My Precious Sunday!

Game day, magic, MtG

This weekend has been a busy weekend for your FLGS. It’s been yet another MtG prerelease weekend. These are happening a lot more often these days as WotC push out more and more product in their blatant attempt to lighten your pockets and bank accounts.

But it doesn’t take away from the fact that a MtG prerelease is a valuable source of income for the LGS.

There has been a lot of buzz and online chatter about this latest set The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth for one reason or the other.

The main one that affects this weekend and sales of the very expensive Collectors Boosters is the one of one card The One Ring hidden in one of them. In the run up to this weekend various individuals and businesses put a “bounty” on the card. Last I heard before Friday was one MtG retailer offering over one million dollars to the lucky individual who pulled it (within one month of the prerelease).

Guess what’s been selling like hot cakes this weekend?

My local FLGS sold out of their stock of the Collectors Boosters, and barely sold any draft boosters.

I don’t know if other stores had the same. But it’d sure be interesting to find out.

I wasn’t going to attend any prerelease events. But I did manage to score a couple of prerelease kits and the new starter kit, and held my own prerelease event this afternoon with Dave.

I’m a big Lord of the Rings fan.

Funny enough it was my other passion in the early Eighties and the home computer boom that introduced me to Tolkien and Middle-Earth.

Thanks to the software house Melbourne House who did The Hobbit adventure game, and it’s follow up The Lord of the Rings Part 1. Both coming with copies of their respective books. I was introduced to hobbits, elves, and dwarves.

I ended up reading the books to help me solve the many puzzles and situations I would come across.

During this time I got to see The Lord of the Rings animated movie on vhs. Yes the video revolution was great for geeks like me. The animated movie was only part one. Part two was never made. The movie ended just after Helms Deep if I remember correctly. It’s also of interested that during its making they started running out of money, so they used an animation technique called rotoscoping. Which was basically filming actors in orc outfits and colouring over them! It does give the movie a unique look and feel.

I have such fond memories in the mid Eighties sitting in a large beanbag in my spare room rays of light coming through the window, reading my leather bound, gold leaf lettering on the cover edition of The Lord of Rings.

My first RPG that I played was the Middle-Earth Role Playing game whilst I was studying for my HND down in Brighton.

Then whilst married getting the thirteen cd edition of the BBC radio play production of the book. Wow such an amazing production. Apart from Tom Bombadil they got the book captured perfectly. I soon added the BBCs production of The Hobbit. You can just close your eyes and imagine you are there. I even have both on Audible.

I could go on. But that’d bore you. I think you could say I’m a big fan just not one that can quote chapter and verse from the books or lore.

Dave and I had a blast building our decks to play after cracking open our prerelease kit boosters and participation packs. This was a first for Dave as he was getting to experience his first sealed game.

I love that excitement, anticipation of cracking open a booster. Nothing quite like it in gaming. It’s so addictive.

I went green/white aka Selesnya, whilst Dave went Red/Black with a splash of blue aka Grixis.

I went with cards that generated food tokens and did things with them. I surprised myself with the synergy. If this had been a proper prerelease I’d have never been that lucky with my cards.

There is some amazing art on these cards. I dare to say WotC and the artists they used have taken things to another level.

And it felt so thematic playing the cards. I’ve not felt that with MtG in a long time. Granted I’ve not played a set since that awful Strixhaven set. But playing the cards was such a joy.

The Starter Kit decks also got a couple of plays. They too were fun. There was a nice balance to them.

I had a great afternoon playing some MtG with a friend. As a Fathers Day goes the only way I could top this if I had spent the time with Nathan. But he called me which is all I need.

The spice did flow

Fenland Gamers, game night

After the failed attempt to have a club night last week. Which would have been the first post UKGE we got back on track by having one this week.

I took along my now pimped out copy of Dune Imperium in it’s new home of the Deluxe Upgrade box. Along with After Us, War of the Ring the card game (with the four promo cards I purchased at this years UKGE), and Cat in the Box. Plus the limited edition, super rare black edition of the club tee. There are only three of these and all spoken for.

