Fenland Gamers Oct 16 Meetup

Fenland Gamers, game night, Uncategorized

Last night saw the October meet up of the  Fenland Gamers at the White Lion Hotel. This was a first for the monthly Meetup.

Our first game of the evening was Keyflower. 

Part worker placement, part bidding. It’s a nice challenging game. 

You have to decide whether to use a tile for its ability or to try and bid on it to get ownership.

There is an advantage to owning the tiles. Points for starters, plus it may increase the number of workers the next round that you have to play with. Because if another player uses on of your tiles you get those meeples at the end of the round. 

You also get to bid for choosing bonuses at the end of the round. Get a chance using tile abilities to gather resources that you can use to upgrade a tile. 

It can be tough making that decision what to do. 

The art isn’t amazing, but has a nice cartoony feel to it. I do like the player screens that are used to hide your meeples from the other players. 

Despite loosing to Deigo it liked the game a lot.

We finished off the evening with Isle of Trains.

I’d nearly bought this game at the expo. Which is a shame as I liked playing this also. And it won’t be long before it ends up in the collection.

I love the multi use cards. Using them to pay for cards, to use them as carriages/trains or as a resource to activate an ability. 

That activating of an ability is genius. Because that only happens when you put a resource on an opponents carriage. But if you do that you are helping them get nearer to completing their contract. If you do it on your own train, nothing happens, but you do have the goods to use for completing a contract. That’s an interesting decision to have to make. How badly do you need the ability to meet your goals? 

The records will show that I won this game.

A great evening of gaming. Looking forward to Friday now for the next lot.

Wait this had no title!

Fenland Gamers, game night

I have to admire Jonathan it takes a lot of balls to build the Nantucket wing on his house.

Last night I’d hesitate to say we played the game Western Front. We tried it is the best I can describe it as.

I’m not going to waste more time on this game at the moment. When the best you can say about the game is you like the linen finish of the cards. It says it all really.

We followed up with Karmaka, a game I knew the theme would not appeal to Jonathan. However I thought he might like the mechanics and art.

I called it right, Jonathan beat me whilst not disliking the mechanics, but not enjoying the theme.

Our final game was a two player Tiny Epic Western. Which was an ok experience but much better with more players.

Luckily for me I won. Which ended our gaming evening and despite the false start a pleasant evening of gaming.

Weekend At Naths 

father son gaming

I visited Nath this weekend. The weekend before his birthday. All of a sudden that little boy who looked up to you, is now towering over you, started a degree, and living the student life (despite being told to slow down, but it seems I’m old, and Halls has changed since I was in them last).

We only played one game Friday night. And it only just was Friday when we started it. That was 7 Wonders Duel. 

It was a close game, neither of us bothered attempting for a science victory. Nath progressed a military path early on, whilst I did grab matching science tokens to give me a bonus that was worth three points at the end. A decision that would haunt me at the end. 

I did manage to build all my Wonders early on, whilst Nath only managed one. But he was racking up blue victory point cards. Having forgotten his military plan during the second age. It was midway through the second age that I went big into the military path. 

During the third and final age I managed to get right up to the door of his empire on the military path. One more point and I’d have the instant win. One point that I would have had if I’d taken the right science bonus earlier. 

Instead the game went to points. Which gave Nath the win by two massive victory points.

Saturday saw me hunting down two lgs in Portsmouth while Nath had his football training.

Before I got to the first one I passed an artisan bakers. Who could resist one of them?

After being tempted to buy one of everything on the cake front, and narrowing the bread options down to two. I left the premises with a baguette, beer loaf, two cinnamon rolls, and a lemon meringue pie. 

All I’m saying is best lemon meringue pie ever! Perfectly balanced, lovely pastry. Amazing.

We started our gaming off with Timeline Star Wars. A nice light start. Although one or two cards did stump Nath to give me the wins.

We followed that up with a game of Karmaka, which I had just received after backing on Kickstarter.

First up I love the art on this game. The box is beautiful, as is the art on the cards.

There are some nice touches like the two cards you can use to replace the main board, allowing you to take the game on the go in a smaller box.

The components are of a high quality. I love the little meditating meeples. The insert is nice, and a great touch.

