Category Archives: game night

game night

Take a rocket ride…

game night, Roll/Flip and Write, Welcome to the Moon Campaign

This is the first in a series of posts that will cover my first time playing through the campaign side of the flip and write Welcome to the Moon.

Although I’m sure if I play through the campaign on subsequent occasions I’ll blog about them also.

I’m going to try and theme the blog post titles with an appropriate inspired book/movie/song title/lyric that reflects the overall theme of that campaign game just played. Which may or not be harder than I think.

At the end of the campaign I’ll have a final post ranking the adventure sheets. Which is something I’ve seen one or two YouTube content creators do, so why shouldn’t I?

None of my coverage of this campaign will involve the Astra Solo mode that Welcome to the Moon has. As long suffering readers of this blog well know I don’t play solo. All the games will be two or more players.

Naturally these posts will all start the same with the all too familiar and totally necessary warning for those that have not played the campaign and want to remain pleasantly surprised as they play the campaign themselves. After all I don’t want to ruin anyones enjoyment of the game.

So here we go for the first time in these posts…

The following post may or may not contain spoilers for the Welcome to the Moon campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one if you plan to play the campaign and want to experience it’s twists and turns as surprises for yourself. REMEMBER you have been warned.

Before playing Welcome to the Moon I’d never played any of the previous Welcome to… games. That’s despite claiming to be a roll/flip and write fan. So you could argue that there is a gap in my roll/flip and write education.

To aid playing the game I created a couple of player aids. One based on the faq for the game, and another based on pages 5 and 6 of the rulebook that summarises a game turn and actions that can be taken. I thought it’d be handy to have the later with multiple players. These were both laminated.

I also printed out a copy of the last page of the campaign book which is the dashboard used to record scores during the campaign. I’m going to do this for each campaign and keep them as some sort of record!

This was a four player play through of the campaign. The group was made up of a varied range of experience to roll/flip and writes, and the Welcome to… games. This range from never played a roll/flip and write, to some experience, to experienced fans of the genre. Only one of us (Charlene) had played a Welcome to… game before.

Now with that bit of business out of the way.

Welcome to my first play through of the Welcome to the Moon campaign. Starting with…

ADVENTURE #1: THE LAUNCH

Captain: Me

I’m old enough to have fond memories of watching “classic” sci-fi movies from the 50’s and 60’s such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, and When Worlds Collide as a kid at every chance I had when they appeared on the tv schedule during the 70’s and 80’s.

The later of those “classics” seems very apt for the theme of Welcome to the Moon. Imminent disaster awaiting the earth, mankind looking to the stars for its survival.

The art, and aesthetic of the game gives off that retro sci-fi vibe of those movies. I love it.

Before we even start playing we had to make a decision. Did we want to play the introductory campaign and it’s gentle introduction to the eight adventures and the story, or jump right in with the second campaign and a recap of the story so far? It should be noted the introductory campaign adds no special rules or additional content. Changes to the game based on choices made only start to happen from the second campaign onwards.

We decided to jump right in to the deep end and start off with the second campaign.

The drawback of doing this is a bit of exposition covering the events that would have taken place if we had played through the introductory campaign.

It was interesting plot wise that time travel was introduced to take us back to the start as if nothing had happened. The story did briefly touch on that time travel paradox of changing the future. But it was dismissed in a sentence.

However I did feel this was a lot to read out aloud. But that’s the drawback of story based campaigns.

I liked this introductory adventure, where the aim was to launch your rocket.

Our choices added an extra two floors to the rocket.

This was the perfect adventure for players new to the genre and the Welcome to… games to start with.

Mechanically this adventure was fairly simple. It did have a limited bit of player interaction when sabotage effects were activated forcing system errors onto the other players. There is a little combo action that can take place. But not to the level of Three Sisters.

Otherwise this adventure gets players used to the flow of a Welcome to… game. The action symbols govern where you write the numbers on your rocket, and have no other effect.

Charlene triggered the end of the game by launching her rocket.

Chapter path taken: 109, 147,12,7,62,148

Missions:

  • Number the 3 Astronaut & Water floors completely.
  • Number the Energy floor completely.
  • Have 5 System Error boxes circled and not crossed off.

Winner: Charlene

ADVENTURE #2: THE JOURNEY

Captain: Charlene

The second adventure sees us having narrowly escaped Earth, flying our rocket ships to the moon.

The first adventure was very deceptive and lulled you into a false sense of security.

