Category Archives: game night

game night

Visitors from the Rhine

FEG@WL, Fenland Gamers, game night

Yep it’s been one of those weeks with not much on the gaming front going on. Which explains the lack of posts this week. Think of it as having a much needed holiday from my ramblings.

Earlier in the week Jonathan set up the Facebook event for the evenings gaming session. I posted a suggestion on the comment section for the event of playing Viticulture again but with the Visit from the Rhine Valley expansion.

Visit from the Rhine Valley was a small expansion that both Jonathan and I had picked up at the UK Games Expo over a year ago. Which as you can guess from the previous post we had not played. In fact my copy until Wednesday was still sealed.

Visit from the Rhine Valley is an alternate set of visitor cards for Viticulture. However these cards focus more on wine production than producing victory points. Setup is dead easy. You use these visitor cards instead of the ones in the core game.

I enjoyed these new cards, and their focus. They did seem very combo like. Earlier on I was able to play 2 Summer visitor cards that would unknowingly payoff and get me the (spoiler) win. Using the Vine Trader I was able to discard 2 cards to get €6 to take my coins up to the required €9 that I needed for the Premium Wine Dealer. Which in a single play gave me 7 champagne without the large cellar.

That would turn out to be a great play for later.

I love cards like the Skeptic where you could age something and fill an order. That card was a life saver. I was short by one for an order and would have had to wait until the next year before filling. But this card let me fill the order and get that all,important residual payment. But that card would easily combo with others that would allow you to make wine to use for using the Skeptic.

I was in the lead in our game, but Jonathan wasn’t far behind. I needed one more contract to complete to trigger the end of the game. Sadly I didn’t have the wine to complete any of the ones I had in hand. So I took the draw contract action, got to draw 2 cards. One of the two needed 9 champagne to complete. Wait I had 9 sitting in my cellar. That 7 I’d initially got had now aged into 9 bottles. I could complete an order. What a fortuitous top deck. And seeing that earlier play pay off. Wow. Until that point I hadn’t seen any contracts that needed champagne to complete.

It was enough to trigger the end of the game, and give me the win.

If I had one complaint about this expansion it’s the wording on some of the cards could be clearer.

One or two of the cards were worded like the example above. It wasn’t really clear was it pick just one, or could you do the first and one of the last two? We house ruled it was the former.

But this was a fun expansion. Loved the focus on wine production. Definitely a must buy for fans of Viticulture. Especially if the game has been played a lot, and you want to spice things up a little.

Our last game of the evening was Love Letter: Batman. It’s still a great game. Definitely a group favourite as a way to unwind at the end of an evening of gaming. Sadly Jonathan was able to grab the win.

A great evenings gaming.

Games Played: Viticulture, Love Letter: Batman

Wine and Cities

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night at the Fenland Gamers temporary home for gaming we held a Friday evening gaming session.

Our main game of the evening was a long over due to the table favourite of both Jonathan and myself, Viticulture.

Checking with my game stats this hasn’t hit the table for 14 months. I like that the app I use allows me to check this sort of thing out (I have about 4 years worth of data now). However in situations like this you can’t help feeling guilty when you see just how long it is between plays of games you really like.

We played just the basic essentials version (without any Tuscany stuff other than that included in this edition already) plus the Moorland Visitors shuffled in. Although funny story Jonathan asked about that whilst we were playing and I had no idea. But Jonathan recognised one or two of the cards. So they must have been shuffled in!

Jonathan won with a no wine production strategy. Gaining that victory point each turn from the turn order track, and various visitor cards. I think he completed a single order. I finished a whole 4 points behind him, which an extra couple of actions would have been closed and forcing the tie breakers. I’m not sure the usual suspect really got the harvest/wine/order side of the game. He came in a far and distant last.

Such a great, great game.

Our second and last game of the evening was Citadels.

Now I won this. But an interesting question happened at the end. I triggered the end of the game with 7 buildings. However on the final turn of the round Jonathan was the warlord and destroyed one of my buildings. It wasn’t clear whether Jonathan destroying my building stopped the end of the game or we finished and scored.

