Category Archives: Game day

Blood and cake!

Game day, Rivals, Vampire the Masquerade Rivals, vampire the masquerade: rivals

Last week Diego and myself had arranged to visit Jeff to play some Vampire the Masquerade Rivals. Yesterday was the prearranged day.

I’d stopped at Asda on the way out and picked up some pastries to go with our beverages.

When it came to choosing our clans I decided I wanted to sit safely in my haven replacing the blood of my rival, so I chose Tremere. Jeff went with Brujah because he knew that clan from his learning game in the later months of last year. Diego went Gangrel. You can see who our leaders were below.

Who played which clan and their leader.

My rival was Jeff, Diego was Jeff’s, and I was Diego’s.

Multiplayer is such a different game to a two player game.

I needed Jeff to be more aggressive towards his rival Diego. But Jeff spent too much time early on taking out mortals in the street. Leaving Diego free to annoy me.

Luckily I had a ritual out that increased my havens secrecy, which bought me breathing space from Diego.

Jeff only had two vampires out. So when he did eventually start taking on Diego a window was starting to open for me. Which became wide open when Jeff attacked Diego in his haven and both the target and attacker got taken out and sent to torpor. Leaving Jeff with a solo vampire on three blood in the street.

I was able to knock out Jeff’s only remaining vampire to grab a victory by KO!

It was an opportunistic win. Next turn Jeff would have grabbed the win.

The final scores for VtM Rivals

After my glorious victory in Rivals we played a game of Potion Explosion.

This has been a game I’d wanted to try since it came out a few years ago. However as far as I knew no-one I knew had a copy. But that changed last Friday when Diego bought it along and played it. So I commented at the time I’d like to try it and could he bring it along Monday.

Which brings us nicely to our time after our three player game of Rivals and a coffee and cake break.

I’m not sure how I feel about Potion Explosion.

I enjoyed the game. But did I like it? I didn’t hate or dislike it. I’d play the game again.

The game has that table presence, that wow factor, which has people not playing saying “what’s this game?”

Which is why I’m unsettled by my reaction to the game. I like it when games make you feel strongly about them even if it’s a negative reaction.

I can’t put my finger on why Potion Explosion makes me feel this way.

As you can see compared to the others my final score was not even close.

Potion Explosion Final Scores

I had a great morning gaming with two amazing friends. A fantastic way to end the shortest month of the year.

Saturday Gaming

Fenland Gamers, Game day

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.

New Game Sunday

Game day

Sunday I woke up thinking “I wonder if Jonathan would like to meet up and play Three Sisters this afternoon?”

So I sent a message to him.

As luck would have it he was indeed free.

A time and place was quickly agreed.

Come the agreed time Jonathan and I met up at the Wisbech St Mary Sports and Social Club, the agreed place.

Our first game naturally was the recently arrived Kickstarter Three Sisters.

For our first play I thought we’d leave the mini weather expansion in the box.

Three Sisters

This is a really nice roll and write. There is so much to like about it.

For starters it’s use of a rondel for selecting actions. You choose the die you want to draft and get the action underneath it. The die you choose selects the garden you are going to plant or water. However this also means the die you draft can deny the other players of getting that action. So you could hate draft. It’s genius.

This game really combos off. Early on Jonathan was comboing off whilst I looked on in awe and jealousy, thinking I’d made the wrong choices. You really do need to be paying attention to what you trigger.

I like how everyone gets to do one common rondel action based the position of the lowest valued die left. The highest value die left is used by the weather expansion to determine the weather for the following round. Tie this in with the end of round game effect.

The rondel board with its thick cardboard puts many boardgames to shame. For a roll and write the component quality is very good.

As you can see from the scores below the early combo stuff paid dividends for Jonathan nabbing him the win.

Three Sisters final scores

Our game of Three Sisters counted towards the following ongoing challenges in the bgstat app.

Our next game was one of Jonathan’s called Gingerbread House.

