After last years forced hiatus due to obvious world events happening the annual Jeff’s Birthday Gaming Bash was back.

This years big game saw the return of Twilight Imperium 3, which was last played at the bash in 2018 (joys of recording plays in the board game stats app).

I’m a fan of Twilight Imperium, I own the fourth edition plus it’s first and currently only expansion. Although yet to play it with the expansion due to the fore mentioned world events. The thing with these big games is if you get to play them once a year that’s good going. Anything more than that is amazing and unusual.

Before hand via the messenger group Jeff shared which optional rules would be played with the base game to “enhance” our experience. Which you can see below in the included screen shot for those interested.

As you can see in the collage below the tile layout used was a two galaxy one, with Mecatol Rex in the middle, plus a dual worm hole tile by itself.

Who got what race, and was positioned where on the map was decided by the cards. I pulled the ace and got to choose first. My choice was position on map or race, whichever choice I went with would mean I’d be last to choose for the other. I went with position on map.

Below is how the races were spread out between the two galaxies after the selection process.

• The Mentak Coalition – me (Galaxy alpha)
• The Xxcha Kingdom – Katie (Galaxy alpha)
• Sardakk N’orr – Gavin (Galaxy alpha)
• The Emirates of Hacan – Diego (Galaxy beta)
• The Clan of Saar – Jonas/Gerry (Galaxy beta)
• The Winnu – Jeff (Galaxy beta)

Before play commenced an end time was agreed by everyone. I had the time constraint of I had to leave by 6pm. So it was agreed that at 5pm the current round would be completed and that would be the end of the game, highest score at that point would be declared the victor.

I had decided to concentrate on production and technology to make use of the “aggressive” nature of my race. During the whole game I only got to take a trade good twice from another player. The swines kept spending them so I couldn’t help relieve them of the pressure of storing those trade goods.

The beta galaxy compared to the alpha galaxy seemed a lot more peaceful, and more interested in trade deals and alliances! In the alpha galaxy it looked like an arms race. Gavin upgraded his pds units so they could fire into neighbouring sectors. Which meant I had to too.

I did warn my fellow alpha galaxy companions do not attack me, retribution would be swift. And that retribution was swift indeed. Katie decided to attack me. However between my upgraded pds unit and race ability to have a free attack by two destroyers before combat started, her aggression against me was stopped before it started. I was going to be vindictive and retaliate by destroying her home world. But pity got the better of me, and I didn’t want to totally ruin her first experience of the game.

While we in the alpha galaxy were duking it out, the beta galaxy occupants were busy clocking up objectives and victory points. It was a good two rounds before I even scored an objective.

In a game like Twilight Imperium it’s individual moments that make the day memorable. Like when I lost a carrier, 4 ground units and a cruiser when they flew into a super nova! How everyone did laugh at my mishap. I admit it did hurt. But I could live with it as it sealed off a worm hole, and added a barrier between me and Katie, helping to seal up my borders.

Gavin had one in the last round when he took out my War Sun with a single point of damage by playing an action card that destroyed a ship he did damage to. Getting a War Sun out was a personal target I had set myself. I knew I was out of the running for victory. So getting that out on to the board was a personal win. Sadly it was too late in the day to do any real damage. As was my final arrival in the beta galaxy. But I got there!

The final two rounds were basically team Jonas/Gerry jockeying with Jeff for completing objectives and victory. Which allowed Diego to sneak in and steal second place. However team Jonas/Gerry were the victors, and Jeff falling into third spot.

Lunch for the day was once again homemade curry made by Jeff. Which as usual bloody amazing.

The only drawback on the day was once I got home. Mum had not had a good day looking after Nan. So I need to look at how to get some help/support for her while I’m out for something like this. It also impacts if I can go see my son for a couple of days or UKGE next year.

But it was a great day otherwise. Looking forward to next year!

Yesterday afternoon saw another battle for control of the planet Arrakis, also known as Dune.

This time it was the Harkonnen (me), Atreides (Jonas), Emperor (Diego), Space Guild (Oli) and the Fremen (Jeff) slogging it out, making alliances, all for control of the spice.

The Emperor and Harkonnens made the first alliance. At that point they had three strong holds between them, and just needed to clinch the final fourth one. Something they failed to do, and spent more time defending what they had at a great cost.

