Big Bang Burger Bar

Regular Burton Board Gaming at Spirit Games on Wednesday nights

We play a selection of new releases and old favourites, starting at 8.00pm and going on up to midnight. All are welcome, click on the articles link (http://spiritgames.co.uk/article.php) to get an idea of what we have been playing over the past year or two.

Contact Details:
salnphil@spiritgames.com

4th Jan 2012
Tonight we played Kingdom Builder (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=5926) twice!! :). This is a really lovely looking game with  8 board pieces (From which you choose 4) you then use one of the unused boards as the scoring track(marked on the back of all the boards). You deal 3 Kingdom Builder Cards (Out of 10) which determine how the game will be scored this time and the boards will have 4 types of Special Location Tiles (out of a possible 8) which give players extra actions/abilities. This game is just quick and fun to play, the basic mechanic is you have a terrain card which show you where you need to place 3 settlements, adjacent if possible, on the boards. If you place a settlement next to a special location tile you can take one (but only one from that stack). On your next turn you will be able to use it's additional action before or after the mandatory action. As soon as someone places their last settlement that current round finishes and then the scoring is carried out, the winner is the person with the most gold.

Really good little game that will see a lot of plays as no two games will be exactly the same, meaning players can not really come at it with preconceived strategies on how to win.

Wednesday 11th January.

It was with some trepidation that I sat down to play Antike since it was the game that was singlehandedly responsible for my latest ever exit from the shop (12:45 nosey fact fans). But reassured that there were only four of us and to had played before I took the plunge.

Phil and myself found ourselves at opposite ends of the board with Martin and Cooper squished together in the middle. All of that meant that while Martin fended off Cooper Phil and myself were free to earn our cards by the altogether more peaceful means of building temples and fleets and pursuing scientific research.

With Phil and I both grasping at victory it eventually went to me when Martin left a temple unguarded leaving me with with only a simple territory grab to get my 15 territory VP and final winning point.

11th Jan 2012
We started the evening of with a game of Igels (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2597) which I have had for quite a while but never really played fully. The artwork is humorous and excellent although some of it is a little risque  :-[

It took a while to get my head around the rules but once it got going the turns were quite easy, the only thing for me though is the game felt like it went on too long. I can only imagine this getting worse if there was four of us instead of 3, I think if I get this out again I will have to work on some variant to shorten the game. It was fun but it just went on longer than it ought to to keep the fun element.
Paul: 25, Caz: 19 and Sal: 17

We finished off the evening with a game of Bloody Legacy (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2171) which is always immense fun. The artwork on the cards for this game is very funny cartoon style and each card has funny descriptive text.
It is a very quick game to play and is ideal to fill in time between other games or to round off a games evening.

Each player has 3 lives and the basic mechanic is to play a card and pick up a card. You place a Trap card (Deadly, Slippery or Ordinary)in front of another player who gets the chance to play a Trick card to avoid it (if they have one). Deadly traps are 5 skull cards so if you can not avoid them you lose a life straight away!

A player loses a life when they accumulate 5 skulls worth of traps in front of them. They then sit out the rest of the turn until there is only one player left. The last player standing then starts the next round and this continues until there is only one person left alive who wins.

After a lot of fairly well balanced killing spree over the course of the game, Sal became the eventual Winner (Me, Caz, Sal and Cooper played)

18 Jan 2012
Tonight we kicked off with a game of Kingdom Builder (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=5926) which has to come down as one of my best purchases of last year, I have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of this and every game is different. Looking forward to the expansion planned for this year as it will be a must-have. Paul: 53, Caz: 57 and Sal: 51

We then tried out Little Dead Riding Hood (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=5875) potentially an awesome fun little game but I have to say the rules are not well written and seem to be born out of being playtested with a group that already knew how to play. We had so many questions as we worked through the rules and had to house rule in order to even get started. The problem is that it appears to be huge gaps in the rules but having read a bit on Boardgamegeek on this game (http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/747141/help-these-rules-must-be-missing-a-page) some of it makes more sense. This could have been cured with both clearer more direct statements in the rules and a worked turn example. We had fun with it but this was interrupted a lot with having to continually thumb through the rules to try and find elusive or nonexistent help on a question. Hopefully an FAQ or revised rulebook will be forthcoming to help this out. I managed a Win but I'm not entirely clear how  :-[

Finally we ended the evening with an all-time classic Buckets, the first game was with Caz, Sal and Myself. It ended with a head to head between me and Sal but she had nearly a full set of buckets with me struggling to stay in with just a few. I did manage to hold my own for a brief time but ultimately lost out to Sal. Phil then joined us for a another last round of this, with me getting repeatedly kicked for not having any Blue Cards but this time, after another nail-biting round, Caz come out the winner.

