Last night was the fortnightly Friday evening gaming session at our now current home for gaming The Luxe Cinema.

Our first game of the evening was a learning game of Lost Cities:Rivals. I’m a big big fan of the original game Lost Cities. It has a great app (that makes me lazy on the scoring). But it’s a 2 player game only. So to hear that there was this game based on it, with an auction mechanic, that plays 2-4 players, yeah I was going to get it.

There is a surprising depth to the game once things click. But it’s a learning game so it takes a round or two for things to click, it’s expected.

On your go you either add a card to the market from the pile, or start an auction for the current cards in the market. And that’s the first big decision you have to make based on the market. Just how many or badly do you need any of the cards in the market? Do you risk adding to it, or try and get the cards with an auction? The amount of money you have, and of the others could also influence that decision, you may not even be able to afford to bid. Running out of money means until you get through the current pile of cards you just have to watch as your opponents take cards that you may need. When a pile of cards runs out, money that was spent in the auctions gets redistributed evenly amongst players. Which is a nice touch. I also,like the hate bidding to try and force up the price, and take out opponents so you have free reign of the cards. I also like that the winning bidder can also remove a single card from the market from the game. A great opportunity to deny another player a card they may need.

Amazingly Jonathan and I tied for top spot. I enjoyed the game, definitely want to play it again.

Our second game and final one of the evening was the evergreen gateway worker placement game Stone Age. I’d only played this game once before, which was nearly 3 years ago (before I started logging game plays).

I went back and read my thoughts on Stone Age from that first play. I still agree with them. Although it’s great as an entry level worker placement game, I did kinda think it was an average one on the whole. There are worker placement games I enjoy a lot more. But after our game last night I think calling it average is doing it a disservice, above average is more accurate. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still an enjoyable experience.

Our game last night was a little one sided with the real battle for first place between Jonathan and myself. Despite sitting behind the pack on the score track for most of the game, Jonathan was in striking distance of a big points rush during final scoring. Which I knew would be coming because he was going for the set collection end game bonus.

The reason for it being between Jonathan and myself was the other 2 players hadn’t played the game before, and I didn’t think my previous play really gave me an advantage, being so long ago. But being a more experienced player, and fan of the worker placement mechanic did help. Jonathan naturally was the more experienced player of the game, and he did point out key strategies of the game during explaining the rules, and during play. Also advice from both of us was given through out the game.

But that didn’t stop one player making a couple of really dumb ass moves during the game. The first was mid game on his first player turn not taking the farm, and allowing Jonathan to nab it and gain an advantage on the food front. Until the late game, that farm track is important. You need to hunt less to feed your tribe. Allowing you to gather more resources, grab more buildings etc. It also allows you to add more tribe members and yes get to do more on a turn. That was a massive move for Jonathan, and allowed him to get that extra worker.

The second dumb ass thing had me nearly rage flipping my table! I don’t think I’ve ever called another player a “twat” at the table before. But I did last night. Basically in the fading memory I have. We had a building pile down to one tile, the ass hat was first player. If Jonathan put a worker on it he’d block it to allow an extra turn or two, something he needed to allow him to get cards to complete that massive scoring set he was going for. I knew he was close. Ending the game this turn, was in my interest and give me a chance. The other two were not in the running. They hadn’t been grabbing end game bonus cards, and only had a couple. Their final points wouldn’t be too far off where they were on the score track. If they were to stand a remote chance of finishing above Jonathan they too needed it to end this turn. There was no benefit for the person to drag the game on for a couple more turns. No way they were going to get back in the running. Their first move was a worker on the final hut. During the rest of the placement stage they put another worker on a hut, and we played out our placements. Then when it came to resolving the workers, they didn’t claim the last hut! WTF! Did they just do that? This was handing the game to Jonathan. And then to justify it with “I don’t care, this is payback for D&D (dire wolf cleaning his privates jokes)” was just twattish. It really felt like they had just given Jonathan the game. We were now looking at another 2 rounds. Exactly what Jonathan needed.

Luckily Jonathan was first player and didn’t block that hut with his first worker placement. Naturally I did with my first worker. But it was a great last round for me, and also for Jonathan. I got a great end game bonus card.

As expected during end game scoring Jonathan had a 7 card set for a massive points jump, and some bonuses. I had a 4 card set, something I’d gone for as a way to try and mitigate that big points gain I knew Jonathan was getting. What I hadn’t been tracking was my bonuses. With 7 huts, and two 2 value tools and one 3 value tool my multiple bonuses really added up and shot me to the win. I ended up with 197 points. My tools bonuses gave me that win. Jonathan ended up second with 152. Without the tool bonuses I would have been a close second.

But I’ve decided I’m not going to be playing with that player again. Even before the dire wolf jokes in D&D I had the feeling that they were targeting me in games. I don’t need that agro. I never thought I’d be writing something like this, let alone thinking it. I’d like to reflect why I feel this way, and the root cause. But that’s not me, I’m a force of nature like my attack chihuahuas Nico and Loki.

Despite that little blip, it was a great evening. The Luxe and amazing staff, were fantastic hosts.

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.