Board Games and Stuff

Due to jobs and life I didn't have time to go to IpBoG last week but I did nip in when I was passing by to take a few photos and see what people were playing. When I passed through there was Concordia, Not Alone and Wealth of Nations.

This week there was more of the recent Essen surprise hit Not Alone. The big exciting new game this week was Sid Meier's Civilisation. New in the sense of new to IpBoG, not new as in just released, this game is a classic. And bit in the sense of large - this game takes up the whole table.

I played Tiny Epic Galaxies followed by Havana. Dan won both of them. I think I might have come last in both of them. The shame

Steven bright along a couple of IpBoG debuts. One was the cute, anthropomorphic card game Dale of Merchants. I hear there's a new version coming out soon but this was the original. The other was We Didn't Playtest This At All.

I also saw some Pandemic being played. I'm sure there were a bunch of other games being played that I didn't see.

And Now You Pay Interest On Your Loans

Has it really been a whole month since the last update? Well, yes is the answer to that question. New job commitments mean I can't make it down every week and the last time I came I forgot my camera.

The big exciting game from that week was Food Chain Magnate. With it's terrible artwork and poor quality components it could only be the latest offering from heavy Euro ledges Splotter. Being such a long game the guys decided to cut the game short at the half way mark as they probably wouldn't have finished the entire game before Cult closed.

I tried my hand at Concordia. I'd heard it was a kind of deeper Havana, with the same hand management but the ability to add extra cards to your hand. To me it felt like a longer, slower Havana. It's Havana all the way for me.

But this isn't a review site and no one cares about my opinions so onto this week. I was excited to play Codenames: Pictures but only to find that original Codenames had been put into the Codenames: Pictures box. So we just played normal Codenames followed by some Roll for the Galaxy.

The exciting new game from this week was Concept. Although not a new game, it's never been played at IpBoG before (I don't think). And it is, obviously, very exciting. There was also some Secret Hitler and One Night Ultimate Werewolf (or some other variant, I can't keep track).

Mike brought another Mike style economic game with paper money, Wealth of Nations. At one point I heard him say "And now you pay interest on your loans". Of course you do Mike, it's your game, they always involve paying interest on your loans.

Three Weeks

Okay, so it's been three weeks since my last post but in my defense I wasn't there for one of the, I forgot my camera for another and this week I just popped in to take some photos.

At the one I missed Dan told me he played Dragon's Gold, Libertalia and Arcane Academy, all of which he enjoyed. I think Sasha and Mike played Monikers. Other people played other things but I have no idea what.

Last week I can hardly remember what I played let alone anyone else. Roll for the Galaxy and American Rails if memory serves. American Rails is like Chicago Express but with a duller board. Very euro!

This week people were playing Mission: Red Planet, Rock Paper Wizard and Concordia. Rock Paper Wizard is a brand spanking new game straight form Essen set in the world of Dungeons and Dragons. Concordia, although now new is new to IpBoG. It's a game I've been wanting to play for a long time and although I didn't get to play it this week I will hopefully get to soon. I'm sure a bunch of other games got played but I only popped in to take a few photos so I have no idea what!

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.

Biweekly Update

Welcome back to what seems to be changing from a weekly update into a biweekly update, And by biweekly I mean every two weeks and not twice a week regardless of what the Oxford English dictionary says (it actually has both definitions, it's a very ambiguous term). I'll try and get back to weekly soon!

In a miraculous tern of events I think I've forgotten almost everything about what went on last week. I'm pretty sure I played Gold West with Alex finishing way ahead of everyone else. We almost defiantly also played Archaeology: The New Expedition and No Thanks! too.

Well, after that monumental failure of memory, on to this week. Hopefully I'll be able to name a couple of games that other people played too. Arctic Scavengers, Choson, Spyfall and Sheriff of Nottingham. Well, there's four, at least. Also Mansion of Madness made its IpBoG debut, some sort of game that looks like Betrayal at House on the Hill but comes with an app. It's probably nothing like Betrayal but going by the name it must be at least a little creepy.

