Norwich Board Gamers

Three Cheers for the New Year

2012-01-21T00:30:00.000Z

Happy New Year, dear friends! It's still January so I feel I am well within my rights to say the aforementioned phrase. Unless I take my Chinese heritage seriously, in which case I am a couple of days early.

We are back in full swing at the Ribs of Beef, with three sessions completed since the festive break...

There is always a bit of a hangover in January, so it was no surprise that the first session of the year was a bit quiet. This suited Tom as he was allowed drag out his home-made variant of Small World. It's made from hacked up bits of kitchen floor tiles and the finished result is like a crazed Settlers of Catan map, with large hex tiles. The idea is that the custom game provides random set-ups, but also accommodates six players rather than the maximum of five in the published edition. I couldn't say who won as I wasn't there, but I imagine it was Tom as he probably built in some sort of filthy hidden cheating mechanism.

Last week we were back up to two tables of games. The majority were entertained by the old stalwarts Cuba and Hansa Teutonica, while Jimmy, Nicky, Tom and myself played a new offering (though it's actually a year old) called Luna. It's all about a moon goddess cult on some remote island. Players have to hurl their priestesses into the lake in order to gain privileges. The soaked ladies would then go and read books whilst they dried off in the chapel. Luna is from the furtive mind of Stefan Feld, whose reputation as designer of quality euros has been growing steadily in recent years. This is another success and those that crave puzzle style/efficiency games will love this despite the unfathomable theme (though when has a theme got in the way of a good euro? Especially from Feld). This was a close run game with Jimmy taking the dubious honour of nearly drowning his priestesses in the most efficient manner.

This Tuesday we had the privilege of welcoming newcomer Dean. He is an upstanding young man of the highest calibre. He joined us halfway through the evening for our second game of Hansa Teutonica. He made noises which indicated that he'd enjoyed Hansa Teutonica (clearly, it's fun to watch a true master at work, as I won both games), but also mentioned he would like to play Taj Mahal...this marks him as a fellow of impeccable taste. A thousand welcomes, good sir!

On the other table Pete was wrangling with his newest cardboard-love, Eclipse. No not the game inspired by the supernatural romance of Twilight, but a full-on space epic. This comes in a suitably vast box packed with miniatures, numbered hex space tiles and the neat stuff you'd expect in a 4X game. For those of you scratching your heads at the term 4X - it stands for explore, expand, exploit and exterminate. Players explore the map, expand into the discovered territories, exploit the resources found and then ultimately exterminate the other players in order to achieve further expansion. This was mostly a learning game for all involved (it reminded me of Twilight Imperium - once again nothing to do with vampire abstaining from sexy times) but I could tell that love was blossoming and I'm sure Eclipse will be Pete's 'plus one' at the Ribs for the next few months.

Beer: I guzzled a few pints of Woodeforde's Norfolk Nog. Malty and rich with sweet flavours of caramel, chocolate and dates. Like Blokus 3D - a bit different, but it would go down well at Christmas.

No Games this week.

2011-12-19T23:12:00.001Z

I'm sorry to say that we are not meeting this week. The Ribs of Beef informed me this evening that the Wherry Room will not be available tomorrow (20 December 2011). We have agreed not to meet next week either as attendance was likely to be very low. Therefore our next games night will be on the 3rd January 2012.

Sorry for the short notice about tomorrow.

Have a great Christmas.

Matt.

King of Tokyo

2011-12-14T13:45:00.001Z

A feisty little game called King of Tokyo demanded our attention this week. Brought along by Andy, it served as an excellent way to end the evening after the main courses of Chaos in the Old World (a rare defeat for Khorne and victory for Slaanesh) and Olympos.

Serving up to six players, King of Tokyo is a dice game designed by Richard Garfield (of Magic the Gathering fame) about giant monsters ravaging Toyko and of course beating the crap out of each other. Each player is assigned one of the six monsters - ranging from the classic Gigazaur (Godzilla) and The King (Kong) to the more exotic Alienoid or the bizarre Cyber Bunny. Each turn, the player rolls the six custom dice up to three times, either keeping or discarding each die in turn. The outcome allows your monster to regain health, store energy, inflict destruction points, or whack the other monsters and possibly occupy Tokyo, allowing you to create more destruction. Once a player has inflicted 20 destruction points they win. Alternatively, a player can win if they are the last one standing having beaten all the other monster to death. Oh, and energy can be spent to buy extra powers/attributes for you monster, such as a spiked tail, regeneration, nova breath or the awesome extra head, which provides you with a seventh dice to roll.

The game is fast, fun and pretty silly. The push your luck element is nice, not just with the dice rolling, but also choosing when to occupy Tokyo - as the sole occupant of Tokyo bears the brunt of all damage inflicted and cannot heal, but also earns extra destruction points. We all had great fun. There was only one death - Tom's Child Friendly Alienoid got clobbered by my Kraken's spiked tail. Ultimately, Andy's Two-headed Meka Dragon won, by destroying the National Guard. Good times.

A brief mention for the new offering from Ystari: Olympos is another game from Jimmy's Essen haul. I didn't get a good look at it, but there were favourable murmurs from those that played it, especially Nicky who claimed victory.

Beer: After quaffing Naylor's Rudolph's Rocket Fuel, which was surprisingly light and pleasant, yet devoid of any seasonal merit (6/10), I had a pint of Elves Bells from the Wooden Hand Brewery. This was much more seasonal: a ruddy amber beer with toffee, biscuits, a hint of orange and spice. Tasted like Rolos. 8/10.

November

2011-11-29T14:02:00.008Z

Quick update for the past three weeks.

We’ve been graced by another new member, Adam. He’s been twice. The first week he lost everything he played, but in the following session he had his revenge and won everything he participated in. An interesting fact about Adam is that he isn’t colour-blind.

We’ve played 7 wonders (three times), Sid Meier's Civilization: the Board Game (twice), Power Grid, Chaos in the Old World, Santiago, Caylus Magna Carta, Frank’s Zoo. As well as two offering from Jimmy’s recent trip to Essen; Trajan and Hawaii.

The festive season will soon be upon us. I’ll check with the pub as to whether they have any Christmas dinners/parties that will impact on our Tuesday meetings in December. I’ll post any clashes on here and on the NoBoG calendar.

The Lure of the Games

2011-11-04T09:03:00.004Z

Halloween, and a weary traveller stumbles into the Ribs of Beef. He’s not sure why he’s here or how he even got here. He orders a beer, not really taking note of what the barmaid serves him. A twitchy faced man stares at him from his perch at the bar. So Jeff, for that is our traveller’s name, decides to take refuge downstairs, away from the prying eyes of the locals. “NO, don’t go down there!” shouts the barmaid. Alas Jeff doesn’t hear. He’s drawn down the stairs, into the bowels of the pub, as if some unearthly power had a hold of him. At the bottom of the stairs is a large red door from which he can hear howls of anguish. Still drawn, he cautiously opens the red door and peers inside. ARRRGGHHH! Unspeakable horror! He see’s Stu trying to wedge Tom’s Small World board under a table leg to keep the table straight. Oh my! Tom dances to and fro squealing at his tormenter. Next he sees Nicky placing her full to the brim drink perilously close to the edge of the Shogun board (the glass even leaves a ringmark). This is too much for Jeff. He turns to flee, but comes face to face with the hideous, shambling malformed shape of [insert NoBoGer of your choice here]...

OK, so it was November 1^st and Jeff was already there when I arrived, but you get the picture. Jeff’s first night at NoBoG - all the way from America, though he’s now living in Thetford. Welcome Jeff (or maybe Geoff or even Djeph).