For the 18th Neil and I had arranged to play the Lord of the Rings Living Card Game which I wanted to play partly because it shares many of it's mechanics with the forthcoming Star Wars LCG.

First impressions were that it was another of Neil's beloved suicidal card games were everyone dies on turn two. Mainly because we did actually die on turn two. However a second playthrough on a supposedly harder scenario yielded much better results with our little raiding party skirmishing with the forces of Sauron, crossing the rushing Anduin only to be crushed by the WitchKing on the opposite bank.

Resources seem to be tight in this game and in both playthroughs I had cards that I was never in danger of being able to play although better hand management and in the case of the first game, just a longer game might have seen these out of my hand and on the table.

I liked the LotR LCG and things bode well for the SW version. Can't wait.

Wednesday 25th January saw Paul, Carole, Philsey and me take on Kingdom Builder.

I'd played it once before but the whole point of Kingdom Builder is that it's a simple game built around variety. The first game I played had a very train game feel to it as we snaked our settlements around the board like Catan's Longest Road. This time it reminded me a little of Small World as we fought for small areas of the board with valuable special tiles like the harbour or point scoring buildings.

I said on the night that Kingdom Builder is a game where it pays not to get too attached to your plans. I spent the whole of the first game not drawing flowers and suffering because of it and as a consequence I came last to Carole's win. The next game I managed to monopolise the monument early on and win. I know the random nature annoys some but is fine for a game lasting 40 mins to an hour (how those people on BGG have got this to last 2 hours or more is beyond me).

1st February saw the same lot plus Phil and Sal have a go at Powergrid: The First Sparks. It's well known that I'm not a massive fan of the mighty Powergrid and just like Race for the Galaxy I know full well that the fault is mine and not the game's.

First Sparks is quicker and lighter than its big brother but has many of the same mechanics. Including, unfortunately the one that allows stupid people to paint themselves into a corner as I've done with Powergrid in the past and did again tonight.

Now granted it was a daft move but any game that allows it's players to guarantee themselves no more meaningful choices on move 2 is in my opinion broken. Everyone else took pity on me and houseruled me back into the game but by then it was far too late and I never did get to make another choice.

I would play it again though,a little more cautiously next time, because everyone else seemed to be having a whale of a time but this first play left me in the dark.

1st Feb 2012
tonight we started off the evenign with another game of PowerGrid: First Sparks (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=6017) which I am really enjoying playing and I really think I prefer this to the original PowerGrid (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2010). There is a lot to figure out on this game and there is lots of player interaction which is alwys good. The fianl scores for this were: Phil:15, Philsy & Sal:13, Paul:11, Caz:7 and Carl:4

We finished the evening off with a game of Sentinels of the Multiverse (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=5849) which is quite an interesting co-operative card game. Having done resonably well early on, eventually we lost big style. Playing: Myself, Caz and Philsy

Sentinels of the Multiverse is a lovely little game & when I tried it I really liked it though that was long enough ago for me to have forgotten all but the basic details & I believe we won. Its not as I recall a long game and has various levels of difficulty based on the Mega villain the team is up against and the environment where that confrontation takes place.

The one we beat was the easiest in the least challenging environment as I recall. I would recommen it but its not a brain burning hardcore gamers game but fun.

 >:DGinger

Owing to my running a roleplaying game on Thursday I will not be at this Wednesday's Boardgames night I would love to be but I have it would seem my limits in this regard.

I would however quite like to have another go at the lord of the rings card game next week it would be nice to beat the game again using the shadow rules.

 >:DGinger

8th Feb 2012
We started the evening off with a game of HollyWood Blockbuster (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/904/dream-factory) where players compete to put on the Best and Worst films for awards. This is a nice little game with some interesting film titles ;)

I quite like this game and it is relatively easy to pick up and does produce some funny moments as players pull together some interesting combinations in their films. Final Scores were: Paul 59, Mark 59, Sal 50, Caz 49 and Phil 94.

We then had a game of Flash Point Fire Rescue (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=6003) which is nicely made game which is a co-operative one where players are firefighters trying to rescue victims from the building before it collapses or explodes in fire. There is a basic introduction game and advanced options to provide variety as well as tougher challenges. We went with the Basic game but despite our best efforts we lost the fight with the fire and all was lost in the end.

15th Feb 2012
We started the evening off with PowerGrid The First Sparks (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=6017) This is proving quite popular and I definitely prefer this to the original game. Tonight was Carl's second go at this game and this time things went a lot better this time with the final scores being: Sal:15, Carl:14, Caz:14, Phil:13 and me:12. Carl Coming 2nd place due to a tie break.

We followed this up by introducing Carl to Family Business (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=4089) this is always a fun classic. An excellent game as usual with Carl actually claiming the win.