Despite only five people actually responding to the event on the clubs discord server. We actually had twelve turn up.

This meant we split up into three gaming tables of four players on each.

Luckily there were three others willing to play Dune Imperium.

The Dune Imperium Deluxe Upgrade kit (finally arrived earlier in the week)

One of them was new to the game so I limited our game to just the core and Rise of Ix expansion. Having Immortality in the mix as well would have been too much.

Who had which leader?

  • Viscount Hundro Moritani – me
  • Prince Rhombur Vernius – Julie
  • Princess Yuna Moritani – Dave
  • The Beast Glossu Rabban – new player

I bet me not playing Yuna surprised you. It surprised me too. But then Dave had already chosen her. So I had very little choice in the matter.

I liked Hundro a lot. Especially his starting bonus of getting an Intrigue card.

For most of the game I was just behind the leaders on the victory points. I was in the mix and just needed a good round to leap frog into the lead. Ideally timed to trigger the end game.

Early on I picked up an end game scoring intrigue card that rewarded me for being having three or more influence on the faction tracks. Followed by taking one off Julie that gave me a point for having more than ten solari. Almost straight away after taking that card off her I drew another with the same condition on it.

I had potentially four victory points in those three intrigue cards at the end of the game.

Our game went the full ten rounds.

I didn’t win a single combat. Most of them I didn’t even participate in.

In the later rounds I made sure I couldn’t lose the two alliances I had. In this game losing one to another player is a massive point swing.

In the last round I was able to pick up a Spice Must Flow card to gain a much needed victory point. It helped that the cost was reduced by three with a card I had.

After the dust had settled and points from tech tiles and intrigue cards added I won with twelve points.

I really love the deluxe upgrade kit. The models look awesome on the board.

The metal first player token is amazing. It feels really nice and has a great weight to it.

The insert I like. It just about fits everything in sleeved. There is no room for any thing else. So I hope there are no plans for a third expansion.

I think the only way the kit could be improved is if they had replaced the remaining cardboard with acrylic tokens.

I had a great time playing Dune Imperium. A great evenings gaming.

Not your average board gaming content creator!

life, the universe, and everything, rant, still alive

I was going to write a post in response to a recent YouTube video by Jamey Stegmaier and one or two others called Tabletop Publishers, Content Creators, and Audiences: The Inside Scoop.

However this heat wave is sucking my will to live, and I can’t be bothered to share my very cheap opinions about the issues raised.

Besides I’m not a content creator in the board gaming space. Or not by any definition that most people would use.

What we have in this little corner of the internet is a personal diary where I talk about what gaming I get up to. I don’t review stuff. I share my opinions on the games I play.

If this blog is read by more than a handful of people I’d be shocked. I’d bet good money that most of those that read my posts are friends and family.

Why do I write it?

It’s for me. And maybe one day for Nathan. That’s why some of the posts recently have had a more personal “back when I was a lad” bit to them. It’s my “gift” to him. Hopefully it will help him feel closer to me if he ever decides to read my badly written words.

So no I’m not trying to make a living from this. I’m not trying to get free games (god I’d hate that pressure), and I’m definitely not trying to make a name for myself.

I’m just creating memories that one day will help my son.

A hot Sunday afternoon

Game day

A very hot Sunday afternoon saw my friend Jamie and myself meeting up to play some board games.

We started off with a two player game of After Us. You can read a rather long winded not saying much post about it here. We had fun. Despite leading on the points front for the majority of the game, Jamie caught up and overtook me to get the win.

After my apes had their butt kicked it was time to start climbing in the Himalayas by playing Trek 12: Himalaya.

Obviously I like roll and writes. I do have a few in the collection (22 at the last count according the tags I’ve added to games in bgstat). So a while back when I saw a review for it on YouTube (and for the life of me I can’t remember which channel it was I saw it on) I was intrigued. Especially by the theme (we’ll come back to that in a mo). So when I saw it for sale at UKGE with the expansion I finally caved and bought both the base game and it’s expansion.

