17th December 2008

Our first game tonight was Kings Breakfast a delightfully simple card game which is always fun. You try to collect various sets of food items
from the kings table, but having to be wary that if you have more than the king you will not score for that item so it is a careful balance.

We then played Tsuro which is a firm favourite to play but is now sadly out of print due to WizzKids demise. Hopefully someone will buy the rights and re-produce this game.

Finally we played a game of Mag-Blast which is a beautiful little card game where you compete to be the last fleet standing. You each have a
command ship which is surround by your fleet you then play cards on each other to try and blast the other players out of the game. If you fail to make a suitably silly noise when you fire your blasts it is deemed to have missed making this really fun game to play with a good group. Also a nice way to round of the evening.

by Paul.

10th December 2008

Tonight I finally got to play Sin City which is a really colourful game which fits its theme very well. The aim is to try and be the first to
complete 3 goals, the game is played by simply moving various pieces around the board and following action cards which move the heroes around the board who kill or return certain pieces. If at the end of an action anyone has completed their goal they announce this and take a new goal card.

Then we played a game of Power Grid which is always a firm favourite and a very enjoyable game. As always we started this late in the evening forgetting how long this actually can take to play :)

by Paul.

3rd December 2008

Tonight we played Galaxy Trucker a really fun little game where you compete to build the best spaceship you can out of junk and race to get
to your destination with as much of your ship, crew and any cargo intact as you can. The game is played over three rounds with ever increasing size of ships to build with an increasing level of difficult encounters to overcome. This was really enjoyable, even with Phil managing to play the second round with the first round ship template :)

Good fun had by all and this will get played again and again.

by Paul.

26th November 2008

Tonight we played a lot of little games which was really good.

We started off with a game of Turso another favourite of 2008. This is a cute little game which is unfortunately is out of print due to wizkids
troubles, hopefully someone will snap this up and reprint it.

We then played It's Alive which an excellent game which is always fun to play. Then came a game of Bohnanza the bean game which is always fun as well. Several rounds of Bucket King followed which is a fantastic game always a favourite at the shop. Finally we played a demo of a new game called Rattle Snakes, which involves placing magnetic snake eggs on a board showing a variety of different coloured snakes, this was a fun little game .

by Paul.

19th November 2008

Tonight the shop was well and truly packed, some of us had to decamp to the Pub (a bit of a chore I know but what can you do). We played a game of Traders of Carthage (A firm favourite of 2008) followed by a game of Tinner's Trail which we had to rush a little at the end as the pub was trying to close up :)

Phil won the Tinner's Trail but seems to be hell bent on claiming a recount so that he wasn't :)

by Paul.

12th November 2008

Games played tonight were:

Pandemic
This is a great co-operative game where you try and cure 4 diseases threatening the world. Each player takes on a different character each of which has a unique ability which helps in the game. The idea is that you have to work as a team in order to win, whilst you have only one way to win there are numerous ways to lose :(

This games lasted quite a while, which was really good as everyone was getting into it and having fun. In the end though, having found 3 cures and done a pretty good job of fighting the pandemic fires across the globe, we lost in the last round with 4 out of the 5 cards needed for the last cure as we ran out of player cards (one of the many ways to lose).

We then played Traders of Carthage which has become a classic wed night game. This is always fun and once people get their heads round the numerous things the cards represent becomes a very strategic game. As per usual I managed to lose, I can not win at this game but yet I always want to play it again which shows how good this game.

by Paul.

5th November 2008

In Keeping with the theme of the night Crazyfrog wanted to play a game involving blowing stuff up.

In the end we played Nuclear War which is a very satirical game which, whilst quite an old game now, is still very topical. The basic aim is to be the last person standing with at least 1 million population left to win. It is also possible fore veryone to lose, but on this occasion Oskar managed to win by killing off the last two players using propaganda to remove the last of their populations.

The next game of the evening was Witch's Brew which is a lovely little game with great theme and lovely artwork. The aim is to collect the most victory points scored by casting spells, brewing potions or collecting vials (which count as VPs). In order to achieve this you need various spell components or gold. Collecting these items requires the use of one or more characters in your hand.

Each player has the same characters from which you pick 5 for your hand that round, if you go first you claim the primary role of that character, each other player in turn can either say "So be it" and take the reward for the secondary role or opt to claim the primary role leaving you with nothing. More than one player can share the secondary role but only one player gets to play the primary role which leads to very tactical play. The risk is if more players go after you then you also could lose the primary role and the chance for any reward, not knowing what the other players will play adds to the fun. There is always one open spell which adds various benefits but can only be cast by the Warlock so this is always a gamble to go for this option.

This was great fun, despite me losing (again) but would definitely play this again

by Paul.

