Conclave

I was very kindly invited to demo some boardgames at Conclave and promote Knavecon in September thanks to Gary of the Gathering in Limerick.

Conclave is the Gatherings annual games convention and it features a fine selection of gaming systems (Warhammer, Battletech, dreadball and a variety of other tabletop games). I hadn’t been in a few years and I have to say the con has gone from strength to strength. there were well over 200 attendees and a fine selection of support from game shops and companies. Conclave has grown year on year and is now very well respected as one of the best games cons in the country. The choice of Thomand Park as the venue was inspired

I got to meet, game and chat with a fine selection of gamers. A big shout out to those who dropped by to say hello and join me a few games. Skull and Roses was a huge hit 🙂

June 16, 2013 1

Conclave Eve Thur – Being a Drax Report

Had a small group on Thur so we played those games you never get a chance to play normally. In this case we got to play

QUARRIORS!

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/91536/quarriors

For some reason ‘got to catch them all’ keeps coming to my head when I see the adverts for this game but it couldn’t be further from the reality. Quarriors is a fair bit like Dominion with Dice

Possibly a bit unfair but there you go. I LIKE dice games. I like liar’s dice, I really like roll through the ages and I WANT to like Quarriors but it’s doing a damn fine job of evading my love. Granted we had too few to really give it a lash but it doesn’t seem to scale that well. I reckon it’s a full cast or no game.

Just like Dominion you start with two ‘hands’ of dice, this time in a bag, representing money. you draw six dice roll them and depending on what turns up you pay ‘qudditiy’ (gold) to power them or use your GOLD to buy creatures and enhancements. it then becomes a bit like Magic the Gathering where you attack your opponent and they defend possibly sacrificing their creatures.

Creatures surviving a round score glory (points) and the first to a set point target wins. it’s all harmless fun and the skill is in picking a winning strategy whilst defending against your opponent. NOW here’s the thing, I reckon we must be missing something because it’s all a bit weak. you build the biggest creatures you can afford and attack your enemy. Rinse and repeat. Fastest to get to the highest score wins. There was a distinct lack of strategy in this game so I’m going to hold off my opinion (It sucks) for now. As I said I like dice games (this one sucks) and want to like this so watch this space.

next up was ASCENDING EMPIRES

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37919/ascending-empires

Now THIS is more like it. I must admit I had no idea about it outside of the fact that it was a 4x game and it had spaceships in. As the saying goes, you had me at spaceships.

Ascending Empires is a very different game. You move around the map land troops, conquer planets, fight battles, carve out an empire. All standard stuff but movement of the ships is achieved by flicking your little round ships. If they collide with an enemy both ships die, if you outnumber your opponents ships within a certain range you destroy him.

Ships can be converted to troops to land on a planet, to build structures and to summon more troops. Structures can be used to score end game points or allow research of better stuff.

I LOVE this game. its simple, the flicking mechanic works perfectly. The board could be better. The joins between sections are a bit iffy in places and can affect your flick but it didn’t when we played it.

I’m going to bring this to Conclave (and possibly everywhere I go) and show it off. It’s a cracker and I’m surprised it didn’t make a bigger splash when it was released.

It’s no longer in print but there’s a few copies out there so you’ll get it secondhand easily enough.

So after Conclave tomorrow it’s back to thur and more Huzzahs

Huzzah!

Vic

June 14, 2013 0

Knavecon Facebook Page Launched

Thanks to Dave for the FANTASTIC art work for Knavecon. Starting to look good now. The Facebook Page is go!

https://www.facebook.com/knavecon

Knavecon Facebook Page Launched

June 13, 2013 0

Conclave 2013

I’ll be making an appearance at Conclave 2013 in Thomand Park this year (15th June). Looks like it’s going to be a good one. I’ll be there from 2pm onwards on Saturday running a number of board and card games. If anyone’s about give me a shout

Vic

June 10, 2013 0

My Thur Rages on – Being a Drax Report

Spartacus a big favourite of the group (and more importantly me) was supercharged on Thur with the addition of the first expansion for it “The Serpents and the Wolf”

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/134466/spartacus-the-serpents-and-the-wolf-expansion-set

spart

The group had been watching this with anticipation so when it was released we pounced on it like a starving cat in a lifeboat. first up, it’s good, it’s very nice indeed. This is definitely worth getting and they’re giving away a promo card (or two) with it.

I’d put money on it (not mine) that if they reprint the original this would be included, it screams “should have been in the original box but we were saving money to make the base version popular”

For your dolla you get two new dominus (it’s now six player), a stack of new gladiators and slaves, some very small rule additions and most importantly the ability to field teams of two v two. THIS is the whole sizzle of the expansion and not wanting to wait I forced the first match to be a 4 player.

