Paid Members Jazzy G Posted May 20, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted May 20, 2023 8 minutes ago, Thunderplex said: Not played it, but here’s the BGG page for it.  6.5 is a good score on there. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/256877/hail-hydra Incidentally, Fanboy 3 in Manchester often holds events for people with Autism and other groups who may not want to attend the more mainstream ones for one reason or another.  Good bunch in there. Used to go to Fanboy 3 on a Wednesday night to play Magic back in the day. There's a place here in Blackburn called Geek Retreat, and we have a monthly meet up there. It's this Thursday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted May 20, 2023 Share Posted May 20, 2023 Bought a copy of Jurassic Park Danger! a few months ago and finally played it this week. I say "played" it but it was so complicated, it went away after about 30 minutes as I just couldn't understand it, despite watching 3x tutorial videos and 3x of us reading the rules. Will give it another go, but it is stupidly convoluted for what should be a really simple game. Also bought a copy of Machi Koro as that seems like exactly the kind of thing the girls will love. On a more basic note, we have been really enjoying playing Chess lately. It still is the best game, despite me not winning much these days against these little shits. We don't play this way, but does anyone play the 'get a pawn to the other end and it becomes a queen' rule? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted May 20, 2023 Awards Moderator Share Posted May 20, 2023 Just One is terrific @JNLister. I should be on commission, the amount of copies I've convinced people to buy after a session. Such a simple game, but works every time. To travel it, just take the cards and tell people to use their phones. On the party game vibe I'll chuck in Concept. A bit like Just One in that you're trying wordlessly to get people to guess your word, but using abstract icons representing 'money', 'religion', 'the colour red' and dozens of other concepts (hey that's the name of the show!). It's hard to describe in words but we played for over two hours straight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted May 20, 2023 Awards Moderator Share Posted May 20, 2023 42 minutes ago, SuperBacon said: We don't play this way, but does anyone play the 'get a pawn to the other end and it becomes a queen' rule? This is an official rule, yes. You can convert a pawn to any piece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted May 20, 2023 Share Posted May 20, 2023 10 minutes ago, Onyx2 said: This is an official rule, yes. You can convert a pawn to any piece. I remembered it from my school days when I was with all the other cool kids in the Chess club, but didn't know if it was official. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted May 20, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted May 20, 2023 If you're getting into chess, try Chinese chess. Pieces move on the intersections of the lines, rather than the squares, the board is divided into two halves by the Celestial River running through the middle (and certain pieces cannot cross, as they are defensive), and the king and the guard pieces cannot leave the imperial palace section of his home board. There is also a cannon piece, that moves like a rook, but can only take a piece by "jumping" over another, i.e. there has to be one piece between it and its target. The games are much shorter, but much more intricate. Definitely recommended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Thunderplex Posted May 21, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted May 21, 2023 Spent a good among of the afternoon playing Viticulture.  The theming blends perfectly with the gameplay, just a beautiful game.  I’d say this and Ark Nova can’t beaten for solo play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted May 23, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted May 23, 2023 On 5/20/2023 at 8:15 PM, Onyx2 said: Just One is terrific @JNLister. I should be on commission, the amount of copies I've convinced people to buy after a session. Such a simple game, but works every time. To travel it, just take the cards and tell people to use their phones. On the party game vibe I'll chuck in Concept. A bit like Just One in that you're trying wordlessly to get people to guess your word, but using abstract icons representing 'money', 'religion', 'the colour red' and dozens of other concepts (hey that's the name of the show!). It's hard to describe in words but we played for over two hours straight. My favourite example from the instructions. The question mark piece is for the main "concept" (ie, the thing you're trying to guess) and the explanation marks are related concepts. The cubes add more context for the piece of the same colour.   Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted May 30, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted May 30, 2023 I played Argent: The Consortium, which is probably the heaviest game I've ever won. It's an aggressive worker placement (you can push people out of slots through wounding or magic, though some workers are exempt to one or the other.) The theme is that you're teachers at a magic school trying to get elected as the new dean and 10 randomly selected board members will vote, each using their own criteria. In gameplay terms you have 10 win conditions (only 2 of which you know up front) and whoever is leading on the most wins the overall game. You can secretly find out what the other conditions are, but each one you look at is at the expense of performing other actions. One player tried the strategy of finding out all of them, but just wound up with massive analysis paralysis. I think I one by only revealing and targeting a couple, but prioritizing the "influence points" tracker that's used for all tiebreaks. Main criticisms are that it's a bit of a long game and there's some design issues with the colours that make it hard to keep track of what's going on (each player has a colour, but each type of worker also has a color, and there's some overlap, plus some colours are hard to distinguish.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaz2050 Posted June 1, 2023 Share Posted June 1, 2023 Anyone going to the UK Games Expo this weekend? Hoping to grab a few bargains! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Thunderplex Posted June 1, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted June 1, 2023 Sadly not.  It’s on my Birthday so I didn’t book.  Sadly m6 daughters in work and my wife’s at an all day memorial service, so I should have just gone.  Next year hopefully! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted June 2, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 2, 2023 Had another game of Ark Nova last night and it confirmed my theory that real play time is one hour per player, plus one hour if anyone hasn't played before. It's amazing how well it flows because the turns are so short and so you're pretty much always taking your turn or figuring out the next one. It really helps that it has the perfect balance where once you're up and running you can start planning out a few moves ahead but not more than a normal person can hold in their head at one time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Some Guy Posted June 2, 2023 Share Posted June 2, 2023 21 hours ago, gaz2050 said: Anyone going to the UK Games Expo this weekend? Hoping to grab a few bargains! It always clashes with the North-West Calling all-dayer so I've only been once. Two of my friends are there so I've been bombarded with photos and messages asking "do you want this?" So far I've said yes to Clever 4 Ever & Wingspan Nesting Box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Thunderplex Posted June 2, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted June 2, 2023 2 hours ago, JNLister said: Had another game of Ark Nova last night and it confirmed my theory that real play time is one hour per player, plus one hour if anyone hasn't played before. It's amazing how well it flows because the turns are so short and so you're pretty much always taking your turn or figuring out the next one. It really helps that it has the perfect balance where once you're up and running you can start planning out a few moves ahead but not more than a normal person can hold in their head at one time. I so love this game. Each time I play it’s like a different challenge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted June 2, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 2, 2023 Only downside is somebody took the "get money every time somebody adds a primate to a zoo" card because they knew I'm always going to collect monkeys regardless of any gameplay strategy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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