A quick game at Battlequest

Today had a quick game at Battlequest - had to get away early - so I just played a quick game of some game with Steve and Andy - a game about scoring the most with castles and tiles. It was ok I suppose, but a bit dull. Not my cup of tea as they say.

Thursday night at Battlequest - nice bit of 7 Wonders

Thursday night was another quick visit to Battlequestgames - I got home fairly late, so I didn't want to spend too long there. I intended for a quick visit but I ended up having a good natter to Andy then saw Julian, Simon and Brian were going to play 7 Wonders; Andy said he'd play too, so I couldn't resist! Although Brian had only played once before, he won with a crushing military strength AND the Military Loss Guild, which meant he gained 1 Victory Point for every -1 military point on either side of him - which was -6 from me and -6 from Julian = an extra 12 to add to his 18 military points!! He won in the end with 60!

Another good Battlequest Evening

Last night was another good night at Andys - I was a little late again but a game of Last Night on Earth was just about to start and I was invited into the table as the 2nd zombie player alongside Nigel Heathers. Also on the table were Andy, Matt Green and the guy who owns the game, but I didn't know his name. Must find it out. Anyhow, my arrival possibly proved to be the downfall of the humans as no matter how hard they tried, I kept seeming to throw a high percentage of winning zombie attack dice to the point I'd killed off Andys Elvis-a-like vicar lol. There was also a point when I picked up two zombie cards, they were both Play Instantly cards - one of which was a Pick up three more cards. Of which two were instant plays, including another Pick up three! 

After a desperate battle by the humans, they ended up loosing after the Vicar went down. I love this game, especially with lots of players - in my eyes Zombies!!! doesn't compare. 

Zombies on the march!

"I'll save ya Reverend!"

Next up was Panic Station - a super tense thriller of a game where a group of individuals with clones set out to destroy an alien infestation - the twist being that one person is infected from the start with a virus who tries to pass it on to other people in the game in an attempt to kill off the human players. As each player moves into a room with another player, they have to swap a card from their hand. At the start, everyone has three "Infection" cards which are not passed on until they are infected (or are the host from the start). If a player receives one of these marks, a bit like the Black Spot of pirates gone by, then they are infected. Like Galactica Cylons, the infected are not to pass on they are infected - people have to guess and if they do, try to kill them off. Paranoia sets in - people accuse each other and infighting starts.  

In our game, I was the original Host and a few turns in I attempted to take over one of the players. Now I was under the impression that if I passed on an infection card, the player will only block me if they passed a petrol can at the same time (these are used to destroy the hive nest) - remembering the cards are passed face down. I made a pass of the card and I had a petrol can in return. Ok, I was blocked. Except the receiver looked up a rule that says they can state that a failed infection has taken place!! Ahgahga! If I'd known that I'd have never have tried....oh well. I tried another infection at Dale which failed too. 

Then I tried another tactic and passed a med kit to Matt which threw them for a while and suspicions moved  about. Then I tried Dale again and again I was blocked. Then I was stumped. I had used all three of my infection cards! With no success. Later I tried different things to attack people, moving creatures that can appear in their way, by which time everyone was certain I was the Host. In the end Dale destroyed the Hive and the humans won. But everyone was in agreement that after I had been blocked 3 times, I was pretty much stuck - the rules weren't up to the fact that someone would try to infect a few turns in or would fail 3 times. 

That said, the rules had been amended 3 times since release at Essen! And a release came out the day after at Andys! Yikes! Still a good thing that its getting a lot of amends and fixes to get it just right and definately worth another go.

Games evening at BattleQuestGames

 

Another night of games at Andy's Battlequestgames shop on Thursday night - I want to go and play a demo game of Agricola - a game about family in the 1700's - which doesn't sound that exciting, but its a worker placement game in the same theme as Stone Age and Eketorp which I like. It was a good game made better with the carved animal/wood etc pieces. I almost bought it, but didn't and lucky I didn't! See next post.

We then played a game of Incan Gold - a revamp of Diamant, but last time I played I didn't get on with it. But this time around, with 4 of us, including someone else who had Diamant, it played much better and I enjoyed it. 

Lots of Galactica!

