Friday was the first club night of the new year. Yes technically not a proper club night but a get it to the table night. But still it was attended by eight members. A very good turn out.

We played an eight player game of Shadows Over Camelot with its expansion.

I’d never played the game before and we were lucky and honour that Jeff had bought along his copy.

This is one of those classic games that is out of print. So copies especially with the expansion that go for silly money when they come up for sale.

Along with Battlestar Galactica it’s probably the most famous and highly rated hidden traitor game out there.

Although I think The Thing board game should be up there with them.

Being probably the inspiration of the other games mentioned. You can see some familiar mechanics. Such as the shuffling up of cards before revealing them. The ability of the traitor to reveal themselves and then create chaos. Unique character abilities, and other similarities I’ve not listed.

I do like hidden traitor games. They are like a co-op game but with an edge. Everyone is meant to be working together to achieve the collective objective. But did you fail that mission because some-one had crappy cards and had no other option, or was that the work of a traitor?

We had a great time playing the game, plenty of laughs and suspicion being thrown around with comments like “that’s just what a traitor would say”.

Plus the traitors failed, and King Arthur and the knights of the round table succeeded.

A great evening of gaming.

Sunday saw me up early and over to Charlene’s for some gaming. Apparently it was Ben’s idea to start at 10am.

So on the way I stopped and picked up a selection of croissants to have with a hot beverage.

We started off the days gaming playing Fromage.

Fromage was interesting because it’s got this cool down mechanic and rotating board that’s split into four quarters in a “worker placement” style game.

It’s fun. I like how you can only do something in the segment of the board facing you. Each segment is different, and focused on a particular mechanic like area control, or getting pairs.

I manage to trigger the end of the game, and sneak a victory by a single point.

While Charlene was tied up in the kitchen we had a quick three games of Strike.

What can I say it was quick and fun. It’s a great little filler.

With Charlene back, her daughter Annabelle joined us for a game That’s Not A Hat.

This a bluffing game where you need a good memory. Sadly none of us had that. We struggled to remember our own card let alone what others had.

But somehow I won not getting a single point when the others managed to get at least one before Annabelle triggered the game end by getting three points.

For me my day of gaming finished with a game of Distilled.

Distilled is interesting. It has a drafting element, only lasts seven rounds, unique player powers.

The distilling mechanic is interesting because the ingredients cards you have collected to make a recipe are shuffled together and the top and bottom are removed. From the remaining cards you possibly make the recipe, score points, earn money, and get the drinks label to gain a bonus.

You always get two basic ingredients each round during the draft. It’s now you also spend money to buy more powerful cards like better ingredients, or fancier bottles, and even employees.

You can have up to three employees that usually give you some sort of ability to use each round, and an end of game scoring bonus. You are kinda building a mini engine.

I took an early lead completing my signature recipe before the others.

We took a brief pause during play for pizza that Charlene generously provided. However that wasn’t enough of a distraction to stop the others catching me up on the points and overtaking me.

In the end Diego won by a single point beating Ben. I wasn’t even close.

A big thank you to Charlene for hosting, and her generosity of providing the pizza. It was a great day of gaming.