Outpopping the Pop Master

My wife recently became a local celebrity in our little town [village]. Radio Berkshire were out and about on the streets of Crowthorne, Berkshire and interviewed her, as a local shop owner, about the events taking place over the next few days (for the run up to Christmas).

She got to play 20 questions live on the radio with the one and only Mike Read, the Popquiz legend.

Hello Pop Pickers

You can hear the interview here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01kkqhc (it is only available until Tuesday 3rd November).

When she said Mike Reid would be interviewing her, I didn't realise it was the Mike Read.

And as this is a blog about board games it only seems right that I post this picture too.

Game Happy
Chris

An evening in Reading

Normally on a Tuesday night I would be indulging in a little jumpers for goal posts over at Guildford Spectrum, but with only a smattering of available players yesterday the evening was called off.

This left me at a loose end... what does an average gamer do when there is free time at hand AND a gaming event happening just 15 minutes away (by train and ignoring the 20 minute walk to and from the station)?

So a brisk walk and a swift train ride later and I found myself at the Oakford Social just opposite Reading station. A snip at £4.50 for a return ticket too. The night was being hosted by a Reading based game club called 'The Reading Boardgame Social." In all, there were about 12 of us there, with three games on the go.

The group I was with started the night of with a co-operative game called Flash Point: Fire Rescue (I think we played the base game, but not the beginner rules). Daryl (the organiser) had never played a co-op game before, which surprised us all. Personally, I am a big fan, but this was a bit of a let down. I wasn't really feeling the 'rescue people and put put fires' vibe. I don't want to go into a review of the game here, but in short I was not taken with the artwork or the miniatures and the game was just never that exciting. The other co-op options available were 'Countdown: Spec Ops' and 'Pandemic' (neither of which I have played, but certainly Pandemic is something I really want to have a go at).

The game was however fairly short and easy to teach, clocking in at about 60 minutes for 5 players. We did ride our luck a little and came in with a perfect victory. 7 people saved, no deaths.

After much debating we then had a quick 4 player game of Tsuro. I had never played this either, but a friend speaks highly of it (as a quick filler) so was keen to give it a go. I was up against 3 experienced players, so did not hold out much hope of survival. A neat, quick game.

I made a few tentative moves and placed myself in danger of going out by my fourth tile placement. Luck was on my side and the opponent, who I was certain would take me out of the game, only had cards that would take us both out. He elected to stay in the game and so for a turn I was safe. With that little scare in mind I changed tactics and moved away to relative safety. In the end it all came down to the wire. The first player to go out was after all the tiles had been drawn. With three of us left, I headed off to the corner and prayed that it did not spell my demise. My luck held out and I was able to happily place tiles and survive while my two remaining opponents killed each other off. An unexpected and very enjoyable victory/

For the final game of the evening we decided upon a 4 player game of Revolution by Steve Jackson games. I had heard bits and pieces about this game, so it was definitely another I was looking forward to trying (and no Munchkins in sight).

The games owner was the only player to have played, so he quickly ran through the rules. It all seemed straight forward enough and so we set off to influence our way to power through blind bidding, bluffing and generally terrorising the people of the town.

It was fairly even for the first half of the game with myself and another player vying for the lead (in terms of support) and a third player making a nice start in terms of occupying buildings. However, one player started off quite poorly, in part due to being outbid on all fronts and then in round two misunderstanding the effect one of the townsfolk has. He won the right to swap two pieces on the board (the only action he won that turn), but thinking that meant with two of his own not two existing pieces in play (of which he had none). This lead to a complete waste of an entire round for him and put him firmly on the back foot from which he never managed to recover.

I should say that bidding occurs with Force, Blackmail and Gold (Force > Blackmail > Gold). Midway through the game I had secured 2 x Force and 2 x Blackmail a turn and from then on it made it a one way street for me. I have pondered how that happened, because it did make me nigh on unbeatable until I chose to give up the four top slots. While other force and blackmail is available in the game, it mean the other three players were trying to outbid each other for the two remaining slots. More often than not it resulted in a stalemate between them and when that happens none of the bidders get anything. With this happening frequently it just strengthened my hold on the game. I stormed to victory on just under 200 points (with my final turn losing 2 of my locations, worth another 80 or so points, by some astute play from the player who eventually came in second).

