With seven of us (Nigel, JC, Mike, Paul, Dan, Dave and I) arriving early doors we kicked off with a game of The Walking Dead Card Game. The re-theme of 6 Nimmt! becomes a crazy game with large player counts but it's quick and fun. Nigel squeaked out a one point victory over Paul in the end. I forgot to take a photo during the game so here's a picture of some cards on the table.
Paul was expecting to play Alan at Mutants & Death Ray Guns. How we laughed when he said, "Al's usually down by 8 o'clock isn't he?"
So with the elusive Al nowhere to be found, Paul, JC, Dave and Mike kicked off a game of 1775
, an abstracted simulation of the US War of Independence by Academy Games.
Paul and JC played the part of the heroic British and loyalist militia while Dave and Mike played the role of the dastardly separatists. Any word on who came out victorious lads?
Dan, Nigel and I played Crusader Kings, a boardgame reimplementation of the video game of the same name.
The game purports to be, "a strategy game at heart, but with a special focus on characters, intrigue, and drama" while, in practice, this boils down to drawing a random token from a bag to try to marry/plot/invade/build a castle/crusade.
The card stock is also the worst I've ever seen in any boardgame of any price.
Nigel was able to marry his king and bear children in the first turn and this ultimately proved to be a decisive advantage throughout the game, although I was surprised that, in the end, he finished just a point ahead of me despite my consistently poor token draws throughout the game. I see that there is a version 1.1 of the rules available. Perhaps this makes the game better, but I'm not betting on it.
Alex turned up just before 9pm. Apparently he was going to be gaming with Al too, this time in their Blood Bowl match. Unlike Paul, Alex was to receive satisfaction as Al duly arrived just after 9pm, apparently oblivious to his earlier commitment. A healthy round of barracking followed before Alex and Al arrange a 20-minutes-per-half timed game. Alex's Halflings took a first half lead but Al then drew the game with a second half score after Alex had run out of time.
