Last night saw a Christmas holidays session of the Friday Gaming at The Luxe Cinema.

Jonathan and I met up an hour earlier than the scheduled time to get a little extra gaming in. It gives us a chance to try out new games/expansions, play 2 player games (which sadly don’t get enough love). Plus because of the holidays we are able to do it, something the majority of the time we are not able to.

Jonathan had been playing games most of the afternoon. Apparently, he was being taught how to play Poker. I don’t think he specified the actual version, but I’m sure Jonathan will leave a comment letting us know.

Don’t think I’ve actually played Poker as a physical game. I think my first brush with the game was Sam Fox’s Strip Poker on the Commodore 64. Probably not going to ever go into the annuals of any record book as a classic game, nor Poker game. But it was the eighties, I was a socially awkward teenager (yeah I know nothing has changed), Sam Fox and the Page 3 girls were probably at the pinnacle of their popularity (before their slow decline to oblivion). You soon learnt how to play the game as a sad desperate young man intent on seeing the titular Ms Fox in her near birthday suit. Hey this was a tasteful, classy game, not just a cheap, quick, smutty cash-in. The fact never occurred to me at the time, why don’t you just save your time and go buy a copy of The Sun, then play a Llamasoft game instead? Since then over more recent times (I’m defining that as anytime after the year 2000) I’ve tried the odd Poker app. Which I vaguely remember as being ok, but nothing that grabbed me so much that I was hooked/addicted to playing them.

I know my brother and two cousins play Poker. And they have had poker sessions in the past. In fact in the last week one of them shared a photo/memory on Facebook of them all playing at one of these previous sessions. It was years ago when the photo was taken. But I did think why was I never invited? Probably have to refer back to my earlier confession about my social skills.

Then as I wrote this post I start to evaluate my relationship with my brother. I don’t think by any imagination you could describe us as close. I love my brother to bits. But he’s almost as big an arse as me. Ok I don’t have to be top in everything, he’s a bigger arse than me. We’re not always on the phone talking, sharing our deepest thoughts, or talking about our emotions. Our conversations when we do see each other are very superficial, with such subjects covered as I’m currently watching such and such, or have you see seen? In a way it’s sad that we are not closer and better friends to each other. All those years wasted, lost. Then I ponder how much is down to me, how much is down to my hang ups, my “issues”? Probably a lot.

Back to Jonathan, he was really enjoying his poker sessions. But I did warn him, first Poker next he’ll be playing Magic the Gathering (MtG). Which Jonathan scoffed at the thought of. Jonathan will admit he doesn’t get the attraction of games like MtG. But a lot of the skills needed for Poker are also used in games like MtG. Maybe as he continues his journey as a Poker player, he will start to appreciate the similarities and dare I say enjoy a game or two of MtG/Keyforge if he ever tries them again.

Our first game was Pickomino aka Worms with the expansion Heckmeck Extrawurm. We actually loved what the expansion added to the game. You get two new tiles, 11 and 13. That you can only claim if you get the exact number to claim, and they can’t be stolen. Then you get the five “power ups” that go on certain tiles to be claimed. You are only allowed one at a time. So if you get a second you have to chose which to keep. These can be stolen also. You also get seven worm tokens, that can be gained via the crow power up or putting aside at least two 1 dice. Once all seven are gone from the general supply you can start stealing from other players when you need to get one.

The power ups were nice. The weasel gives you a reroll each turn, the hen stops you having a tile or worm token stolen or having to put a tile in the middle on an unsuccessful roll. The yellow/golden die gives you an extra die to roll each turn, the worm means you have a guaranteed worm each turn if needed so you can score a tile. And I’ve already spoken about the crow.

It really is a nice expansion, that adds to the game, everything fits into the one box. Component quality is really good. I’m almost boarding on saying this is a must have expansion.

Plus this initial play got the misplays out of the system ready for when we played it later. Oh and I beat Jonathan.

Pocket Sub was one of two small games Jonathan bought to get the Dice Hospital promos that came with them. And Jonathan teases me about my promo buying! I’m not going to waste time and words on this game. Which should tell you all you need to know about the game. It’s nearly a candidate for that Nantucket wing of shame Jonathan has built. I’m going to go out on a limb here, and predict that this game will not remain in Jonathan’s collection for long.

With everyone now arrived Worms and its expansion found its way back to the table. I’ve already talked a lot about this game and now it’s expansion. So I’m not going to repeat myself. But Katie just destroyed us all. The rest of us were left scraps and fighting it out not to be last, or to get a single point. It was a very competitive battle at the bottom. Despite the usual suspect getting up to a familiar pattern of targeting me. It’s like I’m some sort of Boogeyman of boardgames to this person. Even if it’s not the optimal play for The Usual Suspect, nine out of ten times I will be the target for them. But I’ve spoken about this before.

Our next game for the evening was Sagrada with the new expansion. The new expansion was a Christmas present that Jonathan had been given by his family for Christmas.