Jeff said he liked Fantasy Flight games and so Chaos in the Old World was the obvious choice. He joined a game with myself, John and Pete. It was an embarrassingly quick win for Khorne, who double dial clicked every turn and had won before even a single region was ruined. It was so quick that we even had time for a three player game of Hansa Teutonica, which was a much more competitive affair as I only just nudged past John and then Pete in final scoring.

Jimmy had been to Essen and rolled off two games that none of us had seen before: Hawaii and Die Burgen von Burgund. The latter was chosen by Crocker, Tom and Stu. It seemed to be a hit with Luke and Stu and I’m sure Tom enjoyed it as he won.

Phil’s copy of Shogun had finally arrived and he settled down with Diane, Nicky and Moritz to battle for control of Japan. It ended with a win for Phil, who clawed his way back from a dodgy start by initiating a non-aggression pact with Diane.

Beer: Wolf’s Werewolf. This is a seasonal premium bitter. Chestnut in colour. Slightly malty, hint of biscuit and pretty quaffable. Nothing exciting, but very good. A bit like 7 Wonders – there’s nothing overly unusual or different about it, but it does the basics very well.

My Hovercraft is Full Of Eels.

2011-10-26T13:46:00.007+01:00

Another month has almost slipped out of sight. October 2011 will be remembered for the unseasonal weather, the death of Steve Jobs and Muammar Gaddafi and here, at NoBoG, Andy Malcolm’s most unlikely win at Power Grid. But that was last week and this is this week...

We had only one confirmed casualty from the Norwich Beer Festival. Jimmy had fallen in the line of duty; taken down by the relentless ale. Rich and Crocker are both MIA. And no one has seen Lovely Rich for a long, long time. Offically he’s been sent on a classified mission, but rumour is that he’s ‘gone native’. If you see the lad, send him back our way. We miss him dearly. But never fear! We have new recruits. John has been with us four weeks and coped admirably with everything that has been thrown at him. And then last night saw the arrival of reinforcements from Germany; Heike and Maren. Welcome.

So, three tables last night. Pete ambitiously brought down the latest incarnation of Sid Meier’s Civilisation (or simply ‘Civ’), it’s far better than the poor effort from Eagle Games and thankfully much shorter than the Avalon Hill version from 1980. Diane and Tom signed up to this one and were still playing when I left a few minutes before time. I think it can certainly be played at the club, but with a rules session it will always be a rush to finish.

On the middle table I fumbled my way through the rules for Hansa Teutonica - Young Pete, Heike and Maren were the bewildered pupils. In the end it came down to the wire as I beat Pete by 1 point, who managed to connect the red banner cities. We also played Monty Python Fluxx, which is a tedious game if it wasn't for the outragous accents and the fact it provided the title for this weeks post.

The other table slapped Alien Frontiers down on the baize. Diane won, though Moritz came close to overhauling her lead at the end. And then they succumbed to Phil’s whim and agreed to play the ridiculous cooperative game Red November – all about gnomes trying to save an ailing submarine. From the sound of it they had fun trying, but ultimately failed; with most of the gnomes burning to death before sinking to the bottom the ocean and a watery grave. Harrowing.

Beer: Woodforde’s Admiral’s Reserve. They’d pulled out all the stops to bring this fine ale to the Ribs. Chestnut coloured beer with almonds, sultanas, a deep sweetness, but still light enough to be quaffable. Like drinking a delicious fruit cake. 9/10.

Suffolk Board Gamers?

2011-10-06T13:34:00.006+01:00

Do people in Suffolk play games? Seems inconcievable, but Nigel Foden is giving it a go. He's setting up a regular gaming group in Woodbridge. Just in case any of our regulars have a free Saturday afternoon we have the details below. Best of luck Nigel.

THE MEEPLES ARE COMING!

Woodbridge Area Gamers

Ever heard of Strategy games, Eurogames, Designer games?

Board games have moved on since you last played Monopoly - come and experience modern board games with a friendly local game group.

Games played include Carcassonne, Pandemic, Alhambra, Dominion, Blokus, Power Grid – all with friendly fellow gamers on hand to demonstrate new games

Family friendly – with games to suit all ages

Next sessions at Woodbridge Library (drop-in, first session free):

Saturday 8 Oct, 1-5pm and Saturday 12 Nov, 1-5pm

Contact: nigel (at) foden.me.uk

Web: boardgamegeek.com/guild/1150

Preference for repeated plays?

2011-10-06T13:30:00.005+01:00

We’ve not been very adventurous of late. Unusually for the club there has been a lot of repeat plays with a few games getting played on consecutive weeks. I always remember Tom mentioning that he’d been coming to the club for six months and had yet to play a game twice. This was back in 2007 and there certainly seemed to be a new game on the table every week. Of course there have always been old favourites; Power Grid has regularly been hauled out of someone’s bag at 7.30 on a Tuesday. It benefits from being owned by quite a few attendees so there is a good chance someone will have it. It’s one of those rare six-player games (along with Cosmic Encounter) so is the obvious choice when we have six players - usually preferable to splitting into two groups of three, as good three player games seem to be a rarity. Re-playability is boosted by the plethora of expansion maps. And finally it’s a great game – OK, so that’s rather subjective, but I can safely say that the majority of the club regard it very highly and the remaining few are willing to endure it. So, if Power Grid is the old stalwart, who are the new pretenders?

Chaos in the Old World

This game had a spate of plays at the beginning of 2010 when it was introduced by Richard Harding. It got played five times in the space of two months as Punk Rich also bought it. It’s seen a resurgence this summer as the Horned Rat expansion was released and Phil added it to his collection increasing the likelihood that it’ll be available to play (also Phil’s other games are uniformly awful or ridiculous – so it’s the only game he has that we’ll play). It perhaps shouldn’t see as much table time as it should as it absolutely needs to be played five (or four without the expansion). However, it has a nice mix of styles - the core mechanisms are clearly from the Euro mould, which are then jazzed up with kickass dice rolling, funky miniatures, and the chance to shout ”BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!”. This appeals to my taste in games as I gradually shun the ‘mechanisms for mechanisms sake’ of a lot of games out there. Punk Rich, Phil and Pete clearly feel the same and one of us will suggest it almost every week.

Steam

This has displaced Age of Steam since it came out a few years ago and although has regularly hit the table it’s seen more play over the summer months than most. The old Age of Steam split opinion and there were certain gamers that wouldn’t touch it with the proverbial bargepole. Like Power Grid it benefits from having a number of expansion maps, which keeps it fresh. Good with four or five, there is now a core group of players down the club that know how to play Steam and the game only improves with more plays. As another one of my favourites and also one of Jimmy’s there is a good chance it will make the journey to the Ribs on a regular basis.

Hansa Teutonica

This has been played on four separate evenings at the Ribs; twice in a night on a couple of occasions. This is definitely a pure Euro with a theme so wafer thin you could feed it to Mr Creosote all night long. This cube shuffler is eminently playable, with a raft of choices and a feeling that you’re not just playing the game, but actually playing your opponents, which is often lacking in this type of optimisation game. Crocker waxed lyrical about it a few weeks back. He’s the only one of us that owns it and with Luke coming to the club less frequently this could easily see more play if others decide to buy it, especially as it looks like it will scale well between three and five players.

Popularity and player numbers are obviously the biggest deciding factors with regards to which games get played on a given night and this has always been the case. Perhaps the change isn’t the games, but NoBoG itself. With the most stable group of regulars we’ve had for a long time we are now able to explore games we all know rather than teach or learn new games. One thing the three games I’ve mentioned have in common is that they all get better as players become more experienced. With strategies to explore, and blocking and countering being a big part in all three, everyone is improving at the game and everyone’s experience is getting better each time – leading to the game being requested again the following week.

Or maybe there just aren’t as many good new games coming out?

More of the same.

