Good - but long! - game of Stone Age with Brian and Nigel

I was invited by Brian around for a game of something whilst Andy was running RPG games at Battlequest. We were joined by Nigel Heather and we all had a look at Eketorp which interested them both as it look strategic enough to be interesting but light enough to jump in and play, so it may well be on the cards to play at the next meeting at Brians house or at Andys BQG game night.

We'd also discussed about having a game of Stone Age which Nigel had played before but Brian hadn't - after a round up of the rules and setting up of the game, we were off and the game proceeded swiftly. In the end Brian won with a crushing 216 points - far ahead of Nigel and way ahead of me (last again lol); beginners luck?? Enjoyed by all, but unfortunately it was let down by one aspect; it took much longer than the 60~90 mins to play as stated on the box - more than 2hrs+ We couldn't figure out why either, no long decisions were being made and we all had a good grasp of the rules. Maybe with four players, this time will be more accurate? Perhaps at the next play we'll find out if we have four players.

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.

First play of 7 Wonders with Leaders

Today we had our first play of 7 Wonders with the Leaders expansion. It has added an extra dimension to the game with the addition of a new Wonder - Rome; new cardboard "6" value coins, new guilds and a large selection of Ancient World leaders, thinkers, scientists etc.

At the start of the game, everyone is now dealt out 4 random leader cards, from which they select one and pass the rest to their right. Then everyone selects another leader from the 3 remaining cards and so on until everyone has 4 cards. Then at the start of each Age, everyone selects a leader card to use.

Each leader gives different attributes, gold, military power, victory points, extra victory points if you collect at least one of each coloured card etc. It gives the game a nice little edge and a bit more of a mix to the already great game play. The artwork is fantastic as usual, on the cards and the the new Rome board. The only exception is the back of the new guild 3rd Age cards, which are a lighter colour purple than our 1st edition 3rd Age cards, something picked up by quite a few other owners. Luckily, the publisher Asmodee are quite open to people writing in and asking for a new set of cards - ours are apparently in the post!

A cool game of Eketorp

Today we had a good game of Eketorp with epic battling over the wood, bales of straw, stone and clay. In the end Anita and Roshni both finished the game with 18 and 19 pieces respectively.
Final scores - maya 17 kavita 35 me 36 anita 37 and roshni 39. Close scores!!

100 board games!! Bronze Board Game collector award from Board Game Geek!

 We did it! Somehow we have managed to rack up a collection of 100 boardgames (in one form or another)!! Everything from simple card games to complex multi-piece games. Although we have a core group of actual games we play, 100 is 100. I applied for and was awarded the Copper Boardgame Collector award!

Test play of Smallworld - fairly good reception

 Today we had a test play of Smallworld - I'd been wanting to play this for a while, but I knew it was a fairly complex game with a long play time and therefore would need everyone around the table to grasp the rules. I rounded up the girls and set up the map for a 4 player game and hoped that it wouldn't appear to complex - Smallworld follows the rule of 'If it looks nice, it's complex to play, but it isn't' - others that follow this rule are 7 Wonders and Stone Age. And Smallworld is beautiful looking. But is very easy to play. The girls took a while to convince it was good, but after choosing their favourite team and starting to attacking various lands and eventually each other, they soon warmed to it. We played a few rounds and they really enjoyed it. Look forward to playing a full game next time with everyone.