I liked this “light gateway” game a lot. Despite the designer having created the not a game Barenpark.

This game has a definite Kingdomino vibe to it.

The personal tile supply is a cool twist. As is collecting resources to capture character cards from for want of a better description, trade row.

I like how completing a level on your board gets you a bonus card.

Gingerbread House

As you can see from the scores below I managed to squeak out a victory.

Gingerbread House scores

Playing Gingerbread House only counted towards one challenge.

Our final game of the afternoon was Tussie Mussie.

I nearly played this whilst I was with Nathan. However I’d left the rules at home so was unable to.

This is a really really nice “I split, you choose” card game.

A simple mechanic. But choosing which card to have face up and which to have face down to offer to your opponent can be a very hard decision to make. Then flip that decision from the opposite side, it’s just as hard a choice.

Tussie Mussie

Once round three had finished and the scores tallied I came out the winner.

Tussie Mussie punched well above its weight and counted towards three challenges.

I had a great afternoon gaming with Jonathan. We played some great games. Now to get them back to the table sooner than later.

And yes I will indeed be closing the post with the photographic talents of Jonathan.

Photos by Jonathan

Solo vs Fett

Game day

The yesterday morning started off so well with bacon sarnies. I’ve not had one of these for breakfast for a long time. It was washed down with coffee. But I’ve been slumming it while visiting Nathan by having to drink instant coffee! It was Kenco Americano instant coffee. Which to be fair is on the top end of the instant quality scale. But still instant!

Our first game of the day was Star Wars Outer Rim.

I bought Outer Rim during the first lockdown in 2020. It seems so long ago now. Obviously it hadn’t made it to the table since gaming in person has become a thing again. We (I’m including other Fenland Gamers here) have so many games to play that we purchased during the last two years of global events it’s just not possible to get them all to the table so soon.

Luckily I knew the theme of this would appeal to Nathan and be a good game to learn with him.

Nathan chose Boba Fett to play as. Whilst I naturally had to go for Han Solo.

Despite everything being bagged and in deck boxes setup is still pretty long. It’s mainly all down to the many decks you need to separate out and shuffle.

The game is also a table hog. Not only the space required for the board and decks, but also for the player boards too. Luckily we had a pretty large kitchen island we were playing on.

We naturally were playing a two player game which meant there was very little player interaction throughout the game. At the higher player counts I’m hoping that improves. The encounter cards certainly imply that it should.

Star Wars Outer Rim

As a two player experience the game was ok. We had a good time. Nathan enjoyed it. We were playing to eight fame points as recommended in the Learn to Play rule book, instead of ten. Nathan during the game asked if we could play to ten fame points. Which is a good sign he was enjoying the game.

I did like that both our chosen characters had unique abilities that were thematic to the character. Plus our characters both had personal goals that if met allowed you to flip them over to a more powerful side. And the goals were also very thematic to the character.

I did manage to get a YT-1300 which also had a thematic shop goal that if met allowed me to turn it into the Millennium Falcon.

The goals were pretty cool and something else to aim for whilst playing.

In the end I managed to not only hit the required eight fame points but also hit ten, for the win.

Final scores

Naturally playing a new game bought during the pandemic has helped progress one or two of my current gaming challenges.

Challenges

Our second and final game of the day before I had to leave was Onitama.

Another new game for Nathan. Another game that he beat me at. Which will cheer Jonathan up (see his comment on yesterdays post).

Onitama

Sadly after being beaten by Nathan it was time to leave. It’s always the hardest part of visiting him. But at least now I’m in a position where I can visit him more regularly.

I had such a great time with Nathan. I always love playing games with him, it such quality time. Plus so far I haven’t introduced him to a game yet that he doesn’t like.

I can’t wait until my next visit (hopefully the start of March).

A splendid afternoon gaming

Game day

Yesterday was a rare day off for me at the moment.