I ruled the game ended, because it had been triggered on my turn. And there wasn’t anything that said otherwise. And that Jonathan was only denying me points in the end scoring.

A great evening gaming, with classics hitting the table, one long overdue. And thanks to Jonathan for the photos above.

Games Played: Viticulture, Citadels

Rivers, Empires and Heroes

Fenland Gamers, game night

Friday evening saw Jonathan, Diego, myself and the usual suspect meet up at a temporary gaming space to have a club gaming session.

Yes our regular hosts The Luxe are still going through the drawn out pains of their refit. So have no seated area for us to play in. I had during the afternoon, and on the way to the gaming session tried to get my gaming table from them, but they were shut. Which was a bit odd, because they were still showing films. It was also damn inconvenient. Although on my way home I did see a member of staff in the reception area.

Our first game of the evening was The River. A new game to me. Last September at the damp squib Tabletop Gaming Live I was able to get a play of it on one of the demo tables.

Jonathan picked this up second hand at the expo. I think it was even sealed! I’m glad he did.

So what do we have here with The River? Basically it boils down to two mechanics worker placement and engine building. Both mechanics I love.

Naturally the point of the game is to score the most points. And you do this by constructing buildings (that have a resource cost to build, and have a point value that’s scored at the end), which gives you a bonus token (worth points, unless you get a zero value one), have matching terrain tiles in a column, and the good ol’ swap resources for points. Some of the terrain tiles also give bonuses at the end, such as points for certain types of terrain. Or the one that helped me out, that made all bonus tokens worth one extra point (yep I didn’t mind zero point bonus tokens).

Those bonus tokens, are interesting as a mechanic. Only about half are worth any points, with half worth zero. The top of the pile is worth the most (6 points, and only one of those) then they decrease in value, until they are value less. Construct a building and take the top most token. So it pays to construct quickly to maximise the points you get for doing it. I had a really explosive first round and built a building and grabbed the 6 value token way before the rest were ready. I don’t think they built until round two.

The game also plays fairly quickly. Which is nice.

As your engine gets stronger I like how you lose workers at certain points. So like Wingspan, as certain actions get more powerful you get less of them to do.

This is a fun, solid intro style worker placement/engine building game.

For the record and the history books I won.

Our second game of the evening was Imperial Settlers: Roll and Write. Diego chose this one because he wanted to try it. Since I shared my thoughts about the game Portal Games have released rules so that the Adventure mode pads can be used in multiplayer games. You can read those rules here. It was kind of fitting that the history books will sing about Diego’s glorious empire. Yep he won.

We finished off the evening with another new game for me, Rhino Hero.

Mash UNO with a dexterity game and you have Rhino Hero. I think that says all you need to know about the game.

I enjoyed the game. Just as I did years ago my game of Exploding Kittens. I’d play it again. But it won’t find a home in my collection or list of games to add to the collection.

After going to extra time, and then penalties, Diego won.

It was a fun evening, great company. Great to try some new games. I think next time to balance things out, we should try and get games not played for a while to the table or something from our piles of shame.

Games Played: The River, Imperial Settlers: Roll and Write, Rhino Hero

Rolling and Writing

first look, game night

Yesterday Jonathan very kindly met up with me to try out some of the new additions to our collections.

Sadly our regular hosts were not available due to the refit taking longer than we expected. We are now having to cancel club meet ups. Which is seeing a first in the four year history of the club, a cancelled monthly meet up.

So Jonathan and I met up at the local Spoons. It’s been a while since we have done any gaming here. It far more busier and noisier. But on the plus side I can get unlimited coffee for £1.30. On the downside it’s just about drinkable coffee. So for me on the beverage side a very very cheap night out.

The first game to hit the table was the latest game from Portal Games Imperial Settlers: Roll and Write.

I like roll and writes, or the ones that are in my collection. They do seem to be this years must have for a publisher to be putting out (just like legacy games and escape rooms before that).

Naturally we played a 2 player game, and the basic version of the game. There is an advanced variant, and a solo variant too.

The game plays quickly, each game is 10 rounds, and we found a round was very quick.

I liked that the dice are used by everyone playing each round. So everyone gets the same number of basic actions each round, plus any bonus actions from buildings or tiles. And also get the same basic resources plus any bonus resources from buildings, tiles or harvesting.