Eventually I took the plunge and bought Battlestar Galactica - riding on a popular wave of family opinion at the moment as everyone is loving watching the series - at the time of writing, Anita and I have finished the show but the girls are coming up to watching season 4.5 or the Final season. I bought the game with some remainder Battlequest vouchers plus a little extra. Although complex looking, I found the rules fairly easy to follow. I did some test rounds by myself to get used to the mechanics and then invited Roshni and Maya for a test round or two.

Then I was lucky enough to be invited to a game at the gamers circle run by Brian who frequents the BQG boardgame nights. With Brian was Ruth, two Nigels and Andy of battlequest. Added to the base game was part of the Pegasus addon, but we left off the New Caprica board piece as there was a lot to get used to for the other players, let alone me! :)

It was a great game, 6 players - so it lasted a good 2+ hours and it turned out, along with Nigel who was an established Cylon Leader - a "6" Model, there were 4 Cylons or Cylon activated players!! Ruth whom I thought was acting suspicious actually turned out to be Human.

So a few days later, Anita, Maya and I played a few rounds, with Anita as Helo the Admiral, Maya as Starbuck and me as Tom Zareck the President. We did a reasonable job in destroying a base star and out running a Cylon attack armada but we succumbed to a lack of food! It is very hard for the humans to win this game, which is what makes it so exciting. Anita loved it enough to want a game next week, but with an insistence that the other two play to ensure finding out who the Cylon is (it was her and I clocked it, so off to the Brig she went...) is made harder...

Good fun all round - by your command!

Battlequest board game night....Cargo Noir and Red November...and BSG!!

Another great night at Andys place with some cool company and some cool games. I saw Battlestar Galactica was in play and really wanted to get involved but they were already running with a full crew. Still it looks like a great game and one I'd love to get hold of. I had brought over our copy of Cargo Noir - which Andy and a guy called Julian had a go of. It was a good game, although I tripped over the rules a few times - have to remember when in company you can't just gloss over things you can't remember. :)

Afterwards it was a game of Red November with Andy, Nigel and a few others - the idea is that Red November is a co-op game where problems keep breaking out on the submarine and your gnomes have to run about and solve them; fires, flooding, all whilst air, fuel and pressure run out or build up. It was a good game and we almost all made it, but a few were killed off and then it all came apart. Good little game.

Another boardgame night at Battlequest...oh and 7 Wonders Leaders arrives!!

 Another great night of board gaming at Andys BattleQuest Games last night - I turned up with Cargo Noir and Citadels, but there was already several games underway. Whitechapel and Merchants & Marauders was underway, but a game of Last Night on Earth with 5 players was just about to start, so I joined in for a 6-er (I think I pinched Andys seat - sorry for that!) and played as one of the two zombie players. The mission was the basic Zombie Hunter - take out 15 zombies. It was a close call half way through as time was running out and the humans had only taken out about 3 or 4 zombies, but then the tide turned and they were dropping like flies! No matter what we tried, nothing could stop the humans. The main turning point was when most of the players gained guns and were shooting zombies from a distance - it turned into a duck shoot lol. Great game.

Then we had a 4 player game of 7 Wonders, with two of the guys being newbies, so they had some catching up to do, but they did well - but Andy stormed the game with a massive military show and won with change to spare. When then had a "filler" game from Neil called The Stars are Right - which I thought would be a TV quiz show game form the sounds of it; turned out to be a card game based on Call of Cthulu; it was ok, but very complex - perhaps because I was tired and the ol' brain was flagging lol. All in all, a great night as usual.

Oh, and there was the small matter of 7 Wonders : Leaders turning up!!! Anita will be happy!

Birthday game vouchers ahoy!!

Had a nice birthday which involved £50 of battlequestgames vouchers plus £10 from my loyalty card which was full. Mmmm now what do I get with these???
In the evening we also had a game of Scandinavian Ticket to Ride - Anita won - and a 5 player 7 Wonders which Kavita won.

Bank holiday! What does that mean?? Games! and Buy a new one too!

Bank holidays ahoy! Buy one bank holiday, get one free, even if you don't watch the Royal Wedding! Which we might. Anyhow, with a BHM and a holiday Friday so close, if you take three days off in the middle, you get eleven days off in total! Wowzers - so what does this mean for us and gaming? Well, an opportunity to nip into BattleQuest Games for starters, and to play some games.

Andy was celebrating one year since opening (wowzers again, really??!) and we celebrated with him by buying a new game ;) This one is a filler named Mow (A unilateral language word for Moo I think, being the manual is in a million and 3 languages.) - a card game based on cows and flies. I kid yee not. The basic premise is that each player gets 5 cards, each card will have a picture of a cow, a number from 0 to 16 and some or no flies. There is also a turn direction indicator, showing the flow of players; this is decided by the first player.

