A flying Visit to the Hobby Shack in Wicklow Town

I finally got a chance to drop in very briefly to the lads in the Hobby Shack in Wicklow Town

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hobby-Shack/245767748769446

I’ve been a member of the Last Chancers mailing list (a lot of whom frequent the club) for the last year and I’ve enjoyed gaming with them both in person occasionally and online quite a bit. In the words of Father Ted, a great bunch of lads!

I have to say they have a fine set-up in the heart of Wicklow town, with two floors of the building given over to tables for gaming. when I called in the place was buzzing with Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k. I was only sorry I was pushed for time but I plan to drop back and have a proper gaming session with the lads in the new year.

Ian (the proprietor) has a nice little shop selling Warhammer, x-wing, boardgames and variety of gaming paraphernalia, plus from the forums I know he’s the type of fella that will get you anything (ANYTHING) on order in double quick time.

From left to right

Matthew (second name unpronounceable) : Fur Trapper and Translator of numerous mucky French novels
Jarvis : Professional Student and Fancy Cake Maker
Nigel : Scarf salesman and Master Level Salsa Instructor

A Very happy end of year to you guys and see you all in 2014!

Huzzah!

Vic

December 31, 2013 0

December 25, 2013 0

End of one year start of another

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6iGHC86Oeo&feature=youtube_gdata

December 24, 2013 0

Merry Xmas

a big Thank You to the brothers Fitz for their very kind gift of “The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game” to Thur Night Games/Knavecon. Looking forward to playing this, looks a hoot!

December 22, 2013 0

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