Category Archives: game night

game night

To space and beyond

game night

“It’s been a hard day’s night
And I’ve been workin’ like a dog
It’s been a hard day’s night
I should be sleepin’ like a log” Beetles, Hard Day’s Night

Another week of nights, that was topped off with an eleven hour shift. Oh and a double sausage egg McMuffin on the way home (I deserved a treat for doing that).

So my first of two days off was spent mostly sleeping, but also in the evening playing Tapestry.

There had been two previous attempts to get Tapestry to the table but you know life likes to throw a spanner in the works from time to time.

Tapestry has been one of the more polarising Stonemaier games. But I like it as do the folks I play it with. Which is all that matters.

We were going to be playing Tapestry with both expansions Plans and Ploys, plus Arts & Architecture. Basically all in.

I really do like what the expansions bring to the table to Tapestry. In the case of Plans and Ploys, landmark cards, and more of everything else. And in Arts & Architecture a fifth advancement track (Arts), masterpiece cards, inspiration tiles, advanced capital cities, plus more of everything else.

More of anything is great as it adds to the replay ability of a game. But the other new bits add to the game but with very little complication or game play overhead. Personally I’d include these all the time. Even with new players. Ok I wouldn’t give a new player an advanced capital city. But otherwise I see very little to no draw back to playing with everything possible.

With so many tapestry cards in the game now we went with a suggested house rule by Ben that if you had to draw a tapestry card you drew two, choose one and discarded the other.

Also during setup I dealt out four civilisation cards to everyone to choose one from. Also for the same reasons as the house rule we went with above.

The following are the civilisations that we ended up going with, along with the drawn capital city and landmark card.

  • Futurists/Wetland/Bridge – me (red)
  • Inventors/Mountain/Birdwatching Perch- Charlene (blue)
  • Merrymakers/Forest/Windmill- Julie (green)
  • Historians/Grassland/Castle – Ben (grey)

We also used the civilisation adjustments as given in the Arts & Architecture rules booklet.

Civilization Adjustments Used

Which meant Ben’s Historians were starting fifteen points down.

I’d never played Futurists before. So it was an interesting experience starting on the second era of all the advancement tracks.

With the civilisation adjustment I started with only two extra resources, not four.

With my advanced moves costing an extra resource to everyone else it meant I was going to my second and third income phase a lot earlier than everyone else.

But on the plus side I got an early mastery card and inspiration tile.

Luckily on my later turns during my third and fourth era I was able to generate more resources and do more.

Once again I did seem to focus on exploration and getting into space. Placing a tile did get me a resource. Which I needed to generate as my turns were more expensive.

My fourth era saw my spacefaring futurists turn their attention earthwards again and becoming expansionists with their plans grabbing territory. This enabled me to finally complete my landmark card. Plus using warplanes enabled me to capture the centre tile and get my second achievement. My first being reaching the end of the exploration track.

I did take the fifth and final income phase first setting the score that everyone else had to beat. A turn later Charlene did the same. It was very nerve racking as she clocked up the points getting closer and closer. In the end I had a waver thin lead of two points.

A couple of turns later Julie joined us in doing her fifth and final income phase.

More worryingly Ben was still on his third era! That’s two income phases of scoring. We all watched as he did his fourth income phase closing the points gap. He then started to “beautiful mind” his final era with the aid of his mentat (oops wrong game) Charlene to maximise his points. The gap closed a little bit more.

Then Ben went to his final income phase. That was enough to smash the total I’d set to win.

Our final Civilizations
Final Scores

What a great game of Tapestry. Loved the whole experience. Played with three lovely friends. There was a little banter. Heck Ben and Charlene have even been elevated to named players in the bgstat app now!

A great evening of gaming.

I did buy the stl files for some bases to all the landmark miniatures and asked Colin if he’d print them for me. Which he is doing. Sadly these were not ready for this game. But next time.

A 3D printer project for Tapestry!

