Category Archives: game night

game night

As long as a John Bonham Drum Solo

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night was the second Wednesday of the month and so the regular monthly Fenland Gamers meetup was held at its usual location in Wisbech.

We kind of had a theme last night of gateway/casual games. With a friend of mine from Peterborough and her daughter coming along for the first time, who aren't “gamers” but more noobs having played and loved Tsuro and Love Letter in the past and definitely not into the heavier side of gaming, our selection of games played were aimed at them.

Now I should point out that just because the games played are considered to be on the lighter side, that they are still great fun games for the more hardened gamer. Two of our evenings games are from my collection so that should say how I feel about those two games.

Our evenings gaming started off with a game of Sushi Go. Is it really nearly a year since I first played this game at the UK Games Expo, and bought instantly after the demo game? Drafting and set collection, great fun colourful art work. This is a lovely little game. And nearly a year later I still love it. I think the secret with these sort of games is not to over play them otherwise you get burned out, and no longer enjoy playing them. Having a variety of games that fill the same role that you can rotate, switch around, definitely is the secret to keeping these games fresh and favourites.

Our game of Sushi Go this evening was won by Katie.

We followed Sushi Go up with Batman Fluxx. This was an epic game of Fluxx. I don't think I've played a game of Fluxx that last this long, we must have been easily forty to fifty minutes. We had loads of new rules out, they'd get reset to the basic rules, then the new rules would build up. Everyone was trying to find a way to manipulate the cards to give them the win, but not getting close. We cycled through the discard pile twice!

I ended up with the goal that needed five or more Villians out in front of players and the Bat signal. Katie had the Bat signal in front of her. I had an action that allowed me to steal it. Wait I can win this on my next go, as long as no one else has a way of getting a win.

Jonathan took his go, no win. Then it was Katie, no win. My friends daughter, no win. Finally before my turn, my friend. Her last play was discard your hand then draw that number cards you discarded. Sixteen cards discarded, sixteen new cards! Why? Why would you do that?

Right my turn…

I got cocky, I asked Jonathan to draw my cards and just place them face down because I didn't care what they were! Right play my first card and steal the Bat signal from Katie. But Jonathan decided to throw a curve ball in my plan and bring it to an early end. He interrupted my action and instead was allowed to steal from my keepers. Damn! Right new rule Play All, OK better look at my hand. Wait, I still have a card I can play to steal the Bat signal. With the Bat signal safely in front of me, time to play the new goal and get the win!!! Victory! That was very closely me falling flat on my face in an embarrassing way after me being so cocky.

But what an epic long game.

Our final game of the evening was Camel Up. This is my second time playing the game. I gather Jonathan's kids must like it, because we suspect they played it last after Jonathan found it hadn't been packed away “correctly”.

Camel Up is a beautiful looking game. The pyramid dice shaker being the obvious show stopper of the game. The eyes are just attracted to it on the board. Not the most practical of things, but a wonderful tactile bit of theatrics.

Camel Up isn't in my collection. I don't like it enough to add it. Don't get me wrong the two times I've played it now I've had fun. But Colt Express fills a similar role in my collection.

Oh for the history books Katie walked away with the honours here too.

Whilst putting together the games to take for the evening I was going to throw in Age of War. But for the love of it I couldn't find it. I'd seen it earlier in the day. But now no sign of it. I could feel that little itch that starts when I lose something starting to kick in. I'd find no rest until I found it or got a replacement.

When I got home after a great evening gaming, I found the game. It was sitting under some Lego!! Mystery solved, itch stopped. I'd be able to sleep.