I’d spent the morning tidying up an area in my bedroom to have my Raspberry Pi P400 set up for a project. I hadn’t long finished when I saw a message from Jonathan asking me if I fancied gaming that afternoon.

Naturally I responded positively. A time and place was agreed.

At the appointed time I joined Jonathan at the Wisbech St Mary Sports and Community Centre to play some games.

In my bag was the still in wrap Splendor Marvel. Yep I’d been so tired since getting it I hadn’t even opened it up.

Jonathan suggested we give it a play. I was up for that.

It was nice to see Space Cowboys have used a heavier poker chip again. I have a first printing Splendor which also had a heavier poker chip. I prefer the heavier chip. They feel better in the hand. Why am I going on about this? Later printings of Splendor had lighter poker chips in them. There was a lot of criticism about this at the time when it came to light.

There are some differences between Splendor and Splendor Marvel. Not major but some.

The gold poker chip has been replaced with a grey S.H.I.E.L.D. Token. There are four Location Tiles that are double sided and replace the noble tiles.

A new Avengers Assemble Tile has been introduced that is worth three points. This is an interesting addition. On some of the cards is an Avengers symbol. The first person to have three of those symbols gets the Avengers Assemble Tile. However if another player gets more of the symbols in front of them they get the tile instead. So this tile will move around the table. It also introduces the possibility of untriggering the end of the game!

There is a sixth poker chip called the Time Token that is green. The only way to get one is to buy a level three card. You can’t spend the token. However you need one to trigger the end of the game!

There is also an Infinity Gauntlet Tile that acts as a reminder of the end game trigger. To trigger the end of the game you need 16 Infinity Points AND 1 bonus of each color AND 1 Green token.

Splendor Marvel

One thing I wish there was for this version of the game is a play mat. I do like the official Splendor play mat. And yes I could use that. But it’d look odd without Marvel art work on it.

Sadly Jonathan beat me despite me having the Avengers Assemble Tile.

So I have both versions of Splendor (at the moment). But is there room for both in my collection? A bit of me says yes. I don’t have the expansion for Splendor. So Splendor Marvel gives me more bang for my money. I like the additions made to the game, especially the Avengers Assemble Tile and the majority gets it. If I had the original with the expansion I might find it a tougher decision. But theme and the changes mean Splendor Marvel is the one I’d keep out of the two.

We followed Splendor Marvel with one of Jonathan’s games, Tobago.

I’d never played Tobago before. So Jonathan did a rule rundown for me.

How best to describe the mechanics? There is definitely deduction as you try and work out where the treasure is hidden based on the clues for each treasure.

Hand management is there to as you manage your hand of clues, and deciding when and where to play them to help find the treasure.

There is definitely some variety with the use of a modular board.

Manipulating the clues so that treasures are located near to you and not near you opponents is key.

I liked the landmarks and the random placing of them following placement rules, tied in with the modular boards means no two games are going to be the same layout.

Tobago

I enjoyed the game and managed to amass a lot of the high value treasure cards.

Just so you know how comprehensive my victory was I’ve included the final scores below.

The gaming session was great for a couple of the challenges. But you’ll see that in a future post.

It was great getting some gaming in with Jonathan. It was just what I needed on my day off.

And here we are once more at the end of another post and the photos taken by Jonathan during our gaming session.


Photos taken by Jonathan

Funky Vampire Morning!

Funkoverse, Game day, Rivals, Vampire the Masquerade Rivals, vampire the masquerade: rivals, Vampire Wednesday Morning

My first gaming of 2022 was with Diego this morning.

The session started off so well with home made cheese cake and espresso coffee (for once hot! – Diego’s words not mine). I hadn’t expected the cheese cake but it was a most pleasant surprise. Despite only a couple of days earlier having teased Diego that he had made cake for another friend they had had round for coffee, but never me.

After a most enjoyable (ok it was amazing but need to under play it) slice of cheese cake the rest of the morning went down hill from there.