Finally we rounded the evening off with a game of Kingdom Builder (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=5926) which is becoming a firm favourite. Final Scores - Phil:37, Caz:39, Sal:54 and Paul:42

22nd Feb 2012
Started the evening off with a couple of games of Flash Point Fire Rescue (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=6003) this was using the more advanced rules of the game and we basically sucked as FireFighters as we managed to lose both games.

We then went on to play Powergrid: First Sparks (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=6017) which is becoming a favourite with the Wed Night crowd. This is essentially Powergrid-lite, it has the familiar feel of the original Powergrid but plays a lot quicker. Players are trying to build up their tribe by forraging for diffrent types of food and acquire various tools to improve their skills to forrage for this food. This proved to be a really close contest with Eric, Richard and Myself all on 14 with Richard winning the tie-break, Sally scored 13 and Caz 9.

29th Feb 2012
Started the evening off with Abandon Ship (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=4809) which is a definite Sally game as players strive to rescue specific Rats whilst hindering others that you think are other players. There are also pieces of cheese up for grabs at certain sections of the ship which grant additional points. Phil ended up winning this one.

Phil then broke out Hacienda (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2672) players attempt to get their animals to market and keep them watered. Essentially placing tiles on terrain squares using cards you pick up, you can hinder other players progress by building your cattle trails in the way. Phil proved to be very good at this (well he has played it a lot ;) ) scoring 113, Caz 86, Martin 83 and myself at 77.

Finally we finished off with a game of King's Breakfast (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6263/kings-breakfast) this is an excellent game that is quick to pick up and play. Sadly I believe this is out of print at the current time. Phil:55, Me:49, Martin:39, Caz:39 and Sally:32

7th Mar 2012
Started the evening off with a 6player game of Rattus (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=5201) Players take a power if they want one, either an unclaimed one or one in front of another player. Place cubes on the board, how many depends on how many Rats are currently in the area. Move the plague piece to an adjacent area. Player then adds new rat tokens to adjacent regions, the number of rats depends on the area the plague piece is moved to: No Rats - No More Rats added, 1 Rat - 1 Rat added or 2-3 Rats: 2 Rats are added. If there are Rats in the area the Plague piece is moved to these are now resolved one at a time by flipping them over and carrying out the effects. The game ends when the last rat token is placed out or someone is lucky enough to have all their population tokens on the board (Rare), the player with the highest surviving population wins.

Seeing as the game is about the plague bizarrely it is actually quite fun even with 6 people. I enjoyed playing this and I would not turn down another game. Caz:14, Chris:13, Barry:12, Paul:12, Eric:10 and Cooper:9

We then went on to play Lifeboat (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=4460) players are handed a random character card depicting one of the survivors, each with their own unique ability. They are also handed two other cards - A character they Love and a character they hate.

At the end of the game, if you survive, you score points if your love is still alive and if the person you hate has died.  The characters are placed in the lifeboat (represented by cards in a line on the table), the first in line picks up a number of cards from the supplies deck equal to the players, looks at them then takes one and passes the rest onto the next player in the line. These items can be weapons, water, money, jewels etc that either aid you during the game or represent additional potential points for the end game. On their turn players can: Do nothing, Swap Places with someone (who can refuse so a fight breaks out!), mug someone (Steal some supplies, again this can lead to a fight!), play cards with special actions or Row. When players fight they can get wounded placing a token on their card, each character can take a differerring amount of wounds, also the other players can take sides in the fight each adding their strength total to the attacker/defender. When players row they take 2 navigation cards and select one, each of these cards depicts who has gone overboard and who is thirsty. The last person in the row picks up all the cards placed by rowing and selects one to use, if no one has rowed then a card is taken from the deck instead.

Play continues until the fourth seagull is sighted meaning land has been found.

Phil:16, Paul:7, Cooper:19, Chris:14, Barry: Dead, Caz:17 and Eric:19

Finally we finished off the evening with a game of Kingdom Builder (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=5926) This has become a firm favourite as it plays really quick and each game is different given the amount of variety in the components. Phil:60, Paul:43, Cooper:38 and Caz:52

10th of April
I could only stay for one game tonight but I had a splendid time playing Mission Red Planet a Victorian scifi themed are a control game  about the claiming of mineral reserves on Mars, with a number of nice twists. Which is fun & relatively quick to play & which I much to my surprise won by a country mile with its owner coming in last as is often traditional.

(http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic151268_mt.jpg)

The game however is sadly out of print at the moment but well worth a try if you see it at Raiders or Beer & Pretzels

I left the remaining players starting a game of Gubbs which I would have liked to join in on but 4am starts are not fun after night outs however sober  :'(


(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/6100.jpg)

 >:DGinger

We've played Kairo the last couple of weeks. I assume the K is to differentiate it from other similarly named games with a C. It's one if Paul's new acquisitions.

