Two Years

This week was our second anniversary. Sometimes it's hard to believe it's been two years since we started Ipswich Board Gamers. In celebration of the fact that IpBoG is still running the plan was to play two player games all night. We kind of got half way there, although there were a enough two player games to go around most of them were brought by a handful of people so there wouldn't have been anyone to teach the games.

Some great two player games did get played though like 7 Wonders: Duel, Android: Netrunner, Lost Cities, Star Realms and Tash Kalar. Games that support more than two players also got played as two player like Carcassonne, Entropy, Imperial Settlers. Although you can play Entropy and Imperial Settlers with more than two players I wouldn't recommend it. To me they seem like two player games they tacked multi-player rules onto. There were some other great two player games that never got to be played like Go, Jambo, Innovation, The Duke, and a bunch of games from the GIPF series.

I started off the night with Lost Cities, the Reiner Knizia two player classic. Dan beat me but 100 points to something embarrassing. I redeemed myself in Entropy beating Dan in that game. Then we played 7 Wonders: Duel. Dan beat me by getting six different types of research which was again pretty embarrassing. Afterwards we played Imperial Settlers, Dan got off to a good start and it looked like he was going to win but I crept ahead in the final round and took the lead for the win. I finished off the night with another game of Lost Cities, this time against Mike. I managed to beat him by ending the game before he could play his best cards. If he'd have had a few more turns he defiantly would have won the game.

A bunch of non-two player games got played as well like Boss Monster, Lords of Waterdeep, Rattus, Red7, Rhino Hero and The Big Book of Madness. Back to normal next week for the usual multi-player stuff.

Bi-weeky Blogging

Welcome to what seems to be fast becoming the bi-weekly Ipswich Board Gamers blog! Although the group is still weekly I've found myself with less and less time recently to write up between meet ups. You'd be surprised how long it takes to bash out a couple of hundred words and then not proof read them at all.

Let's get right to it. Last week I played Carcassonne. It's an okay game but I'm not it's biggest fan. I'm also not its best player and it showed - I came last. I think maybe Alex came first. He always seems to come first at games, so yeah, let's say it was Alex. We played it with the full complement of five players, I think maybe it's a bit of a weird game with five players. None of us could really complete any castles bigger than two or occasionally three tiles.

Anyway, next up was The Sheriff of Nottingham. I spent my sheriff turns doing my best sheriff impressions and forgetting to watch what cards people were swapping out. I don't think I came last in this one but I definitely didn't come first. I'm putting that down to my lack of attention.

We finished off with a couple of games of No Thanks! I think I actually managed to win one of them. Dan pointed out the fact that the cards were not well worn, but showed signs of use. I think this is a testament to what a great game it is. Such a quick, simple game but one of my favorites.

I'd by lying if I said I could remember what anyone else played last week. Oh, except Fluxx, some people were playing that. I guess if I'm not going to do a blog every week I really should note down what games are played. I guess on to this week...

I started off with Tuvalu. In true Alex style, Alex won. He's since bought himself his own copy and I'm pretty sure he's been thinking up strategies on his own, like some sort of chess grand master. While we played this, others were playing The Resistance, Love Letter and Fluxx.

Afterwards I played Abyss. I think a couple of the lords might be overpowered. I think I might have got both of them. No one else stood a chance. I gathered my lords and bided my time before obtaining a location at the last possible minute, making sure my lords' powers remained in effect as long as possible.

After, a game of Power Grid was being set up but I think it was soon packed away again, it was getting too late in the evening to start a game of that length. Instead, Citadels came out. Although this game can take a deceptively long time to play, this is only usually with a high player count.

I ended the night with a seven player game of Shadow Hunters. This game was actually in danger of taking too long. People were playing conservatively. I was a shadow and managed to take out a hunter but soon after one of my fellow shadows was also killed. Before anyone else was revealed Dan triggered his neutral ability, winning him the game.