This week I played a bunch of Codenames. My team won every time but we did have an extra person on our team. Is that an advantage in Codenames? I wouldn't think so but the numbers don't lie. Afterwards Gemma beat me a bunch of times at Push Fight, a fun little two player abstract game.

Michael had brought along Islebound, a Kickstart from Ryan Laukat that had arrived that very morning. In this game you sail your boat from port to port, recruiting crew members, conquering island, building cities and ultimately failing to score any points. Or at least that was my experience. Michael's was probably a little different, he won the game easily, scoring pretty much twice as many points as me.

Two Weeks Of Gaming

I may have forgotten to bring my camera last week and, as we all know by now, no one wants a blog with no pictures so here's two weeks worth of gaming in one easy to swallow blog post.

Last week Michael made his triumphant return to the group after his hiatus, bringing with him two great games, Quadropolis and Roll For The Galaxy, both making their IpBoG debuts. I played Forbidden Desert for the first time (we lost) along with Archaeology: The New Expedition, Kingdom Builder and Zany Penguins. A whole host of other regular games were played including Black Fleet, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong and Machi Koro.

The eagerly awaited Scythe Kickstarter orders were arriving in the UK this week. Stephen had backed the deluxe version and was kind enough to let me join his first game of it. It was pretty fun and the metal coins and upgraded resources probably almost made up for that empty void in Stephen's wallet. From the start of the game I think it was clear James was going to in. By the end the scored were pretty close for the most part but no one could quite take Jame's lead.

Mathew brought along Via Nebula the new Martin Wallace game with great production values, bright colours and a low barrier to entry. You wouldn't think it was by Martin Wallace at all.

A bunch of other games were played, as usual. Some the new Magic: The gathering, Saint Petersburg, Kingdom Builder and, of course, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong as well as a bunch of other stuff I didn't see.

Ipswich Waterstones Second Games Night

Mother Russia

We had quite a big turnout this week at IpBoG. Five tables were full of board gaming goodness. I arrive to find people playing Biblios, Machi Koro, Dead Of Winter and  Saint Petersburg, which made it's IpBoG debut.

This week I played Age of Assassins, Sushi Go and Quartermaster General. It was my first time playing Quartermaster General, a game the only really works with six players, and we had the full compliment of people. It's set in world war two where three people are playing as the allies with the other three playing as the axis. I was Germany and so destined to lose. Mike did mention that he'd played it five times and the axis had lost every time, so the odds seem stacked in the allies favor. Quite aptly, on the final turn, I lost control of Germany and Russia removed all my troops from the board.

I saw other people playing Chinatown, Hanabi and Liar's Dice. As always I'm sure a bunch of other games were seen that I missed.

All The Deduction

It's been two weeks since the last update. I didn't make it last week but board games were played interspersed with disappointed football fans.

I made it this week though and brought a couple of new games with me. One was Archaeology: The New Expedition, the new version of Phil Walker-Harding's Archaeology card game. It's a small push your luck-ish, set collection game. It's good but no Sushi Go! in my opinion.

I also brought Age of Assassins, a drafting micro game I picked up in Japan. I finally got round to pasting up the translations and so brought it along. It's a race to 15 points and I managed it after only two round. Matt ended up with zero. Sorry Matt.

We also played Sea Of Clouds. Phillip did well on pirates and amassed an incredible amount of money. None of us stood a chance.

Social deduction games are as popular as ever with people playing Deception: Murder in Hong Kong Night Ultimate Werewolf and Good Cop, Bad Cop which seems to have replace Secret Hitler for the moment.

Black Fleet also made an appearance and Nathan brought Codinca, an abstract game he'd picked up at the UK Games Expo. I left a bit early so there were probably a bunch of other games 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.

UK Games Expo 2015

This weeks IpBoG took place the day after the 2016 UK Games Expo and a few people from the group attended.