Kairo is an area control game where players compete to build the biggest and most attractive stall in a North African bazaar and to attract customers to it at the expense of your neighbours.

Once sated at a store of a particular colour customers change their minds and start eyeing up goods of another colour. The trick then is not only to attract customers to your stall but also to put yourself in an advantageous position in the turns ahead.

Owners if the biggest stalls get bonus tokens which move Catan style as the situation changes. It's also worth remembering that not all stalls were created equal so pick your targets with care.

There's also an element of prescriptive movement where, like Kingdom Builder you can only build or modify stalls if you have the card for the corresponding location.

Our first game was won by Carole and I think Andy won my second but his first.

GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE! Mission: Red Planet is back in print and back in stock! Now you can lose playing your own copy, just like me!

Good isn't it the curse of playing a game you own spreads yet further, however it did not seem to apply to Chaos in the old world last night which you won hands down. I would write a detailed report but I am afraid I was so Knackered by the end I just wanted the game to end & Martin to stop TALKING  +:bandhead=+::banghead:. I was however a good game and until my personal endurance gave out a couple of turns before the end. I would love to play it again when less tired.

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/4626.jpg)

I would also rather like tom give it a go with the Horned Rat Expansion some time as well.

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/5684.jpg)

 >:DGinger

The expansion is an interesting one; it offers a replacement set of Chaos Cards and Upgrade Cards which allow Khorne better ability to win on points (and an upgrade card that makes this a little too easy), but if you believe the statistical analysis from BoardGameGeek (pinch of salt as always) it basically makes Nurgle all-but-impossible to win with.

That said, the Horned Rat as a fifth player is integrated very well and is balanced well with the other four, which is no mean feat! I like how his Dial Advancement is all about swarming Skaven all over the map as he places no corruption tokens at all.

Very interesting  comments & I always take the Geek with a pinch of salt when it comes to player feed back as the comments are usually biased individually & only really representative en-mass. People on the Geek tend to have strong feelings about games be a bit picky being spoiled for choice nowadays & not shy about posting said feelings.

 >:DGinger

We managed to get a five player game t'other night and the rat is sure a tricky one to play by the looks of it! I was Khorne and won (I see a pattern forming here...) but Nurgle came very, very close. Mind you, we were playing with the original deck rather than the expansion deck so I don't know whether that would have affected the rat man's chances?

Over the last few months I have been a bit lax in writing up our wed night Sessions at shop, real life just seems to have gotten in the way and whilst I have recorded some of the results it is really a little late to remember enough details to do them justice.

I will detail the names of some of those games played over the this time and include the scores, i'll leave the dates out as quite frankly my writing is atrocious and I am not entirely sure on some of them  ???

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/3147.jpg) On The Underground (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=3147): Caz:24, Philip:25, Paul:29 and Martin:34
(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/6100.jpg) Gubs (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=6100) Played 2 games of this with Martin the winner of both.
(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/6104.jpg) Lords of Waterdeep (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=6104) Paul:114, Martin:119 and Caz:122
(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/3874.jpg) Stone Age (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=3874) Paul:105, Caz:123, Andy:129 and Chris:164
(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/2287.jpg) Around the World in 80 Days (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=2287) Phil, Paul, Caz, Luke and Martin who won
(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/6736.jpg) Kairo (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=6736) Carl:42, Paul:49, Caz:49, Andy:70
(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/408.jpg) Bohnanza (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=408) Philsy:11, Paul:12, Martin:13, Caz:13, Cooper:16, Barry:18
(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/5926.jpg) Kingdom Builder (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=5926) Chris:50, Caz:57, Paul:58, neil:65
(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/5393.jpg) Mr Jack Pocket Edition (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=5393) Paul(Detective) and Neil(jack) Mr Jack Wins

6th June 2012

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/5926.jpg) (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=5926)

Tonight we started off with an old favourite with a new twist, that being Kingdom Builder with the Nomads expansion. This is one of my favourite games as it plays really quickly but does allow for a bit of thinking as you try and meet the various scoring conditions. The nomad expansion adds some new boards, special actions and scoring conditions that just enhance an already excellent game. Tonight Richard joined in an attempt to see if he would like the game (I feel he was already disposed to not but I do not think he totally hated the experience so no bad thing). This turned out to be a much closer game in the end then maybe it felt at some points during the proceedings, but then scoring at the end means you never quite know how everyone is doing. The final score for this were as follows: Paul:32, Andy:30, Richard:41, Cooper:42 and Caz:43

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/3357.jpg) (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=3357)

