Space Dice

Good news! I've managed to write a blog post within a week of the last one. It's as if it was 2015 all over again.

When I arrived this week Matt was setting up Mysterium, a game that got huge buzz around a year ago but I never got a chance to play myself. I jumped on the table (not literally) and sat myself down (literally) for a game. I often hear Mysterium described as kind of like Dixit but with cards. Which is a strange comparison as Dixit has cards. I also heard it described as cooperative which also seems a bit strange as, although you're not playing against each other, there isn't a whole amount of cooperation. For the most part it's like there are a bunch of two player cooperative games going on simultaneously. Until maybe the end when you maybe have to work together but we lost before we got there so I'm not certain. I often hear this game described as hard and, although it
certainly wasn't easy, I don't know if I'd describe it as hard. Perhaps more of a luck-fest where people move onto the next stage for the most part, not through the help of the cards, but by a process of elimination. But as I said we lost and I can only assume not everyone loses all the time so maybe we're just not very good at the game.

Second for me was a new game I'd acquired, Roll for the Galaxy, the dice based incarnation of Race for the Galaxy. Although this game appeared at IpBoG a few weeks ago I didn't get a chance to play it so this was my first time. To be honest this version of the game didn't grab me like Race for the Galaxy did, but maybe it just needs a few more plays to get the hang of it. Or maybe I'm just bitter because Joe won.

By pure coincidence Mike was playing another dice based board game from Thomas Lehmann, the designer of Roll for the Galaxy, Favor of the Pharaoh. This one however is some sort of Yahtzee variant. I also saw people playing Secret Hitler, Paris Connection and a bunch of other stuff that I've subsequently forgotten.

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.

Cthulhu, My Dear Watson

Another two weeks of exciting board gaming compressed into a single blog post. Your screen is literally bursting at the seams with excitement. You might want to duck. Or at least get a towel.

The first week first. Danny brought Monikers. It's a kind of party game where, if I remember correctly (I didn't play it), you have to act out some sort of character and everyone has to guess who you are. But there's a twist! In the second round you are only allowed to say a single word. But there's another twist! In the third round you're not allowed to say any words, you have to act it out. You have the same set of people in each round to stop things becoming insanely hard. I didn't play it though, this is just what I remember form the Shut Up and Sit Down review from a year or two ago.

I played Bohnanza. It actually made it's IpBoG debut which is pretty crazy considering what a good game it is. I'm blaming it on the terrible, terrible artwork. If any game ever needs a reskin it's this one.

Another tabled played Dead of Winter, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong made a welcome return and Captain Sonar was also played. It's always played at the moment.

The second week I played a few games of Skull and Roses followed by a game of A Study in Emerald, a game set in a Lovecraftian Sherlock Holmes universe. Although I'd played the game once before that was the first edition, this was the second edition. More streamlined and brand new artwork. It's a strange mix between social deduction, deck building and area control.

Lords of War made it's debut. It's a game I'm not familiar with. It kind of looked like Summoner Wars but I heard it played more like chess. Although maybe someone not familiar with Summoner Wars might think it was a bit like chess. I have no idea.

Thief's Market also made it's first appearance. Dominion was played with the Prosperity expansion. People also played 7 Wonders, Biblios, Welcome to the Dungeon, Choson and, of course, captain Sonar.

From Chieftain to King

Another bank holiday, another IpBoG. About 18 people or something through the doors which is pretty standard for a bank holiday as numbers seem to drop a little. Although two IpBoG members were at Cult for the whole afternoon playing Magic so maybe they should count double?

In case you hasn't guessed it from the title, the hot new game this week was Isle of Skye. Well, not that new but new to IpBoG. And hot because it recently won the Kennerspiel des Jahres award. It's kind of Carcassonne (by which I mean it's a tile laying game) crossed with Castles of Mad King Ludwig (by which I mean you price up your tiles for other people to buy). Unlike Carcassonne however, everyone is building their own layout rather than one single shared one, kind of like in Karuba. It takes about an hour to play and is simple to learn but with a decent amount of meat to it. I don't love tile laying games but I didn't hate this one, I'd put it up there with Caccao. by that I mean, Alex thrashed everyone.

Afterwards I had a lovely time playing The Bloody Inn. Lovely because I won, games are, of course, nothing but a cruel, slow, torture any other way, Other people played Archaeology, Archaeology, Captain Sonar and the obligatory Good Cop Bad Cop. Some of the people had a lovely time but statistically most of them must have had a terrible time.

It’s a Trap!

Well, although I promised to get back into the weekly blog routine and it's been two weeks since the last blog, I've only half failed. But only because I didn't actually attend the club this week. I have to get up super early for work on Tuesday so I only manged to nip in and take a couple of photos.

Anyway, last week I played Sea Of Clouds. Philip was exited to play after winning my a nautical mile last time we played. Unfortunately he wasn't so lucky this time with Dan coming in first place. We also played Archaeology: The New Expedition and a few games of No Thanks!

The big new game last week was Star Wars Rebellion. It got played four player with two teams of twos. It's quite a long game and, even though it was started at the beginning of the night, they didn't manage to finish it before closing. When I popped in the next week they'd set up the game where they left off and were finishing it off.

This week the big new game was Captain Sonar, brought in by Danny. It's a kind of real time, team vs team game, kind of like Space Cadets: Dice Duel but with submarines instead of space ships. Forbidden Island, 7 Wonders and Machi Koro also got played as well as a bunch of other things that were played when I wasn't there.