3rd Nov - Agricola + Farmers of the Moor

Another new Essen game, this time the Agricola expansion Farmers of the Moor. We played the family version as there was enough new stuff going on without having to deal with the new minor improvements and occupations. The expansion really improves the family game and we all thought that it made it a much better game as a result. We'll have to see if the full version with the cards just makes it too mind boggling.

I used my normal strategy of being really rubbish which seems to have worked really well.

Steve 41, Matt (10 horses!) 38, Richard (only 2 family members!) 37, Garry 26

28th Oct - Last Train to Wensleydale

The first Tuesday after Essen and there's piles of new games everywhere. We started with Last Train to Wensleydale the new Martin Wallace game. It took a while to sort out the rules and at first it seemed a bit fiddly but once you start playing it all clicks into place. We did manage to miss out one important rule and of course as none of us had played it before we had no idea what we were doing, so huge mistakes were made (by me mostly).

Now that we've got it all sorted I'll look forward to another game.

Steve 34, Richard 30, Garry 18

Back from Essen

I got back from Essen last night with a suitcase bulging with new games. There were so many new 'must haves' this year that I still have a large list of games I want. Hopefully most of the others will have been bought by my friends, so between us I think we'll have most of the big games covered.

In the photo:
Power Grid Factory Manager
Power Grid - Spain/Brazil in expansion box
Agricola Expansion
Vasco da Gama
Boomtown (€2.95! a bargain)
Carson City
100 wooden trains (to pimp my Age of Steam)
Chicago Express expansion
Power $truggle
Seeräuber (another bargain at €5)
Last Train to Wensleydale
Ted Alspach's AoS/Steam maps
Agricola resource meeples
Jaipur
Poison
Keltis the card game
Robotory

I also preordered Steam Barons which should be delivered soon

That should keep me going for a while.

13th Oct - Hamburgum

Not played Hamburgum for a while, we should play it more as it's a really great game, I think it's the best of the 'rondel' games.

Richard 75, Steve 74, Matt 60, Garry 56

Oct 6th - Agricola

Just 3 of us tonight so we played the last in our rotating hands of Agricola. This is where we play with set hands and swap them around between each game (if you see what I mean). Despite having the 'good hand' I still did rubbish and only just managed not to loose by one point.

Richard 44, Garry 37, Steve 36

Sep 29 - Arkadia and Witch's Brew

Arkadia has been around for a few years but I'd not had a chance to play it. It was a good game and lasted just long enough for what it was.

Matt 74, Garry 68, Steve 58, Richard 52

As we had some time left we played Witch's Brew. Steve seemed to always have different cards to us, which meant he either knew exactly what he was doing or didn't have a clue. The scores speak for themselves.

Steve 32, Garry 32, Richard 23, Matt 21
Steve won on a tiebreak

Sep 22 - Tinners' Trail

I wasn't there this week but Richard passed on the scores etc.

Very close game of Tinners' Trail, Steve got the early score - but then ran out of blocks to mine in the final rounds - whilst I was getting mine out with out having to pay anything (I actually thought he had won up to the point we added the scores up!)

Richard 120, Steve 119, Matt 96

Then Hey That's My Fish (Deluxe Version!!) - well actually just the same as the normal one with better penguins. Matt & I some got tangled with each other - leaving the rest of the hexes for Steve!

Steve 43, Matt 26, Richard 23