It did feel like a big jump in complexity. I think our noob to the genre felt that they were suddenly in the deep end of the pool and out of their depth.

All of a sudden being first to complete something on the board mattered (excluding missions). It gave you a better bonus or multiplier than the others.

This adventure saw an event card shuffled into one of the three starship decks. When drawn the event would trigger.

Sadly when the event did occur I mucked it up. Focussing on achieving a mission objective whilst screwing myself over and forcing a system error on my next turn.

System errors bought the game to an end, and Charlene won again.

Chapter path taken: 177,34,92

Missions:

  • Circle a multiplier bonus for 3 different space stations with the robots.
  • Using the energy, create on your trajectory 2 zones of 6 numbered spaces.
  • Circle 6 water tanks.

Winner: Charlene

ADVENTURE #3: THE COLONY

Captain: Charlene

In this adventure we were building the first lunar colony on the moon.

Once again a decision added a modification to the player board. This time the lower quadrant of the board was replaced and the first person completing it getting a choice of ten victory points or an additional star.

There was definitely a soduku feel to the mechanisms of this adventure. Our noob player found this adventure much easier than the previous one.

In addition to the system errors giving you negative points at the end, using a planning action would also do the same.

I did feel playing this adventure I hadn’t done enough to get the resources to make effective use of the multipliers I had unlocked.

Once again a system error bought the game to a halt. However this time I was able to win the game, and get an extra star for having completed the quadrant first.

Chapter path taken: 111,15

Missions:

  • Number all the buildings in 3 vertical columns.
  • Using the robots, connect the tunnel network to the observatory in the top right corner of your sheet.
  • Circle all the water tanks in 2 quarters.

Winner: Me

ADVENTURE #4: THE MINE

Captain: Me

The fourth adventure has our colony on the moon mining it for resources.

We found the rules for this adventure a little confusing initially. Which I think added a little to the feeling of it being more complex than the previous adventure.

Once again an event card was added to one of the three starship decks. But this one added an interesting twist.

When it triggered it cut down the number of starship decks from three to two. Still the same number of cards, just less choices each turn. You’d be surprised how big a difference that makes.

Like the previous two adventures system errors triggered the end game.

Like the previous adventure I won.

Chapter path taken: 139,80,82

Missions:

  • In the mine, complete 5 extraction columns.
  • Upgrade or activate a total of 6 factories, either main or secondary.
  • Circle 5 waters in the mine, whether they are extracted or not.

Winner: Me

Final dashboard at end of session and half way point in campaign

Some final thoughts…

My earlier expectations were we might get the first couple of adventures played, and then play something else.

It was a pleasant surprise that we played the first four adventures of the campaign.

I like that the campaign cards are a mix of dry erase cards, and cards you mix into the starship deck. The dry erase cards modify the player boards. Which adds a cool bit of variety.

However with four adventures left it feels like we have hardly scratched the surface of the cards used with the starship deck. I think we have used three cards so far!

I like how event cards trigger complications during an adventure.

It’s very cool each adventure can be explained in a couple of pages. However on at least one occasion I think there could have been a bit more clarity if more space had been used.

Although each adventure uses the same core mechanic, it’s amazing how they all feel different with just a couple of rule changes.

I’m looking forward to playing the remaining four adventures of the campaign.

rolling dice, playing cards, and exploiting any misplay made by others aka just another club night

Fenland Gamers, game night

Friday evening was another really well attended club night.

It saw the return of a missed member, new members attending for the first time, and regular faces.

If the head count was accurate then there were seventeen like minded individuals gathered round tables, rolling dice, playing cards, and exploiting any misplay made by others.

Surely it won’t be long before we break into twenty plus members attending a club night.

You already know that Gavin and I have entered into a deal that sees me exchange hard earned mullah for his copy of Marvel Champions.

My first game of the evening was the latest Stonemaier Games release, the tenth anniversary co-op micro game for two players, Smitten, with Jonathan.

The art on one of the Smitten cards reminded me of a card in MtG. A quick search found the card I’d been thinking of, it was Arcane Flight. Take a look at the two cards side by side below, what do you think?

Am I the only one that sees a similarity?

The game does play really fast. And very quick to learn.

I love the limited communication you are allowed.

I was definitely getting some The Mind vibes whilst playing Smitten.

For me this is another great example of what can be achieved with just eighteen cards, like Love Letter.

Smitten might have just become my go to two player filler game.

Jonathan and I failed. But we enjoyed ourselves.

My second, but the others I was playing with first game of the evening, was Wingspan.

