All the Spies!

Another two weeks since the last blog but this time I have an excuse, I couldn't make it last week :(. So this update is probably going to be pretty short and sweet.

There were a couple of exciting new games this week. One was Codenames Pictures, the new version of Codenames that uses pictures instead of words. And proving that it can still hold it's own the original Codenames was being played on another table at the same time.

Alex had brought along My Village, another title in the Village line of games. But this one has dice! That's all I really know about it. Mathew also brought along Dragon's Gold which, although not a new game, made it's IpBoG debut.

I played Mai-Star. Justine won with something like 30 points and most people scoring negative points. Afterwards I played Gold West. I came last. I never seem to do well at that game. A bunch of other games were also played including Pandemic, Splendor and a bunch that I didn't see.

Oh Captain My Captain

The football was on tonight, but that doesn't stop IpBoG. And there seems to be some sort of correlation between people that like board games and people that like football. Attendance didn't seem to be effected much. Cult was pretty busy with avoid football watchers but we managed to find ourselves four or five tables to spread across.

We had seven people round a table so we started off with Telestrations, a party game that's a sort of like Chinese whispers with drawing. And probably like a multiplayer version of the mobile game Draw Something that was huge a few years back, although I never played it so I can't say for sure. Although there is scoring in the game we didn't bother with it, the game is fun without worrying about scoring.

Afterwards we played Celestia, a game where everyone takes turn being the captain of an airship going further and further until either, it crashes, or it gets to the furthest land. We must have all been terrible captains because we never made it much more than half way. At any point you can chose to jump out and grab some points but if you're still in the ship when it crashes then you don't get any ships. And of course the captain has to go down with the ship. I like it but then I won so I would say that.

Steven was had brought along his new purchase, the excitingly titled DC Comics Deck-Building Game. I also caught him playing Splendor and a small card game called Steam Donkey.

Another table was playing another game with an exciting title, The Walking Dead Board Game: The Best Defense. They followed this up with the classic Coup. The usual Secret Hitler looked like it had been replaced by Good Cop Bad Cop this week.

I finished off the night with a game of For Sale which Joe won. I left a little early this week so there were not doubt a bunch of other games played that I didn't get to see.

Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle Of Rum

I turned up a bit late to Cult this week to find everyone mid-game. People were playing Seasons, Magic: The gathering, Splendor and, of course, Secret Hitler.

After a bit of a wait I managed to join the group that was finishing up Slendor. I played Sea Of Clouds and Paperback, both making their IpBoG debut.

Sea Of Clouds is a flying pirate themed game. It makes use of the Winston Drafting mechanism created by Richard Garfield for Magic: The Gathering combined with a  bit of set collection and a bit of push your luck. It has a kind of a 7 Wonder feel about it. It's pretty light but pretty fun and plays in under and hour.

Paperback is a deck builder where the cards have letters on them. The aim of the game is to spell words with the cards in your hand. generally more letters will give you more money to spend however some of the cards give you points for positioning or allow you to draw extra cards. There are also a couple end game goals and I managed to score both of them, just seeking into the lead. It's a pretty interesting take on deck building but with four people it seemed to drag, taking a couple of hours. Not the quick half an hour games I'm often used to with Dominion.

A bunch of other games were being played that I didn't get a chance to see but I'm pretty sure I spotted Mexica at some point.

Keep Fearing The Kraken

I'm not sure what went down at IpBoG last week, I was ill and couldn't make it. I imagine board games were played, that's usually the kind of thing that happens. This week we got around 17 people, maybe a couple more. It was hard to count, people seemed to be coming and going all evening. However many it was I don't think we met the rarest of beasts that is over 20 people.

I started off with a game of Abyss with the Kraken expansion. Except last week my friend painted the kraken miniature it comes with. You can see it at the top of the page in all it's colorful glory. Tim and I draw for first place. There's probably some kind of tie break condition but I totally forgot to check at the time. It's probably to do with pearls. It probably also means Tim would have won. Let's say Tim won.

I got a win in my next game anyway which was Hanabi. Hanabi is a cooperative game though so really it was a win for everyone. And with only minor accidental cheating which is almost unavoidable. I nearly messed up one of the runs by discarding a blue 5 but we were playing with the wild cards and manged to play a wild 5 on the blue instead. I don't think I've ever played with wilds before it seemed to make the game a quite bit easier.

My final game of the night was Flip City. Last time we played it we didn't manage to get through a whole game. This evening we did and I managed to win it.

One table table played Skull, Spyfall, Chinatown and Splendor. Another spent the evening playing VivaJava: The Coffee Game. I actually left a little early this week so no doubt they played something after. Maybe Red 7 but in all honesty that's a total guess. I did see Alex had brought it though so maybe.

