Hit Z Road - 5 February 2020

One of James' new games... and it's a corker.  The artwork is next level - the conceit of the game is that it has been devised by a child who survived the zombie apocalypse and they've had to adapt what is to hand to make the game.  So the box is amended and tatty, the resource counters are bottle tops, player markers are things found in wallets (e.g. credit card, loyalty card) and the cards are mostl playing cards.  And best of all, some of the cards and counters are adapted from real world games, most of which we own, like 7 Wonders, Splendour, Ticket To Ride and Dixit.

And fortunately, the gameplay lives up to the production values (so finally, a zombie game that even Kieron might play...?).  There's a bidding mechanism so players interact to choose the best routes as they travel from coast to coast with the zombies in hot pursuit.  And there's dice rolling as your survivors battle it out with the groups of zombies who they regularly encounter.  Which brings the double joy of managing to survive for another round by some lucky rolls, and sniggering whilst your competitors group of survivors are unexpectedly decimated.

There was a bit of an issue with the resource runaway leader - if you've got most resources, it's easier to win the bidding, and then take the route that gives you the most resources back.  It would be interesting to see how much that is the case next play, now we have a feel for the distribution of resources and zombies throughout the game rounds.  But we also found a good variant on BGG where the second of the two cards in each route is hidden - which rather fits the theme well: you might be able to see down the road but not round the corner.

James was first to run light on resources and despite a fiery death for a horde from his molotov cocktail, his last survivor succumbed in the sixth (of eight) rounds.  Andy and David were both taken out in the seventh round - giving the Stuart the automatic win without needing to count the victory points we had attained.  Stuart did a lot of fleeing rather than fighting so actually had a lower number of victory points.  But he survived, which is more to the point.  Looking forward to playing this again.

Quacks of Quedlinburg, 22 January 2020

Naff name, great game.  That was the verdict from Wednesday's try out of Quacks of Quedlinburg at Adrian's.  A beautifully produced game involving potion creation via ingredients drawn, a la Ra, from one's own personal ingredient bag.  Pull too many of the wrong ingredients (which alas are compulsorily included at the outset) and your potion blows up.  Too few of the right ingredients and your potion isn't worth very much in terms of victory points or cash to buy new ingredients.  All in all it's a game of managing jeopardy and opting for menu strategies that allow different approaches to brewing up.  Or blowing up.  At any rate it was good fun and James stole the show with his effective use of Yellow stuff.  Final results James 81, Adrian 60, Stu 58, Andy 53.  Definitely worth another go.

Notre Dame & Colt Express - 8 January 2020

Another game in rat-infested Paris with worker placement and card game Notre Dame.  Andy's 4 block strategy gave him lots of double coins or rat removal but didn't generate the prestige points needed.  Stuart stayed out of Notre Dame itself, collecting plenty of prestige points from the character cards.  David, James and Andy visited Notre Dame each turn but James' extra cash enabled the larger donations, ultimately pipping Stu to first place by just two points.

We then played Colt Express with the Horses & Stagecoach expansion that David got James for Christmas.

As well as the obvious, this also adds hostages who can be ransomed (but cramp your style during the game), whisky flasks that give bonuses with the cards, and an extra strongbox defended by a shotgun-wielding character.  That sounds a lot but it all complements the original game really well, giving more variety and opportunities to shoot James.  Stuart and David got the strongboxes but a later punch-up saw Stuart take them both and climb to the roof in the last move to avoid sharing any booty.

New Year Games Bonanza - 2 January 2020

A lot of players and a lot of games for the first session of 2020.  Lucas, Kieron and James started with Byzanz, a neat little card game with bidding and collections.  In a promising sign of a good game, the final scores were really close: 32, 34 and 36 points.

Andy was then subbed in for a game of St Petersburg.  Kieron went for buildings only leaving James and Andy to collect large numbers of nobles, with James winning with a set of nine.

After Adrian and Stuart arrived, we played James' new game Flash Point: Fire Rescue.  This cooperative fire-fighting game had a great theme, looked the part and modelled the spread of fire really well.  Perhaps we were lucky with some of the rolls but we rescued the target number of victims with ease, so we didn't really experience the peril.  Next time,we'll play in heroic mode with more initial explosions and hazards to make it more of a challenge.

Next up was Ra.  The usual shenanigans.  Another win for Andy.

Lastly, Lucas, Kieron, Andy and James played 7 Wonders - yet another win for Andy.

Red 7, The Mind, Space Alert - 17 December 2019

A bonus games session for James, Kieron & Lucas following some Christmas carolling in the street.  A few fund hands of Red 7 which Kieron called a halt to as only Lucas and I were winning.  Then a couple of games of The Mind where (as previously) we couldn't get past Level 6.  Highlight was an extended Mexican standoff between Lucas and Kieron, where the former had card 99 and the latter had 100.  Lucas successfully played his 99 after Kieron started snoring, and we won that round.

Then we played the first training mission of Space Alert which we've played once before but I clearly failed to blog about it.  This is a collaborative space exploration game with Robo Rally-like cards to program the movement and actions of your character in a frantic real-time 10 minute mission, as your spacecraft scans the area whilst being attacked by space anomalies and aliens, as announced by the accompanying app.  After laying out the cards, the round is resolved at a slightly slower pace to see what actually happened.  The spaceship took a fair bit of damage but we survived our first mission.

I really like this game but both times now we've played with three players and an android (to make up the numbers) and it's really hard to coordinate that fourth character effectively, so I'm keen to play with four or five of us in future.

Peloponnes & Ra - 11 December 2019

A classic double bill for the (almost) surprise appearance of Kieron.  Peloponnes was the usual fun with groans as the disasters wiped out our progress.  Andy pipped James to the bronze medal by the virtue of having a single luxury good left at the end of the game.  We resolved to not let Kieron win any more now he has decided to return!  Final scores: Kieron population/prestige 27/31, David 24/32, Andy 18/17+, James 18/17, Stuart 12/27.

Then Russian Roulette with Ra.  A very unusual first epoch where the Ra tiles were really slow to come out.  Which of course meant the other two epochs were particularly frantic.  Final scores: David 39, Stuart 34, James 31, Kieron 29 and Andy 22.

St Petersburg and Carpe Diem - 18 December 2019

Kieron, Stu and Andy at David's this week for some nearly festive games. Surprising none of us, Andy insisted on playing St Petersburg and spent the entire game mocking his fellow players, before cruising to victory through extreme financial domination. Once again the game plays surprisingly quickly with four players, lasting only 5 rounds, so it is really unforgiving if you fall behind.

Final score: Andy 57, David 53, Kieron 40, Stu 38.

Then an introduction to Carpe Diem for Kieron. David had discovered the second edition rules had done away with the somewhat confusing movement rules and replaced them with a simpler (but equivalent) move left/right mechanic. This proved to be easier and quicker to play.

This game seems to be as much about not making mistakes as it is about picking a good move, but David managed to get ahead in the first round and just about hold on until the end.

Final score: David 98, Stu 91, Andy 72, Kieron (who was "playing to learn") 68.