GamesReport: 2-Nov-12 TTN Big Game 11

Today at the Belfast Boatclub we witnessed the return of the legendary TableTopNorth Big Game's organised by Tim Snoddy. The Big Game's are well named with over twenty participants crowded around a massive battle table. The system used to simulate the battle was the Gruntz 1.1 ruleset with hundreds of beautifully painted figures in 15mm scale. I am led to understand that twenty players is the largest game of Gruntz ever played so hats off to Tim for putting together the event and surviving the event with his wits and voice intact.

A truly massive battlefield

The two sides in the battle were the righteous Imperial forces with their alien allies, facing the dastardly Rebel forces. The main objective was a fort in the centre of the battlefield held at the start of the game by the Rebels, four secondary objectives were located in the four corners of the battlefield with the rebels also holding two of these. While the advantage was clearly with the rebels on the first turn this was to change rapidly with the arrival of the imperial forces who took three of the out lying adjective in short order.

Elite Imperial Legions

The rest of the battle teetered on a knife edge as reinforcements arrived in random locations around the battlefield. The Rebels replacements seemed to mostly appear on the southern section of the map with the vast majority of the Imperials entering from the west. This put the lightly held eastern Imperial objectives under immense pressure while the imperial malingered in their strongest portion of the map. It started to look like the Rebel position was too strong for the Imperial forces to crack, but on he final turn a heroic assault by the imperial crack stormstrooper squad penetrated the rebel held fortress and disputed the victory condition there. The final act of heroism fell to the lowly Octopods who saved the day for the imperial legions and took the decisive secondary victory objective that secured the win for the Emperor by a margin of 1-0.

Welcome back Big Game.

Posted with Blogsy

First Play: Eclipse

I have been trying to get a hold of this game for a while now after reading a positive review of it on BoardGameGeek, however finally at TableTopNorth I was able to get a play of Ecilpse from Asmodee games. This article is intended to be an indication of my initial thoughts regarding this game and not a full blown review.

Eclipse is a 4X space opera style game with players taking their place as the leaders of galactic empires vying for solar systems full of resources to exploit and scientific discoveries to find. As well as the other players there are ancient aliens to fight guarding random treasures that can give your empire a boost.

Each player gets a race worksheet to record their current resources in the form of credits, science and production, the current allocation of population to resource production, the technologies researched, spaceship blueprints and the orders taken each turn.


The race worksheet handles resource
management elegantly

There is a lot to keep track of on the race sheet but the game is designed to take a lot of the complexity out of the record keeping and tedious bean counting is kept to a minimum. For example I like the way that you stack up your population cubes on your race sheet (the little white cubes on the picture above) and then when There'sallocate the blocks onto factories on the game boards this will uncover a number under where the cube was representing the level of your production in that resource. An elegant method of keeping track of things.



Exploration and Expansion is managed through the placing of hex tiles each representing a star system with differing resources available for you to Exploit. Travel between system is marshalled through wormholes which appear on some of the edges of the hex tiles. As you need matching wormholes to be able to transport ships between tiles by careful placement you can isolate your empire from aggressive opponents or open diplomatic channels to your friends.

Large hex tiles are drawn at random
to make up the galactic map

There is a scientific research system which allows you to modify the blueprints of your spacecraft making them tougher and more deadly. Other scientific discoveries allow you to improve the resource production rates of your empire or otherwise improve your civilisations.

You can of course choose to Exterminate your opponents through building the strongest or most numerous space fleets and bomb their planets to goo. The victor is the empire with the highest points awarded for the various aspects of the game from exploring and settling worlds to scientific excellence in a given field or through participating in galactic genocide. Their are many ways to win this game.

I was very impressed by this game for the way it simplifies what is normally a complex genre and was most impressed by the playing time which was very close to the thirty minutes per player estimate in the rulebook. Even in our very first play we were able to complete a game in under three hours. I intend to bring this game up to the Koffeeklub Sunday night meeting soon so expect a full AAR presently.

Posted with Blogsy

GamesReport: 24-Jun-12 QCon19-Day 3

Sunday @ QCon19

Thanks to Starbucks for keeping us awake on Sunday

Sunday morning came early and truth be told this convention seemed to be over in the blink of a eye. This was due no doubt to the fact that we filled every available moment playing games, and I don't recall any QCON that I got more games in. This came at a cost however and convention fatigue slowed us down in the first session of Sunday. Thankfully Starbucks helped us out with some welcome espresso and we arrived at the Queens University Students Union building on time and ready if out raring to go.

Game of Thrones

Witness the Blockade of Pyke

After we had publicised that we were going to play Fantasy Flight's second edition version of the excellent Game of Thrones boardgame we got a lot of interest and I think that all the six available slot were filled early on Saturday. As it turned out two of these people had not the stamina of the more experienced convention attendees amongst us and they were shamefully no shows. The two available seats were soon filled however and the game got underway with random selection of Houses.

