Category Archives: game night

game night

Nuclear Bazaar

Fenland Gamers, game night, tabletop

This evening Jonathan and I met up to play some games. Mat should have been there too, but he had to drop out at the last minute due to illness.

The original plan had been for the three of us to play The Manhattan Project (Mat had really wanted to play this game) and Lords of Waterdeep with the Scoundrels of Skullport expansion (Mat and Jonathan were keen to play this).

However with no Mat the plans were in disarray. Well kind of. Jonathan had bought with him Istanbul with the Mocha and Baksheesh expansion, plus the kebab stall tile promo.

We winged our plan of games to play, starting off with The Manhattan Project. For this play through we used the Nations expansion (one and two), used the tile to change the number of bomb attacks down from two to one. This made more sense for a two player game, and the mini bomb placement board for laying out the bomb cards. Oh and naturally the player aid cards were also used.

I really do like the Nations cards, they add a little more theme to the game, give a unique power to each player.

It would be cruel to say that every move we took we said “oh Mat would love this” and we didn't. But Mat would have loved the game.

I managed to ramp up my engine quicker than Jonathan, I had all my workers bought and working for me well before Jonathan. The only real place my system was not very good at generating stuff was generating lots of yellow cake. This meant I had to keep using a main action to get yellow cake, and normally ended up giving Jonathan free yellow cake so I could grab more.

I managed to beat Jonathan to testing a bomb first, which meant I claimed six points for being the first to test a bomb (second in a two player game gets no points) and switched on the higher point total.

Each bomb I made (except the one I was going to test) I loaded onto a bomber. It's a cheap way of getting five points.

I thought this worked really well as a two player game. And I'm not just saying that because I won. Jonathan also enjoyed playing it this way.

Jonathan and I both played in a non aggressive way, I've we didn't attack each other. I think taking that attack slot down to one, would have allowed for a more aggressive game if we had wanted to go down that route. If it had been left at two slots, it would have been just tit for tat on the attacking front. However with just the one slot, it stops that, and the other player has to wait until the slot is free before they can retaliate (if that is what they want to do). It also stops back to back attacks, and being completely destroyed. I'll be interested to hear what others think on this.

But still The Manhattan Project a very very good worker placement game.

Next up Istanbul with the coffee expansion!

Well you know I liked playing Istanbul, not only because I said so in a previous post. But because the game is now in my collection. And I was keen to play the game with the expansion.

We decided on a random board setup, and the kebab stall instead of the fountain.

What can I say about the coffee expansion? I love it. It takes an already great game, and takes it to another level.

I love the new scoring opportunities the expansion gives you with the coffee tokens. Then also being able to block off routes with a log for the other players is also cool. I did this at one point to stop Jonathan from gaining control of the log, blocking his route to the tile where he could wrestle its control from me.

The new cards this expansion introduces are amazingly powerful. However to use one requires using up your whole turn. While also the new power up tiles also pretty powerful. I got one that allowed me to move as far as I liked in a straight line.

The kebab stall was interesting. Apart from allowing you to recall all your agents from around the board, you could also choose to move your relative counter to another tile instead and take the action on the new tile if it wasn't on the police station tile.

I only went to the kebab stall once, and that was because I played one of the new cards, that moved my merchant and agents to the fountain, and allowed me to take an extra turn straight away.

Jonathan won the game six rubies to my five. I hadn't kept an eye on him, and forgot about one of the scoring opportunities, one that gave Jonathan the win. Which was a shame, because I was three turns myself away from getting my final ruby.

I love, love this expansion. You can be sure it will be added to my collection real soon. The new tiles, cards, scoring opportunities, the ability to block routes, and the coffee trader, just brilliant additions to the game.

Once again I liked how this game played for two players. Using the unused merchant counters in the two player game, was a nice touch. These merchants are placed randomly on the board using the dice. If you land on a tile with a merchant on it, just like the multiplayer game play, to do the action on the tile you have to pay two coins (but this time to the bank). Afterwards you then roll the two dice to move the merchant to a new tile.

A great evenings gaming with Jonathan, I had a great time.

 

Let them eat rock

game night, new arrivals

The Tabletop Effect – Tabletop a popular internet based to show about playing boardgames. Hosted by Wil Wheaton, where each episode he plays a boardgame with a group of celebrity chums. The Tabletop effect describes the phenomenon of a game featured on the show selling out very quickly as fans of the show rush out to purchase the game featured in the just aired episode, making the game hard to find for purchase.

I have in previous posts hinted at this effect when I've talked about when I first purchased Marvel Legendary. To be totally honest I have given in to this effect/hype myself. However I have managed to resist the effect. Yes I know shocking.

After watching the episode where Wil and friends played Stone Age, it looked interesting, and I nearly did buy it. But for whatever reason never did, and it hasn't even made my wish list on bgg.

So I was rather glad to get the chance to at least play the game last night with Jonathan and Mat.

Just before we started to play Stone Age, Jonathon said he wasn't going to take it easy on Mat and myself, and play to win!

During our game, Mat had to resort to feeding his workers with brick/stone to make up his short fall in food. Which kickstarted some capitalist/Tory banter with Mat, that resulted with Mat being renamed Tory Mat for the duration of the evening.

Jonathan walked away with a massive victory, while Mat took a respectable second place, while I dragged the score curve down by not even hitting one hundred points and coming in last.

So what did I think of Stone Age?

I enjoyed playing Stone Age. As a lightweight introduction to the worker placement genre of game, it certainly succeeds.