This expansion increases the player count to five or six players. Which is handy because there was five of us. It adds a personal dice pool that you roll at the start of the game, and store in the provided dice wheel. This stream lines the turn to the common dice pool is one more than the number of players each turn, and you only get to draft once each turn from the common pool, and take a die from your personal supply, plus use one of the tool cards.

You also get extra cards that get added to the game. This is probably why I’d get the expansion. That extra bit of variety. It’s a shame you can’t just buy these by themselves.

It was ok as expansions go. Not sure if like Catan I’d play it with the higher player counts again. Although if I did the streamlining is definitely needed. I like the visual of the personal dice supply. But in the cold light of day I’m a bit indifferent over it. It’s not something I’d use with the base game. Maybe it will grow on me.

As the photo below shows Jeff is posing with the social media gloating card, so you can safely assume he won the game.

Two years! Has it really been that long since I’ve played Coup? We used just the basic game rules and roles. But we played with the alt art cards that I got from various Indie Board and Cards Kickstarter’s that I’ve backed. They actually have a rather nice linen finish.

Like that infamous scene from Spartacus one game started off with four of us claiming “I’m the Duke” unchallenged. At least one of us was lying.

I did have to ask The Usual Suspect not to eat his small tube of Pringles he’d just purchased while we played with my unsleeved cards. He was being a bit rough on the cards already, and I’d had to ask him to be a bit gentler with them. I really should sleeve the cards. I have thought about it recently but never got round to ordering the correct sized sleeves. They are not your regular MtG sized cards. I have a few sleeves in that size naturally. Despite politely asking them not to eat the pringles while playing with my cards they still was going to go ahead. So I had to be a bit more forceful in my insistence about not eating.

But I’m still getting used to this lack of respect to other people’s games. That’s unfair, I think it’s more lack of common sense. The club code of conduct was introduced to help with this sort of thing. It wasn’t going to be an instant cure. There were bound to be hiccups. But sometimes considering the person involved it does feel deliberate sometimes. I’d dread to think what the No Thanks! cards would look like if they’d been left unsleeved. The abuse they receive from The Usual Suspect. I wince at the thought.

The evening was wrapped up with a game of Liars Dice. Sadly “dice counting, calculate the probabilities” Jeff won, despite taking an early hit on the dice in his pot front. It was a bit unfair in the final showdown. Both Jeff and the Usual Suspect had one die left. Sadly for the Usual Suspect he doesn’t really get bluffing. So the money was always on Jeff to win the head to head. It went as predicted.

It is the holidays, it’s a time of excess, luxurious food, food that’s definitely not good for the waistline. So what harm would a little bit of dodgy meat, smothered in chilli sauce and hidden under a layer of salad do? The greasy meat and chilli sauce is like a pallet cleanser for the soul. So Jeff, Jonathan and myself made our way to our regular cut my own throat dibbler establishment and purchased our indeterminate meat.

I’m running out of platitudes to express just how great our hosts The Luxe are and how grateful we are for being allowed to play there.

A great evening of gaming, and repeated next Friday.

Yesterday was the Christmas meet up for The Fenland Gamers, the first of our holiday season sessions, at the wonderful The Luxe Cinema. Whilst we played games the regular patrons of the cinema were enjoying showings of Mary Poppins Returns.

Jonathan and I had arrived a couple of hours earlier than the scheduled time to play some games together.

Our first game of this pre-meet up session was Pick-omino or as my German copy of the game calls it Heckmeck am Bratwurmeck (has English rules). My Dutch friend Janne calls it by a much simpler name Worms.

Janne is how I found out about the game. Friday Janne posted a photo on Facebook looking sad, having just lost a game by a large margin against her partner. Something she apparently never does. So being the naturally curious person I am, I asked what the game was. Janne told me. So after a quick google, I saw that it was a Reiner Knizia game. Which peaked my interest, he is after all a designer I like. My quick research gave the impression it was a press your luck style game. I was curious. Janne really enjoyed the game, Amazon had the German edition (which I knew had English rules inside) for less than £20, I had prime. The only question left was would it arrive in time for Saturdays game session?

There was some real doubt yesterday that it would arrive in time. When it is Amazon using their own delivery services instead of a third party, for some reason I’m usually the last house on the drivers route. Which means my orders usually arrive late in the evening. Imagine my surprise, and relief when the game arrived at 3:15pm. Just in time for the evenings gaming.

So after all that I suppose you would like to know about the game.

Worms (I’ll call it that from now on in this post for brevity reasons) is really fun. Knizia certainly knows how to use the push your luck element to make fun games. The production on this version is pretty good. It came with some pretty solid, nice weight to them, domino tiles and 8 wooden dice. For my tastes I’m not a big wooden dice fan, they feel too light in the hands for me. But after a roll or two I soon forgot about that.

The rules are so simple, and easy to teach. That’s such a big bonus for a game like this.