 

Duelling Decks

game night, magic
It was Tuesday, not a Formula D league night, so must have been Warlords Chatteris club night.
A new prospective member turned up last night with his Magic deck. We had chatted on the clubs Facebook page, so I acted as “host” for the evening. Heck the things I do for the club like having to play Magic with some-one.
We played our own preconstructed decks to start with, with Chris sitting in coaching the other person. Well we were/are still both relatively noobs to the game.
I was able to win by chipping away four points at a time.
Our second game was using the Blessed v Cursed Duel Decks from the new Shadows Over Innistrad set. These are prebuilt decks designed to battle each other. My opponent chose the black/blue deck, which was zombies and vampires. Whilst I had the White/blue deck, so angels and humans. I got an early advantage with flying monsters ie angels that weren't getting blocked. But that ground to a halt once my opponent got a couple of flying monsters, and stared building up a few monsters to eventually attack with. Neither of us attacked whilst we were building up our battlefields waiting to get the tactical advantage. Which fell to me first with having not just a superiority in number of flyers, but the total damage that would get through after being blocked was enough for me to deliver the knock out blow.
Our third and final game of Magic was another duel deck but this time from Zendikar. In fact it was easy to see I hadn't played these two decks because the cards were still sealed! There was some nice nback and forth. My opponent cleared my battlefield down to one monster with an instant, it also removed his token monsters he had out. But my single left monster and a land I could turn into a monster were enough for me to take the win again.
A great evening for me. A clean sweep of victories, I won't get that for a while playing Magic.
 

 

An Alternate Game Night

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night was the last forced break from Pandemic Legacy due to holidays in warmer climates by a team member. Wait I wonder if I can make that sound even more passive aggressive? Anyway not to waste permission slips etc the rest of our team met up to play games.

First to the table was Glass Road. This time we were going to play it correctly!

Wow what a big difference that made. It's a very fast game when played correctly, thirty to forty minutes for the three of us. I do like the resource management using the two dials with the auto production of glass and bricks.

Now during last nights game I got the pond with a shark in it! Does this count as an Easter egg in the game? But I love little touches like this, Imperial Settlers has these in its art. It adds a nice like side chat during game play “oh look…”

My tactic in the game ended up being buying tiles with as high a victory point score on as possible, over ones that had a variable score based on the amount of a specific resource. Which after the final scoring saw me victorious by a single point.

Our second game of the evening was Traders of Osaka. This game was good as a two player game, but as a three player game? Wow!

It scaled nicely, it's just as much fun if not more so. Plus the game becomes more tactical, especially on the reserving cards, and buying the market. Timing is everything. Reserving cards becomes more a decision of do I want this card to advance my plans, or do I need to stop this card being taken to deny my opponents a scoring opportunity?

For example early on I was able to get the yellow ship to Edo for a payday, leaving green and red in dangerous waters and sinking. This wiped out Mat's green and red cards in front of him, he had no yellow. While doing the same to Jonathan however he was able to score two points on yellow, while I was able to score four points.

The other nice thing is that the market is changing more variable with more players, causing you to think on your feet and adjust plans.

Yeah Traders of Osaka is fast becoming a favourite.

After some chat such as how the box for Bohemian Villages could be smaller, however it's not upto the levels of Machi Koro for over sized boxes, we said our farewells.

Another great evening of gaming, and a clean sweep of wins for me!

Beverages and Gaming on a Saturday

coffee shop gaming, Fenland Gamers, game night

Yesterday a long over due Costa Gaming happened. Jonathan and I met up at the local Wisbech Costa on the Market Place to enjoy good beverages and hopefully some great games.

I had got there slightly early (had to get a birthday card for my Mum and a present, well it's kinda her birthday today), so I was looking through the games I'd bought with me. Oh why had I taken? Eight Minute Empire Legends, Traders of Osaka, Roll For It and Batman Fluxx. Traders of Osaka was out when Jonathan arrived.

So that is the game we played first. I've been wanting to get this to the table since it arrived.

It appears a simple game, on your turn you can do one of three actions, take a card for its monetary value, buy the whole market row, reserve a card.

Before playing and when explaining it the scoring of sets when a ship hits Edo sounds unnecessarily complicated using rounding up, multiplication and division. But when you start doing it, it actually isn't that much of a hassle.

