Games in a Pub - 24th July 2011

Wooden games aren't just for kids!
Bausack - A player placing another improbable piece on an improbable tower

Another very positive turnout saw four very different games being played, two of which would benefit from being videoed rather than described.

We started with Bausack as a light amusing game about building unstable towers with an assortment of wooden blocks. This worked well as more people turned up they could just slip into the game easily and with its daft nature winning was never really particularly important. It was more about the challenge of what absurd shapes could be used by the various players.

With this done we broke into two groups for Dominion. Gwen led the advanced game using

Match Report 18th July 2011

From anarchy to civilization, but no munchies!

With a the nature of peoples busy lives not knowing till the last minute if we will have 3 or 12 people joining us is all part of the fun. Frequently people aren’t able to confirm till late in the afternoon and teenagers often need a gentle reminder –“Oh you mean games night is tonight, I thought it was.........”. In the end Monday night saw five of us, Malcolm, Daniella, Ben and Gwen, gather around the table for a game or two.

As on the last occasion Ben arrived food in hand and sat down to eat his meal whilst we discussed the world or was the ‘The News of The World’ and what games to play. This week he had gone for roast beef dinner in a Yorkshire pudding, I didn’t think it looked very appetising but what commitment!

Dominion Intrigue (Age 10+, 2-4 players, 30 min playing time)
The box artwork for Dominion Intrigue
Our first game of the evening was Dominion but possibly the group’s first use of the Dominion Intrigue expansion box (Gwen and I have tried some of the combinations on our own). I selected the card combination called ‘Deconstruction’ which might have been more aptly names anarchy

Games in a Pub - 10th July 2011

From Bees to Trains
Trans Europa - The players

The Games Sundays seem to come around so quickly that I barely have time to write up the last event before we are planning the next one, so apologies for the delay in getting this note out.

Last Sunday saw another good turnout with two new faces, again people who had never played modern board games coming along specifically for the games.

The evening started with us setting up a game of Trans Europa for three (Gwen, Liza and myself), however just as we were about to start we were joined by Mark and his wife so we quickly explained the rules and added two players to the game only to be joined by Oliver and finally just after we had started Chris. So after a fourth explanation and me stepping out to let Chris take my place they were off building

Match Report 4th July 2011

A big turnout and a crowded table

What a great turnout we had on Monday night with 9 people Malcolm, Crispin, Daniella, Joe, Liza, Natalie, Gwen and Ben.

As time is short this will be a very brief report – sorry.
Small Wortld & Galaxy Trucker - A crowded table of games and players

After some table expansion and planning for how we might accommodate 11 (there had been 2 more possible attendees) the games started with the board game Trans Europa at one end of the table, Straw at the other end and Ben eating his

A Small Games Event

A day of games on the patio in Devon

Photo of our host and birthday boy
As the sun came out for a glorious weekend gamers headed in all directions with some heading to StabCon in Manchester for three days of gaming, others to York for the Beyond Monopoly club meeting, some to Birmingham and no doubt other locations around the UK, however a few of us headed down to the West Country for Paul Grogan’s “Runemeet” a now annual games event celebrating yet another birthday!

The players during our game of Comuni
In many respects this may be more typical of games events (being relatively small and low key) that go on around the county throughout the year. Following Paul’s first trip to Essen some ten odd years ago he gathered fellow travellers and regular gaming friends together for a whole weekend of games. Over the years it has grown to the point that yesterday there were twenty people playing games in every available space on the ground floor of his house in sunny Devon - did I mention what a glorious day it was! The weather meant that we were also able to spread to the patio under an umbrella were we enjoyed pretty much full sun all day, a situation that one gaming friend who had to work all day and late into the evening saw as doubly insulting – games and sun!