Author Archives: nannyGOAT

Next Meeting, 3rd February 2026

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 3^rd February 2026. As usual, we will start playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer. The pub is likely only doing “basket meals”, due to ongoing problems with their cooking facilities.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be the Out of the Oubliette! expansion for Castle Combo (base game rules, review, how to play video; expansion review). Castle Combo is a fairly light, tile-laying type game where players combine cards to build an array. It has been very popular within the group, and we are excited to see what difference the expansion makes.

– Image from boardGOATS

And speaking of oubliettes…

Jeff had been fired… yet again. This time, he had been working as a medieval guard at a tourist attraction in Carcassonne. Problem was, he kept losing things, the latest was the key to the oubliette. Jeff was particularly aggrieved when he was given his marching orders though, as nobody could remember what was in it anyway.

Next Meeting, 20th January 2026

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 20^th January 2026. As usual, we will start playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer. The pub is likely only doing “basket meals”, due to ongoing problems with their cooking facilities.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be Formaggio (rules, review & two-player tutorial video), which is the shiny new sequel to Fromage which won the Golden GOAT award just before Christmas. The game play is much the same as the original, with players simultaneously placing their Workers and gathering resources from their section of the board, before the board rotates, ageing any cheese that was made, and presenting each player with a new quadrant to place Workers on. The main difference is the scoring segments, and as such Formaggio is also an expansion to Fromage as these pieces can be swapped between the games, though we won’t be mixing them this time.

– Image from kickstarter.com

And speaking of cheese…

Jeff was driving through Germany with a truck full of sausages when another truck containing cheese pulled out in front of him. Unable to stop, Jeff swerved and clipped the second waggon, causing both to shed their load over the Autobahn. The German police described it as it a würste käse scenario…

Goats in the News: Festive Frolicking

Goats love Christmas just as much as everyone else, and can get up to just as much mischief during the festive season as at any other time. For example, shortly before Christmas this year, Billy the billy goat chased a lady around Upper Seagry near Chippenham before moving on to pinching oranges from Christmas wreathes. Eventually, the PCs Ferris and Miller deployed riot shields and a lasso to capture the miscreant, who then proceeded to try to eat the patrol car. After briefly breaking loose again, Billy was eventually recaptured and returned to its owner.

@ghrnews

Wiltshire Police have had an unusual festive call out – to an escaped goat terrorising a woman in her own garden. ‘Billy’ was charging around a street in Upper Seagry – before stopping to much on a Christmas wreath. He’s now safely back at home after an officer managed to lasso him.

♬ original sound – Greatest Hits Radio News

– From tiktok.com

In contrast, Boomer, Dingle, Tootle and Tumble, the pygmy goats from Abingdon Lock, were rewarded for their good behaviour with a special post-Christmas meal of festive foliage. While some plants are like laurel and onions are can make goats very ill, it turns out that fresh pine-needles are full of anti-oxidants and vitamins and Christmas tree bark is a really special Tree-t!

@drwoomanchu

Serving up Christmas trees as a snack! Meet the Abingdon Lock pygmy goats, Boomer, Dingle, Tootle and Tumble! 🎄🐐🥰

♬ original sound – drwoomanchu

– From tiktok.com

Next Meeting, 6th January 2026

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 6^th January 2026. As usual, we will start playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer. The pub is NOT doing food tonight, due to problems with their cooking facilities.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be Taxi Derby (rules & video review) which is a “pick up and deliver” game where players are trying to take passengers to their destinations as quickly as possible without getting caught speeding.

– Image by boardGOATS

And speaking of getting nicked by the fuzz…

A policeman saw Jeff driving incredibly slowly on the motorway, so they pulled alongside and, as they did so, they saw he was knitting. As they watched, Jeff remained focused on the road and kept knitting and driving.

The policeman in the passenger seat waved to get his attention, but Jeff was oblivious and carried on, driving and knitting.

Getting more frustrated, the policeman driving turned on his “blues and twos” and, as Jeff finally noticed, the copper in the passenger seat signalled for him to wind the window down.

After a moment or two, Jeff finally lowered the window and the incensed policeman yelled, “PULL OVER!”

“Oh, no,” Jeff replied. “It’s a scarf, see?”

Next Meeting, 23rd December 2025

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 23^rd December 2025. As usual, we will start playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer. Please note, the pub is NOT DOING FOOD.

As this is likely to be a very quiet evening (aside from the live music party in the next room), we will be playing some of our favourite games from the year or maybe some of the Christmas and winter themed games like Waddle, Jokkmokk, Santa’s Workshop, Christmas Tree, Snow Tails and Gingerbread House.

