Vikings Tournament at IGUK

New Tourney is up, so join up if you want to win £10 store credit.

This weeks gaming

Well gaming this week has been a mixed bunch, the new Xbox 360 has dented my free time. But I have bought and played Carc and Ticket to Ride on it which have both been implemented really well. If any xbox live people want a match just yell.

Otherwise the Descent group came over on Monday minus the Overlord and Ollie so we played a couple of games. Race for the Galaxy first which I either drew or won by 1 point. Can't quite remember. I was going the military route and was hanging on for the card that scores for rebel cards. In the end I just played the 12th card to end the game. It was a good match and the game is really starting to make sense now.

Next up was Monty Python Fluxx, I won this with a Grim Reaper, Dead Parrot Goal. Its a fun game that as long as it doesn't drag is ok. Not my favorite but i'm happy to play it.

We finished off with a game of Shadows over Camelot (Its only a model). First time I have played, even though I have owned it for a while now. Really enjoyed it, but I do like my co-op games. Thanks to Panzerfaust for explaining it, it really helped.
No traitor this time, but maybe next.

On Tuesday Dobbie came over and we had a monster game of Twilight Struggle, this game just rocks. I absolutely love it. I managed to win in turn 9 by controlling Europe and playing a score card. Dobbie was a bit miffed, he forgot about that way of scoring and was concerntrating on tehmiddle east and south/central america. I wasn't going to tell him to put some extra influence on France now was I.
Still , good game and well played for a first attempt. I know the next game will be tougher.

Secret Santa on Board Game Geek has kicked off and this time my target is in America. Last year I had an Oz guy and it was fun. Hopefully this year will pan out to be good as well.

And now for something completely different

The latest Fluxx offering from Looney Labs is a Monty Python set of cards. This arrived today at work, so myself and Dobbie have just bust open the packaging and given it a couple of goes.

I am not a huge fan of Fluxx, its ok but there isn't much skill involved in winning a game. But its usually a bit of fun and this version is the funniest I have played so far. If you like Monty Python you will love this version. So many of the cards are inspired from the tv series and the films its great.

We manged one win each over lunch, with myself getting the finger of God and "The Foot" as a Goal, while Dobbie won his with the Animator and the Grim reaper. Although to get there we had to quote Python lines, sing verses and giggle our way through a number of cards.

My, thats a big dragon!

Our Road to Legend game has finally started, if you are particularly board you can catch up on its progress here.

I need more Power

So it was my birthday yesterday, another year older but what about the games!

Well, my brother bought me a copy of the new Powergrid expansion. It has maps for China and Korea on it. It does lookk rather nice and i'm itching to give it a go.

Otherwise it was an assortment of books, dvd's and cash. All of which were hurriedly spent on a xbox360. So now I have another gaming platform to add to the mound of consoles.

I now need to grab some games for it.

Wacky Races

Sunday group met up last night after a failed attempt last week. Its been a good week of gaming with two monster games of Twilight Struggle in the week. This game is so good I just love playing it. After 3 games I have a much better understanding of the game and how to play it.

Last night I introduced Poison, Race for the Galaxy and WOW: The adventure game. All game went down well.
We started off with Poison and it soon become round after the cauldrons added up to 13. Its a nice little game, not too taxing and a good filler.

Next up was Race for the Galaxy, San Juan is enjoyed in our group and RftG pushes things on a bit. It was a good game with Sid James just winning with 35 points after going for a military route. I am now getting the hang of this game, after a few games the consume/trade/produce element makes sense and strategies are forming.

We rounded off the night with a game of WOW:TAG, we are all Warcraft players so the game mimicked the WOW world very well. My only issue with the game is the time it takes. As time was against us we decided to play until 11PM then see who had the most valour points.
Moley won with the orc warrior, who I think is probably the strongest character in the game.
All in its a good alternative to Runebound, but I think all of these game suffer from the same problem, the time it takes to play.

Tonight Descent is finally going to hit the table, yeah right we shall see.

Pob at the council

Last night was POB night but unfortunately our usual location was unavailable due to decorators so it was off to the Civic Offices where it all started. We had a good turnout, 11 of us in all and we managed to play a couple of big games.