I thought this was an excellent game, only marred by the fact through limited bidding options when you only have gold, players can end being totally unsuccessful in a round, resulting in no progress and ending so far behind that pack that the game becomes a chore to play. Going through the motion of bidding, knowing in all likelihood you will get nothing at all (again) is not much fun for anyone.

With the game over, the evening drew to a close and I headed home.

Thanks to Daryl for organising, Wendy, Mark and others for an enjoyable evening.

If you want to learn more about any of the games features, or think you might like to join in one evening just click on the links below to get more information.

Flash Point: Fire Rescue

Tsuro

Revolution

Pandemic

Countdown: Special-Ops

Reading Board Games Social

Game Happy
Chris

Vegas sized craters and Essen crashes.

Vegas sized craters and Essen crashes.

Having finally gotten over the come down that has afflicted me the last two or three months, which has been a roller coaster of a ride for several reasons, I am somewhere between here and there which to be precise is somewhere between “up yonder” and “down’t road.”

Firstly, I changed roles at work taking a secondment for 6 months (starting mid august) which took me well away from my comfort zone.

Secondly, I turned 40 and as a surprise for this apparently life defining moment my wife arranged a surprise visit to Las Vegas for me/us/her (I could tag along). I will be totally honest, it was not somewhere I had any real interest in going, but “oh my good Lord!” What an amazing place, what an adventure. I arrived there and was totally overwhelmed, a real shock and awe moment for me. My good wife thought I was in some sort of mood for being taken there, the truth is that I could not take it all in, it just did not compute. I should also add that it was only at the airport check in desk when I found out where we were actually going. Must.Go.Back.

Viva Las Vegas!

Back in the UK and a huge funk took over me. I could not focus on work, even my beloved hobby was not doing it for me. I tried to continue with my plans, which I will get to, but I just could not get excited about them. All I did, it seemed, was day dream about my time in Vegas and how on earth I could get back there (and it wasn’t for the gambling, which I barely did any of, it was just such a cool place to kick back, explore, relax and spend some quality time with my wife).

And then the Essen call came. Obviously I have written a fair amount about it in previous posts, so wont dwell. Essen came and went in a whirlwind of utter chaos and exhaustion and I found myself dumped straight back into Vegas shaped crater I had just managed to crawl out of.

Another couple of week meandered by, but very slowly and surely I was starting to plan my attack. I had, pre-Vegas, spoken to one or two people about what I wanted to be doing with my life. They were enthusiastic for me and I further outlined my ideas to my wife. She was/is very supportive and then met up with a good friend who listened to my musings and he too gave me some good advice and offered to help.

So here we are, but where exactly is that?

The start of my plan is where, a plan that started with my discovery of KickStarter and a couple of games that are made by independent companies.

I will start to record my journey, where I have been, where I am now and where I am hopefully headed (amongst my general ramblings with regard to the hobby I love).

Game Happy

Chris

Love is...

...an advent calendar

At 40 years young, I am not too old for a good dose of Marvel Superheroes at Christmas.

I guess if the myriad of adverts and melodic tunes didn't give it away, this did. It is coming.

Crossed Wires

Just a brief entry with regard to a conversation I had with my wife.

Rarely do ‘crossed wires’ make both parties laugh quite so much. To make something clear, my wife is Civilian Instructor at Air Cadets, teaching Rifle Safety and is a Range Officer.

Kelly-Ann: "Hi honey, I am thinking of going to the range tomorrow."

Me: "Oh, okay."

Kelly-Ann: "Do you still want to go?"

Me: "You know I do, but I got fed up of asking, so just gave up."

Kelly-Ann: "Well we can go this week if you like."

Me: "Really? Sure, just let me know when."

Fast forward one day and my wife calls me at work.

Kelly-Ann: "Do you want to go the range tonight?"

Me: "I can’t, you know I play football on a Tuesday."

Kelly-Ann: "What about tomorrow, Wednesday after work?"

Me: "You can’t you are out tomorrow."

(I will skip over the bit where I have to remind her of her plans are. This is highly unusual and only ever normally occurs in reverse.)

Kelly-Ann: "Okay, Thursday then."

At this point I am reeling with delight. Obviously my sulky "I am fed up with asking..." response has hit a nerve and my wife is doing everything in her power to please me.