I like the use of two sheets one for the village, which when the buildings are built give bonuses each turn, and an empire that is where you can harvest resources and score victory points. Neither felt overwhelming individually or together. Which the Ganz Schon Clever sheets do.

The empire sheet allows you to track rounds, and gives a very small area on that tracking for notes. Which we both found you needed. I was using it to note how many actions I had each round, and resources used.

One thing I like about the Portal Games rule books is the little touches of humour. But the one in this rule book has to be my favourite of all time (see below)


I love the graphic design and look. Naturally it matches up art wise with its inspiration thematically Imperial Settlers. But there is also this kind of pastel, sketch note feel to it as well. I point to exhibit a above for the house rules, and exhibit b below with the tile photo below. I really like the feel it gives to the whole game.

Let’s talk about the dice. There is a great design, game play choice made here with the worker die being not only a different colour to the resource dice. But also larger. It really hammers home this die is not a resource die, it’s use is different.

But wood?!!! Couldn’t we have better quality dice? These really are the weakest part of the game. You get 4 pencils included (very nice touch). But you scrimp on the dice?

I’m waiting to here back from Portal Games about why the adventure mode pad (used for solo games, each sheet is a unique village) can’t be used in a multiplayer game.

I can’t wait to try the advanced mode. But it’s cool that the game has this, plus the solo mode.

I like this game a lot. It’s not as light as say Qwixx or Qwinto. But less complicated than Ganz Schon Clever or the really over complicated and awful Welcome to Dino World. It’s hit the sweet spot.

I suppose I better admit Jonathan won by a single point.

Jonathan and I did start to set up Caverna: Cave vs Cave – Era II. Wow with the base game and this new expansion boy does it take up a lot of table space. Looking at the new rule book you play the base game first then move onto the expansion! We did the maths based on the game play times on the boxes. With having to refresh our memories on how to play as well this would take more time than we had. Our calculations put it at over an hour to play.

So we moved onto a game of Citadels. A classic for sure. I love the 2 player drafting of characters. It’s very similar to dark draft in Epic. You have an idea of what the other player may have taken but not exactly.

I will need to sleeve my copy before using it at club nights.

I managed to get the win of our play of this.

Jonathan did give me a game last night. They were being given out free at the expo. Apparently this is a worker placement style game. But looking at the box you’d have no idea what type of game it is. The description on the box gives no clue. The publisher is doing themselves no favours.


I’d like to thank Jonathan for being so kind for taking the time to meet up and play games last night. It was really appreciated.

Games played: Imperial Settlers: Roll & Write, Citadels

Gods, Mines, and Magic!

Deck tech, Game day, game night, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

Friday evening I got to play games with Diego and Jonathan.

This doesn’t happen nearly as often as I’d like. I’ll keep saying this over and over, but they are two of my favourite people to play games with (there are a handful of others on that short list, and I’m sure you can guess who they are).

Our first game of the evening was Coal Baron. Another game that Jonathan and I hadn’t played in a longtime. It was way before I started recording games using the BG Stats app. So I did a little digging on this hear ol’ blog of mine.

My searching did dig up this post. So if you go and look at the date of the post, we are going back to September 2015 when I last played this game. Even more interesting is that it was at my first Fenland Gamers meet up. Wow!

Incredibly it was the same outcome as all those years back now. I was last, with a 4 point difference! It pains me to admit Jonathan won this by a point.

Games played: Coal Baron, Santorini

Our final game of the evening was the classic “just one more game” Santorini but as 3 players.

We ended up playing 3 games of this, with Diego taking the honours in all of them.

But a fantastic evening of gaming. Great company.

Saturday was going to be an endurance test and a first for me playing MtG.

The days plan was to do Standard Showdown and then take part in the Planeswalker Weekend event straight after.

Before Standard Showdown started I managed to get a couple of casual games in with Paul. I haven’t used the mono red deck much. So I used these games as an excuse to do so. Pail was playing his dinosaur deck.

