There is a new Con in town, this one is local to me and is being put together by our game group.
If you are free and fancy a day of gaming come along.

UK Games Expo

This weekend its time to drive up North to Birmingham for the yearly UK Games Expo. I haven't been to many expos, but the one in Birmingham is always a good day out. There is plenty to see and games to play as well as a few bargains to pick up.

Thankfully its the last time its going to be in its current location, the last couple of years its become more popular and more crowded. I don't feel like I have missed out on anything but it would be nice to have a bit more space. Especially at the demo tables.

I have a few games lined up, Mage Knight is back in print and I have ordered a copy. This one looks really good, with some nice bits. The rule book looks a bit in depth but I am sure I can cope with it.
The second is Kingdom Builder, I tried to buy a copy around Christmas but it soon sold out. It's back now and looks like it might win the SdJ this year. I also think it might be one that I can play with teh kids, well that's a good enough excuse to get it on the shelf.

Gaming wise its been pretty busy, I have played Helvetia a few times and really like this euro. The bits are lovely and the game is interesting without being too complicated. Our Risk Legacy game has stalled, mainly because we haven't managed to get all 5 of us together at the same time. Hopefully this will remedy itself soon.

I am off camping in a couple of weeks, so any suggestions of games that I can take would be welcome. Something small, light weight and can be played with 10 year olds.

Risk Legacy

Games are sometimes put into categories with the biggest two being Eurogames and Ameritrash. To me Risk Legacy is the definition of Ameritrash.

It got lots of theme and lots of pieces and the rules are a bit on the simple side. Although with the way Risk Legacies change this last point may change. You see, with Risk Legacies the game is going to change and evolve as you play it. Not just the once, each time you finish one of the first 15 games the board and rules can and will change.
Risk Legacy is doing something brave in the world of gaming. Its taking a game and allowing the players to change it with stickers, permanent markers and the rubbish bin. Throw in some unlock able expansions in the box and you have an interesting mix.
But and its a big one, its still Risk and after those 15 plays realistically how many times are you going to play it?
I played a lot of Risk when I was a kid and enjoyed it but I didn't really have much to compare it to then. I have also played an awful lot of Risk and variations online on the Conquer Club web site. So I know how to play Risk and its good and bad points.
Legacy is a fun game, its also pretty quick. We played the first 3 games in one evening session. Although in 2 of those games I only actually took 2 turns. Yep, 2 turns before we had a winner. So it feels like its gone from one extreme to the other. Risk used to take hours to play, now its condensed into much less. This may change as the game and board evolve, we have no idea what is in those sealed sections.
Altering the board is fun, and making sure that everyone can do something at the end of the game is great. If it were only the winner who could add cities or adjust the resources that would soon start to grate. But they have split the alterations into two sections. One for the winner while everyone else who survived can do a minor modification. These in themselves so far haven't adjusted the game in any major way but again, I am sure there are things lurking in those sealed that may change things.

So far I am enjoying the game, I just think that after you have put the stickers on the board and named a continent after your dog the game is going to spend more time on the shelf than on the table. But if the idea of really amending a game as your playing it appeals give it a go, your not going to be disappointed.

Thunderstone Advance

I am a bit fan of Thunderstone, out of all of the current deck building games to me it has the best theme and enough variety to keep me interested. I also really like the fact that most of the cards will fit into a single box which makes getting the game played easier.
As much as I love Dominion, its a pain to take anywhere because of the large boxes of cards and unless I setup some decks before hand we generally just use the base set and an expansion. With Thunderstone I am happy to put more cards in the box and just randomize things.

My issues with Thunderstone have been teaching the game. The cards have a few icons on them and the light penalty takes a few plays. But mainly its the battle effects. When are they applied? Before, after or during combat. It just seems a little messy. For the first few games we were adding disease cards to the battle itself. Needless to say the first few games took a while to play.

Dragonspire was released and with the help of its board and a few rules tweaks things have improved. But now Thunderstone Advance is about to hit the shops and it looks like Alderac have revamped everything and from what I can see all for the better.

The cards have had a revamp with new borders and artwork. I am still not sure about these as the new art style is different to previous cards. I am sure they will grow on me but for now they just look a little odd. The icons are still there but they look refreshed and more readable. I think the main differences on the cards seem to be the text area. It looks bigger and they have put the battle effects into different areas so you can see what is a battle effect and what happens after the battle. This should clear up any confusion and make for a better play experience.

Dragonspire was the first expansion to use a board as well as ditching experience cards for plastics tokens. Thunderstone Advance has upped the ante, there is now a full board with spaces for the village cards as well as the dungeon. It's also double sided enabling you to play a wilderness variant on the other side.
There are also cards for a new game mechanic, familiars. I am not really sure what they do as yet, I need to read up the rules but I am sure they will add to the game experience.

Thunderstone Advance looks like the natural progression with the game, its almost like its version 2.0 with all the irks ironed out. It hits the shops next week, around March 5th and there is a bonus set of cards for people buying from local shops.
My copy has been ordered and I'm really looking forward to giving it a try.

Its alive Jim

There are always a few topics that are bandied around message boards. They include, what games can my kids play, what game will my wife enjoy and what game can I play solo.

So generally it seems like some gamers out there have trouble finding other players and are trying to boost the gamer numbers with family members.

I'm lucky, I have a good group and my kids are willing to play games. i also have some really good solo games.

There are some games that i would love to play more often, Power Grid is one of them. I have had a copy for years but with the cult of the new taking place it doesn't get played as much as usual. One of my friends loves it, but playing it with 2 players just doesn't work. Luckily Friedeman has created some lovely robots to help bolster the game. I was initially unsure about them, but as they are pretty cheap I ordered the set.

You get two thick stock cardboard sheets for your money, with each sheet containing 3 robots. The robots themselves are made up of 5 pieces. To prepare for a game you just pick a random head, feet and 2 body parts and put them together. Each part will tell you how the robot will perform in each phase of the game. Plus each robot will have a special power to help it through the game.

For our first game we created a single robot, so the game was set up and played as though there were 3 players. Our robot seemed pretty hard to beat. His power meant that he got his first city for free in phase 4. He quickly became the leader of the game and we were playing catch up.

Eventually the robot won the game by being able to power one more city then the rest of us. He had built 17 cities and powered 16 of them. Frankly he was one tough robot to beat.

Playing with the robot was very interesting, initially it was hard work as we had to continually refer to the rules to go over what he would do. But after a few rounds it started to sink in. I think this is the worst part of the expansion. It doesn't quite feel intuitive enough. I am not sure if I would want more than one robot in the game, but maybe things will improve the more they are used.

Finally, it blew our meta game of winner packs up.

Would I recommend Power Grid Robots? Yes, if you like power grid and can't get it to the table often enough because of player count. Or want to try with some hard players then its well worth it.

Civilization

Fantasy Flights Sid Meiers Civilization game has been on my wish list since it was released. I played the computer games and can remember many evening playing it and having "Just one more Turn".

The Board game version looked interesting, it was a distilled version of the game that took away a large part of the micro management and was getting favorable reviews. But I held off, I wasn't sure how often I would get to play the game and was unsure if Fantasy Flight had done a good job or just filled a box with as many cardboard bits as possible.

I picked up a copy as a Christmas present along with a copy of the expansion, Amazon had it for a good price and I was struggling to find gift ideas to suggest to family. I opened it up and looked through the masses of tokens, cards and boards. All produced to Fantasy Flights usual high standards. The bits looked lovely and the artwork worked really well.
I started on the rules and faltered, the rule book was well written but its quite big. Usually I start piecing the game together as I am reading the rules but as there were so many bits I hadn't started punching and bagging yet. Christmas celebrations came and went and I still hadn't finished reading the rules.

Then a night was set to play, I had 2 weeks to get my head around the game. I watched a couple of videos from the geek and started to bag the pieces. The rules were read and then reread again. I don't think I have read the rules to a game so many times in such a short period of time.

Last night the game hit the table, there were 4 of us and it was the first play for all of us. I had warned people in advance that it was going to be a long one and as the clock struck 8 the game started. I had spent the previous 20 Min's running through the rules and bits and anything we were unsure of or would need later we would deal with as and when the situation arised.

