Pre-Christmas Gaming

 So Christmas is coming and it's time to get some games done and the festivities to begin! Firstly we had a game of 7 Wonders to get back into the swing of gaming. That was won by Kavita with her Hanging Gardens of Babylon wonder. We then had a good game of Apples to Apples - always a great laugh; the current player puts down a card with noun on it and the other players look at their cards with items on and try to match the most appropriate (or funny) card to the noun. Very funny game. Then later in the day we played Agricola - we had a few rounds as Roshni, Kavita and Anita had not played before just so that they can get used to the rules. 

End game - Anita won!

Now we have 91 and we're off on holiday to Devon, taking games with us!!

This week we all went off with my mum for a short break to Devon - we packed a whole load of stuff and of course a mass of games - driving over 300 miles to Ilfracombe and staying in a beautiful log cabin. Over the holiday, we played several games, including Apples to Apples; the ever popular party game which provided many laughs as usual as we tried to find funnier and sillier red cards for the green adjective card to impress the judge.

Then we played a game of 7 Wonders - ever popular at the moment - followed by one the next day.

Finally we played the new game Isla Dorada - an odd game where the players act as a team and vote with cards as to the direction the team will take around an island. The catch is other cards the players have give points if certain villages are visited and there is a Curse card which give negative points if a specific village marked on the curse card is visited. A good game that requires some thinking ahead for each step to ensure you swing the group direction to your way of thinking to get to the locations you desire; the only down point is the names of the villages which are a little hard to read, even for me, let alone for younger players; now this can slow down a game and if any thing can damage the fun factor of a game, it's slowing down of a game for checking and rechecking rules or if something on the board is not clear.

All in all a great holiday away added to by a great clutch of games. Also before going, we picked up Fluxx: Pirates but more on this later.

Sunday night Apples!

And again we play Apples! We all fancied a game of something but being Sunday night so we needed to do something quick and Apples fits in perfectly; queue lots of laughter, fun and good old game play - the game was won by Anita but in the end no one cares with Apples because it is such a laugh.

A Saturday night of games - 7 Wonders and Apples to Apples

With 7 Wonders and Apples to Apples being our new favourite games, when a suggestion was made to play a game or two, everyone was happy to play. Another great couple of games - everyone enjoyed themselves - especially with 7 Wonders as you just don't know who has won until right at the end.

Introduce friends to Apples to Apples! Not laughed so much in ages!

After dropping mum back home and staying over night, we set off, but not before paying a visit with everyone to my friends Matt's place, with his partner Sarah and children Hannah and Amy. It was a nice time reacquainting with everyone and in some cases meeting new faces. after a while, we asked if they wanted a game of Apples to Apples and we gave a brief introduction to the rules. Then the fun started... Within minutes the laughter had started - the game appealed to perfectly to Matts and Sarahs ways of thinking and after the first game, Kavita joined in, with Roshni helping Hannah and Amy playing alongside Matt. There were tears of laughter all the way through - with Jack the Ripper being responsible and Berlin 1945 being courageous...

Apples to Apples! And another Ticket to Ride ordered...

With £50 of Battlequestgames vouchers in hand from Christmas, we paid a visit to Andy to see any new games we could get. We spotted Apples to Apples which came highly recommended by Andy. To be honest the name of the game and the description on the back did not interest me! I know that a book shouldn't be judged by its cover, so I said I'd check it on 'Geek and come back. Reviews on Geek were very favourable too but again, we couldn't understand why. So we took a gamble and got the game. And we're glad we did!

The basic premise, at the start of the game someone is nominated the Judge. Everyone is dealt 7 red cards. Each card has an event, person, place etc on it. Then a green card is dealt to the table - it has a word on it, an adjective. For example, scary, impossible, maddening, polite etc. In a turn, the other players take a card from their hand that they think matches this green card best and place it face down in the centre of the table. These are mixed up by the judge who then turns them over one by one. The judge then chooses which they think is the best match and whoevers card that was gets a point - depending on the number of players depends on how many points you need you win.

The game is fantastically easy and simple to play, so all ages in our family can play - and it is extremely funny as some of the choices of words are extremely silly when matched. It is a game that can only be played and never described properly as the back of the box and I fail to do here - I don't think humour can ever be fully described, only experienced.

We also ordered Ticket to Ride: Marklin - a German map that uses model trains on the pictures of the cards.