Norwich Board Gamers

20th January 2009: a historic day. Crocker lost his first game of Power Grid. Godfrey and Richie's buddy, Michael* turned up for their first session at NoBoG. And I played my first game of the new "must have" game - Dominion.

I won't go into all the details of who played what and who won what and where they played it and for how long and why they won... OK, so I didn't win any of the four games I played. Instead I'll say a little about Dominion.

Dominion's soaring popularity on Board Game Geek is matched at NoBoG with at least four or five people owning it. It's also seen play at every session throughout January, which must be a record, as very few games get played more than one or two weeks in a row. I can see the appeal. It's a quick card drafting card game with many similarities to collectable card games, but with out the collecting element and the steep learning curve. It's one of those games that soon gets it's hooks into you. With a plethora of cards to play with and a short playing time I can imagine saying "Just one more game" as you want to hone your strategy, but also explore new cards and combinations. Do I like it? For the most part, yes, however, I was disappointed by the low level of interaction. It also seems shallow in terms of strategy, as for all the different cards they all seemed rather similar. I'll have to play again to see if I'm correct and to see if the combination with the Throne Room and the Re-structure could be improved by adding more... ah.

Beer. I drank something nice. It had a crap name plate and I forget what it was called. I'd compare it to Wabash Cannonball - Shoddy looking, but with surprising depth and taste. 8/10.

*He may not be called Michael. I'm not sure I caught his name, but Michael sounds familiar and I find it hard to believe that we've never had a Michael, Mike or even a Mick down the club.