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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

Its Official Jack is A Retard

With Jack self confessing his personal retardation it was my pleasure to play Capitol and Tower of Babel with him and James. Jimmy, Ben, Rich and Pete played power grid all of whom where new to the game (obviously except Jimmy). I have no idea who won that encounter but I would expect Jimmys knowledge of the game stood him at somewhat of an advantage. When I left they where playing Race for the galaxy.

Im currently shedding a ton of games on ebay and wanted to play both Capitol and Tower of Babel again before they left me for good. Both games have merits. There is much to make either game enjoyable but not enough there to make you reach for it off the shelf over some of the other excellent games available.

Capitol is an area control game with a few mechanisms that limit your actions. It 'suffers' from players not being able to make their own choices rather having to play where cards dictate. If all things are equal this shouldnt be a problem but things arent equal and it was a problem last time I played and was again this time. I managed to draw only one card throughout the game of a particular colour and James was equally frustrated. Its a fine ballancing act in game design to allow players choices whilst at the same time having variable conditions or replayability.

Tower of babel is virtually over before its begun and has far to many elements out of my control for me to love it but when I want a 50 minute knizia auction game this was always an option. Players ask for help to build a wonder and rivals offer resources, the better the offer the less the player needs to contribute but in excepting the offer it advances the rivals board position. When offers are declined the rivals are awarded VPs based on the number of items offered. It can work well but in reality there are far too many variables out of a players control. Works best with four and can take five. We played with three which made offers rather pathetic and limited.

I also have to appologise as having not played these games for what amounts to at least three years, and having not pre-read the rules, the rules sessions where poor to say the least. This is probably why both James and I failed misserably and why Jack '(insult insult here)' Shannon was able to win both Capitol and Babel. Won done you retard.

16! now we're legal

I had had such a bad day, playing a new game was always going to be a risk and after last week’s fiasco I decided I needed to play a game I knew well, a game I loved, a game I stood a chance of winning so I played Caylus.

Caylus is my favourite game, I absolutely love it. I cant put my finger on exactly what it is about it, but I think one of the highlights is that every turn you can do something, every go there is low hanging fruit and you can manipulate your own position playing solo whilst also competing and playing with others. I love games that have alternative paths to victory and we saw several strategies unfolding this time.

In last night’s game Student Luke* played a money strategy very well up until the last quarter where he missed a few opportunities and was surpassed by Richard (Mr. Big) who was hording goods to deliver to the castle. Rich could have acquired a slightly better position had he delivered more efficiently but it would have only made a dent in Crocker’s eventual victory. Punk Rich came forth with a building strategy and Lewis was fifth but was playing Caylus for the first time. Student Luke* and punk Rich had played before (was it 8 months back???) a classic game where Luke nearly won and punk Rich was dissed by a certain Jack ‘out of spite’ Shannon. Rich was not about to allow that to happen again so he vetoed Jacks participation this time.

Everyone announced this weeks gaming to be a success and joyfully compared the wonderful Caylus with the disaster that was ‘vampire: prince of the city’ (the new Kogge) We agreed that the game would play better if it got more regular outings.

We finished the evening with a game of Ra – a popular auction gateway game by Mr Knizia. This is one of big Rich’s favourite games, he led the rules and self confessed to not ever winning. He didn’t win tonight either narrowly losing to Crocker.

Both games attracted interest from pub dwellers (including feminine ones) eyes where turned both ways and our position upstairs raised our gaming profile and was necessary as 16 or so people had turned up and table space was at a premium.

Downstairs Dan won Confucius and other games were played that I know very little about. Me and Rich were mostly drinking blackcurrant and soda.