Now folks who know me longer than I have been blogging about board games will remember that originally this very blog was an outdoors blog! (The posts are no longer on here) I love being in the outdoors, backpacking, sleeping in the middle of nowhere with great views, being up high on the UK mountains. I’ve taken that love of hiking to holidays in the Swiss Alps and French Pyrenees.

Heck I got Strider from a family holiday to the Brecon Beacons, and picking him up when he was ready to leave his mum was my first wild camp.

I love the outdoors.

Why am I not doing this stuff now? Well life got in the way. As it does now. I don’t want the day to arrive when I can do multi day trips again, or go do my dream trip of visiting New Zealand. (I’m getting a bit emotional as I type this next bit) As that means mum is no longer with me.

So you can see the mountaineering theme of Trek 12: Himalaya really appealed to me.

We started off playing the trek mode for the game. This is basically picking one of the three included maps and playing the game using the core rules. As per the rule book suggestions we used the Dunai sheet (see photo below) for this first learning game.

Each round the two dice are rolled and each player chooses one of the following to do with the result:

  • Use the higher of the two values
  • Use the lower of the two values
  • Use the difference between the two values
  • Use the sum of the two values
  • Use the product of the two values

However there is a catch. There’s always a catch. You can only do each of the above a max of four times during the game. So you have to really think about when you use each of the above.

You are also restricted on the max value you can write in a circle. A regular circle is considered to be normal terrain so the max value that can be written in it is 12. Difficult terrain (with a thicker boarder) can only have a max value of 6. If you have to write a value higher than the max the space can hold you draw a sad face instead! Each sad face at the end of the game is worth minus three points.

You start off being able to place the first number you have anywhere on the map. After that each number has to be added to an empty space adjacent to a space already containing a number.

In Trek 12: Himalaya you are scoring points based on chains of numbers (ie 3,4,5,6) and groups of numbers (ie a group of 2’s).

Any number not part of a chain or group at the end of the game is orphaned and gets a sad face.

We enjoyed our initial game so much we played the campaign or expedition mode as it is know.

This adds assist cards to the game that you can claim by having a group of 0’s,1’s, or 2’s. You are allowed a max of three of these at a time. Any you don’t use during a game can be traded for points at the end.

These assist cards are useful as they can give you an extra addition to perform, allow you to put a number anywhere on the map, plus other useful powers.

There are also challenge envelopes that get unlocked at the end of a game before starting the next one if the condition has been met to open it. From the two that I’ve opened so far they have added more assist cards, a fourth map pad, and guides (they increase the power of certain things).

Expedition games are played over three maps, and the victor is the player with the most reputation points. In our game that was Jamie right up to the last game. He had gotten points from both the first two maps whilst I had zero. Then I smashed the last, most difficult map and got a shed load of points to grab the win.

We really liked Trek 12: Himalaya. We played four games back to back.

On the roll and write difficulty level scale it is not even close to being as difficult as a Three Sisters or Hadrians Wall. The rules are very simple. It’s the decisions that you have to make that make it so enjoyable.

I was kind of reminded a bit of Rolling Japan/America when it came to placing the numbers on the sheet. I got that vibe from it.

However you are trying to get those chains and groups, and it gets more and more difficult as your options start to run out on how you get that number you need.

Having the three maps (or more once unlocked) makes the trek mode enjoyable as you can tailor the difficulty of the game you want to play. With the expedition mode that looks to have so much replay ability as you unlock the extras and try and beat previous scores. Plus it doesn’t wear out it’s welcome. The games were fairly quick, so you can do an expedition easily in an evening and not have it hanging around.

I don’t do solo modes of games. So I can’t comment on how it plays solo.

But I do love this game.

Our final game of the afternoon was Three Dragon Ante.

We used the Iron Clay poker chips that I picked up at UKGE for this instead of the cardboard chips that come with the game. They are nice. Feel really great in the hand.

Before I write lots about Three Dragon Ante I want to play this with more than two players.

But we had fun playing it despite an initial misplay. There are some interesting decisions to make during the game.

Plus I won.