It did seem that if your first action when it was your turn as first player wasn't to grab the farming spot then you were at a disadvantage. My first time as the first player I didn't do this but went for one of the cards on the river. I didn't struggle to feed my workers, but it always meant I had to allocate two of my five workers to make sure I was bringing in food. So basically I had only three workers instead of four available for collecting resources to collect huts and the cards on the river.

I liked that you could block cards/huts to scupper the plans of the other players. Although this effectively also slows down your plans as well.

Our second and final game of the evening was Istanbul.

During the game the capitalism banter continued with Mat. Who did admit he was starting to like being a capitalist. If only we had recorded that quote.

I really liked Istanbul. We used the “beginners” tile setup. But with a “more advanced” setup and random tile setup there is a lot of variety of setup, which I like. It means the game board looks can be tailored for first time players and “experts”.

Right from your first turn you have several options to choose from. You don't get that “your first move has to be…” that Stone Age had.

The family members are a nice touch. Releasing them from jail to send them off to take an extra action. Or getting a reward for capturing another persons family member. A nice mechanic.

The tiles with abilities, bonus cards and the ability to increase the number of goods you can collect, nice additions that allow you to get an engine going. I had a tile that allowed me to pay two coins to recall an assistants. A useful ability that saved me having to return to the fountain to recall all my assistants.

The governor and smuggler were also a nice mechanic, especially with them being moved randomly around the tiles based on the role of the two dice.

Jonathan also won this game with Mat and myself drawing for last place! I had a nice little route going at the end. My mistake was not paying attention to the jewels that the other players had, especially Jonathan. I think I would have played with a bit more urgency otherwise.

Final thoughts…

Out of the two games played this evening my favourite and one I'd happily add to my game collection is Istanbul. I'm glad I played Stone Age, but it is not a game I'd ask to play, although I would happily play it if it hit the table.

Just in…

T.I.M.E. Stories, I think I already said in my Game of the Year predictions that I would get this game to play with Nath over Christmas. I will be getting the first expansion for the game The Marcy Case before my visit. Tom Vasel said that the Marcy Case is his favourite zombie game! High praise indeed. Nath will like playing that, he enjoys zombie themed games. Plus as the photo shows above they already named and given the genre/theme of two other expansions that will come me out next year.

I finally got fed up with waiting for Amazon to get this Deluxe expansion in. Not even a remote hint from them as to when they could deliver it. In the meantime every podcast going is discussing the cards in detail. It's frustrating to see everyone else with the game, and not hear anything from Amazon.

So after finding a rare online retailer that had it in stock, yes most have sold out. I now have my copy. Just need to play some games now!

 

Halloween Gaming Night

Fenland Gamers, game night, tabletop

Last night the Fenland Gamers had a “Halloween” open gaming night. I say it that way because I'm not a Halloween person, I see it as a fake American/commercial pushed “celebration” over here. I know it's a big thing in the US but here? When I was growing up this time of year (I'm going to sound like an old man) the big celebration was November the Fifth, Guy Fawkes Day, penny for the guy etc. Not all this Halloween, dressing up stuff. That is the traditional celebration in the UK for this time of year, not Halloween. Halloween is American, like Apple pie, drive by shootings, racist cops, corporate owned government.

“But Darren, stop being such a spoil sport, it's just a bit of fun”, no it's not, it's a purely commercial thing over here.

Saying that our token gesture if you can describe it as that was a damn amazing, totally awesome mummy minion cake that I had Doreen (a colleagues mum, and my official cake maker) make for us.

Doreen had posted a picture she had seen online just over a month earlier of the cake, and I thought wow I want that cake. So I enquired about getting it made. Yesterday lunch time I drove over to Peterborough to pick up this amazing cake, and stupidly somehow transporting it home broke an arm off!

Between Two Cities

We opened up the evening playing a new game to everyone, Between Two Cities, a game Jonathan had backed on Kickstarter.

This is an interesting game. You can't not interact with the people either side of you. You are working with them to build two cities over three rounds. You build the cities by drafting two tiles from a hand of tiles (which gets passed to the next player after you have drafted and placed the tiles), you then negotiate with the players either side of you for which tiles you are going to place in each city, and they are also doing the same.
At the end of the three rounds, the cities are then scored. Your personal score is the score of the lowest value city you worked on, and the winner is the person with the highest score.
So the aim is to try and keep the two cities you are building roughly the same value in points, while maximising the score they will generate.
Jonathan's dad won the game with a massive fifty two points, both cities he had collaborated on were exactly the same score!
Between Two Cities is an interesting game, and has interesting twists like the scoring the lowest value city for your personal score, and having to collaborate and negotiate. I enjoyed playing the game, I'd play it again, but would I go,out of my way to play it or request to play it? That I'm unsure of, I don't think I would.

Bang the Dice Game

After a coffee/tea and cake break. And let me tell you the cake tasted even more amazing than the cake looked. Everyone really like the cake, the girls and I had the full big slice of cake, while Jonathan and his dad shared a slice.

Break over we broke out Bang the Dice Game. With five players the deputy role was added to the pool of playable roles. The deputy basically is there to help keep the Sheriff alive, and help defeat the renegade and outlaws.

Jonathan's dad was the Sheriff in the first game and his first time playing. He got a nice character card to go with being the Sheriff, the one that when another player does damage to him, that player takes an arrow. I too got a good character card to go with being the deputy. Mine allowed me to heal any player by one health at the start of my turn. I don't think the forces of good could have had better card draw really. But would the dice be favourable?

The Sheriff and I in the end won the game. But at one point there was some doubt about who the deputy was by the Sheriff. Luckily the main sower of that doubt Jonathan managed to get killed in an Indian attack.

