6th September 2023
A slightly quieter night to start September with just three tables on the go. A classic game had been requested beforehand that we were able to accommodate as well as a dungeon crawler and a trading game.
Braggart was quickly chosen as the first quick game out, this is the third week in a row for this simple silly story telling game. The laughs coming from the table do tend to attract others over to see what is going on and wanting to play the next time.
The other starter game was Incan Gold a push your luck grabbing treasure in the temple exploring game. Incredibly simple to teach with the only decision each round being whether to keep exploring and find more treasure (and hazards) or leave the temple safely and keep everything you have found so far. Everyone still exploring shares out treasures found, but if you are still in the temple when the second of the same hazard type is found then you lose everything. Play continues over five temple excursions then count up how many gems you have hidden in your tent to determine the best adventurer.
Classic Euro game Settlers of Catan had been requested so we ended up with 2 versions on the table to choose between as multiple gamers had brought a copy in. Soon five players were rolling dice and acquiring resources to grow their settlements and acquire victory points from cities, cards, the longest road and army bonuses.
Another four gamers had the adventuring bug and tried the co-op game Tiny Epic Dungeons last played in session 30. In a race against the light running out the team needed to explore the dungeon to locate four minion monsters and the entrance to the big bosses lair. Then the light based timer resets to let you take on the boss. The team consisted of a ranger, druid, paladin and pandakin brewmaster in this fantasy game. They were able to use their complementary skills to find and dispatch the four minions and cope with the constantly spawning goblins and traps. So they were in reasonable shape when they found the dungeon door and enraged “The Tinkerer”. They lured him out and weakened him but he managed some big attacks and had the ranger and druid down. However the tooled up paladin was able to storm in and finish him off with a magically enhanced swing of his Axe of the Bear. A satisfactory end to the night after all the exploring and goblin cleaving.
The final table of four chose East India Companies a complex ship and trading based game last played in session 52. Played over five eras this was the last game of the night to finish. And what a tight finish it was. With two-time winner Iker P. not in attendance, Steve L. sensed an opportunity as he introduced two new players to the delights of trying to trade profitably in tea, coffee, spices and silk with a bit of market manipulation and share trading thrown in. Ably assisted with the rules by Jyo K., he clearly did too good a job of teaching the game though, as new players Dave B. and Rich W. soon picked up the strategies needed to create a successful import business while also steadily building their share portfolios. Unfortunately the teacher abandoned the golden rule of not selling shares to fund working capital, thinking he had found an exception. Only he hadn’t. As the clock ticked round to closing time and the final wealth was totted up, there were only a couple of gold coins separating three of the players with the first timers sharing the spoils. Sadly the curse of being the one who teaches struck again with a vengeance and a veil should be drawn over the 60 coin gap to fourth place.
The next session is 20th September where there will be another big selection of different games available on the night or let us know what you would like to try in advance and we will try and bring them along. You can contact us via discord, twitter or email for more information.
- Total Session Attendance: 12
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Board Games: