As yesterdays say nothing post pointed out, last night was the monthly gaming meet up for Fenland Gamers at our amazing host The Luxe Cinema.

I started my evening of gaming by being way too early. I should have checked the start time. For some reason I thought it was a 6:30 start instead of it’s actual 7pm start. Which is ironic really because I’m the one that created the repeating event on the clubs Facebook page! Instead I enjoyed the company of the staff with some banter, an iceblast, and some warm flavoured nuts.

It was a good turn out for a monthly meetup, with club regulars and some new faces.

With my copy still in the dhl transit system in the US (I’ve been stalking my package via its tracking number), we got to play Gavin’s copy of Tiny Epic Zombies that had arrived a few days earlier.

Had either of us actually read the rules before hand, or watch any how to play videos? don’t be silly, this is Fenland Gamers we are talking about. This was the first time the contents had been out of their seals and plastic bags. I did have some sleeves with me, so I presumptuously sleeved the cards for him, whilst he read the rule book about setting up the game.

Katie was given the honour of choosing how we would be playing the game. So Katie chose the competitive mode, with AI zombies. But there is a variety of modes you can play the game, so if the competitive side isn’t your bag, then there is a co-op mode. don’t like AI, then you can play one against many. With the one taking on the role of the zombies.

I think we got the basic turn structure right, and the core mechanics. But I’m also sure that we made some rules mistakes as well through out our game.

Gavin wasn’t too impressed with the rule book. But in the past I’ve not had an issue with other Gamelyn Tiny Epic rule books. I’ll have to reserve judgement not this until my copy has arrived and I have had a time to read through it.

Gavin and I did find that the text on the objective cards was a tad on the small side making it hard to read. But then again this wasn’t helped by the lighting. And I’ve found that an issue with one or two other games, in perfect lighting the smaller text is readable (just for the these aging eyes), but in less than optimal lighting it’s a hard task to make head or tales of things.

Component wise it’s up to the usual high standards you’d expect for a Tiny Epic game. The ITEMeeples look super cool with the weapons attached. Mine looked really epic with a chainsaw and machine gun. I didn’t care if I won or not, I had a cool looking ITEMeeple. The motorbike also has that “wow, cool” factor. And looks awesome on the game board. These have that wow factor now, but will that wear off over multiple plays?

Katie and I both managed to complete one of the three objectives needed to win. But the game clock for the AI kicked in meaning that everyone lost. The AI clock for us was the search deck (not clear on how the call it, and no rule book to confirm) running out. I did like this as a mechanic for stopping the game from just going on and on. Although I’m not sure with the objectives we had how they could have been completed in the time given.

It certainly was a fun experience. Definitely going to get more plays, and trying out some of the other ways of playing the game.

Our second game of the evening was another new game for me, Smash Up. I know I’m very late to the party for this one. But I really enjoyed playing this.

I was playing ninjas and an Irish lepicorn mash up. So I was able to like put curses on bases to punish other players, or punish them for destroying a minion with the lepicorn cards. But with the ninja side I was able to play cards when bases were being scored. Gavin had zombies as one of his decks and that had graveyard (or discard pile) shenanigans. Very thematic.

The whole majority control fighting over bases works really well. And it was fun discovering how the mash up of decks worked. I thought mine worked together really well. Despite that I don’t think I was playing it optimally, and my last place only emphasised that.

I definitely can see myself playing this again. I think it might even be good enough to add to my collection.

It was a really fun evening, great to see knew and old faces. Our hosts The Luxe Cinema were awesome as usual. And we are really grateful to them for allowing us to game there.