The second game saw Jo as the Sheriff with the character I had in the first game. I had been dealt the deputy again. But sadly I got knocked out early by Jonathan's dad who it would turn out was an outlaw. So I was unable to help/protect the Sheriff. It soon came down to a show down between Jo the Sheriff and Jonathan's dad the outlaw. Who would the dice favour?

The odds looked in favour of the outlaw, who had the character that was allowed to reroll the dynamite dice. With the dice on the rerolls being kind to him was allowing him to land some serious damage on Jo. Luckily the dice were being just as favourable to Jo and allowing her to heal and land damage on the outlaw.

The game came down to who was going to be able to survive the impending Indian attack. Jonathan's dad had more arrows in front of him than health, while Jo too was in a similar position. On Jo's turn, with her ability and two beer dice she was able to survive the final arrow from the middle she had just rolled. The Indians killed the outlaw, wounded the Sheriff leaving her to fight another day and get the win.

This had been a very exciting showdown between grandfather and granddaughter.

Machi Koro

Next up on the evenings gaming menu, Machi Koro.

I was the only one who had played Machi Koro before (twice if my memory hasn't failed me), and embarrassingly I had forgotten the win condition! So while I setup the game, Jonathan quickly checked the rules for the supine condition. How could I forget it's completing the four landmarks? Doh!

As you can see in the photos above we used the official playmat for the game that I picked up from the UK Games Expo earlier in the year. Machi Koro is pretty easy to explain the rules of, so an ideal game for none gamers to be introduced to. We were playing the base game, however with five players we used the fifth player cards that come with the Harbour expansion (that's the only part of the Harbour expansion we used, must get round to using the Harbour and Millionaires expansions). We also used the Mega Game Store promo, and I replaced the normal Mines card with the promo Diamines version of it (only difference is the name of card and slightly different art work).

I tried a new tactic for me in this game, and went for the more expensive landmark cards early, thinking I had struggled previously to get the money to complete them in the later part of the game when everyone's engines were in full swing, and reasoned it would be easier to complete the four cost landmark (can't remember it's name) last. The drawback of this was I couldn't roll two dice, so I avoided buying buildings that relied on rolling a score higher than six. The knock on effect of this tactic was I wasn't also putting money into the others pocket by triggering the higher number buildings that give lots of credits when triggered.

Fives and threes were getting me good economy in this game, mainly because the dice rolled by the others worked in my favour. Would this tactic have worked if the dice had not been so kind? I don't think so, I would have struggled big time. The dice can give and the dice can take away.

So with me talking so much on my tactic this game, how did I do? I won. But everyone liked the game, so I think I should be able to get this to the table again, maybe with the Harbour expansion and it's different setup.

Ark of the Covenent

Finally the evening was finished off with a game of Ark of Covenent.

Ark of the Covenent is a Carcassonne game with a biblical theme. Jonathan described this variant as the best version of the base Carcassonne game. Apparently this is a hard game to get hold of, and we were playing a German copy of the game. Which lets face it makes little difference with Carcassonne because there is no text on the tiles, so as long as you can get an english copy of the rules you are good to go.

Now I love Carcassonne, I play it all the time on my iPad online with an opponent I've been playing for years now (I get regularly beaten but still go back for more). I can't remember when I last played just the base game, we usually play with the following expansions Inns and Cathedrals, Traders and Builders, The Princess and The Dragon, and The River. And when I play the physical version these are usually the expansions I play with also.

He is a description of the differences from the base game taken from BGG:

“New features compared to Carcassonne include oases along roads which award 1 additional point to that road for each oasis, a one-time use “prophet” for each player which doubles the value of a completed city for that player, a simplified field scoring with each sheep in the field adding 2 points and each wolf subtracting 2 points, and a new scoring mechanism for temples. Additionally, players can forgo the placement of a follower on the board to move the Ark around the tiles and award 1 point to the owner of each follower it passes.“

I enjoyed playing this version of Carcassonne, Jonathan pimping out the game by replacing the cardboard Ark token with the Ark counter from the Indiana Jones Monopoly game was a nice touch.

I liked the simplified field scoring, and the tactical element added of using wolfs to reduce an opponents scoring of the fields with their careful placing. The temple scoring mechanism was interesting and added a little area control.

Jonathan's Dad and I won the game by ending up with the same winning score. Which I was nearly denied when Jonthan missed off six points for me by incorrectly adding upto two of my fields. Phew good job I spotted that. However it's an easy thing to do, and I have to admit the app does make me lazy on that front by doing all the work for you. I'd have to be constantly referring to the scoring summary if I was to play the physical version.

So does Ark of the Covenent live up to the claim made by Jonathan? I've not played other base game variants so comparing it to the vanilla game, is there enough there to justify the claim? Hmmm I'm not sure. It's certainly an easier game to score for beginners. And I certainly enjoyed playing the game, it's Carcassonne what's not to enjoy? So for me on that claim the jury is still out.

I think the joint victory was a great way to end another great evening of gaming.

 

Friday Gaming Part 2

Fenland Gamers, game night, tabletop

 

This evening Jonathan, Debbie, Jo, Jonathan's Dad, and myself got together to play the worker placement game Brew Crafters. Where we play as brewers trying to build the best brewery in the city.

I'd never played Brew Crafters before, while the others had played it once or twice previously. However it was pretty easy to pick up.

My tactic for the game was to try and keep developing a seven repetation point local brew, and make sure I had enough money at the end of each of the three winter stage to pay for my resources. I did manage to get three of those seven pointers. During the second year I spent a couple of turns trying to bloke Jonathan getting enough money to pay for his brewery resources, and force him to take out loans to pay for them. This would have forced negative points onto him. However Jonathan managed to get just enough money to avoid having to take out loans to pay for stuff.