October 2008

October was another busy month for the shop games with the place filling up regularly so the games I describe below are only the ones I played in.

During this month we played the following games at the shop:

Red Dragon Inn 2
This was the first play of this expansion and it was really good fun. It adds four new characters who have new and intersting twists to the game, a new drink deck with some new tweaks as well. I really enjoyed this game it's incredibly fun to play with the new characters making it a good addition if you already one the first. You can combine both sets to form a game suitable for upto 8 players which is a very neat idea. This game managed to break my current trend as I actually won this game...

Carcassonne: New World
Carcassonne is always a favourite, and this variant adds new twists that always make it fun to play. I have yet to win at this one and the night we played this proved no exception as Sally and Oskar ran away with the lead.

Blue Moon City
This game is really well made, really good artwork and components with an easy to learn but challenging game mechanic. Your aim is to rebuild the city and make sacrifices to the obelisk. The player to make the required sacrifices first wins. It is never hard to find players for this game and remains a favourite.

Igels
This is a quirky game, not suited for younger players due to some of the subject matter depicted on the cards. That said the artwork is superb and whilst the rules seem complicated on first reading, the game actually plays quite well and was enjoyable. Our first game was a little slow as we were learning as we went but unfortunately as this was the last game of the evening and we were all getting a little tired we abandoned this mid game. We will play this again as it was fun and it will be nice to see how the game pans out.

Red Dragon Inn 1&2
Having played Red Dragon Inn 2 I felt inspired so took along both sets and managed to get a 5 player game which proved to be quite fun and the extra player(s) does change the dynamic of the game. I will definitely be trying to get more people together to have a bigger game of this as it should be hilarious fun.

Hare & Tortoise
Another timeless classic which we managed to introduce to a couple of new players. making careful use of backward moves, collecting / eating carrots you aim to get to the finish line first. In order to achieve this you first have to eat a number of lettuces in your hand by stopping on specific squares, you also can not cross the finish line with more than a certain amount of carrots which increases as others complete the race. Very enjoyable and every game is different as people always manage to break you well laid plans ;)

Galaxy Trucker
We introduced Phil into the mayhem and fun that is Galaxy Trucker, a game where you build spaceships out of scrap and race to reach your destination with your cargo and ship intact. This is plain fun, even the rules are written in theme with lots of humour, it has an introductory round in the rules to help people get used to how to play before launching into the advanced rules in later rounds. We have great fun playing this one and I think Phil even won this, no surprise I did not win it was my game after all :) This will be played more at the shop when we can get on the bigger table ;)

by Paul.

24th September 2008

Well the shop was full tonight and lots of games were being played including Okko, Race for the Galaxy, Agricola, Mutant Chronicles amongst others.

We ended up playing Settlers: Struggle for Rome which I had purchased ages ago and had not yet played. This is a very different twist on Settlers, whilst using the familiar mechanic it also adds new elements which help spice up the game and make it very interesting. You play tribes forging across the Roman empire plundering cities and eventually forging your own empires. The aim as normal is to amass 10 Victory points, this is achieved by conquering cities and meeting certain targets to gain special Victory Point cards. The components for this game are very nice and suit the theme well and the game board is large and very colourful.

The turn phases are played differently from the original game, the first player rolls 4 times for resources marking on the wind rose marker on the board which number has been rolled. In this way 4 different numbers are always rolled removing some of the luck element from the original game. The rest of the phases are now done by each player in turn starting from the first. Trading & Building, Horseman Tribe Actions, Warrior Tribe actions, at any time a player may opt to not do a tribe action and instead take 2 gold or a resource card of your choice.

In order to plunder cities you must equal or beat the number of towers of the city you can then overturn the counter to see your reward & cost. The additional actions, the changes in playing style and the overall mechanics of the game are very good involving having to make choices on whether to keep wandering or start to forge your empire. I enjoyed this game and would recommend it to fans of the original and new players alike.

by Paul.

17th September 2008

Tonight we played Ra is a strangely fascinating game. The pieces are very nice and the theme very interesting. The mechanics are quite well thought out and the game itself is essentially an auction game where you aim to collect sets of tiles to score at the end of the game. The system for bidding is very good and balances the game well. I thoroughly enjoyed this game.

by Paul.

10th September 2008

Tonight we played Carcassonne: New World, which is a new Carcassonne variant. It has similarities to Hunters and Gatherers but has some new tricks up it's sleeve. The tiles have more of a fixed area in which to lay them and you also have the Surveyors which move everytime someone scores a tile. Anything behind the Surveyor when he moves, except pieces laid down, are returned to the player. In this way you tend to go for those long shot scoring combo's in the knowledge if it does not pan out you will most likely get your piece back to place elsewhere. This really changes the strategies employed during the game which helps to make it very interesting. A really good game with bags of replayability.

