Print Page - Spirit Games Wednesday Night

This week we had a lot of people turn up so we split into two groups.

My Dwarves Fly
Players make a hand of 5 cards selecting from two decks a creature deck and an acion deck. They then can do one of four actions: Place a creature card in front of them; Place an ability card on existing creature card (thiers or another player); Play a battle card; or discard a card.

The main aspect of the game is the battles, each player must field the stated amount of creatures into the fight. You roll dice to determine your battle strength and 1's count towards treasure (though abilities and certain creatures change this). After the battle is over players get the chance to play event cards which can effect the outcome of the battle. These are revealed all at once and the various effects acted upon. The winner of the battle takes the treasure they found during the fight and then loses their most powerful creature from the fight to the discard pile.

The winner is the first player to reach 15 gold

I really like this game, its fun and the artwork is funny and very good. There are a few quirks in the rules but these can be ironed out by group concensus. On the whole I would recomend this to anyone to play.

We managed to get Phil & Sal playing in this game. We ended up with a 4 player game of this with Myself and Simon.
This was a fun game as always, with quite a few battles, mostly started by Phil but in the end it was a resounding win by Sal.

Gloom
This is a really "fun" game involving a very unique set of cards that are transparent with text and other items printed on them. The main aim is to make you family members as miserable as possible and then kill them off.
There are 3 kinds of cards:

Modifiers that either make a person more miserable (negative score) or make a person happier (positive score) these are either played on your own or other players families.
Events that have an effect on gamelplay, sometimes even bringing the dead back to life or preventing someone dying
Death These cards are used to kill of your characters.

Each modifier is stacked on top of your character and the current status is read by looking at the stack. As the cards are transparent some bits become covered over and others added which is a fantastic mechanic and very unique.

Some of the modifiers whilst having a negative score sometimes have additional features that can effect you like losing a turn or reducing your hand size.

Once someone has killed of all their family members the game ends and the person wih the mose negative score wins.

Settlers of Catan

The Settlers game was good as usual, the numbers were a little awkwardly place against the resources needed so there was a shortage of one or two for a while, but as usual one person managed to overcome this problem and win the game. this is a game I always enjoy.

Sherlock Holmes

This card game was interesting, You have to move from London to the country and visa versa placing cards in turn and trying to find out who has the villain cards, if you manage to keep hold of your villain/s and not be found out then you benefit from loads of extra points towards the end of the game. mulitiple rounds can be played and counted up at the end.

This week was another full evening where we had to split into two groups.

Our Group, consisting of Sally, Andie, Myself and Carole played a game of Infernal Contraption followed by a round of Guillotine.

For Infernal Contraption we played the unexpanded game as it was Andie's first game. The game started off fairly even then through various attacks and a bit of an own goal I managed to deplete my own parts pile and took myself out of the game. Andie was then viciously annihilated by Carole who then went on to crush Sally without any remorse ;D winning in style!

Guillotine was as fun as ever, this is a great little game with lots of nice cards and fun graphics. I did really bad in this game with a pretty low score leaving the other to fight over first place which I believe went to Sally (but I may wrong).

The others played a game of powergrid with the new card set. I like powergrid this another great game which is always fun to play. I have not tried it with the new cards but I'm sure I will get a chance another week.

The Wed nights are getting popular we filled two tables again this week!.

On Our table we played a game of Thebes with 4 people but we used the 3 Player setup rules.
Play commences over 3 years 1901 to 1903 the player take on the role of Archaeologist trying to dig for artifacts in various locations and put on exhibits with their finds.

In order to perform a dig players must do research and get specialist knowledge in the region they wish to dig. Each turn a player can move, take an action (Research, Dig or put on an exhibition). There are 4 cards on the board which represent specialist knowledge, general knowledge, rumours or specialist cards. Each of these cards is tied to a specific city on the board and has a cost in weeks associated with it. There is a track around the edge of the board marked in weeks, each move on the board following lines marked on each cost 1 week per step.

When players have accumlated knowledge they can move to a site and attempt to dig for artifacts, the first player to try a dig gets a 1 point treasure for free. Each player has a disc which turn to indicate how much knowledge they have of the site ( a combination of specilaist and general ) they look at how many weeks they want to spend digging and this then tells them how many tokens they can pull out of a bag for that site. The bag contains various artifcats of different valus plus 2 book tokens (one general one specialist) plus a number of blanks tokens. Any blank tokens pulled are placed back in the bag. Each player can only dig once at each site per year unless they get a special permit card allowing an extra dig by discarding it.

Exhibition cards turn up as play progresses and to colect these the player needs to have the requesit number of artifacts from the indicated sites, be in the city marked on the card and spend the number of weeks indicated to put on the exhibition. Small exhibitions are worth 4 victory points and large ones are worth 5.

There are also congress cards which go up in value the more of them you have.

Winning the game, after the last player completes the last year the victory points are added up and the player with the most wins.

Points are awarded as follows:
The player with the most specialist in a site gets 5 points, if tied then each player tied gets 3.
Each artifact is worth points (1-7)
Congress cards (1-28)

If you play a 4 player game as laid out in the rules the game plays differently to other numbers of players. This is because the game is played over 2 years in a 4 player rather than the normal 3 years. Having less time significantly changes tactics and strategies.

We've found that for a 4 player game if you set it up the same as a 3 player game it works much better.

The other table played a game of Race for the Galaxy.
Explore, Settle, Develop, Trade, Consume, or Produce? Which do you need the most? Which of Earth's former colonies will be most successful at settling the galaxy, now that JumpDrive exists? Who will discover the secrets of the mysteriously vanished Alien Overlords? Your goal: to build the most prosperous and powerful space empire!