Our first game of the morning was a two player game of Vampire the Masquerade Rivals.

Tremere (Diego) vs Thin-blood (Me)

Once again it was a precon match up. We will get round to building our own decks. Honest.

Although I did manage to get all of my coterie out, I only drew one Alchemy card. Which was a pain.

However I did take out three citizens from the street. But I wasn’t taking them out fast enough to get the win.

I was undone by that ol’ Tremere blood magic. With Diego playing Grigori as his leader he was soon replacing the blood on my 1 blood potency vampires and then sending them to torpor when he paid for stuff with that blood.

Maybe I should have been more aggressive and attacked Grigori.

The final score of our game, confirming Diego’s victory.

Our next game was one I’d been wanting to get to the table for a while, Funkoverse.

I played Boom, Slash, Splash or T-Rex, Raptor and Jaws with Ghost companion. Whilst Diego chose The Black Widow, Arya with Needle, and Doc Brown.

Although I own a few of the Funkoverse sets, and therefore have a few maps. Having never played the game before I had no idea which maps were good for a first time play. So I chose the map on top of the stack of “smaller” map boards. Which just happened to be the map from the DC101 set. Diego chose which scenario we played for the map.

The scenario we played (chosen by Diego)

I’m not sure what advantage Jaws gets being submerged. I know whilst submerged it can’t do assist, challenge, or interact actions. It’s very thematic that’s for sure. But tactically I’m confused why you would want Jaws to be submerged.

We had done one big rules misplay. Once we interacted with a points marker we didn’t put the marker on the cool down track. We kept having a nagging feeling that we were missing something during the game. What was stopping you from camping next to a marker and interacting with it for both of your actions? If we had played it correctly I think there would have been different decisions and tactics used by us both.

I have to say Funkoverse looks lovely on the table. You are either a fan of the big headed character design or you are not! I obviously am a fan.

Game play wise, it might not be the most complicated skirmish game. But I like how it’s so quick to learn/pick up. It makes it very accessible I think.

Despite the fact I had already put together my team, I love how quick and easy team selection can be. It can be as simple as “I like that character, that character and that character”. Or you can look for synergies and make it a more complicated, in-depth affair.

Having double sided maps and four scenarios per set means you get a little variety in game play per set. However I think there is little or no variety in scenarios between sets. But I need to check that they are indeed similar/same.

This particular map did feel crowded with two three character teams. But that might have been to its advantage if we hadn’t done the misplay.

The final scores sadly show another Diego victory.

I look forward to getting Funkoverse back to the table, maybe with one of the bigger maps, different scenario, even with more players. Plus with the Thanos expansion it introduces ultimate mode, a one verses many game play. Which would be interesting to try.

After our gaming I had to pop into my place of employment to pick up a couple of things that I hadn’t been able to get elsewhere the day before. But thanks to Diego my purchases increased by a couple of items.

Christmas Eve Gaming

Fenland Gamers, Game day

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.

Tapestry of Dragons

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

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.

You know how this post is ending.

Photos taken by Jonathan

Some gaming

Fenland Gamers, Game day, game night

Last night was the monthly club meet up for December.

Unlike the Friday session numbers which have been incredible (for us) this get togethers attendance was on par with previous ones.

We split into two groups of three. Which saw Gavin, Colin and Jonathan playing Ticket to Ride, followed by Love Letter: Batman.

Whilst Julie, Macin and myself played a game Macin bought along Adrenaline.

The boardgame stats app reminded my it was way back in 2017 when I last played Adrenaline.

Adrenaline

It was nice to have this back to the table.

Naturally a refresher was needed on the rules. But things soon came back to me, and we were all running around, shooting each other with cool weapons, picking up items, and trying to get the killing shot.

Adrenaline is as fun as I remember, and I’m glad Macin bought his copy along.

Final scores for Adrenaline

This morning on my day off I got to play a game of Vampire the Masquerade Rivals with Diego.

