Pirates CCG - 20 June

The first outing of the Pirates collectable card game which both James and Adrian had bought in the last few weeks - part of a series starting with Pirates of the Spanish Main, and most recently (to tie in the latest Pirates film) Pirates at Ocean's Edge. Wonderfully illustrated pirate ships are pressed out of the cards, and constructed in 3D to make really nice-looking models. Players control a group of ships to explore islands, discover treasure and fight each other.



The rules are quite simple but have some neat mechanisms, with all the info you need about your ship on its card. Notable exceptions in the rules are Wind (ships move the same distance in any direction), moving or shooting each turn (and not both) and initiative (which we introduced as rolls at the beginning of each turn). So further rules tweaking is needed or we might try using versions of Wooden Ships & Iron Men or similar rulesets which have been adapted for use with these ships.



The game started with mad rushes towards islands and we all starting stocking up with gold to return to our home bases. When the gold was more scarce, battles commenced - and masts were rapidly blasted off many of the ships - see devastation above. The number of treasures collected were roughly the same but their values meant Adrian was well ahead, with James second and Kieron cursing his paltry collection of 1 and 2 gold pieces.


A fun, good-looking game... but one not to be taken too seriously.

DBM 5 June Alexander v Asoka

Another practice game for Anderida, this time allowing Andy and James' Macedonians to have a go against a Classical Indian army from 270BC (the Mauryas under Asoka). The Macedonians had thinned out their cavalry command a bit, and had massed their light troops on their right and left flanks respectively. Phalanx and Artillery held the centre. The Indians had a soft centre of cavalry, chariots, light horse and expendables (which was pretty much impervious to pike). Each flank had superior bow, war wagons, elephants and some light troops.

The battle opened with the expendables destructing on the phalanx and James' knights setting off abortively towards the centre, only to retreat from bow fire and the elephant threat. That flank put the Macedonian horse under heavy pressure - they retreated throughout the game and were one element from breaking at 11pm when we stopped. In the centre, the phalanx advanced but found it hard to get to grips with the Indian cavalry. On our right, the Macedonian auxilia cheerfully presented themselves to be shot at by our bow for most of the game, never daring to attack. Throughout all this Alexander and his companion cavalry sat at the back. Perhaps things would have been different had he been true to his historical nature.
;-)

So, a 5 - 5 draw when we stopped. Another fun game.

UK Games Expo - 2 June 2007

Our first visit to the UK Games Expo in Birmingham. Kieron and I drove up and met Adrian, Fred & Felix. First set of advantages over Salute - entry half the price (£3.95), free parking and less than an hour's drive.

The Expo was held in the Clarendon Suites, a typically charmless sixties carbuncle, but with several large conference rooms and places to get a drink and bite to eat. With our goody bag collected, we started exploring. Perhaps half the size of Salute and with the balance more towards board games than miniatures, but the latter still well represented despite the lack of Salute stalwarts like Essex. A small number of computer games stands as well, giving Kieron and I the opportunity to try ten-pin bowling on the Nintendo Wii (which was surprisingly fun).

As well as game shops, there were also several stands of entrepreneurs with their board game inventions, and it was interesting to see those and chat with them. There was a big stall of second-hand games which provided most of my and Kieron's purchases, but I also succumbed to a Pirates of the Spanish Main pack and some female gunslingers for my Wild West scenarios.

There was a really nice atmosphere at the show. No pushing and shoving around the stalls, much easier to see what you wanted and talk to sellers. The now seemingly obligatory Star Wars re-enactors were wandering about which the boys enjoyed. Weather was wonderful too which helped, as we had a lovely drive up and had a lunch break outside on the grass.

There were lots of (mainly board) games to join in with (plus competitions in a couple of the halls) but none of the big set-piece demonstrations that you find at Salute (the only downside). On balance, I enjoyed the Expo more than Salute this year (the miniatures at Salute seem to have been mostly Sci-Fi and Fantasy in the last couple of years), and so I hope we can have a bigger Rivals trip to Birmingham next June.