Each player in turn selects a numbered card, for example 8 with 4 flies and places it on the table. The next player has to then place a card higher or lower than 8. If they place 12 for example, all numbers between 8 and 12 (9, 10, 11) are now locked out and the 3rd player must place a card lower than 8 or higher than 12. If they cannot, they must pick up the cards on the table. These cards are put aside for counting up later.

There are some numbered cards with 0 flies, but as the game is based on the idea of winning by having as few flies as possible at the end of the game, it is better to retain these than a card with flies on.

As each player puts down a card, they must also pick up one from a deck to retain a hand of 5 cards. Some cards are special which allow for example two of the same number to be placed, a locked gap number to be used etc. These are few and fair between but are useful. They are also useful for allowing the player to change the player flow - eg a player who has just picked up 5 cards could get stung again with another load of cards.

Play continues until the deck has run dry and the cards on the table have been collected by an unfortunate player. The players then count up the flies on the cards in their hand and any they have been forced to collect. The winner is the one with least flies.

This is an exciting little filler to start an evening or between games. It's backstabbing nature and ease of play is of great appeal to us.

We then played 7 Wonders just for the heck of it :)

100th Post - Battlequest gaming night!

On the event of the 100th Post for the Bradshaw Tribe Gaming blog, we're marking a visit to Battlequests gaming night. Andy started up his own gaming club last night - initial feelers out by email to see how many regulars were interested and the date was set for 7:30 on the first Thursday of the month. I went along around 8:30 to find a game of 7 Wonders already in play - Andy and two others were just totalling up the score from their last game. In the other other side of the shop, a few others were playing a game of San Juan I think. Anyhow, Andy, myself and the two others settled down for another round of 7 Wonders - again a fab game. In the end I came last and I wasn't even trying to loose lol! The two newbie went for a financial and a scientific drive each. Oddly the science guy had hardly any resources nor any other buildings but managed to come 2nd I think. Any how it was a good game.
We also had a game of Incan Gold - a sort of cousin to Diamant. It was ok, if a little over complicated compared to Diamant, but the essence of the original game was in there.

All in all a great night, meeting new people, playing great games. Hopefully get into some new games next time!

Down to some Saturday gaming!

Today was a day of some good gaming; firstly of Cargo Noir, our new Days of Wonder game we got from Andy at Battlequest - a game based on criminal families and cargo smuggling. Now depending on your sensibilities will depend on if you will like the theme of this game; remember, it's criminal families smuggling items of ill repute, such as guns, cigars, gems, ivory, cars etc. The idea of the game, which seems fairly fast paced, but does take about an hour and a half to play, is that each family has three cargo ships to start with and 7 coins. The 'board' is based around several ports throughout the World each with differing numbers of spaces to hold illegal goods, such as New York with three spaces, Rotterdam with 4 and Cape Town with 1 for example. There is also Macao, a general trading port with 8 spaces for items and the Casino.

There are also a series of cards with purchase amounts on them with victory points as well. A typical turn revolves around resolving the cargo ship events of the previous turn, selling your items in your family cargo area (a card display in front of the player) and finally re-establishing where your ships will go this turn.

The game actually starts on the 3rd phase of a pre-first turn; all players get a chance to send their ships out to locations around the world, to the casino and/or to Macao. After this the game begins with phase 1 - resolve the previous ship placements - a ship placed at the casino wins 2 coins from the casino; a ship placed at Macao allows the owner to gain one random coin from the bag or to swap an item from the eight listed for one in your warehouse and any ships at a port wins the cargo there for the coins they agreed to pay for it (see phase 3) unless they are in competition with someone else (see phase 3), otherwise they have to decide if the cargo is worth upping the stakes again the competition (paying at least one more coin) or pulling out and using the money elsewhere.

In phase 2 of a player turn, the player decides to cash in any cargo for victory cards. There is a two-tier scheme for cashing in, mixed and similar. A chart indicates how much 1, 2, 3, 4 etc mixed cards are worth and how much 1, 2, 3, 4 etc similar cards are worth (more!). A player can cash in say 3 jems, 2 cars and a cigar box for x number of points which can be used to buy typically criminal items - villas, night clubs, dive bars, right up to a Principality!