I like the fact when you reroll the remaining dice you can’t select a dice value you have already selected previously. So as you keep going the chances of you rolling values that will end your turn without scoring increases.

There is a nice take that element in the game where you can steal the top tile of a players stack of tiles if you roll the exact value of the tile.

The repercussions of pushing your luck too far or not scoring high enough to get a tile are “fun” too. End up with a failed turn, and you lose the top tile of your stack. Which returns back to the middle, and the highest valued tile (if it is not the tile you just placed back) gets flipped over, and is out of the game.

This game played really well at two players. Next more players to see how it holds up.

Jonathan and I played two games and shared the honours. This bit is for Janne if she ever reads the post. Games with a similar push your luck mechanic and dice worth looking at Zombie Dice, and Age of War. Both small games, easy to carry around to play on the go. Bigger games that use it King of Tokyo/New York, Run,Fight or Die! and Elder Sign. There is a bit more game to these, but the core mechanic is still that push your luck element.

Our second game was Kamisado Max. This was one of Jonathan’s grail games which he managed to pick up at a real bargain price.

Despite Jonathan kicking my butt on this game (twice) I really liked this abstract game. Once again like all good abstract games, it has a simple rule set that is quick to teach and learn. But that simplicity hides a deeper depth to the game than first appears.

The production on this edition of the game is stunning. Although in the less than perfect lighting of our venue it was a little hard to tell the difference between similar colours on a couple of the castles.

I liked the fact that the colour square your piece ends on determines the coloured piece your opponent must move on their turn.

Oh and the games were nice and quick.

Below can you spot the photo of Jonathan below where he knows he’s won, and my delaying tactics of taking photos isn’t working?

I could like Worms, suggest similar abstract games that folks might enjoy. But I’m going to talk about one of them in a second. If you would like me to do this on a regular basis when I talk about games in similar posts, let me know in the comments.

We finished off our early gaming session with Onitama and the newly released Way of the Wind expansion.

The expansion was a welcomed excuse to get this great abstract game back to the table. It had shockingly been over a year since I’d last played the game. Naturally we were a bit rusty on one or two of the basic rules.

With the expansion a new piece is added to the board that can be controlled by both players, along with new cards, and a modified set up.

I’m going to cut to the chase and say although I like the expansion. It brings new tactical elements and decisions to make to the game. This is not one of those must have expansions that you would say the base game has to be played with. It’s a take it or leave it expansion, that can be used to add a bit of variety to the game if you are playing the game so often you need to shake things up a little.

Jonathan and I played three games in the end before the others arrived for the official start of the evenings gaming. I edged the honours winning two games to one.

I had just finished showing Jonathan how little difference there was between Grifters: Nexus and the original version. Component wise it’s identical. When Diego arrived. As we started explaining Worms to him, others turned up. Which meant we ended up playing a 6 player game of Worms.

It surprisingly held up at that player count. The game supports upto 7 players. There was a lot more of the stealing tiles in the game we had. The down time wasn’t too bad either, with a bit of politics going on trying to encourage the current player to steal some-one else’s top tile.

Thanks to Janne I think we have another group staple here.

During Worms we had two more turn up. So we split into two groups of four to play games after the game was finished. Suffice to say Jonathan and I didn’t win the game of Worms.

In Jonathan’s group they played Dice Hospital. While the group I was in played the press your luck game Deep Sea Adventure. I’d not played the game for a long time, so I was a little rusty again on the rules. Unsurprisingly after 3 rounds I scored absolutely zero points. Which won’t come as a surprise to anyone that I didn’t win.

Our group followed up with a couple of games of Kingdomino. I actually managed to win one of these games.

The other group were nearly finished playing Dice Hospital, so we squeezed in a quick game of Love Letter: Batman (my favourite version of the game). Amazingly I managed to have the most points when it came time to end because the other group had finished with Diego getting the victory. So that goes down as a win for me too.

The evening was finished off with an eight player game of Perudo. To accommodate this number of players Jonathan had to get his copy of the game too. My copy of Liars Dice only plays six tops. Eight players all shaking plastic cups full of dice is apparently noisy. Who would have guessed? But with such a high player count the game still held up to the stress test. After the noise had died down, the bluffing called, Diego once again ended up top of the heap.

After packing away there was a bit of chatting, and stuffing faces full of popcorn by one or two.

After such a great evenings gaming there was only one way for it to be topped off. Yep dodgy meat smothered in chilli sauce, some salad thrown over it, all in the middle of a warmed up wrap.

The Luxe Cinema were once again their usual amazing selfs (despite the curve ball or two thrown by one of our members during the evening), and a big thank you for allowing us to use them as our venue for playing games. Without them we would have struggled to have a free venue to play our games. And it was very generous of them to step up and fill the void left when our previous venue closed.

Thanks to Jonathan you get a Christmas treat of some photos of me, or with me in from the evening of gaming.