We split into groups again this week, our group consisted of Myself, Carole, Sally, Phil & Philsy.
The others played a 4 player Infernal Contraption (http://ccgi.lefthandrule.plus.com/bbbb/index.php?topic=123.0).

We decided to play Valley of the Mammoths (http://ccgi.lefthandrule.plus.com/bbbb/index.php?topic=130.0) After a little bit of time setting things up we started playing using the additional fire rules.

With a five player game the board is quite crowded and thus there is quite a bit of player interaction on the board. There also seemed to be a glut of animals on the south end of the board leading to Phil & Sal having a lean winter. Also with a little help from bad events, Tribal fights and food shortages their tribes became extinct, as we forgot about the resurrection rule. Still as it turned out the others had finished their game and most of them had decided to call it a night leaving Simon on his own so him and Phil had a game of something together whilst we finshed ours.

As usual we had two tables of games being played.

The other table was deeply involved in a Game of Antler Island (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3669).

Whilst on our table Roy wanted to try out his new copy of Power Grid (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2010).
This is a classic game and has made a few appearances at the Wednesday night games. The basic premise is you are trying to buildpower stations to power a network of houses. During the game you bid for power stations, pay for resources to power them and build your network of houses. The game is won by the person who can power the most of their network at the end, not the one with the largest network.

The game we played was very close and the networks built by each player had gotten large, but in the end the winner was Richard who not only managed to build a large network but had managed his resources well enough to power the most at the end game. Very enjoyable and always fun to play. The pieces are of high quality and the artwork superb.

Tonight both tables were playing Pandemic (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3783).

The premise of the game is your team are trying to eradicate four deadly diseases spreading across the globe. You work together to try and get the resources to develop a cure for the diseases. Each team member has particular strengths that aid in the eradication of the diseases and you must cooperate in order to maximise your chances of beating the pandemic.

Each turn you can take up to 4 actions,
Examples are moving to an adjacent city or if you are at a research centre you can move straight to another city with a research centre for 1 action. Remove a cube of virus from the city you are in. Build a research centre if you have the card for that city in your hand.

Certain characters allow you to do more with these actions as a special ability, like the Medic can remove all cubes from a city for 1 action.

On your turn you take your actions, you then draw 2 player cards and then draw infection cards acting on them by placing cubes on those cities. If a city already has 3 cubes of the same disease on it then you have an outbreak placing 1 cube of that disease on all adjacent connected cities, if they then get more than 3 cubes the infection spreads wider.

This game is unpredictable the first game I played went really quickly as the 3 of us failed to control a major outbreak in Asia resulting in a swift completion of the outbreak track ending the game. The second game lasted a bit longer but again we failed to contain a major outbreak.

As a team you are trying to control the outbreaks whilst attempting to develop the cures. To develop a cure you need to collect 5 cards of the same colour and then when you are at a research centre use an action to discard them thus developing the cure. Then once all the cubes of this disease are removed it prevents any further outbreaks and you can ignore infection cards for this disease.

This game is just FUN. It is a cooperative game, and you do need to work together utilizing each team member's strength to its best.

We played two games of it the same night after the first ones quick finish and I'm sure I will be playing this one again.

After failing to save the world twice we decided to try something a little differenet and played a game of Samurai (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=1050).

This is a beautiful game. The components of this game are of very good quality and very much in line with the whole theme.

The game is deceptively easy to learn but will take time to master the right strategies to win.
You collect pieces from the board either a Buddha, Rice Field or High Helmet by placing tiles around them which various amounts of influence marked on them. Once the item is completely surrounded by tiles the player with the most influence takes the item, if there is a tie the piece is removed and placed next to the board. You have five tiles in your hand and the rest are face down in front of your screen which you use to restock you hand as you play.

In a 3 or 4 player game your captured pieces are stored behind the screen so you never quite know what the other players have got which is what makes the game so strategic is you have to plan carefully what pieces you go for.

It is a very tactical game and leaves you with a lot to think about but plays reasonably fast. There is a certain amount of luck involved in getting the right tile you need to play at the right time but this just adds to the tension and leaves plenty of room for re-playability.

The unique scoring system means that just when you think you may have a winning position it suddenly swings in favour of one of you opponents. If you have the most of 2 or more of the pieces you Win, if more than one player has the most of a piece (ie player 1 has most Rice Fields, Player 2 has most Buddhas) they set aside those pieces and count the pieces they have left and the winner is the one with the most.

I would definitely recommend this one for your collection.

One table was playing Pandemic (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3783) again whilst our table had a game of Mag-Blast (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2962).

Mag-Blast is a FUN game, each player has a command ship and a series of fleet ship's surrounding it. The idea is that you are trying to shoot down your opposing fleets and destroy the command ship. The last ship standing is the winner.

Whilst the game should normally be played fairly fast as this was the first game for most of us it did not flow well as people were getting to grips with the rules and what the various cards did. That said it was still good fun and I can see the potential of it once players are familiar with what they need to do.

You place your fleet cards around your Command ship card and each fleet ship can fire once at an enemy ship. You can only target a ship on the same zone as the one firing which is where the ability to move you ships around can come in handy. You also need to make sure you have no gaps in your fleet where other players can then target your command ship directly.

To fire a ships turret you need to have a blast card with the appropriate coloured turret matching that of your ship. If you successfully hit the target ship the blast card is placed under that ship to show its accumulated damage. Once you have as much damage under your ship as it's hull strength is destroyed and placed in the discard pile.

