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.

Uk Games Expo.

This past week has been dominated by the UK Games Expo, for the first time I went and helped and not knowing what was in store made it difficult to prepare.

I volunteered for a few reasons, partly as an effort to include myself more, also because I have so enjoyed the event I was hoping to give something back.

The third reason and one I have given before is to subsidise the event for me.

For me the Event was a mix of Cider, playing games, carrying tables, answering questions and re arranging games and a tiny bit of sleeping and eating when I could fit them in!

I arrived with a reasonable budget and with the hope of getting a couple of big box type games, I didn't get anything longer than 30 mins as I was to busy working to actually get the games I wanted before they sold out!

I did however meet some ace people, play some great games that I would not otherwise have tried (Firefly I am looking at you!) and basically loved it all.

That is not to say the event is perfect, however they get so much right so much of the time I am shocked.

Just realised this was left as a draft rather than posted, but will post now.............

Meeple addiction......

With just over a week to go I find myself getting pretty excited about going to the UK Games Expo, this year I am volunteering (more about that later).

For anyone that does not know the Expo is the biggest Board games event in the UK, it lasts 3 days and is a mix of retail (some discounts many charge more than RRP!) game demo's, talks, Cosplay and just sitting down to play games with random sweaty types.

This is the first time I have volunteered - I did for 2 reasons, partly to continue my "doing stuff for others" thing (which is actually working tbh!) and partly because they put you up in a hotel and you get to play loads more games!

My experience of Volunteering for the expo is not great so far, I had to chase the lass in charge to sort things out and even then she got things very wrong.
Once I had sorted it, they game me no info till I had chased yet again!
Then I discover the details are not quite what was first advertised as "I am volunteering late on" (because it took me 6 months to get you to pull your finger out!)

(and breathe.............)

I am hoping the show will be an epic one for me but without the epic price tag.

I did want to take my girls but sadly my wife is not keen on them coming :(

Lately I have been playing new games each week thanks to the group of board gamers I have joined most fridays which is ace, but reminds me how bad I am at games until I have had a few games to get the hang of them.

Also I still can't shake the desire to open a board games shop in the small town I live in, I have developed a plan which I think would work to get both the gamers in and also keep a steady stream of muggles in as fresh gamers and just to keep the till ringing.

As for my girls they appear to have caught the Stratego bug lately, something I am okay about but I would still rather play a nice Euro game...........

The joy of new gaming friends.

Recently I responded to an advert on the Board game Geek about players in my home town.

I was invited to join some guys to play, which I agreed to hoping this could become a regular thing and really wanting us all to get on to allow it to be so.

When I told a few people that I was doing this the reaction was surprising to me, horror at the thought of meeting new people and shock I would meet them at there house.

I am no wilting daisy and found it strange anyone would consider it to be unsafe for me to do this, I had not thought of this for a second, my only fear being not getting on.

In the end I was joking that I was going to be skinned alive so they could make a fat man suit out of human skin................

So anyway I went, met some very nice people and played a couple of games I had heard and seen lots about (Castles of mad king Ludwig and Smash up!) they were both very good and I may be adding one or both to my collection sooner rather than later (My collection has been thinned to allow space for the UK Games expo).

One thing I had never heard about Smash up! is just how good the quality of the cards is, they feel like premium kit.

I won Smash up! and came second in the Castles of mad king Ludwig, although if I had not pointed out a few things to the chap that beat me I would have won both! (may not have got an invite back then so perhaps for the best!).

Also I have been continuing to attempt to volunteer for the UKgamesexpo, it has become a real grind to do this and they keep saying they are not recieving my emails, giving out incorrect email addys and generally not doing much to make me want to keep pushing.

I have sent a message to the powers that be and asked for the Lass that sorts things to phone me or should I just take the hint?? I hope that will sort it one way or another.

Mav

The skin peelers

Tonight I joined some guys to play board game, I sorted it through the geek and many told me to be very careful. 

So I met Graham and Mark at Graham house, both seem like decent chaps and I was at ease early on.

At times I got nervous and talked far to much, but generally it was comfortable for me.

We played the castle of mad king Ludwig to begin and despite an early lead I fixated on one scoring method and was beaten into second place in the end.

It was great fun though but to much for Jade I think so not one to buy for me.

We then played smash up - something I have long considered but never pulled the trigger on. 

I am convinced Amber would love this, not sure it is Jades type of game though.

Willing to give it a try though.

So I really enjoyed playing grown ups, being the least experienced player was good too, I am hoping for an invite to the next game session.

I do love board games.

Whats this actually for then?

Stuck wondering what I can say that people may actually want to read I have realised, the important bit for me is the writing.

If anyone else reads it so much the better!

My current love affair is with games, mainly board and card games of the modern / hobby variety.

So that is what I will speak about.

As you may or may not know I play games mainly with my two girls, Amber who is 10 and Jade 8.

Both are pretty experienced gamers at this point and both know exactly what they do and don't like in a game.

Flavour of the month right now is King of Tokyo with Amber and Pandemic with Jade.

I also find myself in the slightly scary situation of being invited to a strangers house to join in a games night, not sure if I will go and not just because there is always the chance I will be skinned to make some sort of suit.

Also on the horizon is the the UK Games Expo, an event I adore but both my wife and bank balance dread.



It s the premier UK game event that is an excellent day out with or without the children, I would only go Friday or Sunday with kids though as the Saturday is traditionally more rammed than a really rather rammed thing.


So anyway till I decide otherwise I suspect I will be using the cul de sack of the web to give reviews of games from a gamer dads POV.

Tom Vassel I am not, but they will be honest if nothing else.

.

It is soon my birthday and I asked some of my better friends to join me for a meal and drinks.

I know I feel this way because I am ill but I still feel it, all but 2 dropped out and every text I did not get a reply to every ignored message felt personal.

Finally I felt and feel sure of collusion to exclude me from the lives of those I wish to trust.