Social Afternoon with Games - 22nd February 2011

The best way of promoting a games event is word of mouth

With half term upon us, it was time to break out the games and invite the parish of St Mary's, Crowborough and the surrounding Deanery along for another afternoon of fun and games. This occasion saw 15 joining us with 4 new faces and apologies from a further 5.

In many senses I think this may have been the most enjoyable one yet with people moving between groups when the games came to an end and a

Social Evenings with Games

Following discussions with the pub landlord at the Blue Anchor in Crowborough I have taken on the task of organizing four Social Gaming events running from 6pm on the following Sundays:

• 27th February
• 13th March
• 27th March 
• 10th April  

Modern games are a great tool for bringing people together and by their nature offer a focal point for creating a light hearted fun social evening. With many people nervous of playing games we will provide a wide selection of games suited to the occasion and act as guides so that nobody needs to be put off by the rules. We believe there will be a game to suit everyone’s taste with the proviso that there will be no quiz style games and that dice are few and far between.

All the games are family games, although not necessarily party games, and so are suited to young and old, male and female. The games are sourced from all over the world, designed around a variety of themes with beautiful artwork and playing pieces. They seek to avoid conflict and emphasise social interplay, a touch of strategy, more skill than luck, short playing times and no player elimination. They are quick to learn and quick to play and great FUN.

If attendees have already experienced the delights of modern games then they might like to bring along their favourite games / partner / older teenage children / friends. The hope is to have a lively evening where people have the opportunity to play new games and have a lot of fun.

If things go well then maybe it will become a gaming group in its own right.

Dates:         27th February, 13th and 27th March, 10th April
Venue:        Blue Anchor, Beacon Road, Crowborough, East Sussex, TN6 1BB
Time:          Drop in anytime from 6pm onwards, and stay as long as you like

Charge:      £1

More Info:  Facebook - Social Gamers - Crowborough

Match Report 14th February

The evening saw the welcome arrival of a new face, Ruth, together with some of our regulars Ben, Malcolm, Gwen and Crispin.

We started with another run out of David and Goliath whilst we were waiting for Ben to join us. The first game saw a stunning win for Malcolm with a score that was more than double his nearest rival Gwen, however the honours were reversed in the second game. As a game the artwork belies the depth and complexity to the game. The skill in the game is to loose tricks and thereby secure the largest card played in the trick. This when combined with other elements of the game makes it a challenging starter and more thoughtful than some of our more light hearted alternatives.

The second game of the evening saw us returning to Dominion although with the arrival of Ruth , having never played it before , we returned to the card combination ‘First Game’ with Gwen guiding her along the way. This game continues to delight us with the variety of approaches that can be taken with the cards and the speed with which it can be played. Crispin demonstrated his ability at this game resulting in him once again emerging victorious. But with all players finishing within seven points the competition is on and no victory is assured until the last card is played.

Having consumed all of the delicious lemon cake baked by Crispin especially for the evening (Thank You) we moved on to the last game of the evening. A daft game entitled Abandon Ship. The theme is a race for a group of rats from the bilges of a very big ship to the deck and escape from the surging waters drawing the ship down to a watery grave. However woe betides the first rat on deck as they are sure to be trampled by the terrified passengers.

An unusual game in as much as each player is responsible for three different coloured rats, however each rat will have a number of owners and so you find your rats at times being moved up through the decks by other players whilst at alternate moments they may be being moved down towards a watery grave by less helpful players! It’s an amusing game that introduces a different set of dynamics to our other games but may not have the depth or intrinsic humour to ensure it appears at our table on a regular basis.

Gaming Dates for February and March 2011

Dates for gaming events in the South East during February and March include:

Epsom Games Club - Game Playing Day
Venue:     Royal British Legion, Federation House, 21 West Street , Epsom, Surrey KT18 7RL
Dates:      Saturday February 19th from 10:15 until 18:00
Charge:    Free
More Information can be found here http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/615477/epsom-games-club-second-games-day-saturday-19t

Saltdean - Pasteboard and Plastic

Venue:     Saltdean Scout Hut tinyurl.com/ybq7ng

Dates:      Saturday March 5th. 10:00 am  till midnight, if you wish!

Charge:    £4 with profits going to the Scouts

Facilities:  Dedicated gaming room. Free tea and coffee. Bring your own munchies!

Note:       More info can be found here

This is a small group that meets three times a year at the Saltdean Scout Hut and has a well supported Bring and Buy stand.

Eastbourne

Venue:     East Beach Hotel, Eastbourne http://www.eastbeachhotel.co.uk/

Dates:      March 17th,18th,19th,20th 2011. Noon Thursday to Afternoon Sunday.

Charge:    No charge.

Facilities:  Dedicated gaming room and bar. Cakes on tap.

This is a small group that meets twice a year in the basement of the East Beach Hotel and attracts visitors from all over the UK and on occasion Europe. I understand that both BoardgameGuru and Heron Games will be happy to supply the latest games for collection.

Match Report 31st January 2011

Given my absence Ben kindly undertook to write this week’s match report whilst I believe Crispin was in charge of the camera, hmmm!

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Well here we go a slightly over due (hence the rather sketchy recollection) match report for 31st January 2011 [editorial comment - Ben actually wrote it on the 8th February but I have been a little busy with other things] and it was definitely a different session as we were left without our glorious leader Kevin!

So that meant that our hostess for the evening was Gwen and we had the company of Matt, Daniella, Crispin, Malcolm (whose 60th birthday was a few days prior and who kindly brought the yummy chocolate cake for the evening munchies!) and myself and we leapt into the unknown with a game of David and Goliath (well I say we, I actually arrived late and so didn’t really see much of this one!).

From what I seemed to remember it included collecting cards emblazed with mice with different colours and values but it was also a game of hand management because depending on the amount of cards you had depended on what they scored (if you had 3 or more of one colour, instead of counting the values on the cards, which could be quite high, you were awarded points on the quantity of cards you had)

[editorial comment – David and Goliath is a trick taking game where the looser (David) gets the highest value card and the winner (Goliath) gets all the rest – the trick being that if at the end of the game you only have one or two cards of a given colour you score their face value, which can be quiet high whilst if you have more than two of a colour you count only 1 point per card]

I'm afraid I cannot remember who actually won this game (although it may well have been Matt) so if you think you know the answer, please write it on the back of a postcard and bring it to the next meeting.

Next up was Dominion, becoming a favourite amongst the plethora of games at our disposal and to mix it up, we played with the ‘big money’ set of cards which, as you can imagine involves a lot more money!

Several Bureaucrats and Adventurers later and it emerged that Matt was indeed a winner of another game! From what I gather, he is becoming a formidable force to be reckoned with and is very eager to challenge Ian; tickets for this event will be on sale nearer the time.

It was at this point that we realised that we had forgotten to take some photos of the evening as directed by the afore mentioned glorious leader! Not wishing to disappoint the camera was broken out (same time as the cakes!) and much silliness ensued.

Once order had been restored, we rounded off the evening with a game of Hick Hack. An epic struggle between the foxes and chickens ensued and it’s fair to say that once again I cannot remember the results so phone lines will be open after the break and calls cost £4.50 a minute and it's already rigged so it really doesn't matter!

It was also at this point that Kevin arrived back after touting for more business and ironically with his arrival  we all finished our game and went home!

Well there we have it, a rather patchy and incoherent report on last week’s misdemeanour's. You shall be pleased to hear that normal service will resume next week as Kevin shall be once again be firmly holding the reins.

I shall try to be on time next week but if I don’t, I shall just borrow the punctuality figures one of the rail companies to avoid any further embarrassment!