The first game was as expected and the mono red burn just flew. Our second game was a different beast altogether. For a long time I was mana screwed on 2 mountains. Luckily I was able to hold in there to start getting land. That’s when things took off for me. I’d been sitting with 3 Goblin Chainwhirlers and a Rekindling Phoenix since the start of the game. Once I was able to start playing them it was game over.


For Standard Showdown I went with the Simic deck.

Casual Game (using mono red burn)

Paul: Win 2-0

Standard Showdown Stats

Participants: 9

Rounds: 4

Round 1: Dean (dino aggro) Win 2-1

Round 2: Robert (burn/aggro) Loss 0-2

Round 3: John (Simic merfolk) Win 2-1

Round 4: Michael (Rakdos) Loss 2-0

Record: 2-2

Final Position: 5th

Prizes: 1 participation pack.

Basically the Planeswalker Weekend draft event that I was taking place in was like the old Game Day or Store Championship. On the line was the following War of the Spark play mat. Which looked better in real life.


This was my first draft event. It was fun. But you are drafting for value to start with. Which for me on pack 1 worked out as a good card to build around also. I skipped the Planeswalker and took the rare card that was a 2CMC rakdos creature card. So I let that set my colours for the draft. I don’t think anyone else was really going for those colours. So I was picking up lots of cheap creatures and spells in those colours. I think it helped having decided from pack 1, card 1, what colours I was going for and the style of play.

The “hook” for this draft and Planeswalker Weekend was that Planeswalkers could be cast with any colour mana. So when it came to grabbing the Planeswalker from your packs it was irrelevant as to the colours needed to cast.

Planeswalker Weekend Stats

Participants: 14

Rounds: 4

Round 1: Young Lad Win 2-0

Round 2: Alex Loss 0-2

Round 3: Joshua Win 2-0

Round 4: Sam Win 2-0

Record: 3-1

Final Position: 5th

Prizes: 1 participation pack, 2 foil promo cards, 1 booster

There was a free for all for the sticker packs. But I wasn’t a fan of the art style. So I didn’t join in the feeding frenzy for one of them. I think this is some of the worst MtG art I’ve seen.


As you will see I didn’t stick to the 40 card deck minimum, and went 44 cards!

There is some synergy between cards here using the Amass mechanic. Whether it triggered when a creature entered the battlefield, or when it died.

The Planeswalkers worked really well. They gave an element of control that distrupted the opponent’s game.

The mana curve for the deck is exactly what I wanted for a deck that was going aggro.


Here is the deck I built from the cards drafted:

Creatures:18

1 Banehound
1 Dreadmalkin
1 Grim Initiate
1 Dreadhorde Arcanist
1 Dreadhorde Butcher
2 Duskmantle Operative
2 Goblin Assailant
2 Lazotep Reaver
2 Vampire Opportunist
1 Mayhem Devil
2 Shriekdiver
2 Herald of the Dreadhorde

Spells:12

3 Kaya’s Ghostform
1 Spark Harvest
2 Aid the Fallen
2 Sorin’s Thirst
1 The Elderspell
1 Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
1 Teferi, Time Raveler
1 Teyo, the Shieldmage

Lands:14

5 Mountain
9 Swamp

FNM and Saturday Standard Showdown

Game day, game night, magic, MtG

Friday saw me attend an FNM at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole after trying unsuccessful to recruit volunteers to help me test my Standard decks and the tweaks I’d made to them.

I think this was my first FNM that I’ve attended. I don’t usually go to them as they clash with the Fenland Gamers gaming sessions.

But we had no session last Friday and I really wanted to test a tweak or two before using one of the decks in anger at the Standard Showdown.

The meta at FNM is totally different to the Showdown. There are a lot more mono red or red based burn decks. Which for some reason my current Simic deck so far does well against.

I played the Simic deck for FNM, and tried out the other two decks in casual games between rounds or while waiting for the results.
FNM was fun. Interesting to see the difference in meta between the two groups of players and play against new people. I knew one or two of the FNM regulars. But everyone I played against was a new opponent that I’d never played against before.