Shogun went down a treat after everyone got the hang of it. Panzerfaust played the warmonger and managed to take a number of my provinces complete with there castels, temples and theaters.
He eventually won the game with Leanne trailing by a couple of points. I brought up the rear as my weary samurai only managed to hold 6 provinces.

Some of the others played Conquest of Paradise which looked really good. Gornad managed to win using some sneaky Victory Point cards. The game looked really interesting and one that I would like to try soon.

Romeo and Harriet turned up a bit late but managed to get a few games of Battleline and Heroscape in.

The evening rounded off with some games of Poison and another number/colour card game that the name escapes me. Security came round at 10 to remind us that our time was up and that was the end of our nights gaming.

All in a good evening, pity it ended so soon.

The Order is in

Well I am eagerly awaiting a friends return from Vegas, why?
Because he has a bumper load of games for me

Command & Colors : Ancients
Race for the Galaxy
Twilight Struggle
Poison

Three great games and one that's ok (but for the kids, honest). All games that have been high on my wishlist for some time but the cost has put me off. All in £64 which is great as Ancients alone is £40+ in rip of Britain.

Now I just have to wait for his return.

Pandemic Averted

This week I was sent up North for business so managed to make some time to meet up with Earthquake and JohnnyB at the Coventry Scimitar club.

We played a few different games, I brought along Pandemic which went well. We managed to win but only with 3 player cards left. Unusually we only had 2 outbreaks so it wasn't the most tense game I have played.

We didn't have enough time for another monster game after that so Neil opened up his games bag and brought out Race for the Galaxy, Colloretto and Poison. Race for the Galaxy is a great game but I am only just getting the hang of it. Needless to say I was whupped.
Coloretto was fun, and always a blast to play. Poison was new to me and although it was a bit over produced played well. It's been added to my wish list.

All in a good evening of play, and I should be back in Coventry in a months time.

A New Cold War

I finally managed to get to play Twilight Struggle in the week and what a game. It was absolutely brilliant and even though it took nearly four hours to play I enjoyed every minute of it.

Its a two player game where each player takes the role of either the USA or the USSR. You then play cards over a number of rounds to apply influence to the countries of the world. Certain cards then score the areas and whoever has the most control gets the most points.
Sounds easy enough but when the cards you have can also help your opponent its sometimes tricky to know what to play.

Throw in a space race, coup's and a decreasing defcon status and it all adds up to a fantastic game.

The worst thing about this game is the cost. You don't get a huge amount for your money and they definitely didn't go all out for a great looking board. But if you can get over that its a game worth playing.

An icy wind blows in Arkham

With the road to legend taking a break, well its not really started our Thursday night group decided to give Arkham Horror a go. It's a very good if difficult game set firmly in the Cthulhu Mythos.

The intrepid investigators of myself, Romeo and Gornad took our heroes through a whirlwind game. It's been a while since we have played it so rules and player aids were well used. We were doing ok until a rumors card appeared and with it 5 monsters in the university. If we had of kept these in check all would have been ok but when this particular card got to 8 monsters all hell breaks loose. Needless to say it did and with a terrror level of 10 hitting Arkham the shops shut and the monster limit went out the window.

We struggled on and managed to close 4 gates before the great one, Ithaqua made his presence felt. We struggled on and managed to get him down to 3 tokens before he managed to consume Gornads struggling salesman.

Good game but next time we need to stay on top of things.

The Road to Legend hits another snagg

I was all set for Descent last night, but a few of the guys dropped out. Other commitments and communication problems abound.

In the end it was just myself and Romeo and rather than call it off we pulled out a bunch of two player games to fill the void.

First up was Battleline, I love this game but I am crap at it. I lost two games to Romeo.
Next up was Battlelore, armed with my newly painted heacy infantry I managed to win both games. We played scanrio 5 which introduces lore to the mix. Romeo has the game but has never used lore so was quite keen to give it a go. I enjoy Battlelore, its a great game nad my recent online exploits have helped me out with a few tactics.

To round off the evening we played Jambo, a new game to Romeo and one that I have forgotten about. Its a nice card game that plays like a CCG but without being collectable. I lost after handing over a card that allows the player to buy and sell at a better price. Doh!

I have noticed that Play.com has teh new WOW: The Adventure Game for £17.99 and i'm tempted. I love my Runebound but find it a bit long and this looks like a shorter and a more interactive game. Will have to see how the month goes.

