place as our regular Friday meet up. I think everyone was happy with the place.
It’s nice that there is the option to get food there as well as beverages. Although I thought the steak I had was over priced for what it was. But that was me testing the skill of the chef. An expensive test for sure.
I had to go at this point (I had been up since frickin early o’ clock) leaving the rest to play a game of Saboteur 2.
But it looks like we have found a new home for Friday night gaming and to hold our D&D sessions. Which is quite exciting.
Well you know how this post is going to end. Here’s Johnny!
Yes I know this post is appearing Boxing Day. I had to write about this at some point. There wasn’t time on the day. Well technically there was but I was too tired. After all I had been to work that morning, and then more or less gone straight to the game session (ran in the house changed and left).
Then yesterday was Christmas Day with all that entails. I just about got the post out wishing everyone seasonal greetings. However I did cook our roast beef, and all that goes with it. Which meant the beef was cooked to medium and not the over cooked well done.
However I digress. The point of this post is to talk about the Fenland Gamers Christmas Eve gaming session.
Traditionally the Christmas Eve session has been the first of the club’s three Christmas holidays gaming sessions. However this year it was to be our only planned club event, and our last for the foreseeable future at our hosts The Luxe.
Due to the number attending this gaming session and the restriction on the number of tables we were allowed to have set up (just the one). Our planned Bohemian Villages game was postponed into the new year and our “new” venue. Which means I am still the current reigning Bohemian Villages Champion.
Luckily Jonathan had games with him that played on the larger player count side. I hadn’t had time to grab anything specific (remember I barely had time to change out of work clothes) I had just grabbed my bag from our last session that was of no use.
Our first game of the afternoon was Jewel Heist.
Jewel Heist falls into what I would call Resistance style games, or hidden role/social deduction games.
The theme of this game is in the name! Thieves are trying to steal jewels whilst the detectives are trying to workout who the thieves are and make an arrest before all the jewels are gone.
In Jewel Heist there are physical jewels the thieves have to take! And that is where we start to see how Jewel Heist differentiates itself from other games in the genre.
This game relies on sound! What did you hear while your eyes were closed? Did you hear a marble falling? Did you hear someone moving? Which direction did the sound come from? Any audible clue to help narrow down the suspects.
There is also a time pressure on the thieves whilst taking the jewels. They have 15 seconds to pull off the heist each round. So they don’t get all the time in the world to pull off the perfect crime. They are forced to quick and potentially noisy.
I didn’t think I’d like this reliance on sound and the time restriction but it worked really well, and I found myself enjoying it.
Although I would say a rectangular table probably isn’t the optimal table for this game, and that a circular one would have been much much better.
The game then borrows from Cash ‘n Guns for its voting system of who players think are thieves for each round by pointing fingers (not foam guns) simultaneously. Another clever way of differentiating itself.
Overall I think this is a nice addition to the genre. It’s different enough to make it standout. Although it seemed overly complicated/fiddly with the jewel tower, it wasn’t. It’s a fairly streamlined fun.
We played best of three games. It ended up the thieves winning two games to one. And I was never on the winning side.
Our final game of the afternoon was Saboteur. I think all we need to take away from this fun hidden role game was I didn’t win, and neither did Jonathan. Although he did get more points than me!
Although it’s been about two years since I played Saboteur, and I do enjoy playing it. Why haven’t I added it to my collection? I think I did look at getting it not long after first playing it. But why I never pulled the trigger I have no idea. Most likely won’t be adding it any time soon. I think there are three members now with copies.
I had a great afternoons gaming with some great people.
At the end of the session we collected my other table and they both left with us to go to their new home.
Oh I also had a delivery Christmas Eve. The Kickstarter stretch goal packs for Fields of Green and it’s expansion Grand Fair (which I don’t currently own) arrived from Artipia Games.
Fields of Green KS stretch goals and Promos
I love that Artipia sell these, and wish more publishers did this.
Thursday morning was another Rivals session round Diego’s.
I had floated the idea two or three days before that we might build our own decks to play with. However it turns that idea was a bit optimistic taking into account work/life stuff and being knackered! So precon decks it was.
This time it was a battle of the clans from the two expansions. I was playing Tremere from the Blood and Alchemy expansion. Whilst Diego went with Gangrel from the Wolf and Rat expansion.
Tremere vs Gangrel
Our first game was probably our fastest game ever.
Diego won the roll off with my who goes first dice. Which meant I drew 2 vampire cards. One of those was Grigori.
Naturally to make best use of his leaders ability, agenda and haven Diego needed vampires in the street. Which would play in to Sonja Valentine’s ability.
With me putting out Grigori on my first turn. I was soon replacing the Gangrel blood on his leader with Tremere blood.
My leader (right) and vampire I played first turn(left)
The blood on his leader got less and less from activating abilities, it eventually got to the point where the only blood keeping his leader alive was my Tremere blood. Whilst this was happening I was thinking to myself “don’t play a vampire, don’t play a vampire”. All the time keeping my best poker face on trying not to show I was about to deliver the winning blow.
In my hand waiting for that moment of there to be no more Gangrel blood on Diego’s leader, and only my Tremere blood was Extinguish Vitae.
Diego finished his turn. Sonja replaced the final bit of Gangrel blood with Tremere blood. Then I took my first action which was to play Extinguish Vitae. I had defeated Diego’s leader and his only vampire to get the win.
Game two Diego had learnt his lesson and would not be making the same mistake.
The second game was very much more of a fight with the two of us trading blows looking for that moment to grab victory. The game ebb and flowed between us both having brief moments were one of us might have a slight advantage or we’d start gaining a bit of momentum before having our plans foiled by the other.