Casual Games

William: Loss 1-2

Michael: Draw 1-1

FNM Stats

Participants: 10

Rounds: 3

Round 1: William (white/black life gain) Loss 0-2

Round 2: Jamie (mono red burn) Win 2-0

Round 3: Michael (red/? aggro/burn) Win 2-1

Record: 2-1

Final Position: 4th

Prizes: 1 participation pack

Saturday was Standard Showdown once more. This time I went with the Simic deck considering how well it did the night before.

The 2 games I lost were due more to being mana screwed and speed than anything else. That was especially true in the game with John. The number of times I was having to mulligan to get any land or more than 1 land was shocking. In one game my opening hand plus the next 6 cards that I drew for the mulligan I didn’t get a single land.

The game with Ryan was a bit unfair. He’s a new player, a youngster as well using an upgraded United Assault. Except he was playing with a 75 card deck! Plus a 15 card sideboard!!!! After our game I called over Andy (who had a buy that round) to help Ryan get back down to a 60 card deck.

John got another one over me. But I think in the long run the win/loss ratio against John is still in my favour. God I hate the sleep card he plays. Almost makes me wish I was back to the Simic control version of the deck. Sleep was enough to give John game one, basically taking my creatures out for 2 turns, and free mega swings for John. Game 2 was when my land decided to hide. If I’d hit the land drops maybe the result would have been different. It couldn’t have been any worse!

The final round against Jade started off badly, although I was close to triggering Simic Ascendancy (just needed to survive Jade’s turn, which sadly I couldn’t). But the second game, with both versions of Vivien out and being allowed to ultimate Vivien Reid with about 10 creatures on the board that were getting bigger and bigger thanks to proliferate. The result was an inevitable crushing. I think that’s the first time I’ve had both out. And the filtering for cards is amazing, you are looking at 7 cards a turn. A creature or land to hand, and a creature in exile that can be cast anytime. The deciding game, also went my way. Once again getting enough creatures out and pumping them up big enough to protect me and then swing in for the kill.

Standard Showdown Stats

Participants: 9

Rounds: 4

Round 1: Nathan Hall (red/black aggro) Loss 0-2

Round 2: Ryan (upgraded! United Assault) Win 2-0

Round 3: John (Simic merfolk) Loss 0-2

Round 4: Jade (upgraded United Assault) Win 2-1

Record: 2-2

Final Position: 7th

Prizes: 1 participation pack.

Sadly there were no casual games at Standard Showdown this week. I arrived nearer the start time, and after 4 rounds I had to shoot off.

Some recent gaming

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

It’s been a busy week for gaming. Wednesday was the monthly meet up for Fenland Gamers. Friday was the regular fortnightly gaming session. Then Saturday was the start of the final season of Standard Showdown.

The monthly meet up was well attended. But bit of a disaster on the planning games wise.

Earlier in the day Jonathan had posted on the club Facebook page a reminder for members to let who over had set up the event that they were going. It makes planning what games to take along easier.

Sadly after that did Jonathan and I take any games? Not really I took some small games, like Love Letter, No Thanks!. Jonathan had none. Our excuse? Others had said they were bringing stuff.

In the end there were 6 of us. Sadly the games bough were max head counts of 4. We could have split into 2 groups and played. But we didn’t. After a period of chatting and indecision Jonathan nipped back to his car and got Saboteur. One of a small handful of games he still had in his car. He used to have a lot more games stored there.

So the evening was spent playing a few small games that played 6 people.

Games played: Saboteur, No Thanks!, Perudo

Friday was a gaming session Jonathan and myself had been waiting for. We were both looking forward to playing Root that another member was bringing along.

While we were waiting for that person to arrive, we played a quick game of the Archer themed Love Letter. It’d been a while since I’d played this version, and it’s still one of my favourites. I like the mechanic it uses where the card that is removed at the start is used in the game.

Root. What can I say? Did it live up to the expectations and the hype? Kinda, I’m not sure!

This was a learning game for everyone. I do like that there is a manual and sheet that is designed for new players, and takes you through your first couple of turns. I do like this trend that has emerged over the last couple of years or so, that for the more “complicated” games you get a beginners guide and reference guide.