You can reinforce your fleet by discard cards with resource markers either 3 with the same type of resource icon or 1 of each type. You can then draw a new fleet ship to be placed in a zone of your choice. You can have a Max of 3 fleet ships per zone.

You can have carriers that can launch squadrons these are very powerful as once used the squadron returns to your hand unlike blast cards. However, the damage they deal is temporary so if you do not destroy a ship with that damage it will be wasted. Squadrons can also be used to defend against other players squadrons and sometimes this results in both squadrons being discarded.

Overall this is a fun game and once familiar will be fast paced, the unique targeting system for blasts is that you have to make a suitable noise when attacking if you fail to make one the shot misses (as we were learning we skipped this.. we may have missed out on a vitally fun part of the game though :-\ )

To finish the evening off we decided to play an old classic Settlers of Catan (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3641) but we decided to play with the two small expansions The Great River (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3755)
and The Fisherman of Catan (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3504).

Settlers is always a great game and is never the same twice the addition of these expansions adds some unique twists that give players extra ways to score victory points or effect the gameplay. I thouroughly enjoyed this combination and would recommend both these expansions to anyone and I feel they work very well together.

Only a small handful of us tonight so we played a few shorter games.

We had a quick game of Bloody Legacy (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2171) which was very cutthroat with everyone taken down to 1 life except Phil who eventually won but it was down to the last life each between me and Phil and he got me when I had no defence left :'(

We then had a couple of rounds of Guillotine (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=1737) which went very quickly but as always were really good fun.

We "persuaded" a couple of the roleplayers (Arnu and Snakes in the Tiki lounge) to stay after their game to play a game of Samurai (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=1050).

To round the evening off we dusted off an old classic and played a game of Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=1333). This is always an enjoyable game and should be part of anyone's collection it works well with 2 or more players. Phil managed another victory (the gaming gods were with him that evening +:notworthy=+::notworthy:

We had a good turnout this week.

The first table started with a game of Pandemic (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3783) whilst we setup on the other table to play a game of Mwahahaha! (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3832).

Mwahahaha! is immense fun you take on the role of one of the mad genius/scientist etc who wants to take over the world. You get to pick one doomsday machine from a set of three. Each device requires different resources to power and your character is allowed to convert various resource cards into resources in differing amounts and one resource they are not able to convert but can sacrifice cards at creation phase to get resources of this type.

During creation you can trade with other players, spend cards to get resources up to your limit or buy empire cards (which may allow you to convert more of your resource card value into resources) and Minion Cards (which help you to steal empire cards or resources from other players). One nasty twist is there are a number of betrayal cards in the resource deck, when trading with players you can claim this as any resource you like. Once you get someone to trade you get the resource you want and they get nothing!

During the rivalry phase you get to use your minions to steal resources or empire cards. They have a number associated with the resource and this determines how many dice you roll. If you are stealing resources from another players machine they get 2 dice for resources on the doomsday device plus any extras from their minions they can use in defense. It's then a matter of a straight roll off counting successes, any missing dice are treated as 2's. This rolling mechanic is used throughout the game and is very simple and elegant.

Next comes the Domination phase where everyone gets to threaten a City, State, Country or the World. Each step requires much more resources to fire up and requires more successes to gain the spoils of victory. On a successful threat you will be given a number of resources depending on the machine and the level you used it at. You can use each level twice for free then each subsequent use will incur humiliation penalties. If you fail you can either slink away incurring the humiliation penalty or you can blow up the City, State or Country gaining a +1die bonus but losing your doomsday device. You can discard your doomsday device and select another one from a set of three at this point as well.

The game is won when someone builds enough resources to power the doomsday device to World Domination level and succeeds in the threat.

This was really fun, but does play a lot longer than it says on the tin.

The pieces are very colourful and the artwork suits the theme very well.

We had two tables of gamers tonight, the first table played a game of Race for the Galaxy (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3594).

Our table started with a game of Blue Moon City (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2936) this is a wonderful game, simple to play and full of beautiful artwork and pieces. After a fairly close game I finally made the final sacrifice at the Obelisk to win the game.

Our second game was Samurai (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=1050) this is a great strategic game which is always fun to play. After struggling to get going in this game I finally thought I had caught up until the end of game reveal where I did not manage the most of any of the pieces so was knocked out of the running for winner. It is one of those games where you never really know where you are in the running and that adds to the enjoyment of the game.

After spending late nights shifting stuff from the old shop into the current one Phil fancied an early night so we packed up early and helped shift some final pieces from the old shop to take back to his house for storage!.

We split over two tables again tonight. Richard had a prototype new version of Risk, which looked very cool in dark grey colour scheme which contasted well with the coloured player pieces. By all accounts it played very well and there was much banter coming from their table which can only be a good sign.

After looking around the wares in the shop for a while Philsy turned up so we sat down for a game of Dragonland (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=557). Each player takes 3 pawns of red, green and blue and places the first on the board starting from any pf the 3 starting caves. After that each player rolls two dice and can move 2 of their 3 pawns using the value on the dice. As you move around the board you can stop at volcanoes and collect various gems, dragon eggs and tokens. You can collect a gem of any colour or an egg and the token or all of the gems that match your pawns colour. To score you have to have a complete set of dragon egg and a gem of each colour though you can use clear gems as any coloured gem this scores 10, you get 1 point for any the rest of the pieces you have. However, you require a ring on your pawn or you have to lose all the gems that match its colour. The various tokens allow you to perform extra tasks or movements. If you roll a 4 you can call a dragon to the volcano you are in or fly a dragon in your volcano to another one (the colour has to match your pawn). Some tokens you take stay in the volcanoes (dragons, rings) when you reach a volcano with a ring you can elect to take a ring instead of one of the other items. It was a close game between Carole and Philsy who eventually won by 1 point, I confess I failed to grasp the scoring and managed to easily come last!!.