As seems to be the norm on these occasions I managed to not win this one but it was a good game.

We then played Traders of Carthage which is always fun to play and a good little game. Sally & Carole ended up joint winners, leaving me yet again a loser n this game. One day I will work out where I am going wrong and actually win a game of this :-\

by Paul.

Wednesday 3rd September 2008

Power Grid

Players Oscar, Zarni, Phil, Philsz, Crazy

A good game of building big business, you build power stations, buy fuel, then build connections to cities. Every round you power the number cities your power station can supply you get money to spend in the next round.

The problems are other players can build into cities cutting off you future building plans and the cost of fuel fluctuates based on supply and demand.

So a lot of planning is require per round and guessing where the other players could go. The map contains 6 building areas of which you can only build in 5.

The first section each player can buy a power station based on auctioning rules and highest scoring player going first. Second section you buy fuel with the lowest scoring player going first Third section you build into cities with the lowest scoring player going first.

The starting order per section is a very nice game balancing mechanic.

The game has 3 steps, these are sections of the cities you can connect too. each step means it costs more to build into the city if someone else is there.

The game ends when a player has connected 15 cities, but the player whocan power the most cities and has them on that turn is the winner.

The leadership of the board swung around between the players, but when it was realised that Phil could win, it was too late (by 1 round) to stop him

By Crazyfrog

Wednesday 27th August 2008

Tonight we played a game we had voted for (shocking)

Pandemic

Players Sally, Oscar, Zarni, Crazy

This is a great team building game, forget going up a mountain to a log cabin for team building exercise play this.

You and your team are playing against the board, it can be over in 5 minutes (board wins) or you can last 45 mins and still win or lose.

The first game the board won, we couldn't stop the outbreak. The second game, having an idea of a strategy, we organised the team and won.

The medic is the most useful character in the game as it help to remove the infection in the country your in. Remembering the locations of the outbreaks is very useful as when the cards get stacked due to an outbreak those countrys will get hit again first and could cause futher outbreaks if > 3 infections exist.

Tsuro

Players Sally, Oscar, Zarni, Crazy

One quick game to end the evening, its a great fun game with easy rules (see the review )

By Crazyfrog

Wednesday 21st August 2008

We started the evening off with a quick game of Bohnanza which is a really fun little game that always involves plenty of bean related jokes which seem a natural side effect of the game.

The basic idea is to plant sets of similar beans in your two bean fields, the more you have the more they are worth when you harvest them. You trade with other players in order to get the beans you need, as you have to play the cards in your hand in the order they are dealt. Also on your turn you have to plant your first bean card even if that means you have to harvest a bean field early in order to make room for it. Once you have played your bean you turn over two more face up beans from the deck, you then have to trade, give away or plant these beans. It's a unique, simple and highly enjoyable mechanic making for very interesting games, though I would say this game plays better with 3 or more people. We had 6 people playing in our game and Phil managed to win piping Carole and Sally who were joint second.

We then split up into two games, Sally and co went off to play several rounds of Buckets, whilst we broke out my new copy of San Juan.

In this game you aim to build 12 buildings, each worth varying amounts of VP's. Each turn you pick a role which allows you a bonus when taking the role's action. In order to build a building you have to pay its value in cards from your hand, some buildings produce goods when that action is taken, others have special functions which aid you during the game, others just have VP values.

It is a great little game and whilst it does rely on a certain amount of luck with the cards there is plenty of scope for strategy especially when deciding on when and what role to pick.

After a fairly long game where Roy looked to be romping home with several large value buildings being in play, Phil yet again managed to pip him in the final tally to win by 5 points. It is safe to say that yet again I have been beaten in a game I have bought I'm beginning to see a pattern here that I don't like...

by Paul.

Wednesday 13th August 2008

This week we started by playing a game of On The Underground which is based unsurprisingly on the London Underground. Players take it in turn to lay tracks on the underground map, each turn there are 4 destination cards where the passenger will go to. The passenger moves to a destination with the least walking, then the least number of lines. So placing of you tracks is important based on the current available destinations, some of which are express stops which the passenger will go to first then will go on to the next ordinary stop. Players score points when the passenger crosses one of their lines or when they join main line stations, or a terminus, or connect two matching symbols which are placed on the board during setup. This is really a fun game which is quick to play with lots of replayability.

After that we played a game of It's Alive which is just a really great game, beautiful pieces, simple rules and lots of fun. This game was won by in the end by Carole.