2011-09-30T16:34:00.004+01:00

Thanks to Dan: the greenest of the Dans for chivvying me along and getting me to update the blog. And for making use of the Norwich Board Gamers Guild on Board Game Geek. If any of you frequent both BGG and NoBoG then I suggest you join the guild – it’s awesome. As I mentioned there is a prize waiting for Dan next time he’s in Ribs on a Tuesday night.

Repeated plays this week. Chaos in the Old World with the Horned Rat expansion was played by Moritz, Tom, Punk Rich, Phil and myself. This week saw Phil’s Khorne slaughtering their way to victory. It’s the third time in a row that Khorne has won, but the first time we’ve seen it done with a points victory. We finished with a game of Citadels, which Tom narrowly won.

On the other table Jimmy, Nicky, Diane, Dylan and Pat played Steam with the Mid-Atlantic United States map (Railroad Empires in the Civil War Era) from the new expansion. This was won by Diane.

Beer: I had two contrasting experiences: The first was Pirate’s Gold(en Piss) from the Wooden Hand Brewery in Truro. A golden ale with a claggy honey sweetness and a sharp, feral finish. The second was Ringwood’s Fortyniner, a tasty premium bitter which tasted of autumn – apples, raisins and sweet malt, but with a nice bitter finish. Fortyniner is like Agricola as it tastes like a satisfying harvest (8/10) and Pirate’s Piss is like Pirates of the Caribbean Monopoly if it had been urinated on by a tramp (3/10).

Hansa Teutonica

2011-08-31T21:38:00.003+01:00

Last night we got to play Hansa Teutonica TWO times and still finish before 11. We started at about 8, did a rules session and finished the first game by 9:30 ish. We agreed to give it another go. What was really great about this is that Hansa Teutonica has various routes to success and each player in the second game adapted and or changed how they where playing resulting in a whole different set of criteria being important between the two plays.

Hansa Teutonica has a few basic actions, at its heart its not a very complex euro, yet it works extremely well and at the moment (at least as far as im concerned) has a lot of depth. In our first game it was the 'bonus' tokens and there pursuit that brought about the end of the game. In game two it was the VP track and the board looked completely different.

Pete won both games, narrowly ahead of me each time. In the first game Pete went first and got an increased action point machine in gear VERY early. Pete was more successful than most of us at utilising the favourable blocking strategy that sees an alternative way of getting pieces on the board. In the second game I had the more favourable board position but circumstances conspired to having me fall short again.

Hansa Teutonica gives players the ability to improve most of their starting actions allowing players to be 'more efficient'. One of the only stable issues is cube placement which costs the same for everybody. Getting cubes on the map is expensive, so using them wisely is crucial. For the most part we are playing this game in typical euro style and I feel one of the great things about this game is its scope for alternative 'ideologies' or at least 'tactics'. Everyone knows I enjoy Caylus and without a big debate virtually all I like in Caylus is present in Hansa Teutonica but in a very different and engaging way. Yes its a resource managment game, but its also a game where every player changes the landscape so it cant be played in a vacume, unlike many games where an obvious path to success is contested. Two weeks ago when Rich, Pete and I DID compete over what appeared to be the obvious we came 5th, 3rd and 4th respectively.

Various members of the group have yet to play it and I still have the expansion to pull out after the first board gets 'overplayed'. Right now Hansa Teutonica is in my top 5 games and possibly will be in the top 3 after future plays.

Three week review

2011-08-23T13:57:00.001+01:00

Three weeks and no updates. Slack, I tell you. So slack. To make up for it here is a three week update-mash-up-type-thingumy. Word!

2^nd. Hello Moritz. Lost Valley. Clans. Tichu. Agricola: Farmers of the Moor. Drunken fool. Citra = smashing.

9^th. Age of Empires 3. Chaos in the Old World. Nicky crushes all before her. Boondoggle = jolly.

16^th. Hello Rick. Hello Jen. Hansa Teutonica. Someone named their baby Games Club. 7 Wonders. Steam. Nicky crushes all before her. Lack of = lager.

Normal blog service will resume.

Navegador: A Beekeeper's Tale.

2011-07-27T13:11:00.008+01:00

Cuba finally made it to the table. It has been on the brink of play for well over a month since Rich sold his spare copy to Phil, but this week we had the numbers and Rich was willing to teach it. I say teach it, I'm not sure if he actually did as he walked to an easy victory over Phil and Nicky. Alhambra was then given a rare outing and saw Phil claim the win.

Meanwhile Jimmy, Mike, Tom and I sailed east with the game Navegador. The game is inspired by the Portuguese Age of Discoveries in the 15th & 16th centuries. Players take actions such as contracting workers, acquiring ships and buildings, exploring the seas, establishing colonies in discovered lands and trading goods on the market. For some reason the box lid depicts Jimmy dressed as a beekeeper.

Jimmy won a fairly comfortable victory by specialising in factories and workers, I came in second by also concentrating on workers, but opting for colonies. Mike came third with what looked like a balanced strategy and Tom, who to be fair hadn't played before, languished in fourth by not really doing enough of anything.

There was debate as to whether Navegador is the best of Mac Gerdt's Rondel Games; Jimmy thought that it clearly was, and while I still favour the slightly flawed Imperial - mostly because of the theme - I think Navegador is probably the more accomplished design.

We finished off the night with a few hands of the Chinese card game Tichu, which has become a favourite closer with some of NoBoG. A good win for myself and Jimmy over Tom and Mike.

Beer: Blakemere's Bobby Dazzler. It has the tagline Blonde, Spicy, Arresting - alluding to the blonde woman on the pump clip, who I doubt is a real enforcer of the law, especially in the skirt she was wearing. It was certainly blonde in colour. Not really spicy, but it did have a little bite. Arresting? Once again going a bit far, but this is certainly a very good golden ale, with a good head, a hint of wheat, a hint of citrus and a bitter finish. I rate it an 8 and compare it to 7 Wonders as it's a great session beer, which you can keep going back to all night.

NoBoG News

2011-07-21T13:38:00.006+01:00

Let it be known that the cupboard under the stairs at the Ribs of Beer is damp. As a result the boxes of lamps and leads are being stored by myself and Crocker. The green baize remains in the cupboard, but is now in a special protective vessel – the NoBoG Bin Bag.

In other news, we now have a guild on boardgamegeek.com. The NoBoG Guild can be used for discussions, questions, ideas and general murmurings. It also has a calendar function, which I’ll keep up to date – so you can check whether games are on at the Ribs of Beef.

And finally. This Tuesday saw myself, Phil, Pete, Nicky and Crocker playing Steam. We tried the USA side of the map. Much of the game was a two-horse race between myself and Pete. I took an early lead on the VP track, but to the neglect of my locomotives. I got a decent headstart, but alas, it was not enough. I was eventually reeled in by Pete with his superior engine range, which he cranked up to six, while I languished on a range of five. Three points in it, and although the others were a little way behind, they were making up ground by the end. As always thoroughly enjoyable.

There is no beer news this week.

You Dirty Rat.

2011-07-12T13:44:00.010+01:00

Rich bought his horned rat. His horny, horny rat. It’s an expansion for the much loved Chaos in the Old World, if you must ask.

The Horned Rat expansion adds a fifth player in the form of the Skaven and their verminous god the Horned Rat. The new faction plays slightly differently to the other chaos gods as it doesn’t place corruption on the board, instead the Skaven can score points when a region is ruined by placing unit’s in the region, where each unit counts as a corruption token; thus piggybacking the other players hard work. By not directly adding corruption the game is still balanced, but the fifth player still interacts with the ruination process – and is encouraged to throw units into contested regions. The Horned Rat player also has manoeuvrability and sheer weight of numbers on their side, so is a tricky prospect for the other powers. However, the four original factions have not been overlooked and benefit from new decks of power cards and upgrades.