The advantage of having these will be that with these on each landmark miniature when placed on the capital city they will occupy the correct number of squares.

I can’t imagine once fitted I’d remove them. So the lovely inserts that currently come with the game and expansions might become redundant as I believe they then won’t fit.

But that’s a problem for another day!

Friday Night Gaming – 1/7/22 Edition

Fenland Gamers, game night

After a week of nights (fuelled by cake, jelly babies, and copious amounts of cold brew) it was really nice to end the week, and start a new month with playing some games.

Unusually for me I was slightly late to the evenings gaming. Which didn’t go uncommented on by one or two when I arrived.

A phone call about work had gone on longer than planned. Plus I had to pop into ASDA on my way to pick up mum’s prescription. There was no way I wanted the pressure of the “will they or won’t they be open when I finish” for the Pharmacy hanging over my head during the evening.

But it was nice to see everything setup and people already there for once.

I had previously arranged with Gavin that we’d be playing Marvel Champions. Earlier in the week Gavin had shared this on the clubs discord server and Charlene had decided to join us.

So guess what we played whilst the others split into two tables?

Our first game saw Captain America (me), Iron Man (Gavin), and Spider-Man (Charlene) take on the machinations of Rhino.

We came to within a single health point of defeating Rhino who had taken out Iron Man, before his schemes came to fruition.

We played another game, this time Doctor Strange (me), Black Widow (Gavin) and The Hulk (Charlene) fancied their chances against the surprising cunning plans and ploys of that brute force of nature Rhino.

The Sorcerer Supreme had just got things into place to start throwing lots of spells at Rhino before being crushed by the explosive physical power of Rhino.

It was then just a case of watching Rhino toss The Hulk and Black Widow around like rag dolls. It was brutal.

First the elephant in the room. This was not sleeved! OMG the inhumanity. The monster. Plus this does need a playmat. Which I believe does have an official one available.

This was the first time I’d ever played Marvel Champions, and I liked it.

I was pretty sure I would.

In a way the game reminded me of Champions of the Multiverse, but better. Which will be heresy to some. I remember (vaguely) that game of Champions of the Multiverse not being very pleasurable.

I liked how the decks felt unique and thematic to the character.

Although Marvel Champions plays one to four players, if I owned it I’d never play it solo. I like the idea of games that can be played solo. But in reality (especially if there is an app version) I can’t be bothered to set them up and play them solo.

If Gavin decides he wants to part with the game I’d definitely be interested in negotiating a deal of some sort.

We finished the evening playing Libertalia. Which was fun as always. Especially since I won (by a narrower margin than I expected).

Our game of Libertalia meant we were the last people there still playing, and unusually for me on a club night putting the tables etc away.

Final Libertalia Scores

It was a great night gaming. Great to see everyone.

Games currently in my gaming bag (for those remotely interested in what I took) :

  • Roll for the Galaxy
  • Libertalia Winds of Galecrest
  • Tsuro
  • Spirits of the Forest
  • Sushi Go Party
  • Survive Escape from Atlantis
  • Dungeons, Dice & Danger

Plus I also had my game case that also has Regicide in it to.

First Rat in Space

Fenland Gamers, game night

Our first post UKGE Friday night gaming session was well attended once again.

It really is nice seeing the club nights being so well attended, and also other gaming sessions taking place on other nights between members.

Obviously I was there early to get the tables set up, and welcome any new members who turned up.

We split into two initial groups last night of a four and five. Which saw the other group grow into eight at one point!

Our table started off with a game of the roll and write Dungeons, Dice & Danger.

Once again we played the novice Annoyed Animals map. It was the natural choice really with three new players.

This really is a nice roll and write. I’ve really enjoyed both my plays of this, and I’ve not even touched the other three maps yet.

I did get hit for a whopping minus sixteen points, and was one life away from the minus twenty and being out of the game. That cost me the win, and gave it to Ben.

