Games in a Pub - 5th August 2012

Feeding panda's and then a fantasy game with lots of dice

Once again I was not able to able to be with the guys and once again one of them stepped into the breach and picked up the mantle of scribe. On this occasion Stéphene was kind enough to take bring along some games, take photo’s and write the accompanying words. It was a real shame I wasn’t able to make it as having seen their first game at Essen last year, it was one I was keen to play and one that I suspect the Monday night group would enjoy.

Only 3 of us on Sunday which meant it was a great opportunity to get a couple of 2-4 player games out.

We started the evening with a game of Takenoko.
[Taken from BGG - A long time ago at the Japanese Imperial court, the Chinese Emperor offered a giant panda bear as a symbol of peace to the Japanese Emperor. Since then, the Japanese Emperor has entrusted his court members (the players) with the difficult task of caring for the animal by tending to his bamboo garden.

In Takenoko, the players will cultivate land plots, irrigate them, and grow one of the three species of bamboo (Green, Yellow and Pink) with the help of the Imperial gardener to maintain this bamboo garden. They will have to bear with the immoderate hunger of this sacred animal for the juicy and tender bamboo. The player who manages his land plots best, growing the most bamboo while feeding the delicate appetite of the panda, will win the game.]

After a quick explanation on how it works, we were able to get going pretty much straight away. The first thing to say about “Takenoko” is how good it looks. The game scores highly for KawaÏ-ness, making you really want to play it. The 2 pre-painted miniatures are really cute and all the components are of great quality. However as soon as we got started we encountered a tiny problem: Robin and his colour-blindness. As I said the game is really cute but the colours are quite muted and given the dim lighting in the pub Robin struggled to differentiate the 3 main pastels colours yellow, green and pink.

I can say this: it was a hit! We all had good fun and really enjoyed the game. Oliver was particularly thrilled having won the game and had a blast. I think he has found the next Christmas present for his parents....if that’s not a seal of approval!

A few refreshments and we were starting the next game: Quarriors. [Taken from BGG - Players take on the roles of Quarriors - mighty mystical warriors who have the power to capture dangerous quarry from the untamed Wilds! They must conjure the mysterious powers of Quiddity, cast powerful spells, and summon their creatures to battle if they hope to overcome rivals and earn their rightful place as the Champion!

Quarriors has the frenetic excitement of a dice battle game, with an added ‘deckbuilding’ twist: players customize their dice pools during the game using resources generated by their rolls.]

Again, I was the only one who knew this game. It plays around the same mechanics as Dominion only that you’re using dice instead of cards, and lots of them - 40 130! Every player starts with the same dice combo then buys monsters, spells and basic dice (money, effects…). You score points if your monsters survive a full round, when a player attacks he attacks all the players at once, so it is not so easy to survive a few players turns. The first game got us familiar with the rules and then we got time to do a second. It wasn’t as much as a hit as Takenoko but still very much enjoyed.

Both these games were 2-4 players only and it’s a real shame for Tanenoko because it would be nice to be able to have a bigger group on this one, I guess there has to be a down side to every game. 

We were about to get a game of King of Tokyo” on the way but we were reminded that the pub was not offering the sleep in option…Booooo, pubs are not really what they used to be! Just joking of course, it was quite late and probably the right time to stop.

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More photo's of the evening can be seen here.

Our next event at the Blue Anchor, Crowborough is in two weeks time on Sunday 19th August starting at 7.00pm - £1 per head. More details can be seen on our Facebook Page Social Gamers - Crowborough