The final scores on the doors…

As you can see it was pretty close in the middle.

I enjoyed playing Brew Crafters, the theme comes across really well in the game. I like the two stage mechanic of each season. Sending workers to the market to get get resources, like hops and malt etc, followed by then choosing a production action like make a brew, or do research. And then you could also collaborate on a brew too to gain extra money and repetation points.

So another great evening of gaming, can't wait for the next gaming session. Oh wait that's tomorrow…

 

Half Term Gaming

Fenland Gamers, flash point, game night, new arrivals, tabletop

So yesterday my order from BGG arrived. The order consisted of the promo character cards for Pandemic, plastic brains counters and the Joker promo cad for the DC Deckbuilding game.

The Pandemic character cards behave “slighty” differently from the regular character cards for the game. Here is the description of the cards from the BGG store:

“Each card is double-sided, meaning there are four roles included, two of which you can use in any given game.

Card 1: Epidemiologist and Operations Expert

Card 2: Generalist and Medic

The key difference with these promo characters is they lose health when cubes are added to the city they are in, or if the city they are in outbreaks. If all four health of a promo character is ever exhausted, the players lose the game. This increases the difficulty of the game.“

It seems an interesting twist for playing the game. I look forward to playing with them.

Now the Joker promo is interesting! Because I don't have the DC Deckbuilding game, and I have no intention of buying it. When I tried the game I didn't like it at all, it is far far inferior to the Marvel Legendary game. So why get this promo? I'm a fan of the Joker. So had to get it really.

So the brains were bought for one reason. That was to pimp out Zombie Dice. So instead of using a scrap of paper or the official score pad to track players scores, I will now use these brains instead. Which I think is really thematic for the game and a lot more fun.

Fenland Gamer Open Gaming Evening

Last night saw another Fenland Gamer mid week get together. While waiting for Mat to turn up, the evening started off with four of us playing…

Bang The Dice Game

I've been wanting to play this game for a while. I have three copies of the game! Ok there is a reason for this, but I'll get to that in a minute or two.

With four players, Bang the Dice Game has a sherif, two outlaws and a renegade. I've pimped out the game with the Lego Minifig Sherif figure that goes to whoever has the sherif card. This is the only known role in the game, the others are all hidden, and each has their own win condition.

So as one of the hidden roles you have to work out who is on your side and who isn't. While the sherif knows everyone is out to get them, they have the “easier” task, stay alive, kill the others.

We played the game that whoever was the sherif last got to shuffle and deal out the four role cards next game. Which meant somehow Debbie kept getting the sherif card from the second game onwards. But to be fair Debbie did win as the sherif.

Most of the games I was an outlaw, and as an outlaw won a couple of games with my fellow outlaw. The one game I was a renegade I was eliminated very quickly. But boy when you have to chose between two players to shoot, not sure if they are on your side or not. Wow! Tense.

I really enjoyed playing this game, the others enjoyed it also. Now this is a quick game to teach, learn and play. Although with more players (up to eight) it would take a little longer to play. But the important part for me was how easy it was to teach and learn, plus the number of players it supports.

As regular long time readers will know I use board games with my students in induction week, and at other special times. Student favourites are games such as Love Letter, Munchkin and Resistance. My class size can be upto twenty four students. So I need multiple copies of a game for use in class. With Bang the Dice game supporting three to eight players, it means I only need three copies of the game to use in class. And definitely this game will be seeing some class time.

It would have been nice to have got the Walking Dead themed version of the game (especially for Saturday), however it seems out of print at the moment and more expensive than its rrp. So I'm going to have to wait for it hopefully to get reprinted. I think my students would enjoy the Walking Dead theme a lot.

With Mat arriving we finished our current game of Bang the Dice Game, and the girls got to choose the next game we played.

Flash Point

 

At last I have finally got to play this game. It is part of my collection, but something I've not gotten to play yet. This evening we were playing with Jonathan's copy. The hardest decision was which map/scenario to play, mainly because Jonathan has all the expansions. It was decided by the girls (I think) to do the submarine scenario, and with advanced rules (which iirc none of the others had played before, well we know I hadn't).

Jo started off the game by going first, so by the time it got to my turn I had a good idea of what I was doing. Our tactics for the scenario had us split into two, one team taking the left side of the sub (sorry no nautical terminology here) and the other the right side of the sub.

It seemed to be a semi successful tactic, we rescued victims, some lucky rolls of the dice put one or two victims straight in the safe zone, but the rolls for fire didn't go our way.

We ultimately lost the game, but it came close to the wire, we nearly completed the scenario by rescuing seven victims. It was a damaged piece of machinery from the fire that ultimately cost us the game.

I enjoyed my first game a lot, and can't wait to play more games and scenarios. Maybe Lego Minifig firemen next time?

It was the boys turn to choose…

Tiny Epic Galaxies

So a game of TEG with its maximum number of players, it was going to be interesting to see how the game went.

This was Mats first time playing the game, so a quick explanation of the game was given. Maybe too quick. However I started the game so Mat could observe a couple of goes before his.

Jo was as usual making head way on developing her empire, and colonising planets. I think I was the last player to upgrade their empire. Which definitely put me at a disadvantage on the available actions front for a few turns.

Jo could have triggered the end game and maybe have won the game, but a wrong decision on what was to be her last turn, gave Mat the window to get to twenty one points and trigger the end of the game. Debbie and Jonathan took their last goes. This was to prove a game winning last go for Jonathan, who managed to colonise a final planet and get enough points to get the win.

