Board Games night at Marquee Models

This week I went to Marquee Models for my first board gaming night in the store, and had such a good evening! There were lots of new and friendly faces there and stacks of new games to try out, as well as a few old favourites perched on the table. I ended up playing Sentinels of the Multiverse, Skull, The Resistance, Werewolf, Breakneck Blitz and King of Tokyo. It was an interesting mix of playing co-operative games, bluffing, sabotaging, negotiating and a dice rolling game to end with. There was so much going on I could turn this post into an essay, but instead I will just write about a selection of the games I played.

I have played Skull before many times, and it is one of my favourite bluffing games. The coasters are beautifully designed and the game is really simple, yet effective. In your hand you have three flower cards and one skull. Each player lays a card face-down on the table, then each player in turn adds one more card face-down. On your turn you have the option of adding a card to your pile or you can say that you bet you can turn over a certain number of cards without revealing a skull. Other players may then challenge you, saying that they can turn over even more cards without revealing a skull, or they can Pass. This is when things get exciting and tense, as you must turn over your own cards first then choose someone else you think may have just laid flowers. The challenger could be serious or they could be baiting you, leading you into a trap because they know you have laid a skull and were bluffing.

This game is really fun and perhaps requires a straight face when challenging. Many a time I have laid a skull in my pile and have tried to bluff it, but ended up having to reveal my own skull because no one challenged me!

Werewolf was a crazy game. We had fourteen people huddled around a long table with suspicions growing already from past betrayals in bluffing and deduction games. The moderator handed out the cards and I was one of the werewolves! I knew this would end badly for me, all the villagers would sniff me out quickly as I am terrible at acting innocent when I know I am the blood thirsty killer. Although, I am also terrible at acting innocent when I truly am innocent, I suppose I just have a guilty-looking face. 

During the game, everyone shuts their eyes and the moderator tells the werewolves to open their eyes and choose someone to eat. Then when everyone opens their eyes they are told who is dead and they discuss who they suspect is the wolf, then vote on whether to run after them or not with pitch forks to kill them off! This game makes me imagine how a small medieval farming town would act if it were plagued by a werewolf, and how paranoia and fear would fester making everyone suspicious of their neighbour. A few innocent villagers were killed in our game before the werewolves were revealed. I was the first werewolf to be discovered; typical. I need to work on my poker face.

King of Tokyo is a fighting dice game, with a Japanese movie/TV monster theme. Think of Godzilla or Gamera smashing up a city, then turning on each other! You play as giant mutant monsters or robots who are destroying Tokyo and beating up each other to become King of Tokyo. On your turn, you roll six dice up to three times and can choose to either hit your opponent/s, take health points, take victory points or take energy cubes that you can save up and buy energy cards with them. I do not know how I pulled it off but I managed to win the second round with just one health point left! Naturally, I had to take photographic evidence of this.

So, Board gaming nights are a great thing and a good way to try out new games. It is also nice to meet people with a passion for games. People bring their own games to introduce to others, to share the experience and to pass on the joy. I shall be returning to Marquee Models for more mayhem next month.

Thanks for reading!

Marisa xx