We then played a 4 player game of Shear Panic (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2984) with Sally, after unpacking all the little sheep and running quickly through the rules we started off. Things got off to a good start for myself and Philsy but not so good for Sally. As we pushed through the various fields there was much shenanigans and just as Sally was catching up there was a cruel shearing of one of her sheep taking it out of the game, and I must confess that was my fault. In the end Philsy won but I was close and the other were not that far behind either.

We rounded the evening off with a game of Guillotine (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=1737) which is always a fun game and was a perfect end to the evening. I managed to pull a win out of this one but again it was very close.

We had two tables of gamers this week again.
The first table ending up playing Perikles (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3033) which seemed to be going well.

We started our session with a game of Stone Age (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3874) this was a very beautiful game, the board, the pieces, the cards are extremely good quality and the artwork is superb. It has a fantastic theme and setting reflected well in the gameplay. Each turn players allocate their initial supply of people onto various areas on the board to try and collect resources, build (and gain Victory Points), collect cards, gain tools, forage for food or increase your bank of people.

Each area has limited space for people except for the forage field which has unlimited capacity. For each person you have in a resource area (Food,Wood, Brick, Stone, Gold) you roll 1 dice, each resource has a point cost you spend the points rolled to buy the resource. Starting with the first player you place your people in these areas, however you can only place people in one area at a time and you can not increase them on further turns. Play rotates around the players until all the people have been placed, then starting with the first player you resolve the action for each set of people. The order you do them in is your choice and you will find that doing them in the right order helps you improve your options during this part. After each player has completed this you then have to pay 1 piece of food for every person you have, if you do not have enough you pay the difference in resources if that is still not enough you lose points.

Cards you collect give you bonuses, some immediate, some for collecting enough different types and others give special Victory points based on what you have built, the number of people etc. A very popular area is the one that increases your food production (so you start getting food for free) however there is only one space there so its usually the first or second player that ends up taking this.

I really enjoyed this game and will look forward to playing it again real soon. I lost completely but still enjoyed the game and will now have a better idea of what to do for future sessions.

Philsy was victorious (by a long way) with Neil and Carole not far behind. I was not even in sight of the rest but then at least I had some points.

This would make a worthwhile addition to anyone's collection.

We finished the evening off with a game of Mag-Blast (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2962) this is a very neat little game and plays well. After a brief catch up on the rules we started off and much fun ensued. After initially complaing he had smaller ships than everyone else in the final shoot-up with Carole, Neil won the game. I was the first casualty followed not long after by Philsy.

Another good evening at the shop look forward to next week when I hope to get another game of Mwahahaha!.

This week we twisted Philsy's arm and got in another game of Mwahahaha! (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3832) so we could get a better grip of the rules. Once again this was a fun game, though we seemed to struggle a bit more this time around. IT was a very close game but after some seriously sneaky play from Carole she pipped everyone to the post of World Domination and won the game.

We then played a game of Medievalia (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3609) which is a very interesting game but does seem to be one of those games where the expected playtime is vastly underestimated. You have a hand of 8 cards and city placed in front of them. Through the game you use the resource on one card, by tapping it, to bring other cards from your hand into play. Often you need a combination in order to do this. The same mechanic is used to construct buildings from one of the piles setup on at the start of the game. Once you have characters placed in front of you you can send those to neighbouring players areas to ransack and destroy their resources. You can protect your areas by placing buildings or people in them. There is a lot going on in this game and I can see it will take a while to get to grips with the various aspects of it. I enjoyed it, but it's not one I would buy, that said I would play it again.

The other table started looking at With Sword and Shield (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3895) but I think they ended up giving up on the idea and played something else. They then played another game of Race for the Galaxy (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3594)

Not many of us in this week just Sal, Phil, Myself and Evilginger. (Plus the roleplayers in the other room.)

We started the evening off with a game of Basari (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=1604) Carole, Myself, Phil and Evilginger played in this one while Sally was wrangling computers and cashing up. This is a really nice, quick little game and is easy to jump into even after a long time since we last played it. You each have 3 actions which you choose between based on where you are and what you think the other players will do. If 2 people pick the same roll the player ahead on points makes an offer to buy the roll, the other player makes a better counter offer or accepts the terms. If 3 or more people pick the same roll then nobody gets to do it. Anyone selecting a unique roll just gets to act on it. The idea is to collect gems of various colours, the player with the most of a particular colour gets victory points based on it's colour (Red highest, blue is lowest). A turn ends when at least one person crosses back over the space they started from or the last gem is removed from a pile. Once the scoring is complete for the gems the winners replace 3 gems from that colour back to the pool, if they tied the tied players return 2 each.

Carole took an early lead in our game and in the final round ended streaks ahead of anyone else!! Phil managed a last minute spurt to make it to 3rd place leaving Evilginger just in last place.

Then we played Tsuro (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2639) which I had purchased that evening with my gift voucher (thanks Phil). This is a really beautiful looking game, the pieces are well made and the artwork is wonderful. We managed to draft Sally into this one so we had a 5 player game. The basic idea is you piece starts on the outside of a grid of squares and you place tiles in front of your piece which provide a series of paths. You move your piece along the path you choose till you reach the end of the tile, play continues this way and the the aim is to remain on the board and avoid bumping into the other players. If your path takes you back to the edge you are eliminated, if your path takes you into another player you are both eliminated. You have to be careful as other players can use their tiles to move you in unexpected directions, as when you get close to one another if your tile adds to another players path they get moved as well. There are a limited amount of cards and you quickly get to the point where the only new cards to get are when a player is eliminated.