We then proceeded to play one of my recent purchases, but an old game, Phoenicia. Richard was up for giving this title a go as he had not played it in a while and was happy enough to try and teach me how to play it. Once we got going I did remember having played this once before back when I first started coming to Wed Night @ Spirit Games and I did like it then and was pleased to find I still liked the game. I did not win but then that just proves I should own a copy ;) I would certainly give this another go to see if I can actually play it a little better with another try. The artwork is not too bad but it is just a shame they went with plastic pieces instead of wooden ones which would have been a lot nicer overall. Final Scores: Paul:22, Richard:26, Andy:33, Cooper:35

The evening was finished off with the traditional "Buckets" which is a really fun, chaotic game but a perfect end to a gaming evening. Sadly this title is out of print  :'(

Hello? You're all still here, great. What's that you say, want to play a game? Don't mind if I do...

First time I've been in AGES and since there was already a Netrunner game going on I joined Chris to play his new game, Mr.Jack.

Mr.Jack is a kind of two player Cluedo and it was a bad start for me as Chris managed to whittle down his suspects by half on his first go. I fared a little better in the mid game by managing to keep him in the dark for. The next three or four turns before being rumbled.

Andy, Chris and a few others went off to spend time in The Village while the rest of us delved into Philsey's new edition Descent.

We played the introductory scenario and got quite a good rhythm going beating the bottomless pit of weenies back while whittling down the Ettins. We defeated them despite Philsey concentrating on my paladin with his healing powers.

It was everything I'd been led to expect from Descent except the play time although it wasn't /that/ quick. A bit more tactical than the D&D games which was no bad thing at all.

I actually got down on a wednesday night & had a good game of Infernal Contraption second edition with Phil & James. This played very much as I remember first playing but with sufficient cards for the game not to be over before you had got started in the four player version. The Second edition includes Sabotage which came out as an expansion the first time round & Phil seemed to be of the opinion that the sabotage cards where some what less devastating than previously. I could not comment on that as I did not play it half as much as Phil.

None the less a splendid game if more of a revised polished up reprint than a whole new game. I also think though the game is designed for four players it could be run with five if needed as there are plenty enough cards for the fifth player.

I left early as I really had not had enough sleep in the last couple of days but I had as ever much fun.

 >:DGinger

Sorry Folks, been a bit lax at these writeups lately, so here is a quick summary to catch upto date and hopefully I will try an post fuller for our next session:

27th June 2012

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/6896.jpg) (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=6896)

Tonight we played another new game Feudality (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=6896) this is a really neat little game that has some great artwork throughout. There is a certain amount of luck in this game, is not that complicated but does provide for some interesting choices in order to maximise your chances of getting the win. I would certainly visit Boardgamegeek (http://www.boardgamegeek.com) and look for the Resource Board File (http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/78436/feudality-resource-board-replacement) by andamaroo (http://boardgamegeek.com/user/andamaroo) as having made this it makes the game a lot easier to play. The only problem with this game for me is that with a lot of players there is significant downtime whilst people choose their tiles and place them, which unfortunately there is not a lot you can do to get around. Having said that though this is a lot of fun and I am always be willing to give this one some more table time. Final Scores: Andy:5, Phil:10, Chris:11, Paul:12 and Caz:13

4th July 2012

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/5571.jpg) (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=5571)

This is a lovely little game with some superb components and artwork. The game itself plays over a year(12 turns) with players bidding for funds to excavate for rare artefact's to eventually display in the museum in order to gain VP's. There are 4 scoring rounds, each with a different bonus score but beware as people put new exhibits in the museum the older exhibits are moved around as they are no longer as interesting so they start to score less or worse still taken out of the museum altogether. At the end of the game points are added up and the person with the most points wins. This is great fun to play, plays in around 45Min's and has plenty of depth for most gamers to enjoy. Final Scores:Paul:13, Caz:16, Chris:25 and Andy:27

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/6857.jpg) (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=6857)

This is an excellent little game that has simple mechanics making it easy to teach but a lot of careful choices and planning is required to build a good score. Players attempt to get around Africa joining expeditions to gain reward or buying adventure cards to locate artefact's for larger rewards. There is plenty here and it plays in around an hour which is just right for this. Final scores: Paul:29, sal:34, Caz:41 and Chris:43

11th July 2012

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/4435.jpg) (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=4435)

Started the evening off with a game of Heroes of the World (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=4435) which has you taking on the roles of various historical figures allowing you to make discoveries, with you sending your people to various territories in order to score, battles are handled by rolling dice and checking against a table of results. This is a simple and quick area control game that is easy to pick up and play but does provide enough depth for gamers to plan. Quite enjoyed this one and would be willing to play it again. Final Scores: Neil:62, Paul:63 and Caz:74

