The Amazing Rhinocerosman!

Who would believe it? Not even me if I wasn't self it with my own eyes! But the promise I made last week had come true and I've managed to write a blog post two weeks in a row.  Well, this week was a lovely week at Cult (but isn't it always?) with something like 25 lovely people playing lovely board games.

This week I played some more Orléans. It was still great. Justine and I drew for first place on points but she beat me on the tie break because she was further up the development track than me. Afterwards we played Rhino Hero which is a kids game that is a short of mix of Jenga and Uno. Alex hated it.

Mathew brought along Abandon Planet, a print and play he'd made of a Kickstarter project. Laminated and everything! Cath got in a play of the new game Grifters, set in the dystopian future of the Resistance and Coup.

Small World made it's reappearance after a long time away, that used to be an IpBoG staple a couple of years ago. People also played, among other things, Concordia and, of course, Secret Hitler.

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.

Crossroads

I was pretty excited when Reace turned up with Dead of Winter. This game has been getting a lot of buzz recently and I've been wanting to play it for a while. Dan and I both jumped at the chance but it looked like we were the only people that had brought games this week. Luckily Johnny turned up at his standard five minutes late time and offered (there was no forcing) to run a game of Small World, again playing with Dan's expansions.

Dead of Winter has some of the nicest artwork I've seen on any game but would the gameplay live up to it? I was worried the game might play you instead of the other way round. As it turned out there were plenty of important choices, many of which we made totally incorrectly. Our scenario started off with the colony full of zombies. We passed the first couple of events and we even managed to raise moral. Things were looking good and I was secretly pleased that I'd completed my personal goal in the first turn. However we were less lucky on the third event, we failed miserably and the colony and locations became overrun by zombies. Many of our characters died and, although they were replaced by new characters, we were unable to recover and our moral soon dropped all the way to zero.

After Small World the others played Ghost Stories. I think for most of the players it was their first time so it's no surprise that they lost to the unforgiving game.

I was coerced into a game of Cosmic Encounter. I've not really enjoyed this game in the past. This time I enjoyed it a little more, but still not that much. It's such a well liked game and I try so hard to like it but it just ends up that I don't really get it. To my luck we were running late and Cult was closing. We had to cut the game short with Ryan in the lead, claiming victory. Same time next week, board game fans.

Worlds Apart

About 10 people braved the wind and rain to turn up at IpBoG this week.

I went straight into a game of Trains while Dan's table started off with Diskworld: Ankh-Morpork. After only a few minutes I was told the game was about to end but everyone pulled together and managed to stop the end conditions from being met. The game lasted twice as long before it was finally won.

The cards picked for this game of Trains included four green cards (I think this must be all of them) which are variations of lay rails trains. I think only a couple of them were picked. I went for my usual strategy of aiming for the cards. Alex went hard for laying rails. Luckily my engine (of the card, and not locomotive variety) kicked in just before Alex played all his rails. I'd already got a few skyscrapers in my hand and managed to scrape a win.

After Diskworld, Dan got out Power Grid. I headed over just as they were finishing up. Craig showed me his wads of cash, telling me he had it in the bag. As it turns out he wasn't wrong and he won the game.

I played Dan's copy of Small World along with a couple of the expansions (Cursed and Be Not Afraid, I believe). The new races and powers were too confusing for me. I stuck to my comfort zone, picking only the base components. We had to cut it a bit short, partly because the bar was getting ready to close but also because it was Dan's game and we didn't want to make him sit and watch for 15 minutes waiting for his game back. We cut the game two rounds short and counted up the coins with Duncan claiming victory.

Transitive Determination

When I turned up Cult was pretty empty. It looked like the freshers hadn't arrived yet. We had about fifteen people turn up, enough to hold our own. Sam had brought A Game of Thrones and started setting it up on his own before gathering players. I think it has a bit of a reputation of being a very long game and no one thought they could get through it before closing so it never got played. Instead I saw a game of Bang! and Love Letter being played on top of the laid out board.

This week Alex had brought along Shadow Hunters. No Libertalia for me this week! But I didn't mind because Shadow Hunters is another game I'd been wanting to play. It's a hidden role game with three teams; the shadows, the hunters and the neutrals. In a lot of ways it's a lot like Bang! which I've never been a huge fan of. I know a lot of people enjoy that game so maybe it's just me that doesn't get it but to me it's just too random and can really drag on, especially as there's player elimination. With Shadow Hunters there's still player elimination but there's one important difference. On your turn you draw a card and these will either buff your character or, if you draw a green card (and this is the game changer), it can reveal information to you about another player. This means you can figure out what team they are likely to be on and, by seeing how they interact with other players, which team the other players may be on. It's all about transitive determination. I was taken out of the game first due to no fault of my own. Okay, a little of my own fault because my character's power was the ability to lie about the green cards which I totally didn't realise. I then spent the rest of the game agonising (not whining) about why people weren't attacking Craig (he obviously had a hidden agenda) and why people weren't drawing enough green cards. That game is so all about the green cards! An interesting twist is that none of us knew any of the character powers or win conditions. I guess after a few games they'd all be learnt which would add an extra dimension to the game.