In our first game of this I did cruelly eliminate Evilginger by sending his piece of the side of the board. Not long afterwards and due to a simple choice of which way in which to be eliminated I take myself out of the game. Phil and Sally end up joint winners of this game as they both eliminate themselves in the final turn.

The Second game, armed with knowledge of what not to do we started again. I wisely decided not to start from a corner again and therefore lasted a little bit longer. Evilginger eliminates Sally after we all seem to end up very close together in the middle of the board. I manage another self-elimination and then finally confusion sets in as Phil thinks Sally has won, even though she was eliminated earlier, when he had already won himself!! This led to much amusement round the table.

This game is quick, simple and extremely fun to play and would recommend it to anyone.

We had a bit of time left this evening so we had a quick game of It's Alive (http://www.reivergames.co.uk/ItsAlive/index.php). This is just a brilliant, quick little game. Players bid for various body parts to fill their slab to build their monster, they can buy them outright, sell them to the bank for half their value or auction them for cash. The villagers occationally revolt and they have to be appeased with a body part of equal or higher value or bought off with money. Our game ticked along at a fair pace and we had several revolts before finally Sally shouted "It's Alive" and we totted up the scores.

1st Place - Sally 51pts
2nd Place - Me 37pts
3rd Place - Evilginger 36pts
4th Place - Carole 32pts
5th Place - Phil 26pts

We spread over two tables again this week with Phil, Sal and Carole on one table, Myself Richard and Dave on the other.

Our table started off playing Ice Flow (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3925) The aim of this game is to try and get your 3 explorers across the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia using drifting ice flows as 'stepping stones' on your trek from east to west. Climb pack ice ridges using rope, and avoid polar bears using fish.

The pieces are very nice and well presented and although it takes a little while to get to grips with what you are doing it plays ok. The various
resources very quickly get in short supply which then requires moving ice flows off the board to replenish the stocks. We came across a problem during play where one player (me) managed to blockade the other players last men back at the start. Whilst I would play this again this is not a game I would add to my collection. It just did not grab me, having looked at the game online and seeing how nice it looked I was looking forward to playing this but was left a little wanting.

Richard then got me and Dave to play a game of Race for the Galaxy (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3594), Richard won this game but I did get fairly close this time.

For our last game we played Stone Age (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3874) I did manage to get some of the setup wrong but aside from that we had a good game of this. I still really like this game and it is always a pleasure to play, even though I managed to lose again!!. We ended up having to call this as Richard had to leave but we did have a good go at it and it was fun to play. There is a lot to think about on this game and you have to remember to watch what the others players are up to.

MARAKESH
A Game for up to four players this is a simple game to get into, you have carpets to lay on a board around the marker, you throw a dice and move the marker round the board laying your carpets on the adjacent squares to your finishing position, [avoiding the other players carpets] if you land on another players carpet you have to pay him/her 1 coin for each carpet owned by that player in that group, when laying your carpets it is important to try and split up their groups of carpets, this will mean you pay less if you land on them again.
The game ends when all the carpets are used, the winner is the one with the most carpet squares showing once counted.

I really liked this game, I would definitely play this again and possibly buy it. :D
------------------------------
RUMIS

If you have ever played Tetris then you know this game, it is a 3D version of the computer game and it was great fun.

There are areas you can only have 1 brick high then some with 2 bricks high and 3 bricks high ,if you have the full four players the centre is 4 bricks high.

You have to touch your own coloured piece to play your next piece and try to cover your opponents bricks too, but not to early or they will do the same to you !

The game ends once everyone has played all their pieces, the colours left showing from above are counted and the one with the most is the winner.
Another good one !! ;)

Due to Sal n Phil having a Holiday !! (Yeah I know) we relocated to the Anglers Club just over the bridge. There was a small but dedicated band there to play a few games. It was unfortunate that Phil neglected to tell the Landlord of the club we would be there that weds so one person who turned up before the rest of us gave up and didn't come back.

Anyway, that evening we started off with Crazyfrog showing us Killer Bunnies (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2168) this looked like a really fun game, and the few rounds we managed to get in made it look like it would be crazy funny. As it was looking like an all night game and Neil turned up we abandoned this and Neil set up a game of Ys (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2683).

This is a really good game and players take the role of gem merchants in a city and by a bidding system consisting of open and hidden bids (done with wooden cylinders with numbers) you obtain Victory points, gems, influence the market value of gems, obtain cards that allow you to take additional actions on your turn etc.. It is a very neat game and involves a certain amount of thinking and strategy. The board and pieces are well made and I would recommend this game.

We had a small number this week so our first game was Tinners Trail (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3924)
this is a really nice looking game based around Tin & Copper mining in Cornwall.

The game plays over 4 Turns and there is a lot to think about each turn as you have a variety of different actions you can take each requiring a number of time points. Each player has 10 time points to spend each turn and as these are spent the players move there pieces up a time point track which then determines play order for the next turn.

I really liked this game, but it does have a lot of down time as players mull over their options. I would play this again but I doubt I would buy it myself.

After completing the Tinners Trail we split up, Richard and Phil played a game of Race for the Galaxy (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3594) which I am informed Phil won!