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/1383.jpg) (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=1383)

Finished the evening off with a game of Metro (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=1383) a classic game that is always good fun, sadly out of print at the moment (though Tsuro (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16992/tsuro) is a similar but simpler game). Players attempt to build Metro tracks to take their trains on the longest routes between stations. Scoring double if they make it to one of the central stations. Players lay tiles with tracks marked on them on the board hoping to join their tracks to make them longer or to force an opponents track to end quicker. As each track completes they are scored. Once all the track has been played and the final scores totted up the winner is declared. This is a fun, quick little game, but some thought is required in order to best lay the tile you have. Final Scores: Caz:55, Paul:72 and Neil:76

18th July 2012

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/3357.jpg) (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=3357)

Started off tonight with a game of Phoenicia (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=3357) another classic game getting a lot of attention in our group lately. Richard did protest a little too much at the start of this that some of the other players were getting ahead, but in the end it was Richard who claimed ultimate glory. Final Scores: Paul:14, Caz:17, Simon:19, Phil:21 and Richard: 33

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/6896.jpg) (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=6896)

We finished off with another game of Feudality (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=6896) which Richard had at Raiders he would like to try again. With the full compliment of players in this one it did drag a little bit as players spent time picking tiles. In the end Richard had to get home so the game was called at the point we had reached, meaning I was declared the winner but really this is difficult to tell in this game as there is plenty of opportunity to scupper others by removing points so who knows what the final outcome would have been

1st Aug 2012

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/6938.jpg) (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=6938)

Started the evening off with Space Mission (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=6938), an excellent quality little game that plays in under an hour with oodles of fun and replayability. To help prevent the end of everything, as this was my game, I did not win this. Players move around the planets scanning for resources and ultimately building space stations in order to plunder these resources. Essentially a set collection game where you are competing to get the best combinations in order to score highly whilst not tipping your hand too early to your opponents. The end game is triggered when a number of space tiles are revealed and this can cause an abrupt end, so whilst you can try and plan what you need, you have to keep an eye on the Space as things get near the end you need to maximise your turn to get the most you can. Really good fun, the components are fantastic quality, large planet tiles with high quality artwork on them, Plastic Spaceships on flying mounts, good quality cards and the resource tokens of the same quality as the large planet tiles. There is a really excellent game here, with the quality of components you would expect from a larger more expensive game. All in all for the money it is well worth it and I have played this a lot since I got it and enjoyed every game. Final Scores: Caz:17, Chris:21, Eric:28, Paul:30 and Andy:32

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/5716.jpg) (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=5716)

We moved onto Barons (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=5716) an interesting card game where the cards have multiple uses and you always need them for more than one! It took a while to get your head around the gameplay but after a few rounds it became more intuitive to play. It is another of those games where you need another round or two to achieve your goal only to be thwarted or thrown a better option by the cards. We did manage to a few rules wrong, which is normal, but on the whole it was very enjoyable and certainly worthy of another play. Andy ended up the winner of this!

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/5571.jpg) (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=5571)

Finally we played Pergamon (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=5571) an excellent game where players bid for funds to dig for artefact's to display in the museum for points. Whilst there is a certain amount of luck there is a lot of strategy here in where to place your man, going for money, more dig choices or better turn order. In the end the scores were quite close with people having taken different approaches to their collections. I always enjoy playing this game and we had a good group of players tonight which helped the enjoyment further. Final Scores: Eric:15, Paul:20, Chris:21 and Caz:23

Well the end of another report from me, as always I await in (probably in vein), reports from the other tables. It was not the busiest of Wed nights but the shop was quite full with gamers enjoying their favourite Hobby...

Until next time......

19th of September

Went along to deliver a fresh supply of flyers for Beer & lard & for a game of Privateer Presses new game LEVEL 7 which Zarni had succumbed to the lure of needless to say in the traditional way the plan fell apart after I arrived at Spirit & off loaded the Flyers. it Was however fun & I got into a splendid game of RED OCTOBER one of may favourites but not the quick game which it had been touted as. We however played it with definite intent to win & you know what got within the regulation gnats whisker of doing so when the pressure gauge maxed with 12 game minutes to go. We would have won had our dice rolling been better I am certain.

