Still alive, and well?

I continue to play board games with my girls most weeks (and occasionally with my Mum), its just that we have been playing mainly the same stuff.

We now have a routine where a game will become the flavour of the month and get played over and over while past favourites sit on the shelf, so I have not had much to say.

I am also finding myself playing solo games a fair bit more - Friday and Marvel Legendary are on high rotation (for solo play).

So why the blog? well a subject came up on BGG that concerned me regarding playing games with children, namely how "Hard" should one play against children?

Many seem to advocate playing just as you would with adults - others always letting the kids win at first, both of which seem most odd to me.

Playing at 100%.
This seems to suggest children are just short adults, which they are not (in case you needed reminding) children need a little more time to grasp more than just the rules IME, so I could never use this method.

Let the Wookie win.
Or how to raise an entitled brat, that is not to say I have not let my kids win in a close game, but I never set out thinking they must win this game! again I couldn't do this, seems to me to defeat my purpose of playing hobby games with my girls.

the Badger method.
My girls have been playing hobby games for years now, and so we are in the happy place where I can use other games they know to help describe rules and tactics, however, before we got here I had a method of my own.

• The 5 6 7 8 year old rule, my youngest could "take back" a move once per game, once she saw what others would do next, this offset the advantages that big sister and Daddy had well.

•  Learning games - the first few times we played a game we would declare it a "learning game" so we would often play cards face up, explain why we may do things while playing, to give us all a better understanding of the game.
• Rules lite, I would remove some rules from the game till we had more experience of the game, farmers in Carcasonne being the best example, makes the rest of the game easier to take in, then when reintroduced my girls only had to learn one new thing.

• Watch it played / dice tower / tabletop I would let my girls help me pick what games we would get, so they were more invested in the game when it arrived.

This is just what worked with my two, at the risk of sounding like a hippy all kids are unique so all I can recommend is mix and match ideas till you find what works for you.


Laters

Mav

Currently playing
Marvel Legendary,
Stone age,
Nintendo Switch :)

Games almost out the door,
Dice masters,
Hanabi.

I caved, Star Wars miniatures!

Sorry once more for the delay.


I had long promised myself that I would avoid the X Wing miniatures game, because as a collector and 'Wars fan boi I would buy myself silly.

Well I finally got to play it and then bought it, Jade loves it mainly as she gets to blow up my ships (the dice gods love her).

I have just attended the second Northampton games day (where a very kind soul played X wing with me - see above) I also got to play Bang (a game I had long wanted to try), between two cities, a good if not outstanding game and Salem, a game that I had never paid much attention before but is excellent, really if you are in the position of playing games with many people you NEED to get this.

So all in all a great day, looking forward to the next one, first however we have the UK Games Expo.

Expo countdown!

Less than one month to go till the expo, I am volunteering once more (only way I can afford to visit for more than a single day) if it is half as good as last time it will be amazing.

I have little I am looking for in terms of new games, add ons and expansions are the order of the day (see X Wing above), I also plan to take a fair bit of beer this time to save myself from the hotel bar charges!

In other gaming news I have been preparing a game of Changeling the Dreaming to play with my girls, the youngest especially seems to be looking forward to it, the older one (Amber) is 11 so is aiming at teenager level strops half the time.

Games we are currently playing,

Xwing,
King of Tokyo,
Marvel Legendary,
Love Letter.


Laters.

Mav

Kickstarter and, still to many?

I am sorry, I have been seeing other people, that is my only excuse for being away for so long.

I am weak.



Now thats done with.

Christmas! I love christmas, but this year I had to tone things down, when we looked at everything we had bought for the girls it was far to much, so a few things got held back, including a game for me and the girls to share.

I have said before I don't get kickstarter for games, you pay full price for a game that has no reviews, they keep your cash for months before you get the result and sometimes that thing is so poor you think it may have been made by blue peter.

Like I said I am not a fan!

However, I have now backed 2 kickstarters, one a roleplaying game the other to support a show.