After Shadow Hunters I played Ghost Stories. This time I'm pretty sure we broke no rules. As usual we were playing on the easiest setting but the game beat us pretty hard. As Wu Feng came out of the deck three of our monks were down to their last tao token. It wasn't long before the three were dead and there was no way we could reclaim the board. The third tile was haunted and the game ended with only one monk left standing and a full board of ghosts.

While I was playing Ghost Stories others were playing Fluxx and Small World. Steve won Small World and we finished up with a couple of games of Coup with Dan winning one and someone else winning the other. Maybe Steve. Let's say Steve. There's rumors of Adventure Time Munchkin next week. Mathematical!

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.

Space Stations

I guess the rain might have driven people away today as only around eight people showed this week. At first there were only seven of us and Andy had bought 7 Wonders so it was the natural starting game. I rarely play with the full complement of seven people. It's quite a different game as you never get to see the cards from a single hand again. One advantage is at least you know which cards you definitely aren't going to get to play. I ended tying with someone (I forget who) for second place. Adam came first. He'd done well with military, beating the player on either side of him every time and then getting a guild card that gave him an extra victory point for every military victory.

Johnny arrived and we split into two groups. I played the first deck builder of the night, Trains. I didn't notice at the time but the random cards we drew included Garage, Wagon Factory and Control Room. These were the same three cards I used in my strategy from last week. Yeah, I guess I could have gone for a different approach but the rest of the cards kinda sucked and I don't really tend to go for the board in a big way, especially when I'm isolated from everyone else which I ended up being in this game. But anyway, I went for the same strategy and won by a hefty margin the same as last week.

The others played a couple of games of Skull & Roses. Craig claimed to be no good at bluffing but managed to win both games. After Trains it was our turn to play a few games of Skull & Roses. I think everyone playing manged to win at least a single game. After Skull the others played Small World. I hear Craig was doing a bit too well and some sort of alliance was set up against him but it was too little too late. Points wise he draw with Johnny but apparently in the case of a draw it comes down to who has the most area which put Craig in the lead.

Last week I'd asked Monkeys With Fire if they were getting Star Realms in any time soon and they said they were away at the moment but would have a single copy the next week (perhaps they were at GenCon?). They said they'd save it for me if I liked and I certainly did like. It arrived earlier this week. I'm pretty into deck builders so it's not that surprising that I'm pretty into this game. Recently I'd been playing the digital version pretty hard. It's mostly a two player game, especially with a single deck, but there are multiplier variations. We adjusted the starting hand and tried out a three player game. Andy started with a strong blob deck (I probably needed to shuffle the deck a little better) and so initially we aimed out attacks towards him, but Cory soon built up a decent federation deck, healing on most turns. My deck was a slow starter but ended up being lean and defensive with a lot of outposts. Towards the end it could have been anyone's game, we were all down to the low teens. Cory was taken out and it was down to the luck of the draw between me and Andy. I was down to about four health but drew a strong hand and managed to take out Andy. I'm sure if I hadn't manged to he would have destroyed me on his next turn.

The Big Box is Back

So we got a respectable 15 this week. There's some sort of RPG group that usually happens on a Monday but they were between campaigns or something so we had a couple of newcomers from there.

I managed to haul my Kingdom Builder big box down along with Trains, which I was borrowing from a friend. We split into three groups. One played Munchkin. I hear it turned into a bit of an RPG and never really finished. I've never played Munchkin or an RPG so I don't really know what this means. I can only assume the newcomers were trying to assimilate us and they seemed to be doing a pretty good job at it. After they released the board gamers from their clutches they got in a game of For Sale.

I started off with Trains. I thought I had this game in the bag but I didn't realise how close Steve was to using all his stations and ending the game. I went into whatever the Trains version of duchy panic time is and started buying the low value victory point cards. Still, it was too late and Steve beat me by a single point, winning the game.

The others played Small World which Sam won. After that they played Level 7 [Omega Protocol].

We played Kingdom Builder. Again just the base game, I've still not had time to read the expansion rules and in all honesty I'm not in a big rush to, the base game has plenty of game left in it yet. Steve somehow manged to obtain about five chits giving him way too many special moves for anyone else to compete with. He wiped the floor with us for a double whammy of a win. We played a second game and things were much more balanced. And by much more balanced I mean I won. I think it's worth noting that Dan did incredibly badly and scored less than half what I got. Sorry Dan.