I like the truly asymmetrical factions. It does make teaching and learning I would imagine a nightmare. I think I got lucky in getting the vagabonds. They were an easy faction to get to grasp. I liked the political element of the faction. But despite winning, I didn’t really use the faction to it’s fullest.

Root is one of those games like Cry Havoc, that I think is going to reward you for playing the game multiple times with the same faction, so you truly master the tactics and learn the cards.

I love the meeples used (photo below) they have a cute factor. As does all the art used as well. Which is an interesting design choice. The art style would be attractive to a younger age group. But it’s not a game you’d play with a younger age group.

One thing I did not like about the game was the amount of down time between turns. It’s long. I’m hoping this is explained away by the fact this was a learning game. But I can see this still being an issue once a player knows the game better.

Root is an interesting game. I didn’t dislike it. But I didn’t leave the game raving about it either, or thinking I must play another game straight away. It needs more plays for sure.

Games played: Archer: Once You Go Blackmail, Root

Saturday was the first Standard Showdown in the final season of Standard Showdown.

I managed to get some casual games in before the Showdown started, and tinker with the Simic deck. But I was undecided on which deck to play. The choice was between mono red aggro (the upgraded 2019 Challenger deck) and my Orzhov deck.

I decided to go with the Orzhov deck after seeing that a friend was going mono red aggro (with an upgraded 2019 Challenger deck). I wanted to avoid if we did end up playing against each other a mirror match up.

It was bound to happen sometime that I would face off against Andy Hall in a first round. His Selesnya token deck just walked all over mine. My deck just didn’t get set up quick enough. More annoyingly, Andy threw that deck together quickly before leaving the house to come to the Showdown.

Round 2 saw me playing John and his Simic merfolk Simic Ascendancy deck. This was a good match up for me. And it was a by the numbers game. I got Liliana out in the first game, that gave me the edge to get the win. While in game two Sorin gave me the advantage. Being able to bring back the creatures I had in my graveyard, and the lifelink very powerful.

Round 3 against Kar-Fai was draining. I took our first game. But it could have gone either way. The second game was a real back and forth. The first half of the game I had the upper hand, but ran out of juice just as Kar-Fai started to get answers. Then it was me holding on looking for answers. It was such a long game. Which saw Kar-Fai claw his way to victory just as the time buzzer went off. This was a true draw. Our decks very evenly matched.

The final round saw me up against another mono red aggro deck (another upgraded 2019 Challenger deck). So I knew what was coming. The first game was close, but the second game with Tibalt out screwed me over. As predicted it shutdown my life gain shenanigans. I destroyed one, only for it to be replaced with a second the following turn.

My casual games afterwards with my friend saw me testing the Simic deck against the dreaded mono red aggro. I was happy how it handled itself. Sadly in our third game I never drew into my solutions for the Rekindling Phoenix, and with 2 of them out I stood no chance.

Casual Games

Paul: Win 3-0

Bob: Win 2-1

Standard Showdown Stats

Participants: 13

Rounds: 4

Round 1: Andy Hall Loss 0-2

Round 2: John Win 2-0

Round 3: Kar-Fai Draw 1-1

Round 4: Simon Loss 0-2

Record: 1-1-2

Final Position: 10th

Prizes: 1 participation pack plus a Standard Showdown pack.

In the Showdown pack I pulled a foil forest basic land, a foil new Jace, and a Rekindling Phoenix. So very happy with that.

I’m now in the process of trading Jace for Orzhov check or shock lands. And I’m also doing the same with the Bolas I have. I’d like to keep Bolas. But the only way to improve the Orzhov deck is to make it faster, and that needs the lands.

Saturday evening I was listening to the Top Level mtg podcast and they were talking about how good Narset was against mono red aggro. It basically shuts down Experimental Frenzy. Luckily I have 3 of these! So I may have to adjust the sideboard once again for the Simic deck. Which at the moment is looking as being a lot of counter spells. Although I may add Carnage Tyrant back in for countrol decks.

Airlines and Sparks

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

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about a Fenland Gamers gaming session. I’ve been boring you all with MtG and D&D stuff.

Last Friday was once again one of the Fenland Gamers fortnightly Friday gaming sessions.

