Too many games, not enough time!

Not so this week...

Saturday

It all kicked off a week ago (Saturday 19th) over at a friends house. In celebration of the long weekend it was agreed that a games day needed to be had. Warren kindly agreed and set about inviting a few people over. In all, there were 9 present during the day.

We kicked off with a game of 'Cards against Humanity' as an ice breaker. Easily offended or people without a sense of humour need not apply. A game where winning or losing is not near as important as just making each other laugh.

It didn't quite have the desired effect. Oh well, you win some you lose some.

We then split into two groups. Group one undertook a 6 player game of 'Struggle of Empires' while myself, James and Warren camped ourselves at another table and decided to have a go at 'Pay Dirt'.

Pay Dirt is a print and play copy of a game that has just funded on Kick Starter. The game itself focuses on gold mining  in Alaska and the harshness of the environment and the difficulties of the task at hand.

We struggled through the game and were unsure what all the fuss was about. In hindsight, this was probably due to the rules that are a work in progress and watching play through videos since, can see there were some very important rules that we did not employ correctly. I am looking forward to playing it again (properly).

Struggle of Empires was still raging on when our Warren, Jame and I concluded our first game, so we decided to go for a game of 'Amerigo'. This game is about exploration and set collection. Each turn players drop cubes in to a tower and those that drop out the bottom will determine the different actions that are available to the players. This means that not all actions will be available and in some cases a little gambling on the part of the players on the assumption that certain actions will be available later. In the middle of all this, players are trying to discover and populate island and finally collect sets of resources. Warren was the victor by a country mile.

Both games wrapped up at about the same time and the Struggle of Empires group departed. That left myself, Warren and James to decide what to do next. (One of the SoE number were coming back with thier family). We decided to have a quick look at another prototype I have from Grublin Games.

The game has each player controlling a hive of Bees that are out and about trying to collect Pollen which they eventually turn into Honey.

The main mechanic in the game is dice rolling. The numbers on the dice determine where each dice can be placed and which action that player will be able to take. This is also how players compete for pollen cubes.

Normally the winner is the person who makes 7 pieces (or more) of honey.

You can find out more about this game by visiting www.grublin.com

Our game was cut short by the return of Tony and his family, so we all sat down for a game of 'Weed'. Each player is attempting to cultivate their garden of 'erbs before the other players cultivate theirs. The game is played over several round and each round concludes when either all the cards have been played or when a player manages to place five weed cards in their garden.

Meanwhile, other cards are played to stop players planting their weed, such as busted, dandelion cards (taking up valuable space), hippies, steal cards and the Weedzilla cards which totally destroys another player's garden.

Later that evening I met up with some old school friends and in a wonderful surprise twist of fate, they wanted to play a game of Battle Star Galactica. This was our first game and it took a little while for us to all get into the swing of it, but the humans eventually won out with a single population to spare. Unfortunately for the [lone] Cylon, they were also the Cylon sympathiser.

With that over we had a quick game of Bang! to round of the evening. The Renegade won (who happened to be a Cylon in the previous game).

Sunday

Being Easter Sunday Kelly-Ann and I met up with her family for lunch. This is ordinarily a game free environment, but in a strange twist of fate it turned out there were games a plenty. (Kelly-Ann had also convinced me to take King of Tokyo "just in case.")

Starting out with a game of Fibber, which I watched, then King of Tokyo and finally a few cards games; 2s and 8s, Go Fish, that kind of thing.

As the day turned to evening, the games came to a close and Kelly-Ann and I went home.

Monday

This is normally a games day for me, but I had arranged to meet up with a friend to discuss some game related projects... it also coincided with a mini beer-fest at my local. A dangerous combo for me and meant I had to bow out of Monday's gaming!

Tuesday

Being the 4th Tuesday of the month the Reading Social Boardgamers met up at the Wild Lime in Reading for beer and games. A very accessible pub in the heart of Reading and with lots of space, good lighting (for games) and very pleasant staff.

The order of the day for me was a game of 'Lewis and Clark' meanwhile, the other table occupied themselves with a game of FireFly.

Both games are quite lengthy so sadly there was no time to get any other games in before it was time to go home.

Thursday

Thursday marks the meeting of the Broad Street Games in Wokingham. This week there were 7 of us and we split in two to make it easier to find games to play, but not before we embarked on a couple of games we could all play.

First up was 6 player Fluxx, a game where the rules constantly done. Second to the table was Avalon, a game where all players work together to complete a set of mission, but there are some in the number who are trying to foil them All roles are hidden, so the players have to try and deduce who the good guys are and who the bad guys are (and exclude them from missions).


We split to form two groups. I then played a game of Rattus (a game about plague in Europe...), followed by a couple of games of Hanabi. What a little gem! All players work together to form sets of cards, the twist; you don't know what cards you hold, but the other players do and cannot tell you. And then a game of Blueprints.

The other group started with a game of Cartagena and finished long before we did. Next up, a 4-player game of Blood Bowl: Team Manager. After a short (long) rules recap and explanation, it all kicked off. Blood and gore come before sport in this game. Generally the winner is the person who can keep some semblance of their team on the field and not being carried off on a stretcher.

Friday

Having a friend down from Lincoln meant that games were likely to come to the table at some point on Friday and I wasn't wrong. First up, we had a game of the Prototype I spoke of earlier, which Keith seemed to thoroughly enjoy. So much so, that he asked if he could take it away with him and introduce to his Lincoln group.

I then asked Kelly-Ann to join us to play a new game I had just bought. You really do need to ignore them theme and licence and just play the game... Storage Wars (based on the TV show). I had read that under the poor licence, terrible box and relatively simple rules there was a half decent game. Each player is dealt a set of items which they place in lockers. Each player then bids on lockers to try and make cash on what has been placed inside. There are some duds in the lockers, some treasures to be had and also black mould, which ruins everything. The winner is the person with the most cash (Kelly-Ann in our game).

For a light filler, <20 minutes, it is not too bad at all. Certainly a game I can play with non-gamers. It did get an "ooooh" from Kelly and an insult from Keith to me, which has to be the hallmark of a game to play again.

That was enough game for Kelly-Ann and she left myself and Keith to find something else to play. This would sadly be the last game of my mammoth week of gaming. I asked Keith if he fancied a game of Skyline 3000 (another Works cheapy). He nodded, but I am not sure he was over keen, but I pressed on anyway. I think this is a decent auction/area control game that is fairly light and quick. Foolishly, I allowed Keith far too much leniency
with some of his plays and he eventually, with an evil grin, went on to win by a decent margin


And so the week of gaming drew to a close, but there are more games to come I am sure.

Happy Gaming
Chris