One of those people was Mathew and he came back with a copy of the Spiel Des Jahres nominee Imhotep. I didn't play this at the club but I did manage to get a demo at the expo. Although it look similar to Container from last week it plays quite differently. It's a simple little game where your choices are to restock your quarry, put a brick on a boat, or send a boat to a harbor. Your bricks go on a the board and you get points for different patters in different harbors. The catch is that other people send might send your bricks somewhere where it doesn't help you at all. It's a pretty simple little game but pretty fun.

Alex brought along Season, a game I played once a long time ago but have since pretty much forgotten all about. It's a kind of drafting game but, as it was (mostly) our first time we played with preset cards. I remember the first time I played this I won. This time I came last.

As well as this we played Love Letter. But not just any Love letter, my super limited edition Love Letter with artwork by Ken Niimura. I hear this has just got a non-limited edition release so naturally I'm super disappointed by this. Nevertheless it's a fun game. Well, it usually is, this time Alex won every single round.

We finished off the night with some No Thanks! Other people were of course playing Secret Hitler and Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, the two most popular titles right now in the group. There was also some Choson, Codenames and Dominion. Some people were even playing Magic: The Gathering!

Hello, Sailor!

Two weeks worth of updates this time. Last week I started off with some more Deception: Murder in Hong Kong before moving on to Welcome to the Dungeon, a little push your luck game that i did terribly at. 

As usual the night started off with Secret Hitler. Others were playing Betrayal at House on the Hill, Ca$h 'n Gun$, Dominion, Pit and Timelines.

I ended the night with Container a game about producing, shipping and selling goods. At its core it's a bidding game. Goods are worth a different amounts to different people and you want to end up with the goods that are the most valuable to you. The twist is that the type of good you have the most of at the end of the game doesn't score anything. I got an early lead and somehow managed to keep it right up until the end.

In the second week so many games made their IpBoG debut. King's Forge, Tsuro and Las Vegas along with my new acquisition, Madame Ching. This was a bargain from the recent bunch of liquidated stock to be picked up by The Works. It's a pretty light little game when it comes down to it and there aren't that many choices to make. I didn't mind it thought and Dan seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. We both drew for first place with Dan beating me on the tie breaker.

There were some IpBoG classics too. I played Chinatown and For Sale and I saw others playing Tragedy Looper and Citadels.

Big Trouble In Little China

I'm back in the country and back to IpBoG so it's back to regular blogs with pictures. I arrive to find people playing Secret Hitler. It looked like a print and play version. I think it's a Kickstarter that's not been delivered yet but in the mean time print and play versions are taking the board gaming world by storm. As far as I can tell it's a sort of social deduction game à la The Resistance.

Rebecca had asked if I could bring in Takenoko so bring it in I did, but before we played that we played a quick game of Zaney Penguins. I finished off the night with Danny's new deduction game Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. He actually picked this up in Hong Kong where it's called CS Files. Thankfully the components still have English text on them otherwise figuring out the text would have been a deduction game in itself. I've not played Mysterium so I can't really comment but people have been saying it's a bit like Mysterium so maybe it is. It's a fifteen minute game and so never overstays it's welcome but we enjoyed it enough to play four or five games in a row.

Alex brought along Dominion, a game by Catan creator Klaus Teuber, as well as Patronize . Mike brought along Container which made it's IpBoG debut. As this there were a bunch of IpBoG classics: Dominion, Eight Minute Empire and Lords of Waterdeep.

While I Was Away

I've been away for three whole weeks so no pictures but here are some reports of what's been played in my absence.

Week 1

Tim:

I'll start. Quite a few of us arrived early so a nine player Secret Hitler game to start. Gloriously unembarrassed about identifying Nazis in a public space. Hitler was identified and stopped at the last possible moment. Then four player Celestia. New game I picked up. For a simple and pretty game its quite tense and tactical. Lot more fun than I expected. We felt like poker players.

Sacha:

Secret Hitler - as mentioned. For Sale, Pandemic, Quarriors, Chosŏn,Sheriff of Nottingham, Star Realms of course. Debuts from Spartacus and Imperial. Imperial we didn't completely finish but will try again another day. In other news, blog stylee, the Porter was off.

