I finally finished updating my game plays of 2015 the other day, it took a rather long time as I had to log plays from December 2014 to June 2015. Yes, I have been very bad at logging plays...but I promise I will keep on top of it this year. After logging them all meticulously onto Boardgamegeek I checked the final count and I was thrilled to learn that I played 1,992 games in 2015! That is not too shabby for a relatively new gamer. Those games were an eclectic mixture of brief filler games, medium card, dice and strategy games, more robust boardgames and larger meatier games.  

It is funny to think that I was totally oblivious to this expansive and wondrous world of gaming just over a year ago, and it is interesting to see how I dove head first into the throngs of tabletop games. I was seduced by the shiny dice, the beautifully crafted boards and components but, most especially, by the unity and interaction that comes when playing a game with another person. 

To immerse oneself in a game, for me, is much like getting lost in a good book or trying out a new move in your skates - the same kind of thrill is released. You are using brain power; strategy, dexterity or even just counting your lucky stars. It is strange to say it, but being introduced to tabletop games has affected my life in a positive way. It has made me gain more confidence, given me the inspiration and the platform to start writing again, it has taken me on some great road trips around the country in pursuit of new games and experiences and has led me to make new and welcoming friends. 

So, that was my mushy little ramble! I look forward to writing a lot more, and gaming a lot more. I have lots of gaming adventures planned this year already, including more trips to new board games cafes. Quite a few fresh ones need to be checked out, and their cakes need sampling too.

Thanks for reading

Marisa xx     

Ticket to Ride: Halloween Add-on

Despite hating the cold weather, I do love this time of year.  My body shuts down and shivers non stop but the leaves are golden and there is an air of nostalgia when I see the Halloween decorations in shops and in houses.  

This year Days of Wonder are celebrating the season by releasing a limited edition Halloween add-on for Ticket to Ride.  The set comprises of 45 sculpted pumpkin trains and three creepy stations. They look so great, you will want to use them all year round.  Also, they can be used with any of the Ticket to Ride boardgames! 

I totally want the Halloween add-on, even though I do not yet own a copy of Ticket to Ride myself.  So maybe I will hint heavily here, and see what Santa brings me this Christmas.

Thanks for reading!

Marisa xx

Breakneck Blitz

I have been absent from blogging for a bit as life has been rather crazy this month. Aside from the usual work, I have been involved in the artwork design and play testing of Breakneck Blitz; a new game by British Briefs that was Kickstarted in August. I created guest artwork for a few characters and many arena maps, using my favourite techniques of lino-cutting and watercolours for the characters, and pen and digital colour for the arenas. As I type this, Breakneck Blitz arenas are scattered all over my place, I have been playing it a lot to make sure the obstacle placement works. Masquerading as a freelance artist can be rewarding, especially when you get given an exciting brief to work from such as this. This was my first venture into game illustration and I hope I will do more in the future, as combining my love for drawing and gaming was so much fun.

Two of the many arenas available, Ginger Dread design (Left) and Retro Rumble (Right)

Breakneck Blitz is played on a square grid, players draw out their movement line for the character they select and try to outlast their opponent in the arena. The game is rather like a futuristic gladiator arena combined with Rollerball. Players act as Blitzers, which are cybernetically-enhanced skaters, and they face each other off in an endurance skate to the death, keeping skating whilst throwing a few tricks out there to impede their opponents. It was inspired by old school Roller Derby. In the 1930s it was more of an endurance skate, but it was still just as vicious, if not more!

A selection of some of the Blitzers. My little dude, Axolotl Trouble, is hiding in there.

Each Blitzer has three special abilities that can be used only once. These abilities vary and could be a boost in speed, turning 90 degrees, causing an explosion behind your opponent, escaping death, jumping etc. The list goes on! The special moves are vital as movement on the grid is not straighforward when your opponent is trying to trap you.

To start, players agree on a starting point and draw a line up to one grid in length, at opposite ends of the arena. The first player then moves into any of the eight neighbouring points on the grid, then their opponent makes a move. Players may move up, down, left or right from their starting move and then may choose to move to any point within their trajectory. You build up speed by gradually moving two or more points at a time, and slow down at the same rate. If you hit any walls, obstacles, each other's lines or your own lines then you are out of the game. Of course, some of these end game scenarios can be prevented if your Blitzer has certain special abilities that allow you to rapidly increase speed, brake abruptly or cheat death!