Later on a more potent alliance was made between the Space Guild and the Fremen, leaving the Atreides out in the cold, struggling for spice. This was an alliance that grabbed the win of four strongholds in round seven. The Space Guild ability to take their turn when they liked during the movement phase allowed them to pick off the two remaining strongholds that they needed.

I enjoyed the game as a five player experience. Playing the Harkonnens was fun. I loved having a bigger hand of treachery cards, and more options on the traitor front. Holding Carthag was something I wanted to do for as long as possible because of the benefits being there gave me. Such as great movement range and increased spice mining.

I’m not sure about alliances for odd numbers. There will always be that one person left out, competing against the odds. The solution is possibly no alliances at all or to,allow more than two houses in an alliance.

But for a thirty five year old game, I don’t think they have changed the rules hardly at all in this reprint, it holds up amazingly well.

We had a blast for the afternoon. I look forward to the next “big” game afternoon.

Wow it’s been a few days since the last post. A relief for some, a disappointment for a minority.

In that time of incommunicado there was the first Friday gaming of the year. There was a good turn out for us of seven. So we split into two groups, a three and four.

But Saturday saw a game hit the table that I’ve been wanting to play since it arrived.

November last year saw the reprinting of the 35 year old classic board game Dune by Galeforce Nine. Who by the way have the Dune licence now and are planning on releasing new Dune based games in the future.

Dune is a game based on the classic sci-fi book by Frank Herbert. You don’t need to have read it, or seen the movie or tv mini series to play it. But like all things based on a licence of some kind it helps to be familiar with the source material.

Although the game will play between two to six players. This is one of those rare games that plays it’s best at the maximum player count.

Sadly this first time playing the game was not to be at that player count but with three players.

In the rule book they recommend that the factions used for this player count are the Harkonnens, Fremen and Atreides. So this is what we went with for our first play. Who got which faction was decided randomly. I got the Freman, Oli got Atreides and Diego naturally got the Harkonnens.

We also jumped in the deep end and used all of the advanced rules except for the advanced combat. Which seemed to over complicate the combat.

Dune is one of those games that has a reputation for taking a long time to play. The play throughs by MCDM on YouTube are over three hours, and that’s for seven rounds and six players. In the original version of the game the maximum number of rounds is twelve. So if the MCDM folks had played to that limit the sessions potentially could have been much much longer. In this reprint it’s a ten round maximum limit.

In our game we hit a win condition in the ninth round. This took us around two hours. Which I think was pretty good. Especially considering this was our first time playing the game and all that entails as well.

I loved the game. It didn’t disappoint.

Galeforce Nine have done a great job producing the game. You not only get a well written rule book it also summarises the events of the book. They also put in a quick start booklet, which is a nice addition. The component quality is good. The faction cards summarising the factions abilities both for basic and advanced play is a useful thing to have. The only quibble I have is the insert. If the card storage areas had been slightly bigger they would easily have fitted the cards sleeved.

Playing the game at first it may seem overwhelming and complicated. Each round is broken down into 9 stages. But the majority of these are very quick. With only two of them really eating up the majority of the game time. And you quickly get into the rhythm of the game.

Like all great games the time just flies whilst playing and you lose all sense of how long you have been playing. You are constantly engaged even when it’s not your turn.

I like how the first player each round is decided using the storm marker as it moves round the game board. With the first player being the player that the storm will hit next during it’s next move.

The alliances I think would work better in the higher player counts. In the three player game it’s something I think in future games I’ll house rule not to use. I spent the last two or three rounds trying to stop the unholy alliance of the Atreides and Harkonnens. Which was a very difficult task, almost Herculean. Unsurprisingly one I failed at.

The unique player powers are both cool and thematic. Forcing a player to play to their faction strengths. But the unique powers during play aren’t the only unique thing about some of the factions, some have a unique win condition also.

The art has a retro fifties sci-fi vibe to it. That I like a lot.

I don’t think the art would look out of place on the cover of a sci-fi book from that period. I love how it evokes that feeling in me.

The bidding for treachery cards is cool. You need these cards for combat, they can be offensive, defensive or a complete donkey (there is an actual donkey). However you can only have a maximum of four of these cards. And if at the start of the bidding stage you are at that limit you can’t take part in the bidding. So you have this whole hand management element going on. Then add on the fact you are bidding on cards that you have no idea what they are, and the risk of winning a dud. And do you bid to push up the cost of the winning bid and deprive your opponents of their spice? It’s a cool mechanic.