I had a great afternoon gaming with Jamie. It was just what I needed on such a scorching weekend.

After Us – no astronauts were hurt in the making of this post!

Uncategorized

I grew up in Wisbech in the seventies.

Life was simpler. Despite only having three tv channels I think my tv and movie education was richer than the media bloat that we have now.

Holidays for me were watching which ever 1930’s serial the BBC had decided to show each morning. I loved Flash Gordon with Larry Buster Crab, King of the Rocketmen (the inspiration for Disneys The Rocketeer). I got to watch classic comedies from the likes of Harold Lloyd or Laurel and Hardy. I had Tarzan movies and tv show to enjoy. The Lone Ranger helped set my moral compass! I loved series like Champion the wonder horse, Skippy the bush kangaroo, and Whirlybirds, etc.

But one series both tv and movie that I loved was Planet of the Apes.

The tv show was great for the time, and like so many I watched at that age had fewer episodes than I remember. When I’ve looked into getting the series on dvd I’m like “no way was there just fourteen episodes”.

My memory of the show has me thinking it was formulaic for the time with the protagonists wandering from village to village fixing a wrong. Which seems to describe a lot of shows at the time such as Kung Fu, Logan’s Run, etc.

Mum and Dad even bought me a Planet of the Apes mask. It was plastic (light grey if my memory isn’t playing tricks on me), no hair, just something that went over the face held in place by elastic.

But after being left high and dry by the tv series when it ended I got to enjoy the cartoon series instead on (my memory wants to say) a Saturday morning.

I liked at the time how from that first movie and it’s shock ending, the movies, tv show, and cartoon expanded the world and lore. Although I was too young at the time to know what lore was, or pick up on the allegory/themes in the movies.

The Tim Burton, Mark Wahlberg reboot in 2001 was watchable, but despite its modern production values didn’t have the same impact emotionally as the original movie.

It’d be another ten years before we’d get more Ape movies that used modern sfx to create realistic looking apes and “remake“ the origin of the series. I love these movies. They did a great job of updating the franchise and it’s themes. I wish others would learn from this.

I’ve skipped the original book all this was based/inspired by (although my Audible library may be growing soon) as I’ve never read it. And back when I was enthralled by each new movie, and episode I had no idea there was a book behind all of this.

It had also escaped me there were also comic books expanding the universe. But thinking about it I shouldn’t be surprised. I need to correct this oversight soon.

So it’s fair to say I’m a fan. Not a hardcore fan that can quote chapter and verse about the lore or lines from the movies and shows.

Is it any surprise that I was then drawn to the theme of After Us?

UKGE exclusive box art on left, regular cover right

The nice thing is the French designer acknowledges the influence of Planet of the Apes on the game.

However that’s were it ends.

To be honest like the majority of deckbuilders the theme is so paper thin to be non-existent.

I love the art by Vincent Dutrait. It truly is beautiful.

What I like about this deckbuilder is the simultaneous play. It really does speed things up.

Having now played the game at five players and two players I think it worked well at both player counts.

I like that this stands out from a lot of other deckbuilders with it being a race to get to eighty points, and not all about inflicting as much damage as possible to the other player.

There is very little player interaction, with the little there is in the game being which reward you copy from one of your neighbours in the second phase.

But it has to be that way with the chaotic simultaneous play.

I love the arranging your hand of four cards each round so you complete as many frames as possible. As the only frames you can activate are complete ones. Incomplete frames get you nothing.

Not having the buy 5 points tile out made a big difference in the two player game. I definitely prefer the game without it.

Is it my favourite deckbuilder? No. But it is probably top of the list if I want to play a deckbuilder with a group of people. It’s fun.

It’s been a busy week

D&D, life, the universe, and everything, new arrivals, RPG, still alive

It’s been a busy and tiring week at work. Which has left me too tired to try and arrange any midweek gaming.

My attempt to get some gaming in last night failed. No one was free or interested in playing some roll and writes. And I had to turn down an invite to learn Marrakesh as it would have meant finishing too late.