There is a hidden depth and tactical decision making to the game. Having to decide when best to reserve a card, and when to take the card. Trying to manipulate the boats and when they arrive, or get stranded so they sink hopefully denying the other players of possible points.

I did like the game, it didn't disappoint. It worked really well as a two player game.

Our second game was a new arrival for Jonathan, Bohemian Villages.

 

This is a worker placement type game where your placement of your workers is controlled by the roll of four dice. You allocate those dice to generate a number, the only limitation is that you can't use a single dice to generate a number for placement. For instance if I rolled a 6, 2, 4 and a 3, I could use the 6 and 2 to make 8 and place one of my workers on farm or if I wanted a town hall I could use the 6 and 4 to give me 10, and then use the 3 and 2 to make 5 and allow me to place a worker on a tailor shop. As you can tell by that each building type is allocated to a number, for instance churches are 11. Some of these buildings give immediate scoring (which is in the form of money), others score at the end of the game (which is triggered when one player has no more workers to place), some like the inns once three other workers are in the village give reoccurring money at the start of your turn. Then you have mid game scoring that gets triggered when certain events happen.

At the end of the game the one with the most money is the winner.

Despite winning I like this game a lot. I like the rolling dice and combining them to allow you to place workers. There is a nice balance between immediate scoring, and end scoring opportunities. I like the art work. It's quick to learn. Jonathan and I did forget to claim some recurring money at the start of our turns once or twice. I think I lost about five points this way, Jonathan lost about three I think. Which brings me to the only “weak” spot of the game, and Jonathan and I both agree on this, the player aids could be improved, and made clearer about the recurring money, maybe some reminds to claim, and the wording on one or two is a little confusing.

After two great games Jonathan and I chewed the fat, righted wrongs, brainstormed before saying our farewells.

I had a great time in Costa, great games, great company. Can you ask for more?

Panda Smash

game night

Last night being Friday night meant after a day doing supply teaching I was at the local Friday night game group. The one I've not been very happy with due to inconsiderate noise pollution from the odd individual at previous meet ups playing loud music.

The first game of the evening was a four player game of Agricola. My first time playing the game. This was a far better experience than Caverna. Rules explained, had the score reference card, so I knew the scoring and how to avoid negative points, or at least reduce the amount of negative points I got.

So ok I don't know the “best” strategies to take for the game. However I did feel that I was in with a shout right upto the end.

So at its heart this is a worker placement game. And I like this mechanic. But! So do I like Agricola or come to that Caverna?

There are elements I like. Like the harvest and having to feed your workers, or the unlocking of new actions to do as you progress through the game. However I'm not keen on being limited to just two actions. Yes you can produce additional workers. But this just doesn't work for me.

This isn't my favourite worker placement game. I think Agricola/Caverna has joined Stone Age as my least favourite worker placement games that I'd play, but I wouldn't be that keen on.

So after coming in a respectable third in Agricola we played four player King of Tokyo with the power ups expansion.

I didn't roll a single power up card, only bought one card from the middle. Which was a pretty cool one, because it gave an extra victory point each time I started my turn in Tokyo, plus an extra point of damage when I dealt out damage whilst in Tokyo.

After a turn or two of rolling threes pumping up my victory points, Ben had been creeping towards a victory point win from a successful run in Tokyo. But we managed to get him out to avoid that outcome. With myself encamped in Tokyo my only card kicked in.

With some amazing rolls I took out two monsters at the same time. That extra point of damage was powerful, it meant that knockout blow was a six point hit!

My victory was inevitable! Well if I didn't get hit with five or more damage by the other remaining player. Unfortunately for them they only did a point of damage, played a power up card that forced me out of Tokyo and slightly delayed my victory. But I moved back into Tokyo to give me the final point I needed to grab a points victory, but it was also close for grabbing a last monster standing victory also.