Two Weeks

So, last week I didn't have my camera with me and, as we established in a previous blog entry, no one wants to see words without pictures, right? I think last week we got around fourteen people. And this week we got exactly fourteen people. A bit of a drop off from the twenties, but never mind, we will prevail once again, I'm sure.

Last week I got to play The Sheriff of Nottingham. I came in second with Alex winning as usual. Dan played a two player Small World with Gemma. I think Dan won but it was Gemma's first ever game, and Dan is notoriously ruthless (this may or may not be a true fact). The others played Pandemic and won, even though that game is notoriously ruthless.

After this we played a bit of Skull. Other Dan won. I think almost everyone was out of cards at the end of the game. There's always such a temptation to bid too high, but it's so satisfying when it pays off. Afterward we joined together to play a ten player game of Mascarade which Philip won. We finished off the night with Eight Minute Empire, with Alex winning as usual.

This week I brought Dead Of Winter along. It was with a new group of players so we played the same scenario as last time. The game was not so forgiving this time however and, although we managed to identify and exile the betrayer, we had no chance of completing our the goal. Morale dropped to zero on the final turn of the game.

Dan had brought along Power Grid and that kept him occupied most of the night. I'm not sure who won but from what I hear Adam was ahead for most of the game. I think maybe a little too far ahead, which made him a bit of a target for the other players and he lost his lead towards the end.

The others played a bunch of games; Carcassonne, Fluxx, Skull and No Thanks! A few of us stayed to finish off the night with a couple of games of No Thanks! after Power Grid and Dead of Winter were done.

Twenty Fifteen

Although we started a week later than expected we've made it into 2015. When people arrived last week we found out that Cult was closed for a private function. Apologies to anyone that turned up, we only found out ourselves on the night. Although I hear a few renegades played games in Isaacs that evening. But the good news is that with the addition of Matt's wife, we finally managed to break the 20 attendee mark that has eluded us for so long.

I brought a couple of new games; Imperial Settlers and Biblios. I launched into Imperial Settlers with Muir, Dan and Danny. I'd played the game a few times before but only with two players. This was my first time playing with four people and will probably be my last, it ended up taking us over two hours. I like the game a lot but it's possible to get a lucky streak of cards and have a runaway victory. I'm not saying that's what happened with Dan but it's kinda what happened with Dan. He was able to build so many production faction cards early on there was no way to compete. Danny made a valiant attempt but Muir and I trailed behind. Afterwards I played a quick game of Biblios with Dan and he destroyed me again, with twelve points to my embarrassing four.

Johnny was the betrayer in Betrayal at House on the Hill. Some kind of invisible man haunt was triggered but he was beaten by the forces of good. Afterwards they played The Witches, based on the Terry Pratchett novels.

Alex played Eight Minute Empire followed by Domaine, a game with a name and a box cover very similar to that of Dominion. In its defense it did come out years before Dominion. And is also a totally different game. Alex won Domaine and went on to play Carcassonne which was won by Dan.

Andy had brought Pandemic with the On The Brink expansion. After the game defeated them they played again, winning the second time. Afterwards they played a couple of games of Coup and a couple of games of No Thanks!.

And as usual a group played Cards Against Humanity all night.

Expand, Exploit, Exterminate

Just like last week we got three newcomers and fourteen attendees. We've been getting quite a few newcomers this week so maybe we'll hit the mythical twenty-one.

Mike had mentioned on the facebook group that he'd be coming at 8:30, armed with Quantum. I really wanted to try this game out so I started off with some small filler games so I could pounce on Quantum as soon as it arrived. I started off playing No Thanks! but the deck wasn't shuffled very well so it was easy to get runs. In this game lowest score wins and I won by hardly taking any cards and having a few tokens, resulting in a minus score. We shuffled the deck (properly this time) and played another game. I managed a double win, getting the lowest score in this game too. Afterwards we played Yardmaster Express with Dan winning. Mike arrived and joined us for another game of Yardmaster with Dan getting a double win himself. Yardmaster is a pretty cool game but it comes with caboose cards which are shared goals and there are only four of them. The game really needs more caboose cards to add some variation.