Me: "Can I invite Neil along?" (Neil is a good friend and enjoys shooting too.)

Kelly-Ann: "What? Why would Neil be interested in coming to the range with us?"

Me: "Well, Neil likes..." I trail off and then remark "I think we have some very crossed wires..."

My wife was merely inviting me to go to shopping with her to a shop called The Range. How very disappointing.

Grublins and Greblords

I ended part one with the words “Had we known what was in store for us, we may not have emerged from our rooms.”

That is probably a little unfair. We were excited and terrified in equal measure. I should have probably said “We would be better prepared.”

I perhaps should also have posted these pictures of the first couple of days in the previous post, but here they are now, a few pictures of the setting up before the show proper.

Tuesday and Wednesday in Essen... the calm before the storm (quite literally)

I remember walking along with Nick at about 8:50 am on the Thursday morning. Nick, Rachel and Henry were already inside, having headed over a little earlier than us. We passed the entrance to the convention centre and there was a little crowd gathering outside. We had a cursory glance and ducked in a side entrance, gleefully showing our ‘exhibitor passes.’

We got to our stand, C-105, and tinkered about a little, sorting out the finishing touches, when we realised that there a couple of things missing. Nick and I agreed to head back to the hotel and get the required bits ‘n’ bobs. Back passed the crowed, a little larger, but still no sign of the crowd we had been told [warned] about. Collecting the items from the hotel, we then passed the convention centre again at approximately 10am... “Oh my good Lord!”

Where did all these people come from... the place was rammed. With the exhibitor passes in hand we again made for the side entrance and into the halls proper and what for the past 2 days had been relatively quiet (aside the hive of activity that was people setting up stalls) was now wall to wall people... all on the hunt for the same thing, BOARDGAMES!

Shock to the system: The Halls of Plenty.

Exhibitor pass: Saving your sanity one day at a time (just don't leave home without it!)

The canny amongst you might have noticed that the 27^th is un-punched.  Here is a lesson for all you kids out there, don’t misplace your pass EVER! If you do, all notion of German efficiency will leave you forever. Another story there... will post that tomorrow (if I can bring myself to relive the torment of that hour I will never, ever, get back.

Moving swiftly on as I can feel the tears coming back....

Pushing our way back to the Grublin Games stand, we could not believe our eyes.

I should say at this point, we had all been harbouring an unspoken fear; what if we weren’t busy? What if people didn’t want to buy Cornish Smuggler.

That fear was quickly put to rest and never surfaced again for four solid days. I won’t dwell too much on the actual business side, only to say that from 10:00am through to 19:30 on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and pretty much until we left on Sunday, all we did was sell Cornish Smuggler, Demo Cornish Smuggler and talk about Cornish Smuggler. Of course, Henry also had to do all the talking to the press, interviews (see BGG one here), etc. Actually, I will say one thing on the demonstration side of things. We had back to back demo slots from 10:00 Thursday until 18:00 (by which time we also had two games running at a time). Much like the ubiquitous Zombies, they just kept coming... 

Demonstrations of Cornish Smuggler with the Grublin Games Team

I met some great people while I was there, Warren, Neil and James. I was lucky enough to play a game designed by a friend of Henry’s.  I am not certain what I can say about it, so will only say that it was a card drafting game, where players bid and trade resources. I am not sure how far along the game is, but what I experienced I really enjoyed.

I was also lucky enough to bump into an old friend who I had not seen for a long time (actually, that is not entirely true, I also bumped into him at Salute this year, but that is besides the point). So to you Mr Greblord, a salute. Thanks for the beer and introducing me to Love Letter.

Oh and a final mention. In the post today I received a prototype of a game to play test from another person whom I met in Essen. So a quick shout out to Katrogue and Chaosgen.

With Sunday night drawing to a close and with sadness and happiness washing over me in equal measure we stowed what was left of our Cornish Smuggler in the car. We gave Essen a wave goodbye and set off for the drive back to the UK, through storms, wind and rain we battled; eventually arriving back in Crowthorne at approximately 3am. I unpicked myself from the boxes, bags, boardgames, laptops and all manner of other items and crawled into my bed for the best sleep I have had in ages. Exhausted and drained, but with memories that will last an awful long time.

Bowing out of Essen, we were proud to display the following:

 

Game yourself happy
Chris