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Box

With a couple of new recruits and our fair share of regulars we mustered 16 attendees this week.

My Kickstarter of the Kingdom Builder Big Box Edition finally arrived. It was waiting for me when I arrived home on Monday so I took it straight to Cult, opened it, punched out the pieces and spent the rest of the evening playing it. The box is as big as the name implies, filled to the brim with expansions but we just kept to the base game for now. I got in three games but didn't manage to win any of them. Matt got in a double whammy before ducking out to play Small World and Cathy won the other. For a game that often gets mixed reviews it was very well received by those that played it. How often I can muster the strength to carry a box of that size down to IpBoG is another matter.

A couple of copies of Munchkin were brought along and two games were going on in parallel while the others played Cosmic Encounter which Steve ended up winning. Some Love Letter and half a game of Alhambra (I'm not too sure what happened there) were also played. I left while a few stragglers battled it out for supremacy in Small World.

My plan for the long promised King of Tokyo tournament is to have it in two weeks' time. Pencil it in your diaries and start spreading the word!

Beaten by Innominate Objects

This week was a bank holiday so we started in the afternoon, a few hours earlier than usual. We whipped out Ghost Stories, a cooperative game where Taoist monks are trying to save a village from being overrun by ghosts. This is a notoriously hard game and, although we were still in the game when Wu-Feng was incarnated, we didn't manage to destroy him before all our monks were killed. Even on the easiest mode this game is tough.

More people showed up so a few of us played Smallworld while a couple of guys played Netrunner. Johnny was off to a good start in Smallworld but probably too good. Often an early lead can mean you're picked on by the other players. Johnny ended up coming in last with Enga finishing first. Muir was beaten twice at Netrunner but he'd only brought along a standard starter deck, hoping to teach some new recruits. His opponent had cards from the latest expansions made into a strong custom deck. Muir never stood a chance. After Netrunner they teamed up to take on the cooperative card game of Space Hulk: Death Angel, but Muir continued his losing streak and they were beaten by the game.

As the evening approached a few more people turned up. Matt had appeared half way through ghost stories and was watching intensely. Sure he could beat it, he rallied the troops and started his attack while I gave Elder Sign a go. Like Ghost Stories, Elder Sign is also a dice rolling, cooperative game where players attempt to destroy monsters before an evil incarnation is summoned but unlike Ghost Stories it's set in the world of the Cthulhu mythos. You can win the game by either stopping the final incarnation from being summoned (which we were so close to doing), or by defeating it after it is summoned (which we were so close to doing). Unfortunately two nearlies still amount to a loss. Matt was over confident and also lost Ghost Stories but, ever determined, he reset the game and started again. We were not doing well against the board games tonight, being beaten every time by inanimate objects.

While I played King Of Tokyo and Love Letter, Matt was calculating every move and lead his team to victory against Wu-Feng. As people headed home we finished up with one final game of King Of Tokyo, this time with Dan's Power Up expansion. Some games of King of Tokyo end pretty quickly where as some take a while. This one was the latter. Matt however must have used all his board gaming skills on Ghost Stories because his monster was taken out in the first half the the game. I stormed ahead after a slow start using all my dice rolling skills (along with the Jets card, allowing me to take no damage when I yielded Tokyo) for a surprise win.

Back to the normal 7:30 start next week, board game fans.

The Player With The Pointiest Ears Goes First

An amazing twenty-one people turned up last night to Cult for the first meetup. Dan was the first to arrive at the slightly too early time of ten to seven. Stumbling across a group of monopoly players he was invited to join their game and unfortunately, knee deep in hotels and unpaid debts, missed the 20 Ipbogers as they arrived. He's pretty much my hero and will hopefully be back next week to join in.

Having found a secluded spot in the corner we commenced, slowly taking over the booths and spreading further afield. Our power tonight was our sheer strength in numbers.

We split into four groups playing 7 Wonders, Lords of Waterdeep, Trains and Smallworld. I reigned victorious on 7 Wonders, but will be going to hell for beating small girls, having played with some of the youngest but most accomplished board gamers I've ever met. I'm not sure what happened with the other games as I was too busy winning but I hear Muir won Lords Of Waterdeep, beating Darren at his own game.

Next up a different group played another game of Waterdeep and I tried my hand at Takenoko while the others tried to identify the Cylon in Battlestar Galactica. As the other games were finishing up a few of us ended the night with Smallworld. Proving that he can only win other peoples' games, Darren and the forest elves slaughtered the opposing races on his first ever play.

All in all a great night. Thanks to Cult for letting us invade their table space and thanks to everyone for coming. We'll be back next week 7:30. Not ten to seven, sorry Dan.