Wednesday 21st October was a day for new beginnings. We played at The Ladybird Inn for the first time and were made to feel very welcome in our own semi-private dining area. We also played 2 new games for Bromsgrove Board Gamers: Above and Below, fresh delivery from Kickstarter for 2 of our regular gamers, and The Lord of the Rings: the card game, a fully co-operative game from Neil's longstanding collection. Here's the designer of Above and Below, Ryan Laukat, talking through some of the concepts of this lovely fantasy city-building/exploring/story-telling game.
Having already played this once, I was in the interesting position of (kind of) teaching the game to the owner, Jon. A very interesting, and fairly rapid, game ensued with Jon focusing on exploring while I attempted to earn more income and secure very decent endgame scoring. At the final count, after 7 rounds of building, gathering and exploring, Jon's late bid for victory points fell just short with a final score of 48. My 22 points for resources, combined with a large total of bonus points for outside buildings, saw me edge the win with 54.
Meanwhile, Aaron, Neil and Peter M travelled into Middle Earth to work together and gain a tight victory on the first scenario of this campaign-style co-operative card game.
To finish off, the whole group played Cosmic Encounter, a game gaining traction in our group thanks to its friendly high player count (up to 6 with one expansion) and emphasis on interactivity. Although most plays in the group have been very tight affairs, we had 5 very interesting aliens involved this time around. Somehow, this translated into a large number of failed encounters and a thrashing for four of us at the hands of Jon who raced to 5 foreign colonies before anyone else had more than 2. Respect!
Above and Below
Jon 48
Peter H 56
Lord of the Rings: the card game
Aaron
Neil *Players won
Peter M
Cosmic Encounter
Jon 5
Aaron 2
Neil 2
Peter H 2
Peter M 1
My gamer of the week has to go to Jon for his fantastic victory in Cosmic Encounter.
Meanwhile, Aaron, Neil and Peter M travelled into Middle Earth to work together and gain a tight victory on the first scenario of this campaign-style co-operative card game.
To finish off, the whole group played Cosmic Encounter, a game gaining traction in our group thanks to its friendly high player count (up to 6 with one expansion) and emphasis on interactivity. Although most plays in the group have been very tight affairs, we had 5 very interesting aliens involved this time around. Somehow, this translated into a large number of failed encounters and a thrashing for four of us at the hands of Jon who raced to 5 foreign colonies before anyone else had more than 2. Respect!
Above and Below
Jon 48
Peter H 56
Lord of the Rings: the card game
Aaron
Neil *Players won
Peter M
Cosmic Encounter
Jon 5
Aaron 2
Neil 2
Peter H 2
Peter M 1
My gamer of the week has to go to Jon for his fantastic victory in Cosmic Encounter.