Greetings all! This week's blog post is brought to you not by Peter (who wishes to keep treasured his new-founded catchphrase), but by a humbled Jon who has been knocked from the winners podium for the time being and into the bloggers chair.
Week 3 saw 9 gamers at The Hop Pole Inn: 3 newcomers and returning old(er) hands. After welcoming Ash, Aaron and Sam we proceeded into a quick game of Cash 'n Guns, a bluffing game resolving around pointing foam guns at each other...a perfect way to say hello! Ranked well on Board Game Geek, the aim was to collect as much cash from loot as possible and try not to get shot. Peter yielded to his second when Neil joined us and got out of the line of fire; a good job too, as Emma had a murderous look in her eye! After 8 rounds, 24 bullets and 2 fatalities (including yours truly), our new resident Godfather was Ed, narrowly beating out Aaron in the final scoring.
Patching ourselves up, we split into 2 groups for the main courses of the evening; Power Grid and Village. Ranked an insanely high number 10 on Board Game Geek, Power Grid is a fairly weighty Euro style game where the objective is to supply the most cities with power once a certain coverage of the map is reached. To do this we build new power stations, buy up resources (coal, oil, garbage and uranium) and bid on new designs. The game reacts as you play; as the game goes on the market fluctuates, newer and better patterns are available and the cost of expanding increases. As we discovered, turn order is EVERYTHING! After a lot of powering, buying, building and bidding (and a fair amount of erm-ing and err-ing!), the magic number of 17 plants was hit, and the race was on to power the most. On the final turn, all four of us playing could power the required number of cities so...we all won! However Peter (our founder), despite his almost disastrous building spree at the end pipped us all to the post, powering 19 cities...which goes to show, even a garbage plan can work!!! See what I did there...?
Whilst this modern day battle was unfolding, the other group were delving into the fantasy world of Village. Cue Emma.
Hi all, Emma here representing the gamers playing in the village. I’m a complete board game rookie, who was gently elbowed into Bromsgrove Board Gamers by virtue of being married to the founder. I thought about bringing Ludo along just to get some comic reactions. My observations about some of the hardcore gamers in the group is that they like games that have lots of fiddly little pieces (and they like packing and unpacking the fiddly pieces almost as much as playing the game itself). But don’t let me put off any budding Bromsgrove Board Gamers out there, because believe me if I can get to grips with these games (and reluctantly end up really enjoying them – don’t tell Peter or I’ll have to spend my weekends playing Caverna) then you can too!
Village is a great game that has lots of fiddly little pieces. Can you see a pattern emerging?! It is ranked a more than respectable 68 on Board Game Geek, or so I am told (I have personally never looked at BoardGameGeek). Each player takes on the role of a different family and tries to find them fame and glory before the passage of time takes them. You can find fame in many ways: one villager might want to become a friar, another might strive for a career in public office, a third might want to seek his luck in distant lands. We played using the Village Inn expansion so that villagers can visit the pub and meet some weird and wonderful people who will help them on their way to glory. Whatever our villagers choose to do, the Grim Reaper comes calling eventually. Those who have succeeded in life are immortalized in the Village Chronicle, bringing you one step closer to victory. In this quaint little game, points can actually be gained by ruthlessly killing off your family members. Neil and I both took this tactic, although partly because no one else seemed all that keen to bump off their families and the game doesn’t end until either the Village Chronicle or the unmarked graves are full! Meanwhile, Peter #2 (as opposed to my husband) was quietly doing some dealings at the market. None of us thought much about this, too busy fighting over the popular moves. Ed met a woman at the pub who gave him extra points for his coloured cubes, but Ash, unfortunately, found himself struggling due to a lack of procreation. If you are killing off your oldest family members you need to have some babies to take on the family farm in later years!! When the Village Chronicle was (finally) full, it was time to tot up the points. Peter #2 came storming up from behind to take the victory, thanks to his IOUs from the market. Sly dog.
Maybe I’ll win a game next week…
Week 3 saw 9 gamers at The Hop Pole Inn: 3 newcomers and returning old(er) hands. After welcoming Ash, Aaron and Sam we proceeded into a quick game of Cash 'n Guns, a bluffing game resolving around pointing foam guns at each other...a perfect way to say hello! Ranked well on Board Game Geek, the aim was to collect as much cash from loot as possible and try not to get shot. Peter yielded to his second when Neil joined us and got out of the line of fire; a good job too, as Emma had a murderous look in her eye! After 8 rounds, 24 bullets and 2 fatalities (including yours truly), our new resident Godfather was Ed, narrowly beating out Aaron in the final scoring.
Patching ourselves up, we split into 2 groups for the main courses of the evening; Power Grid and Village. Ranked an insanely high number 10 on Board Game Geek, Power Grid is a fairly weighty Euro style game where the objective is to supply the most cities with power once a certain coverage of the map is reached. To do this we build new power stations, buy up resources (coal, oil, garbage and uranium) and bid on new designs. The game reacts as you play; as the game goes on the market fluctuates, newer and better patterns are available and the cost of expanding increases. As we discovered, turn order is EVERYTHING! After a lot of powering, buying, building and bidding (and a fair amount of erm-ing and err-ing!), the magic number of 17 plants was hit, and the race was on to power the most. On the final turn, all four of us playing could power the required number of cities so...we all won! However Peter (our founder), despite his almost disastrous building spree at the end pipped us all to the post, powering 19 cities...which goes to show, even a garbage plan can work!!! See what I did there...?
Whilst this modern day battle was unfolding, the other group were delving into the fantasy world of Village. Cue Emma.
Hi all, Emma here representing the gamers playing in the village. I’m a complete board game rookie, who was gently elbowed into Bromsgrove Board Gamers by virtue of being married to the founder. I thought about bringing Ludo along just to get some comic reactions. My observations about some of the hardcore gamers in the group is that they like games that have lots of fiddly little pieces (and they like packing and unpacking the fiddly pieces almost as much as playing the game itself). But don’t let me put off any budding Bromsgrove Board Gamers out there, because believe me if I can get to grips with these games (and reluctantly end up really enjoying them – don’t tell Peter or I’ll have to spend my weekends playing Caverna) then you can too!
Village is a great game that has lots of fiddly little pieces. Can you see a pattern emerging?! It is ranked a more than respectable 68 on Board Game Geek, or so I am told (I have personally never looked at BoardGameGeek). Each player takes on the role of a different family and tries to find them fame and glory before the passage of time takes them. You can find fame in many ways: one villager might want to become a friar, another might strive for a career in public office, a third might want to seek his luck in distant lands. We played using the Village Inn expansion so that villagers can visit the pub and meet some weird and wonderful people who will help them on their way to glory. Whatever our villagers choose to do, the Grim Reaper comes calling eventually. Those who have succeeded in life are immortalized in the Village Chronicle, bringing you one step closer to victory. In this quaint little game, points can actually be gained by ruthlessly killing off your family members. Neil and I both took this tactic, although partly because no one else seemed all that keen to bump off their families and the game doesn’t end until either the Village Chronicle or the unmarked graves are full! Meanwhile, Peter #2 (as opposed to my husband) was quietly doing some dealings at the market. None of us thought much about this, too busy fighting over the popular moves. Ed met a woman at the pub who gave him extra points for his coloured cubes, but Ash, unfortunately, found himself struggling due to a lack of procreation. If you are killing off your oldest family members you need to have some babies to take on the family farm in later years!! When the Village Chronicle was (finally) full, it was time to tot up the points. Peter #2 came storming up from behind to take the victory, thanks to his IOUs from the market. Sly dog.
Maybe I’ll win a game next week…