The game started smoothly enough, civilizations started developing and cities were being built. It really felt like you were playing a condensed version of the computer game. Analysis Paralysis did start to set in once we all got to 3 cities a piece but the pace of the game was still going well.

My Egyptians were doing well with there technology research and culture but I was starting to be harassed by two other players. I managed to research flight then built a stream of airplanes while researching as fast as I could. America was building up its culture and its cities were creating money and trade quite freely. Unfortunately China decided to nuke one of Americas cities which caused it to stall. Rome was doing well, its economy was moving along nicely and was getting to around 12 coins.
It soon became apparent that Egypt was going to win and two players decided to send there troops in to attack. I had luckily won a battle the previous round and take a much needed 3 points of trade to get my last level 4 technology. I just needed to hold my ground and not loose any trade this round.
China went first and made the mistake of dealing with an American battle first, he lost a few units but won the war. There were 2 battles against my cities but his depleted forces were no match to my air power and I won both battles. I then managed to research the final level 5 tech and win the game.

It was just passed midnight and we had been playing for 4 hours. It was a test of the game that we only went through one packet of crisps and 2 rounds of coffee. We were all hyped about the game that hunger and thirst were put to the back of our minds.
The story the game tells is brilliant, America will definitely not forget the nuclear attack from China, while its archers very tank battles would like to be forgotten.

Simply put I love this game, its going to get a 10/10 score and I cannot wait to play it again. Everything about it just works, the components are lovely. The rules are pretty straight forward once you have played a few turns and the varied victory paths make the game a good challenge.

Games of 2011

As the year is coming towards its end I thought I would post about the top 5 games that I have played this year. 2011 has been a cracking year for games, there have been so many good ones but these are my top 5.

1 A Few Acres of Snow - (My best 2 Player Game of the Year)
This has been my favorite game of 2011. I like most of Martin Wallace games and this one could be his best in my mind. Its a 2 player game that uses deck building mechanics and has a play time of about an hour. For me it fills the gap when there are 2 players who haven't got teh time for a game of Twilight Struggle.
I have played it quite a few times now and although its a little unbalanced for new players its definitely one that been asked for repeated plays.

2 Lord of the Rings the LCG - (Best Card Game of the Year)
Production and support on this one is great, which is understandable as its a Fantasy Flight Game. Its a solo or 2 player card game where you are trying to win an encounter by using a deck of cards. The game plays very well and you feel like you are actually controlling the characters from Middle Earth as you are trying to complete your chosen adventure.
Its been heavily expanded with monthly packs of cards. I don't have all of them but the ones I have picked up have added to the game.
I am now attempting to create some custom decks with the cards I have so there is still plenty of game here for me.

3 Quarriors - (Best light and Dice Game of the Year)
Mix up a deck building game with dice and you get Quarriors. Its a light game that plays very quickly. A 2 player game can take around 10 minutes. There is a high degree of luck in the game, but another game can be setup really quickly. It's probably the lightest game I have played this year but its short playing time has meant its been played the most.

4 Mansions of Madness - (Best production of the Year)
As far a box size goes this is the biggest I bought this year and for good reason. I love this game, its a Cthulu Mythos inspired game similar to descent. The boards and minis are brilliant and I have enjoyed every game of it. My biggest gripe with the game is the setup time. There are so many cards and counters this can take a while and you have to make sure you do it perfectly otherwise you will break the game. I haven't played this enough mainly for this reason. I like to set up the game ahead of time and I don't always get the time.
Expansions for this have started to appear and I expect to see a big box with more minis is in the pipeline.

5 Troyes - (Best Heavy Game of the Year)
I like dice games and this one get you rolling them quite a bit. But the luck factor is taken away as you can use other players dice for a cost. This is quite a heavy game and it takes a few plays for it to sink in. But once it does you will be playing a fantastic game.

Biggest disappointment of the year, generally I will play any game and see some good in it. The designer has put the time in to create the game and a publisher has invested in getting the final product to market. That said my biggest disappointment this year has been Barons. I liked Glory to Rome and expected something as good but the game just didn't work for me. It seemed a little too easy and would quickly end once players built churches. The cards and artwork seemed a bit too harsh and it came in once of CCG's trademark plastic boxes.