The RPG.
I spent many years playing White Wolf games, mainly Vampire the Masquerade but I have always adored Changeling the Dreaming, a game that suffered with unsuitable art and a bad rep.

So when White Wolf started doing the 20th anniversary I decided I was going to back changeling if it happened, sadly I cannot afford to back it as highly as I had wished but I am happy to have played a small part in updating the kithan.

(I have a Nocker tattoo, so yes I am a fanboi!)

The Show.
The second best show about games on the web is in my opinion the Dice Tower (the best being tabletop) so this year I decided to back them too, mainly as I get a huge number of hours of entertainment from those guys, so paying a few quid still feels very cheap!

Still a little gutted that Zee and Eric are not coming to the UKGE this year.

Every gamer knows about "the talk" sadly it came to pass that I had it, Aimi questioned the number of games I own and mentioned how new ones keep "appearing" when I said I will never have more than 35 so if new ones come in one leaves first, she was less than impressed, asking why a grown man needs 35 board games.

"Because they are awesome" didn't go down well as my reply!

As a result I have decided to hold fire on new acquisitions and just play the hell out of what I already have (including Stone Age & Legendary which Santa bought me!) so that may be no bad thing.

Part of the reason I have the 35 game rule is because I form collections far to easily, then purchase new stuff "for the collection" rather than because it will be used enough to justify the outlay.

So nowt new coming in for a while = nothing leaving!

Games on high rotation,
Coup - Jade adores this.
Stone Age - all three of us having a great time playing this (my girls enjoy blocking me!)
Marvel Legendary - mainly me playing solo but the girls enjoy it too.

That Christmas thing.

I have to admit, I adore Christmas, giving and receiving gifts, eating and drinking far too much plus a week away from work.

The downside is, I agonise over what to get people and end up with huge lists not knowing what to get for the best. I also have a habit of over analysing  any gifts I receive.

Right now I am looking into what to get people (mainly muggles) and for my girls at least one game is high on the agenda, last year I got them Brave Rats (2 player card game - Love letter variant) and Qwixx (simple dice rolling game with decent re playability, SdJ runner up I think) both went down very well and are still being played regularly, Qwixx was taken on holiday with us recently and saw the table most days.

Right now I am thinking that I "may" get them a big box game between them rather than a micro game each - but I am not a fan of joint gifts.

Coup and Fairy tale top the list, while I am certain FT would be great am not sure how well Coup plays 3 player wise.  Big box games is easier, Takenoko is the whole list and has been for a while!

I am a big enough kid I still enjoy getting gifts and obviously board games are a big part of my life, the list for me is nice and simple this year, I know I have Stone Age coming (the German version) and I am asking for 3 expansions (King of Tokyo Power up, Smash Up Big Geeky Box and Castle Panic Wizards tower).

This may count as being a smidge sneaky as I am not asking for a few games I really want as I am hoping they will appear during black friday (or I may just buy them when I am feeling sad at some point) but Marvel Legendary is very high on the list with Castles of Mad king Ludwig and Ticket to Ride UK not far behind.

I find myself in the position of having enough disposable cash to buy games on a whim with little remorse but just cant justify breaking my 35 game rule.

Games out : none.
Games in : None.
Games at risk right now: Test match special, Hey thats my fish, Gubs.
Games in high rotation : Bonhanza, Sushi Go, Qwixx.
Games in Want list: Marvel Legendary.

The "Joy" of being a collector.

That is, being a collector in a bad way.


Rules - I have many for myself, else I would end up doing god know what.

One of my rules for Board games is my 35 game rule - I will never own more than 35 games - if I want to add one I must sell / pass on a game I already own.

I have an ever growing "want" list and sometimes it is just the numbers on the list that keep me from buying from it.

That said, I managed to trim my collection pre UKGE and I have not yet returned to 35 games, which is the downside as I now feel the need to return to "normal" numbers.

To hold myself back I have (at my children's direction) created a "Christmas list" (I am aware and happy that this makes me a big kid) this includes a few games but half a dozen expansions (which are excluded from the 35 rule!), so I cant buy the games or expansions I want most, so I wont buy any.