Mat was unsure of his first game, and thought he needs another game to decide. I partially blame myself being a poor teacher for this.

I enjoyed playing TEG with five players, there is more competition for planets. With the ability to follow another players action, you are semi engaged when it's another players turn. Which cuts down on the downtime a little between turns.

The evening finished off with a quick, light game of…

Zombie Dice

I don't think I've won a game of zombie dice yet, and last nights game kept that losing streak going. The brains as scoring tokens added to the game I thought. And was a nice light, fun way to end an enjoyable evening of gaming with great company.

So Brew Crafters to look forward to playing for the first time on Friday, followed by an open gaming session on Saturday (which will have cake!).

 

The Little Train That Couldn’t

expansions, Fenland Gamers, game night, lords of waterdeep, new arrivals
Yesterday really did turn out to be an awesome day. It started off me getting a coffee bought for me. Free coffee is always good. Then at break time there was chocolate cake and banoffee pie! from Doreen (mother of a colleague and friend who makes these to die for cakes) for the staff room. Yes I had both, it would have been rude not to. Both were amazing. But I handled the sugar rush that followed, I'm a serious cake addict so my fix needs to be larger than this.
When I got home two more kickstarters had arrived. One Night Revolution and Coup Rebellion G54 were in one box. Wow this version of Coup was a tad larger than the original. It certainly isn't portable anymore in the same way that Coup is. Coup Rebellion G54 is the sequel to Coup, and is stand alone from the original game. While One Night Revolution is a version of One Night Werewolf, but with some tweaks! Oh and naturally set in the Resistance/Dystopian Universe.
The Diamonster promo cards for Machi Koro also arrived, along with the final expansion that I needed (if we don't include the original Mutant Boss sculpt) for Run, Fight or Die, the Zombie Horde expansion.
The second Kickstarter to arrive was the long delayed and over due (although not by some Kickstarter projects standards) King of New York tee. Doesn't it look awesome? This just had to be worn for the gaming evening.

Fenland Gamers

Snowdonia a beautiful part of Wales. Sadly during the Summer so over crowded, it's hard to find that quiet remote spot away from the maddening crowd. But it is possible.
The Snowdon Summit is probably not my favourite, with the cafe and train line scaring it (despite the rebuilt cafe that is meant to be less intrusive). However its popularity can not be denied.
Last night Jonathan, Mat and myself got together to play a game of Snowdonia. Where we are trying to build that train line I described as a scar from Llanberis to the summit.
This was the first time any of us had played the game, which meant there was regular referring to the rules, and taking a round or two before things started to click.
Jonathan had two promo engine cards for the game, the kids favourite Ivor the Engine, and Jimmy and the Little Old Engine (a character I've never heard of). I think these are a pretty cool promos for the game really, and the publisher did really well getting permission to do them. Maybe I'll get Blood Rage when they produce a Noggin the Nog promo for it (I was more a Noggin the Nog fan than Ivor the Engine, but I did really like Ivor the Engine too).

The final turn of the game involved Jonathan stealing seven points from me by claiming a fourteen point rail slot that I was going for. I thought he didn't have the resources to get it! Mind you even I had got it, I still wouldn't have come close to coming second let alone winning. On that front Jonathan and Mat well and truly beat me.

So what were my initial impressions of Snowdonia? I enjoyed our game of it. But there is a but. I think I need a couple of more plays. It took me a little bit longer than I liked to get the hang of the game. I enjoyed the weather mechanic effecting what actions can be used, I liked the bag of resources with the use of white cubes mixed in that when drawn from the bag trigger certain events.

We finished the evening off by playing Lords of Waterdeep. With the amount of time we had left sadly we couldn't use either of the two modules from the expansion. It's well known how I feel about Waterdeep, and Jonathan and Mat had not played the game before, so after setting up it was time to teach Waterdeep.

Waterdeep isn't a difficult game to teach, and can be picked up very quickly. Which both Jonathan and Mat did.

I made a token attempt at trying to complete quests that would earn me extra victory points at the end of the game from my Lord of Waterdeep. Instead I kept going for high value quest cards, and trying to deny them from the others. Obviously this tactic was doomed to failure, even though it gave me the lead score going into the final round of the game.

During the final tallying of scores from the left over workers, money and bonus points from the Lords of Waterdeep cards that lead just slipped away. Jonathan just ran away with an amazing winning score in the one hundred and forties, while Mat got a comfortable second place, leaving me trailing far behind in last place.

Luckily Waterdeep didn't disappoint Jonathan and Mat. Which was my biggest fear. They enjoyed the game itself, and were impressed by the high quality of the components and packaging. Which to be fair is very good. Next time they both want to play with the expansions.

So free coffee, cake, stuff arriving, and an evening of great gaming. Yes yesterday was a truly great day.

 

War huh!

Fenland Gamers, game night, memoir 44

Memoir '44 has been in my pile of shame for about a year and a half now. I'd originally bought it for Nath and I to play. But best made plans and all that, we haven't got round to playing it.

So I was really pleased when I found out that Jonathan at the Fenland Gamers group not only had Memoir '44 but also had almost everything for the game expansion wise with the exception of the odd map pack.

Last night finally saw me play Memoir '44 for the first time with Jonathan. Luckily for me Jonathan was in need of a refresher on how to play the game due to a long gap between this game and his last play of it.