Final scores for Dungeons, Dice & Danger

Our second game of the evening was the drafting and set collection game Sushi Go Party.

Which is basically Sushi Go with some extras to add variety. So all that drafting and set collecting action we all love about the game is still there but more so!

Sushi Go Party comes with a nice menu board that has a score tract and a meal reminder area. It’s obvious how the score tract is used. However using tiles provided you fill up the menu spaces so you have a reminder of the cards that make up the deck you are playing with. Which is really nice to have for all players to see.

And this is the main difference between the original and Party. Party has a lot more meal items to select from. You can use one of the suggested menus in the rulebook, or just choose at random.

I do like the suggested menus. They are pitched/themed at different players or type of game. So like last night I chose the menu aimed at those new to the game. However if I had wanted a more cut throat competitive game there was a menu for that. Plus there are menu suggestions for everything in between.

The only drawback of all this flexibility is the setup and putting away takes a bit longer than the original. It’s also a less portable game obviously using a much larger storage container.

Having said that still a great, fun game. Just now even more replayable.

Final scores for Sushi Go

The final game on our table was one of the latest hotness games First Rat.

Ok I won this game.

There’s a lot to like about this game. Some great decisions to make as your rats ascend towards boarding the rocket.

I like how there are a variety of tactics you can employ/focus on to score points.

The game looks stunning, and I love the cute first player marker.

At the end of the game it was revealed that the other side of the board you get to randomly setup the spaces and scoring. A more “gamer” oriented side. I like the sound of that and would love to try it.

Haven’t got much time to go any deeper into this game and what I liked. But it’s going on my wish list.

Final scores for First Rat

Another great evening of gaming. Looking forward to the next one.

It’s bloody cold outside

Fenland Gamers, game night, The Thing

After the failed attempt to play The Thing the boardgame with Nathan during my recent visit. I was wondering when or even if I’d get it to the table.

But after creating an event on the Fenland Gamers discord server, and limiting the player count (because it would be a learning game) I had a date and time set to get it to the table.

Last night saw that plan to get The Thing the boardgame to the table come to fruition.

Luckily our player count for the game (four) was enough to learn the main game rules. For player counts less than four The Thing becomes a co-op boardgame.

Like Scythe and any other game I’ve organised a session for I’m there early to get things set up. We were using the neoprene playmat for the game, plus the plastic character and alien minis. No cardboard standees in this game.

Setup seems fiddly. But it’s not really. It’s just parts of it are dependent on knowing the player count. I initially setup for a four player count. Although it was potentially possible that we’d have six! It stayed at four.

Once everyone had arrived and selected the character they wanted we started playing.

Characters played

I was the starting leader.

After drawing an infection token to see what our secret role was. We got down to the task of surviving long enough to escape the alien. Or in my case remain undetected long enough to infect the others. Oh yes I was the alien.

There was a definite Battlestar Galactica/Dead of Winter vibe to The Thing! Which isn’t a surprise considering they are all hidden traitor games. The Thing is closer to BSG than DoW. DoW has a story element that the other two don’t.

Once you have had a couple of rounds the turn sequence becomes familiar. They aren’t actually overly complicated turns. We actually skipped the third turn the whole game because no alien was revealed until the very end.

Although we did have fun. I think the game like the other two needs the higher player counts.

In our game no testing of players took place because we didn’t get to the laboratory more than once, nor did we have both parts required to perform a flame test.

We spent our time trying to keep the boiler and generator repaired, finding keys and getting the odd weapon. Initially I did try repairing the radio, and take food from the pantry. But between the four of us we really didn’t have enough actions to do everything except try and keep on top of things and maybe escape via one of the bases broken vehicles.

With the higher player count more actions could be done around the base.

In the end it turned out everyone had been infected as an alien. Which under the rules meant the last human infected lost the game, and the aliens win! Although the aliens won twice as they were on the escape vehicle too! Which is when we discovered everyone was infected. Then it became a question of who was the last person to be infected.