So it looks like June is on course for being a slow month of gaming, and I don’t have a car issue as an excuse this time.

Work wise I’ve stepped up the job search as the clock counts down to the end of my temp contract. Apparently there is a full time contract, they are timetabling as if I’m there next year. However I’ve not seen anything yet to sign.

At the start of the week the latest promo packs and solo mode for Rolling Realms arrived. It’s getting to the point now that an alternate storage solution needs to be found for the game. I think with the Encounters promo pack that comes out at the same time as when the game does that’s it. The limit for everything in the original game box has been reached.

So yesterday out of the blue my pre-order of Tome of Beasts 3 by Kobold Press arrived.

I am a big fan of the Kobold press pocket editions of their books. I love the format. It’s so handy. Goes nicely in a bag to read on public transport or in bed. I just love it compared to the larger books like the Monster Manual.

I currently have two other of their creature books, Tome of Beasts 2, and Creature Codex. With the updated Tome of Beasts pre-ordered (out next month if memory doesn’t fail me).

For me I actually prefer these Kobold Press offerings to the official WotC equivalents. They feel fresh and fire the imagination more. The art is amazing. Which helps fire that imagination.

There is also the benefit that unless your players also have purchased the books that they are unlikely to have come across the creatures in them. So when they encounter one it’s a surprise and refreshing to them also.

I’m looking forward to flicking through the pages of this latest volume and seeing what grabs me.

A Post UKGE Gaming Session

Game day

On Friday whilst at the UKGE, after hearing my plans to only do two days of the expo, Ben invited me to join him and Diego Sunday afternoon to play games.

It was an invite I accepted and said I would see if Jeff was free. Which he was.

So come Sunday afternoon I was at Ben’s abode playing games with Ben,Jeff, Diego and Charlene.

Well not entirely true, the first game I played was with Jeff and Ben only as we waited for the other two to arrive.

That first game was Vivarium. It was a brand new game for all three of us.

Vivarium is played over seven rounds, where you get two turns to draft a card. These cards count towards contracts that you have that will score points at the end of the game, or are more contracts. There is a small majority thing going on at the end of each round based on a tile shown at the start of each round. The winner gets the tile and scores it at the end of the game. During the round the tile gives you some bonus if you draft a card type indicated on the tile.

It was a fun little game. Pretty themeless. It had an interesting tie breaker mechanic that the player that was later in the turn winning the tie. The drafting mechanic using domino like tiles was interesting.

I think that this would be a nice little filler game.

With everyone present we played the deluxe 20th Anniversary edition of Amun-Re. I even had chance to sleeve it that morning without having to buy any new sleeves at the expo.

I love the new art used in the new edition of the game. I also like the quality of life improvements such as larger text on the game board, regular 63mm x 88mm cards instead of those smaller cards. The paper of the rulebook is similar to that used by Stonemaier games for the Wingspan rulebook. The new double pyramid models and bricks are nicer. You could argue that the 3D temple is too large. But I do like it.

When you add in some of the modules new to this edition like we did the table presence goes up with these cool 3D models on the board.

Yes we used the idols module which with our player count added two idols to the board. With the Pharaoh module also added the bidding phase became a bit more cut throat, particularly the two spaces with the idols on. We also had the promo cards shuffled in as they didn’t change the game play.

I enjoyed what the modules bought to the game. But I could easily play without them.

Our third and final game of the day was After Us.

The art looks amazing on this game. It’s the same artist as the new edition of Amun-Re, Vincent Dutrait.

This was an interesting experience.

If I said the game felt chaotic it’d be an understatement. It mainly felt this way because of the simultaneous game play when activating your tribe. I enjoyed the playing four cards and placing them in any order so that you could complete boxes by joining two half boxes on the edges of the cards. You only got to activate complete boxes for their ability. Which could be gaining resources, or trading resources for a benefit.

Although this is a deck-builder, I didn’t feel like I was playing a deck-builder. I think that was due to the chaotic nature of the game.

I did like that any purchased cards went on top of your deck. But you could only purchase one card per round.