Game One – Pegasus Bridge, June 6, 1944 I'm the Axis Player

Game one started off with me playing as the Axis power in the game. This was the first scenario in the manual, and sees the Axis player start off with a card disadvantage (two cards) to simulate the forces being taken by surprise.
Jonathan got an early victory point by capturing the bridge on the left flank, and also nearly wiping out the unit that was on the other side of the bridge. But I managed to get that unit out and manovered away from the Allied forces along with the other lone unit on that flank so that they did not become easy victory points for Jonathan.
While that was going on Jonathan sent his Allied forces to engage with my dug in forces on the right that were defending the second bridge and the town next to it.
I was more than happy to let the Allies come at me, it meant I was able to enjoy the benefits of my defences, which in Memoir terms means one less dice to roll for Jonathan.
So I had the victory point from the second bridge and good dice rolls and card draw got me the other three victory points I needed by allowing me to pick off the Allie forces from the safety of my dugouts.
Wow somehow I had won my first game.

Game Two – Pegasus Bridge, June 6, 1944 I'm the Allied Player

Game two and time to swap sides and see what the other side of the map looks like. Boy does it look different.

Having played the Axis first definitely helped me on this game. As did having an awesome card draw. My first card was an advancement order that allowed me to issue an order all my units, plus they could move two hexes and attack, or move three hexes and not attack.

So my first move was swamping the right flank, and rushing to the bridge. The thing with this scenario is that the Axis have two units on the right flank separate from each other. One is in the corner on the opposite side of the river. So overwhelming them quickly would net me two victory points, and a third can be gained taking the bridge.

This part of the plan worked perfectly, one turn I've cut the bridge off, and can pick off the trapped Axis unit. Surprisingly Jonathan's other unit is moved in to engage with the superior force. Which is exactly what I wanted. They were soon picked off also, and the bridge taken. Three victory points on the table, one more needed for the win.

My mass move to the right flank threw off Jonathan whose remaining forces were dug in defending the second bridge in the top left corner of the left flank. I don't think Jonathan had the card draw that enabled him to do much. Although he did start to venture through the barb wire to engage with me.

The second part of my plan after getting the “easy” victory points on the right was to just throw all units at the Axis lines on the left, all I needed was to pick off one unit to get the win.

With Jonathan moving units from behind their defences I soon finished off a unit to get the win.

I seem to remember this being a very short game.

Game Three – Sainte Mere-Eglise, June 6, 1944 I'm the Allied Player

On to scenario two, this time I starting off as the Allies. I remember seeing Tom Vassell doing a live play of this on The Dice Tower channel a while back. Can't remember the actual game but the having to drop four miniatures on the board from about twelve inches up to simulate a parachute drop by the Allies was the only bit I remembered.

My drop got me three additional units in a central position. I thought I'm going to need these units the Axis forces had a tank unit!

Those tanks were my biggest worry in this scenario. Once they were out of the right flank top corner they would be deadly.

I managed to take out the lone Axis unit that had dug in the little village in the middle of the board. By the time I had done that the tanks were close. With poor card draw for Jonathan (I'm assuming that is the case) the tanks failed to attack and do any damage. I had a window of opportunity here. I attacked his tanks with three infantry units, the rolls were with me and I wiped out the tanks.

Then the battle front moved to the left flank with our infantry units engaging each other. Some tit for tat exchanges and I've gained the final two victory points needed to win.

Below courtesy of Jonathan a picture of me (there really aren't enough of these on this blog) in deep thought trying to work out what I'm going to do about the bloomin tanks. Luckily after this photo I played just the right card to allow three infantry units to take out the tanks.

Game Four – Sainte Mere-Eglise, June 6, 1944 I'm the Axis Player

The final game of the evening. I'm now playing as the Axis forces. My luck was bound to run out at some point. My card draw was not going my way. I was just not getting cards that would allow me to issue orders to my left flank and get the tanks and supporting infantry units out.

I even sacrificed my lone unit in the middle to distract Jonathan to try and buy me time to get the cards I needed. But that only delayed the inevitable, Jonathan's forces attacked my right flank picking off units, and despite me trying to make an exit through the woods I was out of the game.

I had started to draw cards for the left flank, but it was too little too late. Before being defeated I did manage to score one victory point to stop it being a total whitewash.

Final thoughts…

Wow. I love this game. And I'm not just saying this because I won! I love the combat and the dice rolling. The command cards to issue orders is brilliant.

Yes bad dice rolls and not drawing the cards you want can be frustrating. But they do nicely simulate orders not getting through or the tide of battle going against you.

For me Memoir '44 is just right. Love the theme, I think with the bits of flavour text that you get with each mission is great. Components are great. This just works on all levels. The nice thing is it's not a heavy wargame. Ok it's a wargame “lite” which suits me perfectly.

I really can't wait to play more games of Memoir '44. Thanks Jonathan for a great evenings gaming and teaching me Memoir.

 

 

Saturday with the Fenland Gamers

Fenland Gamers, game night
Wow another great time playing games. I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Well ok out on the hill with a wild camp would technically beat it. But if we add the criteria when you are stuck at home. Then my statement is accurate.
But I’m jumping ahead of myself. This afternoon saw me meeting up with the Fenland Gamers again for an afternoon of gaming.
The gaming session started off with a game of Ticket to Ride with the 1910 expansion used for the larger route cards. The route cards in the base game are small and lots of people don’t like them. So most folks buy this expansion just to upgrade the route cards.
I did complete my three routes only just. Our host won so convincingly, with a score well over a hundred and forty points. His score wasn’t too far off from being double my final score. I do own the game and the expansion but rarely get to play it, and have to usually settle for AI opponents in the app. A refreshing change to play against people.
After Ticket to Ride it we moved onto the bluffing game Coup. This was the first time I have played the game since purchasing it. I think it was also the first time for everyone else too. I think we must of played three or four games of this. In one of the games when there were three of us left, and all of us were claiming to be Dukes, I came up with the line “the Dukes duking it out”.
It was then onto a new game for me Glen More. In Glen More you are a clan leader trying to increase the influence and power of their clan in the 1600s. The game had several mechanics I enjoy in games. For example like Tokaido the last player on the board goes first, although Glen More was doing this long before Tokaido. Buying the tiles and placing them in your village reminded me a bit of Alhambra.
The market in the middle was a nice way to get the odd resource that you were short of to buy a tile.
And I just don’t like the game because I won. Ok won very convincingly.