In our game, Phil was honoured to draw the horny rats. Rich was Slannesh, Lovely was Nurgle, Ryan took Khorne and I was the magical Tzeentch. Unfortunately, we were slow to get going and time conspired against us. By 11pm I was within 1 point off the 50 point wining total, but was pegged back by Phil who stopped me crossing the line by re-arranging his clan rats - moving them into the ruined region and denying me four winning points. We wrapped it up there, but both Punk Rich and Phil were due to get the winning dial clicks on the next turn, with Phil being in a superior position. So a win for the Horned Rat, but a very close win, which leads me to believe that Chaos in the Old World is just as good with five as it is with four, but takes slightly longer to play. Huzzah!

Banished to the other table were Tom, Stu and Luke. They played Java, the second game of the Masks Trilogy. This a real beauty of a game with thick and satisfying tiles. It’s also, like most action point games, a bit of a thinker. Luke took victory with the most fame points at the end of the game.

Beer: This is the only bit that Tom enjoys so I’d better keep it up. I had two new beers and I can’t remember their names or the brewery names. One sounded like it was from New Zealand and one had something to do with Coopers, but not the Australian Cooper’s. Both were weak, pale, refreshing, but ultimately bland. I rate them both a five.

No Games.

2011-06-13T16:55:00.007+01:00

There will be no gaming at the Ribs of Beef tomorrow evening (Tuesday 14th June). The Peanut Worm Appreciation Society are holding their annual barbecue in the pub and they outnumber us 7-1 (plus worms). I do not fancy those odds.

We shall be back in business next week, 21st June at the usual time - 7.30pm.

Back on track

2011-06-13T16:50:00.004+01:00

I’ve been very slack at keeping this up to date. Apologies. It probably means that I haven’t won many games recently - I only write this blog so I can brag about how I win at Taj Mahal. Against new players. After I’ve taught them the game. And missed out a vital rule. So here is a brief update of the past few months.

Kevin and Christine have left us in order to open a paddlefish farm in Redcar. We wish them the best of luck with their new jobs and in their new home. Out with the old in with the new. Diane and Nicky joined us at the start of April. They have an excellent attendance record. Diane excels at card games, whereas Nicky is adept at games with an Egyptian theme. We’ve also recently been joined by Ryan and Starbuck. Jimmy also returned from his sabbatical – huzzah!

What have we been playing? Shed loads of stuff is the answer. Here is a quick run down of what I can remember:

Power Grid
Frank’s Zoo
Combat Commander: Europe
Hansa
Tichu
Steam
The Phantom League
Troyes
Chicago Express
6 Nimmt
In the Year of the Dragon
Saboteur
Amun-Re
Nightfall
Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game
Bohnaparte
Land Unter
Lost Valley

Last week we (Jimmy, Luke, Rich, Phil and I) played Navegador. I won. Huzzah!

Warning: Crocker Crunching Cube Crusher

2011-03-24T16:44:00.002Z

If you were in the Ribs of Beef on Tuesday evening and know how many nautical gallons there are in a bakers dozen or the time it would take Geoffrey Boycott to mow a meadow, then you probably took part in Emily’s Quiz and Fish night. If not then you were probably downstairs playing board games.

Kev, Christine, Crocker, Luke and Lovely Rich played Hansa Teutonica; a euro style game, which has planted it’s flag firmly in the euro game camp. I can tell this as it has victory points, action points, worker placement, network building, a load of coloured wooden cubes and even a bearded man on the cover of the box. It should also have little picture of Luke Crocker in the corner with the words “Warning: Crocker Crunching Cube Crusher” as this is just the type of game that he loves and excels at. I can’t tell you much about it, but it looked nice and apparently needed 40 minutes of analysis after Crocker won. After the debate finished they whipped out China, which Crocker also won.

I re-visited Settlers of America: Trails to Rails with Punk Rich, Stu and Tom. I was pleased to get a second chance to play this while it was still fresh in my mind from last week, especially against Tom and Rich, who had played it before and therefore (possibly) came to the table with strategies in mind. We played a close fought game, but despite winning it’s gone down in my estimation. It’s still a good game, but the strategies are more transparent than I imagined and I am, therefore, more sensitive to the slow pace of the game and the relatively long playing time.

Trails to Rails doesn't Fail

2011-03-16T20:46:00.010Z

I decided not to make a pun about tossing last week (pancake day) and will refrain again this week. Ten turned up last night, but Crocker stayed at home again…

As promised I got a seat at the table where Kev had set up Settlers of America: Trails to Rails. I can now tell you my remark about it being a cross between Settlers and Ticket to Ride is a bit off the mark. It certainly has a lot of the elements you’d expect to find in Settlers and it’s true it does now have trains, but the necessity of timing the track laying with goods delivery takes it up a level from Ticket to Ride. This is certainly a meatier affair; more strategic and with a longer playing time. I enjoyed my time playing Trails to Rails and went home thinking about strategies, which is always a good sign. Kev won, beating Christine, Steve and myself.

We then got an opportunity to play Innovation by designer Carl Chudyk, who also designed Glory to Rome. Innovation is a civilization based card game where players race to develop their civilisation by developing technologies, ideas, and cultural advancements, all represented by cards. Each of these cards has a unique power which allows further advancement, point scoring, or even attacking other civilizations. I mentioned race, and it is a bit like Race for the Galaxy, not necessarily in gameplay, but because it needs a tight group to play the hell out of it before it starts to shine. If you know the cards and how it all works then I can see that it could be very good, but if not then it feels a bit of a random card draw with arbitrary results. Unfortunately, I can’t see me playing this enough for it make it past the first stage. Your mileage may vary (obviously!) and I can see Punk Rich reading this with a crazy, yet delighted, grin on his face. Perhaps on a boat.

The rest of the group, which comprised of Phil, Stu, Tom and the three Riches played Bohnanza, the crazy bean trading game, which Lovely Rich won and 7 Wonders, which Phil won. They rounded off the evening with a game of Clans, which once again ended with victory for Phil.

Beer: I tried a pint of Rudgate’s Spring Elixir. A golden coloured ale with a citrus flavour and a floral nose. It was ever so slightly vinegary so I can't recommend it.

P-p-p-p-p-p-p-pancake day!

2011-03-10T10:31:00.006Z

In the words of Barrington “ It’s Pancake day, yes it's pancake day, it's p-p-p-p-p-p-p-pancake day!”
Yes, it was Shrove Tuesday. But no-one gave one jot about using up the last of their flour, milk and eggs and decided to come down to the Ribs of Beef to play games instead.

As promised, Kev brought Settlers of America: Trails to Rails with him. Hailed as a cross between the Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride, it boasted a seemingly massive board presenting a hex-grid of the United States and a swathe of chiselled wooden pieces. Players collect and trade resources, in order to purchase, migrate and build settlements, forge railroads and acquire locomotives.There was a lot of interest in the game, but Sharon, Tom and Punk Rich managed to snag the choice seats at the table. I hope to play it next week and will be able to tell you more about it, but hose of you with a filthy mind will be pleased to know that the phrase “I’ve got wood” is still applicable; in fact, not only did Kev have wood all throughout the game and but he declared that he had numerous erections as well. Pfnar. I hear it was a close run thing, but Punk Rich rose above the smut to claim the win.