After playing obscene amounts of my arena maps, I ended up developing a few strategies to outlast my opponents. Holding back on using your special abilities unless it is an emergency (I'm heading straight towards a wall - argh!) and not heading directly towards my opponent but allowing them to chase me were good moves. That is probably something I would do in real life too, skate away from the danger! This game requires a fair amount of strategy and second guessing your opponent's moves, as well as picking the character with skills you know you will utilise effectively. The All-star move, which is a wild card, is a nice all-rounder.

The original game artwork is slick and it looks pretty cool. It has a 1980s/early 1990s nostalgic feel to it, especially with Blitzers like 'Basket Casey' paying homage to The Breakfast Club. Several different artists (including meeee, shameless gloating wheeeee!) were involved in character and arena creation, but the game was designed and implemented by the man behind British Briefs, Lewis Terry. It is an enjoyable and intense game that can be played quickly or be drawn out into a longer and more epic fight if you get a number of people involved, as it can take up to eight players. You can play in teams or as individuals, and things can get very heated quickly! Breakneck Blitz was available as a print and play on Kickstarter, it has just been sent out to all the backers but it will be available to purchase online in the near future. In the meantime, come to my place - I have printed out and laminated nearly every arena available!

Thanks for reading

Marisa xx

                     

Dead Man's Draw

The last few days have been a frenzy of driving around, preparing for the coming month and playing as many new games as possible in order to complete the 200 different games in one month challenge. The list is getting rather extensive now, even with the occasional interruption of a few cheeky games of Imperial Settlers and the like, I believe we have played 174 different games and there are still some days left to complete it - it shall be done! Hitting Draughts, Thirsty Meeples and Marquee Models in the past few weeks was fantastic, as I have discovered so many new games through this.

In order to play 200 different games in one month, whilst maintaining work and a home has been a challenge in itself. It has been made easier, though, by great little filler games, Such as Dead Man's Draw. This piratical push your luck card game is published by Mayday Games and was originally released as a digital game by Stardock. It is all about plundering bountiful loot, without going bust and losing it all; a game about taking risks and reaping rewards. 

Players take it in turn to draw cards from the deck. You keep flipping over cards to reveal the loot, or peril, and lay them in a row by the deck if they are safe. Some cards make you immediately go bust, causing you to lose all the cards you just drew. On your turn, you can bank as many cards as you wish, providing you have not gone bust. You stop flipping cards and declare you have stopped, taking the cards you drew and keeping them face-up in front of you. How do you go bust, you ask? If you pick up a card that you have already revealed in that suit then you go bust! If you draw the Kraken card then that forces you to draw two more cards - which puts the rest of the cards you just drew at stake! Luckily, if you draw the Anchor card then that saves you a little, as it allows you to keep all the cards you just drew before it, even if you go bust afterwards. 

Much like a pirate, you are making a gamble with your treasure if you get too greedy, and you are doing dastardly deeds to try and come out on top. The Cannon card allows you to destroy an opponent's banked card, and the Sword lets you steal a card from your opponent. You may additionally use cards to combine abilities in order to source more or destroy more cards. The game ends when the deck is depleted, and whoever has the most points after totalling up their card values wins the game.

There is a simpler version and a more advanced one, but as we were on a time limit with stacks of games to play in the cafe we stuck to this version.   

Dead Man's Draw is a fun, fast-paced card game with beautiful illustrations and fine quality cards. It is simple to play, yet still involves some careful strategic thinking. In my endeavour to play as many games as I can, I have come across numerous pirate-themed card games and board games, and this game (along with Cartagena) is one of the best I have encountered so far.

Thanks for reading

Marisa xx

Eight Minute Empire: Legends

One of the first games I played at Thirsty Meeples was Eight Minute Empire: Legends, by Red Raven Games. This is a sequel to the original Eight Minute Empire, and it is a standalone game rather than an expansion. The game focuses on building an empire by gaining territory and using strategic moves, in a fast-paced fashion. Eight Minute Empire is one of my most played games at home. I picked it up at MCM London in May and I have played it an obscene amount of times. It is wonderful how the game is so compact, with so much to offer in eight minutes - possibly longer if you deliberate over your turns like I do at times. All of the dilemmas approach; which card to choose from the row, which block to move? Do I want to start amassing a small army abroad or produce more armies in the starting base? Oh, the choices!

