GamesReport: 23-Jun-12 QCon19-Day 2

Welcome to the second of KoffeeKlub's daily QCon GameReports. If you haven't already caught the Friday GameReport you can check it out here.

Saturday @ QCon19

Clements once again was our friend and provided our early morning caffeine shot as we settled down in the board gaming area - so what to play?

Undecided, we opened with a quick game of Zombie Dice before moving on to Bohnanza, a light(ish) German bean trading card game from AMIGO Spiel.  (1997)

Beans, not cowboys!

Bohnanza is a game about trading, planting and harvesting different beans in order to make more money than your fellow players. Oddly, unlike most card games, you cannot alter the order of your hand except through trading cards away and immediately planting the cards that you receive from the trade. 

Beans of the same type must be planted together and beans yield different returns based on their value (depends on how frequent they are in the deck). 

Beans with no name?

Players are challenged early in the game as their two bean fields are quickly planted, so good hand management and effective trading are both key to your success.

Overall, Bohnanza should not to be taken too seriously. I have the German version of the game and much fun can be had during trading as players create their own English names for the different bean types...

...the Boxing bean, the Fire bean, the Shit bean and the Puke bean... we've heard most of the "translations" already :) 


Our morning closed with a second failed attempt to beat Pandemic. There was much discussion about what we could do differently next time... ...my inner voice was screaming - "drop these clowns and play it solo!"

Lunch was pizza and more Zombie Dice at the Parlour across from the student's union building.

Original, still the best?

After that we went our separate ways for the afternoon session, AndyA demoed Guards! Guards! for the Blackspindle guys and I headed down to the role-playing area for the Al Darragh Memorial Cup: Call of Cthulhu - A Shadow over Belfast. I thoroughly enjoyed the session, but find myself preferring the Trail of Cthulhu system ahead of Chaosium's original Call of Cthulhu. Multiple percentile rolls for plot-driving clues can be frustrating and Trail handles that sort of thing so much better.

We dined at The Other Place for our evening meal. It sounds vaguely supernatural, but actual offers fairly plain fare. Ideal for hungry gamers! 

Thunderstone Hooo!

Promises of a Pub Quiz and much alcohol drifted into more gaming as Swami kindly hosted Thunderstone, another AEG game. 

Thunderstone, similar in many ways to Dominion, is a fantasy deck-building game. "Fight the evils of the dungeon to prove your worth. Gain powerful weaponry and level into new and mighty hero classes. Claim the best cards and survive to take the Thunderstone."

I struggled a little to come up with the right card combos, but I did like the theme of the game more than I do with Dominion. Dominion may still be the stronger game and I'm not sure that you could justify having both in your collection, certainly worth a second look though.

Finally we made it to the bar and spent the rest of the evening drinking and playing pool. Home for 2am...

What state will we be in on Sunday for our Game of Thrones showpiece?

Find out in Sunday's GamesReport coming soon to a blog near you.

GamesReport: 3-Jun-12 Guards! Guards!

Last night at the KoffeeKlub Guards! Guards! was on the table for the main game, but to warm ourselves into the evening, Bluff was brought out. Sadly my reign of terror came to a crashing end for the four games we played, I was the first out in 3 of them and second out in the last. Bingers lost out shortly after myself, but the big rollers, GaryG and TrevorH fought it out in every game with TrevorH winning all of them. Beginners’ luck I say.

League results: After 4 games of Bluff scoring 2 beans to the winner and 1 to the runner up: GaryG +6 beans TrevorH +6 beans, GaryB and AndyA +0 beans

Then it was time for the game from BackSpindle Games. With the game being based in Discworld and within the city of Ankh-Morpork . Spells have escaped from the Unseen University and as you have been deputised by the City Watch to go and return them. You have the powers of recruiting the many citizens of the city (whether they want to be recruited or not) into helping you by using them to run the spell back to the University. The four of us each randomly took a guild card then collected our tokens and volunteers. Bingers had the Alchemists Guild, GaryG was a member of the Assassins Guild, Trevor a member of the Fools Guild, and myself a member of the Thieves Guild.

We ran off to a flying start collecting spells and volunteers, but all of us were avoiding each other. As soon as we had found our feet, the childishness began. Attempts to give the pox to other players by having them touch an infected card. Hiding it under cards, sliding it under elbows, and trying to have them pass the cards. All tricks were tried yet failed. So sabotaging the spell runs were the next choice of play. GaryG stormed into the lead and followed quickly with TrevorH and Bingers, I brought up the rear. (No laughing!) Fun was had all round by everyone. The game ended prematurely with the two Gary's tied for the lead after a vicious bout of sabotage in GaryG's last round.

League results: After a game of Guards! Guards! scoring 5 beans to the winner and 3 to the runner up: GaryG and GaryB were awarded +3 beans for a tied 1st place and TrevorH and AndyA received +0 beans

As regular members of the KoffeeKlub we have experienced that a certain number of players can make or break a game. With Guards! Guards! you do need to have a target number of players to enjoy the game to its maximum. Four players is not a bad number to play the game but for better enjoyment, you really do need to have 5-6.

The KoffeeKlub June League has kicked off and GaryG stormed into the lead with almost all the beans already. Next week at the KoffeeKlub we have Cadwallon: City of Thieves and I for one am looking forward to playing it.

Andy Agnew

KoffeeKlub Evening 3rd June 7-11pm

Just a reminder. The KoffeeKlub will be meeting in Whitehead Primary School on Sunday 3rd June 2012 7-11pm. Our featured game will be Guards! Guards! by Backspindle games, however there will be plenty of others games available. We are starting a KoffeeKlub League from this week and so if you want the chance to be the first KoffeeKlub Player of the Month you should come a get a victory or two under your belt. As usual all are welcome.