We did enjoy The Thing enough that we want to play it again. Especially with a higher player count. A Saturday session for sure.

Visiting Nathan

father son gaming, Game day, game night

At the start of the week I got a chance to spend a couple of days with my son Nathan.

Naturally we got some gaming in while I was visiting.

Our first game was an introduction to roll/flip and writes for Nathan with Cartographers.

I set up the game using the play mat for it, the two skills mini expansions, and the ambush mini expansion.

The benefit of the mini expansions is more variety when playing, particularly with the ambush cards.

The skills mini expansions was the first time playing with them. They add an extra thing you can do each season, such as draw a 1×1 square and fill it with a particular terrain type. The skills have a cost, and you can only use one of them per season. I like what this brings to the game. It’s an extra decision to make during a season, it’s not a big overhead at all.

Cartographers

Our second game was Libertalia Winds of Galecrest.

I know Nath really liked the game as he asked to play it again straight away after finishing our first game. The second game we used the stormy tiles.

Libertalia Winds of Galecrest

Another roll and write hit the table next, Dungeons, Dice & Danger.

This was new to both of us. We used the novice Annoyed Animals map.

Dungeons, Dice & Danger and The Cousin’s War 2nd Edition

I really liked this. I think Nath did as well, and might be keen to try one of the other maps.

Our final game of the day was The Cousin’s War (Second Edition). This was the first time playing the game since I bought it three (?) years ago at the UK Games Expo.

We experienced both types of plays you can have with this game. Our first game was over in 5 minutes (maximum) after one round. With the second game going to 30 mins and all 5 rounds.

Who Won What

Our last game of my visit was to introduce Nathan to one of the more complicated roll and writes out there, the combotastic (can you guess what it is yet?)… Three Sisters. Just for the lols I added in the mini weather expansion as well.

Nathan agreed this had a lot more going on than the other roll/flip and writes we had played.

I really do like when an expansions adds very little complication to a game mechanic wise. I like how it makes use of the last die left on the rondel to select an additional minor rule for the next round.

Three Sisters Result

Movies watched with Nathan:

  • Dune (2021)
  • Jurassic World
  • Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

I still had to slum it on the coffee front. But at least I got to cook for Nath. I tried to impart recipes to him. But he had no interest. However he did like my chicken noodle soup, and my sweet and sour chicken.

I can’t wait to visit again. Soon hopefully.

How many?

Fenland Gamers, game night

Yesterday started off in a more somber, reflective mood as I said good bye to a friend of the family. Jean was more than that. Growing up she was a second mum really. Certainly her youngest daughter and my oldest friend Ginette was like a sister. With my brother we were always getting into trouble together. Mainly (and Ginette remembers it this way too) caused by my brother. It’s a miracle we never ended up with any broken bones. I certainly learnt a lot more about Jean and what an amazing and interesting life she had before we were born. Plus I finally found out how old Ginette’s older sister Kay was. I knew she was older. Heck she used to babysit us. But not that much older. It’s older than I thought.

OMG!

Wow!

Last nights Friday evening gaming blew away our previous record attendance of 12 with the amazing number of 16 people turning up to play games.

It’s just simply astonishing.

It’s amazing to see so many people turn up to play board games.

There is one drawback of this new found success. I hardly get to game with Jonathan.

Whilst Jonathan was doing a teaching game of Railways of the World (Mexico map I believe). I was introducing three newish members to the world of Roll and Writes. and Flip and Writes.

Our first game was new to me and a learning game of Cartographers. Which falls into the flip and write genre.

I really liked playing this game (and yes Gavin these are games, unlike that jigsaw puzzle Barenpark).

The ambush card is genius. Each season (rounds really) you shuffle one ambush card into the explore deck. So if you don’t draw an ambush card in a season it’s possible to have multiple ambush cards in the explore deck and naturally at that point draw multiple ambush cards in a season.