The rest of us went on to play a couple of rounds of Tsuro (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2639).
This remains a very enjoyable game that has not lost it's appeal after playing it several times. It scales well having played it with 2, 5 and 6 players thus far. I would still recommend this game to anyone.

This week we played a game of Thebes (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3415) with 4 players. We played this with the 3 player setup enabling the game to play much more like the 2-3 player game. This was played with myself, Crazyfrog, Oskar and Richard and was a very enjoyable game. Due to some poor shuffling on my part we got through the exhibitions rather quickly :-[. Crazyfrog and Richard seemed to monopolise the Specialist Knowledge of Palastina. There is a lot to do in this game and whilst there is an element of luck to it I feel this just makes the theme of the game. The final scores for this one were:

Richard:	90
Me:	58
Crazyfrog:	53
Oskar:	39

We then played a couple of games of Tsuro (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2639) which is certainly becoming a favourite and is always a fun game to play.

Place Holder will fill in details later:

Tonight there was a lot of merriment as I managed to outdo Phil's confusion from the other week and many people made comments during a game of Bang which had everyone falling around with laughter +:laughing7=+::laughing7:

Tsuro (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2639)
While we were waiting for people to arrive, become free we filled in with this favourite. However, despite witnessing a 3 way elimination in our 4 player game I still went on to try and explain about how Crazyfrog could exchange his cards with the eliminated players despite the fact he was one of the 3 eliminated leaving me as a winner DOH! +:dontknow=+::dontknow:

Tiki Mountain (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3502)
Due to extra people turning up we abandoned our planned game in favour of this fun little gem to accommodate everyone. This was fun as always, aside from managing to let Philsy leg it to the volcano almost uncontested. He made it and passed the final test to sacrifice himself to save the island and villages from the Angry Volcano God.

Mamma Mia! (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=854)
In Need of a light fluffy game and because at least one player had never played it before we got this out. I love this game, its simple, fun and extremely easy to play, that said I played this really badly and left myself a hand full of recipes and very few ingredients hampering my chances in later rounds.

Bang! (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3887)
I had never played but had heard a lot about this game. I have to say I really liked this game, it was great fun especially with all the really funny statements people made with reference to the main title. It has to be said these were made in innocence but the innuendo was plain to see by everyone else which made this a perfect end to the evening.
I will look forward to playing more of this given the opportunity.

ok, I have missed a few weeks so I am going to merge a few weeks together for this write up.

This week for the first time I bought and played a game on the same night. The game was Traders of Carthage (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3967) and after reading the rules, which confused a lot of people, we started to play. After the first round or so the rules made a lot more sense and it turns out the game is a lot of fun to play, I did not win which is no great surprise but thoroughly enjoyed this and it is a worthy addition to my collection.

The following week the shop was closed and we were meant to be at the Anglers, but after some confusion and things being shut we ended up at the Coopers +:beer=+::beer: where we played Kill Dr Lucky (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3233) a couple times which is a very fun, quick little game. Then we had a game of Traders of Carthage which everyone enjoyed playing again (I still did not win :o).

Finally we planned to start the Arkham Horror (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2415) Summer Tournament (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ah_league.html) at the shop, we posted a list of characters so people could pre-select them, Crazyfrog picked out all the fixed items for the characters so we could start as soon as possible. We moved the table into position, set the game up and began playing our first scenario. After a good few rounds, where we were not doing too badly, we had to abandon the game. The problem was it had been a hot day and the shop was still hot in the evening leaving everyone struggling to concentrate so rather than spoil the game we decided to call it quits and play something a little lighter. So we broke out Tiki Mountain (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3502) which proved a perfect choice to end the evening with as this is a fun little game which is uncomplicated to play :).

This week we started by playing a game of On The Underground (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3147) which is based unsurprisingly on the London Underground. Players take it in turn to lay tracks on the underground map, each turn there are 4 destination cards where the passenger will go to. The passenger moves to a destination with the least walking, then the least number of lines. So placing of you tracks is important based on the current available destinations, some of which are express stops which the passenger will go to first then will go on to the next ordinary stop. Players score points when the passenger crosses one of their lines or when they join main line stations, or a terminus, or connect two matching symbols which are placed on the board during setup. This is really a fun game which is quick to play with lots of replayability.

After that we played a game of It's Alive (http://reivergames.co.uk/ItsAlive/index.php) which is just a really great game, beautiful pieces, simple rules and lots of fun. This game was won by in the end by Carole.

Finally we had a game of Guillotine (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=1737) another quick and fun little game where you take of the heads of French nobles. This is a great little game that is a firm favourite and is perfect for round of the evening with.

We started the evening off with a quick game of Bohnanza (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=408) which is a really fun little game that always involves plenty of bean related jokes which seem a natural side effect of the game ;D

The basic idea is to plant sets of similar beans in your two bean fields, the more you have the more they are worth when you harvest them. You trade with other players in order to get the beans you need, as you have to play the cards in your hand in the order they are dealt. Also on your turn you have to plant your first bean card even if that means you have to harvest a bean field early in order to make room for it.
Once you have played your bean you turn over two more face up beans from the deck, you then have to trade, give away or plant these beans. It's a unique, simple and highly enjoyable mechanic making for very interesting games, though I would say this game plays better with 3 or more people. We had 6 people playing in our game and Phil managed to win piping Carole and Sally who were joint second.

We then split up into two games, Sally and co went off to play several rounds of Buckets, whilst we broke out my new copy of San Juan (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=1873).

