My simple notepad about the board and card games I play and gaming in the UK
The title says it all but, with many of the items still to receive a bid, there are likely to be some bargain prices to be had. Statis Pro Football is one of those without a bid and, for a big game, only played once, a starting price of just £3.00 is extremely low.
The list is here.
I’ve got another batch of 25 games up for sale on Ebay, with the auctions due to end on Thursday 19th August. These include Piranha Pedro, Statis Pro Football, Linie 1, Abilene and the fun balancing game Auf Der Kippe. The full list is here.
The next UK game convention is taking place this weekend. ManorCon XXVIII will be held on 16th to 19th July 2010, at Stamford Hall, University of Leicester.Â
Manorcon is the largest UK convention and has plenty of organised events. Tournaments will include: Diplomacy, Dominion, 18XX, Acquire, Puerto Rico, St Petersburg, Race for the Galaxy, Midnight Party and Croquet. There will also be plenty of non-tournament games on offer – far too numerous to mention! Other events will include the a games stall, a pop quiz and a treasure hunt.
Well, the final month in my “Mission Improbable” to get my unplayed games list down to below 20 saw me get down to a reasonably respectable 47:
2Â new games acquired (Forbidden Island and Dragon Parade);
10Â games no longer unplayed (Drachenherz, Die Speicherstadt, Samarkand: Routes to Riches, Forbidden Island, Dragon Parade, Bohnkick, Wie Hund und Katz, Carcassonne: Die Burg, Elefant im Pozellenladen and Sumeria);
13Â games sold (Die Tafelrunde, Gods, Frankenstein, Banditos, Bohnroschen, Ohne Furcht und Adel: Die Dunklen Lande, Rotundo, Bayon, Dia de Los Muertos, Atta Ants, Richelieu, X-Net and The Penguin Ultimatum).
So, not a bad attempt overall and I am going to continue to eat into the remaining titles on the list. However, for the statisticians among you, the annual reconciliation ended up as:
120 unplayed at start of period
+59 new games acquired
-112 played for first time
-20 unplayed games sold without being played, leaving
47 unplayed at end of periodÂ
My latest batch of games for sale is up on Ebay and the auctions are due to to end on 30th June.
Included this time are:
Last but not least is the Spiele aus Timbuktu box, which was designed to hold various games released by that company over the years and has several full games and expansions (12 to be precise) included. All the details can be found here.
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Just a last minute reminder that this weekend sees the annual UK Games Expo take place in Birmingham. The full details are on the website here but, in summary, the event runs from 4th-6th June with the main public opening hours being from 9.30am till 5pm Sarurday and 9.30am till 4pm Sunday. The venue is:
The Clarendon Suites
Stirling Road (off Hagley Road)
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B16 9SB
Additional open gaming area is available Noon till late Friday and 7pm till late Saturday night for more gaming in the adjacent Menzies Strathallan Hotel (you do not have to pay for this and it is open to non residents).
Just a point worth mentioning, the website is nice and pretty but all the key information is very well hidden. It’s all tucked away in the faq section, which is accessed via a drop-down menu by hovering over the Attendee tab. This info should be a lot more prominent (please take note, Richard).
This month was going pretty well until I ordered a batch of games from Germany, hence only two off the net total:
9Â new games acquired (Egizia, Die Speicherstadt, Bananagrams, Keltis: Das Orakel, Seeland, Level X, Glen More, Drachenherz and 11 Nimmt);
1 previously played game acquired (Peloponnes + Expansion)
9Â games no longer unplayed (Bloody Legacy, Riffifi, Zahltag, Egizia, Netzwerk, Wordwild, Level X, Glen More and 11 Nimmt);
2Â games sold (Alexandros and Zwickern).
Well, June is the final month of my quest so you’ll get one more report, following which I’ll still be trying to knock the unplayed games total down but won’t be providing regular updates. I wonder how close to 50 unplayed games I can get by the end of the month.Â
The shortlist for this year’s SdJ has just been published. The nominees were:
Wow! This year only one of the games picked by the jury would have been on my list (Fresco), although RttA may have been if I’d realised it was only released in Germany later last year. Much more in line with my judgment was the jury’s list of the year’s recommended games, which was made up of:
My pick for winner would be Roll Through The Ages although I wouldn’t be too upset if Fresco or Dixit won. More info about the award is here.
The Easy Play line of games from Schmidt Spiele is becoming a great series of short, light family games and I’ve yet to find a dud in the ones I’ve tried. Big Points, Los Banditos, Burgen Land and Finito are all really fun and now the latest addition, Level X by Stefan Risthaus, keeps that good run going.
If I were to draw a parallel, it would be with the old Sid Sackson game, Choice, which is great both as a solitaire or multi-player solitaire game. Level X adds a bit more interaction and competition to the mix. A player on his turn rolls four dice and then combines these to make one or more groups that total between 5 and 10 pips. The board shows for each number a series of spaces at the end of which is an X space. So if you group the dice to make a 5 and a 7, you move your marker one space along each of the 5 and 7 paths. Some turns later, if you move a marker onto the X space, you knock any marker occupying that space off and gain a VP token. On subsequent turns, if your marker is still there and you choose to group your dice to make that number again, you continue to gain VP tokens every time you score that number – a big incentive for your opponents to race down that path and knock you off. Each number has a limited supply of VP tokens and when three sets of the tokens has gone the game ends. There are also 4 bonus tiles that can be gained if you collect a set of VP tokens for each number 5-10 and these can prove critical if you manage to grab one, although everyone else is likely to try to freeze you out of at least one number to prevent that happening. The whole thing is wrapped up in 20-30 minutes.
Jan, Chris and I tried it for the first time yesterday and enjoyed it a lot. The game came down to which of Chris and I could gain the last 9 VP token. Chris needed it to stop me getting a 15 point bonus tile but was unlucky to roll numbers that didn’t add up to 9. Next turn, I did and was able to empty the 9 VP token pile, making three piles empty, and claiming the bonus tile. I won by 15 points. Good stuff.
The new issue of Spielbox arrived at the end of last week and is again filled with good stuff, although the English remains a little quirky.
This time, there are several pages devoted to the Nurnberg releases as well as numerous well written reviews of Egizia, Seeland, Ad Astra, Havana, Dungeon Lords and others.
In addition, there is another Dominion player board insert and tiles and rules for an expansion to the fruit collecting game, Finca.
Further details and subscription details can be found here.