Happy New Year!

I am a little late to the greetings and salutations party, but I would like to say Happy New Year to all of my readers. I trust you all had a merry time and got to play as many games as you could handle. I also wanted to say a big Thank You to everyone who reads my little blog, to everyone who has been involved in posts and interviews and to all the people who have supported it and encouraged me since I plucked up the courage to create it, you are all brilliant!

Whilst I settle into a new year and a new life, full of fresh plans and the unknown, I thought I would share with you all some images of the games that I received for Christmas and my birthday - because sharing is caring, and I am way too excited about them all to be quiet about it :)

I am now the proud owner of the Ticket To Ride expansion India & Switzerland! A shiny new double-sided board with India on one side and Switzerland on the other. Towards the end of last year I found myself playing Ticket To Ride quite a lot, I even printed off some fan-made expansions that are available online to use, like the Emerald City and the London Tube map. There are many expansions of this game, all offering a variety of twists on the classic game that delight and engage. The route formations are different but there are also little extra bonuses in each game that keep you on your toes.

Due to my fondness of Forbidden Island I was given Forbidden Desert, it's thematic sequel, set in what appears to be the ruins of a steampunk-esque world in the heart of the burning desert. Players work together as adventurers trekking out to the desert to unearth a legendary flying machine that is buried under the ruins of the city. As time moves on the board changes; perils such as sandstorms and lack of water arise. With resource management, utilising your role's special skills and fast-thinking you can find the flying machine before you are buried under the vast heavy sand. We failed miserably on the first try as I died of thirst, but the second time we were victorious!

Ever since I played Waggle Dance at the board games cafe, Thirsty Meeple, I have yearned for it. This euro-style worker placement game has such a fun theme! Worker bees - what could be more efficient than that? Buzzing around making their honey. The goal of the game is to be the first one to make the most honeycombs. There are different options to choose from every round, you choose where to place your bees in order to optimise your results. Bees could be collecting nectar, making bee babies, expanding the hive...oh so many choices!

Ah, the gentle and scenic Tokaido is finally mine! Players take on the roles of travellers who are journeying across the East Sea Road, using their unique qualities to help them progress on their travels. On the road you may choose to linger at the hot springs, you may encounter a friendly stranger, or purchase a special souvenir, or perhaps gaze at the outstanding views. The most successful and well-travelled person wins the game, and the calm nature of the game makes everyone feel really chilled (even if they are losing).

One of my favourite set collecting and trading games is Jaipur, I discovered it on Board Game Arena last year. Players act as merchants trying to out-do each other through trading, selling and buying. The game has elements of risk and luck, as you wait with bated breath to see what the card deck has in store for you at the market. Will it be the sought-after and expensive diamonds or will it be plain old cloth? Using clever tactics you can still achieve greatness, even if you are stuck with cloth!

So those were my fabulous games of the season, and I intend to play them a lot more over the cold months to come. 

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