Nations Thur – Being a Drax Report

There are at least a dozen jokes made each gaming session, all of them based on the game we’re playing and all schoolboy humour of the highest order. Some of them are even funny. Some of them. “Have you got wood for sheep?” (Settles or Catan), “Fill my ship with Seamen” (Serenissima), “My Turtle wins because he’s on top” (Pedzace Zotwie). Yes, the evenings just fly by! A new one materialised last night “you’re man rich”. But I digress

If you’re now in innuendo mode please switch back to normal or it will take twice as long to read this review

It was a hot, wet night in Murroe. Ok OK, stop it now. back to normal I said. We started with a quick lash of eight minute empire which took fifteen minutes with four players. enough said about that

Then the piece of resistance arrived. NATIONS

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/126042/nations

For some reason madam yer wan or whomever it is reminds me of Supergirl doing here whole, “leave this place and do no harm” thing but that’s neither here nor there.

Nations is a game quite similar to Through the ages but quite different in ways

I’ve ranted about Through the ages before. It’s a GREAT game, a great great game however like all great games it has it’s faults, it’s long (3-4 hours+), it’s only four players, it doesn’t have much variety, it’s unforgiving and it only works well if all the players are at the same level.

It’s like the designers of Nations decided to rewrite it and change all of those points. so here goes

Nations is

Up to Five Players
Plays in maybe 2 hours
It has a HUGE variety of cards
Wars and mistakes aren’t the end of the world
you can handicap/boost players based on their skills

Actually the more I think about it the more I like it.

Everyone starts in the stone age with a few basic buildings that allow you to raise a meagre amount of food/ore/gold/stability/research ALL of which are important

There’s a touch of eclipse about it, insofar as you can start with a standard civilisation where everyone has the same abilities from the off or you can pick a different one so say Egyptians start with the pyramids which give them bonuses in one area but miss out on something a basic nation gets. I like that it’s neat.

As the game progresses you can spend gold to buy advanced buildings, advisor’s (leaders), military units, battles, wars and wonders all of which adjust and affect the income and spend of your various resources. It’s a fairly complex game but you’ll pick it up pretty quickly if it’s explained right (which it was) and it’s certainly a little simpler to play that Through the ages. Gone is happiness of your people, gone is revolt (well it works differently) and the whole thing feels a little bit easier to juggle without the killer of TTA where if you mess up one little thing you might as well give up now.

I’m not going to explain all the rules it’s far too complex and better rule readers than I can do that on boardgamegeek but here’s a few highlights

Like TTA it’s all about getting the right cards, getting the right rhythm for you building whilst blocking others from doing the same. Again like TTA you don’t directly affect others you just throw massive military spanners in the works and deflect people from the important purpose of building libraries and onto the important business of building spears.

There are eight rounds in the game spanning four ages after which each round a mini scoring round happens with a big score at the end. There’s several ways to pick up and quite often lose victory points and no one path to victory.

Something I really like about the game is you get a ton of cards for each age and you only pick a few so replay value of this game is very high indeed and there will never be two games exactly the same.

Our game rattled on with a few interruptions for about 2.5 hours. Not bad at all. I lost, it’s ok, I’m over it now. I was playing to learn and it was my first game and lots of reasons which I don’t need to explain. Let’s move on, nothing to see here.

Would I buy it? yes I would. It’s a great game. It does need another game for it to sink in but I really liked it and all those bullet points had me sold from the get go. The production values of the game are good, better than most but not quite up there with Fantasy Flight games. I can see this being reprinted in different stock at some stage but any copy is good.

This is solid, fun game, I take my hat off to the designers who seem to have gotten it all right. If you like TTA you’ll love this game

We rounded off with a bit of knifey spoony coup (don’t ask)

More of that next week

Huzzah!

Vic

January 24, 2014 2

Eight Minute Thur – Being a Drax Report

It’s quite usual for players to just pip others by a point or two to win a game, truth be told it’s the best part of gaming however whenever a final score is 0 v 80 v 2,800,000 questions need to be asked…..