I'd been playing the Panda monster, and both times now that I've played him I've won. Guess which monster I'm going to keep playing?

Ben had to go after this game, and I decided to call it a night also. It was at this point I got really pissed off. The guy playing with us, sitting next to me was going to play his newly purchased Epic card game. Fair enough. However instead of helping to pack away my game before setting up his, the ignorant git pulled out the cards for Epic and started shuffling them in front of him pushing my stuff out of his way to do so. Yes he was doing that style popular with Magic players creating multiple little mini decks. I've used this method myself to shuffle cards.

What a fracking dick. Even after I point out I was trying to pack my game away, all I got was “I'll move up the table”, which he didn't.

I was seething inside. This is the final straw I think. I'm not enjoying this group at all. If you take out Ben, Jamie (and his son) the majority of my experience playing with the others in this group is that they are selfish gits.

I might suggest to Ben and Jamie we find a different location to play, an alternative Friday evening/night gaming experience.

Afterwards on my way home I called in at The Luxe to mainly give Nath grief, and to confirm that they are actually getting the new X-Men movie, and when. Which they are, a couple of weeks after its release. I'm more than happy to wait a couple of weeks to see the movie at my favourite cinematic experience place. Plus Nath has to be nice to me and call me sir.

So that was Friday's gaming.

 

World domination naturally…

chatteris warlords, game night

Tuesday night, must be Chatteris Warlords (unless it's the Fenland Gamers Formula D league night).

My first game(s) of the evening were Love Letter Batman and the classic original Love Letter. I won the Batman game. However Robert who I was playing with (plus another) didn't enjoy playing this version. His preference was the classic version, which Robert seemed to be remembering was different to the Batman one.

So I pointed out I had the classic version and we could play that. The enthusiasm wasn't overwhelming. It had been like playing with two doped up patients. Both half asleep.

We started our game of the classic Love Letter. Robert looked at the summary sheet of cards, and saw that the two games apart from the art was the same (there was one difference but I'll come to that).

However Robert did seem to visibly enjoy the classic much more than the Batman version, getting much more involved. Had he woken up?!!!

Robert went on to get the win after taking an early lead, which stalled and allows myself and the other player to come back into the game and come close to winning ourselves.

Now the only difference between classic and Batman is one rule change. If in the Batman version if you play the Batman card which is the guard card in classic (value 1) and guess correctly you get a point as well as eliminating the other player you just guessed. This is the bit Robert didn't like it “made the game quicker”.

Naturally I disagree, I love the Batman version. It's my favourite version of the game. I love the theme, the art, and I like the rule just described. I like it because yes it's a double edged sword, but it allows some-one trailing to get back into the game. Plus it fits thematically. That point is Batmans reward for capturing a bad guy that's escaped Arkham and putting them back.

So while we were playing Love Letter and our next game, there was a couple of Bolt Action games going on. Plus a game of Blokus that got followed by some Magic the Gathering.

My next game was a first for me, Marvel Legendary: Villians. I don't own this version of Legendary, I may do one day but at the moment, I don't (although Nathan does, well I did buy it as a present for him).

Our group of Villians which included King Pin, Venom, Ultron plus some others were having their cunning plans for world domination thwarted by Doctor Strange and the defenders and some other superheroes like the Uncanny X-Men.

In general this plays just like Marvel Legendary with some minor variations on somethings. What Villians has that Marvel Legendary doesn't is a neoprene playmat. Which is far superior to the cardboard one in Marvel Legendary.

Our motley crew of criminals did managed to beat Doctor Strange and his cronies. Which means we were free to take over the world!

Now once you defeat the Commander (Doctor Strange) because the game is cooperative it can end just there. However you can decide a “winner” based on how many heroes and bystanders that you defeated. Each has a point value. It's this after scoring that is used in official competitive Marvel Legendary play. So we tallied up our points and I emerged the victor.

