It's been a week since we played at Richard's and the writing of this blog posting, work really got busy last week so I didn't get much time. So it's Saturday night everyone's gone to bed, I have a glass of red wine and Radiohead's new album is on the stereo (and it's on vinyl), so I'll try and remember what happened.
We started just after 10.30 with a game of Antler Island, this year's game from Fragor Games. You have a typical cute looking Stag piece and the idea is to rut with as many does as possible and win at least one fight (sounds like a typical night out from my youth!). It's a very nice looking game and the playing time is just right for what is a fairly light to medium game, and of course there is plenty of opportunity for joke and banter due to the theme. It was pretty close at the end with Richard, Steve, and Howard all managing to get though 10 does each with, Steve, the winner decided by tie breakers. I only managed 8 does as I was starting too many fights.
Antler Island: As you can tell it's all sex and violence round here
Steve 10 (winner), Richard 10, Howard 10, Garry 8
While the Pizzas were in the oven we had a quick game of Quivive. A simple multiple player abstract that is similar to 'Hey! that's my Fish'. I'm not normally a big fan of abstracts but I really like this game. You move your dobber and then remove a disc that makes part of the board (there are a pair of tongs supplied to get at the awkward ones). If you can't move you're out. Even though it eliminates players as you go along it's not a problem as the game is over nice and quick.
Quivive
Howard 1st, Richard 2nd, Steve 3rd, Garry 4th
After lunch Jo had turned up and we started going through the rules for Hamburgum. It's not, as you might think, a game about running a fast food franchise but about building churches in medieval Hamburg. This is another game that several of us picked up at Essen this year and is notable for using the roundel system to determine the action on your turn. It took a while to get through the rules and when we started I must confess that I didn't have a clue what I needed to do. Once we got about halfway through it started to make a little more sense to me and didn't seem as complicated as I had first thought. Like a lot of games of this type there is more that one way to win. I took an early lead by putting all my ships in the harbour and started to build parts of churches that rewarded this, I didn't think this lead was going to last long and it didn't with Howard taking a decisive victory (well he had played before).
An excellent game, lots going on and lots to do, I think most of us agreed with Jo when he said that it was one of the best of this year's Essen games (even though is has one of the most appalling box illustrations)
Howard 69, Jo 60, Steve 45, Garry 45, Richard 42
Taluva
Steve (won), Richard, Howard, Garry (all lost)
I called it a day after this but Richard, Steve and Howard carried on playing.
We started just after 10.30 with a game of Antler Island, this year's game from Fragor Games. You have a typical cute looking Stag piece and the idea is to rut with as many does as possible and win at least one fight (sounds like a typical night out from my youth!). It's a very nice looking game and the playing time is just right for what is a fairly light to medium game, and of course there is plenty of opportunity for joke and banter due to the theme. It was pretty close at the end with Richard, Steve, and Howard all managing to get though 10 does each with, Steve, the winner decided by tie breakers. I only managed 8 does as I was starting too many fights.
Antler Island: As you can tell it's all sex and violence round hereSteve 10 (winner), Richard 10, Howard 10, Garry 8
While the Pizzas were in the oven we had a quick game of Quivive. A simple multiple player abstract that is similar to 'Hey! that's my Fish'. I'm not normally a big fan of abstracts but I really like this game. You move your dobber and then remove a disc that makes part of the board (there are a pair of tongs supplied to get at the awkward ones). If you can't move you're out. Even though it eliminates players as you go along it's not a problem as the game is over nice and quick.
QuiviveHoward 1st, Richard 2nd, Steve 3rd, Garry 4th
After lunch Jo had turned up and we started going through the rules for Hamburgum. It's not, as you might think, a game about running a fast food franchise but about building churches in medieval Hamburg. This is another game that several of us picked up at Essen this year and is notable for using the roundel system to determine the action on your turn. It took a while to get through the rules and when we started I must confess that I didn't have a clue what I needed to do. Once we got about halfway through it started to make a little more sense to me and didn't seem as complicated as I had first thought. Like a lot of games of this type there is more that one way to win. I took an early lead by putting all my ships in the harbour and started to build parts of churches that rewarded this, I didn't think this lead was going to last long and it didn't with Howard taking a decisive victory (well he had played before).
Hamburgum
An excellent game, lots going on and lots to do, I think most of us agreed with Jo when he said that it was one of the best of this year's Essen games (even though is has one of the most appalling box illustrations)
Howard 69, Jo 60, Steve 45, Garry 45, Richard 42
Jo left and we were down to 4 for a game of Taluva. This is a tile laying and dobber placement game that came out last year. You have 3 different types of dobber and you win by managing to get all of 2 types on the board. The tiles are nice and thick, like the ones from Java, and the game looks very pretty whilst it's being played. But to be honest it didn't do much for me I though it was a little dry, maybe I just need to play it a few more times.
TaluvaSteve (won), Richard, Howard, Garry (all lost)
I called it a day after this but Richard, Steve and Howard carried on playing.
1 comment:
I really enjoyed Hamburgum, even if for some inexplicable reason we chose Hamburg rather than London! I'm itching to play it again using the proper side of the board...
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