Our first game of the evening was a game I last played with Jonathan and his Dad way back in 2016 (the BG Stats app is great for this sort of information). That game was Airlines Europe.

Like so so many games in our collections it doesn’t get nearly as much table time or love as it truly deserves. The modern gamers dilemma, too many great games, not enough time. And the problem just gets compounded as new games come out.

To be fair to Jonathan and myself the growth of our collections has dropped down to a snails pace (although I’ve never truly understood that phrase, those slimy little devils can sure shift). I know Jonathan is currently on a self imposed purchase ban. Whilst for me apart from the odd game nothing is really grabbing me, getting me excited. But I’ve felt that way for a couple of years now.

However Jonathan and I both have games in our collections that we haven’t played yet (our piles of shame as they are known), and games we want to get back to the table. So it’s not as if we need to buy any more.

Back to Airlines Europe. It does have a mechanic I love. A mechanic that adds suspense, even tension, an element of push your luck and the unknown.

Airlines Europe has 3 scoring rounds. How these are triggered is the mechanic I love. One scoring round card is shuffled in with 10 I think of the shares cards and that is the bottom of the share deck. The other 2 scoring round cards are mixed into the rest of the deck using a couple of rules.

So you have a rough idea when the scoring rounds will trigger but not exactly when. As you approach the part of the shares deck that the scoring round card could be in, the tension builds. Do you have time to get the shares out for scoring to give you that majority? Do you have time to grab that share on the trade row?

It’s a simple trick. Pandemic uses it as well to great effect. Sub Terra uses it for the exit tile. Yes it adds a little over head to the set up to a game. But I think the pay off is worth it.

Our second and final game was the classic roll and write Qwixx. Somehow Jonathan won this.

Well I know at this point Jonathan will stop reading.

Yesterday was Prerelease for War of the Spark (as was Friday and Sunday). But yesterday was the day I attended one of the 6 events my FLGS The Hobbit Hole was/is running over the weekend.

Prerelease is such good fun. It’s about opening boosters, playing with new cards early. Although technically for authorised stores it was release weekend, because they could sell everything a week early this time.

The atmosphere is also a bit different. I’d say more social, less competitive, there is an air of excitement.

It’s also the only time I get to see and play against some people. They might only do prereleases or FNM is their thing normally. So it’s a great time to catch up as well.

This Prerelease continued my run of bad results, and poor cards to build with. Well that’s the excuse I’m going with. My pulls had very few low cost creatures. I ended up with going white/blue with a couple of mountains thrown in so I could play Naheb.

I started off with 15 lands, but after getting mana screwed both games and losing in round 1. I went to 17 lands.

Round 2 I won. The deck was given a chance to hit it’s stride.

The next two rounds although losses, they were not walk overs. I was hitting land drops, once or twice mana flooded and not hitting creatures. But I was much happier with the games.

Here are the stats.

Casual Game

Simon: Draw 1-1

Prerelease Stats

Prerelease Participants: 21

Rounds: 4

Round 1: Simon Loss 2-0

Round 2: Jade Win 0-2

Round 3: unknown Loss 0-2

Round 4: unknown Loss 0-2

Record: 3-1

Final Position: 20th

Prizes: 2 participation packs

The nice thing is one of my ex-students won, going undefeated. And to top it off in his participation packs pulled a foil Liliana. So that is an amazing memory of a Prerelease for him.

But it was a great day, well attended. Maybe not as well as Guilds of Ravnica. But still for a FLGS in a middle of nowhere Fenland town, with MagicFest London doing it’s best to steal away it’s players.

Spoilers and Casual Magic Night

Fenland Gamers, game night, magic, MtG

Yesterday apart from spoiling that the Planeswalker Gideon is the big name that dies during the War of the Spark. Going by the cards spoilt and flavour text Bolas survives and gets sent to a Prison Realm.

A Prison Realm where Bolas apparently will be spending eternity contemplating his defeat. I would also assume planning his escape and revenge.

But along with the story spoilers, WotC also released the deck lists for the two Planeswalker decks for War of the Spark. We are being given a Jace Simic deck and a Gideon Orzhov deck.