We started the evening with Eight Minute Empire

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/131366/eight-minute-empire

It’s a filler game but unusually it’s an map based empire game which usually take a number of hours to play out. Not so in this case, around twenty minutes and you’re done. The game is simplicity itself and it is very elegant. There is nothing superfluous about EME, you can pick up the rules in 5 minutes and it has elements from a number of it’s bigger cousins.

Each player starts with a set amount of money used to buy a card each turn from a line of six in a similar way to through the ages or small world. The further up the line the more expensive they are. As cards are bought the line is replenished from the deck in an conveyor style. Once you’ve played a certain amount of turns based on number of players it’s game over and count the score.

The cards have three functions, they keep a track of how many turns you’ve taken, they each have a resource type which is used for scoring at the end (you’re looking to collect sets of resources for bonus points just like 7 wonders) and they dictate the action you can take this turn.

Each players starts with three armies in the central part of the map (the game comes with a couple of maps and it would be easy to knock together new ones on an A4) and depending on the card they pick they can

Move their troops, Muster more either at the start or where they have a city, build a city, destroy enemy troops, cross water to another continent. The whole idea is to have the most guys in a particular region and better still have dominance of a continent each worth a few points.just like Age of Empires III

It’s fun, it’s quick, it’s lightweight, I can’t see fistfights starting over it but I like it and I want another game

Next up was

The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game

The RNHRG is a family friendly, STOP COME BACK IT’S GOOD! horse racing game which is a lot more fun that I had thought it would be. Each player starts with a stable of six horse rated from 1 (Arabian Stallion) to 6 (Unwashed pantomime horse), they secretly enter each horse in a race, work out the odds, bet on a horse and then try their best to win or more sneakily help the horse they’ve bet heavily on win. Along the way Really Nasty Cards can be thrown down to ruin a riders day, falling at jumps, stewards inquiry that sort of thing.

It’s surprisingly quick and it IS a lot of fun but there is more than a smidgen of luck involved, but then again betting is a mugs game and having done really well all game I lost it in the last two races, one of the others catapulted himself into a lead with a stellar score £2,800,000 to my paltry £80. Yes it’s silly, it’s fun, It’s not bad at all. I can see this being a great xmas game for families and I’m sure we will take it out again, probably next week.

For no good reason we pulled out a kids game called Waldschattenspiel or Shadows in the woods

I’ve spoken a long time back about this, it’s very different. One player takes the part of troll and can move around a path based on his dice roll, the others play the role of dwarfs who can move around and hide but cannot move through the light cast by the troll (who is a little tea light). It’s a lovely idea, you play it in the dark, not so sure about the game play but it was interesting enough for a good ten minutes. A tricky one to play at a con though !

Last off we had some more Coup which I’ve spoken about way to much and that was it

Thanks for the Caramel Squares which were both frightening and immensely satisfying to quote one of the day lads when they were revealed “Holy Shit, there’s an inch of everything!”

Good gaming,

Huzzah!

Vic

January 17, 2014 0

Wet as an otter’s pocket Thur – Being a Drax report

Different people like different games, it’s like anything in life, some like Jaffa Cake Muffins some don’t…. (yes we had home made Jaffa cake muffins for Thur night gaming thanks to my wonderful missus). I like Leader 1 but the last group to play it were pretty ho hum about it. They didn’t DISLIKE it they just didn’t love it and well I LOVE this game. We had a big group on Thur which is always good so we split in two and while one group played Agricola our group played…. Leader 1. But I digress, first up was COUP

I’ve been ranting a bit about this game and we got to play the extra rules which makes for very interesting team play.

If you’ve been following my last column I mentioned COUP it’s a very neat filler game where players take on the roles and actions of various characters or at least claim to have those characters and try and be the last person standing. It’s a bluff game. Just like resistance. Matter of fact it’s by the same guys. Now where it gets more interesting is where each player starts on a team either Protestant or Catholic (it doesn’t matter really it could be team A or team B or itchy or scratchy whatever you’re having yourself) and they can only attack players on the opposite team. They can still call the bluff of their own team. To make it even more interesting for 1 coin they can swap teams and presumably avoid a bullet or pay two coins and make another player part of the opposite team they are currently on. This is a goodie I highly recommend coup. It’s the most fun game we’ve played so far this year and there’s only another 50+ gaming nights to go 🙂 Oh yes it’s also a Definite for Knavecon on the 1st March

We decided to split into two groups (let’s call them “my group” and “not my group”) and my group had a crack at Leader 1

All of the players bar myself hadn’t played but were avid racing fans and were slapping on the shammy cream in anticipation of playing this game. They’d previously played Rallyman and this wasn’t a 100 miles from that. What ensued was a great nights gaming.