Follow the yellow brick road

Tonight if the planets are alligned we will be kicking off a game of Descent : The road to legend. Its been planned for a couple of months now but we have had problems getting everyone in the same place at the same time. Fingers crossed this will happen tonight.

I have not played Descent yet, its always appealed, but the price tag hasn't. Although now I have seen what you get I could be converted. It looks like a great dungeon crawl of a game and after playing its older brother Doom I quite like the rules set.

So hopefully tomorrow I can post a report on what happened in our first campaign.

Gaming has generally been a bit slow the last week, I was absolutely thrashed in the first round of the Shotten Totten tourney by Harry the Lime. Hopefully next round won't be so bad. Battlelore against Steerpike and Earthquake continues, although we are now using lore or the hundred year wars expansions to add a little more to the game.
I am desperate to get Agricola out again and have a good game. I have thought about the game a bit and have a few strategies I would like to try out, but thats going to have to wait a week or two I fear.

I have also managed to paint all but 4 of the heavy infantry from my Battlelore set, the volume of medium infantry is still causing sleep issues so next up will be some archers.

Anyway, I need to sharpen my broadsword and find Pico ready for tonight.

Earth Elemental

I have been getting back into Battlore recently, mainly as its pretty easy toget a game up on Vassal. My main opponents are Steerpike and Earthquake. Both of which are giving me a sound beating.

I blame the dice.

Anyway, I didn't preorder the original game so didn't get the promo figures of the hill giant or earth elemental. I have been looking for a suitable replacement for both and found this one on ebay.

Its the Loyal Earth Elemental from a D&D collectable mini's game. It's maybe a little bit too big but its better than nothing. The cards are available on the net as images, a quick google will find them. So I'm now ready to give him a go.

Next up is a replacement for the hill giant, better start googling.

Plowed field wins game

Last night was POB at the Pub. The Portsmouth On Board group meet up usually every month at the Stamshaw Arms in Portsmouth for a few hours of gaming.

Last night we played Pandemic, Agricola, Battleline and Gheos.

Pandemic started off first while we waited for some others to show, Myself, Mudhoney, Ade and Methsdrinker managed to fight off the deadly infections and win the game. Quite a good win actually with 4 rounds of player cards left. I really should start playing at a harder level but after being soundly beaten when I tried it I always feel I need a bit more practice.

Some of the otehrs had turned up now so we decided to play a bigger game. Agricola was chosen and we settled in for a 5 player game. Things progressed quickly as we all knew how to play except for Methsdrinker. 5 players was harder as we were all fighting for actions, particularly the build fence one. Starting player was swapped frequently.
In the end it all came down to 1 point with Ollie managing to win the game. Luckily using a plow action as his last action to fill up an empty spot on his field.

Agricola gets better and better the more I play it, the posabilities and options are just fantastic.

Lastly the group seperated with Mudhoney, Princess of Florence teaching Ade how to play Battleline while the rest of us gave Gheos a go.
It was my first attempt at teh game and I found it a bit bewildering at first. Probably because I was a bit tired but I kept up. Scoring confussed me at first but after I had watched the others play I picked it up. I must have done as I went on to win the game ;-)

That was it for the July meet, hopefully August will bring along some other games.

Knights of the Brush

Since my games of Battlelore have increased, I thought it would be an idea to grab the paint brushes and start giving some of the mini's a bit of a paint job. I used to paint mini's all the time back in my Warhammer years but girlfriends don't get it so I stopped.

Now I am married I just get sarky comments and I have to admit I kind of missed it. Its a very relaxing way of spending some time.

Needless to say most of my Citadel Paints had dried up, but Earthquake pointed me in the direction of a new source, Vallejo paints and they are really nice.

So these, red knights are my fist ones finished. The spider and a squad of blue's are nearly finished.

Now I need to find some way of storing them and they probably need a varnish.