Rich was not be outdone and brought down more hot property in the form of Fantasy Flight’s new horror game – Mansions of Madness. In this story led, investigative style game, loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, Rich took the role of the Keeper - a games master type guy that controls the monsters and other malicious powers within the story. The plucky investigators with the dubious task of exploring the seemingly abandoned buildings in Arkham were Christine, Dylan, Luke and Lovely Rich. I didn’t see how the game played, but I heard a lot of talk about an axe-wielding maniac, shrivelled limbs and pools of blood. Ultimately, the intrepid band failed to complete the story and defeat the looming menace within the mansion – two died and the other two were undoubtedly consumed by some indescribable horror. I was told that the story closed with Dylan hiding in the basement with a bottle of whisky, a bottle of sedatives and a shotgun. Rich described it as a cross between Arkham Horror (mainly for the theme) and a simplified Descent. I liked the look it , more so than the sprawling mess that Arkham Horror has become, but then again several expansions for Mansions of Madness can’t be far away.

I played none of these new shiny games. Instead, I gathered up Steve and Aaron and we played an enjoyable game of Ys, which I won, and a closely fought game of Small World, which Steve deservedly won.

Beer: Just good old Wherry for me, but it wasn't as brilliant as it's been on the last few occasions.

Kicked into Orbit

2011-02-11T12:57:00.004Z

Another Tuesday night in the Ribs and another night of gaming. This week were lucky enough to be joined by Steve, Sharon and Aaron, who read about NoBoG on BoardGameGeek, and decided to check out what we had to offer.

Apart from new people to insult, the main point of interest was a new game called Alien Frontiers. Kevin had bought it from direct from the small publisher, Clever Mojo Games, during the Kickstarter scheme. For those of you not familiar with Kickstarter.com, it’s an online pledge system for funding creative projects and ideas. Projects such as films, music, books, inventions, art or any other creative endeavour can be listed on the website, which facilitates the gathering of funds from the general public. The project coordinator sets a deadline and a minimum funding total. If the total is not reached by the deadline then the contributions are not collected. However, if the funding total is reached or surpassed then the project goes ahead and the donors’ money is collected. The donors then receive the rewards listed by the projects. In the case of Clever Mojo Games, the reward was a copy of and Alien Frontiers for a pledge of $50 or more. It’s a good system to get a game published if you don’t have the starting capital and can generate enough hype.

So what is Alien Frontiers about? It’s primarily a dice-rolling game in a similar vein to Roll through the Ages, but with a full board, which is used to incorporate worker placement and area majority mechanisms. It’s also, as the name may allude to, set in the exciting environment known as SPACE! It’s nicely produced and has a very retro space theme and feel. Players are racing to colonise an unnamed planetoid. To do this, players roll dice which represent their space fleet and allocate them to various board positions in order to gather resources, alien artifacts, spaceships; land colonies, and steal from other players. Colonies placed on the alien planet gain victory points for the players, as well as special territory bonuses which bend the game rules. The game ends when a player lands their sixth and final colony.

Alien Frontiers is a decent, lightweight dice-roller. It’s pretty quick and the luck of the dice shouldn’t put people off – as rolling high isn’t necessarily good (though not rolling any doubles throughout the game could be a problem). There is a fair bit of tit for tat in the game and plenty of opportunity to have a pop at your fellow players, either though stealing or outright attacking them with the plasma cannon or other nefarious alien tech. All good… however, I felt the gap between winning and losing was rather too slender and that the mixture of area majority and ‘take that’ meant the outcome could be a little arbitrary. You only get to place a maximum of six colonies throughout the game, so the territories don’t change hands very often. When they do it’s a two point swing. With an average winning score of 8, deciding who to knobble can quickly lead to bash the leader (I’m OK with that) or king making (not so much). Still, I’ve only played it once and my worries may not be as prevalent as I imagine. So enjoy a quick, easy game of Alien Frontiers next time Kevin brings it along.

The game was played twice and everyone will be pleased to know that the green players prevailed both times. Punk Rich beat Kevin, Phil and Aaron in the first outing and I squeezed out a victory against Kevin, Christine and Steve.

Other games that hit the table were: Jaipur, Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers, Dominion, Stone Age and the lovely, lovely Taj Mahal.

Beer: Another brew from Newmans Brewery based in Wales. I had something by them the other week which I seem to remember being OK. Tonight’s draft was Red Castle Cream. A soft, bronze coloured beer with a slight head. Tasted of strawberry malted milkshake, slightly sour with some grainy bitterness, not as creamy or as red as the name suggests. I’ll give it an 8 and compare it Caylus, as they both have castles…

Blue Peter Badge.

2011-01-26T16:28:00.007Z

A whore for attention, Tom decided to remake his cereal box game in an attempt to get his picture on the blog (see last week). He’d taken our cruel words to heart and so spent most of last week remaking ‘Holiday’. Hours of meticulously printing, sticking, cutting and laminating culminated in a far superior game than the crap he tried to foist on us last week. This one was ingeniously mounted on floor tiles and almost looked professional. Once again we poured over the components, which this time boasted 'pimped' pieces like a model plane, a miniature antique clock and funky, colourful dice. It was gaudy, to be sure, but it worked. Of course some NoBoGers are snobs and will only play the most finely crafted games that money can buy; Original Rich, Punk Rich, Phil and Crocker therefore shunned Tom’s magnum opus in favour of The Princes of Machu Pichu, but Stu, Lovely Rich and myself showed enough pity to humour Tom and play Holiday.

It turned out that this was a homemade copy of the renowned Sid Sackson’s 1973 family auction game Holiday. Players attempt to guide an aeroplane (see the model) around the world as the calendar (marked by the antique timepiece) progresses from day to day. Players hold a hand of cards, each stating a city and day-of-the-week combination. The goal is to have the plane reach each destination as close to their card's day as possible. The closer to the day printed on the card the more points are scored. The destination of the plane is determined by an open auction, with the winner choosing an adjacent city for the plane to fly to. It all ends when all players are out of money or one player completes all his destination cards. The premise of the system really appealed to me, but the overall implementation didn’t quite work as I’d hoped. The auctions were a bit mundane and the was very little negotiation. Maybe this is because we only had four players or the game simply shows it’s age, but I think a different type of bidding system (something like the trench-digger mechanism in Santiago) would improve the game. Still, for a homemade version of a 40 year old family game it was definitely worth an hour of my time. Good work Tom. Stu completed all his cards and won the game with 56 points. I came second with 54, Tom third with 50 and Lovely Rich trailed in last with 38.

The four of us then went on to another auction game by another significant game designer - Modern Art by Reiner Knizia. This one is pure auction and although professionally published doesn’t actually look much better than Tom’s effort. Modern Art saw regular play in the early days of NoBoG. It’s fallen out of favour recently, with some people feeling that the value of each piece of art being auctioned is too easy to calculate, but we still had a good time with it. And it’s always worth a laugh if everyone conducts the auctions in outrageous accents. I won this one convincingly, though I’ll admit I had a pretty decent hand.

We finished the evening off with a game of 7 Wonders, which ended in a tie for first place between myself and Lovely Rich. On the other table Phil aced Machu Pichu with a corn strategy and claimed his first win at NoBoG (his joint wins at Cosmic Encounter and Tichu don’t count apparently). Phil was very happy about this. A top night all round.

Beer: I had a couple of pints of Burns from Dark Horse. Copper-brown in colour and the taste, although slightly subdued, was definitely chocolate biscuits. I rate it a strong 8 and compare it to After the Flood as it’s good, but could do with a tad more flavour. And for the second week running I had a really lovely pint of Wherry as well – I think the Ribs might be storing it better as it was in excellent condition.

Whining to Winning

2011-01-19T20:59:00.006Z

Tom had the audacity to bring down a game that he’d drawn on the back of a cereal box. It sounded like he genuinely wanted to play it. We humoured him for a minute or two, picked over the components, flicked through the rules and then, while he was chatting up the barmaid, we set up Cosmic Encounter. A six player affair with two hidden powers per faction. Flying saucers and insults flew across the table. Alliances were formed and broken. Everything hung on a knife edge; it was anybody’s game until out of the chaos, with the timely use of a Tick-Tock flare, emerged an unlikely victor… Luke the Pharmacist (Pharmacy wasn’t one of his powers, he really is a pharmacist. His powers were Grudge and Vulch).