I used the official app for the final scoring instead of the supplied score pad. Probably the first time in actual anger.

It worked well, very little overhead in using, with the only setup being selecting which expansions if any you are using, and player names.

I really like that quick setup and straight into using.

It didn’t change the final result with me coming in last.

My final game of the evening was a couple of games of Sushi Go! Party.

Because we were all experienced gamers we went with “gamie” oriented menus.

Game 1 Menu
Game 2 Menu

These were fun.

I love how the different menus just shake things up depending on what sort of game you want, or who you are playing with.

If you just look at the wins and losses, then the evenings gaming was a bad day at the office.

But that doesn’t tell the full story.

I had a great evening gaming with friends, did and saw some cool turns.

And that’s the more important thing. Winning is just icing on the cake.

Achievement Unlocked

Fenland Gamers, game challenges, game night

Last night it was that time once again for Fenland Gamers to meet up and play some games.

I’d been lucky with my shift for the day with it finishing at 6pm. Which meant I was going straight from work to the club night. But also I wouldn’t be missing the evening of gaming.

Club night would mark the start of four days off. I couldn’t think of a better way to kick off the much needed r&r.

This was another really well attended evening with seventeen folks turning up. Which included four new faces.

Charlene and myself played Tapestry with three of them.

This wasn’t my copy of the game so we were playing with only the Arts and Architecture expansion. The cards were also unsleeved. Oh the horror of naked cards!

My Leaders were conquering artists. Sadly I got my butt handed to me, the sixty point victory point starting position for The Chosen was too much. But I did get my personal best five player score!

Our second game of the evening was the WotC “filler” card game Dungeon Mayhem.

This is a really fun card game. It’s quick and easy to play.

However it does have one “mechanic“ in it that I really dislike. That may not be a strong enough description but it’ll do for now.

That “mechanic” is the physical activity. For example I had a card in my deck that required players to perform a little dance. Charlene had one that required players to give her praise.

Why? It’s not fun!

But despite that major drawback it is a fun game. And even with players getting knocked out they are still semi involved in the game play.

This will have to join the rotation of games going into the game bag for club nights.

With the game of Dungeon Mayhem I completed one of my gaming challenges for the year.

Yep I’ve played forty new to me games this year so far.

I still find it hard to believe that I’ve played that many new to me games.

As it stands at the moment approximately two thirds of the games I’ve played this year have been new to me.

With roughly forty five percent of those new to me games being games owned by others.

Don’t hold me to those percentages I’ve spitballed those figures as rough guesstimates, they may vary by a percent or two if I actually calculated them. But they are close enough.

Using the 3×3 functionality of the bgstat you can see what those forty games were below.

I’m not going to increase the challenge even with three months of the year left.

But it will be very interesting to see how many new to me games I actually do end up playing at the end of the year.

Empire building

game night

The drawback of my new role is that my days off each week move around. So it’s not guaranteed I am off at the weekend or even our fortnightly club meet-ups.

What this means is I am more reliant on ad-hoc gaming sessions and peoples availability mid-week than ever to get any gaming it.

Luckily Thursday evening Marcin, Charlene, and Julie were free to play a game of Brazil Imperium.

Who played who in Brazil Imperium

Once again I went with some synergy with my era cards. Once again it was paintings that was the linking factor.

Whilst the others went after resources or built as their first actions I went after a painting. Particularly as the one I grabbed allowed me to use gold cards as science tokens, followed a couple of turns later by grabbing a painting that allowed me to use wool as gold.

So for much of the early game I felt I was playing catch up to the others as I kind of started setting up a paintings engine in my early turns that would give me early access to science, and worked towards my objectives.

It felt very explosive once I did start building and expanding my empire.

Marcin was the first to complete the first era and the second. However I wasn’t far behind completing my first two era objectives.

However my early investment in the painting engine paid off and I was in a great position to complete my third era objective and trigger the end of the game.

After all the tallying was done Marcin’s more aggressive building snagged him a comprehensive victory.

Having chosen a four player map that was in the middle for the chance of conflict between players, there was no conflict. The opportunities were there. Particularly against my empire as it was fairly late compared to the others that I had my monarch out, or built up my forces for my final era objective.

Final Brazil Imperium scores

It had seemed a good idea to game Thursday evening. But as I woke up Friday morning at ten past four the next morning to get ready for work it seemed less so.

The plus point for my tired body was my shift was only five hours.

However my other brilliant idea a couple of days earlier was to arrange a session to play Twilight Imperium if it arrived in time that evening.

