Wednesday saw the nearest monthly meet up of The Fenland Gamers to its first birthday (which was a couple of weeks approximately earlier I believe). So this had to be celebrated in some way. 

We had already provided cake to our hosts to thank them for letting us use their building for our meet ups.

So we also had cake to celebrate the clubs first birthday. Awesome cake by master cake maker Doreen. Who also came along to this meet up.

For the record this was our best attended record of all time so far.

Once again to cater for our newer members we played gateway games, such as King of Tokyo, Camel Up, Fluxx, Qwixx and Forbidden Island.

Although to see people form alliances to deny me a victory in King of Tokyo was a bit… words can’t describe the hurt I’m going through! Robbed! 

Everyone had a good time. It was a great way to celebrate the clubs first birthday.

I’m really glad Jonathan and Matt started the club up and somehow stumbled across me online and invited me along.

In the time I’ve been a member I’ve had a great time, made some great friendships, and really enjoy the “friendly” rivalry that Jonathan and I have at the table.

Here’s to the next year of the club.

Monday saw Jonathan, Debbie, Jo and myself take on the roles of Baker Street Irregulars. Whose soul aim is to win approval from “Sheer-Luck” Holmes by solving crimes/mysteries in the game Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective.

The owner of a weapons manufacturing company is found shot dead in the alley behind his company. It’s the duty of our brain trust to follow the clues and solve this case of mystery and intrigue.

To aid us in this endeavour we have a “newspaper”, a map of London, a directory and a clue book.

Based on clues you find at locations around the map, you visit new locations, gather more clues, until you think you have solved the case.

In our case we thought we had it all worked out, we had our suspects and we’re just about to drop the hammer on them. But first we wanted to confirm our findings by visiting one more place and witness.

However instead of the confirmation we were seeking, we ended up with a new suspect. And it was all down to a brilliant moment from Debbie, who had somehow picked up on a clue from the original that the rest of us had ignored/ruled out/not picked up on. But it was to take our original suspects out of the picture and put a new one front and centre.

At the end of the game, when you think you know the solution to the case, you have to answer a series of questions about the case. You then score points for the correct answers given, then you take off points for the number of extra locations (not including any free ones) you needed to visit over and above the target set by Sherlock. You then compare your score against Sherlocks 100 percent to see how you did.

I thought this sandbox deduction game was ok. Jo and Jonathan found the script font in the clue book hard to read. Which wasn’t a problem for me. 

We didn’t record all the locations we visited because we didn’t know we had to. So our final score wasn’t entirely accurate. But we know better next time.

I think this game is really dependent on who you are playing with. You definitely are going to need pen and paper while playing to make notes.

Finally here’s a picture Jonathan took of me looking bored! But I was not I was reviewing my notes and listening intently!

Yesterday afternoon saw Jonathan, Jeff and myself meet up for some more Sunday afternoon gaming goodness.

Our gaming started off with one of our current hot games to play The Voyages of Marco Polo.

Once again I trailed on the scoreboard for most of the game. But having completed my two trade routes I gained a massive 23 points to catapult me to the front, which after all the totalling up I didn’t lose. Yep I won by four points (Jeff being the nearest to me). Jonathan was way way off in the distance.

Next up was World of Tanks: Rush.

This was a first play for us. I’d heard that it was Star Realms like. The game was being sold off cheap (a fiver) at a national chain of stationery/book shop.

First off they should remove the word rush from its name. This game is anything but.

It is a deck builder and yes it’s meant to be a pvp one. But I think it fails at this.

Too many design decisions were made putting theme over game play.

Yes the game is cheap, but it wouldn’t get played if you had the likes of Star Realms in your collection. The game lacks the excitement, the in your face moments, even crazy combos. As a pvp deck builder it’s a snooze.

Jonathan took the following photos. And there isn’t enough photos of me on here. Plus it’s criminal really not to share my ruggedly dwarvish looks with the world.