I actually might get the Gideon deck. Not because I like Gideon (I don’t) but because I like the card Gideon’s Company. It’s activated ability is something I’d not use. But I could see it going into the recent Challenger deck United Assault.

That uses Healer’s Hawk, Legion’s Landing to gain life and fuel the pumping up of Ajani’s Pridemate. Those same cards could also do the same with Gideon’s Company.

That’s why I like the card.

Sadly WotC for whatever reason decided you won’t get a play set of the card, but just 3 copies. So if you wanted to play that extra copy, your options are buy another copy of the deck or see if you can get it as a single.

About Yesterday Evening

Yesterday evening we held our first Casual MtG evening. It wasn’t badly attended for a first attempt at getting these back as a thing the club does.

I spent the evening coaching a friends son as he learnt the game and played various decks. Whilst his dad played some of the new Challenger decks I taken along.

Our opponent got a bit disheartened after my work in progress build of my Simic deck trounced their slither deck. The deck still needs some work to be competitive against my FLGS meta (which has a version of the United Assault deck, burn and aggro decks). Followed by beatings from the Lightening Aggro Challenger deck (I thought my under study was going to experience being mana screwed, but the mana showed up in time) and a pauper elf deck.

Along the way I was showing my under study how to best play some cards, like waiting and playing cards at the start of the combat phase, or at the end of an opponent’s turn. Explaining combos, especially in the elf deck.

I had altered the Deadly Discovery deck. It now has a single Golgari Guildgate. The other 3 that were taken out have been replaced with 2 more Woodland Cemetery and an Overgrown Tomb. It speeds the deck up. In an ideal world I’d have the fourth Overgrown Tomb to replace that final Guildgate.

It was a fun evening. Let’s see how attendance goes in 2 weeks time.

Monthly Meet up April 2019

Fenland Gamers, game night

Another month, another second Wednesday, another monthly meet up. This time for the month of April. Funny that. It also happened to fall on my brothers birthday, Happy Birthday little bro. Enjoy your last year of being in your forties.

Our first game of the evening was a learning game of the hidden role game Hail Hydra!

I still don’t think this game has been officially released in the UK, for whatever reason. Which is a shame I think it would sell well. I got my copy when it came out in the US last year. And it’s been sitting in the pile of shame ever since. Getting it to the table isn’t helped by the fact its minimum player count is 5.

While waiting for the others I set the game up based on the first time play rule sheet they include. Which is one of the things I like about the game. This is a read along, rules light version of the game that works really well. I liked how it taught the basic rules and flow of the game. And sets up using the full rules nicely. That step between the two rule sets is not big. With only a couple of small differences to learn.

Hail Hydra! is a fun game. Particularly a fun hidden role game.

I can see Gavin and John’s point about if you are consistently voted out of a mission of the game not being much fun. Although you are able to thin out your unwanted cards. I suppose the difference between this and games like The Resistance is the duration of a mission is longer in Hail Hydra! Not by much. But I think it felt longer for those sitting out. Plus those shield agents should of done a better job of not looking shifty.

The one time use character powers were an interesting addition to the full game. Although I think only two of us used our abilities.

Yeah this will hit the table again.

Our second and final game of the evening was Wingspan.

What can I keep saying about the game? Nine plays since getting it is massive really. I know John has played it more because he gets to play at home too. But even then compared to some online we have barely played the game.

This was Gavin’s first play of the game and despite initial reservations about the game, he actually enjoyed himself. Plus scored a very respectable 72 points.

Jonathan continues his nit picking over the fine details, like he doesn’t like the little plastic storage containers you get and has replaced them with plastic card containers. But he’s not the only one that doesn’t get on with them. They are a bit like marmite. I personally love them. Jonathan is currently looking at ways to track whether you have activated the pink ability of a card between goes. He does have a point in a five player game with a lot of those out it can be hard to remember who has activated what. There is a suspicion that a player unintentionally (I’m giving the player the benefit of the doubt considering who it was, and I don’t think it was me) did one twice between turns. I have a solution for him.

I will close the post with the almost cliche about great company and great hosts. It may sound that way. But it’s true. The monthly meet up folks are always great to see, play with and catch up with. The staff at The Luxe are always welcoming and helpful.