Finally we had a game of Guillotine another quick and fun little game where you take of the heads of French nobles. This is a great little game that is a firm favourite and is perfect for round of the evening with.

by Paul.

Wednesday 6th August 2008

This week we played a game of Mwahahaha! which again took most of the night to play with 5 playing. This is a very beautiful game and is always fun to play but is a long game to play. Players take on the role of mad scientists trying to take over the world competing to build their doomsday devices to a level that can threaten the world. The first player to successfully threaten the world wins.

by Paul.

July 2008

ok, I have missed a few weeks so I am going to merge a few weeks together for this write up.

This week for the first time I bought and played a game on the same night. The game was Traders of Carthage and after reading the rules, which confused a lot of people, we started to play. After the first round or so the rules made a lot more sense and it turns out the game is a lot of fun to play, I did not win which is no great surprise but thoroughly enjoyed this and it is a worthy addition to my collection.

The following week the shop was closed and we were meant to be at the Anglers, but after some confusion and things being shut we ended up at the Coopers where we played Kill Dr Lucky a couple times which is a very fun, quick little game. Then we had a game of Traders of Carthage which everyone enjoyed playing again (I still did not win :o).

Finally we planned to start the Arkham Horror Summer Tournament at the shop, we posted a list of characters so people could pre-select them, Crazyfrog picked out all the fixed items for the characters so we could start as soon as possible. We moved the table into position, set the game up and began playing our first scenario. After a good few rounds, where we were not doing too badly, we had to abandon the game. The problem was it had been a hot day and the shop was still hot in the evening leaving everyone struggling to concentrate so rather than spoil the game we decided to call it quits and play something a little lighter. So we broke out Tiki Mountain which proved a perfect choice to end the evening with as this is a fun little game which is uncomplicated to play :) .

by Paul.

Wednesday 9th July 2008

Tonight there was a lot of merriment as I managed to outdo Phil's confusion from the other week and many people made comments during a game of Bang which had everyone falling around with laughter :)

Tsuro
While we were waiting for people to arrive, become free we filled in with this favourite. However, despite witnessing a 3 way elimination in our 4 player game I still went on to try and explain about how Crazyfrog could exchange his cards with the eliminated players despite the fact he was one of the 3 eliminated leaving me as a winner DOH!

Tiki Mountain
Due to extra people turning up we abandoned our planned game in favour of this fun little gem to accommodate everyone. This was fun as always, aside from managing to let Philsy leg it to the volcano almost uncontested. He made it and passed the final test to sacrifice himself to save the island and villages from the Angry Volcano God.

Mamma Mia!
In Need of a light fluffy game and because at least one player had never played it before we got this out. I love this game, its simple, fun and extremely easy to play, that said I played this really badly and left myself a hand full of recipes and very few ingredients hampering my chances in later rounds.

Bang!
I had never played but had heard a lot about this game. I have to say I really liked this game, it was great fun especially with all the really funny statements people made with reference to the main title. It has to be said these were made in innocence but the innuendo was plain to see by everyone else which made this a perfect end to the evening. I will look forward to playing more of this given the opportunity.

by Paul.

Wed 2nd July 2008

This week we played a game of Thebes with 4 players. We played this with the 3 player setup enabling the game to play much more like the 2-3 player game. This was played with myself, Crazyfrog, Oskar and Richard and was a very enjoyable game. Due to some poor shuffling on my part we got through the exhibitions rather quickly. Crazyfrog and Richard seemed to monopolise the Specialist Knowledge of Palastina. There is a lot to do in this game and whilst there is an element of luck to it I feel this just makes the theme of the game. The final scores for this one were:

Richard: 90
Me: 58
Crazyfrog: 53
Oskar: 39

We then played a couple of games of Tsuro which is certainly becoming a favourite and is always a fun game to play.

By Oridyne

Wed 25th June 2008

We had a small number this week so our first game was Tinners Trail. This is a really nice looking game based around Tin & Copper mining in Cornwall.

The game plays over 4 Turns and there is a lot to think about each turn as you have a variety of different actions you can take each requiring a number of time points. Each player has 10 time points to spend each turn and as these are spent the players move there pieces up a time point track which then determines play order for the next turn.

I really liked this game, but it does have a lot of down time asplayers mull over their options. I would play this again but I doubt I would buy it myself.

After completing the Tinners Trail we split up, Richard and Phil played a game of Race for the Galaxy which I am informed Phil won!

The rest of us went on to play a couple of rounds of Tsuro. This remains a very enjoyable game that has not lost it's appeal after playing it several times. It scales well having played it with 2, 5 and 6 players thus far. I would still recommend this game to anyone.

