Animal Crossing New Horizons (ACNH) has usurped Minecraft as my chill out game. I usually log in once a day around 8am, pick fruit, dig up fossils, then sell them to raise funds to fuel my Mario merch purchases (which Nook limits to 5 purchases a day) and buy stuff from the local store.

The goods that the store sells changes on a daily basis. This morning I was able to buy a boardgame!

The game doesn’t appear to be any game particular. Just general game components thrown together to look like a game.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could interact with the game in a limited way. That interaction was limited to throwing a die. But still I could imagine I was playing god knows what!

Here is a short video of my mii throwing the die in the boardgame. Yes my life would appear to be that sad that I get excited about this sort of thing, and even worse I put a video of it up on YouTube and share it!

Hopefully I’ll get a new life soon before the next post.

There seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel in all of this darkness that has been plaguing the world for a year now.

Which means it’s time to remind myself that I have a list of games that I want to play once things become safe again to do so.

I have to admit it’s been frustrating not being able to play these games with my friends. Plus there has been more than a touch of envy seeing photos of people playing games with family/partners on various boardgame Facebook pages I belong to. The drawback of being single.

Below are collages of the games that make up my list of games to play once in person gaming is a thing again.

This list is just games that I have new expansions for, or are new to my collection.

Which means this list doesn’t even cover games that I’d like to get to the table again because I haven’t played them in a while like Scythe or Battlestar Galactica.

The list also doesn’t include RPGs either. Maybe I’ll do a separate list for those.

I think all these sort of lists prove is that even though not able to play games, this doesn’t stop people adding to their collection. And that when able to get together again we will all need a months holiday to get through the backlog.

What games/expansions are on your list?

Today is a day of celebration as we celebrate Nan’s birthday.

Nan turned 94 today.

Below are some recent photos of Nan with her little guardian angel, Loki. He really is a Nannies boy. A bit like me I suppose.

Before opening Nan’s birthday cards, I asked her what day it was, and if she knew the date. Her reply was it’s not my birthday. So I pointed out it was.

Reading Nan her birthday cards this morning made me feel like those presenters on Anglia tv from my younger days who did the birthday club spot between programmes during the kids part of the tv schedule.

I’m wishing Nan many happy returns for the day. With many more ahead.

Let’s keep this post short and sweet. I hope you all have a Happy New Year. Be safe. And hopefully later in the year we can all get back to playing board games in person!

Let’s face it this year is an anomaly when compared to other years. Well I hope it is, and that we are not looking at the new normal.

Obviously the least surprising stat is that I have played very few board games this year. In totally 22 games, down from 70 in 2019. But considering the state of things that’s not bad.

My most played game was Las Vegas (6 plays), which only just pipped D-Day Dice Pocket by one.

Of the 22 games played 8 of them were new to me. And that is the pool I have to choose from for my 2020 game of the year.

My game of 2020 although technically is over 30 years old, was out of print for most of that, achieving almost legendary status and greatly inflated prices on the secondary market, got a reprint in 2019 by Galeforce Nine. It wasn’t until the start of the year that I got to play the game.

My game of 2020 is…

Dune the board game did not disappoint. For me it lived up to the hype.

The two plays that I got were a 3 player and 5 player game.

I love the asynchronous faction powers. They were very on theme for each faction.

Which reminds me this game oozes theme. It captures the conflict for the planet Arrakis and the control of spice perfectly.

I’m a fan of games that capture or build in a political element between players, such as Commander, and A Game of Thrones the board game. I love making alliances and that potential for portrayal. And believe me those involved in the alliance are looking at when it will be the most advantageous for them to break the alliance and stab the other in the back.

The combat is pretty cool, although it can be a forgone conclusion, there is still an air of uncertainty. Especially when the the forces involved on both sides of the combat are pretty close in size. It comes down to leaders and cards played by both sides.

Dune can be a longish game to play. Not up to TI4 times. But still over two hours, more likely three to four. But even so, the time flies whilst playing. You are engaged between turns as you have to keep up with what the other players are doing. So you may have an idea what your next turn might be, by the time it is back to you that may have changed because of what others have done.

Yep Dune the board game is a classic that has held up rather well. I love it. It does need to be played with the higher player counts. But that is where the game sings.

Dune the board game my game of 2020.

Wishing everyone that reads this blog a safe and Merry Christmas.

Sometimes modern classic boardgames, especially the gateway ones, get a bit of a bad rep from more experienced gamers. Usually they have played the game to death when they first had it, got burned out on it.

Somehow I’ve avoided that with the classics like Catan, Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne. It was easy I didn’t play them to death.

Recently a Dice Tower review by Tom Vasel made me aware of a new unofficial way to play one of those classics that breathes new life into the game.

The game in question is Carcassonne.

I like Carcassonne, particularly with the River, Inns and Cathedrals, Traders and Builders, the Princess and Dragon expansions. And until now I had a couple of mini expansions/promos The School, an alternative River starting tile, and large Carcassonne map tile to spice things up a little if need be. I’d add in the Plague mini expansion but until the other day I had forgotten I’d had it (it’s been on a shelf for years unloved!)

Now despite my main way of playing Carcassonne in recent years being the iOS app version of the game. I’ve not burned out on the game.

Anyway this new way to play Carcassonne is using maps of various countries. There are currently five maps to choose from, Great Britain, France, Germany, Peninsula Iberia and Benelux.

In the review by Tom he said his favourite map was the GB one, which was convenient because that was the one I was going to go for considering where I live.

