Playing To Type

After going to the Phalanx Show yesterday myself and a few friends were at mine to play boardgames. I have a batch of games that I have acquired over the last few of isolation. Not quite a burning desire but I was heavily tilted towards playing them. When they found out that I had a copy of Escape From Colditz, the discussion was over.

You may not be familiar with the game but it was a staple of my childhood. It was a game I played a lot with some long lost good friends when I was at primary school. Its especially memorable because it was played a lot on the last day at school. Osprey Books did a reprint and whilst I thought it would be a nice buy I wasn't going to spend the money on a game I didn't think anyone would play it. Then I saw it in a charity shop for a tenner. I just couldn't not buy it.

So although the clear winner by a country mile, it was only possible because of my friends and we all got a chance to take a step back into childhood. 

It is still a good game but to me it is how all the participants play to type. It is possible to figure out what is going to happen when you play with the same people for decades. So whilst I got two of guys to safety, taking chances and getting one killed I did so because the French, in blue (heavily camouflaged on the blue safe squares) were there to give me the kit to do it whilst playing to type, the cheese eating surrender monkeys. Cheers Martin.

Discover: Lands Unknown

This weekend is all about board games. I have a friend down for the weekend and that is pulling another friend over to mine. We have been playing a few games but the most fun for me has been Discover - Lands Unknown. I got it for Christmas and it has been a game I have had my eye on it for a while so was quite happy.

It's a game about survival in a range of different environments. Each biome has its own challenges and environmental effects. Each box comes with two of the potential six regions that are available.The balance of resources is key on each board. On top of that there is a plot. Each scenario has a story which unfolds as the exploration takes place. After playing the game this seems to make it a nice touch but I can't say too much without giving the plot away.

Concepts about survival within the game seem pretty sound although not especially detailed. Obviously you need the basics but gear can be made and what you scavenge is important. It concentrates on food and water but seems to bypass shelter altogether. I would have thought that shelter would have played a bigger part. I guess that must interfere with the need to push the players into exploration.

As cooperative games go, it is cooperative light. Sticking together is better but not essential every turn. Players are prone to do a resource grab but then try to help each other out. The end game is less cooperative apparently. I haven't got there yet so I can't really comment. There is a more cooperative variant published

The game is hard. Having played it twice the trend seems to be towards getting there but as a team we have failed to beat it twice. I am not sure if that is because we have gotten better but it is probably more likely the second time we played there were three players rather than two, giving us more actions to start with and a lot more per turn.

Each environment is tough. The biomes have slightly different resources and the mix of cards represents what you might find there. This makes tactics that seem to kind of work in one area not working in the other. It's a nice feature, and along with the level of challenge make the games interesting enough to be replayable. Every day the situation varies a little. The trend is such that things tend to get more problematic as times go by and the amount of stamina you get is determined by the cards. This makes planning an entertaining process which may end up being a waste of time unless you work on the worst case scenario.

The blurb tells me that each game is unique. This is probably true, statistically speaking. Although there are a range of board and cards, it seems likely to me that in order to make the game work, the cards need to have a relatively similar split. So, whilst there are way more variations than I would care to name, the variations are geared up to work together. It's more like different shades than different colours.

Typically I buy games for two reasons, it's either because it's a genre I really like or it's an idea I kind of like that seems like it might be fun and has a good rating on Board Game Geek. At rank 4151 (at this moment although I remain hopeful) his game is definitely in the former category. This is not a fair representation and the game (assuming you like the genre) is a fun game to play and it is still fun even when you lose.

Blood Bowl Nurgle's Rotters

I may have mentioned a number of times that I Like Blood Bowl (and zombies, and sci-fi, post-apocalypse, and fantasy, and WW2, well the list goes on). The truth is that I am a bit of a Blood Bowl Fanboy. Whilst I have loved all the figures that have come out, the only team to come out so far that I haven't had in the old edition was the Goblins, perhaps my least favourite team.

Nurgle is not a team I have ever owned. If I recall correctly it was a team that wasn't actually a team in the last official rules but an officially sanctioned team in the Living Rule Book. It did get supported with a team but these were just figures from other existing teams. Correct me if I am wrong. Now that it is here I was going to be a must buy.

So with Nurgle being on the market, I asked for a box for my birthday last week. Due to a slight misunderstanding I ended up with only one sprue. No problem really. When I get round to it, I might buy another box set or I might use some of the Chaos All stars that I already have to fill in any gaps. Sadly I expect that I will always have a few spares.

Reality is usually a hard place in my experience and I have not been a big fan of GW over the years. Most of the nineties I referred to them as the Nottingham Company due to their absolute betrayal of what I thought they stood for when they stopped stocking every product not made by them. This quickly seguey ed into grumbling about the figures. Whilst I am not a big fan of snap-fit the quality and the poses are just getting better and better.