The game starts with each player in this case picking two specialist riders from a choice of three, climbers (good at hills), Sprinters (good on the flat) and Leaders (a bit of both). Then the mass of riders known as the peloton belts off with all the riders safely tucked inside. It starts slowly enough with the riders peddling along happily keeping and eye on each other and then BANG! someone makes a break for it and others may or may not follow them. Just like real cycling the break away group try and stay ahead of the peloton and make it to the line before everyone else.

Buried in the photocopies we found a scorecard and realised (not surprisingly) we’d been playing wrong or more accurately winning wrong, just like formula 1 it’s points based on the two riders finishing position, so 50pts for the first rider over the line, 46 for the second and so on, SO finishing first doesn’t guarantee a win by any means if the next team get two high finish points with both their riders.

A fairly early break by three hill climbers set the pace, they did really well ascending then descending the mountain (we could nearly hear the whiz of peddles on the downhill) they were very quickly followed by the remaining riders who all broke cover and pursued them down the hill.

It was fast and tense. Riders jockeyed for position, trying to slipstream then pass the riders ahead of them. The hill climbers out of their natural element started to falter, burning through their reserves of energy on the flat ground. The downhill specialists reeled them in then passed them followed by a lone leader. One canny rider held back until near the finish then took off burning through cakes worth of energy (c) to pass everyone. The peleton kept it’s relentless pursuit and towards the end the horror settled on the players. The hill climbers would be caught by the peloton and absorbed again and there was nothing they could do. They were. Just before the last sprint the peloton swept in and took them back, three riders never finished and somehow… I won. Both my riders made it and although they came I think it was 3rd and 4th or maybe 4th and 5th their combined score won it…. FOR ME!!! YESSSS!!!!!

Best game ever ! 😛

While this was all going on not my group were enjoying Agricola. I’ve played it only once and very badly so I can’t comment and my head was down trying to slipstream during the whole thing so I leave it to someone who was there to describe it

http://dooradoyle.com/gaming/thursday-night-week-2-agricola/?fb_action_ids=10202723009737090&fb_action_types=og.likes

Last up was a bit of warm down Coup and we all headed home

A FINE nights gaming, more of that I say!

Huzzah!

Vic

This Drax Report is dedicated to the memory of my oldest friend Chris Maher who tragically and unexpectidly died last weekend. Chris was an avid gamer whom I grew up with and over the last 30+ years we had clocked a huge amount of hours happily gaming together. You are sadly missed old friend.

January 10, 2014 3

First Thur of 2014 Thur – Being a Drax Report

The call went out for gamers to cast off the yoke of eating, new year spirit and goodwill to all men and get back in the sodden trenches of backstabbery and pettiness that is thur night gaming. We were not left wanting.

A number of the lads had gotten presents of boardgames for xmas and we all eagerly stuck our snouts in their gaming troughs and snuffled deep of new cardboard and rules. Truth be told (and this is one of the things that makes Knavecon such a good thing) there is nothing to beat someone bringing a new game to the table, knowing the rules and being able to explain them properly. Once again we had that last night with, Terra Mystica

But before that all started we had a lash of a game I was lucky enough to get for xmas, COUP

Coup is a neat little bluffing game by the same guys that did The Resistance

Each person takes two random cards which represent the influence they have on the court (the government). The deck consists of five sets of three duplicate cards the Captain, Ambassador, Assassin, Contessa and Duke. These are kept face down so no-one knows what everyone else has. Each of the cards have a particular action associated with it (the captain can steal, the duke tax and so on) and anyone can do any of these actions but in doing so they CLAIM they have those cards in their hand. So it’s all about bluffing. Where it gets interesting is where someone calls an action and someone else shouts “PULL THE OTHER ONE!” or words to that effect and one or other is incorrect. the loser has to turn one of their cards face up and if both of their cards are face up, that it’s they’re out of the round. Be the last person standing and you win.