By Oridyne

Wed 18th June 2008

Due to Sal n Phil having a Holiday !! (Yeah I know) we relocated to the Anglers Club just over the bridge. There was a small but dedicated band there to play a few games. It was unfortunate that Phil neglected to tell the Landlord of the club we would be there that weds so one person who turned up before the rest of us gave up and didn't come back. Anyway, that evening we started off with Crazyfrog showing us Killer Bunnies. This looked like a really fun game, and the few rounds we managed to get in made it look like it would be crazy funny. As it was looking like an all night game and Neil turned up we abandoned this and Neil set up a game of Ys.

This is a really good game and players take the role of gem merchants in a city and by a bidding system consisting of open and hidden bids
(done with wooden cylinders with numbers) you obtain Victory points, gems, influence the market value of gems, obtain cards that allow you to take additional actions on your turn etc.. It is a very neat game and involves a certain amount of thinking and strategy. The board and pieces are well made and I would recommend this game</p>

By Oridyne

Wed 4th June 2008

We spread over two tables again this week with Phil, Sal and Carole on one table, Myself Richard and Dave on the other.

Our table started off playing Ice Flow. The aim of this game is to try and get your 3 explorers across the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia using drifting ice flows as 'stepping stones' on your trek from east to west. Climb pack ice ridges using rope, and avoid polar bears using fish.

The pieces are very nice and well presented and although it takes a little while to get to grips with what you are doing it plays ok. The various resources very quickly get in short supply which then requires moving ice flows off the board to replenish the stocks. We came across a problem during play where one player (me) managed to blockade the other players last men back at the start. Whilst I would play this again this is not a game I would add to my collection. It just did not grab me, having looked at the game online and seeing how nice it looked I was
looking forward to playing this but was left a little wanting.

Richard then got me and Dave to play a game of Race for the Galaxy, Richard won this game but I did get fairly close this time.

For our last game we played Stone Age I did manage to get some of the setup wrong but aside from that we had a good game of this. I still really like this game and it is always a pleasure to play, even though I managed to lose again!!. We ended up having to call this as Richard had to leave but we did have a good go at it and it was fun to play. There is a lot to think about on this game and you have to remember to watch what the others players are up to.

By Oridyne

Marakech

A Game for up to four players this is a simple game to get into, you have carpets to lay on a board around the marker, you throw a dice
and move the marker round the board laying your carpets on the adjacent squares to your finishing position, [avoiding the other players carpets] if you land on another players carpet you have to pay him/her 1 coin for each carpet owned by that player in that group, when laying your carpets it is important to try and split up their groups of carpets, this will mean you pay less if you land on them again.

The game ends when all the carpets are used, the winner is the one with the most carpet squares showing once counted.

I really liked this game, I would definitely play this again and possibly buy it. :D

by Carole.

Wed 30th April 2008

This week we twisted Philsy's arm and got in another game of Mwahahaha! so we could get a better grip of the rules. Once again this was a fun game, though we seemed to struggle a bit more this time around. It was a very close game but after some seriously sneaky play from Carole she pipped everyone to the post of World Domination and won the game.

We then played a game of Medievalia which is a very interesting game but does seem to be one of those games where the expected playtime is vastly underestimated. You have a hand of 8 cards and city placed in front of them. Through the game you use the resource on one card, by tapping it, to bring other cards from your hand into play. Often you need a combination in order to do this. The same mechanic is used to construct buildings from one of the piles set up on at the start of the game. Once you have characters placed in front of you you can send those to neighbouring players areas to ransack and destroy their resources. You can protect your areas by placing buildings or people in them. There is a lot going on in this game and I can see it will take a while to get to grips with the various aspects of it. I enjoyed it, but it's not one I would buy, that said I would play it again.

The other table started looking at With Sword and Shield but I think they ended up giving up on the idea and played something else. They then played another game of Race for the Galaxy.

by Paul.

Wed 23rd April 2008

The other table of gamers played Glory to Rome which appeared to go down well with most of them.

Our table played a game of My Dwarves Fly with myself Carole and Phil which was going Carole's way until Phil had a better offer from the other table to try out the new version of Glory to Rome at which point we packed it away. We then managed to drag Sally away from the computer to have a nice game of Blue Moon City which is always a good game easy to pick up. It was a close fought battle and very enjoyable game.

by Paul.

Wed 16th Apr 2008

We had two tables of gamers this week again.
The first table ending up playing Perikles which seemed to be going well.

We started our session with a game of Stone Age this was a very beautiful game, the board, the pieces, the cards are extremely good quality and the artwork is superb. It has a fantastic theme and setting reflected well in the gameplay. Each turn players allocate their initial supply of people onto various areas on the board to try and collect resources, build (and gain Victory Points), collect cards, gain tools, forage for food or increase your bank of people.