I think it helped in this game that I didn’t find Grigori, or that I didn’t draw that many ritual cards. Although I did get a Seek Knowledge out early on to give me some extra card draw to try and find answers!
My downfall in game two
In the end my undoing was “self inflicted” when I forgot about the end of turn trigger on the ongoing event The Hunger. I only had three prestige left, four vampires out, none at full health. Even if I had remembered I wasn’t able to mitigate the loss of prestige.
But a great morning of playing Rivals. We just need to get others interested and playing.
Last night was the last fortnightly Friday gaming session of 2021. Once again it was really well attended. Which is great to see.
I hadn’t planned on bringing any games to the evening. But my judgement got the better of me, and I threw in two or three “filler games” just in case.
It’s a good job I did. We were short of games that played at the higher player count.
We had two tables split as a group of five and a group of six.
Our table started off playing a very new arrival (came Tuesday if I remember correctly) Dune Betrayal.
A Resistance style game with a Dune theme. What’s not to like about it? Well obviously a lot if you are not a fan of the books/films, hidden traitor style games or sci-fi. But other than that nothing!
Obviously this was a “learning game”.
I have to say compared to Resistance (which you will naturally do) Dune Betrayal does seem over complicated. And I think even if you haven’t played Resistance that it would seem that way too.
However the mechanisms used in Dune Betrayal do get round that who to pick with zero information for the first mission that Resistance has.
Despite the feeling of being over complicated I do like the round structure of having three rounds drafting action cards, then two targeting rounds before all is revealed and scoring takes place.
What I like about them is that each round players are possibly revealing which side their identity is on by which action cards they are taking, and also who they are playing target cards on or not. Even by whose trait cards they look at.
And I do like that once a trait card has been seen it gets secured/locked so no one else can look at them. Plus you have no idea which of your two trait cards the person has seen.
I think like others of its ilk, this game is reliant on who you are playing with. Get the mix wrong and the game is not a fun experience for anyone.
Sadly for the bad guys House Harkonnen lost both games. Which obviously means House Atreides won both. I was on the losing side in both games.
Our tables second game of the evening was For Sale.
I’m so glad I added this classic to my collection. It’s just out and out fun.
Plus I’ve played it twice now, and won both games!
For Sale Results
We finished the evening with a game of No Thanks.
Another fun classic. We played two rounds.
No Thanks Results
The other table played Jamaica and Love Letter 2nd Edition (it supports up to six players). A big thank you to Diego for leading that table.
I think it can safely be said the Friday gaming has ended on a high.
Next up the Christmas Eve Bohemian Villages Championship. The banter/smack talk ramped up last night. It’s going to get worse over the next few days.
Friday evening saw some Commander action taking place. This time it was against some ex-students.
The first game we played saw me take my Eldrazi deck out for a spin. But it was too slow, and none of us could stop Bob doing the inevitable and defeat us all. Once he had his Emrakul, The Aeons Torn out it was game over. I wasn’t finding any answers. I definitely wasn’t getting to my big Eldrazi hitters. All we could do was say “gg” through gritted teeth.
Our second game saw my Ur-dragon deck hit the table. Two cool things happened in this game. Firstly I got to play Tiamat. Which is an obnoxious card to play. Being able to get from your deck your five most nastiest dragons is obscene. It puts a big target on you as your opponents know what you just got.
Secondly despite having over 100 life I was still able to have my dragon horde swoop in and kill Bob. Giving double strike to them all really helped. Sadly only 20 points of that damage was Commander damage. Despite me trying to find a way to get that final single point of damage.
Taking Bob out meant I was also dead. But there was nothing I could do to stop the silly number of hydra tokens that were coming my way.
It was a fun evening of Commander. But my losing streak was continuing.
Saturday saw not only Diego playing Tapestry but Jonathan joined us as well.
Both had not played before. But that didn’t scare me off from teaching the game with Plans and Ploys (P&P), and the Arts and Architecture (A&A) expansions thrown in to the mix.
I had rigged the tech and tapestry decks so that we got to see the new cards from the newest expansion A&A. Plus we only chose civilisations from the two expansions. I also didn’t use the advanced capital city mats from A&A. However I did shuffle up both sets of landmark cards from the expansions before drawing four of them.
Even taking into account the above setting up, plus the addition of the fifth track and masterpiece cards. I don’t think with the expansions added into the mix there was too much additional stuff, or over complication to the game to make it too much for new players to take in.
I specifically advanced on the new Arts track because I wanted to see it in use, and try the new masterpiece cards.
Tapestry
I have to say I liked the new masterpiece cards. But not the card size! Can’t sleeve them unless I cut some sleeves down.
Loved being able to use the inspiration tiles to upgrade one of the resource tracks.
I was already a fan of the landmark cards after they were introduced in P&P. So having more of them is just great.
Another thing I like about the arts track is that you choose which type of income building you move to your capital city. It made hitting the landmark card trigger I had very easy.
I need to sleep on the above and get some more games in so I can expand on those very basic initial thoughts above. At the moment there is a germ of a thought that the above is too powerful. But is it? Does it balance out if others are also doing it?
I think this was the most I’d done completing rows and columns in my capital city. It felt pretty cool. It certainly looked pretty cool.
I knew Diego would like the game. But would Jonathan?
He did indeed like it. And that’s despite getting salty over the dystopia tapestry card I played allowing me to grab any landmark on the landmark board. Naturally I went with the tallest (on the off chance there was a tie for first place).
Plus the end of turn trigger for one of his landmark cards was an issue. Jonathan will explain better than me in the comments his issue with this. For me it was not an issue.
Anyway here are the final scores showing I had indeed broken the week long losing streak I’d been on.