So after watching the review I googled the maps expecting to have to order from a store in the EU. But was pleasantly surprised to find that Boardgame Extras was selling them along with the tokens they use as well. Which both found their way into the shopping cart. I also got tempted by the large Carcassonne starting tile.

As always the service from Boardgame Extras was pretty swift and good. My only complaint is how the map was rolled in the tube it was packaged in. It was rolled with the plain side on the out side, so when you unroll it you need to weight the ends down to play because the won’t flatten out. That was the first thing I did for storage using the tube it arrived in, I rerolled it so that didn’t happen.

The map itself is A1 size (which puts it as 23.4 x 33.1 inch I believe according to a quick google) “high-quality, linen-print map“. So it’s large.

I now have a duplicate Carcassonne starting tile, because I had forgotten I already had it! That will be given away at some point. I’m happy with the quality of the paper used.

I know I won’t get this to the table for a while. But I’m glad I got this. Especially after seeing that it has sold out (at time of writing and getting link) on the Boardgame Extras website since. The Vasel effect?!

You can buy the Carcassonne maps and tokens on the Boardgame Extras website in the UK.

Apparently according to twitter today (19/9/2020) is Batman Day.

I don’t know who comes up with these things. It’s most likely some marketing person at DC/Warner Bros.

I’ve been a big Batman fan since I was a little kid. I have fond memories of watching the 1960’s tv show with Adam West as Batman on tv (itv iirc). Then seeing the movie at the local cinema on the big screen. Obviously not on the original release. One of the coolest toys you could have at the time was the Batmobile from I think matchbox. I also had the Batman action figure.

In 1988 after Dad died Batman helped me with the grieving. That was the time of the Death in the Family story line and Joker (after a fan vote) killing Robin (Jason Todd). It was seeing Batman grieve that helped in the subsequent issues. I kind of felt a strong bond with Batman. We were both going through the same process.

In more recent times I’ve enjoyed the cinematic outings of Batman. Both live action and animated. Although I will exclude Batman and Robin from that list of enjoyable experiences.

Now days I buy the odd graphic novel, and Lego figure. But there is still a lot of love there for Batman.

Just a quick post to reassure folks that I’m still alive.

Just not a lot going on gaming wise naturally.

But as folks that stalk me on other social media platforms will know I have been playing around in the kitchen. I’ve been concentrating more on the sweet side of things, cookies, no bake cheese cake, panna cotta, you get the idea. I do bake a fresh sourdough loaf twice a week. Plus my plain chow mein and sweet and sour pork is pretty tasty.

One or two of my friends in our gaming group have also been playing around in the kitchen (Jeff and his curries). When things become reasonably safe for getting back together for a game or two I think there might be a bring and share type thing that needs organising.

I started to create a character to use in a Strontium Dog adventure. I want to create three more so they can be used in one shots etc for those wanting to try the RPG. I think a one shot adventure will also need to be written. But the way things are going I have time to do this. No pressure!

In the meantime enjoy the amazing song from the end of Portal by Jonathan Coulton.

Until the next post, enjoy the cake.

With the Tapestry: Plans and Ploys expansion going on preorder later today on the Stonemaier website, it got me thinking.

This Winter period there are no games I’m really excited about getting (with one exception), it’s all about the expansions for me. No game has grabbed me, inspired me, and made me say “I’ve got to get this game”. In fact the recent announcement of Splendor getting a Marvel reskin for me sums up the direction the industry seems to be moving at the moment. It’s a sweeping generalisation. Especially considering the number of games that get released each year. But the high profile ones from the big boys are the ones that generally grab peoples attention and the headlines in publications. Heck I wasn’t even excited about the new Stonemaier game Pendulum. It just didn’t fire my imagination!

Obviously considering the opening sentence of this post I’m excited about the Tapestry expansion Plans and Ploys.

Plans and Ploys adds new landmarks, tapestry cards, civilizations, new space tiles (plus a replacement tile for a misprinted tile in the first printing), landmark tiles, landmark cards, a bag for territory tiles to go in, and automata cards.

So more variety, a new mechanic with the landmark cards, a new tiebreaker rule. It looks like a great addition to a game I like.

I wasn’t expecting an expansion for Civilization A New Dawn to be announced. So it was a nice surprise when FFG did announce it at this years Flight Plan.

Terra Incognita changes the game up a little bit by the looks of it. This expansion allows up to five players, you can now explore during the game and dynamically create the game board as you play. The combat rules have been tweaked, new leaders, and other additions.

I liked the original version of the game. But the exploring does sound really cool, and more like the video games. Will this change the way I play this game for ever? That’s an exciting prospect.

Then there is a massive expansion coming for Twilight Imperium 4th Edition called Prophecy of Kings. This increases the player count to eight players! New tiles, races, mechs, plus much more. It may be a while before this gets to the table (I need a table big enough for starters), I’m still excited for what this is going to add to the game.

The only game I’m excited about is Vampire the Masquerade: Rivals. Which is an expandable card game from Renegade Games set in the Vampire Masquerade/World of Darkness. Ok the setting isn’t the bit that excites me. But a multiplayer card game, where politics is part of the game play. That does. All the sounds coming out of Renegade about the game had me thinking they are approaching the game and it’s development the right way. The Kickstarter $100 tier was amazing value, and included a copy of the first OP kit. And is scheduled to be delivered in December.

What are you looking forward to or planning on buying this Winter?