Each area has limited space for people except for the forage field which has unlimited capacity. For each person you have in a resource area (Food,Wood, Brick, Stone, Gold) you roll 1 dice, each resource has a point cost you spend the points rolled to buy the resource. Starting with the first player you place your people in these areas, however you can only place people in one area at a time and you can not increase them on further turns. Play rotates around the players until all the people have been placed, then starting with the first player you resolve the action for each set of people. The order you do them in is your choice and you will find that doing them in the right order helps you improve your options during this part. After each player has completed this you then have to pay 1 piece of food for every person you have, if
you do not have enough you pay the difference in resources if that is still not enough you lose points.

Cards you collect give you bonuses, some immediate, some for collecting enough different types and others give special Victory points based on what you have built, the number of people etc. A very popular area is the one that increases your food production (so you start getting food for free) however there is only one space there so its
usually the first or second player that ends up taking this.

I really enjoyed this game and will look forward to playing it again real soon. I lost completely but still enjoyed the game and will now have a better idea of what to do for future sessions.

Philsy was victorious (by a long way) with Neil and Carole not far behind. I was not even in sight of the rest but then at least I had some points. This would make a worthwhile addition to anyone's collection.

We finished the evening off with a game of Mag-Blast this is a very neat little game and plays well. After a brief catch up on the rules we started off and much fun ensued. After initially complaing he had smaller ships than everyone else in the final shoot-up with Carole, Neil won the game. I was the first casualty followed not long after by Philsy.

Another good evening at the shop look forward to next week when I hope to get another game of Mwahahaha!.

by Paul.

26th March 2008

We had a good turnout this week

The first table started with a game of Pandemic whilst we setup on the other table to play a game of Mwahahaha!

Mwahahaha! is immense fun you take on the role of one of the mad genius/scientist etc who wants to take over the world. You get to pick one doomsday machine from a set of three. Each device requires different resources to power and your character is allowed to convert various resource cards into resources in differing amounts and one resource they are not able to convert but can sacrifice cards at creation phase to get resources of this type.

During creation you can trade with other players, spend cards to get resources up to your limit or buy empire cards (which may allow you to convert more of your resource card value into resources) and Minion Cards (which help you to steal empire cards or resources from other players). One nasty twist is there are a number of betrayal cards in the resource deck, when trading with players you can claim this as any resource you like. Once you get someone to trade you get the resource you want and they get nothing!

During the rivalry phase you get to use your minions to steal resources or empire cards. They have a number associated with the resource and this determines how many dice you roll. If you are stealing resources from another players machine they get 2 dice for resources on the doomsday device plus any extras from their minions they can use in defense. It's then a matter of a straight roll off counting successes, any missing dice are treated as 2's. This rolling mechanic is used throughout the game and is very simple and elegant.

Next comes the Domination phase where everyone gets to threaten a City, State, Country or the World. Each step requires much more resources to fire up and requires more successes to gain the spoils of victory. On a successful threat you will be given a number of resources depending on the machine and the level you used it at. You can use each level twice for free then each subsequent use will incur humiliation penalties. If you fail you can either slink away incurring the humiliation penalty or you can blow up the City, State or Country gaining a +1die bonus but losing your doomsday device. You can discard your doomsday device and select another one from a set of three at this point as well.

The game is won when someone builds enough resources to power the doomsday device to World Domination level and succeeds in the threat. This was really fun, but does play a lot longer than it says on the tin. The pieces are very colourful and the artwork suits the theme very well.

by Paul.

12th March 2008

Only a small handful of us tonight so we played a few shorter games.

We had a quick game of Bloody Legacy which was very cutthroat with everyone taken down to 1 life except Phil who eventually won but it was down to the last life each between me and Phil and he got me when I had no defence left.

We then had a couple of rounds of Guillotine which went very quickly but as always were really good fun.

We "persuaded" a couple of the roleplayers (Arnu and Snakes in the Tiki lounge) to stay after their game to play a game of Samurai

To round the evening off we dusted off an old classic and played a game of Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers. This is always an enjoyable game and should be part of anyone's collection it works well with 2 or more players. Phil managed another victory (the gaming gods were with him that evening.

by Paul.

5th March 2008

One table was playing Pandemic again whilst our table had a game of Mag-Blast

Mag-Blast is a FUN game, each player has a command ship and a series of fleet ship's surrounding it. The idea is that you are trying to shoot down your opposing fleets and destroy the command ship. The last ship standing is the winner.

Whilst the game should normally be played fairly fast as this was the first game for most of us it did not flow well as people were getting to grips with the rules and what the various cards did. That said it was still good fun and I can see the potential of it once players are familiar with what they need to do.