Luckily my optimism was well placed and Twilight Imperium did arrive whilst I was at work. So the gaming session could go ahead.

I spent a therapeutic half hour sleeving the cards in Twilight Inscription. Luckily I had just enough. But it was close. Damn close.

The rest of the afternoon before the session was spent watching YouTube rules videos for the game, reading the rules, and dozing off. Yep I was apparently tired!

For some reason I had got it in my head that Twilight Inscription played between one and four players.

But it does not.

Twilight Inscription actually plays up to eight players!

Who played which faction

Which kinda makes sense considering the game it’s meant to be based on also plays that many.

However! I don’t think I’ll ever play with more than four players just on a practical level.

This game is a space hog.

My mind boggles at the size table you’d need for that player count. There is no way everyone would see the Mecatol board and the four objective cards. However I can see this working as a remote play game if everyone playing has a copy.

On the 6ft by 2.5ft table we were on it would have been snug with a fourth player but possible.

Twilight Inscription is both a flip and write AND a roll and write. It makes great use of both. You work through the event deck that gives you resources in an expansion event or triggers a warfare or political event. Plus during the expansion event you also roll the dice to get further resources to use. I quite like this combo, it works really well here.

Let’s address the elephant in the room about Twilight Inscription. This is not a cut down version of Twilight Imperium. It really is it’s own thing set in the Twilight Imperium universe.

It does have a 4X feel, after all each of the four player boards is one of those X’s. However the only real player interaction comes in the form of the voting and warfare.

Component wise it knocks it out of the park. The dice are large chunky affairs that feel really nice to roll. But you do need big hands to roll all six at once. The chalk pens I like. You do need a cloth to clean the boards with at the end. It is a pain to use the erasers on the ends of the supplied pens. But the chalk pens don’t smudge once dry on the board. Which is really important in the game as you play the game moving between the various player boards.

Political cards we voted on

Compared to other roll and writes Twilight Imperium takes a lot of setup. You are constructing the event deck, shuffling the artifact deck, randomly selecting objectives and political cards, choosing a faction to play.

Objectives we could claim

For me I did feel I was empire building, exploring the stars and battling my neighbours. So I think the theme came through.

If you don’t ever play eight players then selecting player boards randomly, and using the unique side of each board, with one of the 24 factions. Then there is an incredible amount of variety each game. With no two games being the same from a player setup side of things.

The political and objective decks are very small, and would have been nice to have more cards for these. I can see these feeling very tired very quickly. The event deck could have done with having more cards too.

I don’t really think I can give advice on how to play this after a single game and how badly I did.

I got my arsed kicked royally in this first game as the scores below show. But I still had a blast playing the game.

Final Twilight Inscription Scores

My run of “great” decisions continues today with an afternoon of D&D before doing a seven hour shift!

I never learn.

Fenland Gamers Friday Gaming 9/9/2022

Fenland Gamers, game night

It was an odd night for the club.

Not our usual (post lockdowns) numbers with only seven attending.

But then again with her majesty the Queen passing away the previous day and the new King, King Charles III making his first official broadcast to the nation at 6pm.

Was it any real surprise? Even the numbers in the bar area were down (considerably) and no food as they decided to close for the night as a sign of respect.

The positive side of all this was I got to play some games with Jonathan.

We started off playing a quick game of Riverside. I’m still really liking this roll and write.

Our second game of the evening was a three player game of Santorini New York.

Chris our third player hadn’t played the game before so we started off with the recommended role cards for new players to the game (see below).

Recommended role cards for new players

Our first game saw Jonathan eliminated from the game with all his workers removed from the board. I won that game. It felt like a double win with Jonathan being knocked out like that.

The next game saw a determined Jonathan wanting to redeem himself. Which he did by winning.

Our third and final game I decided to shake things up a little and select new role cards for the game (see below).

Role cards used in our final game

I chose roles that looked interesting and fun to play.

Which they were.

Chris won this last game.

I really do like Santorini New York as that multiplayer version of the original game. However the rulebook does leave a lot to be desired especially on clarifying what is classified as an unoccupied space.

Santorini New York

Our final game of the evening was Sushi Go Party!

We went with the “Party Sampler” menu.

Sushi Go Party! Menu played

Obviously we played over the standard three rounds.

I fell behind the other two during the first round trying to play the long game with the green tea ice cream. Hoping to make up any short fall in the final scoring with them.

Alas that was not the case, the gap was too much. Chris ran away with the victory.