When you draw an ambush card you pass your sheet to the player next to you (direction indicated on the card). This is where you get to throw a spanner in the works for the other player. But they also get to do the same to you. If the drawn ambush creature is not surrounded then each empty space is a negative point at the end of the round. So obviously you are going to try and draw the ambush creature shape in the most inconvenient place on their map.

Relic cards forcing you to draw the next shape drawn over a relic space on your map can be annoying.

I do like the changing end of season scoring, and that it’s a combo of two of the four cards, not all of them. The fact these are drawn randomly at the start adds a nice bit of variability and replay ability.

Ok I like this so much I will be getting the expansions for it. Which are map packs, more ambush cards, skills card and whatever the Heroes expansion adds.

Cartographers Final Scores

My second and final game of the evening was teaching the amazing combotastic roll and write Three Sisters.

Compared to Cartographers and many others Three Sisters can be considered on the heavier side of things. Especially when things start comboing off. But it’s still such a fun game.

Three Sisters Final Scores

The preference from the new to this genre was they preferred Cartographers. But they really enjoyed them both. But plans were loosely put in place to play/try the even heavier Rome and Roll.

I think everyone had a fun evening game. I left with a game of Lords of Waterdeep on the go, and Liars Dice/Perudo starting up.

A knackered hunt for new life

game night

Wednesday night saw a small band of intrepid researchers gather to look for new life forms!

It’d been a very long day, because I had been up since 3:45am (yes that is normally the case on a game night). Work has been extremely busy recently. So I was more than a little tired. Unusual for me I had had a little nap before going out. I never do that.

Plus I’d rearranged my days off this week. A fact I’d forgotten when I arranged this game night. So no next day off as I usually have to catch up on sleep after a long day of work and gaming in the evening. I’d be getting up at bloody early again the next morning. A little tmi on this. I normally have gone to sleep by 6:30pm – 7pm when working the next morning. My whole day routine has shifted to adjust for that early start. I was going to be so fucked Thursday!

I have to say I really like Cryptid.

It’s quick to setup both for a first play, and for subsequent plays. I’m not sure how using the “app” (well website they call an app) could make it any easier or faster. But the one advantage the “app“ does have is that there are many more setups that can be played. However having the companion “app” as an additional thing you can use if you want is a big plus for me. We all know how I feel about games that can only be played using an app. This is the correct way to go about it.

I found it handy just to have another player (Jeff) to double check the placement of the structures before starting play. It’s not necessary but cuts out any setup mistakes.

I like how there are two play modes for the game. The more advanced mode introduces not clues, ie “it’s not on mountains or forest” and a fourth coloured structures.

I was tired and just not switched on because our first game with the advanced mode saw me use the incorrect token for my initial clues. Something I had to apologise for and correct very early on.

The not clues do add to the complication of trying to work out what clue the others had. But it’s a nice complication despite my initial tiredness induced confusion.

I love the trying to guess what the other clues are while trying to not give away your own clue. And that starts from the initial setup when placing your first two cubes (a cube indicates the Cryptid isn’t in that hex). It’s great when you think you know what another’s clue is, only for them to place a cube or a cylinder that ruins your theory about their clue. You get a whole new level of doubt. Especially about if the player has given the correct answer. But you can’t openly ask them as you don’t want to give any information away! And then it’s back to the drawing board trying to work out what the clue could be.

A less tired me would have concentrated/focused more on what the others were doing with their cubes. My cognitive processing was most definitely impaired. I’m playing this game on a weekend next time. Most likely will still get my butt kicked but I’ll have no excuse then!

Cryptid along with Search for Planet X both take interesting but different routes to do the same thing, find an item. Whether that’s the space where a Cryptid is or where Planet X is. I like both approaches. I know Jonathan prefers Search out of the two (although he does like Cryptid), whilst my preference is Cryptid. What swings it for me is the lack of dependence on an app. Game mechanics wise I really do like both approaches the same. I know Search can be played without an app by hunting down online the free print and play pack from the designers. Which does give it about the same number of scenarios as Cryptid has. But the draw back is it needs printing out, and it takes out a player from the game. As one person basically has to act as a game master running the game handing out clues. I’m not sure how much fun that’d be for that person.