You place your fleet cards around your Command ship card and each fleet ship can fire once at an enemy ship. You can only target a ship on the same zone as the one firing which is where the ability to move you ships around can come in handy. You also need to make sure you have no gaps in your fleet where other players can then target your command ship directly.

To fire a ships turret you need to have a blast card with the appropriate coloured turret matching that of your ship. If you successfully hit the target ship the blast card is placed under that ship to show its accumulated damage. Once you have as much damage under your ship as it's hull strength is destroyed and placed in the discard pile.

You can reinforce your fleet by discard cards with resource markers either 3 with the same type of resource icon or 1 of each type. You can then draw a new fleet ship to be placed in a zone of your choice. You can have a Max of 3 fleet ships per zone.

You can have carriers that can launch squadrons these are very powerful as once used the squadron returns to your hand unlike blast cards. However, the damage they deal is temporary so if you do not destroy a ship with that damage it will be wasted. Squadrons can also be used to defend against other players squadrons and sometimes this results in both squadrons being discarded.

Overall this is a fun game and once familiar will be fast paced, the unique targeting system for blasts is that you have to make a suitable noise when attacking if you fail to make one the shot misses (as we were learning we skipped this.. we may have missed out on a vitally fun part of the game though.

To finish the evening off we decided to play an old classic Settlers of Catan but we decided to play with the two small expansions The Great River and The Fisherman of Catan.

Settlers is always a great game and is never the same twice the addition of these expansions adds some unique twists that give players extra ways to score victory points or effect the gameplay. I thouroughly enjoyed this combination and would recommend both these expansions to anyone and I feel they work very well together.

by Paul.

28th Feb 2008

Tonight both tables were playing Pandemic

The premise of the game is your team are trying to eradicate four deadly diseases spreading across the globe. You work together to try and get the resources to develop a cure for the diseases. Each team member has particular strengths that aid in the eradication of the diseases and you must cooperate in order to maximise your chances of beating the pandemic.

Each turn you can take up to 4 actions, Examples are moving to an adjacent city or if you are at a research centre you can move straight to another city with a research centre for 1 action. Remove a cube of virus from the city you are in. Build a research centre if you have the card for that city in your hand.

Certain characters allow you to do more with these actions as a special ability, like the Medic can remove all cubes from a city for 1 action.

On your turn you take your actions, you then draw 2 player cards and then draw infection cards acting on them by placing cubes on those cities. If a city already has 3 cubes of the same disease on it then you have an outbreak placing 1 cube of that disease on all adjacent connected cities, if they then get more than 3 cubes the infection spreads wider.

This game is unpredictable the first game I played went really quickly as the 3 of us failed to control a major outbreak in Asia resulting in a swift completion of the outbreak track ending the game. The second game lasted a bit longer but again we failed to contain a major outbreak.

As a team you are trying to control the outbreaks whilst attempting to develop the cures. To develop a cure you need to collect 5 cards of the same colour and then when you are at a research centre use an action to discard them thus developing the cure. Then once all the cubes of this disease are removed it prevents any further outbreaks and you can ignore infection cards for this disease.

This game is just FUN. It is a cooperative game, and you do need to work together utilizing each team member's strength to its best. We played two games of it the same night after the first ones quick finish and I'm sure I will be playing this one again.

After failing to save the world twice we decided to try something a little differenet and played a game of Samurai. This is a beautiful game. The components of this game are of very good quality and very much in line with the whole theme.

The game is deceptively easy to learn but will take time to master the right strategies to win. You collect pieces from the board either a Buddha, Rice Field or High Helmet by placing tiles around them which various amounts of influence marked on them. Once the item is completely surrounded by tiles the player with the most influence takes the item, if there is a tie the piece is removed and placed next to the board. You have five tiles in your hand and the rest are face down in front of your screen which you use to restock you hand as you play.

In a 3 or 4 player game your captured pieces are stored behind the screen so you never quite know what the other players have got which is what makes the game so strategic is you have to plan carefully what pieces you go for. It is a very tactical game and leaves you with a lot to think about but plays reasonably fast. There is a certain amount of luck involved in getting the right tile you need to play at the right time but this just adds to the tension and leaves plenty of room for re-playability.

The unique scoring system means that just when you think you may have a winning position it suddenly swings in favour of one of you opponents. If you have the most of 2 or more of the pieces you Win, if more than one player has the most of a piece (ie player 1 has most Rice Fields, Player 2 has most Buddhas) they set aside those pieces and count the pieces they have left and the winner is the one with the most. I would definitely recommend this one for your collection.

by Paul.

21st Feb 2008

As usual we had two tables of games being played.

