Games games and more games!

Anita has gone games mad! She msn's me at work and says She's found Mystery of the Abbey - a sort of advanced version of Cluedo by Days of Wonder (So it must be good....) on Amazon from a US supplier for a decent price. Since when do wives go out and find games or take an interest in their husbands hobbies? That may sound incredibly sexist, but before I get a million complaints, she's never been interested in my games before. It must be to do with the fact that most of the games are a) WW2 based b) Some other war or modern battle based or c) Games Workshop.

Now she is buying games all over. Well I say she, she finds them, I pay for them lol. Anyhow, we found some more in the 'states. Would have been really good price too with the $0.5 to the £1.00 except for the outrageous postage costs......

Spread the joy of gaming

I was chatting to an old friend on msn the other day, a great guy from school who is a PhD in Astrophysics or something. Anyhow, we started talking about our game collection and I introduced him to boardgamegeek. He came back in a few days and was enthusing about two games he wanted to get and where to get them from, Puerto Rico and Pandemic. Even his wife wanted to get in on the act and was interested in Eketorp! Spread the news people! Yay!

Our ever increasing collection - in a trunk!

And here is a picture of our ever increasing collection of Euro games - This is just a part of our total game collection. Hidden in a sturdy oak trunk in the front room that is also a handy play surface.

When neighbours play games!

Friday was a great success. Andy and Maggie came over in the evening bringing wine and chat. We got down to a game of Zooleretto, which after a few moments of confusion and questions, was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Having adults only play adds a certain spin to the game - immediately Andy started to impliment a strategy and was doing very well. It was a VERY close game, with final scores:
Anita - 28
Maggie - 26
Andy - 25
Me - 22

With some more red wine poured out, we ploughed ahead with a game of Eketorp. The first round is always a little slow to start which helps in a way to get the newbies used to the rules. Then we started in earnest and it turned out to be a very good game, Andy turned into quite an opponent and I daftly went for broke on the last turn to get some extra building materials, leaving no one in the village to find it attacked from two sides!! With no defence, they got away with two bales of straw! The rotters! Final scores -
Me - 40
Anita - 31
Maggie - 26
Andy - 21

Overall they loved it and enjoyed themselves. It was a great way to de-stress and they couldn't believe there was such well designed games which had well built parts and were fun to play. They are looking forward to the next game evening - especially to play "Mystery of the Abbey".

Mystery of the Abbey arrives!

Hurray, Mystery of the Abbey has arrived! Why am I enthusing so sadly?? It took about 5 weeks to arrive! Ok, they sent it from the US but by what? A paddlesteamer? Anyhow it's here now and looks a typical Days of Wonder game - gorgeously printed board, well made cards and pieces. Can't wait to get on with it!

A Friday night of gaming fun planned

Just been around to invite our neighbours and friends, Andy and Maggie, for a relaxing evening of wine, nibbles and games. Ok it may not sound great, but they are both teachers, a highly stressful job, and next Friday marks the start of half-term (hurray they say!) so it'll be good for them to cool their heels with a free evening of fun, over a bottle of wine or three. Probably introduce them to Ticket to Ride: Europe, then maybe a quick filler like Formula Motor Racing and then finish up with something like Zooleretto or Citadels. Should be a nice evening in!

A weekend of gaming - yay!

Well, what an action packed weekend that was - gaming wise.

Friday night involved a fun game of Zooleretto - this is quickly becoming a family favourite. Saturday we picked up two new games from our local game supplier, www.battlequestgames.co.uk, a great guy called Andy based in Horsham who can get in any game on a whim and we save on postage as we just take a drive over! :)

The games were Gulo Gulo and Bohnanza. The first was received with much anticipation as it is a really kid friendly game where players play gulo gulos/wolverines sent to rescue a baby one from the bird lair. A series of octagonal markers mark out which coloured egg from the nest must be stolen - these eggs vary in size from large blue ones to tiny child-size-only-fingers yellow ones. The problem is that the nest (A wooden bowl) has an alarm - a stick with a small egg weight on the top. The idea is to take an egg without any other eggs falling out and/or the sticking falling out of the bowl to the table. Tricker than it sounds. If you successfully take that coloured egg, you move on to the coloured tile you uncovered, otherwise you move back to the last tile of that colour. Maya and the girls love this game, especially Maya with her tiny fingers. But fortunes change quickly and you can look like you are winning and suddenly the alarm goes off and you fall back several spaces.... recommended for 4+

We didn't play Bohnanza, although I plan to try to get in a game soon. In the evening, Anita and I played an enjoyable game of Ticket to Ride: Europe over a glass of wine. This game makes an enjoyable experience of strategy and skill with the children who just really didnt get the idea.