As I left for home, a bunch were mid game playing Star Realms, including the heroes cards. Which I haven't played with myself. I must get round to doing that sometime.

Another great evening of gaming, that had something new but familiar, and something 'old'.

Oh what a wonderful day…

Fenland Gamers, game night

Yesterday was such an awesome amazing day. Not only was it my birthday, but it was also International Tabletop Day.

I'm not usually one for celebrating birthdays. However it was hard not to yesterday considering the alignment of the stars.

The day started off as you know with some Star Realms via the app. But not long after those initial posts I had to hit the road with a shed load of games and pick up my amazing birthday cake that Doreen created for me. After a chat with Sam and her daughter Zaphod in which we caught up on news, shocked me with the fact our gaming session in Wisbech that afternoon was being missed because Zaphod wanted to see an aging Canadian called Brian Adams singing some popular beats from way before Zaphod was a single cell, in Birmingham (apparently it was cheaper to see Mr Adams in Birmingham than to see him in their home town of Peterborough!!!). It was time for me to end a very long sentence that didn't really move the narrative of this post on, and head back to Wisbech and the afternoons gaming event.

With the weather being unusually good for a bank holiday weekend I should have realised that the A47 round Wisbech, and also going into Wisbech itself would be a mini nightmare. Which meant that I got caught up in what were mini traffic tailbacks. After winding my way through town via side roads I arrived not too late to our venue for the afternoons gaming.

Upon arrival Jonathan informed me Matt wasn't able to attend, but Debbie would be. I was just glad there was a trolley to move the games into the building.

With my selection of games and Jonathan's we had a wide variety of games, covering gateway games like Ticket to Ride, to complex euros like Caverna, and everything inbetween.

After a chat, I taught Jonathan Star Realms. It was going to be interesting to see how Jonathan got on. Why? Well scifi themed games are not his favourite theme, and he's also not a big fan of deckbuilders. So the odds were against it. However after pausing for Debbie's arrival, Jonathan went on to win the game, which he did not dislike. So I'm counting that as a win.

Our next game, and the first with Debbie was the current darling of the gaming echo chamber Quadropolis.

Having played Quadropolis I have to say I don't get why this is getting all the buzz that it is currently getting. After playing I was kind of left feeling indifferent. It wasn't a bad game, or a bad feeling of indifference (unlike Between Two Cities). I think the hardest thing is that I can't point at one thing like a mechanic that grabbed me and got me excited. But then I can flip that around and say there wasn't anything that I hated either.

I know that this game has been mentioned/compared to Dice City. And those comparisons have been in favour of Quadropolis being the better game. However I don't agree with that view. For me after a single play of both, Dice City edges it. But I'd happily play both again, maybe not go out of my way, but if some-one said “hey lets play…” I'd be ok with it.

On the plus side I won.

Debbie chose our next game which was Batman Fluxx.

Jonathan took the honours with this game.

We followed up the chaos that is Fluxx with some smash your face in, push your luck, monster bashing, King of Tokyo.

Debbie won our first monster mash up, but it was close if I'd had survived her turn, I would have won on victory points. It was a close game.

We then played again but this time with the Power Ups expansion. During this game I had bought the “it has a child!” card, that if you are eliminated gets discarded along with all your other cards and lose all your victory points, then heal back up to ten health and start again! This card gave me the win. After Jonathan was eliminated I stayed in Tokyo trading blows with Debbie, each of us knocking down the others health. Thing is I didn't care, I knew I was going to still be in the game if I got knocked out. So when that moment did come I lost the chance of a victory point win, but I had done enough damage to Debbie that it was easy to smash Debbie into the rubble of Tokyo and get the win.

I liked the addition of the power up cards. Especially because they give a use for the heart face when you roll them whilst occupying Tokyo. Plus the cards make your character a little unique, and the suspense of having these unknown ability that can be played at any moment. I like them a lot. The King of New York version of this expansion when it comes out will definitely be added to the collection.