The other table was deeply involved in a Game of Antler Island.

Whilst on our table Roy wanted to try out his new copy of Power Grid. This is a classic game and has made a few appearances at the Wednesday night games. The basic premise is you are trying to buildpower stations to power a network of houses. During the game you bid for power stations, pay for resources to power them and build your network of houses. The game is won by the person who can power the most of their network at the end, not the one with the largest network.

The game we played was very close and the networks built by each player had gotten large, but in the end the winner was Richard who not only managed to build a large network but had managed his resources well enough to power the most at the end game. Very enjoyable and always fun to play. The pieces are of high quality and the artwork superb.

by Paul.

30th Jan 2008

We split into groups again this week, our group consisted of Myself, Carole, Sally, Phil & Philsy. The others played a 4 player game of Infernal Contraption.

We decided to play Valley of the Mammoths. After a little bit of time setting things up we started playing using the additional fire rules. With a five player game the board is quite crowded and thus there is quite a bit of player interaction on the board. There also seemed to be a glut of animals on the south end of the board leading to Phil & Sal having a lean winter. Also with a little help from bad events, Tribal fights and food shortages their tribes became extinct, as we forgot about the resurrection rule. Still as it turned out the others had finished their game and most of them had decided to call it a night leaving Simon on his own so he and Phil had a game of something together whilst we finshed our game.

by Paul.

23rd Jan 2008

The Wednesday nights are getting popular we filled two tables again this week!.

On Our table we played a game of Thebes with 4 people but we used the 3 Player setup rules. Play commences over 3 years 1901 to 1903 the player take on the role of
Archaeologist trying to dig for artifacts in various locations and put on exhibits with their finds.

In order to perform a dig players must do research and get specialist knowledge in the region they wish to dig. Each turn a player can move, take an action (Research, Dig or put on an exhibition). There are 4 cards on the board which represent specialist knowledge, general knowledge, rumours or specialist cards. Each of these cards is tied to a specific city on the board and has a cost in weeks associated with it. There is a track around the edge of the board marked in weeks, each move on the board following lines marked on each cost 1 week per step.

When players have accumlated knowledge they can move to a site and attempt to dig for artifacts, the first player to try a dig gets a 1 point treasure for free. Each player has a disc which turns to indicate how much knowledge they have of the site ( a combination of specilaist and general ) they look at how many weeks they want to spend digging and this then tells them how many tokens they can pull out of a bag for that site. The bag contains various artifcats of different values plus 2 book tokens (one general one specialist) plus a number of blanks tokens. Any blank tokens pulled are placed back in the bag. Each player can only dig once at each site per year unless they get a special permit card allowing an extra dig by discarding it.

Exhibition cards turn up as play progresses and to collect these the player needs to have the requesit number of artifacts from the indicated sites, be in the city marked on the card and spend the number of weeks indicated to put on the exhibition. Small exhibitions are worth 4 victory points and large ones are worth 5.

There are also congress cards which go up in value the more of them you have.

Winning the game, after the last player completes the last year the victory points are added up and the player with the most wins.

Points are awarded as follows:
The player with the most specialist in a site gets 5 points, if tied then each player tied gets 3.
Each artifact is worth points (1-7)
Congress cards (1-28)

If you play a 4 player game as laid out in the rules the game plays differently to other numbers of players. This is because the game is played over 2 years in a 4 player rather than the normal 3 years. Having less time significantly changes tactics and strategies. We've found that for a 4 player game if you set it up the same as a 3 player game it works much better.

The other table played a game of Race for the Galaxy. Explore, Settle, Develop, Trade, Consume, or Produce? Which do you need the most? Which of Earth's former colonies will be most successful at settling the galaxy, now that JumpDrive exists? Who will discover the secrets of the mysteriously vanished Alien Overlords? Your goal: to build the most prosperous and powerful space empire!

by Paul.

16th Jan 2008

This week was another full evening where we had to split into two groups.

Our Group, consisting of Sally, Andie, Myself and Carole played a game of Infernal Contraption followed by a round of Guillotine.

For Infernal Contraption we played the unexpanded game as it was Andie's first game. The game started off fairly even then through various attacks and a bit of an own goal I managed to deplete my own parts pile and took myself out of the game. Andie was then viciously annihilated by Carole who then went on to crush Sally without any remorse, winning in style!

Guillotine was as fun as ever, this is a great little game with lots of nice cards and fun graphics. I did really bad in this game with a pretty low score leaving the other to fight over first place which I believe went to Sally (but I may wrong).

The others played a game of Power Grid with the new card set. I like Power Grid this another great game which is always fun to play. I have not tried it with the new cards but I'm sure I will get a chance another week.

by Paul.