Glen More is currently out of print and apparently hard to get. Which sounds like a challenge. In the meantime it has been added to my bgg wish list. In my initial searching I did come across the useful to know bit of information that Glen More is being reimplemented in a new version of the game called Lunarchitecs. Which gives the game a space theme. I’m not sure if there will be any tweaks to the game play. Personally I don’t think it needs any. This will be hitting Kickstarter in November, you can find more info HERE.

Below my winning village.

The final big game was another attempt to save the world from total destruction by playing Pandemic. Despite finding a cure for the yellow virus, we still failed to stop the destruction of mankind.
But we did have fun on the way to oblivion if that helps make your slow painful death from the pandemics we failed to stop and better.

The final game we played before I had to leave was Love Letter. This was a new game for the others. I think it is safe to say they enjoyed the game a lot. I managed to win getting the required four tokens. But it wasn’t a walk away victory. I think most of the others won at least two tokens.

I really did have a great time, once again great company, great games. There is also the potential that I will get to play Memoir 44 during the week. Plans are a foot for it to happen. So very excited about that.

I’m hoping my less than subtle subliminal programming will get the others into accidentally buying Android:Netrunner.

 

Gaming Day

game night, love letter, netrunner, new arrivals

We had an induction event at work today for students starting in September. I had been put down to “entertain” a group of them for a couple of hours in the morning.

Recently it has come to light that I have a little bit of a Love Letter addiction and own eight copies of the game in various editions.

My plan was simple, I would utilise my Love Letter problem and hold a little Love Letter tournament with the students.

This was this first time the students had played the game. Plus for this group the first time that they had played a game that would not be considered “mainstream”. Sadly none of the group play tabletops, and most would say their last experience was playing the likes of Monopoly or Frustration.

The way I organised the tournament was that the winners from each table would be playing against each other in the next round. And then mix the other tables up based on how many tokens each remaining player had scored that round. To have consistent scoring between the versions we used the Batman Love Letter scoring, which meant that the guard card or equivalent when played and the player guesses correctly they get a token. Which is in addition to a token for winning the round.

This proved a great way of getting the students to mix, because this was the first time they had met.

Next time I run a Love Letter tournament (which will most likely be September) I’m hoping to get some prizes in place for the students to win. The only reason there wasn’t anything this time is because I had very little notice that I would be doing this today, let alone time to think about how I would fill the time slot.

The students had a good time playing the game. Which is the important thing.

At the end of the session I ended up showing one group an example of a “modern” boardgame by taking my copy of Run Fight or Die! out (I just happened to have a copy in my bag!) and quickly setting it up and explaining how the game is played.

What do I look for in a game to use with me students?

It has to be quick to teach, ideally in five to ten minutes. Lessons are one hour twenty (a two hour session like today is a rarity), so playtime for the game should be under an hour. Ideally the game should support four to six players, and not be expensive to buy (funnily enough I don’t have a budget for this sort of thing).

So what games do I currently use with the students:

  • Love Letter
  • Resistance
  • Fluxx
  • Munchkin
  • Zombie Dice

 

And here is a list of games I’m looking to try/introduce:

  • Coup
  • Sushi Go!
  • One Night Resistance (or I think it’s changed to Rebellion)
  • Age of War

Tuesday Night Netrunner

Well I was at the Kings Head at 7pm. Sadly a grand total of zero people turned up. I hung around for forty odd minutes. But I must have looked pretty sad nursing my orange and lemonade (with ice) while reading the rules to Hive. Then again I was the only customer there.

I will get this off the ground. So here is looking to next Tuesday and hopefully a bigger turnout.

New Arrivals

Well after last night and my complaint with Amazon where I cancelled the order and got a refund, that Imperial Settlers was delivered today was rather surprising. I wasn’t expecting that at all, especially when the Royal Mail told the Amazon support person the earliest they could attempt to redeliver was Wednesday! So my logic went I’ll cancel the order, get refund, reorder the game. While I’m doing that Amazon tell the Royal Mail to return the package. And life and the universe are at peace with one another once more.

The day had gone as planned, the manager from the local Royal Mail didn’t call me as promised. Royal Mail customer support is so shitty. I’m too drained to follow this up. Apparently Royal Mail managers finish at 2pm so I can’t even pop round after work to catch them.

I wonder why the Royal Mail is losing business to competition?

Finally Boss Monster 2 arrived, this is the kickstarter Collectors Editon that I went for which is made up of the limited edition game and a special lunchbox to store the cards of the game, plus stretch goals. I’ll get the special lunchbox later in the year. So excited about that. If you are remotely interested you can get the full list of the rewards I’ll be getting here on the this page.

The second hand copy of Hive Pocket is in good condition, I’m looking forward to learning this game. It’s potentially a game for trips.

Finally Nations the Dice Game also arrived. I really want to get this and Roll for the Galaxy to the table very very soon.