In this game you aim to build 12 buildings, each worth varying amounts of VP's. Each turn you pick a role which allows you a bonus when taking the role's action. In order to build a building you have to pay its value in cards from your hand, some buildings produce goods when that action is taken, others have special functions which aid you during the game, others just have VP values.

It is a great little game and whilst it does rely on a certain amount of luck with the cards there is plenty of scope for strategy especially when deciding on when and what role to pick.

After a fairly long game where Roy looked to be romping home with several large value buildings being in play, Phil yet again managed to pip him in the final tally to win by 5 points. It is safe to say that yet again I have been beaten in a game I have bought I'm beginning to see a pattern here that I don't like... +:dontknow=+::dontknow:

Tonight we played a game we had voted for (shocking)

Pandemic

Players Sally, Oscar, Zarni, Crazy

This is a great team building game, forget going up a mountain to a log cabin for team building exercise play this.

You and your team are playing against the board, it can be over in 5 minutes (board wins) or you can last 45 mins and still win or lose.

The first game the board won, we couldn't stop the outbreak.

The second game, having an idea of a strategy, we organised the team and won.

The medic is the most useful character in the game as it help to remove the infection in the country your in.

Remembering the locations of the outbreaks is very useful as when the cards get stacked due to an outbreak those countrys will get hit again first and could cause futher outbreaks if > 3 infections exist.

Tsuro

Players Sally, Oscar, Zarni, Crazy

One quick game to end the evening, its a great fun game with easy rules ( see the review )

Yet again a game we played for 1 week earlier got played (yiphee)

Power Grid
========

Players Oscar, Zarni, Phil, Philsz, Crazy

A good game of building big business, you build power stations, buy fuel, then build connections to cities.

Every round you power the number cities your power station can supply you get money to spend in the next round

The problems are other players can build into cities cutting off you future building plans and the cost of fuel flutates based on supply and demand.

So alot of planning is require per round and guessing where the other players could go.

The map contains 6 building areas of which you can only build in 5.

The first section each player can buy a power station based on auctioning rules and highest scoring player going first.
Second section you buy fuel with the lowest scoring player going first
Third section you build into cities with the lowest scoring player going first.

The starting order per section is a very nice game balancing mechanic.

The game has 3 steps, these are sections of the cities you can connect too.
each step means it costs more to build into the city if someone else is there.

The game ends when a player has connected 15 cities, but the player who can power the most cities and has them on that turn is the winner.

The leadership of the board swung around between the players, but when it was realised that Phil could win, it was too late (by 1 round) to stop him.

Tonight we played Carcassonne: New World (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=4019), which is a new Carcassonne (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=441) variant. It has similarities to Hunters and Gatherers (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=1333) but has some new tricks up it's sleeve. The tiles have more of a fixed area in which to lay them and you also have the Surveyors which move everytime someone scores a tile. Anything behind the Surveyor when he moves, except pieces laid down, are returned to the player. In this way you tend to go for those long shot scoring combo's in the knowledge if it does not pan out you will most likely get your piece back to place elsewhere. This really changes the strategies employed during the game which helps to make it very interesting. A really good game with bags of replayability.

As seems to be the norm on these occasions I managed to not win this one but it was a good game.

We then played Traders of Carthage (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3967) which is always fun to play and a good little game. Sally & Carole ended up joint winners, leaving me yet again a loser n this game. One day I will work out where I am going wrong and actually win a game of this :-\

Well the shop was full tonight and lots of games were being played including Okko (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=4046), Race for the Galaxy (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3594), Agricula (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3964), Mutant Chronicles (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/ccgsin.php?UniqueNo=1096) amongst others.

We ended up playing Settlers: Struggle for Rome (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3230) which I had purchased ages ago and had not yet played. This is a very different twist on Settlers, whilst using the familiar mechanic it also adds new elements which help spice up the game and make it very interesting. You play tribes forging across the Roman empire plundering cities and eventually forging your own empires. The aim as normal is to amass 10 Victory points, this is achieved by conquering cities and meeting certain targets to gain special Victory Point cards. The components for this game are very nice and suit the theme well and the game board is large and very colourful.

The turn phases are played differently from the original game, the first player rolls 4 times for resources marking on the wind rose marker on the board which number has been rolled. In this way 4 different numbers are always rolled removing some of the luck element from the original game. The rest of the phases are now done by each player in turn starting from the first. Trading & Building, Horseman Tribe Actions, Warrior Tribe actions, at any time a player may opt to not do a tribe action and instead take 2 gold or a resource card of your choice.

In order to plunder cities you must equal or beat the number of towers of the city you can then overturn the counter to see your reward & cost.
The additional actions, the changes in playing style and the overall mechanics of the game are very good involving having to make choices on whether to keep wandering or start to forge your empire. I enjoyed this game and would recommend it to fans of the original and new players alike.

October was another busy month for the shop games with the place filling up regularly so the games I describe below are only the ones I played in.

During this month we played the following games at the shop:

Red Dragon Inn 2 (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php=3fUniqueNo=3d4045)
This was the first play of this expansion and it was really good fun. It adds four new characters who have new and intersting twists to the game, a new drink deck with some new tweaks as well. I really enjoyed this game it's incredibly fun to play with the new characters making it a good addition if you already one the first. You can combine both sets to form a game suitable for upto 8 players which is a very neat idea. This game managed to break my current trend as I actually won this game...

Carcassonne: New World (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php=3fUniqueNo=3d4019)
Carcassonne is always a favourite, and this variant adds new twists that always make it fun to play. I have yet to win at this one and the night we played this proved no exception as Sally and Oskar ran away with the lead.

