Match Report – 24th September 2012

Pirates, trains and dwarves plus more munchies!

Lunch time had seen a surprise request from work colleagues for a game of Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers and the introduction of two new players, a good start to the week.

The evening saw our smallest turnout for a very long time with apologies because of funerals, over work, holidays and hectic social schedules. The good news was that our master baker was available and had tried her hand at some chocolate and ginger cookies – yummy, and only Gwen and myself to share them!

However before the food comes the games and we started with a game of Ticket To Ride: Europe a game that having played TransEuropa many times was immediately familiar to all of us. Ticket To Ride is one of the three classic gateway games (the others being Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan) and in this version is about completing routes between European cities and is described in more detail in this video. We all thoroughly enjoyed the game, although it will surprise nobody to know that when the final scoring came in Gwen had piped both Natalie and I.

Games in a Pub – 16th September 2012

The group gather after a summer break and immediately head off to Manila

Returning to the group after an absence of three Sunday’s gallivanting around Europe - make that a long drive to Venice for a camping holiday with family and more games of Uno than I care to think about – it really isn’t that good a game.

On the upside I played quite a few games of Hive which I needless to say lost to Gwen, Army of Frogs although one of the green frogs went AWOL, presumably preferring the Italian climate, Zooloreto Würfelspiel a game the boys enjoyed and has inspired them to play its big brother a number of times since they returned and Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small which I played on my own whilst the team went to Aqualandia losing to virtual Gwen (how can she beat me when she isn’t even present?!) and Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers a game I had acquired via a swap and which the team were distinctly unimpressed with.

Back to the Blue Anchor; whilst I had been away the group had played numerous games of King of Tokyo, and Takenoko plus Quarriors and Mansions of Madness.

Match Report 10th September 2012

Hello again to some old favourites

With the summer holidays over, teenagers back to school and the end a wonderful summer of Olympics it was back to games night on Mondays.

With a guest appearance from Ian (brother-in-law now living in the West Country) who is always a keen saboteur it was the obvious game to go for. Bizarrely he once again, entirely randomly, was one of the saboteurs in 2 of the 3 rounds. A fun role but with Saboteur 2 even more difficult to win at. After much tunnel digging victory eventually went to Crispin, helped in part by the normal interplay between Ian and I which saw both of us (instead of my elderly and increasingly rich friend) being robbed by our fellow dwarves.

Review – Flossen Hoch!

2 to 4 Players, Aged 4+ with a 15 minute playing time

A review copy of Flossen Hoch!, designed by Grein-Bottcher, was kindly provided by the team at Zoch Verlag.

The theme as with many of Zoch’s fames is a little abstract / far fetched but if it aids the artwork and fun then there is little reason to complain. The theme of this memory game is that as part of a festival at the South Pole the penguins are having a race. However in order to move round the track the penguins have to memorise where the longest fish are in the polar sea and only move on the race track based on the length of the fish they pull out of the sea. Presumably the fish don’t move much as they are in fact already dead and frozen, presumably in Iceland!

What follows is an overview of the game broken down into 5 sections: The Game Components, Setting Up The Game, How To Play The Game, What Did We Think? and finally Who Do We Think Will Like It?. So if you don't want to read the whole review scan down to the heading that interests you.

Match Report - 13th August 2012

Saboteurs get their shovels out, plus time for the foxes to chase those chickens!

The request was for simple games as Crispin had exhausted himself during the Olympics. Not that he competed, nor was one of the brilliant GameMakers. No he was one of the many who made an Olympian effort of TV watching, with full use of the red button, so understandably needed as with the other great athletes a period of rest and recuperation!

This is being a little unfair (surely not I hear you cry) as we too had become obsessed with keeping up to date with the latest twists and turns of TeamGB plus the other great feats performed by athletes from around the world and it all seemed a little strange to find that morning that suddenly it was all over.

Eventually we moved from discussions to playing games.