 

 

 

 

Easter Thursday Night Games Night

game night, star realms, tabletop

Last night saw another Thursday Night Games Night at a new venue.

The evening started off meeting at the old location to go in convoy to the new location. But due to the length of the journey the convoy had to stop at Morrisons for supplies. They are cunning people at Morrisons placing “better than half price” (their words not mine) Jaffa Cakes right next to the entrance of the store as the first thing you hit before having to walk through that evil guilt inducing fruit and veg isle. Mind you it's rare that I feel guilty that I should eat more fruit and veg. Now cake I do feel guilty I'm not eating enough of.

It was a major display of will power on my part not to just buy a shit load of Jaffa Cakes. Sadly I was strong and didn't crumble and only bought two packets. Oh and a trifle for a quid to use as a dip for them! Hey what can I say I'm a creative genius.

Now stocked up with supplies to finish the long trek to the new venue we headed off across the border into the wildes of Norfolk, for about thirty seconds before crossing back into the civilised lands of Cambridgeshire. That was the most dangerous part of our trek over with. We had survived unscathed the badlands of Norfolk.

The convoy arrived at the new venue. We hadn't had to touch the supplies after all, oh well they will do for the game night.

The new venue was none other than the secret headquarters of the infamous pirate podcast Lolocaust Tubeblockers. We even had a guided tour of the actual recording studio used to create these acts against humanity and good taste. I will apologise because this would of been the perfect time to strike back for mankind and deliver a blow for freedom against this tyranny. However Bouncy had more security than a Bond villian round his recording studio. Yep that's right it was blocked off with “Police Line Do Not Cross” tape. Security does not get harder to crack than that. It's uncrackable. An opportunistic chance to strike back for freedom and democracy had been foiled by impenetrable security.

Our first game of the evening once there collective had decided to make a decision was King of New York. Yep the game I got only the other day, hadn't been opened and none of us knew how to play. So while I was getting the components ready to play with, Gav read the rules. I think I was the only one listening as Gav read the rules out. The others decided who needs to know the rules, what we need is banter! Was this a tactical decision that was part of some new cunning planning at winning a game you'd never played before? After a slow start as we got used to the rules and what dice symbol did what etc. we started to play. We even had Bouncy live streaming a bit of the game at the start. The game lived up to my expectations. It manages to capture the japanese monster movie trope of giant monsters fighting in the middle of a metropolis trashing buildings, fighting each other and the army really well. I enjoy the japanese monster movie which most will of experienced in the form of the Godzilla series. I wouldn't call myself a fan, unlike Bouncy who is. But still I enjoyed the movies a lot as I watched them as a teenager late at night on one of the four terrestrial TV channels we had at the time. I want to say it was Channel 4 but my fading memory could be wrong on this. I even enjoyed the 1998 Hollywood attempt at doing a Godzilla movie. Which may be an unpopular opinion. But hey I haven't said it was a great movie, just an enjoyable one. Ok the Godzilla reboot by Hollywood last year was much much better, and Pacific Rim also was a good Hollywood monster vs giant robots movie. Which I believe at some point we may see a crossover between Godzilla and Pacific Rim, which could be very very cool. But if you love these types of movie you are going to love this game. In the end the game was won by Gav, who was accused of shenanigans because he had the rule book!
The next game was another game we hadn't played and was one of mine that had been bought recently and unplayed! The game being Batman Love Letter.
The above photo shows us reading the rules!

A word of advice if Bouncy does his bum note joke and you have your back to him. Do not turn round and look. I stumbled across this useful hint last night, I was busy playing my go at the time, Bouncy had come down with just a Guitar Hero/Rock Band guitar covering his lower naked half. That image alone was disturbing enough. Then he turns round to leave the room and does the bum note joke. The rest of the group now for ever more have the image of Bouncy's bare bum etched in their memory. I dodged a bullet here. It's a bit like Rick waking up in hospital at the start of The Walking Dead, everyone else is dead or a zombie, he survived whatever “event” happened to turn the world upside down. And here I escaped what can only be assumed a horrific image that even horror porn can not even come close to matching. Then it dawned on all of us “OMG that guitar has touched his junk, never ever play Guitar Hero with Bouncy and use his guitar”.

Batman Love Letter is a great fun game. It helps to stay focused while playing (see the above Bouncy story), which Luke seemed to have a hard time doing. But Luke ended up winning. So that's a tactic I'm going to try next time I play the game. This game was really a hoot. It helps that if you play the Robin card when someone selects you to reveal your card to not reveal your card and then remember you didn't have to because you were exempt. Hands up I did this a couple of times. The last time I did this I basically gave Luke the win on a plate.

Gav wanted to have a game of Star Realms, so while we played that. The others went off to play Smash Up! I really want to give this game a try sometime, maybe another game night. The Star Realms game Gav and I played worked out with me getting some combos, not massive ones but enough to win. But that wasn't the point of the game. It was to teach the basics, and give Gav a taste of playing. Gav enjoyed the game and will be getting it electronically I think/ possibly physically as well. As a first game Gav did well. It helped that he had played Marvel Legendary before so was used to the mechanics.

It was hitting midnight and being the little Cinderella that I am I had to rush back home, hoping that the mutants roving the wastelands of Norfolk didnt waylay me as I crossed into their lands briefly.

This morning also found out that the guys also had a game of Spyfall too after I left. Another game I want to try, I think this could be a student favourite.

I had a great evening, many laughs, avoid something that could never be unseen, and as always great company.

Can't wait for the Marvel Games Night planned for the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron. That will be a Marvel Legendary night.