Deadly Assassins

The game making its IpBoG debut this week was Hey, That's My Fish! A deceptively cute game where you're penguins trying to get the most fish. But whilst also drowning your opponent's penguins. It turns out penguins are nature's assassins.

Libertalia made its return to IpBoG, a game that I claim is like Citadels although Alex disagrees. I got off to a strong lead in the first week, and did pretty well in the second. Dan did much better than me in the final round but didn't manage to take the lead. For some reason I enjoyed this game a lot more this time round than the previous time.

Afterwards we played some Race For The Galaxy. Dan found the game familiar but couldn't remember playing it before. At least that's what he claims, maybe he was just hustling us because he won the game with ease. 

After that we played a quick game of For Sale which is fast becoming a firm IpBoG favourite. On other tables there were games of Betrayal at House on the Hill, Splendor and Spyfall.

I finished off the night with Codenames and I think we finally got the game. Previously I think most people had felt pretty indifferent about it but at the same time felt there was potential. This was my third play of it and it really clicked this time. The spy masters seemed much better at thinking up clues that could apply to three or four words which is really what the game is about. It shines when there are multiple possibilities and you have to try and work out which are the ones that you should be choosing. Although in one of our games the first word guessed for the first clue was the assassin card, losing the round for that team.

Snap on Steroids

It was a pretty busy at IpBoG this week with around 22 attendees. We had about five games going on at once. I started off with Ca$h 'n Gun$ but was eliminated in the first few rounds. A couple of others were eliminated just before the end of the game and Danny claimed the victory.

After I was taken out I joined Alex and Joe who were playing Dobble. It's a speed game, a bit like snap on steroids. Each card has eight symbols and each two cards have a single symbol in common. One of my favorite classic card games is a speed game Spit, so unsurprisingly I liked Dobble quite a lot. I was sure I was doing well at it too until it came to count up the cards and I'd come last.

Next I played Splendor. I felt I was doing pretty well but Matt just beat me to fifteen points, winning him the game.

A few weeks ago Alex brought Rattus, this week he turned up with the card game version, Rattus Cartus. After bringing Black Friday last week, Mike brought another stock market game, Hab & Gut.

After Splendor I played Evo, a game about evolving dinosaurs which comes with actual dinosaurs. Well, not actual dinosaurs but small wooden ones. We ended with a double tie, two players had 39 points and two players had 26 points.

I finished off my night with Eminent Domain: Microcosm, a two player little microgame. I got my revenge against Matt for Splendor, beating him at this game.

Plenty of other games were played. An abstract called Quaridor, Citadels, Black Fleet, Ventura, a couple of games of King of Tokyo and more Dobble.

Three Weeks

Okay, so it's been a while since the last blog. Three weeks ago my camera malfunctioned (what's the point in words without pictures?) and two weeks ago I couldn't make it to the club. Last week I did make it down and we got an amazing 21 attendees. That's pretty much the number we got on the first ever night. If we were to graph attendees over time it would probably look like the smile that crept onto my face when I heard the news.

Now the bad news. I remember very little about three weeks ago. I'm pretty sure I wrote some stuff down but I'm also pretty sure it went missing. I managed a single photo of Tzolk'in so I'm pretty sure that was played. I'm also pretty sure Alex won. I also brought along Dead of Winter. We beat the game pretty easily with everyone winning their secret objectives except for me and Kenny who was the unsuccessful betrayer.

The week after I know very little about but I hear people came and games were played. Somehow, without me, the group can still function.

It was pretty busy in Cult this week and we almost had trouble finding tables for us all. I was relegated to a small table at the back, away from the main group but I still managed to get a small grasp on what was played. No worse than other weeks at least. There were a bunch of new games this week. Alex had brought The Sheriff of Nottingham and Johnny had come with XCOM. It had arrived in the post that morning and still had the plastic wrap on.

I started off with a couple of game of Biblios. I came last in the first game, scoring only a single point. With a new found determination I won the second game. We followed this with Citadels and K2. Embarrassingly enough I won those too.

Even though XCOM is a timed game it took most of the night. In place of a proper rule book it comes with a tutorial on the app. In the tutorial the first three rounds are played without a time limit so you can get the hang of things. Even still the game was lost and Earth was invaded. I for one welcome our new alien overlords.

Andy had brought Splender and Lords of Waterdeep along with the Scoundrels of Skullport expansion and both got a play along with No Thanks! Mike turned up a bit later than usual but still managed to squeeze in a game or two of Quantum.