The rules are that if your influence is 10 or over you can call a Primus (a 4 player) and an intrigue card can force this too. it makes for some very hairy races to the finish.

The game plays a tiny bit slower and you tend to analyse the 4 player moves a bit more carefully but it doesn’t slow it by much and I believe you would be back up to normal speed for the game pretty quickly. Because of how the game works even with six (and we had six on thur) it doesn’t leave people waiting too much, we flew through intrigue and market. With six in the running anything can happen.

The only thing I was unsure about was you can’t stab your team mate in the back unless you have a specific gladiator but I think a house rule would fix that. We’re ALL about the backstabbing on thur nights 🙂

This is a cracker of an addition. if you’re a fan of the original it’s pointless me saying but GO get this. it’s well worth the entrance fee. Oh yes and it’s NOT suitable for kids but it says that clearly on the box (as I’m sure an actress may have said to a Bishop)

a few rounds of Zombie Dice rounded out the evening. I didn’t win that either but I’ll still

Huzzah!

Vic

June 7, 2013 1

Zombie Dice

Have been trying to find games I can play with my 5 year old (have to think of the next generation of gamers) and I think this could be a hit

1. it’s cheap €12

2. It’s easy to play

3. It’s quick

4. It’s got Zombies in

More importantly he’s OK with the fact that the players will be the zombies in the game. He inquired and I had no idea why zombies LIKE brains but he didn’t press the matter.

If you haven’t played zombie dice it’s a very simple push your luck filler game. Well worth a look. It’s also out on iOS but that doesn’t capture the whole feel of the dice.

June 4, 2013 0

Thur Night Gaming – Being a Drax Report

Constantinople (Not Istanbul) was the weapon of choice on Thur night thanks to one of the Tue night crew and a damn fine game it was too, but before that there had to be a warm-up, Incan Gold. Some gamers forget to mentally stretch beforehand and this can lead to confusion and general malaise in the game proper. Take my advice, always warm up with a simple game beforehand to get the ol’ brain spinning up to playing speed. Right Incan gold. Boy of Boy It really is a weak game. Even as a filler it just raises it’s head above Letter of Marque 🙂

With our resident archaeologist all present we figured he’d take an early lead and as he explained one of the biggest issues with working on road projects just like Incan gold are the ever present dangers of zombies, giant spiders and rockfalls. We had always figured this to be the case however it was great to hear it from a professional and everyone nodded sagely and muttered ‘damn zombies’ before starting.

Well it ran for a few turns and someone won. can I be more specific? sure it was one of the lads who won and it happened before now. Enough of that it was time for Constantinople and I won’t be stopped

constantinopolis_1

The first thing you notice about Constantinople is the spelling and the fact that it’s not actually CALLED Constantinople. This in my opinion is clever but let’s not dwell on this.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31483/constantinopolis

Constantinopolis as they insist on calling it is Puerto Rico for grown ups. Don’t get me wrong I love Puerto Rico, it’s been good to me and mine but this is better and that’s damn close to burning heretic talk.

(the Mars bar was a prop and not a part of the game per se)

Being a Fantasy Flight there are many many fine pieces to it and the built quality if very nice indeed. It’s a semi solo game with a certain amount of cock blockery but the real skill is in managing your resources and scoring points and this is where it’s fun. Every point is hard won and there’s a lot of tension from start to finish where you every so slowly edge past your opponent (Drax, always Drax). Since this was our first game a lot of the strategy was lost on us but that didn’t matter, the game is a joy to play and I’m eager to play it again.

I have to say we’ve been having quite the run of good games and this is just another example with classic written all over it.

The game itself? oh it’s standard fair, you gains resources, stick em on ships and try and ship them, scoring points as you go but several routes all of the valid can help you on your quest. There’s a lovely flow to the game, for me it reminded me of Puerto Rico certainly but also through the ages and one or two others I can’t put my finger on. This is a damn fine game, it’s also fiver player not bad thing at all.

Definitely gets two thumbs from me

Huzzah!

More of that Next Thur

June 1, 2013 0

Knavecon 2 expanded

We’re aiming big for Knavecon II. We’ve decided to expand the venue to accommodate more people. So Knavecon II will be able to accommodate 100+ people comfortably (and unlike ryanair you can bring as much baggage as you can carry)

I’ve included a picture with Dec in the background to give you and idea of scale 🙂

Remember 7th September Knavecon II

Huzzah!