After indescriminately destroying Tokyo with our epic battles, we headed off to the grand abbey to become novices, and take part in the hidden movement game Nuns on the Run.

We hadn't played this before, nor read the rules (which wouldn't be the last time this happened during the day). Apart from nearly sending Debbie into a coma whilst reading the rules from a truly atrocious rules book. I think this game would be better with more players. Although functional and playable with three, we had Debbie playing the two nuns we were trying to avoid. Still it felt ok. Just that awful rule book needs a reworking.
Just so the gaming records are kept up to date Debbie won.
Our last game before taking a break for tea was Splendor. After reminding Debbie of the rules, Jonathon went on to grab the victory.
The food break was at Wetherspoons, and Jonathan very generously treated me to my meal. Which saw all of us settling on a burger with sides of chips and onion rings, and a pint of cider (I can't remember which one but It was a favourite of Jonathan and Debbie's).
Fully fed and refreshed it was back to the table.
Our final game of the day was Glass Road.

Another new game to use all. Although I think Jonathan had played it using the app. I think by the end it took us around two hours to play this game. Which apparently should have taken forty minutes or so. Why did it take us so long? We were playing the game incorrectly!!! Calling the first two rounds of play a train wreck would be partially true. Maybe the wording of the rule book could be clearer in certain instances.

With only the last round being played correctly, Debbie went on to get the win. But is it a valid win! That counts?

I have to say despite being a minor train wreck in reality, and over long play time. I still enjoyed the game. It didn't seem to drag. There are things to like, such as if a card is played by another player and its in your hand you get to play that card to and cut down the number of actions the other player can do. The resource management and the moving dial giving the automatic production of bricks and glass is cool. I also liked the hand selection with the second guessing what others might also be choosing.

I definitely want to play this again with the correct rules.

What a fantastic day yesterday was. A day of surprise generosity of others, great gaming. You couldn't want for more. I really do feel blessed.

How did your Tabletop Day go?

 

Tabletop Day Is Here

Fenland Gamers, game night, news

 

Don't forget today is International Tabletop Day, there are loads of events going on. Fenland Gamers have a gaming session going on from midday until the evening. You don't have to attend the whole thing, pop in and pop out whenever you want. Message me through the contact page if you want to come along for details.

Or why not pop along to your FLGS or for some it may just be LGS to see what they have going on? And like the lottery if you are really lucky it may be one of the few stores with a Tabletop promo kit.

I'm taking a variety of games with me to the Fenland Gamers one, such as Splendor, Suburbia, Codenames, Five Tribes, Nations the Dice Game, Elder Sign, Batman Love Letter plus others. Then other members will be bringing games from their collection. So we will have a wide variety of games, some gateway games, some more “gamer” games. And that's the point this is a great time to try out new games, genres, themes.

I do hope that you get a chance to go along to an event and play some games.

You can look for registered events on this page HERE

 

Peddle to the metal

Fenland Gamers, formula d, game night

Last night saw the inaugural race of the Fenland Gamers Formula D league.

We chose for our first race the Valencia race track from the Circuits 2 pack for the game. After some great indecision amongst ourselves we decided that the races for our league would consist of two laps of the track. Something we hadn't done before, and also meant we would have pit stops too. Another new thing for us playing the game.

For the inaugural season of our league we are using the basic rules for the game.

So which brave souls decided to risk all whizzing round the tarmac for fame and fortune? First up on the grid in pole position was Katie, taking second place on the starting grid was Jo, in the third starting position was myself and in last position on the grid was Jonathan.

Jonathan repeating his “dice hate me” rolling from when we play Memoir '44 rolled so that he stalled his engine. Katie and Jo made good use of their advantageous starting positions on the grid, and took an early lead, battling it out for pole position. Katie edged in front, as I caught up and did battle for second place with Jo.