This game really does capture its theme of reincarnation and karma in its mechanics and art.

I like the whole having to decide how you use a card. Do you save it for your future life? Do you score it for its deeds value? Or do you play it for its ability and possibly have your opponent place it in their future life to possibly use against you?

I like how the death, rebirth works. The moving up levels of transcendence based on whether you have scored enough deeds. Or you might get stuck if you haven’t and get a karmic ring instead.

Nath and I found for a game about karma and transcendence this had a high take that thing going.

We enjoyed our game, another Kickstarter win for me, and a game win for Nath.

Next up was a game of Magic the Gathering using the latest duel decks Nissa vs Ob Nixlis.


Next Nath and I tried to make our way across America and to safety while avoiding zombies in Hit Z Road.

Nath had a default win after my survivors failed to make it to safety and ended up as  zombie food.

Our gaming finished off with Star Realms. Which I won. Although Nath thought it was over kill that I added up my total killing blow instead of stopping once I’d hit enough to win. Well it’s not Star Realms unless you are hitting them for as much as possible.

Sunday started off really relaxed! It was half nine when I woke and made a coffee for myself. 

Finally with Nath awake we hit the local spoons which was literally a stones throw from Naths. 

Back at the bomb site known as Naths room there was time for one more game before I had to head back.

Nath chose the game our weekend started off with 7 Wonders Duel. During the Wonders drafting I drafted a couple with military bonuses to stop Nath having them. And then decided that I would go big on the military route to victory.

Which I managed to pull off despite Nath trying to slow me down once or twice.

A great game to finish on. 

I had a great weekend with Nath. I’m so proud of him. Can’t wait until my next visit.

New TIME Stories expansion announced

news

The next expansion for T.I.M.E. Stories has recently been announced.

Expedition:Endurance whisks us off to 1914 to find out what happened to a trans-Antarctic expedition.


The news site icv2 provides the following additional information:

“Designed by Croc (Claustrophobia, In Nomine) and produced in collaboration with Space Cowboys, this new expansion explores the Antarctic, where an anomaly in time threatens to change history and make reality fall apart completely. Questions of life and death as well as sanity itself are at play in this expansion, set in 1914 during the failed trans-arctic expedition of the Expedition.

Expedition Endurance contains 115 cards and requires the base T.I.M.E. Stories game for play. MSRP is $29.99, with a US release scheduled for Q1 2017.”

Looking at the bgg site those of us in Europe may be getting this new scenario a little sooner, like this month according to an official Facebook reply on the Official game/Space Cowboys page.

So Essen announcement/release?

The Impact of Games

Uncategorized

It’s been a mad mad week at work. Somehow I’ve got through it. I’ve been shattered both physically and emotionally in the evenings. Often this week being out like a light by 8pm!

But it’s scenes like the above photo that make it all worth it.

In a workshop this week I introduced some students to a game called Ricochet Robots. My plan for the game and main purpose of the game was, and still is to use the game as a lesson starter activity. But I thought I’d test it out first.

The students loved it. Not only did the ones playing it really enjoy it. The game and the students playing drew in class mates too. Who couldn’t help but try to solve the current puzzle also while looking on!

At the start of this academic year I’d bought in some games to play in induction week. Love Letter Batman was a hit (I have four copies of this now specifically for using with students). A couple asking where they could get it. Sadly I had to tell them their FLGS had none in currently because I had just bought up its remaining copies for them to play with.

I’d also used both my copies of King of Tokyo with a class. Another hit. 

But with two students a game of zombie dice was enough to break the ice, that a real friendship has started up.

We’ve also had a six player game of ultimate werewolf as an ice breaker. But I’ve plans for that in the near future.

In the past Munchkin and The Resistance have also been popular. I’ve yet to get these to the table with my students here.

I love using board games with students. Especially in induction week as team builders, ice breakers etc. I prefer them to the old stale activities of build a bridge out of paper etc.

Back to the photo above. What hasn’t been told is the magic that the game worked on one of the students. The little break from their reality it gave, allowing them to be for a brief moment a teenager again without the problems of the world on their shoulders.

The students also remembered they had Doctor Who Risk at home. Which was bought in the next day and played at lunchtime in the canteen. Swines not inviting me to play!