It plays very quickly. you can have it done in five minutes, but we found that after a while the game became much more cagey with people not willing to risk their positions to stop others.

I liked it, I’m definitely going to play a bit more of this and I think it would play well over several rounds just like poker where you try and figure out the person rather than the cards.

SO onto the meat and potatoes (or turkey and sprouts if you will).

Terra Mystica is a game I have heard about over and over for the last year. It’s never been described as anything but awesome so I was delighted to get a crack at it.

Three things that struck me about it

There’s a lot of pieces
a lot of rules
it’s surprisingly fast

Luckily enough the game owner knew the rules and after a good half hour of explaining we were shakily off. It’s worker placement big style. There’s a LOT going on, a constant balancing act and although I thought it might get bogged down with analysis, play is swift. Each player gets one of 14 races and attempts to terraform the lands around them and build the biggest city, get the highest score and if possible cock block other players. There are numerous routes to victory and everyone’s race plays differently so it has a fantastic replay value. As a game it plays a BIT like stone age, puerto rico and a number of others but it is pretty unique in itself.

Having played one game I’m eager to play another and interestingly I think once setup you could play it within an hour. It’s certainly not the game I expected but that’s no bad thing. What I really liked about it is even though it’s relatively complex (it wouldn’t be the best game to teach a new gamer) none of the mechanics are superfluous or bolted on. I also liked that everyone got it very quickly indeed after the first turn.

As for turns it only has six and it whips around very quickly. There’s very little downtime as you’re constantly thinking about where to go next to leverage a bit of advantage. This game demands another replay and then another

After that we played Cthulhu Gloom

Cthulhu Gloom is a themed version of Gloom (I sound like I played gloom but I haven’t). It features a very nice mechanic of transparent cards which fit over each other and add bonus/negatives to each of the cards. The weird story is, you have to depress your four family members and then bump them off (no I have no idea why) and then everyone scores the depressed score for all your dead family members….. yes it’s a bit weird, but it’s not bad. Certainly a filler and at the late hour it was played it was tough to get an overall picture of it. The cards really are excellent, the whole transparent thing is superb

We also managed to get in a game of Cards Against Humanity and then it was high time to pull the plug and get some sleep.

Good start to the year

Huzzah!

Vic

January 3, 2014 1

The Last Thur Thur – Being a Drax Report

I’ve always loved the Romulian War Birds. They’re way cooler than the federation ships and they can cloak. I didn’t realise until lately the ships are considerably bigger than the federation ones, three times the size or so oh and a big plus….. the Romulian’s are a devious bunch of weasels, so all in all my kind of people.

I had been teased by Star Fleet Captains for some time. One of the guys had it and it never hit the table due to a number of circumstances but on the last gaming Thur of 2013 out it came in all it’s glory. but before that it was more ribbit (or turtles game as it’s known in our group). Lots and lots of Turtles game, before Star Trek, after Star Trek, I’m surprised we didn’t play it during Star Trek. it’s still a hugely popular game and it’s well worth picking up as a super filler

Right the meat and pasta, Star Fleet Captains by Wizkids

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/79127/star-trek-fleet-captains

Starfleet Captains does a fine job of capturing the spirit of the Star Trek Series. You each take a fleet of ships and boldly go exploring and resolving encounters and scoring victory points, hopefully more quickly than your opponent. It’s NOT as I thought it would be, a straight out fight against your opponent, it’s more than that, yes you get to knock hells bells out of other ships but that won’t win the game alone (although it’s great fun).

http://boardgamegeek.com/image/1109065/star-trek-fleet-captains

The first you notice is, the game is really nicely produced, the models are really good. A nice chunky size (bigger than x-wing) and fairly good details on them. They’re a lot like the models from Star Trek Attack Wing. We had both the base game (Starfleet and Klingons) and the expansion (Romulans) and each of the races play in a distinct way. Starfleet is all about science, the Klingons about attacking and the Romulans about espionage, sneaking about and being weasley. Each of the players at the start pick a sub faction of command cards within the races so each of them can have a more attacky or more espionagey (it’s a real word) style of play.