With great negotiation of the corners Katie extended her lead, enabling her to take a pit stop and continue as if nothing had happened. Jo and I also pit stopped, with me getting the edge and getting back out first. Meanwhile in the Lewis Hamilton position Jonathan was doing his best to catch up and took the risky tactical decision of not stopping for a pit stop.

That decision quickly came back to haunt him when he over shot the first corner big time and took enough damage to take him out of the race.

Katie was so far out in front there was no way Jo or I would catch her up. As she cruised over the finish line, Jo and I were left battling over second and third spots. Jo edged out in front. On the penultimate corner I snatched the lead back and held on to it to grab second place. Leaving Jo to finish in third.

We followed up Katie's emphatic victory in our first Formula D race with a game of cunning and bluffing, Batman Love Letter. By the end of the first round Katie had three points, one more in the next round it would be another win for her.

Luckily my mind reading act guessed her card and forced her out of the round before she had a chance to grab the win. Jonathan used this opportunity to score a couple of points.

Our final round was won quickly with Katie guessing my card to give her the final point needed for victory.

The final game of the evening was King of Tokyo. As our kaiju (I think that is the correct Japanese term for these monsters) battled it out over Tokyo I was watching the others rack up victory points leaving me with only one real tactic if I was to win, be the last one standing.

Katie's luck had run out, she was the first to be eliminated. Not long after Jo managed to knock out Jonathan, but in doing so left herself open to a final blow from myself to grab the win.

A great start to our Formula D league, race two happens in a months time.

Superheroes and Giant Monsters

game night

Friday The Luxe finally got Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice on its screen. I'd been waiting for my favourite cinematic experience venue to get the movie, so I caught the 14:10 showing of the movie.

I enjoyed the movie. However it has a lot of faults. I just hope Warner Bros/DC learn from this movie and never ever ever let Zack Snyder the director near the DC Universe again. However I doubt that is the take away they got. Especially considering that they are adding humour now to an already complete movie that has that abomination looking Joker in it.

If Synder had not decided to try and squeeze as many plot lines as he could into a single movie, and instead concentrated on a single one, the movie would have been much better.

While DC seem to have got the tv universe right with their shows, they still don't get it with their movies. Such a pity.

I'd love to go more in depth but this isn't that sort of blog.

After seeing the latest DC cinematic efforts it was time for some gaming.

After last week this session was last chance saloon. Compared to last week this week was very poorly attended by the late teen/twenty somethings of the group. Which did have one big bonus from my point of view none of that loud music being played.

But it does make me wonder what is it about this week that attendance for the gaming groups has been low?

The evenings gaming started off with my Noise running against Ben's PE Corp scum deck. I had tweeted it to improve my economy. I lost both games to meat/net damage. The first game was within a couple of turns. Whilst the second time if my I've Had Worse had gotten selected in the first wave of damage I would have survived the second wave of damage, gotten through on R&D and scored three agendas for a win. Fortune favours the brave and that evening it didn't favour me.

Our next game was a couple of plays of King of Tokyo. I didn't win either game, the honours for the wins were shared between Ben and Jamie. This was my first play of King of Tokyo, I had played King of New York before. But I've tried to blot that evening out, and the memory of Nath (not my son) and his mind scaring bum note joke. I thought that King of Tokyo would be the easier game to teach out of the two, plus I have both expansions for the game, we could shake things up if we wanted to. Both games had the costume cards from the Halloween expansion mixed in. This doesn't make any noticeable change to the game play, so I hadn't seen a reason to take them out.

The final game of the evening was Deep Sea Adventure. This was a hit with Ben and Jamie. It's a nice little push your luck game. It's interesting to see how different players play the game. Previous games my opponents went deep before taking a treasure and starting the clock ticking on the air running out. Whilst in this game treasures were being taken very early and starting that clock. This meant that no one managed to score in the first two rounds. With only timid play enabling some scores in the final round.

I'm still undecided about this group. I had a good experience this week. But will it be back to the usual irritating loud music next week when the numbers are back up?