Didn't really have time or the mental strength for a second game but had a chat with the regulars before walking the delivery trolley home great fun I just wished that I did not have to do the 4am start the following day

 >:DGinger

26th of September
Went to have another try at playing LEVEL 7 & though I would be in luck as the local Privateer support chap or press ganger was due to be making an appearance & Zarni had played it in the shop the previous Saturday whilst I was playing Cardfight Vanguard as I was booked to do. Indeed they just finished this when I finished Cardfight, & we went on to play Starship Merchants

until we had a bit of a communal senior moment in the last round & messed up the turn order & could not for the life of any of us work out how I was enjoying the game but would like to play it again before I come to any sort of conclusion, but I digress back to Level 7


Well our press gangerer did not show up & neither did the the other person who was eager to have another go at it apparently his washing machine(s) where getting out of hand or something likely story so I once again failed to play level 7 I will try again next week of I get the chance. Instead I was inveigled & bribed into play testing the new Milestones

which I rather liked a good fast game with some novel mechanics & some rather familiar ones the road & market building was very Catan in its feel. Unfortunately as it was the first run through the games normal zipping pace was disrupted but quite a bit of rules referencing & even more by the fact that the Roebuck was doing one of the players favourite beers as a guest ale  so it ran really long & I was forced to abandon it  due to a lack of  +:coffee=+::coffee: +:coffee=+::coffee: before it finished. I would like tom play it again under different circumstances & may be will at Raiders if I am not utterly knackered by the Magic Pre Release which is on the same day, & I get a go at Level 7!!!.

 >:DGinger

Wednesday Night – 29/08/2012

Tonight was my first Wednesday night this year and it was great to be back.

First game of the evening was ‘Glory to Rome’ the players were me, Zarniwoop, Oskar, Chris and Andy.  I amazingly won this game and did think about quitting the evening while ahead lol.  I won the game by completing the forum and collecting 1 of each type of advisor, Zarniwoop was a close second needing 2 more rounds to end the game.

Second game was ‘Lifeboats’ in which the crew and passengers are trying to survive in a lifeboat while heading for dry land and as normal gamers band together in factions and it all gets back staby very quickly for great fun.
Scores: Chris 23, Caz/Sally/Frog 18, Andy 15, Zarni 11.

The evening was wrapped up with ‘Citadels’ which as normal saw the poor architect getting assassinated most rounds with Phil spending lots of time as the Warlord and I was moonlighting as the thief/king/assassin.
Scores: Zarniwoop 29, Caz/Frog 24, Chris 22, Phil 21, Sally 18, Andy 17.

31 Oct 2012

Tonight we got in early enough to actually bag a table in the shop, the Wed nights are proving quite popular lately so often we are having to pop over to the pub to find a table to play on.

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/5845.jpg)

Whilst we waited for more people to turn up we kicked off with a quick game of Martian Dice (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=5845) which is an excellent little game, always fun to play and provides for a great little filler

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/thumb/5435.jpg)

We then had a game of Furstenfeld (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=5435) essentially this is an economics game where you sell hops, barley, and spring water to local breweries in order to make money to complete your palace. If a brewer receives more than he wants then the prices get less but if receives less then he needs the price goes up which makes it possible for players to manipulate prices for future turns. In order to help achieve this you can build improved fields or additional buildings to aid you along the way. Eventually you start to build your Palace, but in order to do this you have to sacrifice one of your buildings or fields. This leads to a shortage of areas earning you money, so planning how and when to start your Palace is crucial. I managed to start an early and cheap build of my Palace but then left myself short of income. This left the way for the more efficient players to beat me to completion of their Palaces. A really fun game that IO always enjoy playing. Still need to get round to playing the advanced rules but there is always B&P

Indeed a splendid game though the decision as to when to cover ones lovely production base with a palace is always fraught and quite often painful if as Zarni mentions not done at quite the right time. Not that its at all possible to see that without hindsight....

 >:DGinger

Just had some fun running through the new Karrrag Zarni got form Essen. Not quite sure what to make of it yet. I defiantly feel I, indeed we, missed something when playing it as there is a lot to do & a rather complex & variable action sequence of actions which I think demands some effort to learn.

I will admit the game did not leap up and enthuse me but I think that's because its a bit difrent form many games I have played before.


 >:DGinger

Played two games & was suitably sorry in the morning after three & a half hours sleep thoroughly enjoyed them both

Batavia

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/4039.jpg)

Which I won by a country mile despite getting stuck in the endgame for several turns & convincing myself thereby that I had not. Plays well & fluidly & can be picked up quite quickly without great & length rules exposition and or breaking the flow by having to dive into the rules for clarification.

Love to play this one again.