Bumper Short Games Night, 30 May 2007 - Niagara, Gladiators and Ra

A fun evening of short games with guest 8 year-old gamer Fred. Two games of Niagara opened up the evening. The first saw James steal victory quickly by the deadly '4 amethyst grab' technique. Wise to this, game 2 was much more tactical. Some shrewd moves by Fred won the admiration of the adults; Kieron and James, both close to victory were swept over the waterfall by the raging torrent; Adrian pipped Fred to the finish and won with a double '4 diamonds' plus '7 any gems'.

We then tried out James' new Gladiator figure game. Quite a nice little system, and perfectly suited to Fred - who systematically murdered all our fighters to be last man standing (having personally wiped out his opponents). Happily for James, his gladiator was spared by the Emperor. Kieron and mine were given the 'pollice inverso' (turned thumb) for being feeble. Finally, we introduced Fred to Ra. A super game as ever, with the usual mix of Derrening, risk taking and entertainment. Kieron stormed to victory with 47 points (having scored big on green tiles each turn); Fred was second with 31, then Adrian with 30 and James last with 21. All in all a great evening, with all the players winning a game - and thus racking up a huge number of points towards the end of year scores.
:-)

Formula De, 23 May 2007

A welcome return to this great old game (almost certainly last played in 2003!). We went for the Spa course and got a 2 lap game in. Weather flipping from sun to rain and back again confounded choice of tyres. Andy's armoured car was most unfortunate to be exploded by Kieron only 5 spaces from the pits. Fate though saw Kieron spinning out on the second lap. Adrian's early lead was eroded by both James and Deej who fought each other to the finish. Good fun.

DBM Aztecs v Anglo-Saxons 16 May

The second practice outing for the Aztecs, this time against another 'extreme' army (and winner of the 'Daftest Army' award at Anderida a couple of years back) - Kieron's Middle Angl0-Saxons. This was perhaps the first DBM game we've played in which no cavalry whatsoever appeared on the battlefield.



For the Aztecs, we fielded a smaller army than for the first outing, keeping the allied Bow command but maximising the Blades and adding the Fast Warband option. We deployed with the Warbands on our left flank, the Blades holding the centre and the allied Bow on the right. Kieron and James' deployment saw TF guarding the flanks, and, err, a big line of Spear across the table.

Both armies advanced. Our Bow shot a fair few enemy dead. The main infantry clash in the centre saw inconclusive pushing between Spear and Blade, but the Warband proved deadly - the Wb(S) (the elite 'Cuachic' warriors, see photo) cutting through the Saxon lines and breaking a command. At the time we opted to stop the Saxons were half an element off a second command breaking (and hence the army) and 3 elements of any command off breaking the army.

So a reasonably conclusive victory for Montezuma. But we won't get used to it - the Saxons are probably the best possible set of match-ups for the Aztecs. And no one would possibly be mad enough to take such an army to Anderida...
:-)

El Grande - 2 May

A four hander with Stu, Kieron, David and James. El Grande is impossible to fault - a simple but clever game with lots of opportunity for Rivalry - and we had a great fun evening full of banter.

David took an early lead with James trailing at the back, despite an effective Crown move on the first turn whereby everyone else had to send their Caballeros back to the starting pool.

The upset was around Portugal which became the Coventry of the game because opponents could be sent there without any risk of their benefiting, as it never got a score counter at any point in the game.

Stu played an enhanced score counter on the Castille and kept it well stocked with Caballeros, managing to win the maximum 8 points on every scoring turn, contributing to his winning score. James had a late surge, cashing in on a "score the five points regions" card, and overtook David, who just kept ahead of Kieron who was spread too thinly across the board. But a very closely fought game.

Final scores: Stu 114, James 107, David 105, Kieron 101