 Koffeeklub regular AndyA took his customary Baratheon position and GaryG and myself swapped our previous positions with Stark and Lannister respectively. Separating the two Gary's was Chris taking the dangerous Greyjoy House and to the south of the seven kingdom John and Colin (like myself of tabletopnorth extraction) took the Tyrell and Martel Houses respectively.

I started aggressively seeking to take Greyjoy out of the game early and give myself a little breathing room. My assault was interrupted when a sizeable Tyrell army arrived at my southern border forcing me to divert a army I had planned to strike at Chris to make a point with John that such incursion would not be tolerated. This led to a swift and bloody exchange that left John and my armies decimated and both of us hamstrung and effectively out of the running for most of the game.

I became a whipping boy for the rest of the game and with all the attention off the north and east Stark and Baratheon were able to build their strength. It was Colin's first game and he squared off admirably with the slightly more experienced John, and drew AndyA into the conflict as well. When it became clear that Stark had been allowed too much rope and GaryG had built his armies well attentioned turned to the north in the mid game. Gary saw the threat and made his move attacking Greyjoy and Baratheon and for a couple of turns it looked as if Stark had it in the bag. However he was way over-stretched and this allowed my Lannister to sweep north and take Winterfell. The last battle was between Stark and Baratheon with the Lannisters winning should the Baratheon's lose. Ironically the Greyjoy support in the battle give the well deserved win to AndyA.

AndyA was a worthy  victor

A not so worthy GaryB

Watch this space for a KoffeeKlub review of this fantastic board game coming soon

Ticket to Ride

After lunch and yet another Starbucks coffee we had a stab at Ticket to Ride. AndyA and GaryG were familiar with the rules of this simple but involving game, but it didn't take long for me to pick it up. I suspect that Gary and AndyA took it easy on me at one point in the game when I had signal posted my intended route across America and there was an opportunity to block me haflway which would have ruined my game. In the end I won quite handily which is good for I badly needed the coffee beans for the Koffeeklub league.

Trev had been keen to play this game all weekend but couldnt make it for the Sunday. We will definately bring this game soon to a Sunday night Koffeeklub meeting.

Another Pandemic

We will defeat you ... oh yes!

We had another crack at Pandemic to finish off the convention and yet again we were defeated by the four mega-virii. We are starting to think that GaryG needs to go away and play this game solo for a while. He definately is holding us back and badly needs practice to up his game. ;)

Seriously though I like that this is a very challenging collaborative game and in that it reminds me of Arkham Horror before we got the beating of that game. I believe that we are going to give this game another attempt next Sunday.

Convention Round-up

I really enjoyed this years convention. It was huge in terms of numbers and all credit to the QCON organisers for another fantastically well managed event. It did feel that we were shoe-horned in to the SU building this year though and there are indications that we have outgrown this venue. It seems likely that the gamers will be pushed out to outlying buildings and I fear that this will further diversify the gaming and non-gaming portions of QCON. I have every confidence though that next years organising committee will resolve this problem.

One thing is for sure we will be there and I for one cannot wait

Koffeeklub @ QCON19

We've all been at Q-Con before. The good ones the bad ones and the downright average ones, but we keep coming back for more. What's that about?

> Love it or hate it, Q-Con is Ireland's flagship gaming event and represents an opportunity to meet up with old gaming friends from the past and perhaps to re-live the good old days by playing a game or two of Call of Cthulhu. 

> Q-Con is a weekend pass...it's a slice of freedom...it's too much coffee...it's too little sleep...it's a new set of dice...it's a drink...or maybe it's two drinks...best of all though...it's tomorrow!!

This year @ Q-Con we'll be hosting a number of board, card and dice games, so we invite you to join us if you can.

Friday evening - Bluff event.

Saturday morning - Open board gaming session from around 11am until 2pm
Saturday afternoon - we'll be joining the Call of Cthulhu tournament from 3pm until 6pm
Saturday evening - At the Q-Con quiz

Sunday morning - Our big Game of Thrones (2nd Ed) game from around 11am until 2pm
Sunday afternoon - Open board gaming session from around 3pm until close at 6pm

If you want to join in please check out the registration desk or Table Top North's regular Q-Con stand. Our open gaming will offer up games such as Nightfall, Pandemic and A Few Acres of Snow.

Koffeeklub will be at Q-Con, hopefully you'll be there too!

GamesReport: TTN Zombie Nerdtopia

Today the two Gary's met up with Sarah, Jackie, Posty and Chris from tabletopnorth at Nerdtopia in Belfast. First thanks to Nerdtopia for hosting and TTN for organising the gamesday. We had an epic game of Zombies with a couple of the add-ons shuffled in to add a little spice to the occasion. I know I'm biased, as founder member of TTN but they are really friendly bunch of guys and very welcoming. If you get a chance to attend one of their events you should make the effort. You won't be disappointed.