Blue Moon City (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php=3fUniqueNo=3d2936)
This game is really well made, really good artwork and components with an easy to learn but challenging game mechanic. Your aim is to rebuild the city and make sacrifices to the obelisk. The player to make the required sacrifices first wins. It is never hard to find players for this game and remains a favourite.

Igels (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php=3fUniqueNo=3d2597)
This is a quirky game, not suited for younger players due to some of the subject matter depicted on the cards. That said the artwork is superb and whilst the rules seem complicated on first reading, the game actually plays quite well and was enjoyable. Our first game was a little slow as we were learning as we went but unfortunately as this was the last game of the evening and we were all getting a little tired we abandoned this mid game. We will play this again as it was fun and it will be nice to see how the game pans out.

Red Dragon Inn 1&2
Having played Red Dragon Inn 2 i felt inspired so took along both sets and managed to get a 5 player game which proved to be quite fun and the extra player(s) does change the dynamic of the game. I will definitely be trying to get more people together to have a bigger game of this as it should be hilarious fun.

Hare & Tortoise (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php=3fUniqueNo=3d2212)
Another timeless classic which we managed to introduce to a couple of new players. making careful use of backward moves, collecting / eating carrots you aim to get to the finish line first. In order to achieve this you first have to eat a number of lettuces in your hand by stopping on specific squares, you also can not cross the finish line with more than a certain amount of carrots which increases as others complete the race. Very enjoyable and every game is different as people always manage to break you well laid plans ;)

Galaxy Trucker (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3709)
We introduced Phil into the mayhem and fun that is Galaxy trucker, a game where you build spaceships out of scrap and race to reach your destination with your cargo and ship intact. This is plain fun, even the rules are written in theme with lots of humour, it has an introductory round in the rules to help people get used to how to play before launching into the advanced rules in later rounds. We have great fun playing this won and I think Phil even won this, no surprise I did not win it was my game after all :) This will be played more at the shop when we can get on the bigger table ;)

In Keeping with the theme of the night Crazyfrog wanted to play a game involving blowing stuff up.

In the end we played Nuclear War (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php=3fUniqueNo=3d935) which is a very satirical game which, whilst quite an old game now, is still very topical. The basic aim is to be the last person standing with at least 1 million population left to win. It is also possible fore veryone to lose, but on this occasion Oskar managed to win by killing off the last two players using propaganda to remove the last of their populations.

The next game of the evening was Witches Brew (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php=3fUniqueNo=3d4038) which is a lovely little game with great theme and lovely artwork. The aim is to collect the most victory points scored by casting spells, brewing potions or collecting vials (which count as VPs). In order to achieve this you need various spell components or gold. Collecting these items requires the use of one or more characters in your hand.

Each player has the same characters from which you pick 5 for your hand that round, if you go first you claim the primary role of that character, each other player in turn can either say "So be it" and take the reward for the secondary role or opt to claim the primary role leaving you with nothing. More than one player can share the secondary role but only one player gets to play the primary role which leads to very tactical play. The risk is if more players go after you then you also could lose the primary role and the chance for any reward, not knowing what the other players will play adds to the fun. There is always one open spell which adds various benefits but can only be cast by the Warlock so this is always a gamble to go for this option.

This was great fun, despite me losing (again) but would definitely play this again

Games played tonight were:

Pandemic (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3783)
This is a great co-operative game where you try and cure 4 diseases threatening the world. Each player takes on a different character each of which has a unique ability which helps in the game. The idea is that you have to work as a team in order to win, whilst you have only one way to win there are numerous ways to lose :(

This games lasted quite a while, which was really good as everyone was getting into it and having fun. In the end though, having found 3 cures and done a pretty good job of fighting the pandemic fires across the globe, we lost in the last round with 4 out of the 5 cards needed for the last cure as we ran out of player cards (one of the many ways to lose).

We then played Traders of Carthage (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=3967) which has become a classic wed night game. This is always fun and once people get their heads round the numerous things the cards represent becomes a very strategic game. As per usual I managed to lose, I can not win at this game but yet I always want to play it again which shows how good this game is.

Tonight we played a lot of little games which was really good.

We started off with a game of Turso (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2639) another favourite of 2008. This is a cute little game which is unfortunately is out of print due to wizzkids troubles, hopefully someone will snap this up and reprint it.

We then played It's Alive (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=4041) which an excellent game which is always fun to play. Then came a game of Bohnanza (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=408) the bean game which is always fun as well. Several rounds of Bucket King (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=1318) followed which is a fantastic game always a favourite at the shop. Finally we played a demo of a new game called Rattle Snakes, which involves placing magnetic snake eggs on a board showing a variety of different coloured snakes, this was a fun little game .

Our first game tonight was Kings Breakfast (http://spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=1425) a delightfully simple card game which is always fun. You try to collect various sets of food items from the kings table, but having to be wary that if you have more than the king you will not score for that item so it is a careful balance.

We then played Tsuro (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2639) which is a firm favourite to play but is now sadly out of print due to WizzKids demise. Hopefully someone will buy the rights and re-produce this game.

Finally we played a game of Mag-Blast (http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=2962) which is a beautiful little card game where you compete to be the last fleet standing. You each have a command ship which is surround by your fleet you then play cards on each other to try and blast the other players out of the game. If you fail to make a suitably silly noise when you fire your blasts it is deemed to have missed making this really fun game to play with a good group. Also a nice way to round of the evening.

Big Bang Burger Bar

Gaming Groups => Spirit Games - Gaming Groups => Topic started by: Zarniwoop on 03 January 2008, 14:12:31