At the start each player gets a number of mission cards which may or may not be secret (not played face up) which give bonus points for achieving certain objectives. The galaxy is laid out as a set of randomly picked hex cards face down that get explored as your ships enter them. Both teams (did I mention it was a two player/two team game?) set up in the corners in their bases and a whistle is blown and off into the inky blackness we go.

Points are scored for rocking into a new sector, drawing an encounter card and completing it which requires testing against the ships different systems, sensors, weapons, shields, engines. It’s possible in wizkids dial style to adjust your ship to have more shield power but less weapons, more engine but less sensors and so on. Thus set-up you go out and do your best. (Top tip, keep your shields on high if you’re playing with my group)

When battles occur ships in the same sector throw dice adding weapons strength versus shield strengths, if successful the damaged ship’s dial moves to yellow section with reduced function and then red and finally destroyed. It’s a simple system and it keeps battles snappy. It is immense fun to arrive into a sector with a smaller ship and hammer seven bells out of it leaving it severely damaged (and why wouldn’t it be). Command cards can be throw at combat to assist and terrain (nebulas, black holes etc.) all have an influence on combat. My tactic at the romulas was to cloak and run away, rinse and repeat.

The game does take a little bit of set-up, the board and the cards, but nothing too bad and if you’re smart enough to put it away the way you got it it speeds that bit up considerably.

All in all I liked this game, my only gripe would be that it is in essence a two player game or in our case a two team game. I’d definitely play it again. I lost and I lost for my team. It didn’t help that a buddy of mine from WAY back appeared to join us for games whom I hadn’t gamed with in the guts of 20 years and in between taking my turn we fell to talking shite and catching up. I also thought it very unfair that the first words out of his mouth were “Hey guys, you know not to trust Vic right?”. It’s been going on that long

It’s a nice game, it demands a replay and I’m more than ok with that.

Now since it was the last Thur with the regular group I have to say that all in all it’s been a great years gaming. I’ve enjoyed gaming with what seems like a new game every week and we’ve been fortunate enough to have some great people join us for games (plus everyone else)

Me personally I’m looking forward to more of this sort of thing in 2014. Again thanks to all those who took part on Thur nights in 2013 and those who came to Knavecon. Assuming I survive playing Cards Against Humanity with my in-laws at xmas there’ll be more from me soon

Happy Xmas gamers!

Huzzah!

Vic

December 21, 2013 0

xmas Eve Thur – Being a Drax Report

I learnt a new word (and it’s not a curse this time) “Peloton” and I’m going to use it at least half a dozen times in the review of LEADER 1 which I received as a swap for something else that displeased me.

Leader 1 is a bicycle racing game where players through careful management of their energy race across a varied race stage against the others.

In it’s favour it’s got

Can accommodate lots of player (10 I believe)
It’s quick (about and hour or so)
It’s fun
It’s got really keen models of cyclists in a variety of colours

Against

The rules are pretty poor being translated from another language (possibly Vulcan) to English. That said there’s a number of rewritten rules available on the web.

It’s a fairly simple game, it doesn’t take long to get the hang of it and the rules can be revealed slowly to new players as the game unfolds without shouts of “you never said that!” which can often mar other games when experienced gamers sometimes try and protect new players from the intricacies of games by revealing critical rules just before they slam dunk a win.

The game starts with the Peloton, a bunch of riders all huddled together like emperor penguins and all breaking wind in front of each other seemingly, (these cyclists are a rum bunch) The pelton which is led each turn by a different leader tips along the course which consists of flats, hills, steep climbs, descents and more flats or whatever you’re having yourself based on the setup.

Each player has one or more cyclists, each a specialist in hill climbing or sprinting or a bit of both and can decide to go for it and break from the bunch and try and make it to the finish line before the others. The trick is to decide when to go for it and to manage the cyclist’s energy so they don’t get burnt out before the finish line.