I’d love to see an expansion for this that is just a deck of new setup and clue cards. The game doesn’t need anything more than that. It’d be a cheap expansion too.

List of winners!

For the record I wasn’t as tired at work as I was expecting to be yesterday. Still knackered tho’.

A 4 Player Vampire Wednesday!

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

Last night saw Diego and myself play our first four player game of Vampire the Masquerade Rivals.

Before then we had only played head to head (in other words two player) and three player games.

But this game was a first for Shane and Marcin also. It was the first time they were playing the game. Noobs in other words. Or to remain on theme, fresh blood!

Whilst waiting for Marcin to arrive we went over the rules for playing the game with Shane. Or the most relevant ones to get started. Some you can avoid until they crop up, like schemes. Otherwise it’s rules overload. And it probably felt like that anyway.

The three of us then “played” a couple of rounds with Diego and myself explaining what we were doing as we played. It was during this learning play Marcin arrived.

We had already given Shane Brujah to play for the evening. It’s probably the easiest of the four core set clans to play. We had also planned for Diego’s copy of Brujah to be played by Marcin, with the added house rule suspending the unique vampire rule for the evening. However Marcin felt the call of Toreador.

We drew for our rivals which saw Shane and myself drawing each other’s token. Which basically left Diego and Marcin each other’s rivals.

Our Vampire Clans and Rivalries

I needed to be drawing rituals and finding Sonja Valentine. But my deck seemed to be working against me on that front. I only started drawing rituals late in the game. Too late to be any use to me. My leader was in torpor mending. So I had no blood to use that would hurt my rival. My three vampires I did have out were dangerously low on blood. I had three prestige left. They were dead cards at the point they showed up.

For a couple of rounds it wasn’t in anyones interest to attack my three weak vampires. If Diego or Marcin did they left it open for Shane to grab the win. If Shane did he left it open for Marcin to grab the points win (at that point in time Marcin was in the lead with five agenda points). To make the situation worse we had three S.A.D. Agents in the Street.

Before Diego grabbed the points victory by leap frogging Marcin with six agenda points, and knocking out Shane. It was getting to the point of I could have won on my turn. Shane was on a single prestige. He only needed one of his vampires to die (it’s how Diego triggered the end of the game). S.A.D. would have weakened his remaining vampires more than enough to make sure which ever one I attacked they would have gone down.

I liked that last bit of the game. Anyone of us could have potentially grabbed a win. Sadly Diego did!

My only agenda point for the evening was from putting Shane’s leader into torpor.

Although Shane is shown as zero points below. Which is correct. He was knocked out by Diego, so any agenda points he had don’t count. However if in a tournament I believe we would still record Shane’s three agenda points as they are used in rankings or something like that.

Final scores

Still a fun evening playing a great card game with some great people.

I was wrong! How’d that happen?

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night was another really well attended club night. Despite that thing that shall not be named hitting a couple of members and thus couldn’t attend. We even saw a couple of new members attend for the first time.

This will be a brief post as not much to say about the evening game wise. I played three games I’d played before. Enjoy the brevity. But don’t get used to it.

After splitting into three gaming tables, my first game of the evening was the amazing Libertalia Winds of Galecrest.

In our game of Libertalia there was a differing interruption of the hook ability on the calm side of the board. I’m surprised it hadn’t come up before in previous plays, and for the life of me couldn’t remember how we played it.

I wasn’t able to Google an answer at the table. However this morning I did find one on the Libertalia Facebook page. Shane you were right and I was wrong. It doesn’t return to hand. There that wasn’t easy to admit, but I can admit when I am wrong.

