Batavia Arrives!

Several months ago, the Works, the discount book shop, started selling several Queens games and Rio Grande at rock bottom (£7.99) prices... unfortunately I couldn't find all of the games I was after; but I managed to find three for Nigel Wood - and Nigel Heathers found a copy of Utopia for me - but the main one I was after was Batavia. And luckily someone on 'geek was nice enough to contact me to say they had a spare copy and would sell it to me at cost price plus postage. As the game was out of stock on line forever and trying to find it in a shop was costing a lot in petrol and parking fees, I said yes. It turned up yesterday and I'm just about to open the box to see how good it is!

Some family gaming at last yay!

Finally we managed to get down to some family gaming today - everybody has been very busy with homework and everything, so it was good to sit down on the rug in front of the fire and and get some good games done - but which to play in our limited time together! We opted for 7 Wonders - fantastic as ever with Roshni winning by far with her Statue of Zeus Wonder. I tried to hedge my bets with a military win right at the end of the 3rd Age but to now avail! 

Maya gives 7 Wonders a "Thumbs up" endorsement!

After we packed 7 Wonders away, we went on to play Battlestar Galactica - yay! It was our first 5 player game and Kavitas first play as Roshni had had a quick go before. Maya was very excited about choosing her character Starbuck and wanted to dive in but I needed to overview the rules and game actions before we started - also Galactica has a reasonably long set up time that has to be done in a particular order, so as I did this with Mayas help I ran over the rules quickly mainly for Kavitas benefit. 

Play got under way, although we knew we really only had time for one jump, so we made the most of it. Within a two rounds, Galactica had taken a heavy pounding from the basestar near by and several Vipers were battling it out with Cylon raiders. Crisis after crisis was being dealt with and a Cylon Heavy Raider appeared so we knew we had to hustle to get out of there. Luckily we managed to Auto Jump before any more serious damage was done (we'd taken hits to the main guns and the body work). And that was it, we were 1 jump closer to Kobol! The family like the game once they get into it - Anita says it is very tense once it gets going but the set up did take a little time - perhaps the best course would be to set up the game before calling people to play - as Brian has done in the past! 

Oh, and at the end we revealed our Loyalty cards to find out everyone was human! 

Just about to start play - prior to character selection

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.

Zombies drag their feet....literally!!

Yesterday evening to the early minutes of the following day, we played a game of Zombies!!! - yes literally a game. Four of us, Brian, Nigel Wood and Nigel Heathers got together around Nigel W's house for a zombie evening of Zombies!!! and Last Night on Earth. After a quick natter after my late arrival, we set about playing Zombies - everyone was new to the game so we had to go through the rules. Even I hadn't really played the game with all aspects of the rules.

We started a game but we found that we were about half way through the stack of cards and not many shots were fired. In fact, Nigel H pointed out, the zombies were turning out not to be much of a threat as they only moved one space whilst we could move up to 6 using a single D6.

Then Nigel W noticed in the rules the paragraph that if we get a tile with no shops/buildings on, ie just cross roads or L shape, you place two or three zombies on it. Ah. That changed things a bit. So we lived and learned and started again.

This time it was more tough, blasting through zombies and finding a way through to the helicopter. Which appeared but covered in zombies. Then the game went from a semi- co-op game with everyone being nice with their event cards to all out war on the zombies and each other! And this is when things fell apart. We would either be killed by zombies (end up back at the start) or be stopped by the other players from reaching the helicopter with an Event card.

This happened over. And over. And over. We started at 9pm. We finished just after midnight!! 3 hours?! The box said no more that 1hr. Hmm. Something was going wrong. We were knee deep in zombies (we needed the Bag o'Zombies that I bought extra) and each others event cards. The game became something of a slog and we missed out playing a game of Last Night on Earth! I was very disappointed in bringing such a game to the table - disappointed also for the others in that they didn't get much, I felt out of the evening.

I stated the next day I'd be selling the game - Brian had suggested he'd be interested in getting it, so I'll sell it to him - good to start a clear out I think of unused/unplayed games before Christmas!

A game of Agricola with Maya!