Play time.

When I started this blog I was playing 99% of my games with my kids, it seems that since September I now only play 1% of my games with my children, I have to admit I am missing being beaten regularly by them.

The upside of the % switch is I now play with grown ups most of the time! which brings problems of its own but I really enjoy, I wish I could balance it out so it was 50 / 50 (and not just so I play lots more either!). I introduced a "losers trophy" at the game group and somehow, have only managed to win it the once - I guess I must be very good at coming second last!

Games out : none.Games in : Terror in meeple city.
Games at risk right now: Test match special, Hey thats my fish.
Games in high rotation : Bonhanza, Smash up, Hive.
Games in Want list: to many to list!

laters

Mav

Adding Complexity, Daddies conundrum.

I love games of all sorts, sometimes I want to play a solid heavier game and Friday (my normal game night) seems so far away.

So I found myself wondering (I do this alot) how much added complexity can my girls take? eventually I changed the question to the "proper" one.

How much added complexity would my girls enjoy.

I think the answers are very different and I am glad (for once) I thought about it so much before spending money.

Let me explain, my girls enjoy hobby games, them smash me at smash up (with Ponies!) they out farm me at Bohnanza, they isolate me in Small world, but often, they want to keep things simple, they want to play Snap or top trumps and I am fine with that, as often the game is just a crutch for spending quality time (did I just say that? I must be getting old!) with my girls.

So while they would enjoy Marvel Legendary (it is great after all!) I think the number of times it would hit the table and stay there for a full game would be minimal and if they stop having fun the whole thing is kinda pointless.

So basically I am putting aside my wish for Race for the galaxy at home and instead looking to explore the Stone Age and Powering up my Tokyo smashing monsters.

Now that I type the above I see it is just following my own rules for gaming with kids, slowly push boundaries and if in doubt sidestep rather than push forwards.

Games out : Family Fluxx, Zombie Dice
Games in : Terror in meeple city.
Games at risk right now: Test match special, Hey thats my fish, dice masters, Small world.
Games in high rotation : Bonhanza,Smash up, Terror in Meeple city.
Games in Want list : Stone Age, Smash up Expansion, King of tokyo expansion, Takenoko.

(sing along) I got the post Expo bluuuuuuuuuuues!

Post Expo I have had to take stock of a few things,

Game wise I seem to have less "big box" games I love in favour of shorter games that will be played more, I think in part this is due to regularly visiting the skin peeler's for game nights.

So I have to make a choice, do I get a longer game that will hit the table less often and will most likely exclude my younger daughter (she prefers short games) or do I keep getting games that will be on high rotation?

Either way the recent loss of my 3DS delays the choice as I NEED my mobile gaming fix sorted, so that is my priority.

Big box games wise I keep returning to Stone age, the game just looks amazing!

I am also looking for a single player game or two (proper ones not just playing Pandemic and using a few roles) and while Friday looks ace, I refuse to pay as much for delivery as I will for the game.

I was recently at Cub camp helping out as a leader (I am a Beavers leader) and I managed to get a few games of Werewolf played, a few of the kids (The girls mainly) wanted to play more but sadly a few were not interested so we did not have numbers for it.

Went very well though!

Tabletop.
I know the Cool kids (or the least cool???) like to sneer at Wil Wheaton and the gang for playing "gateway games" but the amount of BS coming out about errors they are making is terrible.

Terrible for the hobby (not just because G&S bring so many into it) as it is dividing the community, never a good thing as we are not nearly large enough to do such a thing.

Lets make this clear - Making mistakes is a perfectly natural normal thing for people to do, should they make so many mistakes? probably not, but Coup aside I didn't see anything that broke the games.

Anyone feeling moral outrage at Wheaton for this needs to have a word with themselves.

(throwing the Producer to the Wolves publicly was not cool though)





Games at risk right now: Fluxx, Hey thats my fish, dice masters, Small world.
Games in high rotation : Bonhanza, Gubs, Love Letter.
Games in Want list : Stone Age, Firefly, Coup, Castles of Mad king ludvig.