At the very second that Luke won, we were joined by Pat; an occasional NoBoGer who is more likely to be found at the Beyond Monopoly club in York. He was in Norwich on business and just happened to be passing. Richard had to go, so the six of us settled down to a game of 7 Wonders. Pat did an excellent job of explaining the rules. Perhaps too good, as Punk Rich edged victory in a close run game. He declared it to be an excellent game and then we all went home.

Beer: There were three guest beers on last night. Pigswill by Stonehenge, Tadpole by Toad and Cain’s Dragon Heart Brown Ale. None were much good, but I had a full pint of Dragon Heart as the sample glass tricked me into thinking it was a nice fruit cake type ale, which it certainly had hints of, but this was let down by the “brown” taste. I give it a four, the same rating I give to Shadows over Camelot as it has an exciting name, but it’s a bit dull and really not my thing.

Return of the Charming Man.

2011-01-13T14:01:00.002Z

Last time he graced us with his presence was July 2009, we thought it had been longer than that. Anyway, Tom had been reading this very blog and the fact I’d referred to him as “vaguely charming” in a recent post must have got him excited, as on Tuesday night Tom drove from his manor, deep in the Norfolk countryside, to the Ribs of Beef. He strode past the bar with a nod and cheeky wink to the barmaids, swept down the stairs and back into our world…

With the return of Tom, who had brought his long-suffering friend, Stu, plus Jimmy, Crocker, myself and the Triumvirate of Rich, we had the joy of a nice rounded eight. We split into two fours. Harding, Lovely, Stu and I tackled Cadwallon: City of Thieves, while Punk Rich, Crocker, Tom and Jimmy settled down for a bit of London.

Cadwallon: City of Thieves is the latest offering from Fantasy Flight Games. A heavily produced game with sumptuous pieces and some nicely sculptured miniatures. Each player controls a gang of four thieves who are infiltrating the fantasy city of Cadwallon in order to steal its riches and complete contracts for ducats. They have eight turns to get in, load up with as much as they can carry and get out without getting beaten to a pulp by the city militia or rival gangs. At the end of the game all treasure is converted into ducats and most ducats wins. The game is more straight forward than the theme or fancy components would suggest and players use a mixture of action points and cards to try and get the largest haul.

The game seemed to play in three phases; the first where we all dashed around looting, the second where the gangs beat the crap out of each other, and the final phase where we made a dash for the exits or pushed our luck for one last grab at some treasure. The leader was never clear; Stu was well placed for most of the game with a balanced haul, Harding had made some good grabs early on, but was gradually losing loot to the rest of us, I made a lot money from a couple of contracts at the expense of only getting three thieves out and Lovely had very few ducats as his gang left the city early, but they all seemed to be brimming with loot. At the final tally both Lovely Rich and I had tied in first with 82 ducats each. There is no tie breaker so spoils were shared. Overall, it’s a fun game with lots of ‘take that’. It plays fairly swiftly, though it took us just over two hours, which may have been because we were all new to the game.

Punk Rich won London and declared that it wasn’t as good as Race for the Galaxy. Jimmy warmed to it slightly when Crocker compared it St Petersburg – which has put me right off. They finished with a couple of hands of Tichu. Rich and Tom won, but only because Tom is a cheating c… Charmer?

Beer: I enjoyed a pint of ale with a rancid sounding name: Liquid Bread (apparently a Saxon phrase for beer). Brewed by Bakehouse, it is a tasty, warm, golden beer with a slightly fruity finish. I rate it a 9 and compare it to Prussische Ostbahn, as how can something that sounds so terrible be so good?

The Fall of Communism

2010-12-08T12:29:00.002Z

On a frosty ole Tuesday night, the fair board gamers of Norwich gathered to do what they do on most Tuesday nights - talk bullshit and drink beer. Also, there was some gaming.

Over on one table, they became chaotic in the old world. At one time, a player of this game mentioned about someone entering his "sex pool". I did not enquire further as to whether this was Chaos in the Old World related or not.

Over on our table, we witnessed Jimmy, the Bond, Norwich reject Ali, Christine, Kevin and myself preside over the downfall of communist Russia, playing Power Grid on a map that resembled the CCCP. I was ill at ease in recreating such events. I even discussed with Ali potential power plays where we could have other players sent to the gulags if they became too powerful. I suggested that the government should be allowed to take control of all power stations and resources, and engage in a 1 player game, thus ensuring that no-one with delusions of Abramovich run away with a lop-sided victory. My somewhat leftist political leanings however were kicked to the curb by my comrades lust for filthy lucre. Disheartened, I reqeusted that the Bond gave me a recap of the rules, for it had been some 3 score years and ten since I had last played Power Grid. I didn't even like the blasted thing, all maths and calculators and whatnot. Matt did the rules in about 2 seconds. I was fairly sure the game was more complicated than that but screw it, I had a beer to drink.

So the game started, people claimed cities, and built power stations. I don't really know why I am attempting to recount the game, because I can't really tell you a great deal. Jimmy seemed to have a definite strategy which he stuck to (damned if I know what though), the rest of us kind of made it up as we went along. As the game pushed into the later stages, myself and Ali made a surge to put the game in an endable situation, with 12 cities each. However, the Bond and Jimmy were lurking and suddenly Jimmy plunked down 5 cities to get to 15. It was to be the final turn. Jimmy flicked the switch and FZZZZZZZZZZZT, Russia was alive with the sound of static. The Bond had long sinced been pinned into a corner and could only jack up 14 cities with his 15 stations, weak. Ali and me trundled in with 14 cities and stations each. Victory to the dude who knew what he was doing from turn 1. Me, playing on gut feeling and wishful thinking, carved out 2nd, Ali 3rd. On the outside, I was all post-communist bluster, fuck yeah, 2nd place in a maths game! Inside, a little piece of me had died, although this is only a game, I fear that it is subliminally trying to convince everyone that privately owned utilities are better than public. But fear not comrades, I will return ever stronger from this experience. The left will rise again!

Then Ali, Hal, Punk Rich and Me played the ludicrous King of Siam. SUKOTHAI! Ali kept saying that the game was awful, Hal wore a perpetually perplexed expression and Punk Rich kept rolling his eyes every time I broke the "no communication" rule, not intentionally of course, I was 3 pints in and enjoying myself too much. SUKOTHAI! Ali and Rich won when on the final turn, me and Hal couldn't quite engineer the board position in our favour.

And so we headed off into the crisp night air, drunk on games, and drunk on booze. On the walk home the Bond recounted the existence of a frankly ludicrous sounding game that I am fairly certain he invented on the spot involving being angels and creating the world. Fantasy gaming is alive and well!

Just a quick update for last Tuesday...

2010-12-06T16:39:00.004Z

We were joined by Kevin and Christine, who came all the way from San Francisco to entertain us with Endeavour. I’d not played it before, but it’s seen table time at the Ribs on a couple of other occasions, but I was probably playing Chaos in the Old World. It’s an optimisation/area influence game on the more abstract side of the euro spectrum (the theme is world exploration and empire building). It plays quickly and is mostly tactical. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Jimmy won, beating me by one point. Crocker came last as he spent the whole game gearing up for a spoiling move to deny my victory in response to my dastardly attack on him during Caylus the other week. Curse you, Crocker [shakes fist in rage]. We finshed up with a few hands of Tichu, which I am growing more fond of each time we play. Anyway, welcome to Kevin and Christine; good to have you on board along with your shipping container full of games.

Beer: I was drinking Otter Amber. A superior brew from a brewery with a fine name. Balanced, slightly bitter with a hint of fruit and obviously amber in colour. I rate it an 8 and compare it with Endeavour as both are lovely.

