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

It has been a while...

It has been a while since I posted here, but I have been posting slightly more frequently on my other blog account over on Board Game Geek.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blog/2568/the-games-hunter

Since January I have been beavering away to get my online store up and running. Check it out!

www.thegameshunter.co.uk

I have also had the opportunity to play a plethora of wonderful games, many of which I stock, some of which I don't but will be looking to do so as soon as the opportunity arises.

Additionally, I have set up a gaming group called the Broad Street Gamers (which I did blog a little about earlier in the year) who meet once or twice a week, plus occasionally on weekends, to indulge ourselves in all that the board gaming industry has to offer.

On Thursdays we meet in Wokingham at 7pm at the Broad Street Tavern. Other days we generally meet at each others houses.

And if that weren't enough, I am also a very happy member of the Reading Board Games Social, a group of gamers brought together by a friend of mine. This group meets on Wednesdays at the Abbot Cook in Reading and also on the last Tuesday of the month as part of the Guerilla Gaming Campaign (playing board games in public to try help create a buzz about them).

If you want to know more about these groups then follow the links below:

Broad Street Gamers
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/guild/1771

So what have I been enjoying?

Keyflower

Games Night... eventually.

We merry gentlemen (Warren, Steve, David, James and myself) met up once more for another foray into the world of boards, dice, cards and counters... and oh what lush counters they were.

After a debacle of tiny epic proportions with our usual venue, we agreed to convene at one of the groups houses *praise be to Warren* though must take heed and learn that in the depths of Farnborough milk is in terribly short supply. Humour and good sportsmanship is not though, which is nice.

First up to bat*

We started the evening off at a sedate pace with a game of Cards Against Humanity

Most of us had no idea what this entailed and tentatively placed our first cards, eager not to cause too much offence. For those who have not played the game, that tack will not get you a win (not that it really matters). After falling behind very, very badly I decided that I need to be more offensive and that's exactly what I did. From first to last in the last four turns of the game, cleaning up on each one. A racist comment, a homophobic comment and a sexist comment ensured the win for me... though I lost a bit of my soul too.

Warren, who was almost assured a win decided to gamble on his last turn (I gambled too). I won the round and we switcherood positions. James retained his entire soul by recording no points whatsoever.

Game Two

After a great deal of laughing and wincing and some occasional sharp intakes of breath, we decided to play Euphoria: Build a better dystopia

This was new to all of us, but two of the group had familiarised ourselves with the rules. It is a busy board and looks like it is going to be an uphill slog to play and understand. However, it really is a simple game in essence, though it will take a good while to get to grips with strategies and the optimum opening plays (at least for us).

It all started quite slow. For probably the first half of the game only one star had been placed, no markets had been attempted and we were each just ambling through with no real direction. Warren took what looked like an early lead and that sparked me to actually start to devise some kind of plan. David too was starting to pull away from the pack with a couple of stars in Icarite territory.

My plan... open markets. This lead to a rush, driven by myself to open four markets in quick succession. This was not how I expected the game to pan out and unfortunately for Warren, the leader, he was in a position which lead to him being shut out of all but one. In all, 4 markets were opened, three of which caused resources to be lost on certain dice rolls (3, 4 or 6). This is mean, especially to David who was not on any of the markets, Warren had managed to get into one of them.

This sudden rush took me and the two other players, who at this point were equally behind, in contention for the game. And like that, it was suddenly over. Warren placed a star on a market, with one star remaining for his win I was able to place my final star on an open territory.

From a slow start, the game took a strange turn and suddenly went into overdrive. By the end, everybody had 2 or less stars to place.

We all agreed Euphoria is a beautifully looking game, with great pieces and a nice theme. The only caveat is that we were playing the deluxe version and I don't know how this stacks up against the retail version of the game.

Final Game (three) of the Evening

With another evening drawing to a close we settled on a game of Dice Town. The game places each player in the wild west and fighting for control of certain roles/buildings (The Bank, The Bank Robber, Sheriff, Saloon, Mines and General Store).

Each player roles a set of poker dice, hiding the outcome from the opponents, and decides which dice to keep and which to re-roll. Eventually everyone settles on their final hand and that is used to determine who gets what from the available building/role spots.

All in all the games takes about an hour to place and is generally fun with plenty of opportunity to get one over on the other players. You can trade, steal and play cards on each other to gain advantage or hinder your opponents.

Warren came out as a runaway winner, with the rest of us fairly close to one another in score.

And that was that. Until next time.

Game Happy
Chris

*That's for you David.

A New Guild is Born

I fully intended to post a follow up to my previous Messin' in Essen post, but life gets in the way, so that can wait a little while. Besides, I have something a little closer to home to talk about, something I am really quite excited about.


Broad Street Gamers

We did it. It is almost a year since I first posted here on BGG to either find a club in my local area, or find willing participants to set up a regular gaming session. I was pretty unsuccessful. I also forgot, it would seem, to subscribe to my own thread, so missed the fact that another guild had been started which meets on the outskirts of Reading.

By coincidence, I returned from Essen and for some reason though to check the old thread. Imagine my surprise when I saw that in my absence there had been a whole heap of discussions about local clubs, renewed interest in something in the Wokingham area and so here we are. Yay!

The first meeting was just three of us, but you do have to start somewhere.

Christopher Dickinson

Captain Mono

David Parrott

We meet at the Broad Street Tavern, Wokinham on Thursday evenings, check out the guild link above for more information (which I will update shortly).

We started with a couple of nice Ales, Swordfish I believe... and a quick chat, you know, to get to know one another and then dove straight in.

I did bring a couple of bigger games, but we decided for the inaugural meet that perhaps a few lighter games should be the order of the day.

We started with Alhambra. None of us had played this, so a quick overview of the rules and we were set. Captain Mono won this by a stretch, though I though I had it all sewn up at scoring round 2... however, his 28 length wall said otherwise.

Then out came Kingdom Builder. I think we all liked this as it was easy to explain and quick to play. It was close. There were perhaps 8 points between us when we score the castles, thanks to the three I had placed against right at the start of the game I was able to snag victory.

To round of the evening we had a quick game of Zombie Dice. I have not played any dice games since Liar's Dice or Yahtzee and that was many, many years ago. Still, it was simple and fun, a great way to end. CaptainMono stormed to brain devouring victory, David_Parrott came a commendable second and I was left with my 3 paltry brain, wondering where it all went wrong. I thought Zombie life would be much easier than that!

And that brought the first session to a close. Long may they continue.

If you want to know more about any of the games listed, or indeed any other games, head over to www.boardgamegeek.com - my blog is also posted there too.

Have a great weekend,
Chris