Because of the simultaneous nature of the rounds the game played pretty quickly. But that might also have been helped by the tile in play that allowed you to buy five victory points for five batteries. I don’t think I’d play with that tile next time to see if the game feels different.

I think at the moment the jury is out on this game. It needs more plays.

For me this was a perfect way to finish off the UKGE weekend. Playing some of our purchases with friends. Thanks Ben for hosting. And thanks everyone for your company and making the afternoon.

The 2023 UKGE Experience

UKGE

And that’s a wrap.

Yep another UKGE done and dusted.

So how was it for the first real expo for me since we came out of lockdowns and other restrictions?

Well it was busy. Very busy.

Which the official provisional figures show (see tweet from yesterday below). With the 32k unique attendees, we are seeing approximately a 10k increase in unique attendees over 2022. Which doing some quick mental maths and just plucking a number out of midair, gives us somewhere in the area of a 45% increase. Not a bad guess as the calculator has told me it is in-fact 43.5%.

Before I go on about the expo itself I have a story about the hotel to regale you with. I should warn you this post is going to jump all around the timeline like a badly written lost Back to the Future script.

The Hotel Saga

Let’s jump back in time to last Thursday morning when Jonathan called The Saltley Inn to confirm his booking. Whilst on the phone with the Saltley Inn he kindly also checked on the bookings for the rest of us also planning to stay there.

It turns out there had been an error in my booking and I was only booked in on the Friday night, and not the Saturday as well.

This was no good to me I was planning on being at the show all three days. I’d paid for three days parking at the NEC. What bloody good was one night to me?

So I tried to cancel the booking with the plan of driving to the expo each day.

Sadly the Saltley Inn wouldn’t let me cancel for free (they saw it as my error that should have been picked up back in January when I booked, they have a point). So I said if I was going to pay for the room anyway that I would not be cancelling.

I’m going to jump now to Friday evening and arriving at the Saltley Inn. I’ll talk more about Friday at the expo once this tale is over.

I arrive at the address of the Saltley Inn. It’s not obvious where the hotels parking is, so I park on side street next to the Inn.

Inside I approach the woman behind the bar to check in.

All I can tell you about the next few moments as I was checked in is that this was a very uncomfortable experience where I was most definitely made to feel like an inconvenience.

Oh and a heads up the Saltley Inn requires photo id to check you in. A fact not mentioned on the Inns Booking.com description. It was lucky that I had some with me.

I did ask about the hotel parking and was told about a blue gate on the side street to go through. If only there had been a sign of some sort identifying it as belonging to the hotel and their parking. At best without being blocked in there was space for three cars. Hardly adequate for a twenty room inn.

My room for a double was small. There was no tea/coffee making facilities in the room. So how was I to make a hot drink if I wanted one, especially in the morning when I woke up?

I definitely had to draw the blinds to the room considering that the first floor bedrooms of the terraced houses on the street next to the inn looked directly into the room. Being able to draw the blinds was a fluff that involved climbing on the bed, and reaching up to the cord mechanism that was three quarters of the way up the window. I think it is fair to say not easy to get to.

Not long after being “settled” in my room I needed to make use of the en-suite facilities. There was not much toilet paper on the holder, and no sign of a spare roll anywhere in the room. Even worse was were they had put the toilet roll holder. Not to one side within easy reach. Nope it was directly behind you above the cistern.

There was no free Wi-Fi, or hotel Wi-Fi (as you can pay for at a Travelodge). No if you wanted Wi-Fi so you weren’t burning through your data plan then you could pay the extortionate BT Wi-Fi fees. Not an ideal solution at all.

I was beginning to think that I had had a lucky escape not having to spend a second night in this over priced unwelcoming inn.

Once Charlene and her family had arrived and got settled in I met up with them to see if it was just me that the bar staff/receptionist had an issue with. It turns out their experience of checking in was similar to mine. It wasn’t just me. It was the grump behind the counter.

Charlene also dropped the breakfast bomb as well. If we wanted breakfast at the inn then that was only served after 9am! Was the Booking.com description just a work of fiction.