Who Won What Game

Yes it wasn’t an evening of heavier games. But they were fun games that we played. And just important we had a good time.

Vampire Thursday! Battle for OP Kit 1.1

game night, Rivals, Vampire the Masquerade Rivals, vampire the masquerade: rivals, Vampire Wednesday

Last night saw three of us compete for the playmat from the first organised play kit of season 1, plus a promo Freddy Usher vampire card.

For this “tournament” we used the new Prague City Deck from the Heart of Europe expansion.

We were using the tournament rules scoring for our games (see below).

Scoring from VtM Tournament Rules

The winner would be the player with the highest score at the end of the evening.

I know Diego and myself were playing our own created decks. I think Marcin said he was also using a deck he created.

Below are our chosen leaders for the evening.

Our leaders for the evening

Our first player was chosen randomly using the bgstat at the start of each game. Naturally for the first game we would also be placing our “Haven, starting vampire (Leader), and Agenda face down. Only after each player has placed these 3 cards are all starting vampires and Havens revealed. Agendas remain face down until a player chooses to flip theirs face up.” VtM Tournament Rules

Game 1

Rivalries: Diego was mine, Marcin was Diego’s, and I was Marcin’s.

Wow the City deck was so mean this first game.

After two rounds all four of the Second Inquisition Team-X Operatives were out in the street. That’s two aggregated damage, discarding a card , plus! losing a prestige point each turn.

Not only that but hardly any mortals, vagrants or citizens came out. It was event after event!

We were finding it hard to build up cards in our hands, and thus options on our turns.

Sometimes this sort of thing happens in games like this. You just don’t draw the cards you need. In our case it was the City deck doing its worst. It could easily have been not drawing the cards we needed from our libraries (as well).

You just have to accept this sort of thing happens. Get through the game, and cling on to the hope that the cards will be kinder next game. Although sometimes the cards do really hate you and don’t improve.

Whilst both Diego and Marcin had revealed their agenda cards I hadn’t. Mine was a mystery to them. Although Diego suspected he knew what it was.

This was a slow game thanks to the mean street.

No mortals or citizens meant I wasn’t burning them and able to create wraiths. The couple that did appear got turned into retainers by the other two.

I wasn’t hitting my mill cards.

I had plenty of prestige thanks to the couple of high blood potency valued cards in Diego’s library. So I was in a good place on that front.

Eventually after the constant Second Inquisition battering we were taking Diego was able to deliver a knock out blow to Marcin’s only remaining vampire and get the win.

I never revealed my agenda. The mystery carried over into our next game.

Game 2

Rivalries: Marcin was mine, I was Diego’s, and Diego was Marcin’s.

This was a much quicker game.

Diego had a good start from the off. The street was a bit kinder to us.

I was able to create a wraith on my leader. But thanks to Diego that didn’t last long to have any effect.

But in reality I wasn’t able to get my pieces into place to put my game plan into action. Diego wasn’t allowing me the time.

Marcin wasn’t able to stop Diego delivering the knockout blow to me.

It was back to back wins for Diego and a commanding lead.

I still hadn’t revealed my agenda in this game.

Game 3

Rivalries: Marcin was mine, I was Diego’s, and Diego was Marcin’s.

This game took much longer to play than the previous one.

I needed to slow Diego down. So some of my early turns involved playing cards that in reality should have been played on my rival. But they had the desired effect.

We did get an early Second Inquisition that was joined by a second. But Diego took one out. Otherwise the street was fairly kind.

There was even a nice number of mortal and citizens building up in the burn pile.

Mid game Marcin had Diego on the ropes. Barely holding on. Victory was looking imminent for him. My earlier actions to slow Diego down had been too effective!

I needed to intervene.

Ok what I did was something I was going to be doing eventually. It just had to be sooner than I wanted. I had wanted to play a ritual or two to take advantage of the pile of bodies in the burn pile, and increase my havens secrecy. But keeping Diego alive was more important.

My intervention emptied Marcin’s hand of cards, stopped him playing particular cards. Just making it harder for him to attack Diego, and if he did so not do lots of damage.

It worked.

Diego was able to hang on in there, stabilise and build up again.

Whilst Diego and Marcin traded blows, my mill plan kicked in on Marcin.

I had a handful of cards. Lots of options.

Diego was going in for the kill on Marcin.

Luckily pointing out that Diego’s attacking party wasn’t as boosted as he had hoped meant Marcin’s last vampire survived by a single blood.

