The Spilt Blood Cup

Does anyone know where we can get stuffed emperor penguins from? Rich doesn't like Pete’s teenie tiny FFG version of Hey That’s My Fish, preferring Mayfair Game’s original chunkier version. But why not upscale things even further and create a garden version - like those over-sized chess sets found in the courtyards of a stately homes? Stuffed emperor penguins (over a metre tall) mounted on casters so they can be rolled across a giant hex grid. I would then go a step further and turn the game into a dexterity game where you rolled the giant flightless bird across the board like some perverse curling competition. Maybe the game could even be adapted to ice (so obvious!) and then inaugurated into the Winter Olympics. Contact me if you fancy funding such a project.

Hey that’s my Fish tiles and penguins comparison
Fantasy flight left and Mayfair edition right.

Moritz, John and Pete decided to give Merchant of Venus it’s third airing at NoBoG. I was only vaguely aware of what went on, but I have it on good authority that Pete was generally a horrible merchant, selling lots of his passengers into his slave network, doing dodgy deals on the black market and racking up a huge infamy score. The fiend. The scores? Well, close approximations to the actual scores have been provided: Pete 3.7k (ish) with a 1.1k trade in the final turn giving him the win, John 3.2k (ish) in second and poor Moritz failed to get over 1k.

Decreeing that more blood should be spilt in honour of fantasy sports, Andy revealed that he had not only brought Blood Bowl Team manager, but also the expansion Sudden Death. Myself, Rich and Ewan lept at the chance for sporting brutality.

Sudden Death adds three new team to the mix in this fantasy based take on American football. Vampires, Undead and the Dark Elves can all take to the field. There are new skills such as regeneration and skills that take affect when a player is downed - so that players can be down, but not out, or return to wreak revenge on the tackling player. Contract payouts and enchanted balls are introduced. Plus new team cards for the existing teams. All this makes for a more chaotic, but even more fun experience than the base game offers.

We all wanted to give the three news teams a run out, so along with the Chaos team from the original set randomly drew teams. I drew Chaos, Rich was the Dark Elves. Ewan Drew the Vampire team, which left Andy Undead.

Undead. Jabber and his friend Kevin, who changed
his name thinking it would sound cool. The tosser.

The first couple of rounds were evenly contested with and evenly high level of brutality as well. Andy got right into it, and embracing his inner hooligan, smashed a pint glass on the floor. We were all shocked at how far he’d taken the game’s violent theme. But none more so than Andy, who came to his senses, apologised and crawled around on the floor to pick up broken glass. He cut his hand in the process. We all learnt a valuable lesson and left the violence to the simulation.

By the third round of match-ups my Chaos team had started to build up a lead by consistently cycling players and building up a stack of cheat tokens that converted into fans. This meant I went into the final match-ups with a swagger - sensing that victory was within my grasp. Alas, it was not to be. Ewan’s Vampires targeted the match-ups that won him fans and put the boot into a couple of my better players with his blood lusting vampires. The final count up was tense, but Ewan won by a healthy margin with the hidden contract payouts he’d collected giving him the edge. A magnificent win to cap off a riotously fun game.

An inquest has since been called as to whether the Blood Lust card was played correctly. Mysteriously the investigating officials have all recently been found drained of blood. Hmmm.

That just left Jerry, Nicky and Stu to honour the Euro game with a game of Notre Dame and a game of Kingdom Builder. Jerry won both.

Beer: I sampled the delightful Adnams Kristal White Ale. This clear, golden wheat beer has strong citrus flavours, tempered with sweet caramel and a hint of banana. A welcome addition to the Adnams range. Like Dominion: Cornucopia!