Disease and Cow Cubes

A few of the guys came over last night and we played Pandemic and Agricola. It was a first for most of them and we had some good gaming.
Pandemic was first and we lost the first game to a violent outbreak of red cubes in Asia. Our hard pressed Medic just couldn't keep up with the epedemics while the rest of us tried to be in the right location to swap cards.
We all decided to play a second game, even though Agricola was at the other end of the table looking very inviting. Roles were dealt and cubes were placed. We quickly managed to cure Black and remove it from the game meanwhile yellow and blue were getting a bit lary.
Some quick moves from the dispatcher and we have yellow and red cured. I finally managed to cure blue with 3 cards left in teh player deck. Close but a win none the less.

Agicola then hit the table with all its boards and bits. The rules were explained and as it was a first play for the other 3 we just decided on an open game with all questions asked and hints passed. The game went on and we all experimented with different occupations and improvements. As I had played before I knew that I needed to have as big a farm as possible and lots of animals. We played through, Ollie played the dancer occupation to gain more food. I went for a berry picker as it worked well for Hanna last week.

Game ended with me winning on 33 points. I totally put it down to remembering what I needed to score. Everyone enjoyed it and its definately a hit so will be played again.

I now need to find a source of animeeples as I am getting all cubed out.

Vassal

I have just finished a game of Battlelore using the Vassal online engine. My opponent was Earthquake of the Meeples and Minatures podcast. It was good to get a game in, even though I lost.

The Vassal engine is a great bit of software, it provides you with a virtual table, dice and counters and keeps track of the cards played during the game. You still need to know how to play the game as the rules are not there, but if you want to play either live or using a pbem system its perfect.

My games have so far been PBEM based, where you record your moves into a log file and mail it to your opponent. They then replay the log file and then create a new one with there moves. It's simple and works, as long as you know the rules. I have been brought up for court martial for doing a few things wrong but now I know better.

I also lost a game to Steerpike, much to his amusement. Damn those weighted virtual dice.

I am ready for a rematch, and if anyone else wants a game, just holla.

Agricola - First Game

Thursday night saw Agricola opened and played for the first time. Joining me in my night of farming was Croppertarty, Mudhonney and The Princess of Florence.

It was the first time for all of us and we took it slow for the first few rounds. Setting up the game took a bit of time and space, but after a couple or rounds we picked up the basic rules.
Nobody had any real idea of strategy, just making sure we had enough food for the harvest turns was the main one. Trying out the other actions such as stables, ploughing and occupations was also used.
Croppertarty was the first to expand his family and house and started getting more actions per round. Princess played a key occupation, Yeoman Farmer that would eventually win her the game. I continued fencing and letting my sheep breed but didn't get anything to turn them into food.

When we got to the last round we were all in the swig of the game and wished we had a few more rounds. Scoring was close

Croopertarty : 7
Count Zero : 8
Mudhoney : 8
Princess of Florence : 11

Cropertarty blundered in the last round by expanding his family to 5, but failed to feed them so a begging card negated his 3 points for the extra family member.

ll in, a great game. Now we know how to play the game we can concerntrate on learning how to win the game.

Agricola comes to town

Agricola is on a van towards me. I am hoping this game is as good as it's been hyped to be. I have caught up on the hype-mobile.

Watch this space.

Schotten Totten Tourney

http://www.iguk.co.uk/cs/forums/1607/ShowThread.aspx#1607

The next IGUK tourney is up, so feel free to join.

This time its the kilt fest called Schotten Totten.

Epedemics and a bad turn of events at Canae

Pandemic has been played 5 times now in 2 weeks, in itself that is an achievment in Zeros Pad. This game is great, its got theme, great components and works very well.
i will be putting up a full review on the IGUK blog later this week, but so far this is one of the best games I have played this year.

On a different note, Mudhoney brought over Command & Colours Ancients last night and we played through the Canae scenario. Although I know the rules of Battlelore, Ancients is slightly different. Different enough for me to loose horribly after sending in the wrong troop types and getting bashed by the Romans. Mudhoney won 7 flags to 5, I need a rematch.
Ancients is now high up on my wish list, even if I will end in a sticker frenzy.

Firefox 3

Join the attempt at the World Record today.

Pandemic

Pandemic > Strategy > Board Games - Z-Man Games - Infinity Games UK

Get your rubber gloves and Petri dishes ready as Pandemic is in the post.

Pandemic is a co-operative game from Z-Man Games where you play as one of 5 medical specialsts trying to cure the world of several deadly diseases.
I have read the rules and it sounds like a good game, hopefully it should get a play next week.