Eight Minute Empire: Legends, like the original, is played on a modular board that gives you options in the set-up of your map. Once the board is assembled you may select which colour you wish to be. Each player gets a number of blocks and three cities, they place four of the blocks in a central area on the board. The blocks represent armies, that you will be sending out to seize land and populate the areas with. In the two player version I played, another colour is selected to act as a third player on the map and ten more blocks are placed in random places. At the start of the game, players bid to see who goes first using the coins they are allocated, the number of coins will depend on how many players are in the game. 

The deck of cards is shuffled and six cards are laid face up in a row, at the top of the board. The deck lies nearby, ready for the players to draw again and replenish the cards taken. Players take turns to select a card and carry out the action on it, it could be to add more armies, build a city, move armies, or destroy an opposing army block. When cards are taken, the rest are shifted to the left, and a new card is revealed from the deck and placed down. The first card in the row is free, then the rest can be bought using coins from your hand. Once shifted, the older cards become slightly more affordable and the new one is the most expensive. The Legends cards have special abilities that allow you to gain extra Victory Points. To win the game your armies must control the most territory, and your collected cards can help give you bonus points. 

If you get a card that allows you to build a city then you get to place the insanely cute castle on an area of the board where you have one of your armies, and then you can spawn armies from there in future turns. This is ideal if you have a rogue block across the sea, then you can dominate more territory.          

The game ends when each player has a certain amount of cards, again, this depends on how many people are playing as Legends is a 2 - 4 player game. At the end you score points based on how many regions and islands you control, and add up any extra points that your cards have added. This is a highly enjoyable game, it is brief but it gets very heated and after one game I always want another straight after. The board and the cards are beautifully illustrated by the designer, Ryan Laukat, with legendary creatures and mythical lands. The rich artwork, quick set-up and smooth game mechanics make this one a perfect choice, building an empire in 8 minutes or so never looked so good!

Thanks for reading.

Marisa xx

Thirsty Meeples

I have just returned from a relaxing and indulgent mini break to Oxford, where I spent three days at Thirsty Meeples, the board games cafe. 

The cafe is cosy, with a vibrant and lively atmosphere. The walls are piled high with games to play, such a vast amount that some shelves are even stacked to the ceiling. The front of the cafe houses games that are available to purchase, a generous selection that tempted me greatly. The counter is adorned with mini games, card decks and colourful cakes behind the glass (keeping them safe from the likes of me). The interior of the cafe is like a gamer's dream come true; a haven for table top lovers and anyone who wishes to get engrossed in a good game whilst eating and drinking yummy things. The staff were friendly and keen to explain the rules of new games, as well as recommend some of their favourites to customers or ones they thought would appeal.   

All three days we were there, the cafe was bustling with customers, booking tables in advance was a great idea. It felt rather good to sit back, drinking delicious milk shakes whilst playing absorbing and exciting games. I like to think of myself as a milkshake connoisseur, so I was very pleased to sample the Terry's Chocolate Orange milkshake. it was just like drinking a dessert - fantastic!  

But back to the most important part of this post: The games. We played twenty-five games, lots of different genres including brief dice games, card games, set collecting, dungeon crawling, worker placement, strategy and adventure games. We arrived at the cafe armed with a handwritten list of all the games we wanted to try out, thinking we would get to play maybe half of them. We actually got to play all but three on the list and instead played four that were not even on the list. Some of the highlights for me were Waggle Dance, Five Tribes, Cartagena 2, Mai-Star and Eight Minute Empire Legends.   

Board game cafes are a brilliant idea, I have only visited two so far but I hunger for more. There are others opening in the near future, Dice is opening in Portsmouth after a successful Kickstarter, Board are in Exeter and Dice and Donuts are opening in Lancashire with a Kickstarter still in progress, and there are more board game cafes in the works that are yet to be finalised. I feel a few more road trips are in order.

Thanks for reading, go and play a game now! I shall write more about the games I played in the next post.   