May 28, 2013 3

Sunny Thur Gaming – Night of Horror- Being a Drax Report

Well we finally got to play Mansion of Madness after several Thursdays of false starts and it was as good as I had hoped and more. The Mansions of Madness is a very nice model/map game set in the HP Lovecraft universe. 1920’s, unspeakable horrors from beyond, maniacs, tommy guns, hats. It’s got it all. The game itself in essence is a dungeon romp in the tradition of heroquest and it’s ilk but it’s very clever and the setting is magnificent.

Unlike say the excellent role playing game, this is competitive with the GM trying to kill/drive insane the investigators whilst the investigators are trying to solve the mystery against the clock. The game contains a lot of clever ideas and unlike some others games like this none of these are superfluous or counter productive. Despite being story driven the game has a fantastic replay value. Each of the six scenarios that come with the games have multiple branches so it’s quite possible to play the same scenario over and play a very different game.

A lot of thought has gone into this game and it’s obvious from the start. Like all FF games the quality is superb. like all FF games there are a LOT components, in the case of MOM there are a L O T of components and separating them out is a chore. Once bagged and tagged there is NO air in the game box.

The rules are excellent, straightforward and fast. The one thing against it is the setup time. It took us a LONG time to setup however if we all shut up talking shite (we could hardly do that) and got on with it I’d say we’d be up and going in under a half hour. what IS nice in setup is the invetigators have to setup the map whilst the GM sets up the pieces within.

SO how did it go?

The investigators stumbled in the house of lynch learning the rules as they went (which turned out simpler than we thought) and immediately did the thing demanded of all horror movies/games. Split up and go separate ways (possibly with candles and night dresses). Within a very short time axe weilding manics, zombies and other assorted bad stuff was all over them like a Brian. In fact one luckless investigator was like a maniac magnet, you couldn’t leave him alone in a room for five minutes to search but an axe wielding maniac would splinter the door and come for him. Despite the best efforts by the GM (me) to drive them mad, hack them to death I was unsuccessful but more importantly so were they and the time ran out for them and in the case of the scenario I picked that was all she wrote for the hapless investigators. Queue Thunder and Lightning and manic laughter.

Overall this is a fantastic game, definitely one of the better games I’ve played in a long time. We seem to be having quite the run of good games lately with Spartacus, Waterdeep and this.

More of this sort of thing I say

and now that I’ve learned the rules (mostly)

It’s going to be hitting the table again soon

Hail Cthulhu !

May 24, 2013 2

Listen Here Partner Thur – Being a Drax Report

It was high noon (8:30) and the folks in the homestead had fixed a mess of food (put on the coffee), reckon it was time to play Way out West

But before any of that could happen we had to play

Letter of Marque
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29096/letter-of-marque

I got this as a swapsee and I can see why it was swapped to me. It’s grand in a sort of Bread is grand kinda way. I had not strong feelings about it one way or the other and I’m sure it will hit the table again. it’s a bluffing/guessing game with a bit of card counting. nothing special and it has ships in which is always good. it’s very quick and we flew through 2 or 3 games of it before the main event.

WAY OUT WEST
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/884/way-out-west

Soundtrack from Good the Bad and the ugly – CHECK
Coffee – CHECK
Cowboy quotes – CHECK
Spittoon – eh no

I like this game and want to play it again. It’s pretty past. there’s a LOT of in your face aggression (although we may have taken this a bit far as there wasn’t a whole passel of development, just a few wounded cowboys and a lot of cattle and tumbleweed at the end). It’s a semi worker placement game for want of a better term. it’s not so much about cock blocking other locations on players although this does play a part, it’s more about and a lot of fun for that russeling cattle, muscling in on other players patches and generally causing mayhem whilst trying to maintain your own economy.

It’s great fun, it really is and the cowboy theme works really well. The rules are very straightforward although the original ones in the box are a bit confusing and a better set can be downloaded from BGG.

There were shootings, stagecoach robbery, rebranding of cattle, sheriffs killed and banks robbed. Not bad for the first turn. Newton got behind and being the decent group we are we picked on him continually for the whole game until he was eliminated. Always kick a man when he’s down just in case.

Drax (an expert in cattle and cattle prevention) started to slip ahead but was brought under control by the combined agreement of The enemy of my enemy is my friend for this turn or at least until he does what I want and then he’s my enemy again. Cattle swapped hands a lot, there were a LOT of shootouts, truth be told I don’t think a single turn passed without one and in the end… I think drax won it. Strong cattle management and stronger muscle and bully tactics won the day

So after that and with a little time left we had a lash of half Tishu (500pts).

Great game, team Awesome split and fought against each other and despite some nice play by the weaker half of team awesome , good prevailed and I won (I mean my team won). Drax lost. Cosmic Balance was restored

More of that next Thur

Huzzah!

May 17, 2013 0