Live from the living room

Featuring Lisbee Stainton

Saturday night, what a great, but equally odd, experience. Kelly-Ann and I were invited to watch an artist called Lisbee Stainton perform live from the living room of a house on Cambridge Road. I was not familiar with her work, but was told she was a folk singer who had performed with Seth Lakeman for his song 'The White Hare'... being my favourite song, or very close to, it was imperative that I go along.

Not exactly certain what we should expect, we arrived a little sheepishly to find a home packed to the rafters with people coming to watch Lisbee perform. Drink and food were served before hand and then at about 20:15 we were ushered to our seats to watch the hugely talented Lisbee Stainton. What a voice and what a wonderful guitar player. I should also say what a privilege!

Dates that Lisbee will be performing in and around Berkshire

Maidenhead on the 16th May at Norden Farm 

Ascot on the 7th August at Jags

I won't prattle on any further, rather just post a couple of videos so you can get an idea of what we experienced, albeit we were a matter of feet from her and there was no band in tow, just Lisbee, a couple of guitars and her voice.

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.

Some great Christmas pressies!

I cannot believe it has been 6 weeks or so since my last post, but as always there is so much to do and so little time to do it in and then you add Christmas in to the mix and well, time just has a way of outrunning you!

In my effort to start up my own online games store, which I have hinted at, but never expressly mentioned, I have made many friends along the way, some who have been a great help, some who offered some great advice and others offered me well wishes and support in varying ways.

Aside being a successful online retailer of board games, my idea and inspiration came from Kick Starter, a topic which I have oft' spoken about in the past. Additionally, I wanted to try and find some of the harder too come by games and bring them to the UK market.

One such game is Police Precinct by Common Man Games, a game which is in incredibly short supply and almost impossible to find in the U.K. In early December I tried to find a distributor who could supply this game, but sadly at the time it was out of print. This lead me to contacting C.M.G. directly and speaking to their extremely helpful and friendly owner Karl Fenner.

He explained the situation with regards Police Precinct and told me to exercise a little patience. Lo and behold, the 2nd edition was just about to be launched. As a retailer this made me very, very excited and I wanted to get on board with the project. I also offered to help Karl and his team in any way I could and was invited to join one of his teams (I am very, very excited about that too).

The Kick Starter itself is well underway now and has only 14 days remaining, so if you would like to know more and perhaps get on board then why not check the project out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1529038443/police-precinct-2nd-edition

So what has all this got to do with 'great Christmas pressies'?

Well, Karl also sent me copies of the two promo cards for the game to find out estimated mail times to the UK. Even though I don't have the game myself yet, I was still over the moon to receive them (who can resist a promo card?!)

Here they are in all their glory

Happy Gaming
Chris

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