Big Bang Burger Bar

Date: Sunday, 25 November 2012.

Time: 12:00

Location:
New Talbot,
349 Anglesey Road,
Town Centre,
Burton Upon Trent
DE14 3PF

In the spirit of Essen games releases, here is a free add-on to Autumn B&P. Space for 50-60 gamers, Pedigree at £2.95 a pint and coke at 85p a glass. Board games, historical wargaming and a spot of Magic so far, arrange anything else through Spirit Games (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk) or of course here ;)

May very well be along with the stuff for Dux Brittanarium but would gladly settle for any sort of game.

 >:DGinger

I am all packed & ready to go I have DUX to hand & have a small game of FoW I hope planed it should be good


 >:DGinger

Had a brilliant time which I will report on properly latter

 >:DGinger

More of a proper report of what I ended up playing

Started with the new The Palaces of Carrara
An interesting game about building different types of building in a variety of cities involving a couple of rather interesting mechanics including a fluctuating, but normally decreasing cost market mechanism & partially secret partially public scoring mechanisms. I quite liked it but it was a game where practice helped & one should expect to do badly in ones first game which I duly did.

Moving on

I played the new version of Glory to Rome


This is a game I have played before and rather enjoyed using the old version of the game which is as far as I can tell mechanically very much the same. This one is rather let down by its appearance, rather drab,  & the ambiguity of the  cards with the new artwork, this is a bit of a downer as the cards have a number of related roles and its rather important to distinguish one form the other. I did rather better than my first run but still got trashed & came last.

Started to play Magnifico: DaVinci's Art of War


However as this was going to take rather more time than we had avalible at that point and several of the prospective players had not played it before so we aborted that. This is defiantly one for the next raiders or a Boardgames in the shop Saturday 

Instead we  played Powergrid using the UK & Eire expansion.




Had a lot of fun with this one & did considerably better than I had in my previous games I still came last or close to but I think I am getting the hang of this. I also rather like the map we used.

Other than that I got a fairly good look at my first game of FoW though I did not get to play & my Dux troops got left in their boxes along with Phils Byzantine's. Some of My Dux scenery got used in the FoW game however.

I look forward to challenging Sanjeev & his colleague to a game of several of FoW & may be show him the true way to do WWII company level games with IABSM3


Over all it was a good venue even for a pub event & I think every one had fun I certainly did

 >:DGinger

Well, that went rather well for a pilot edition. There were 20 or so players, some already waiting in the bar at the noon opening time, and the last departing after 11.00 in the evening. The function room at the Talbot worked every bit as well as hoped, the tables are an ideal size, and extra lighting is easily arranged - not all the bulbs were in place as it has hitherto been used for evening entertainment where subtle lighting was appropriate. With even my eyesight coping, it was just about OK anyway.
Tea and coffee were on tap on a self-service basis at 50p a cup, the coke was a decent price as promised and the Pedigree was excellent.

The opportunity was taken to try out several more of the recent boardgame releases; I tried and liked The Palaces of Carrara (http://spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2%E2%8A%82=4&game=7187), and renewed my acquaintance with Glory to Rome (http://spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2%E2%8A%82=4&game=7001). The new version has slightly less flavour than the original, but is easier to remember, which was a good thing under the circumstances.

After a break for pizzas, delivered by a reputable local emporium, we realised that there would not be time for the planned Magnifico (http://spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2%E2%8A%82=4&game=5615) - now a definite for Boxing Day - at which point Gary reminded me that I had promised to teach him Power Grid (http://spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2%E2%8A%82=4&game=2010). He had just purchased both the main game and the brand new Great Britain expansion (http://spiritgames.co.uk/single.php?menu=2%E2%8A%82=4&game=7130), so the opportunity was taken to try that out. With all the action taking place in a relatively small area, it makes for a fierce game, quite a baptism of fire for the two newbies. One of them won, nevertheless, with Sally taking second.

I had taken along assorted scenery, which was put to good use as Sanjeev had taken his new Flames of War (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/results.php?search=flames+of+war&menu=5) models along and found a suitable mentor, thus leaving much better versed in the game than when he arrived, exhausted after a half-hour walk from the station. I must admit, Anglesey Road does seem to go on for ever. The Talbot is dead easy to find, though, and parking was not a problem. We also had a decent turnout of Magic players, with the return of Dan Swain who joined the Ravnica League at the bottom of the ladder but had clawed his way up two places by the end of the day. He needed many hours of play to recover from the horror of having to miss the last Friday Night Magic.

We are all set for a return to the Talbot on Sunday January 27th, which coincides with the next MtG pre-release so there will be plenty of Magic players as well as the return of contented board gamers. In-house food is being arranged too; all in all, it looks set to be a rather good regular venue

I rather like the idea of making this a regular venue


 >:DGinger