There’s a real skill in this and real schadenfreude in seeing a rider who’s burnt all their energy get caught again by the pack.

Things like cobbled roads, slip-streaming, feeding stations add to the complexity but the game remains fast and really good fun.

The closest game to this would be Formula De or Rallyman however I think this is a far superior game to these two. There’s less luck involved (certainly less than Formula De), the tracks are much more variable and it has nice little models of cyclists (who have a habit of falling off)

One funny thing is there are no win conditions in the rules (I had it checked), so we figured it was first over the line although it could be interesting to give points based on finish position.

There’s extra rules for playing a longer game with a number of stages. Overall like Ming I’m pleased with this and will not blast it into space until it displeases me

I didn’t win btw

Next up was the old favorite Lords of Waterdeep. This game is still hugely popular and we had some new players who learnt it very quickly. I DID win at this. Great game, best game ever

More of this Next Thur

Huzzah!

Vic

December 13, 2013 4

Struggle of Thur – Being a Drax Report

We (well I) decided to play Struggle of Empires on Thur. It’s a game I’ve been interested in playing for some time and it was worth waiting for. The rules were carefully read, squinted at, cheatsheets downloaded, read, read again, misunderstood, read again and finally tried out

The group has had a taste for longer games having played a lot of shorter ones of late and this one (unlike Rex) looked like a winner.

Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way straight away. The biggest problem with Struggle is getting your head around the rules. If you’ve gamed for a while you come to it with preconceived notions on movement, support etc. They’re all wrong. This is NOT risk, this is not Diplomacy it’s something different. Add to this the tutorial videos online (some blokes with beards blabbing on about how it doesn’t represent the real 19th century, for four hours) and you really have to play it to understand it, then play it again.

The game is (remember it’s just a game not a simulation) a representation of colonial power in the 19th century . It plays out over a series of 3 wars where each player gets to build and move troops, build improvements and exert their power across the globe. It’s a hoot.

The war starts by bidding on allies so you know who won’t be stabbing you in the back during THAT war. then it’s straight to the ships and getting control of the world whilst more importantly denying others the same. The battle mechanics are simple and fast. once you get your head around the improvement cards it’s got a lot of depth and it really is a struggle to balance unrest, gold and troops (a feat I couldn’t do).

I really liked the movement rules. if you have a ship somewhere you can go there, no turtling in the corners, no building up steamroller forces. It’s constant war from start to finish and it’s gloriously fun with lots of vengeance and sneaky play.

I’m eager to play this again, in fact I wouldn’t be shocked if it hits the table next thur. As for time it really did whip around after the first war where we were just getting the hang of it. There’s very little down time, you’re either doing it to others or hoping not to be on the receiving end in someone else’s turn.

I like it, I want more of this, I will rule the world

Huzzah!

Vic

December 8, 2013 2

Rex Thur – Being a Drax Report

I’ve bought into too many gaming backgrounds, I’m now suffering from cynical background syndrome (c) so if a game is going to plaster on the fluff thick it had better be good. Aliens that look like turtles and tigers just doesn’t cut it.

The Twilight Imperium universe is… generic. I’m sure if I read all the fluff it would be great and the bad guys would be really evil but in some ways good and the good guys really troubled and YAWN! I couldn’t be bothered. There are no good guys when you game so get to the mechanics already.

Rex. Final Days of an Empire is a game we revisited after a wee break. The group has been hungry for a big epic game after thurs of multiple small lite games. So Rex fit the bill… or so we thought

It’s a remake of the 1976 DUNE game and unfortunately Fantasy Flight didn’t get the IP for that setting so they transplanted the game to the Twilight Imperium universe they had hanging around and it’s got tiger and turtle people in it. So as far as fluff goes, I’m out. Thanks very much

As for the game, well the nice thing about it and I really like is every one of the races play a little differently. Some are peacekeepers, some make money from weapon sales, some predict who will win etc. etc. This makes for a very different game but there are two problems from the off

1. you NEED six players, no more no less or it just doesn’t work

2. those Six intrepid players need to be familiar with the game

If you can assemble such a crew you’re in for an interesting nights entertainment (sans fluff). If like us you played with five it’s just not the same. It’s not a bad game with less it’s just not an epic game. Speaking of which the game is not what you think, it’s all about alliances and working together (no wonder it didn’t work with our guys), but (and we’re back in comfortable ground now) it’s about stabbing your ally in the back.