I have been wanting to play this with the family since it arrived and the other day I managed to play a few rounds with Maya as a test of my knowledge of the game and to see if she could get on with it. Luckily she enjoyed the game enormously and understood the strategy and how to play quite quickly. Today she and I sat down for a full game. In all it took about and hour and half to play but that was because of our lack of experience with the rules. Maya really enjoyed herself - managing to cover her entire farm area with fields, pastures and extra homes! She had a massive amount of sheep and wheat at the end and three family members; I didn't manage to cover my entire farm, also had three family members but also managed to buy up 5 Major Improvements to the farm opposed to her 1 which is what tipped the balance in the end to my win; otherwise Maya would have taken the prize! This is a great family game that looks more complex than it is due to the two stage nature of the rules - the Family set and then the Normal/Advanced set. The Family set is perfect for family play and you could go many times without having to jump up to the Normal/Advanced rules. Glad I bought this!

Good game of Eketorp and Dominion at Brians

 Last night was another good gaming evening at the as-ever good host Brian's house. This time it was with Nigel Heather and Nigel Wood. Firstly it was a game of Eketorp - new to all the players, although Brian had just bought a copy and played a few times with his family. It went down ok, but it is more of a family game than for four adult male gamers I think - Nigel H liked it but wasn't 100% hooked - horses for courses really. Nigel Wood brought Dominion with him - a great card game based on try to win as many Victory cards as possible from a starting deck of 7 which everyone gets the same. 5 cards are then taken from the starting deck and each player in turn decides what they are going to do - with one Action, One purchase.

For example if you have an action card, you can play it then follow its instructions then make a purchase of another card from the deck piles on the table, comprised of coin cards, victory cards and kingdom cards. For example three copper coins of value 3 altogether allows you to buy a kingdom card of up to 3 value or a silver coin card (which by itself has a value of 2 in subsequent purchases). Any purchased cards are put into the discard pile (to your right).

As your turn ends, any cards you have used on the table in front of you are put into discard pile as are any unused cards in your hand. Then you draw 5 more from the deck. As you continue to purchase money cards of higher value (copper = 1, silver = 2, gold = 3), these can then in subsequent turns if they are drawn be used to purchase kingdom cards that can give you advantages during play.

For example - for 5 coins, you can buy the Market. If played as an Action card, on it there is a statement that says Draw +1 card (so take a card from your stack into your hand), take +1 Action (so you can now play another Action card form your hand), +1 buy (so now you have 2 purchases for this turn) and +1 coin (so if you play 5 coins, you now have 6 to buy with). But the clever part is, the next action card you play could be another Market if you have bought two and the 2nd Market is in your hand, either originally or just picking it up. 

So now you have a 2nd Action to play, you can play this Market as well, giving ANOTHER card to pick up, ANOTHER action, 3 purchases and +2 coins.... This chaining of cards is great for allowing purchases of expensive Kingdom cards or Victory cards as well as undermining the efforts of others. 

This is a great, simple to play game, but very strategic in my view. I played this with the family and they enjoyed it but like others more. Like Eketorp is for families, I think this is more for four adults, but I could play against the family again soon and see if that has changed. 

Agricola! Going cheap!

So I was ULTRA tempted to buy Agricola from Andy on Thursday night - it is a weighty game and contains lots of nice pieces and is well made and a great game - I think the family will get on with it well. Only two things held me back - the high price tag £52 and the fact that all of the markers, animals, food etc are just different coloured cubes - a sheep is a white cube and some wood is a brown cube.

How this would translate whilst teaching the game I didn't know - Nigel and Matt who both have the game suggested getting the wooden "meeples" set, describing them as essential. These are essentially carved wooden pieces representing the animals, wood, food etc. So a sheep looks like a sheep, a boar looks like a boar. The only problem is the cost - about £20! On top of the already £52 of which 50% of the cost would be assigned to the wooden blocks that I wouldn't be using anyway, I could not justify the £72 expenditure. For less than this I can get "Railways of the World" or "Fortune and Glory" - two huge box games.

So I thought, oh well, I'll use others and get it cheap some how. I didn't have to wait long! A few days later, I spotted a second hand Very Good condition copy on Boardgamegeek complete with the wooden meeples! For £30!! Bargain - yes please! I ummed and arrred as usual about buying something - then went for it after Nigel Heathers suggested that I do before someone else snaps it up!! Had that too many times in life; so it's on its way now - £37 including postage, not bad at all...