I think if my maths is correct (and I’m sure Jonathan will confirm or point out my glaring mistake) we had 11 at last nights Friday gaming shindig. Which potentially makes it the best attended gaming session so far.
However being victims of our own success and our hosts cutting down on the available area we could set up and play in (they had cordoned off an area for their Christmas tree and seasonal decorations) things were a little cramped around our two tables. Luckily we didn’t need the third table up as that would have been an issue.
We settled on two gaming tables of a group of five and a group of six.
Jeff, Nathaniel, Rachel, Marcin and myself made up one table. So whilst the others played some game or other on their table, we played King of Tokyo Dark Edition.
I love the art in this new edition of the game. But then again I liked the art of the original version. Although obviously the colour palette used in the all new art work is darker.
The new wickedness mechanic is an interesting addition. It adds a new way to power up during the game. I didn’t manage to get one of the new wickedness tiles. But the ones Rachel and Nathaniel got looked like pretty cool bonuses to have.
The components in this edition live truly up to the deluxe description. The lightning bolt shape of the energy cube, the shaped tokens, the embossed box.
It’s a really nice edition of the game, and it’s still fun to play. But you have to like take that games, the Yahtzee mechanic, and player elimination.
In our game Marcin managed to get a points victory by hitting that magic number of 20.
Our second game of the evening was a learning game of Vampire the Masquerade Vendetta. And I mean learning game as in a live table reading of the rulebook as we set up and tried learning the game.
Vendetta is at its heart an area control game. But with a twist! Each player gets a random vampire clan that has a unique deck. And although everyone starts off with the same two named cards. What they actually do is different for each player. Then at the start of each of the three game rounds you draw two cards from your deck, select one to keep and one to put at the bottom of your deck. So slowly over the rounds your hand size gets bigger giving you more options each round.
There is however a catch! In each round you don’t get to play all your cards. You are always left with one card in hand. Which is cool as it means your opponents aren’t sure exactly which cards you have played. Especially if you also played cards face down on your turn. The bluffing you can do in this game is incredible.
I love all this. But also how you build up a picture of what cards your opponents have, but you never have a complete picture as there is always that new card you have no idea about.
I think a player aid would have been useful for players to remind them of the round structure. But that’s a minor quibble.
As you can see I ended up Prince of the City.
Breaking from the new normal of finishing the post off with some of Jonathan’s photos from the evening (I’m not sure he took any) I’ll finish with an update on the progress made on the three challenges I set my self.
UPDATE 22/11/21: The natural order has been restored! Plus there is a great comment from Jonathan on this post too.
Oooops. I forgot to send the photos over.
I was rather late to the session, due to the fact that we had a school trip returning an hour and a half later than expected, so I had to stay behind until all children had been collected by parents (and one of those parents was also running very late). Anyway, when I arrived, the eleventh player and making it a new group attendee record, my group was just finishing the last couple of rounds of Camel Up. This is a game that I own but think needs the right group to shine (I would have happily played with the Friday night group). After they finished Camel Up, we dived into a game of Saboteur. I really like this game and it’s a handy one to have in the bag for the larger player counts. Much prefer playing as a Saboteur as I quite like the idea of me attempting to mislead the others; I would never betray them, after all, I’m “Honest John” (I have been called this ever since we played one of the best games of Sheriff of Nottingham ever at the group, and the pseudonym has stuck).
After Saboteur, we decided to play Flamme Rouge, It was one of the few games that had been brought along which catered for 6 players (with the Peloton expansion). Now here is a game that I have missed playing. I really like this simple race game. Julie rode a fine race and finished the game in style. I was nowhere near! Good fun in super company; what could be a better way to spend a Friday evening :)