All Filler No Killer

So depending on who you believe, this week we either had 17 or 22 people this week. I say only 17 count but Dan disagrees. Apart from the potential extra 5 that Dan is counting I don't think we had any new attendees this week but it's getting a little difficult for me to keep track.

Last week Gemma said she wanted to play King of Tokyo, so as the super nice guys both Dan and I are, we'd both brought it in. I lead King of Tokyo while Dan set up Kemet. We played standard King of Tokyo without Dan's extra expansions because, to be totally honest, I couldn't remember exactly how they worked. I got taken out quickly after rolling all 6 dice three times and failing to get a single heart.

I was in fact out so quickly that Dan was still teaching the rules to Kemet. I think Dan is channeling some Egyption gods because he's winning every game of Kemet he plays recently and this week was no different. Note to self: make sure we gang up on Dan next time I play. The others had lowered the usual upstanding and civilised tone of the evening by playing Cards Against Humanity.

After King of Tokyo we split into two groups with one playing Splendor and the other playing Machi Koro, another dice rolling game of luck mitigation. In the same way it can go in King of Tokyo, due to no fault of his own, luck was not on Alex's side and he got left far behind. I thought I was bound to win, needing less than ten coins to buy my final landmark. The main contender to my victory was Demetri but he needed over twenty coins. I rolled a nine which would give me five coins and him ten. Instead of re-rolling I let Demetri get the ten, sure that no one else would roll another nine before his turn. How wrong I was, another ten was rolled giving us both the money required to win but his turn was before mine and my victory was stolen from me.

Mike arrived at his usual 8:30 and we launched into a game of No Thanks! followed by For Sale. Contrary to last week's success, Alex continued his losing streak, coming last in For Sale. I'm pretty sure I ended up winning but I played so many games I'm having a hard time remembering who won anything..

After this we played Hanabi. I'd played this a couple of times before but always with two or three people and I'd found it fiendishly hard. This time we were playing it with five people and found it much more enjoyable and forgiving.We actually ended up doing pretty well, playing all the cards and scoring something like 22 points but with a bit of accidental cheating when people let on more than they meant to. It's easily done in this game though.

After that we joined with a few other stragglers and played a seven player game of No Thanks! Strictly more players than the game can support but we removed five cards instead of nine and started off with less tokens and it still played pretty well.

I can't be sure of every game that was played this week but I know Johnny was running a game of Betrayal at House on the Hill. I also know Lost Legacy was played with two sets of the game in play. I know this because there was a drink related accident. Someone had split their drink all over the table, drenching Alex's cards. Luckily to avoid too much awkwardness it was James, Alex's brother, so I guess sibling rivalry dictates a series of headlocks and Chinese burns as punishment. Either that or James buys Alex new copies. I think that's probably what they're going with. This is the second drinks related accent that I'm aware of, the previous one involving my copy of Citadels but in that case the cards came off relatively unscathed. I guess we should try and make sure we put drinks on the sides, not on the tables to avoid such mishaps in the future.

Finally the mystery of the extra five players. Towards the end of the night some passers by borrowed Cards Against Humanity and played that for a while with Craig. I'm not counting it because they didn't come specifically for the club, it was just a happy accident. If they're back next week to play again then I'm counting them!

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.

Braaaains!

Today was a pretty good day at IpBoG, 15 people showed up and David gave me an onion ring!

Sam arrived with Zombicide and Johnny's new Betrayal at House on the Hill. Johnny arrived a few minutes later after making the trip home from work to pick up Betrayal only to find it wasn't there. Sam and Johnny launched straight into a game of Betrayal. The Craig was the betrayer and the haunt was zombie related, so out came the Zombicide figures onto the Betrayal board. Good prevailed and zombies were defeated. But not for long because straight after Zombicide was set up and played.

New guy Steve brought Food Fight along and that was played by another group follow by Citadels which was won by Dan although he was the only person playing that had played it before.

I brought Kingdom Builder and, similarly to Dan, I won at my own game. Next we played Splendor, my second play but it's debut at IpBoG. Phillip won and I came in last. It's been causing waves the last few months and I like the game, but I don't love it like a lot of people seem to. Maybe I'll like it more when I don't suck at it. The final game we played was the new Days of Wonder game Five Tribes. I'd heard mixed reviews about it and when Alex was explaining the rules it all sounded a bit complicated and daunting but after a couple of runs I think we'd all quickly got the hang of it. It turns out the game has a pretty unique mechanic picking up and placing meeples of certain colours which activate certain powers. Still, I did terribly at it and there was another case of the owner winning at their own game with Alex pulling off some pretty impressive moves (if board game moves are able to be impressive) to gain him the victory.