While we were playing our fillers, Johnny was running Power Grid. I don't think he realised how little of the rules he remembered and had to spend the first half of the game buried in the rule book. Although it took a bit longer than expected, Johnny ended up winning.

Alex was running a game of Inkognito. Last week he said it was the game that Cludo should have been but when he described it to me it sounded more like Guess Who. Guess Clue, maybe? Apparently it's good but needs exactly four people and you play in pairs. Alex was paired with Cathy who ended up winning.

Mike had arrived and so brought out Quantum. It does a maximum of four people and we had five but it was getting late  and Gemma had to get going. That was until Alex came over to pick up Carcassonne and she jumped at the chance to play it. As soon as the Quantum box was opened everyone was far too excited about the dice. They're so big, like King of Tokyo dice, and all translucent. And the game! Well, it's sort of like a 4X game except not really because there's not much exploring. I guess it's more of a 3X game. I really enjoyed it but I could be biased as I won. It was a close game between me and Dan but I managed to place my final cube on what would have probably been the turn before he managed to. It would be a contender for one of the best games of 2014 if it wasn't for the fact that it was released in 2013.

All Hail the King

Turnouts are getting back up to speed again. With the addition of three newcomers this week we managed fourteen attendees.

Last week Alex asked me if I could bring Citadels along for him to try so this week I did. We started off with this as our first game. We played with four people because, although this game supports up to 7, it can drag with a high player count. Adam made off with a good start building 5 districts while everyone else only had two or three. Gemma quickly caught up and took the lead, building some districts worth 8 or 9 points. It ends up that Alex was the first to build 7 districts giving him the extra bonus points to win the game, beating me by a single point. While we played Citadels the others were playing Arctic Scavengers and Splendor.

After Citadels we broke out Skull and Roses. Again this was won by Alex. Alex owns both the Flying Garden and Starship variants of Lost Legacy. We played the Flying Garden version while another group played the other. I tried my hardest to hinder him but it was to no avail, not wanting to ruin his winning streak Alex won this game too. All hail Alex, king of board games.

When we were done with this the others were finishing up games of Carcassonne and Yardmaster Express so we joined together and combined both sets of Lost Legacy to play one final double sized game before leaving for the night.

I Fought The Law and the Law Won

With the help of first timer Alex about twelve people showed up this week. Not a bad attendance but far from the dizzying heights of twenty that I dream of.

I started off playing Trains which has kinda become my modus operandi recently. This time we had the Tourist Train in play which awards an extra victory point every time it's played but is only worth a single unit of generic game currency. I bought a couple along with everyone else. I think Demetri bought most and ended up winning with his CopyCat Rails company. I stayed on for another game planning on going hard on a Tourist Train strategy to see how that worked out. However Tourist Trains cost 4 and I kept drawing 5 which meant I couldn't resist buying Holiday Timetables. I was soon cycling through my deck in two or three turns but this wasn't enough. Again I'd only bought a couple of Holiday Trains. Joni had bought a few more more and ended up beating me by a single point.

While I was playing Trains the others were playing Bang! They got in a couple of games with the law winning both times. I hear rumors all of the outlaws were killed without any of the law being taken out at all. After Bang! the group split into two with Dan playing Small World with this new expansion Be Not Afraid. The rest played an assortment of small games; Fluxx, Love Letter, Zombie Dice and Carcassonne.

After Small World was done I played a three way game of Star Realms with Dan and Steve with those who were left played Coup. Star Realms doesn't really thrive with three people as everyone just tends to attack the person with the most health. This means it doesn't really matter how good your strategy is, all players will end up with around the same health and it's just a matter of luck as to who stays in last. With Steve out first it came down to me and Dan and I took him out with only a handful of health left to my name.