What hurt even more was Charlene was paying half what I was for her double room! and I booked earlier!!

Hold on folks we are now going to jump forward to Saturday morning.

I had plans for the expo which meant I needed to be there by 8am. So I was up, showered, packed, and ready to hit the road by 7am.

Guess what the Saltley Inn doesn’t have at that time of the morning? Any staff. The bar is locked up securely. So I ended up putting my room key through their letter box, and messaging them that I had done that. Good job I didn’t need toilet paper.

And that is the end of my bad experience at The Saltley Inn. A place I intend to never return to.

No for our next time jump…

A bloody early start

It’s dawn, five am to be precise. A little chill in the air for the Friday morning. But I had a plan. I needed to be on the road by five thirty.

I wanted to be at the NEC by eight at the latest.

After filling up at the local Tesco, and finding out their cash machine was out of order (are any cash machines in Wisbech working at the moment?) I was on the A47 and heading towards Peterborough.

At Eye I pulled into McDonalds and got my standard breakfast order Double Sausage Egg McMuffin Meal with a latte., and was back on the road.

An hour and a half later I was at the NEC pulling into the East 1 car park.

After a gentle relaxed stroll from the car park to the expo I was in a small queue outside Hall 3 waiting for them to allow folks to buy/collect their tickets for the expo.

I decided I’d cut my losses and just do two days this year and head on back late Saturday afternoon.

At 9am as the Hall 1 doors opened I made straight to the shop and drop to get a box for the day (best £3 you will spend at the expo folks).

After a wonder round Hall 1 I was just about to make my way up the stairs to look round Hall 2 when I saw Ben coming down the stairs.

Don’t tell Ben this but I did rather enjoy spending time with him at the show.

Later in the morning I bumped into Sarah of Board games in Minutes who I follow and talk to on Twitter. Sarah came all the way from the US to attend the expo. That’s dedication.

However Sarah is so nice and friendly. I didn’t get a chance to play any games with her at the show. However Sarah did tell me about one of the shows hot games After Us. A game that did seem to tick a few boxes for me, such as deck building, theme (Planet of the Apes), art (which looks amazing). Sadly that days allocation had already sold out. I would have to try and get a copy Saturday before that days allocation sold out if I was interested in getting it.

My big purchase of the day was the Alley Cat reprint of Amun-re 20th anniversary edition. They had the deluxe edition and the regular. I went with the deluxe edition. I felt lucky that had copies to sell as it was only just being sent out to backers.

I also managed to meet up with my friend Byron and try his latest prototype currently called Tabletop Skirmish.

I liked the game a lot and shared my thoughts with Byron on the game. I do try and give honest opinions and constructive feed back. So if I said I like it I like it. Can’t wait for the Kickstarter.

I also managed to get a couple of samples of the coffee bags that WotC/Hasbro are offering on their new D&D themed coffee subscription service! Talk about diversifying. I’ll be trying that coffee later in the week.

The nice thing about Friday was I did bump into friends throughout the day. It sounds like I was meeting lots of people, but it was four or five at most.

I think that is the highlight for me of going to the expo.

Are you ready for our next time jump?

Saturday

My breakfast was a subway breakfast roll from a garage on the way from the Saltley Inn to the NEC. I also ended up buying a load of different flavoured Dr Peppers and Fanta to try with Mum when I got home. Hey in my defence these were imported American flavours that we don’t get in our supermarkets.

As I was queuing outside Hall 2 ready to dash and get a copy of After Us I got a message from Marcin. Could I pick up the last copy of the Outlive expansion from Firestorm Games as soon as the doors opened?

I don’t like disappointing friends, but I had got there early to get my hands on a copy of After Us. So I told Marcin I would go there straight after I got my game.

I was at the front of the queue for Hall 2 and still there were people already queuing for After Us before me! How? I call shenanigans.

Ok what was special about After Us? Well it was the UKGE exclusive box cover art that had Big Ben on it, instead of the regular Eiffel Tower art. Plus there was only one stand selling it with a limited supply. It was definitely one of the hottest games at the show.

