Match Report 13th February 2012

Good games and unusual munchies!

Last Monday night’s gathering saw a good turnout with regulars Crispin, Daniella, Gwen, Natalie, Leonie and Ben and Thomas joining our Monday group for the first time; again we were blessed with lots of munchies, courtesy of Natalie and Daniella, including some very unusual munchies, but more of that later.

The games choices seemed simple on this occasion Crispin and Daniella were happy to give Stone Age another run out with Gwen and Leonie whilst Ben and I were keen to try Pandemic, a game I had played a couple of times before and was due to demonstrate to the Education team at CAFOD the next day; Natalie and Thomas made up the 4 for Pandemic.

News Update - Zoch Sponsorship + Video's

Following discussion with Zoch and our enthusiasm for their family games they have agreed to sponsor this blog and an interview with their co-founder and managing director, Albrecht Werstein, will follow in the next couple of weeks.

In the mean time fans of Zoch games may be interested in a series of video demonstrations recorded at the Nurnberg Toy Fair earlier this month by the guys at BoardGameGeek

Review – Tante Trudels Trodel

2 – 4 Players, Aged 7+ with a 15 - 20 minute playing time

A review copy of Tante Trudel’s Trodel designed by Steffen Bogen was kindly provided  German publisher Zoch GmbH.

The theme of the game is you are shopping in Aunty Trudel’s Junk Shop and today she has come up with a very special offer. One person gets their shopping for free! All the lucky person has to do is fill their basket with junk that weighs less than Aunty Trudel’s basket of junk, BUT more than any other player’s basket. 

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 - 29th January 2012

Some strange bean farming, a magical city and a pacific island 

With only 5 people it was not a large turnout, but it was enough to play one our Monday night favourites, Bohnanza. We haven’t managed to get this to the table before on our pub nights and having played Space Beans at our last pub meeting I thought why not try another bean based game. Bohnanza is a simple card game on the theme (loosely) of farming. Each player has an imaginary 2 fields within which to plant their beans and a mixed hand of bean cards. The unusual thing about this game is that you cannot re-arrange your hand of cards, you must play them in the order they are dealt. Given that the aim is to get as many beans of one type in your fields the trick is to trade unwanted cards with other players maybe even give them away – if other players will take them. Bohnanza is not a game for those backward in coming forward as you need to be both vocal and creative in the deals you suggest.

Review – Wollmilchsau

2-6 Players, Aged 8+ with a 15-20 minute playing time

A review copy of Wollmilchsau (released in 2011), designed by Liesbeth Bos was kindly provided  German publisher Zoch GmbH.

Wollmilchsau is an awkward name to the English tongue and in translation means something akin to ‘all-purpose’ or ‘allrounder’. The idea of this dice throwing card game is to call out the name of the wanted animal. Not sure how this ties into the games name – you are not the only one! Essentially this is a game of speed of recognition that has some similarities to other Zoch games Geistesblitz amongst others.

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 - 23rd January 2012

From trading 'Dollies' to some very strange drawings!

With sickness afflicting Crispin, the Safari delights of Tanzania detaining Malcolm and Daniella under the cosh trying to keep a busy family fully fed and watered it was down to Gwen and I to welcome our version of the young ones, Ben, Ruth and Natalie.

These youngsters all like a game with lots of interaction so when it came to selecting which board game to play what better choice than one of the modern classics, Settlers of Catan. A game we have described in previous blog posts in a lot more detail, it requires players to actively trade natural resources with each other in order to advance their civilisation of roads, towns and cities.

Playing with the 5/6 player expansion there was plenty of land for us to colonise although by the end of the game the island felt pretty cramped. Whilst Ben was busy accruing sheep (fondly termed “dollies” since he first played this game with us around the time Dolly was cloned) he was also keeping a watchful eye on my obvious progress and zealously pointed a very unwelcome spotlight on my advancement towards the 10 victory points required to win.

Games in a Pub – 15th January 2012

A quiet evening with some familiar games

With a little confusion over dates to start the New Year and with apologies from 5 regulars before we even started the evening was never likely to yield a big turnout. That said 5 new people had made contact over Christmas having only just discovered us I was hopeful of a few new faces.

The good news is that although in the end none of those 5 was able to join us on this particular occasion Robin was. Typical of most of the people that join us he likes games but to never having played any of the games we play before but. Having spotted our activities through a combination of this blog and Facebook he was intrigued enough to join us and give the games a chance.