Today it was the two new clans from the new Wolf and Rat expansion doing battle.

Diego chose the nosferatu deck, whilst I went with gangrel.

I got off to a good start but seemed to run out of steam in the middle to late game.

Although I did burn one of Diego’s vampires. Which was pretty cool.

However the nosferatu agenda is pretty powerful, and soon allows them to catch up any lead others might have, and then pull ahead.

Final result of Rivals

After being beaten by Diego we had enough time to do a learning game of Fields of Green (the game I bought off Gavin last night).

I got Fields of Green over Amongst the Stars because of the theme. With the farming theme I’m more likely to get it to the table with Jonathan. He doesn’t do sci-fi (amongst other themes).

I really liked this engine builder.

A two player game is slightly different to a regular three or four player game. So I’d like to try the game at its higher player count.

It plays quite quickly really for two players. But with the higher player count a draft mode is added at the start of each round. Which I’m sure will extend the play time.

But there is a lot to like about the game, but I’ll talk more about that stuff after the next play.

In the meantime the final scores below will confirm that I’m on a three game losing streak at the moment.

Final scores for Fields of Green

Ok having played a new to me game my challenge stats have been updated. So let’s share that progress.

My current challenge progress

Finally it’s time to end on the usual high note of Jonathan’s photos.

Photos taken by Jonathan from last nights gaming session.

Stay fluid

Fenland Gamers, Game day

Well the plans for getting Tapestry and it’s expansion Plans and Ploys did change. One of the players had to drop out. We knew it was a possibility. One we hoped wouldn’t happen, but that’s life in the current world events. It was out of the control of everyone.

However as Confucius said ‘The green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm.’ a last minute plea for players was answered with a maybe. Our plan was still alive but we wouldn’t know until mid day if it would survive.

But survive it did, so Marcin, Julie and myself met at The Luxe to build our civilisations and see which one would be the victorious.

I had one aim in this game. I wanted to get into space. I’d never done it before and it was something cool I wanted to do. Even if doing so meant I didn’t win.

Naturally the Plans and Ploys adds more tapestry cards, more civilisations, more technologies, more tiles. And that sort of stuff is always welcome. However the new landmark cards I liked. All three of us got our personal landmarks out during the game. Which was cool. I liked how they gave you something to possibly aim for.

I think the title of this blog post and the Confucius quote best describes my approach to Tapestry when playing. You need to be able to adapt to changing circumstances, mainly from the tapestry cards you draw or play. At one point I was planning to play one tapestry card on my income phase however because of a conquer action that Marcin took I decided to play a different tapestry card to exploit that instead.

I managed to draw a few tapestry cards early on which included two trap cards. Which I did use. The first time I used one was with Marcin attacking the central tile that I controlled. Sadly he had one of the new cards that countered a trap card! Foiled. However the second time that Marcin tried taking over one of my lands the trap card was successful.

Somehow my civilisation did manage to get into space and discover a monolith (one of the new tiles). All very 2001 A Space Odyssey. But so cool. Getting into space didn’t disappoint.

Marcin was the first of us to do the final income round, and in doing so set the score of 136 that Julie and I had to try and beat in our final income rounds.

Julie was next and did really well to get over 50 victory points to take her into first place with 138 points.

Then it was my turn. For the majority of the game I had been languishing well behind the other two. My final two ages saw me catch up and move into second place. But could I get enough points to win? I wasn’t sure I could. I thought I’d end up last. However after my final income round I slide into first place by a point.

It was a very very close game in the end. But whether you win by a single point (as I did today) or by a country mile it’s still just a win at the end of the day.

Final scores

Just realised as I write this post after the fact I missed 10 points for reaching the end of a development track! Doh!

It was a great afternoon gaming, great to get Tapestry to the table again, great hosts, and great friends.

Oh the title of this post I took from S.W.A.T., it’s what the team leader Hondo says to his team before they leave the tactical vehicle to respond to an incident.