Dr Reiner Knizia goes Nintendo

Just spotted this today and I am going to have to give it a look. I am sure that the maker of such classic games such as Lost Cites, Tigris, Battleline and others has done a great job on the DS.

Stay tuned to see what I think of it.

Hill 218 Review

http://iguk.co.uk/blog/2008/02/battle-for-hill-218-review.html

My review for Hill 218 has been posted on the IGUK blog.

End of a Good Weeks Gaming

The wife came back from Washington today, she has been away for a week shopping, eating and visiting some seminars on network marketing. Sounds more like a jolly to me.

Anyway, while she was away I made an effort to get in some good gaming and I would like to that everyone that visited over the week to save me from power rangers and a life of the Disney channel.

We kicked off on Wednesday when Dobbie and Croppertarty came over for Settlers of Cata, Ticket to Ride Europe, Pickamino and Zooloretto. A great evening of gaming.

Mudhoney and his American Paratroopers was Thursday, a great game of Combat Commander Europe wher I got slaughtere trying to take hill 30.

Friday was AT-43 brought over by Panzerfaust. A nice sci-fi miniatures game. A few games of this was the first time played by either of us. Minis are great and Panzer has made some excellent landscape tiles. Pics to follow.

Saturday saw Panzerfaust, Croppertart and Frank over for a BBQ and games. I was expecting a few more faces but more food for us. Catan hit the table again followed by Kingsburg. Good games, especially Kingsburg where I lost out to Frank by 1 point.

Now back to a once a week gaming session, Dungeon Twister anyone?

Catan

Settlers of Catan has had a resurgence! One of the original "Euro" games has been played twice in one week, a never before seen happening.
I don't know why, the first time on Wednesday it was to introduce Dobbie to the game in his ongoing initialtion to all things euro. We played a good game and although I really could do with some English cards the game went along pretty smoothly. We used the example setup to create the Island of Catan to make life easier for the noob. I managed to secure a victory with a road rush towards the end of the game.

Teh second time was last night, Panzerfaust was over along with a couple of mates and he hasn't played the game. It's been on his "want to play" list for a while so we setup the game again and started off. This time is played very differntly. The thief was moved around the board allot more restricting wheat supplies then hampering the logging actions of two players. It was a close run game with all 4 of us reaching 8 points. I managed to win by playing the third knight.

I had forgotten how good Catan is as had a couple of the other players so I expect its going to be seen again soon.

Unplayed Games

We all have a pile of games that were bought on the spur of the moment or because they were in a bargain bin somewhere. They tend to sit on the shelf, opened punched but unplayed. I don't think I have any game that I have yet to open up and have a look at but sometimes these games sit for too long on the shelf. Newer brothers visit and instantly hit the table while they languish at the bottom of the shelf or wedged in between others.

My list of unplayed games are as follows

• Brass
• Perikles
• Lucca Citta
• Bohnanza
• Bang
• Shadows over Camelot (it's new so doesn't really count)
• Arkham Horror : Curse of the Dark Pharaoh

Do any of these games really deserve to be on this list?

Monopoly!

It was my eldest's fifth birthday yesterday and amongst all of the Power Rangers, Ben 10 and hot wheels toys there was a copy of Junior Monopoly.
I failed in board gaming fatherhood and didn't buy him any propper games, instead went for the Hot Wheels option. Scaletrix would probably have been cooler but I am saving that for Christmas.

Now the buyer of Monopoly is a friend of my wifes, and I am not sure why she chose Junior Monopoly. Maybe she has heard of our gaming sessions or maybe it was just a lucky/unlucky purchase. Either way I am unsure what to do. Yes its a board game, but its Monopoly!

I think I will just wait and see if the kids are interested in it and take it from there.

Iliade

Tuesday and Wednesday I was working in Warwick and rather than spend a night by myself in the Hotel I went to visit JohnnyB a fellow gamer from the IGUK forums.

We played a few games, Iliade was first. I have had a copy of this for over a year now but never managed to get it on the table. After a quick run through of the rules we started it off. It's an OK game, you take it in turns to either place or use a previously placed card. The aim being to be the one with the largest army. Different cards can take out other cards, in a rock/paper/scissors kind of fashion.
It plays quickly and once you get to know what cards do what its pretty simple. The difficult part is choosing which card to place and when to use them.
I lost big time so I need to give this another go.