TOMORROW: Norwich Board Gamers 5^th birthday. Yes, we have been going for five years. A good excuse to get to the Ribs if you haven’t been for a while, as there will be cake and balloons, drinks and of course games. Huzzah!

Lost Valley. No dinosaurs.

2010-11-24T13:51:00.005Z

Ah, Lost Valley. It’s all about punching dogs in the face and getting wood. Drinking whisky and stealing gold. Paddling down river with a canoe full of dynamite. Survivalist Goths eating rats. And all those other things you’d associate with exploring the American West. This was Lost Valley's second airing at NoBoG. Myself, Lovely Rich and Andy had played it the last time and we’d all come back for more. Punk Rich joined us for some adventure.

Each player in Lost Valley takes on the role of a gold prospector and explores the depths of the Lost Valley hoping to amass a fortune by discovering and extracting the gold found in the rivers and mountains. Players can use gold they find to buy better gear, which makes it easier for them to travel around and survive in the wilderness, as well as more efficiently pan or mine gold. This is a race against each other, for the limited resources, and also against the game as the onset of winter will freeze the river and end the game.

The gear that players can but really allows each player to adopt their own strategy and all four of us had different ideas on how to win. Rich went for the survivalist route and bought horse, fishing rod, axe and gun, which allowed his prospector (a goth) to live off the land and collect natural resources quickly. I went for the entrepreneurial miner and invested a lot of money in a horse, a cart and a big box of dynamite with the idea to quickly recoup my expenditure by efficiently exploiting mines. Andy bought a canoe and dashed about the map exploring new territory and grabbing the quick and easy river gold, before buying some dynamite paddling for the gold rich mother lode at the end of the river, while Lovely chose to also buy a canoe and scurrilously follow the others around drinking whisky (to give him extra actions) and stealing gold from their mines. The end results were close with Lovely and myself tying with the most gold.

Great game and great night as we finished off with an extra beer and a game of 6 Nimmt.

Beer: I was drinking Elgood’s Indian Summer, a pale hoppy brew with a hint of malt. I’d rate it a seven and compare it to Automobile as it’s not as dry as it looks.

Battle Royale - Luke given the finger

2010-11-23T11:59:00.006Z

We initially started out as a six but after Rory went to deal with his Tesco’s delivery we settled down to 5 and played Jimmys copy of Caylus. Its been a long time since any of us had played a 5 player game of this. By any of us I mean, Jimmy, Luke, Matt, Punk Rich and Phil (who had never played Caylus before). The game ebbed and flowed and it was difficult to judge who was in command, some players got VP’s whilst others improved board position to later get greater VP’s, the lead changed hands often with Luke being a front runner then Rich, then Matt and back to Rich. Rich’s use of the inn and some early passing by some players mismanaging their money allowed Rich on a few occasions to clean up. A benefit not afforded to others who used the inn. I enjoyed the game as always and feel it scales well though I prefer playing with four, five players makes the game tighter. Ultimately Matt felt he was in as good a position as he would ever be and set out to end the game, sacrificing his own potential next turn to limit that of mine. In upon itself not completely game effecting but coupled with the following actions, the result of the game could be seen to have hinged on the last moves players made. Jimmy and myself had set up long term pay offs and where the only players able to use architect tiles, with Matt having denied me that last turn, Phil went on one when he was unable to use it Rich stole the last and only space in the castle and Matt took the last architect tile denying either Jimmy or me a chance. I wasn’t expecting spoilers and was wrong footed by this loosing out on over 20+ VP’s. Ultimately this decided the game as Rich won by a nose (2 points I think). Matt having fallen on his sword to prevent the points ended up off the pace after count backs. None of us are experts at Caylus so we frequently make mistakes, this always adds to the feeling of 'if only id done....'. What I like about the game is the level of interaction and that it is difficult to do what you want with so many others dictating how the game pans out. I do try to play differently when I get the chance, today I didn’t follow the building favour track and as a result was left high and dry at the end, 'if only i'd....... If you enjoy adapting your strategy to take into account what others are doing and respond accordingly Caylus is a superb game to play.

Age of Big Box Games

2010-11-23T11:32:00.004Z

Myself, Luke, Tash, nice Rich and Hal played Age of empires 3 the other week. A really good game which needs a small house fix. The game is well balanced but if you loose an expedition or are out gunned for a ‘boat’ it can leave you off the pace. An example of this was where Luke, Hal and Rich all founded colonies with exactly one man more than was revealed on the card (this is the bare minimum margin of success) and Tash tried with a greater numbers on her side but then failed. Bad luck, ok, but all her investment 6 or 7 actions where then lost. When a single player looks like he could win a boat other players are scared off competing as they will loose resources, consequently often the boat was won (by me) VERY cheaply, this of course had an impact on the final scores as despite vp tiles being taken that would have befitted me enormously, I still won by a clear margin. Obviously there are many factors to bare in mind and Hals tactics in the new world saw him running a very close second, had he been slightly more concerned with finances in the mid game he may well have won.

Stone Age Success

2010-10-28T17:35:00.002+01:00

Many apologies last week left me wondering how many would attend. Rory came in and told me he’d be back in ten minutes and I sat alone and waited.......luckily Dylan decided to pay a visit, this rare and pleasant occurrence aloud a gaming session to take place. In my haste to bring all the games knowing Matt and Jimmy would be absent I neglected to bring San Marco. In the end we opted for Stone age and played the correct 3 person rules + a house adaption based on vagueness in the official rules. This all worked out splendid as once all players got used to the system there was good tension and competition for resources.

The three player rules only allow 2 players in any one resource area (except food hunting) usually the limit is 7 but only allowing 2 players mean you can easily miss your chance. Equally the centre resources of corn, axes and babies can only be occupied by two players (or one player twice) which means every third go you cant get one (unless a rival chooses to place elsewhere as Rory frequently did). There are normally 4 stacks of huts which acquire victory points. The rules say take away ½ for 2 and 3 players but this doesn’t work so the house fix is to take away ½ for two players and ¼ for 3. This allows the game to remain balanced. I’ve played this where fewer huts are available but 4 stacks are retained and this makes the game end faster. This Tuesday we removed a stack which felt significantly more in the spirit of the game (4 players 4 stacks and 3 players 3 stacks etc). This provided continued competition for resources and board position maintain the tension and choices from the 4 player version. I wasn’t that impressed with the scaled version of this game on my one previous play but this weeks outing was superb and I would recommend it as a three player game, the rule tweaks are similar to removing a region in power grid they don’t change the feeling the game just reduce the space so it keeps working.

Rory bravely played on despite realising in the last third that he was significantly off the pace, a lack of hammers and early expansion, a critical food miscalculation and it became a two horse race. Dylan benefitted from some extraordinary card luck and racked up a very good score but in the end I was triumphant.

We drunk....... a lot less than all the splitters who went to the beer festival.

Now Another word from our sponsors

2010-10-28T17:04:00.006+01:00

More games which are for sale: all in good condition and complete

Marracash £18

Prophecy £35

Funny friends £17

Axis and Allies (2004) £30

Hamburgum £27

Eketorp £18

Comuni £18

Dominion intrigue £24

Die golden stadt (the golden city) £20 (new in shrink)

Dungeon twister £15 + Paladins & Dragons £15

San Juan £14

10% off for multiple buys - ask me questions by phone or in person ta. Luke

Who Is This Rory? And How did he Manage to Win Puerto Rico???