Which is how that surviving vampire was left at the end of Marcin’s turn after the Second Inquisition had done their one point of aggregated damage.

Being the opportunist I am I had a chance to grab victory by a knock out! I know, not my battle plan. But still never look a gift horse in the mouth. And it would have been rude not to take advantage of Diego’s hard work.

So in a rare move for me I moved into the street and did a mental attack on Marcin’s vampire to deliver the knock out blow, and grab victory.

Guess what? I still hadn’t revealed my agenda.

At the end of the evening and three games, once all the dust had settled, points tallied up, the victor and winner of the OP Kit 1.1 Playmat was Diego. However with there only being three of us we all got a promo Freddy Usher vampire card.

Final scores per game, agenda points in brackets

This was a fun evening of playing Rivals. I think we had everything you could see in an evening.

I’m looking forward to our next chance to play.

New Game Friday!

Fenland Gamers, game night

Two weeks flies by so quickly.

But here we are once again at another Friday evening Fenland Gamers club night.

We weren’t up to the heady club record breaking attendance numbers of the previous club night. But we were at a very respectable eleven. Which is about our average these days.

This weeks game night was a rarity indeed because for the second session in a row I got to play with Jonathan once again.

Our first game of the evening was a new addition to my collection, the roll and write Riverside.

On the roll/flip and write spectrum of complexity Riverside is most certainly on the lighter side. Which isn’t a negative. I enjoy lighter roll/flip and writes as well as the much more complex ones. The important thing is whether they are fun to play. And Riverside most definitely is.

Despite its simplicity compared to some in my collection, there are some nice mechanics in this roll and write.

I love the modular board set up that means no two games will be exactly the same.

The use of the median die to move the cruise ship standee around the board is cool.

This median die also determines the rounds temperature and whether dice are in the heated area or not. The importantance of this is that to use a die in the heated area requires you to cross out fire symbols. If you run out of fire symbols or don’t have enough left you can’t use a die in the heated area.

This gives some interesting choices to make such as when and if to use dice in the heated area. Running out of fire symbols means you can no longer use the green die (which is always in the heated area, and can be added to the other dice) or use one of the base dice in the heated area.

I also like the restriction on scoring trips that each time you score a trip it has to be a higher score than the previous trip of that type.

Add in the captains boat and the points switch that adds at the end of the game. There are some lovely little touches that makes this a fun game to play.

Next up was a new game to Jonathan and myself Colorful.

This game had a Codenames vibe to it. But we loved it.

The game plays very quickly. Is quick to teach. We learnt and played two games in less than fifteen minutes. A perfect little filler game.

I loved that the game starts out as a co-operative game as long as everyone is giving the same answer to the clue. But as soon as there is a difference in an answer then it switches to a competitive game with a single winner. A very nice twist.

Our third and final game of the evening was another new arrival of mine and current hotness Brazil Imperium.

In the run up to playing this I had seen Brazil Imperium being mentioned in the same breath as Scythe. Many comparing it with my favourite game of all time.

Having played it I can see there are some similarities but there are enough differences that Brazil Imperium is it’s own game with room for both in a collection.

I like the modular board setup with the rulebook having several layouts to choose from based on player count and if you want an aggressive game or not. There are additional official maps that can be downloaded off the bgg game page.

However there does seem a basic rule for designing your own maps that the number of “big” tile pieces to use is dependent on the player count. Then the use of the smaller tile sections, positioning of capitals is all then dependent on how confrontational you want your game. So it is possible to randomly generate a board.

Map used for our game

The first similarity with Scythe is the action selection for a turn, and not being able to repeat the same action on the next turn. Add in the ability to upgrade those actions by placing an appropriately shaped product on the action using the manufacture action. You can’t escape that Scythe comparison.

You could argue the player boards and the variable powers of the unique leaders are also Scythe like. But with Brazil Imperium you decide which side of the leader board you use for the game. Plus leaders are linked to a board by colour. So only the blue leaders can be used with the blue player board. I’d like to see more leader options in the future.

When you build a building the resources it generates remain on the tile until used. However if an opposing army occupies that space they get to use any resources there. Also very Scythe like.

Who played which leader in Brazil Imperium

Having the combat cards and gold cards have not only a gold or combat use, but an alternative ability such as end game scoring or some other in game power, is a really nice touch.

The use of era cards that set an objective for you to achieve gives you a focus during the game. Getting era cards that compliment each other and your leader is key. Although you start with an era card for each of the three eras, it is possible to get additional era cards. Completing an era then gives you a choice of which palace to build, opens up more buildings to build, and gives another upgrade for one action spot.