Combat is fun, and you can see it’s influence on Scythe. I like the basic version of combat. It just flows. The advanced version can have half forces, troops used need to be paid for with spice. I can see how this adds to the decisions that need to be made of when to spend your spice. But the extra overhead I’m not sure is worth it. Naturally I will try the advanced combat at some point.

I like this game a lot. I can’t wait to get it to the table again, especially with higher player counts.

Yesterday Jonathan and I met up for some gaming.

It was the perfect opportunity for Jonathan to get a couple of his Christmas haul games to the table.

I’m going to keep this post short. And just give overall impressions of the game without going into much detail.

First up was Karuba. A new game to me, this tile laying, route building is definitely on the light side. It’s also a quick two player game (although it plays more). This is definitely a good intro game for new gamers.

However despite enjoying the game (I won) afterwards I kind of had that empty, was that it? feeling. It’s not really a game for experienced gamers.

Our second game The Quacks of Quedlinburg was a learning game. This is a bag building, push your luck game.

There are some nice touches to the game mechanics that add to the pressure to push your luck in each of the nine rounds, and a nice catch up mechanism also.

Despite losing, I enjoyed the game. It’s a good game.

Our final game of the afternoon was the return of a great trick taking game, that hadn’t been to the table for something like three years, Haggis.

After Jonathan was lulled into a false sense of security by racing into a commanding lead. Like the team I have supported since the age of seven, Liverpool I didn’t give up and clawed my way back into the game, and grab the win.

This was a great afternoon of gaming to finish the year off with. I got to try two games I’d wanted to try, and get a favourite back to the table. All whilst also getting to have banter with another friend.

Games Played: Karuba, The Quacks of Quedlinburg, Haggis

An opportunity to meet up with my friend Nathan and play a game or two with him was too good to turn down. Especially considering I had a couple of new arrivals I was eager to get to the table.

Jonathan had been invited as well. But considering the day he was a bit snowed under with chores to get ready for the big day. So it was a rather pleasant surprise when he turned up with his daughter and his copy of Bohemian Villages.

We started off playing and learning Las Vegas. Which despite being an “old” game, was new to me and my collection.

Our second game was my other new arrival Skull. Which was also a new to me game.

Both games had been bought as games that could be played at a club night. Games that would support 5 or 6 players, quick and easy to teach, and also roughly about 30 minutes to play. They ticked all the boxes.

We all had fun playing them. With Las Vegas edging it as the favourite of the two. But I’ll write more about these two games after more plays.

Our finally game of the afternoon was last played at the UKGE a couple years back. Jonathan’s daughter still hasn’t managed to defeat me at the game. I was a very gracious and humble winner, and celebrated my victory the only way one could in such a grudge match with a celebratory “in your face little girl”. Yes I was that mature.

A great afternoon of gaming with some great friends. What more couple you ask for?

Games played: Las Vegas, Skull, Bohemian Villages

Yesterday I got to play Tapestry again with Jeff.

I deviated from the usual setup and dealt 3 civilisation cards to each of us to choose from instead of 2. I thought why not? There was just the two of us, and we had a better chance of hitting a civilisation we liked the look of.

I chose the Heralds who were based in the mountains, whilst Jeff chose the Merrymakers who were based in the tropics.

The reason I went with the Heralds was because I liked the idea of instantly being able to put out my tapestry card and start reaping the benefits. Plus being able to make use of When Played tapestry cards during my income age.

It was a risky decision I thought. It relied on me top decking a good tapestry card to start with, and Jeff and I to hit and play tapestry cards with the when played ability.

Sadly the cards were not in my favour. I really couldn’t utilise my initial tapestry card, I really needed to get a tapestry card before I went to my second income age. Jeff never played any tapestry cards I could potentially use. I didn’t get any great when played cards to use. But that was the risk, and it might have worked with more players.

Although Jeff’s Merrymakers weren’t very merry with their expansionist ways and conquering all over the place. Whilst my Heralds decided to keep their good news to themselves!

I had a 40 point lead after taking my final income round. I knew Jeff would close that down and win. The question was now how big would that victory be? In the end Jeff stormed home to a great victory.

I think next time I play Tapestry as a 2 player game I’ll try the included variant rule that adds a simulated third player. I’m curious to see how that works.

