Dragonmeet 2013

For a change of pace, I went to the games festival Dragonmeet at Kensington Town Hall. There were the usual stalls, including Chessex, the dice makers:

Yummy!

I indulged a little and bought a card game I've played before, Love Letter by Aldaric Entertainment:

It's a lovely little game, very easy to play.

I only managed to play one game while there, Camelot by Wotan Games. They were introducing the game and it was delightful to play. It's a tile laying game, interior designing for King Arthur.

The designer, Julian, is the chap in the middle.

All-in-all a nice day out.

Sunday Board Games Club - Spartacus and Coup

It's been a few months since I was at the games club, so I was looking forward to it. One of the regulars, Jason, who brought Frag a few months back, had Spartacus ("a game of blood and treachery"):

No so much blood, really, but a fair bit of treachery, and we soon set about stabbing each other in the back, almost to the point where the action in the arena didn't really have anything to do with it. Quite a good game.

Jason also had Coup, which we played a few hands of:

It's an odd game, mostly bluff. You have two face cards and your actions are based on what cards you have, or rather, say you have. Other players can then call your bluff, but only at the cost of losing one of their own cards. If you have enough money, you can call a coup and a player loses a card. It took a little getting used to, but was quite entertaining. I'm not even a natural bluffer, but it soon brought it out.

The Long Weekend and Dragonmeet 2011

I have some holiday left at the end of the year so, taking a tip from my erstwhile colleague Mr. Woodcock, I have used some of it to have one day off a week in the run up to Christmas, taking two long weekends.

I started by watching my film subscription which turned up Jonah Hex:



Not bad for a pizza movie, but all the action seems to take place in the dark for some reason, which does diminish the fun.

I also watched Hobo with a Shotgun, and immediately wished I hadn't (don't watch this if you're going to watch Blade Runner in the near future. It'll break you heart):



It's sad to see Rutger Hauer reduced to this rubbish. He wasn't half bad, but you can see he's at the fag-end of his career.

Dragonmeet 2011

Because I was able to do some shopping on Friday, I went to a games festival on Saturday at Kensington Town Hall. It was the usual fare, but I got to play a couple of games. The first was called, fittingly, Lancaster, run by the Phoenix Games Club from East London:

Based on Medieval England in the time of the 100 Years war, it takes an hour-and-a-half, five turns, and is a political, military and economic game for up to five players. There are no dice, but some cards, to simulate fortuna. There were three experienced players, one eight year old girl (the daughter of one) and me. I came third and I got a nice logo embossed dice for playing!

Next up was Wings of War run by the Shadow Warriors RPG Club:

The game was catch the pidgeon, shooting down your opponents. I flew an S.E.5a:

and got pretty banged up, but gave as good as I got. A half-hours fun and I enjoyed it!