The paintings cards add a great power up mechanic. And another thing to look think about. Some improve production, others break rules, some give combat bonuses. You get the idea.

The exploration tiles are a nice touch, giving some sort of bonus. Along with a feeling of exploring the unknown.

Combat is quick and simple. Which is a plus.

This is a great engine builder that does give a great feeling you are building an empire. I almost want to say this is a civilisation type game. In some ways it does feel like one. Thinking about it it doesn’t feel too dissimilar to Civilization A New Dawn.

Yeah I really like this game.

Winners of the games played!

It was about 9:40pm when I and Jonathan left. The others were still playing games like Gaslands. But I had a 5:30am shift start the next morning. Which means the alarm going off at 4:10am. I needed some sleep before work. Granted not much. But some!

Record breaking club night

Fenland Gamers, game night

I know a day or late on this one. But better late than never. Besides I do have this whole #RPGaDAY2022 thing going on at the moment if you hadn’t noticed.

Plus I had my last shift at my current store yesterday before moving to a new one and a new role.

I’ve been really taken aback about how supportive and kind everyone at work has been. There’s a bit of me that thinks it doesn’t deserve all these kind words.

Yesterday my boss came in to say good bye, thank me, and give me a card and a bottle of Monkey Shoulder whisky. Charla a friend gave me a couple of chocolate cup cakes (I do have a whole cake thing going on). Then at the end of the shift I was given a card signed by lots of friends and colleagues, lots of chocolate and a chocolate birthday cake.

That last bit nearly made my eyes leak.

I’m kinda sad I won’t be working with them all. However it’s not a good bye. More I’ll see you around. As I’ll still be shopping there, and possibly picking up the odd overtime shift.

Anyway I digress and you want to know more about the blog post title.

Friday was once again that time for another Fenland Gamers club night at our hosts Wisbech St Mary Sports and Community Centre.

As per usual I was there early to get set up. With the help of Charlene, Colin and Ben we put up three tables, and some chairs. Got our refreshments in, and waited for others to turn up. My waiting included ordering and enjoying a banana split.

When Jonathan arrived he pointed out we didn’t have enough tables out! He was expecting seventeen people to turn up! Seventeen!

That is the club record that was broken. We’ve never had that many attend before. That’s massive for us.

Despite having so many attending I did get to game with Jonathan on a club night. Which as I’ve said before is a rarity these days.

But then I did have a couple of games Jonathan was interested in trying with me.

Our first game was The Bloody Inn. A game I came last in. I had an engine built that was good for bribing guests. But that took far too long to set up, and I let it too long before bumping off and burying guests.

Marcin on the other hand took quick and easy points and ran away with the victory.

Our second game of the evening was a new arrival that day Santorini New York.

I quiet enjoyed play this. It’s definitely a much better multi player experience than Santorini. Which is a two player game only. Never play it with more.

There are some nice twists to the core Santorini game play in this new version.

I like the different ways to win. There are now three ways. Two require that you meet the win condition and be the current player with the Statue of Liberty. The third just be the last person standing.

That requiring to be the player with the Statue of Liberty in order to win is nice. It creates some interesting decisions when it comes to selecting a card to play. Possession of the statue goes to the person who played the highest valued card each round. However that also means that person is going last that round.

There is the whole hand management side to the game deciding which and when to play a card. Even which card to keep for the next or future round.

I like the fact everyone has access to the same “god” powers. Although it’s possible to get a hand of cards that are mostly the same ability. In our second game on our final round I had three engineer cards out of the five cards in my hand.

Placing skyscrapers is a nice new addition, and adds in a whole new decision of how best to place to screw over an opponent. Ideally blocking them in so they have to lose a worker.

Visually like it’s predecessor New York looks stunning on the table. A real wow factor.

But there is a but! A big but!! The quality of the game board and cards is atrocious. It really lets the game down. I know it’s not an expensive game. But a better quality game board would be worth an extra couple of pounds to the price of the game.

There is room for both versions of the game in my collection. Especially considering that merits of both games. If I was just playing with another player it’d be Santorini every time. It’s an amazing game, and a better game. But want to play at a higher player count it has to be Santorini New York. That’s where it’s strength is compared to Santorini. It’s a much better multi player experience.

Results of Fridays games

When I left what seemed like the longest game of Ticket to Ride Europe was going on. I think they are still playing!

This was an amazing evening of gaming. So great to see so many people playing games.