Thurn and Taxis

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/2899.jpg)

Splendid game which I had not had a chance to try before again deceptively simple in concept but quite fiendish to play as getting your game objectives - assembling increasingly long postal routes gets rather hairy & yet still fun. I can now see quite why this game is a classic. All this despite being beaten horribly.

defiantly want to play this one again as well


 >:DGinger

Sadly I will not be able to make it tonight but trust me I am getting prepared for Thursday night

 >:DGinger

28th November 2012

Arrived to find the usual suspects already engaged in gaming and a group at the back table about to start a game of Coup (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=n&tagno=&game=7231)
(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/7231.jpg)
Which in the end, I believe, ended being several games but as it is a quick game that is not surprising. I did get invited to play but another two late arrivals meant I deferred my place to them and began setting up for a game of Batavia (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=4039)

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/4039.jpg)
This being a Queen game the components are top notch with wooden pieces, great artwork and really well designed board.
Each player is a merchant trying to visit different trading posts to collect commodities a gain gold (victory points) with the richest merchant at the end of the game is the winner.
All players start with 15 promissory notes, a hand of 10 cards depicting one of the five East India companies and a number of crates, at the start of the round the first player rolls a dice and this is the number of cards dealt from the draw pile to be put up for auction along with first player. The person to the left of the start player bids for the cards and then everyone else ups the bis or passes. The winner of the bod gets the cards and first player then pays his bid as evenly as possible to all the other players.

On your turn you either draw 2 cards or you can play cards, in order to play cards you need to be able to lay enough cards to create a majority in one of the 5 East India companies, if you already have a majority then you can just play any card. When you have played as many cards as you want you then choose one of majorities you have and move your merchant to the nearest Trading post of that company on the track. You collect the trading post and put one of your crates on the match commodity space. If this trading post is from an East India company you have not previously collected from then you can opt to cash in a set of different trading posts for Gold. Each of the commodities has a slot for each of the 5 east India companies and vary in value, at the end of the game the person with the most crates for that commodity scores a number of gold (10-16 depending on which one) if two people tie then they both get a much smaller amount of gold each.

As more cards get laid out a Cannon is moved along a track to keep a count of the total, plus markers for each East India company keep track of how many cards of each company are out. When the Cannon reaches 21+ or 25+, depending on the number of players, the Pirates attack at the end of that players turn. When they attack the cards belonging to the East India Company with the most cards out are sunk and put in a discard pile, if one or more Companies tie for the most then all the cards for tied companies are removed. The markers are returned to zero and the Cannon moved back to reflect the current number of cards.

The end game is triggered when someone takes the Target Trading Post from the board, which scores the owner 4 Gold, this is taken when a trading post of the East India company the active player wants to move to is not available. That round is completed, players who find they are unable to move to a trading post have to take cards. The game is then scored, each player lays out all of their cards that remain in their hands and the majorities are then reassessed for each majority a player has they score 2 gold. The commodities are scored and finally the player with the most promissory noted gets 5 gold.

This game is quick to play, easy to teach but has plenty of strategy and depth. I find this a really fun game to play and will always be willing to get this to the table, there is certainly a amount of luck to this game but it does not detract from the enjoyment.

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/2414.jpg)
After this we went on to play Through the Desert (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2&sub=4&game=2414) which is a classic German game but still a lot of fun. Each player has the same set of coloured camels and the board is laid out with Oasis and scoring tiles. In turn players lay out their starting camels (which have a rider on of their player colour) one at a time, once they are all out play commences. Each turn players add 2 camels  to one of their camel trains, if they land on a scoring marker they take that, if they move next to an oasis they score 5pts and take a marker of that value from the pool, if they manage to surround an area with their camel train they can take the counters within and will score the spaces at the end. There are points for the largest Camel train in each of the colours and the end game is triggered when all of the camels of one colour have been used.

This game is quite fun but the pastel colours of the camels plus the fact there will be several players trains of the same colour means sometimes the board looks very busy and it is easy to get confused.
Nonetheless it is an enjoyable game.

Just had a cracking game of Core Worlds which I lost quite badly but I am afraid I underestimated the game thinking it like Eminent domain its not at all like it except in theme & I much prefer it of the two more to make you think & force you to chose when you very much want to do all the things you are forced to chose between.

(http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/5893.jpg) (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/image/comgames/7280.jpg)


more on this latter as I need to be up silly early in the morning again.

 >:DGinger

Having woken up & had some  +:coffee=+::coffee: I can now add something semi comprehensible to yesterdays report.

I did not intend to stay to be honest but got lured into a game of Tsuro by a Oskar who was waiting of  an Raiders command meeting, as an aside this was the original one & I need to have a go at Tsuro of the seas to see quite how it differs, & that rather put me in the mood for gaming hence stopping on to Play Core Worlds as reported above.

The game we played probably took longer than it should with it being the first time for most of us and the first time in quite a while for those that had played before but the game did not feel that it dragged at all indeed I was left rather wanting a couple more turns to finish my master plan of galactic conquest and wanting to get a copy of my own as I very nearly did when it first came out. We played with the expansion so I can not report on what the base game plays like. The only thing I am sure it changes or rather adds is the Galactic orders which took little part in the game but raised the  victory point totals in the final turn.

 >:DGinger