The Zombies game started very well though with six players it tended to be a little slow between turns. Posty and I skipped our first turns due to automatic cards in our opening hands, though we didnt mind as it allowed the others to put some city tiles down and allowing us to decide which way we wanted to head. The time between our turns was admirably spent in banter and less so in playing event cards on each other. The pain of losing a turn in a six player game can be extreme and when Chris played an minor card on GaryG the favour was repaid in spades when Gary made Chris lose the next turn.

I continued the viciousness a few turns later by placing a hospital and then playing a card which sent Jackie there and right into the middle of nine zombies. To her credit she was over the space of the next few turns able to fight through the lot coming out amongst the strongest players. Sarah focused her city building efforts on graveyard tiles only to have her character die from a zombie swarm after getting surrounded. The graveyard tiles are interesting and can be played as a separate game in their own right. They are a challenge though as we found out when I drew a card which filled every legal graveyard space with a zombie. We had about forty zombies pop into the game in one turn.

 My game revolved around finding items only to have them stolen by GaryG. Grr! I had a skateboard which allowed faster movement around the city a pick axe which I intended to clear out the graveyard with. I had to send GaryG all the way cross the city in retribution and an attempt to keep him away from the graveyard where he could have used my gear to great effect.

In a fit of madness Chris placed the helipad at the far end of the graveyard meaning that to win we had to fight our way heroically through the graveyard tiles. Most of us tried and failed to this, though GaryG stayed at the other side of the city and made a fair attempt to get to twenty five zombie kills and win the game. It was Posty who grabbed that honour with a legendary charge to the helipad. Epic.

Afterwards GaryG and I played a few games of Zombie Dice, and I really enjoyed it. I definately would buy this little pick up game. It takes minutes to play and is full of character. Thumbs up. KoffeeKlub and Tabletopnorth will be ganging up again at QCON next week. Say hello if you are around the tabletopnorth booth on the gaming floor.

GamesReport: 10-Jun-12 Thieves of Cadwallon

The KoffeeKlub welcomed back Chris McClung this week. Chris had been an occasional Arkham member before that centre closed its doors and he is a friend from the tabletopnorth club in Belfast however this was Chris' first visit to the KoffeeKlub in Whitehead Primary. He got a introduction to the style of  play that we refer to as 'friendly competition' but could be more accurately described as backstabbing and treachery.

We started with a game of Thieves of Cadwallon. Normally we like to start with a few pick-up games and GaryG had brought Bhonanza for that purpose. However after reading some reviews of the Cadwallon game on boardgamegeek we decided that if we could get done with our first game in an hour or so that we could get a game of Pandemic in afterwards. To this end we attempted to set up and explain the rules in super quick time and this probably led to some confusion of the rules and mistakes being made. In the end the game took us two and a half hours to play. Needless to say we didn't get a second game in.

We will write up a players impression post on Thieves of Cadwallon in due time, but I think it is fair to say that whilst we all enjoyed the experience there was a feeling that the game was flawed in design and didnt have the depth of play that would mark it as an instant classic. The component are lovely and the ebb and flow of the game was fun. There were ample opportunities to do over your fellow players which always goes down well.

The game started well for AndyA who amassed a large amount off treasure in a single room and faced of a number of assaults from the guards and from fellow players and took an impressive lead. This lead to AndyA being targetted by a series of attacks leaving him much weaker later in the game. Chris took the lead in the mid game with strong use of the arcana cards to slow opponent characters down and during attacks. GaryG and GaryB played the long game and gathered loot and ducats of the rest of the players.

When became clear that GaryB was planning to win the game by looting the Duke's treasury by use of scenario specific special rule all of the rest of the players ganged up to prevent this from happening but in the end through use of a character special ability GaryB was able to sneak a thief into the treasure and successfully loot the amassed coins. The game swung in the balance between the two Gary's and it was down to GaryB making a second attempt to loot the treasury in the dying turns of the game. Victory then depended on a successful roll of 4 or under on a six sided dice (GaryB rolled a 4). After the use of a teleportation arcane card the plucky thief was able to skip out of the quarter before the guards and other players were able to stop here. Victory was assured.

League results: After a game of Thieves of Cadwallon scoring 5 beans to the winner and 3 to the runner up: GaryB was awarded 5 beans and GaryG was awarded 3 beans.

League results: After 4 games of Bluff scoring 2 beans to the winner and 1 to the runner up: GaryG and AndyA scored 2 wins each totalling 4 beans each. GaryB was runner-up in all 4 games earning him 4 beans.

Tabletopnorth Horror Boardgaming 16th June 2012

Our friends over at tabletopnorth will be running a Horror themed boardgaming day at the excellent Nerdtopia 86 Stranmillis Road, bt9 5ad Belfast, United Kingdom on the 16th June 2012. The boardgames in action will be Zombies!!! and Arkham Horror.You do not need to be a tabletopnorth member to attend this event just come along, buy a coffee and join in the fun.