Devil in the Fenland Capital

Fenland Gamers, game night

Friday was indeed another Fenland Gamers club night.

I’d been looking forward to it after a nine day tour of duty at work.

Earlier in the day I’d had an interview for a shift leader position. Which I think went well. But I’ve never really been that good judging how well an interview really went. I’m meant to find out on Saturday (today as I write this post).

After setting up the tables I treated myself to a banana split before anyone else arrived as a reward for surviving my tour of duty.

Our tables first game of the evening was a learning game of The Bloody Inn.

It was truly a learning game as we learnt from the rulebook at the table. The cards were unsleeved! We went with a short game (removing 22 cards for a four player game) because it was a learning game.

I love the theme of the game. It’s very Devil in the White City. Killing off your guests, robbing their corpses. It’s what attracted me to the game.

We all loved the game.

It’s kinda an engine builder with a little take that thrown in.

I love the multi use cards where you can use them to bribe other guests, build annexes to your inn, kill guests, and bury guests. And depending on the card played you might be able to return the card to your hand instead of the discard pile based on if its symbol matches the activity you are doing.

So you have a decision to make about the guests to how you are going to use them, assuming you are able to afford them. Added on top of you may want a particular guest, but if you take one of the others from a room controlled by another player you deny them money at the end of the round.

Which reminds me you also have to pay close attention to the cash you have. You need to choose the right moment to launder money, either turning it into cheques so you don’t loose money, or cashing a cheque so you have funds to pay accomplices at the end of the round.

Near the end of the game we were regretting not going with the longer game. But I have been sworn to bring it to the next meet up.

oh I won btw.

Our next game of the evening was 6 Nimmit.

What a fun card game. Quick to teach. Quick games. But also very tactical. A perfect little filler game.

This will be added to the collection.

This was a great evenings gaming. Just what the doctor ordered.

Keep rollin’, rollin’, rollin’, rollin’

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night was the latest Fenland Gamers club night.

I got to try the heavy (in every sense of the word) flip and write Hadrian’s Wall.

Which was my thirty first new game to me that I’ve played this year. I find this incredible. At this rate I’m going to complete the challenge easily before the end of the year.

I love Hadrian’s Wall.

There I’ve said it.

We played on the standard (green) difficulty. For those into video games and have played the classic video game Doom, is the equivalent of “Hey, not too rough” in difficulty.

Like Three Sisters when you first see the two sheets you will be playing with it’s all a bit overwhelming. But after a brief overview it starts to make sense. Then after using your first couple of resources everything becomes clear.

Generating the resources needed reminded me a bit of Imperium Settlers/51st State. It also gives the game a little euro boardgame vibe. It’s kinda cool how at the start of each round/year players get the same resources based on the flipping of a card, and then addition resources are gathered depending on unlocked sections of your player sheets. Then as you spend those resources you get further ones to spend during the round. Any not spent get lost. Very Imperial Settlers like.

Hadrian’s Wall isn’t as combotastic as Three Sisters. But it has combos. It’s definitely a deep thinker.

If we were putting Hadrian’s Wall on a difficulty scale for Roll/flip and writes, it’s firmly in the heavier, more complicated camp. Not one you’d play with noobs.

Hadrian’s Wall Game 1 Final Score

I really really did like the game. It’s gone on my wish list.

Our second game was Dungeons, Dice and Danger using the Clumsy Cultists map. Which in Doom difficulty level terms is “

Charlene and myself both took a few hits from not being able to use a dice combo. Mine cost me the game by a point.

Dungeons, Dice, and Danger Final Score

Our second play of Hadrian’s Wall saw the difficulty level dialled up to eleven as we played it in hard (Red) mode. Aka it’s version of the Doom “Hurt me plenty” difficulty level.

What this means in reality is that during the year end of each round we are drawing more cards from the Fate Card Draw Pile. Which means we have to defend more attacks from those pesky Picts and potentially taking more damage in the form of Disdain.

Disdain is not good. It’s negative points at the end of the game.

Playing at this harder difficulty level with the greatly increased number of attacks to defend against certainly changed the focus of the game. You are spending more resources trying to build up the cohorts to defend with. Whilst still trying to do the other stuff like meet the criteria for the path cards you decided to score.

I did find the drawing of more cards exciting! Yes I’m that sad.

Hadrian’s Wall Game 2 Final Score

The games that made it to the other tables Transmissions (looks stunning) and Dice Theme Park (sequel to Dice Hospital).

A fun evening of a genre I really like. Off to Westeros later today.