Match Report - 14th January 2013

With the winter snows just around the corner the group gathered to eat the remains of the Christmas munchies and obviously play a few games!

At one end of the table Gwen led Crispin and Daniella in one of her favourites, Alhambra with many references from Crispin to the need for his palace to have plenty of Seraglios! Gwen, unsurprisingly, emerged victorious.

At the other end of the table Kingdom Builder was played by Robin, Claire, Brian and I. This game again proved popular and, whilst far from being my favourite game from Essen 2012, it is growing on me due to its simplicity, speed of play, replayability and the balance of tactics to fun. Robin again won this game, although in part because I spotted a strategy that whilst I loused it up myself I had pointed it out to him. He obviously took the guidance with open arms and profited mightily from it!

Review – Geistesblitz 2.0

2 to 8 Players, Aged 8 with a 30 minute playing time 

Gesitesblitz 2.0 designed by Jacques Zeimet was kindly provided for review by our friends at Zoch Verlag.

In Geistesblitz 2.0 –we meet the ‘ghostess’ (and 4 new objects) a friend of Balduin the ghost in Geistesblitz and this new game is essentially a re-working of the original. It is styled as ‘an independent game’ playable without the original but that can be combined with the original, in my view for unnecessary pain!

Given the similarities to the original Geistesblitz this review will build on my first review and seek to highlight the differences rather than go through the whole game again, although it will follow my standard approach.

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.

Games in a Pub – 6th January 2013

A new year and a new pub, the Crow and Gate, Crowborough

With the beginning of the New Year we decided to take our merry band on the road and try out a new venue. We have been meeting at the Blue Anchor now for 2 years and it had been my hope to bring the wealth of modern board and card games to the attention of the wider community, not just gamers.

The reality is that with a few exceptions and in spite of the redoubtable efforts of Damian (the landlord at the Blue Anchor) to interest his clientèle in our activities, largely little interest has been shown. So following the premise of nothing ventured nothing gained the idea is to try a new nearby location and see if the winds of chaos result in a different outcome! Time will tell.

Match Report - 21st December 2012

A festive meeting with lots of Saboteurs!

With Christmas just around the corner there was a festive feel to the evening and a welcome visitation from one of the regulars at the pub.

Claire and Brian had just scooped a copy of Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers at a local charity shop for £2.50 (a steal) so it didn’t take much convincing to interest Crispin in a variant on one of his favourite games.

Games in A Pub - 9th December 2012

A group of Convicts and Samurai arrive at a new pub! 

With carols at the Blue Anchor and an expected full house it was time to take our games group on the road and move about 2 mins (by car) towards Uckfield to the Crow and Gate. I am not sure what the diners made of as we started our first game of the evening Alcatraz: The Scapegoat , listening to us get into character and drop each other in it.

Match Report - 3rd December 2012

A big turnout, 2 award winning games and lots of munchies

Six of us started the evening with one of the group’s favourite fillers, Hick Hack. Although in this case it was being played with Karen, Brian and Claire who had never encountered this amusing family game where the farmyard birds try to eat as much feed as possible whilst avoiding the unwelcome attentions of the local fox population. During this game Natalie and Daniella arrived and we thought the group was complete, and then there was a ring on the doorbell and Alex unexpectedly joined us. As the group settled down with Dominion at one end (Brian, Daniella, Alex and Natalie) and 7 Wonders at the other end the door bell rang again (I was beginning to feel like Bilbo (in The Hobbit) at this point and there was Ben.

Games in a Pub – 25th November 2012

One big Mayan game and the return of the the pirates

Tzolk’in: The Mayan Calendar (the beautiful worker placement game)finally made it to the table. This was one of my favourite games from Essen but being a more medium weight game it needs the right opportunity. With 5 players this wasn’t ideal, as it is a 4 player game, but as this was my best opportunity to date I took it with both hands - offering to teach the game to the others and watch / check out rule clarifications as the game progressed. This is a reasonably complex game and whilst I had played it twice Simon ‘s interjections as I walked through the rules (based on having watched a 40 min video about the game on BoardGameGeek) where very helpful.