But it’s these moments that make it all worth while.

Next up on my list of games to try is the Timelines series. I think this will make a great starter.

Plus I’d love to convince management that a board game club would make great enrichment along side the more traditional activities on offer. I can dream.
Epilogue: what makes a great game for students? For me it’s a game that ticks the following:

  • teach in less than five minutes
  • is quick to pick up
  • ideally play more than four players with little downtime
  • theme has to be appealing
  • Fun!
  • Ideally not expensive – this is my pocket it’s coming out of

Star Realms thinking aloud

star realms

So I was thinking on my drive into work this morning about Star Realms and promo cards.


In the bottom right corner of them is a little ‘star’ that tells you how many copies of the promo card you should mix into the game. Gold is one copy, silver is two copies of the card, and white three copies of the card.

Now I was thinking this is based on them being used with the base Star Realms or Colony Wars. Which is 120 cards iirc. 

So if you are playing with everything, so thats Star Realms, Gambit, Crisis, Colony Wars, Gambits and United, should you up it on the gold to two copies of the card? You are after all playing with 300 odd cards!

So to give you the same or similar probability of drawing that promo card surely you need two copies of it in the deck if you are playing with everything including the kitchen sink.

Yeah I know I need a life.

Back on top

Fenland Gamers

Sunday saw me invited to play some game with Jonathan and his dad.

Our first game was Airlines Europe. A game I won with the nice round score of 100 points.

We played with a couple of mini expansions Jonathan had for the game. The first at the scoring phases gave players the opportunity to block routes. This was ok, and I could take it or leave it.

The second one I liked. Each player got two random tokens that they had to keep secret. Don’t use them and they were worth one point each at the end scoring. However use them and you could be earning more than a single point. On the secret side was a colour that matched one of the airlines. Which if you were tieing for points on that airlines shares gives the tie in your favour. 

I didn’t use mine but cunningly left one each on one of my shares. Planting the idea that I had that airlines token. Which did fool Jonathan, until I came clean. 

Our second was Thiefs Market. Once again I came out victorious and rightfully claiming my title back.

After the game there was an interesting discussion about whether the first player at the start had an unfair advantage.

Naturally being the winner and the player that had held onto the first player token for the majority of the game (I wanted it more as Rocket would say), I disagreed.

I know I was taking the bare minimum of dice I needed, not taking any available notoriety or gold dice. So I was handicapped on the flexibility of cards I could go for, and not able to afford to lose a dice.

It was an interesting point. A check on the bgg forums didn’t find anyone else thinking along the lines of Jonathan and his dad.

I’m going to have to think more on this.

Anyway a great afternoons gaming.

WS 3Oct16

news

I’ve been waiting a month or so for our Esdevium/Asmodee Borg masters to release Timeline British History. This will make a great starter activity for a class.

At last Escalation the latest datapack for Android Netrunner is hitting the streets. Once I’d seen the spoiler for it I couldn’t wait. I wanted so badly to play with the new Anarch runner Omar Keung.


Look at that ability. Isn’t it awesome?

Simurgh is a great worker placement game. It doesn’t say so, but this has to be a restock. It’s definitely worth getting. 

Finally I really do like the two player play mat for Magic the Gathering shown above. I’m going to have to get this to play my duel decks with when I play Nath. Or anyone else really.

After the last couple of weeks it’s a quiet week. I’m so glad our overlords are being kind to us.

BTN September 2016

by the numbers, Uncategorized

It’s that time of the month to look back and reflect on the previous months gaming again.

So here we go here are the numbers for last month.

It doesn’t feel it but the graph shows the trend on plays is down for a second month. But games played is up. I have played some meaty games last month.

If I’ve counted right eleven of the games last month were first plays of new games or from the pile of shame.

My Game of the Month

I like this award to be a new game. Whether it’s just been released or one that I’ve never played before. However I’m bending the rules!

This month my game of the month is Istanbul with all the expansions. The new expansion Briefs and Siegel mixed in with the Mocha and Baksheesh expansion just take the game to such an amazing level.

Played this way isn’t for noobs to the game or gaming. But if you are a seasoned  gamer, or played before, oh boy this is just mind blowing.