I still haven’t played this game at the higher player counts. Which is something I do want to do. I feel that reputation track position becomes even more important for making sure you get loot.

Libertalia Final Score

Our second game was the ever classic, and still my favourite version of Love Letter, Love Letter Batman.

Love Letter Batman Final Scores

My final game of the evening was the totally mean, but such such fun Survive Escape from Atlantis.

We even remembered the giant squids this time too! They were fun having out on the board, and look totally awesome.

Somehow I managed to get my three highest valued meeples to safety. I had no idea what meeple I had where during setup as I didn’t look at their values! The six I did get to safety could just as easily have been all the low values. This was a pure luck victory.

Survive Escape from Atlantis Final Scores

Let’s see what that “young” Jonathan took photos off last night.

Jonathan’s photos

Bonds, Railway Bonds

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night didn’t quite end up as planned.

Yesterday morning I tweeted how I was looking forward to playing my favourite game of all time (do I really have to say it? You all know what it is by now. Oh ok) Scythe, that evening. That’d I’d also be teaching it to two new players.

Indeed that was the plan made on Saturday at the end of D&D so that Mark and Lizzy could learn the game before joining the Rise of Fenris campaign this coming Saturday.

Reality, life, call it what you want had other ideas.

I arrived early to get Scythe setup. As usual I wanted to maximise play time for everyone by having it so that once everyone had arrived we could dive straight in.

There were no tables so I set up the ones I needed, plus the one I thought Jonathan and his Railways of the World players would need.

Brief aside before carrying on with the retelling of the events of last night.

As the photo below shows I now have the realistic tokens for Scythe. I know that’s a major shock. After all I have been vocal in my preference for the wooden tokens that come with the game. However these were the final upgrade I needed to make my copy of Scythe the equivalent of the Kickstarter Art Connoisseur Collector’s Edition.

What surprised me last night was how they grew on me last night as I was setting up, and taking the photos (below). I actually quite like them!

I just need to save up and get the metal mechs (I need four sets, which ain’t cheap) to have everything you can officially buy for it.

Right back to my ramblings.

Scythe Realistic Tokens

As I was setting up Scythe Jonathan arrived and not long after so did Shane.

With Scythe setup we just needed Mark and Lizzy to arrive.

However Shane asked if I had heard from them. Which I hadn’t. Apparently Lizzy was ill and wouldn’t be coming.

Bugger.

I asked Jonathan if he wanted another two players for Railways of the World.

After Jonathan started setting up for a five player game, and I had packed away Scythe, it transpired Mark was on his way.

“John got room for one more?”

While we waited for Mark to arrive there was banter and a brief discussion between Jeff and Jonathan about how best to setup the game so it didn’t go on all night.

Some cubes were removed from the board.

Once Mark arrived Jonathan explained the rules. For three of us this was our first time playing the game. Luckily there was no “it’s just like Agricola” moment.

I have to say despite nearly coming last, I really liked Railways of the World.

With three copies in the club now (Gav just bought a copy) I don’t feel a need to get my own. But if I want to play a railway themed game this is the one I’d play. It’s so much more fun than Ticket to Ride.

Railways of the World

I like the bidding for first player at the start of each turn.

Another thing I like a lot is the almost sandbox like approach it has to building tracks. You can literally build a track anywhere on the board. Ok it might cost you a fortune to do so depending on the terrain crossing.

The having to upgrade your trains to be able to move goods further along the built tracks is cool.

But there is the whole making connections and delivery engine you are building to push you up the income track, whilst trying to get as few bonds as possible. Obviously the two most experienced players had this off to a tee. Eventually I managed to break even and then make a small profit. But this whole core to the game is so much fun and can be very cut throat.

As the results show the three more experienced players finished top three, with Shane almost breaking into third place.

Final Scores

Still a great evening of gaming with great gamers!

Here they are Jonathan’s photos of the evening to end the post with.

Jonathan’s photos