Finally in the 3rd phase, the player then re-designates where their cargo ships will go for the next turn, placing bid amounts down for cargo or attempting to outbid other players for more precious cargo they want.

It's a great game of bid and outbid, forcing opponents out of the bidding process whilst trying to be a high roller in the criminal underworld with purchases of illegal goods and items. There were several queries we had about the game even in our third play - such as according to the rules when cashed in, items don't go back into the bag but we found we were running out of items 2/3rd of the way through; amongst others. I'll question this and others on boardgamegeek to find out how to play the game better. Check on the forums at http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/90305/cargo-noir

All in all a good game; we played it twice - with 3 then 5 players ranging from 8 to adult and was enjoyed by all.

We also had another game of "7 Wonders" 5 players which again was just thoroughly enjoyed - a real hit game. Anita won for the first time with a crushing 59 points, just hedging Roshni out (with 57) as she had -3 for Military Victories.

End game for Cargo Noir - my family (bottom) wins!!

Yay! 90th Game!!!

The Bradshaw Tribe now own 90 games! We purchased Isla Dorada from Battlequestgames today because it looks like a great family game. More indepth later!

Memoir '44 - US crush German counterattack! Isla Dorada on order - sort of

Today Roshni and I had a good go at Memoir '44 - as usual Roshni took the role of the Germans whilst I was the Americans in a battle post-Normandy. The Germans wanted to counter-attack but the Americans had paratroopers ready to hold them back. Also two platoons of US tanks were ready to roll because US intelligence had broken German radio signals (That is possibly historically inaccurate but there you go) and the tanks were sent to force back the counter-attack. Roshni tried all she could to force a gap in the US paratrooper lines, but nothing could be done when the US tanks attacked from the left and through the centre, destroying first one then the other German tank platoon. This lead to a general German collapse and a win for US forces! Yay as this is a rare event for me!

Also I paid a visit to Andy at Battlequestgames and had a serious think about a new game - either Isla Dorada, a treasure hunting game set on an island in the 1930s - or Pandemic, a co-op game saving the world from multiply diseases. I put Isla Dorada on order, but Pandemic is quite a good game, ranking very high on the Family Geek list...

Christmas brings lots of gaming!

With Christmas well and truly here and the days counting down, plus the kids off school and the office closed for the holidays, it's time to start breaking out the games. And firstly we played our latest addition, 7 Wonders. I'd heard some good things about this from Andy at Battlequest and it stood out on the 'Geek website - especially after it jumped to the number 1 spot for family games, which really piqued my interest. I read the reviews and tried to avoid the hype and decided to make the purchase. And I can say I'm glad I did; it's become our favourite game. It's accessible to all because the game relies on the mechanic of matching symbols - "I want to buy this card, it says I need symbols ABC, do I have those in my production list, if not, can I buy them from anyone else to my left or right?" Maya picked up on this very easily being only 7 and was easily able to keep up with myself and Kavita.

The game lasts 18 turns, one for each Age. The cards are dealt out so each player gets 7 each - a clever mechanic ensures there is only 21 cards in an age for 3 players, 28 for 4 players etc etc. Each player then chooses a card to build - be it a building or a resource (stone, bricks, ore etc). In the first Age most resources are free to build. Some buildings are free also and if built, they will allow you to build buildings in other Ages for free rather than having to pay a resource fee. A resource fee is a list of resources you must have or can buy from others to your immediate left and right before you can build that building. The advantage of building a structure is that if can give you victory points at the end of the game, cheaper purchases of materials from your neighbours, better defences from attack etc.

A turn is conducted by everyone choosing a card face down to build and revealing it one after the other. Once the turn is over, the remaining cards in your hand are passed clockwise or counter-clockwise, depending on which on what Age it is. This way your hand is always fresh and not one person can have a Winning Set of cards.

After each Age, there is also a round of Battles between the cities - war breaks out between neighbours - here Military(red) structure cards come into play; in a battle with your neighbour whoever has the most of Crossed Sword symbols wins - if they are equal it is a draw. If you win, you get a Current Age win token (1, 3, 5) and if you loose you get -1.

You can also build parts of your wonder - they are built in 3 stages, each requiring resources and a card from your hand to build - each part also gives an advantage, be it victory points, money, science points etc. The game ends after the last card of the third age (each age lasts 6 turns - a turn is where you use a card then hand on your cards to the next person - the final card is placed in the middle of the table with everyone elses last card.).