Worst Game of the Month

I think last month must have been a good month for gaming. I don’t think I’ve played any that you would call a stinker or worse deserve a place in the Nantucket hall of infamy, that is current housed in the Nantucket wing at Jonathan’s.

The Pile of Shame Five

So looking at the last pile of shame Five that I named as targets to play only one of them was played.

This time I’m going to deviate away from the usual selection process and have a list of games I want to get back to the table.

  • Five Tribes
  • Imperial Settlers
  • Neuroshima Hex
  • Tiny Epic Kingdoms
  • Viticulture

All great games that are long overdue a return to the table.

The Iron Throne Round Two

Fenland Gamers, game night, game of thrones

Our skirmish over the Iron Throne seemed so long ago. But the memory of the other houses betrayal still stung with how they gave the Iron Throne to Jeff the Baratheon. 

Mid week once I knew how many could still make our planned fight club for the Iron Throne, I ordered the A Feast of Crows expansion for the game. 

This was my clever plan to gain the Throne. A Feast of Crows is a four player only expansion that replaces the win condition for the game, introduces a new house, House Arryn, objectives, a new setup. 

During setup I drew the Starks, Jeff got House Arryn, Jonathan House Lannister, and Diego House Baratheon.

Looking back on our game my tactical error on turn one that I missed until too late, of attacking House Arryn instead of the Lannisters, helped towards giving Jonathan his well deserved victory. If I had gone after the Lannisters I would have completed my special objective for my house and started racking up victory points, while denying Jonathan and his Lannisters 

The others helped towards his victory also by not taking him on, on their side of Westeros.

I liked this expansion a lot. The house specific objectives, the objective deck. Such a great idea. Completing them is the only way to earn victory points. It forces you to be aggressive. You can’t afford to turtle. 

It was a quick game, four turns! Not including setup time, our playtime was about an hour and a half. 

Setup especially contributes to the forced aggression, effectively shutting down the southern part of Westeros. You are also starting off with more developed forces if my poor memory of our first game isn’t playing tricks on me.

This is definitely my preferred way to play with four players now. I’ll happily play the original way. But this expansion for me is a far better playing experience. 

There is a six player only expansion also, which if we get a six player game together I will definitely get. I do wonder why there isn’t a five player expansion. 

The postman bought my Kickstarter copy of Tiny Epic Western Deluxe Edition yesterday morning. So after sleeving the player boards the game along with Bang the Dice Game and it’s first expansion Old Saloon were put in my game bag along with A Game of Thrones the boardgame.

Having seen Jeff usurped from the Iron Throne, only to see Jonathan placed on the throne instead. It was time to hit the old west and play Tiny Epic Western.

Naturally with the game being so new, none of us knew the rules. So this was a learning game, reading the rules as we played! 

Within a turn of playing I think we had the majority of the rules down. 

So we have an area control, worker placement, set collection, variable player powers game with a poker element too!

Yep there’s a lot of boxes being ticked here. But it works.

I like the duelling, although I think I only duelled once! It’s a cool way to resolve control of a space on the board.

Having player aids on the back of the character boards is a good use of real estate. Which means unused boards instantly become player aids. 

I loved the poker element of the game. It was rare I wasn’t with a five value card. So rare if I was wearing a long sleeved top the others would be rolling up my sleeves checking for cards.

The unique player boards with their player abilities is a nice touch. The four we were playing with didn’t seem over powered. 

Being the Kickstarter deluxe edition we had extra bullet dice, one in each players colour. But the whole overall component quality was good. We also got a plastic wanted card with a see through window. Which looked better to me than the standard included card.

I liked the wanted card as it encouraged duels. Ownership went to the winner of the last duel. It gives a bonus if you have it on phase three of the game, and if you have it at the end of the game two victory points. 

We did find the rule book a bit confusing in places. It was handy having a mini FAQ inside the box.

The only thing I regret is not buying the optional playing mat. But I’ll correct that soon.

Tiny Epic Westerns is a nice game. I like it, and definitely can see it coming to the table again. And I’m not saying that because I won!

So is this the best Tiny Epic game? Does it beat Tiny Epic Galaxies? 

For me I think TEG is still the best Tiny Epic game. But this easily takes second spot.

A great day gaming. Plus we pigged out on Krispy Creme donuts!