But I had a blast playing Tapestry, good company and great hosts (The Luxe Cinema).

Yesterday afternoon at The Luxe I got to play a 3 player game of Tapestry. Jeff and his son Jonas had very kindly agreed to meet up and play.

Unlike Friday where Gavin and I scanned through the civilisations and chose one from them. This time I went with the official way of dealing 2 to a player and they chose one to keep and play, discarding the other (Some online have suggested a mulligan option to supplement this rule).

I went with the Isolationists, which encouraged me during the game to explore and conquer. Jeff went with the Historians, while Jonas went with the Traders.

Tapestry is just a stunning looking game. From the art to the hand made landmarks. Tie that in with the usual high production values for the components of the game and you have yet another beautifully produced game by Stonemaier Games.

The boards (Civilization, Capital City, and Player) have a lovely rough texture to the front of them. Jeff liked the effect but felt he should be striking a match on them! Surprisingly the super thin 4 page rule book didn’t use the same paper that was used in Wingspan.

The game once set up takes up a lot of space. Not just the board. But the play area needed by players. Things can get quite wide. Especially when you start getting technology cards, and possibly additional civilisation cards.

I do like games that have a table presence, and look a bit theatrical on the table. They draw players in, and give a wow factor. I think Tapestry has this, and unusual for a game (or I can’t think of one at the moment) particularly on the player boards with the capital cities when they get buildings and landmarks added.

Friday there was no teaching of the game. Gavin and I had both been watching YouTube videos before hand, and had a pretty good grasp of what to do. So yesterday was the first time I had to teach the game. For a game with basically 2 actions that you can do, it still took about 20 minutes to teach. Which still isn’t bad.

Tapestry is all about developing your civilisation over 5 eras. Hence why it identifies itself as a civilisation game on the box. But does that theme come across while playing? To some extent yes, and also a big no.

This is a very euro like game, where you are building an engine. The purpose of that engine is to get you resources and victory points. The more resources you get the more things you can do. And that engine building bit doesn’t feel very thematic.

It’s little touches like when you place a building and reveal the space underneath has a word/technology that you have just developed like VR or video games. And the story your tapestry cards tell for your civilisation through the eras, and the technology that your civilisation invents, and the tracks you advance on. Although I think Jonas’s civilisation explored space without developing any technology! It’s that weaving a story/narrative for your civilisation that feels thematic.

The actual action of advancing on one of the four tracks, allows you to conquer, explore, develop technology, advance on a track, get tapestry cards, place buildings, plus on certain spaces pay for an additional benefit. The nice thing is that the main action theme for a track like exploring for example is only possible to do a limited number of times.

I like the simplicity of conquering a tile. Plus the random element of the dice rolls, where you then have to decide between points or a resource. It’s quick and easy to teach. In fact you probably take longer deciding which die result to take than the conquering action itself. There is a way to avoid having a tile you control conquered using a Trap tapestry card. The aggressor still gets to roll the dice, and places a toppled token on your tile. But you remain in control of it. With the basic rule of a tile can’t have more than 2 tokens on it of any kind. It locks down the tile so you can’t be attacked again on that space.

I love that each era you are trying to eek out the most value from the limited resources that you have. Which gets harder and harder as the further you advance on a track the more costly it becomes to advance and do the more powerful actions. It’s also fair to say you start off doing a handful of not so powerful things, and as the game progresses you get to do more and more, and the stuff you do is getting more and more powerful.

It’s this side of things, the engine building and the next point that makes Tapestry dry euro game like. Add in the capital city board and the trying to complete rows and columns (for points) along with 9×9 grids (which give you an instant resource of your choice when done).

I can see for some that doing their fifth and final income round, and having to sit and watch others continue playing may be an issue. Especially if the other players have a lot of actions they can still do. But I do like the fact everyone does their income rounds at different times, and you have that decision of when the optimal time is to take it. Sometimes it may be forced on you because you have no more resources or not enough left to take actions.

There is also the random nature of the tapestry cards that some may find clouds their enjoyment of a game. It’s possible to get cards that don’t synergise with your civilisation, or would have been better earlier in the game. But that’s not an issue for me, it’s a challenge to overcome.

I like Tapestry, can’t wait to play it again. It’s not replaced Scythe as my favourite Stonemaier Games game. But it’s good, real good.