Second game was Race for the Galaxy, I had played this last Friday at P.O.B so knew the rules. Didn't help me win but at least I knew what I should have been doing. I can only describe it as San Juan on Steroids, its a good game and one I would like to add to my collection. I think the price is a bit high for a deck of cards, but its a strong game.

Last up was High Society, a bidding card game that didn't really appeal to me. Yes I lost, again but I just found the game a bit flat really.

Thanks for the games JohnnyB it was good to see you again, until next time.

Speil On

Runebound, the final encounter

Our mamouth 4 player Runebound game finally came to an end on Sunday eveneing. It took about another 2 hours of play so in total this 4 player game ran for 6 hours.

Sid James finally got the balls to tackle some red encounters and after realising that maybe they weren't that bad was on a roll. 3 dead dragon lords later and he had won the game.

Overall I quite like Runebound, its a nice monster bash game that moves along. It takes a while to play but if you start rolling the dice ready for your move you can speed the game along.

I am going to hold off the expansions for now, until the base game has been played a few more times then I will see.

P.O.B. meet tonight and I have Kingsburg in the bag, should be a good evening of gaming. I hear Container is comming along so quite interested in that.

Kingsburg

Kingsburg is on it's way to me as you would know if you are keeping up with the posts. I liked the idea of the game and the way it uses dice. Very few of my games use dice, the don't seem to be the in thing but that seems to be changing.

To get up to speed with Kingsburg I found the rules on the geek and gave them a read. This is where I realized that the game wasn't exactly what I was thinking. Still, it sounded pretty good and a games a game isn't it. Well maybe not monopoly but still...

Anyway, I found a link to a java version of the game. It's been created by a guy called Thomas Arnold, and all kudos to the guy. It's great! I have played a few games now and not won any, but I know know how the game works and what I have read makes sense. I am now looking forward to receiving the game proper so I can roll those dice for real.

I wish more game manufacturers would release a free online version of there game, the one for Battle for Hill 218 helped me learn the game and was enough for me to buy it. I can understand why they won't but they sure are handy when your fellow gamer are away.

Exhaustion

No sooner had I posted about Runebound and postie came knocking on the door with an international parcel.

Runebound has arrived...

So far its good, long but good. I have played two games so far, well sort of. The second game is in a "Saved" state in the memory of a digital camera. 4 hours into a 4 player game and we probably have another hour of game time left. Yes kiddies, this game will fill your Sunday afternoons faster than the Malaysian Grand Prix and will have just as much excitement.

Runbound definately deserves the title of Talismans older brother. It's a great game that is hugely expandable, but so far the base game is more than enough. Now I just have to wait for the next meet and make sure that we can put the game back to where it was.

Incomming Shipment

I have a number of games winging or floating there way to me from across the pond. I shouldn't have but I did, the weak $$$$$ makes things so much cheaper and if you have a games mule visiting on business its just got to be done.

First up is Runebound. This is actually comming from an Amazon seller based in New York. I placed the order about 3 weeks ago and its not here yet. Not ideal but they did give a 4-6 week shipping window. They must be waiting for someone to try to beat the rowing across the atlantic record and just chuck it in the boat with a few cans of red bull.
Anyway Runebound looks like a good fantasy game, a bit like Talismans older brother and the amount of expansions makes your head swim and your wallet run to the hills.

Next is Kingsburg I have a feeeling this may be a nomination for the Speil des Jahres this year. Its a dice rolling game that looks pretty interesting. The Spiel guys reviewed it recently and it sound like a fun game.

Shadows over Camelot is next, a co-op game based around Arthur and his round table. This one gets allot of love from Tom and Sam on the dice tower. I like the idea of it and I think my group would enjoy it as well. So it was added to the virtual basket.

Now come two smaller filler games. The first is Zombie Flux, this is popular with Steerpike the kitchen boy so I thought it would e worth giving it a look. To be honest I don't know that much about it other than the game mutates as cards are played. Sounds like fun.
Lastly comes Pickomino, a dice rolling game that is allot of fun. Played it a few times now and not won any games, but I like it and I think the kids will. Lots of dice rilling to see who will end up with the most worms.