When the game ends, the players have to calculate their victory points - this is takes a while as there is a fair number of cards to calculate by games end and differing cards have different ways of getting a victory point.

In conclusion, this can be a quick game or a short game, depending on how well the rules are known, so the more plays you do, the quicker you will find the game. It is immensely enjoyable to play, it has strategy, trading, building, battle without too much heavy thinking on any part - very very enjoyable.

Weekend play

Just played one game this weekend - Nordic Ticket to Ride; and I won by a staggering 148points to 114! Tried to introduce Roshni to Back to the Future but a lot of the aspects of the incidents from the films, not the game play, were lost on her as she'd not seen the film in ages! So we stopped and said we'd watch the films and give it a go again.

Also took a stroll to stretch the legs which just happened to pass Battlequestgames :) Popped in for a look around and got talking to Andy about Back to the Future. He mentioned it was based on Fluxx and loaned a shop copy to try out. Turns out it's a pretty cool game after a quick rules check and solo play. Try and squeeze a game in with the family before it has to go back. Also the Disaster at Dieppe add on for Memoir is due in next week, so I hope to collect on Thursday.

Managed to also secure a second hand copy of Niagara - Anita found a second hand copy on Ebay going cheap and because we were not 100% if it was for us, we got that instead of a brand new one. Hopefully with us in a few days.

Memoir 44 Campaign Book

Another addition to the Memoir 44 game; after winning £70 in the World Cup office sweepstake, I used a bit to buy a cheeky gift for myself from Battlequestgames - the Memoir 44 Campaign Book 1 (by the sounds of it there will be several of these on the way).

It looked quite thin but it is action packed with masses of scenarios, campaigns, a sheet of thick punch out components (re-enforcements, landing craft, obstacles, smoke counters etc), plus new info cards, campaign tracking sheets. A brilliant book and well worth it.

Inter-family games night!

This coming Saturday will be the first inter-family games night to introduce Euro-style and non-mass trash gaming (As I refer to games like Monopoly, Cluedo, Game of Life etc) to our friends the Martins. Apparently it is also going to be a take-away night too, so food and games all round!

I've already introduced two of their family to Zombies!!! as they have an interest in that "field" via the Xbox, so they were interested to find out more about gaming that didn't involve Monopoly or Cluedo. They've also expressed an interest in going to visit Battlequestgames to take a look around and see what it is I'm always on about.

I think the first batch we'll take around to introduce them to the idea is Eketorp and Diamant. Hopefully it will become a regular family thing once every 2 or 4 weeks.

Birthday treat!

So, birthday finally arrives and I get £40 from Anita for use in Battlequestgames! Yay! Then dad gives me £20 (so again that will be diverted :] ). Off we go into town and I nip into BQGs after my several month exile (to stop me buying up loads and getting into trouble). We had a look around the family games and find Dominion - which plays from 8+ so Maya can play - although its 4 players only, so she'll have to work alongside someone. It looks interesting and a card based game like Citadels, which was a sure-fire hit, so looking forward to playing this.

Oh and later a few friends came around for some birthday drinks and I got another £20 - this time specifically in Battlequest vouchers! Nice!

Half term but no gaming!

The kids are away for half term and so far it's been a game free week and bank holiday! :( May be some late night games of ticket to ride. We've been looking at some new games; the German game of the year is about to be announced, perhaps that may be a good indicator of what to get next. I've had a self imposed ban from Battlequest Games simply because I'd just keep buying and buying and buying! My birthday is coming up soon this month and I'm hoping to get some gift vouchers which Andy has started selling recently to get some great new games!

Another purchase - but lying low for a while to avoid Wrath of Wife!

I couldn't escape the Gravitational Pull of Battlequest on Saturday and popped in to get some more Top Trumps and the Stalingrad add on for Memoir. Andy's also had a bit of a change around and added some more family friendly stock. First to catch my eye was Pandemic which I'd had my eye on for a while, but I'm worried about the "domineering individual" over a group of co-op players - especially as I'd be playing with a younger team and I'd end up being THAT player! :) Which I don't want. Was sorely tempted to get the 1910 add on for Ticket to Ride USA and/or the couple of new Zooleretto add ons I'd spotted but I decided against it - buying one thing was wrath enough! I'll have to avoid the place for a couple of weeks...