As I was about to purchase my copy of After Us I saw that they also had the Outlive expansion Marcin wanted. I could kill two birds with one stone. Boy was I happy.

Midday saw those of us from Fenland Gamers at the expo for the day meet up for the traditional group photo.

I briefly bumped into Sarah in the morning. For some-one surviving on so little sleep during the expo she looked in remarkably good shape, and alert. Not sure how much of that was caffeine fuelled. She had purchased a rather stylish gaming bag. It looked very fabulous.

The other game I bought was Trek 12: Himalaya and it’s expansion. It’s a roll and write about climbing in the Himalayas with a “campaign” mode.

I also splashed out on a set of clay gaming chips to use with boardgames. They aren’t cheap but they are top end chips.

By mid afternoon I was getting tired and decided to call it a day for my time at the expo.

It was off home after an enjoyable two days at the expo punctuated by the hotel from hell experience.

My May 2023 Gaming

bgstat, by the numbers, gaming stats, stats

Thanks to the car taking me out of action for two weeks my May gaming was pretty sad.

But to be fair those games I did get to play were pretty cool and played with friends.

  • Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game;
  • Letters from Whitechapel;
  • A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (Second Edition);
  • Terra Mystica;
  • War of the Ring: The Card Game;
  • Amun-Re;
  • Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest;
  • Red Rising;
  • Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition.

I’m hoping this weekend at UKGE a couple of them will join my collection.

Oh and today saw the release of four more promo packs for Rolling Realms. Three are the standard based on third party games. With the fourth being a new solo campaign for the game that can be used with the majority of cards with the game (yes that includes promos too) called Beyond the Realmiverse.

And yes within minutes of them going on sale they were in the virtual basket and ordered.

Rolling Realms will be in my bag for UKGE.

The Remaining Two Days of the Long Weekend

Game day

The remaining two days of the English (there wasn’t a bank holiday in Scotland) long weekend were spent gaming.

Sunday saw Marcin and I playing War of the Ring card game.

It was a game he’d wanted to try. And I don’t need much of an excuse to get the game (or any game really) to the table.

Unlike my first game with Nathan where we played The Fellowship scenario. Marcin and I played the two player duel scenario. I do want to try the full four player experience. But I think that playing it as two players and managing two decks each is too clunky.

Marcin played the forces of Sauron, whilst I played the Free people.

Sundays Gaming

It took us nearly three hours to play our game. But it was fun. I love the depth this game has. Those decisions you have to make with your cards. Whether to play, discard or eliminate. It’s tough. Each decision doesn’t just impact your current play and battlegrounds but future turns and the options (ie cards) you have available.

There is an expansion coming out that apparently adds solo and co-op to the game. But shouldn’t these have been in the core game from day one? If that is all the expansion adds then I won’t be getting it. I want more cards. Maybe official scenarios for the remaining two books.

However I bet you are all wondering who won our game. Well it was a win for Sauron once again. Which is a long winded way of saying Marcin.

Bank Holiday Monday saw Marcin playing host again but this time to Jeff, Diego, Dave, and myself.

Our first game of the afternoon was Libertalia Winds of Galecrest.

A poor scoring first round for me gave Dave enough of a cushion for the rest of the game to comfortably get the win.

Our second and final game was Amun-re by Reiner Knizia.

Although out in 2003 a game I’d never played before.

I really liked the game.

Bank Holiday Monday Gaming

The auction mechanic is fun. Particularly when you hit the second era and the plots come up for auction again. The competition to win an auction becomes more cut throat as the plots now have (or should have) pyramids on them also. Which makes them more valuable to get for end game scoring, especially those with two pyramids on.

I could see this in my collection.

Despite the odd rule mistake, which does taint the win, Dave claimed victory for a clean sweep of wins for the afternoon.

I can’t say a big enough thank you to Marcin for hosting the two days gaming. And I didn’t even steal the cute dog he was dog sitting either.

This sounds like a broken record but this has been three great days of gaming with friends that I’ve really enjoyed. A perfect long weekend.