So last week I did get to play some games.

Last Tuesday I finally got Grifters:Nexus to the table. With my friend Nathan being the unfortunate individual coerced into playing.

Grifters: Nexus is the stand alone follow up to the original Grifters. Although they can be combined, and they rule book explains how to do this.

So what does Grifters:Nexus bring to the table? For starters “15 new specialist cards, new mechanisms and a new job card system.”

Naturally the theme remains the same, you are still running a criminal gang in the Dystopian Universe (also shared with Coup and The Resistance) pulling off jobs. The cool down mechanic is still there (which I really like) as is the handbuilding and set collection.

The art is fantastic. I love the art, the characters feel gritty and dystopian.

The job cards are now organised as an inverted pyramid. Which takes up a bit more table space. You can only complete jobs that are completely uncovered. I prefer this to the original piles of jobs. Not all the jobs get put out each game. So this impacts the number of cards that can be collected in a set, and the sets available. It gives a bit of variety.

If I had one complaint it’s that the rule book needs a keyword/mechanic section that explains how that keyword/mechanic works. It wasn’t exactly clear how the abduct mechanic worked from the card itself. But I did manage to work out what was meant (take a random card from an opponent’s hand).

You now have the option when stealing to take the money from either the opponents stash or if they have a specialist with money on them in the hideout from that specialist.

Grifters: Nexus is an enjoyable game. If you liked the original you’ll like this.

I narrowly got the win. Nathan liked the game also. So much I believe he might of added the game to his wish list.

Friday saw Jonathan and me at The Luxe for some gaming. After getting a sneak peek at a game prototype he’s working on, we played Foothills.

Foothills is all about building railways in Wales. Oh and getting the most victory points!

Each player has 5 double sided action cards. On your turn you select a face up action and do that action. You then flip the card, which makes a different action available to you. The nice thing about this is that the mix of actions are not the same for each player. The actions you can take allow you to gain resources, clear subtle, build tracks or stations, use unlocked action spaces or put an action card in front of you in a scoring pile.

Apart from scoring points for clearing a space with rubble on it, or building tracks and stations the end of game bonuses you score are taken from your personal scoring pile. No cards in the pile, no bonuses. So you have to time when to add an action card to the pile. It does get replaced by an action card from a generic supply. But the two sides may not be as sweet as the card you just replaced. Or the scoring bonus might not be as much use.

As a two player game I liked this a lot. It does need space to play. Which we nearly didn’t have enough for on the table we were using.

Ours was a close game, with John winning by a single point, after he got his maths right that is. Otherwise the gap would have been bigger!

Games Played: Grifters:Nexus, Foothills