2010-10-26T16:17:00.004+01:00

We where 9 this week and cracked out Puerto Rico and Amun Re, I did the rules session for Puerto and we got together a group of players either new to the slave trade or at best inexperienced. Rory won but I don’t know how (Jimmy did ask and we believe it was corn strategy but Rory seamed unsure himself). A lot of euro games are about taking advantage of what’s available rather than strategy, what’s more, good strategy can be difficult on first and second plays. Some games just aren’t fair when experienced players know the strategy and puerto rico is often seen as that type of game. One of my personal favourite nights at games club was when we ran the puerto rico contest and this number one ranked game got 4 plays and an ultimate champion.

I played Amun Re with Dave and Hal who were new to this Kinizia classic, making up the five where Luke who I believe had played it before and Jimmy. Id forgotten a couple of things and was shouted down early doors and having creamed this game last time I played I wanted to avoid the temple strategy. Hal managed to acquire 4 temples in the first era and 2 other players went heavy for farmers so Hal had a commanding lead. Jimmy went the other way wanting camels, as a result he was left behind in what turned out to be a money rich game. At the start of the second era it was pretty close with me in second and all others close behind. With bidding becoming extreme and 21 being a typical price to pay for regions all players fed the system and those that stepped back ran a risk of either falling behind or with luck winning. In the final count Hals lead was virtually unassailable......virtually Jimmy got very close and even closer having finished with the most money and I finished in second two points short.....then Jimmy realised we hadn’t counted my one temple and I narrowly piped Hal at the last. All things considered Hal played a blinder for his first game and all patronising aside he had the moral victory.

I had for some reason thought Rory was called Hugo??? I dont know why??? but the original picture didnt make sense so I had to find a rory???? so Stoke fans know whats going on but everyone else is asking why does a boardgame blog have a picture of a mediocre footballer??

Hugo the Glorious.

2010-10-13T14:19:00.003+01:00

Tuesday saw Rory and Sarah saunter down to the Ribs of Beef for their first proper session at NoBoG. Rory was stung by a scorpion, trapped in a tunnel and ultimately fell down a bottomless chasm. Sarah, on the other hand, was showered with gold, silver and all manner of riches. What did they do to deserve such unbalanced treatment? Who could be so kind to Sarah and viscously cruel to poor Rory? Original Rich of course. He wasn’t doing it on purpose though, he was introducing them to the fantasy adventure Dungeon Quest. This is Fantasy Flight’s re-make of Games Workshop’s 1980’s classic. It’s a light game when compared to other dungeon romps such as Descent or Runebound and they managed to squeeze in three games - all of which, seemed to end with an abrupt and violent death for Rory’s characters and a horde of treasure for Sarah’s. I’m not sure whether luck was smiling on Rich , but he did wander over to our table and mumbled something about always winning the game we were playing, which perhaps was an indication that things weren’t going all that well in the dungeon.

And what is the game that Rich always wins? Why Louis XIV of course; the ultimate trying to impress the king game. Jimmy, Phil, Pharmacist Luke and myself were all trying to out lick the arses of the notables at the Sun King’s Court in order to try and be the king’s most favoured brown-nose. It’s a clever little area control game, which I am quite fond of, despite the lack of a proper board. Final scores: Jimmy 52, Luke 47, Matt 45 and Phil 37.

Phil and I then exacted revenge on the other two with a game of Tichu. We battered them and the game was called after three hands with Jimmy and Luke on -25 points and Phil and myself on 225.

Why don't you show your face?

2010-10-06T13:39:00.003+01:00

Do you sit at home playing Settlers of Catan on your own?

Do you force your poor old nan to play Space Hulk and shout at her because she forgets the rules?

Are you sitting at home reading this imagining how awesome it would be to regularly play board games with intelligent, charming and good-looking opponents, but don’t know any?

Then why haven’t you been to the Ribs of Beef on Tuesday night to play games with us? We’re not intelligent, charming or good-looking (though Tom was kind of charming and there was that French girl who came along once), but we do regularly play board games and most of us are friendly.

If you’re reading this and wonder whether you could join us, then wonder no more. You are very welcome to join us . Come along to the Ribs of Beef on any Tuesday evening, go to the back of the pub, descend the steps into the bowels of the Ribs of Beef and there you will find us. Get there by 7.30 and you can join us in a game. No need to bring a game with you. No membership fees to pay. Just come long, have a few drinks and play a game or two. And don’t worry that you won’t know how to play a game - 95% of the time we explain the rules before we start, as most of us won’t have played the game before or at least need to be reminded of the rules.

Steam

2010-10-06T13:23:00.007+01:00

Last night we played Steam. The update/re-make of Martin Wallace’s classic train game Age of Steam. We played the Northern England board, which comes with the Steam Barons expansion. The expansion comes with additional rules for stocks, but we chose to keep it simple and play with the rules from the base game. I say simple, but even with just the base game this is a meaty affair and with six players we just got it finished by last orders. Jimmy, the old hand, won easily almost 20 points clear of the pack. I just pipped Northern Luke to second place, Pete came fourth, Tash was fifth and poor old Lovely Rich was last, but it was very close between the five of us. This was the second time I’d played Steam and despite owning the original, I am now convinced that I need to get this. In fact, as if to prove how good Steam is we even had spectators for most of the evening. Rory and Sarah turned up a bit too late to join in any games, but hung around and watched the game and had a few drinks. Hopefully we’ll see them back next week and they'll get to enjoy some gaming.

Happy Birthday

2010-09-30T21:03:00.002+01:00

I kept a record of the games we played at NBG for about 18 months. It was pretty obsessive, like some kind of nerd at a cricket march. Someone said, "write a blog" but no of us could be bothered......... a year later or so and I eventually got round to it....its now been 3 years, 3 years!

In that time we've seen various people come and go. Few have stayed, whether that's because of me or Jimmy, Ben or Matt (probably Mr Bond he does generate hatred and bile from all who meet him).

Big thanks to anyone who reads this, you know who you are......I don't.

Thanks to Andy who regularly writes after attending and to Matt for keeping this up when my work or heart just isn't in it.

Here's to another 3 years......or at least another 3 months.

Hairy back.

2010-09-24T09:23:00.005+01:00

NoBoG was in danger of becoming a men’s meeting as we sat around and discussed politics, watched Punk Rich open his mail and discussed who was the hairiest. Then Pete turned up for the first time since the birth of his daughter Alea. He started talking about babies, the consistency of poo and breast-feeding, so we quickly set up the tables in gaming formation and broke out Tikal and Fresco.

Tikal is an old favourite down the club and, for those of you who care, is played using the auction rules. Crocker and Jimmy favour this rule. Original Rich does not. Everyone else had little to say on the matter. Anyway, Original Rich narrowly won, despite the auction rule, Pete came in a close second, Crocker third and Phil who, by his own admission, over bid for everything, was last.

Fresco is not an old favourite, but was making its debut at the Ribs. It isn’t really anything we haven’t seen before – except maybe the theme… Players are striving to paint a Fresco on the ceiling of a church and employ apprentices to buy and mix paints, do the painting and do some other work on the side. How hard you work them is a fine balance - either get them up early in order to get the best locations and paints, but you have to pay them more and they start to feel overworked, or choose to leave them to snooze until 9am, thus keeping up their morale and paying them less money at the risk of losing out on the best stuff. The game simulates this with simultaneous worker placement, turn order manipulation and a morale chart. It got a good reception from everyone who played and we all agreed that for a middle-weight euro it has a lot going for it and even has a coherent theme/mechanics match up. I enjoyed it, but maybe that’s because I won, beating Jimmy by a solitary point. Punk Rich ambled in third followed by Dave.

Beer: I had several pints of Brew Dog’s Alpha Dog. A dark-amber-red bitter. Malt, caramel and fruit flavours all in there, but with room for the hops. Tasty, tasty brew. Doesn’t come in a stuffed squirrel though. I rate it a 9 and compare it to Container – a game I probably enjoy more than most, which is also produced by a slightly “controversial” manufacturer.