I’m tempted to write this game off based on last thursdays play but from a lot of soul searching (I don’t have one so it was a short search) I think it deserves another go. in the future. once we get through some other epic games

We played it twice btw. One of the players who won it in two turns while we weren’t watching so we played it again. Someone else won. I can’t remember it certainly wasn’t me and it didn’t look like it was going to be me from the get go

You’re on a warning Rex, I’m going to assemble six players and try you again but if you fail me once more… it’s the trading pits for you, you’ve been warned.

More of this next week

Huzzah!

Vic

December 1, 2013 0

Viva la Revolution Thur

Sometimes games turn up in the oddest of places, in this case TK Maxx in Arklow. I had heard that TK Maxx was doing boardgames in the last few weeks and Limerick was sold out so by chance I found myself in Beautiful Arklow and browsing the kids section

Last week I was talking about The Hobbit Card game that I had picked up for €6, this week we got to play Steve Jackson’s Revolution which cost me the paltry sum of €12.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34887/revolution

First up was a few games of Ribbit (or the turtle game from Poland)

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9441/ribbit

It’s a great little game, and it’s a super fast filler for five people. Every time we play it we say

1. You could play this for money (not me I keep losing)

2. You could add some interesting rules

I’ve spoken about it before so I won’t rant on (it’s just not me) but I recommend getting this game both for adults and kids

The main game of the night was

Revolution!

This is in essense a very simple game, it’s a hidden bidding game where players try to gain control of different areas of the map spending their influence and also trying to grab more influence to use in following turns. It’s very simple, it’s also very bloody good. Even half way through we had come up with several strategies for winning (none of which won btw).

Now usually I’m not a fan of Steve Jackson games but he does bring out some crackers and this is one of them (so is zombie dice)

If I had to fault it I’d say it’s only 4 player BUT there’s an expansion out there for 6 so I reckon (price dependant) I’ll be looking for that

Then we all talked rubbish about Knavecon for a good hour + and went home very happy

Huzzah!

Vic

November 23, 2013 0

Just another Thur Thur – Being a Drax Report

There’s a chap in Russia who in the name of art nailed his undercarriage to red square. I’m sure he thought it was a great idea at the time but regretted it fairly quickly. I was pretty much in the same boat as comrade holey purse last Thur night when we all played Relic . But I digress…

First up was

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/130626/the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey-das-kartenspiel

The Hobbit an unexpected journey card game courtesy of TK Maxx which occasionally stocks weird and wonderful games. No it’s NOT that card game it’s the other one with DAS KART a the start.

It’s a Reiner Knizia game based on another Reiner Kniza game so absolutely nothing to do with the hobbit just the pictures of the boys and a card placement game that’s similar to ever other game he did. It’s fine. it’s got card counting, it’s fairly quick but it does take up a lot of table space. all in all meh.

Now the (pardon the pun) meat and two veg of the night RELIC

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128442/relic

Relic is Talisman with a Space Marine Theme bolted on and some extra mechanics. It’s from Fantasy Flight so it’s all very nicely put together (the board is very busy looking tbh) with very good production qualities. If you like Talisman you’ll like Relic. I don’t like Talisman. 12 year olds probably like Talisman. I couldn’t say. But this thing just drags on and on and on until someone gratefully wins. There’s no interaction with the other players. It’s pretty much all dice based. This could one of the games from Winning Streak.

The idea is to build up a character and get him into the centre to win. There are three concentric rings where you can pick cards and fight stuff each of which is more difficult, don’t kill you and might make you stronger, then in the centre you take the long walk and hopefully your character is tough enough to make it and win. A second theme to the game is staying awake whilst playing it and not being the first player to cut yourself through sheer jaw breaking boredom.

You might be able to tell I’m not a fan. Ah well it’s nearly xmas we’re allowed a turkey this season.

Less of that next thur 🙂

Huzzah!

Vic

November 16, 2013 0