Now I have to wait for Roly Mo to return from his business trip laden with boxes........

Age of Steam

Last Friday was P.O.B at the pub and Mudhoney brought along Age of Steam, a recent addition to his expanding game library.

After an overview of the rules, of which I must admit I went into a trance like state and had to be prodded back to the real world we setup the board and started to play.

The game is all about transporting goods around the map, making money and not going bankrupt. You have to be a good planner in the game as there are allot of factors that come into play.

Although I lost it was a good game, Panzerfaust who was doing as bad as me at the start stole the game and won. Everyone enjoyed it and it was nice to play a meatier game even if I could have done with a coffee at the start.

Looking forward to another game of it and looking out for a copy myself. Although I hear Mayfair are going to republish it later in the year so fingers crossed I will be transporting red cubes to Chigago on my kitchen table my the end of the year.

Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage

Visited Mudhoney last night to give H:RvC a go. He has had the game for a while now but it's never hit the table. I turned up around 7:30 and the box was opened, Mudhoney had already read the rules and teh geek had provided us with some player aids so the board was quickly set up.

The board is amazing, it looks lovely and gives a good feel for the game and the world in that era. I'm a bit of a map geek anyway, but it's a really nicely put together board.

I took control of Hannibal and his armies while Mudhoney grabbed Rome and her legions. the first round took a bit of time as we were learning as we played but things started of well. hannible moved into France while Rome started marching her armies North.

The next couple of rounds had Hannible get into Northern Italy while another of his armies had to quickly march back to Spain to take out an annoying counter attack by Rome.

A couple more turns in and we had picked up the flow of the game and it was motoring along. Unfortunately by this time things were getting late, I rushed my armies into Rome to see if I could win but Nero and his roman militia were too much for Hannibal and his single elephant. My generals were routed and my forces lost.

Scratch one game but we both now have a great understanding of the game and are looking forward to a rematch. The game is a little daunting at first, but after a couple of rounds it all comes into place and works very well. the components are great, the cards look nice and the counters are good quality. Again the map is the best part of the goober, I would love a nice print of it.

This game is now on my wish list, if the cost was a little less I would pickup a copy now.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

The DS has always been a favorite of mine for its puzzle games and this one is just fantastic. Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a great puzzle game. Its an adventure puzzle game where you play Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke who are trying to discover the location of a lost golden apple which is somewhere in the curious village.
It's basically a stream of puzzles that need to be solved and not since the days of Perplexcity have i been so into my puzzles. They vary from easy to difficult and as you solve them the mystery expands.

The style is a french / anime mix that works really well although the "Cor Blimey Guv" cockney accents bring a smile. It looks good and plays easily i'm hooked.

Power Grid

Allot of games have hit the table since my last post, so I need to increase my blogging, but we played Power Grid last Friday night at the monthly gathering of P.O.B. (Portsmouth on Board).

It was a funny night, only 6 of us turned up for varying reasons and all the big games we had were for a maximim of 5 players. Ed quickly popped home to grab his favorite, Power Grid.
Only one of us had not played it before so after a quick reap of the rules we started to buy our plants and power up Germany.

The game started of slowly with us all taking time to expand our power grids and power up Germany, but as soon as phase 2 was reached Ed the human calculator when't into a build frenzy and hit the 15 city limit. His power plants could only power 12 cities, but that was still more than the rest of us could manage. So a game was won with a well played manouver.

A few other games hit the table before time was called but nothing as big as Power Grid. If you haven't played it before I really recommend it.

Hive

Hive is rapidly becomming my most played game, the reason being its fast to play with no setup time.
I grabbed this after Christmas and its a fantastic game. For your money you get two sets of 13 bakelite peices. These are just lovely chunky smooth pieces that have this great feel to themselves.

Players take turn in placing a piece, with the pieces depicting an insect. Each insect has its own way of moving like chess. But its much easier to play than chess and you are not constrained with a board.
The first couple of games play very quickly as you learn how the game works and what pieces do what. But after that the real fun kicks in and games start taking 15-20 mins as you each start playing more moves.

So far I am loving this game, maybe after a while I may have burned out on it. But its currently living in my bag so I can play a game whenever there is a free table and opponent.