Marisa xx

    

Get Lucky

A grey and wet Sunday in August means no outdoor skating or frolicking on the beach, it means indoor time, which means game time (although, any kind of weather forecast means game time at the moment!). Today's morning game was Get Lucky by Cheapass Games. Get Lucky is the card game adaptation of Kill Doctor Lucky, the classic board game and first game by Cheapass Games. You can still fully appreciate the card game even if you are yet to play the classic, and I think it is a nice way to introduce it to people. 

Doctor Lucky certainly lives up to his name, he has managed to sail through life angering everyone he has met along the way and has lived to a ripe old age...so far. Now it is time for his enemies to seek revenge, their lust for his blood has built up and one of them will be victorious tonight and succeed in killing him. We hope. 

Like most evenings that end in vengeful bloodshed, it begins with a dinner party. Doctor Lucky is hosting an elegant soiree at his mansion and has decided to invite every person who wants him dead. Every dinner guest has a reason for killing him, which is printed on the beautifully illustrated guest cards. The flavour text is witty and fun, all ending with the same reasoning: that Doctor Lucky must die!

The set up of the game is simple, I have been playing the two player version which involves an imaginary player called Howard, I shall elaborate on Howard later. Each player starts with three characters and a hand of 8 cards from the deck. Three additional characters are placed in the Drawing Room, laid out on the table in a row, with the main deck of upgrade cards face-down nearby and the other guest cards at the other end. Doctor Lucky is represented by the pawn, he moves from character to character on every turn, in numeric order. When he is on your character this signals it is your turn to play. I like to imagine him shmoozing around the room, drifting around party guests and leaving once he has delightfully insulted them enough.

On your turn you may equip a card to a character, draw a card from the deck, swap the character whose turn it is for one in the Drawing Room or make an attempt on Doctor Lucky's life. Luckily there is no hand limit in this game, which is great because if you play like me you may end up with quite a few cards! The upgrade cards in the deck are Weapon, Motive and Opportunity cards. There are also some dubious looking Spite cards in the deck that can be used to weaken your opponent's characters, but they can be used to weaken yours too so be prepared! You can equip the upgrade cards to your characters to make them more powerful and give them points that can be used to kill Doctor Lucky. The points to kill him are counteracted by luck points, these can also be found on the cards and will be used by your opponents when you make attempts to murder him. You do not want to let anyone beat you to the killing, your character wants to be the one to kill him because that is how you win the game!

There are specific upgrade cards for your character in the deck that share their name and number, if you equip these to your character then you get extra points, this helps build up your character's strength for the slaying and helps out if you are stung by a Spite card. Spite cards are used to stop a murder, they are worth one luck point and are attached to the murderer permanently, giving them -1 points. This is when the swapping of your characters with characters in the Drawing Room can come in handy, you may want to do that if one of your characters is bombarded with Spite cards. The swap also comes in handy if you have a nice stash of upgrade cards in your hand for someone in the Drawing Room and your current people are milling about with no weapon, motive or opportunity to kill. 

So, now I shall talk about Howard; the imaginary player. He comes into the game to help you out if your opponent makes an attempt on Doctor Lucky's life and you are running low on luck points to halt the murder. To counteract the murder attempt you produce luck points from your hand that correspond to the points the murderer has. If you use an upgrade card with their number on it then they immediately cease the attempt. You can also use any card that has luck points, depicted by lucky clovers on them. But when you do not have the relevant cards you must call upon Howard. He takes the reins and plays from the top of the deck, he may play up to the amount of luck that was passed to him. Any spite cards revealed are attached to the murderer whilst others are tossed onto the discard pile. Howard has been my saviour quite a few times in the past, it was rather like we were in sync, he knew the gravity of the situation and rushed to my aid like a gallant knight on his trustworthy steed, until this morning. He screwed me over big time, and our relationship will be forever strained; thanks for nothing, Howard!

Get Lucky creates a great atmosphere and is a wonderfully balanced game. The simplicity of the game play makes it appealing, and it still feels exciting even after multiple games. I find this is the case with a lot of games designed by James Ernest, such as Brawl and Button Men, which are two games that helped start my gaming obsession last year. I recommend giving Get Lucky a play soon, I think I will give it another play tonight to let Howard try to redeem himself.

Thanks for reading! I am off to Oxford tomorrow so wish me table top fun :)

Marisa xx