Friday, January 16, 2009

Gaming in Year 2009


So a new year is upon us and I am sure there is a whole raft of games out there waiting to hit the shelves and make a dent in my pocket. So what am I looking forward to in this year?

Well, I think this year is going to be all about expansions. I know that there is going to be an expansion for Pandemic some time this year so that is definitely going to be of interest to me.
A expansion for Command & colours Ancients that add scenarios about the Rome civil war also gets a nod.
Formula D is going to get some new tracks which should be fun and probably needed by at least March. There is only so many times you can go around Monaco.
Dominion is my latest purchase and I will be putting up a review on the IGUK site later and this is literally been made for expansions. I can see a couple coming this year, especially as the base game is doing so well.

As for full games, Days of Wonder is teasing us with images of factions for something. Amazons, Skeletons, Orcs. All sounds interesting but not sure what it all means.
We shall just have to wait and see, but knowing Days of Wonder I am sure its going to be good.

Gaming recently has been very good, I managed to play Battlestar Galactica this week and it was a huge amount of fun. I played the Chief character and while repairing vipers managed to win/loose the game by sending the rest of the fleet towards the attacking cylons. Much to the surprise of the human players. Yep, I was a cylon and it was great fun seeing the look on there faces.
Dominion continues to take center stage, mainly due to its quick play time, easy to teach rules and mainly because its on BSW.

So, keep an eye out on the Days of Wonder site, somethings brewing and watch your back for anyone with red eyes. They have either been playing Dominion till the early hours or are a frakkin toaster.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Indigo growing F1 drivers



Wednesday night saw Dobbie and Moley over for a few hours gaming. I had planned to teach them Puerto Rico, my new favorite game. I had missed Puerto when it was realease and it just sort of fell by the wayside.

After explaining the rules the game started and the others picked up the rules and the way the game plays quite quickly. The colonist supply started to drain very quickly due to lots of building large process buildings. Dobbie setup a good trade route with repeated use of the captain role. Moley managed a fair bit of trading but was slow to apply manpower to his wharf and harbour.
I went for a mixed building and shipping plan. Just enough shipping to get a few points but built a couple of the larger VP buildings.
end score was me on 42, Dobbie 40 and Moley on 30. A good game.

Next up was Pandemic, another new game for Dobbie. The initial spread of virus's was harsh. Black was very concentrated along with red. Outbreaks were rife for the first quarter of the game but we managed to cure blue and eradicate it. By then Moley the medic had calmed down Black and we were making good work against Red. Cures for Red and black came next. Yellow had been ignored up until now and was started to spread. All hands to the deck and a bit of card trading and a cure was in site. We finally won the game with 6 outbreaks, a good session with a few tense bits and it felt like we had worked hard to win the game.

Finally Formula D hit the table, basic rules on the Monaco track. Two cars each and lots of dice rolling to be done. Moley initially stormed into the lead while the middle pack kept together. Dobbie and Moley both had a trailing car but half way through the game Dobbies had caught up with the middle pack. By now we realised that pushing your car through a corner for WP damage was not the end of the world so the last third of the track saw some crazy dice rolling and damage. Unfortunately it was all a bit too much for Moleys trailing car and he crashed on the second to last corner. It was all down to first place and a just high enough dice roll from me clinched the win.

All in a good evening of gaming, plus a copy of Dominion to open. But more on that later.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Christmas Gaming


Didn't get a huge amount of gaming in over the Christmas period. Mainly because we did a fair bit of visiting and the Xbox 360 was used maybe a bit too much.

Anyway, new additions to the gaming libary are

  • Puerto Rico, my BGG Secret Santa present. I was a bit suprised to recieve it but after playing it I absolutely love it and want to give it another go asap.
  • Dungeon Twister Expansion #1, I love Dungeon Twister but find it hard to get opponents to play against. I am hoping that new character may spark a bit of enthusiasm into the game again.
  • Munchkin, I used to play D&D allot and this game looks like it could be fun.
  • Formula D, The new Asmodee version. Components look fantastic and I have given it a quick game against the wife. Really enjoyed it and look forward to giving it a go against more players.
Hopeing to get more gaming in over the next week, and I will try to blog a bit more on whats going on.
Also expect more game reviews on the IGUK blog.