Week 2

Sacha:

Tottenham played Chelsea and wished they hadn't, Phillip kindly taught me star realms and now i can kick y'all's asses at that (yeah right!), played Mexica with Dan, Mike and Alex and drank too much Shiraz. Bar closed early due to bank holiday hours. 

Nathan:

Mike, Matt, Alex, Juliet and I played Dungeons and Dragons the board game, and Mafia de Cuba with Rebecca, Will and Danny.

Johnny:

Me, Sabrina, Danny, Rebecca and James played Pandemic (and lost, badly). Then Rebecca busted out an intricate little Korean steampunk deckbuilder called Chosŏn, and the Asian dream team (Danny and Sabrina) won that one. We played Danny's new Hong Kong CSI game Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, where Danny was the Forensic Scientist who steered the rest of the detectives into successfully determining that I was the murderer, and that I done it using tea leaves so I could steal the victim's scarf.

Week 3

Phillip:

Dan, Alex, Joe and I played castles of burgundy, other than that I saw Codenames and secret Hitler.

Nathan:

Mike, Myself, Jonny, Matt, Callum, Elliot and Rebecca played Coup, & when joined by Matt, James, Danny and Alex we played Secret Hitler. I believe Danny played Deception: Murder in Hong Kong.

Thanks to Sacha, Tim, Nathan, Johnny and Phillip for helping out. Back to the regular style updates from next week.

Wacky Races

I'm not sure how many people we got this week. Over twenty, at least. Maybe twenty two or twenty three. I'm out of the country for the next few weeks which means no blog updates but rest assured, no blog updates doesn't mean no IpBog, it will still be going ahead as usual.

As usual IpBoG was a mixture of new and old games. The new being Ys and Steampunk Rally. I played the latter. A simulations drafting, race kind of game where everyone takes the role of a historical scientist and is building wacky races style vehicles, trying to beat their opponents to the finish line. Although the box said it would take under and hour it ended up taking us over two. Dan steamed ahead to take the lead and won this game.

Steven had brought along the classic deck builder Dominion but not just the base game, it looked like he had almost every expansion for it too in some sort of custom wooden box. A bunch of regular games were of course also played like Zany Penguins (okay, maybe not regular, but not it's first appearance), Falling, Arctic Scavengers, Timelines and Citadels.

Chaotic and Cooperative

The blog didn't get done last week due to lazyness but I do have a list of games that were played. Here goes! Arctic Scavengers, Coup, Falling, Lemonade Stand, Onward To Venus, Pit, Splendor and Timelines.

Now on to this week. After the usual bank holiday slump we were back in full flow. We actually got a record breaking 24 people, up from 23 a few weeks ago. We had a bunch of games making their first appearance at IpBoG this week including The Walking Dead: The Board Game, Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game, Spaceteam and Zany Penguins.

Zany Penguins is a game I picked up a few days before and hadn't got a change to play before. It's a 15 minute filler card game and I ended up playing six games of it. It played a bit like a multi player Lost Cities. I've heard it's kind of like a reverse Arboretum but I've never played that game so I can't really compare it. It has a terrible name, pretty average artwork, the slipperiest cards I've held (or at least tried to hold), but pretty good gameplay. Everyone seemed to like it and newcomer Matt even said he was thinking about buying it himself.

I also played Coup and Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game. I've not played this version of Legendary before but I have played Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game which is similar but a bit more complex and much harder. The Marvel version is semi-co-op whereas the Alien version is fully co-op but the Marvel one is much to win. So much so I wouldn't really call it a co-op game, it's almost as if you're using the win condition as a timer to end the game.

Steven had picked up Spaceteam which attempts to bring the digital game to the tabletop and labels itself as a chaotic and cooperative card game. Does it succeed? I don't know, I didn't play it, but kinda is what people seemed to say. It definitely had people shouting orders at each other and frantically running around the table.

A bunch of regulars were played too including Falling, Lords of Waterdeep, Chinatown, Arctic Scavengers and King of Tokyo.

Ipswich Waterstones Tabletop Day

Waterstones in Ipswich are holding a Tabletop Day event. Check out the Facebook event for more details.