The Crutch of the Matter

First things first, we got 23 people this week. I'm pretty sure that's record breaking. Let's see if we can keep it up! Second things second, Mike made his triumphant return to IpBoG, albeit on crutches. Some sort of incident involving his son's scooter and a misplaced sense of youth. Probably best not to ask.

We took over a lot of tables this week, snaking our way across Cult.  One table I think spent the whole night playing the worker placement classic Stone Age which made it's IpBoG debut this week. Another table played Mysterium followed by Ca$h 'n Gun$.

Danny was back to playing the mastermind in Tragedy Looper. He lost on the last turn, still unable to claw in his first victory in that game. Afterwards another game was played where he was tutoring Johnny on how to play as the mastermind followed by a game of Betrayal at House on the Hill.

I started off the evening with Kingdom Builder. I'm pleased to say that I came first in both games beating Matt twice. He often beats me at that game and after my terrible losses last week it was nice to have some wins under my belt.

Afterwards we played The Bloody Inn. I think Matt came first in that one. We also played a couple of games of Forbidden Island. We lost the first game in the first couple of rounds but managed to beat it the second time round. We spent the rest of the night playing a few games of No Thanks!

The Felixstowe guys played a couple of games of For Sale before Mike turned up. Mike had brought with him his new acquisition Royals, a game from 2004. I was shocked, this wasn't a classic euro, but Mike assured me it was actually a reimplementation of an older game, Heads of State. After they were done with that they finished off the night with a few more games of For Sale.

Off Again, On Again

After a brief kerfuffle about whether we would be able to do board games a Cult this week it turned out we could. There was something going on but it turns out it started at 6 and wouldn't but eating into board game time.

It was a terrible week of board gaming for me. I lost both the games I played. And by lost I mean I came last. By a lot. The shame! The first game I played was Gold West which Dan won.

Afterwards we played Caylus Magna Carta which made it's IpBoG debut. It looked like Dan was going to win this game too but Alex manged to take the first place spot. It's a card game version of the Caylus, the classic worker placement game. It plays very much like the original Caylus but a bit of a cut down version. But like the original it still has the provost, the little token that lets you screw over other people.

Johnny ran a game of Betrayal at House on the Hill and Danny ran a game of Chinatown. These seem to be pretty much Johnny's and Danny's go to games and, of the non-filler game, are probably played the most played at IpBoG.

A couple of five minute bursts of shouting can only mean one thing. People were playing the noisy bidding game Pit. There was also some Codenames, Skull & Roses and Spyfall along with some other games that I've no doubt missed. But we'll be in Cult for sure next week so I'll see you all there for more board gaming goodness!

There's Cardboard in Them Thar Hills

Back up to 22 people again this week. So close to breaking our attendance record! Maybe February is the month it'll happen. Only time will tell.

Everyone loves a bargain, right? And everyone loves a board game. So everyone must love a board game bargain. I managed to pick up a game with a tenner off because of a dented box. I'm living the actual dream! As hinted at by the title of this blog post the game was Gold West, a lovely little euro game. It's as if Stefan Feld made Kingdom Builder. It was touch and go towards the end of the game and I thought Johnny was going to come first but I managed to take pole position.

It seem like, although we had a lot of people, only a few of them brought games this week. One group played pretty much entirely fillers. Rattus Cartus though which I would say it almost out of filler territory. They started with Timeline and went on to play Patronize, Sushi Go and Eight Minute Empire. Afterwards I joined them for Biblios (Dan won, I was the only player to get no points at all) and Flip City (Matt won).

Danny recently acquired Mafia de Cuba which made its IpBoG debut this week. I also saw him playing Chinatown which is no surprise, he plays it almost every week. It must be close to hitting the top spot of most played game at IpBoG. Although the top two are currently Coup and Skull, both of which Phillip played today.

I saw a group playing Dixit followed by the Dixit-like Mysterium and another group playing Spy Fall. I'm sure I must have missed a couple of games but there were so many it was extra hard to keep track this week.

All The Tabletop Games

Twenty people through the doors this week, a bit down from last week but I'll hold in the tears, maybe we'll get a few more next week and we'll beat our record.

Here at Ipswich Board Gamers, although our name may imply it, we don't just play board games, we play all the tabletop games. In fact I spent the entirety of this week playing card games. The jokes on me because I bloomin' love a card game. I started with Nyet!, a twist on classic trick taking games. Like Bridge there is a team element. And  the  twist is before every tick you collaboratively decide on the rules of the round (i.e. colours of trumps, who is the starting player, etc.). I did terrible and came last with Dan stealing first place from Alex.

On to my second card game and we played Rattus Cartus, a card game that, although set in the same theme as Rattus, is nothing like it's namesake. At the end of the game, if you have more rats than nuns you're disqualified. The nuns are semi-secret and Alex ended up with too many rats. It was a pretty good card game though, I enjoyed it. But I would say that, I won.

My last card game was Mai-Star. We had to cut it short after two rounds instead of three but again I was doing terribly. Alex made up for his disqualification in the last game by winning this one. So although I like card game, maybe it turns out I'm not very good at them.

After playing Chinatown last week Mike brought along Genoa (which used to be called Traders of Genoa), another negotiation style game but by his own admission probably not as good. Being Mike's game it's of course more of a classic euro. Although I couldn't see a score track and apparently there's no resource conversion so I'm not sure it counts. I think they had to cut the game a bit short because they still had a while to go when I left.

Forbidden Island was played, the group lost. Kingdom Builder was played, Matt won. Codenames was played, everyone had fun. Timeline made it's IpBoG debut. I also saw people playing Star Realms,  Hey That's My Fish! and Bang!

Terra Mystic-agh!

It was a good turnout this week. As if last week's blog was a premonition, this week we breached the 20 people mark. I think there were 22 in total. Its not record breaking but its pretty close.

As you may have guessed form the title of this post my entire night was filled up with Terra Mystica. David has been promising to teach me Terra Mystica for probably over a year but whenever he brings it I seem to be tied up teaching a game. This time I was resolved to playing it so play it I did. It's well knows the be one of the best of the euro style games and it didn't disappoint. The first few rounds plodded along but the turns progressed my stress levels increased. Trying to optimise your turns on the final round can be an logistical nightmare. I was sure I was going to come in second with David wining but after the final scoring, although David was ahead of me by a single point Johnny had beaten David by two points. It was a tight finish.

Cath brought along The Downfall of Pompeii. The game comes with what looks like a fully functioning volcano. Unfortunately it's actually a fully non-functioning volcano. William did his best to avoid being preserved in an ash sarcophagus and won the game.

Laurence brought Betrayal at House on the Hill. It was some sort of treasure hunt scenario I think. The took a long time, over two hours, but Joanne finally won. They finished off the night with a few games of Spyfall.

Alex started off the night with Founders of the Empire. After that Mike turned up with Danny's copy of Chinatown. I'm pretty sure it was all legitimate and Danny had lent it to Mike, nothing untoward. That was played and Dan won. In classic Mike style Mike had brought along a classic. This time it Through the Desert, a game from Reiner Knizia's tile-laying trilogy. That's actually a thing, I guess that proves just how much of a classic it is. The other two games in the trilogy are  Samurai, which Mike brought a few weeks ago, and Tigris & Euphrates, which he'll no doubt bring in a few weeks time.

I also saw some Machi Korro being played and no doubt some other games were played that Iv'e missed. I left while Through the Desert was in full swing and a few others were starting a game of Resistance. My brain was too fried from Terra Mystica for any more board gaming that night though.