– Image by boardGOATS

And speaking of Christmas…

Jeff had run out of time to buy Christmas presents and the only gift he’d bought for Joe was a pack of very sticky playing cards. He knew he’d find that very hard to deal with…

Golden GOAT Award Winners – 2025

As usual, just before Christmas, the boardGOATS Un-Christamas Dinner was accompanied by the annual voting for the GOAT Awards. After food and festivities (including the now infamous Gamers’ crackers) the group voted for the two two awards: the Golden GOAT for our favourite game played during the year and the “GOAT Poo” award for our least favourite. Everyone had the usual three points to hand out for the Golden GOAT Award (plus a bonus if wearing Festive Attire), though a maximum of two points could be given to any individual game. Everyone could also nominate up to two individual games for the GOAT Poo Prize and share any special memories as their “Moment of the Year”.

Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 7 – Japan & Italy

– Image by boardGOATS

First up was the Moment of the Year. This almost always generates a lot of discussion, and this year was no exception, until Blue reminded the people near her of the game of Ticket to Ride with the Japan Map, back in March. She commented that her Moment of the Year was when Pine galloped across the room to say that Pink had lost fifty-two points thanks to Purple brilliantly claiming a single route from Hiroshima to Okayama and entirely unintentionally preventing Pink from completing his four long Tickets. Word quickly spread round the room and it was almost a unanimous decision that this was the winner (though opinions differed on whether Purple’s train placement or Pink’s disgust that followed or Pine’s glee was the actual “Moment”).

– Image by boardGOATS

This year, it was agreed that there were no outstandingly awful games this year so it wasn’t awarded, even though Roll for the Galaxy, River Valley Glassworks and Crappy Birthday got a couple of nominations each (clearly the last of these must have been people joking however). The unofficial “Marmite Award” which goes to games with nominations for both the Golden GOAT and the GOAT Poo prizes, went jointly to two older games, Bohnanza and Saboteur, which clearly divide opinion. And finally, there was the Golden GOAT Award for the best game played in the year. Previous winners including Stamp Swap, Wingspan and 6 Nimmt! were ruled out, but there were plenty of options remaining.

– Image by boardGOATS

Pink’s gerrymandering in favour of Zoo Break (with various offers of bribes) were largely unsuccessful. The initial vote gave a three-way tie between Finspan, Intarsia, and Fromage. Finspan was ruled out as it had received one nomination for GOAT Poo (the first tie-breaker), which meant that for the first time in three years, the winner was not going to be a Stonemaier product. That left a two game run-off between the beautiful Intarsia and the smooth cheese-themed Fromage. Victory went to Fromage, which had been so well received that several people had backed the crowdfunding campaign for the follow-up, Formaggio.

– Image by boardGOATS

Next Meeting, 25th Movember 2025

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 25^th Movember 2025. As usual, we will start playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer. The pub is now doing food again, so those that will be eating will be arriving from around 6.30pm.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be Waddle which is an Essen release where players try to collect fish and build waddles of penguins (rules; review). This is a quick game which should leave plenty of time to play other new aquisitions.

– Image from allplay.com

And speaking of penguins…

Jeff stumbled through the door into the Horse and Jockey. As he staggered to the bar, the landlord took one look at his face and asked, “What on earth’s wrong?”

Jeff simply asked, “How tall is a penguin?”

The landlord paused for a minute, and then replied, “About three or four foot I think.”

Jeff groaned and burried his head in his hands saying, “Damn, I think I just ran over a nun…”

Next Meeting, 11th Movember 2025

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 11^th Movember 2025. As usual, we will start playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer. The pub is now doing food again, so those that will be eating will be arriving from around 6.30pm.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be Origin Story which is a recent release from Stonemaier whose games are very popular within the group and have won an unprecedented three GoldenGOAT Awards for Wingspan, Tapestry and Stamp Swap (in 2019, 2023 & 2024 respectively). Their latest game, Origin Story (rules, review and video tutorial) is a trick-taking and tableau-building game where players play tricks to develop their inner superhero.

– Image from stonemaiergames.com

And speaking of superheroes…

Jeff and Joe were at the Jockey talking about films they’d like to see.

“I really want to watch the new Iron Man film,” said Jeff, “It’s got the Silver Surfer in it.”

“Are they working together?” asked Joe.

“Well,” replied Jeff, “They sort of start on opposite sides, but by the end of the film they become alloys…”

Next Meeting, 28th October 2025

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 28^th October 2025. As usual, we will start playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer. The pub is now doing food again, so those that will be eating will be arriving from around 6.30pm.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor which is a new Essen release (rules, review, video review and tutorial, auto translated tutorial). Coupled with the Hound of the Baskerville promo card, this is also suitably spooky to mark the run up to Halloween, while leaving scope for other suitably-themed games like Ghostel and Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons.

– Image by boardGOATS

And speaking of spooky…

Jeff had just moved house and was talking to his new housemate.

“It’s a really old house,” said Jeff, “And sometimes I find it rather spooky. In fact, the other day I thought I saw a ghost.”

“Really?” came the reply. “I’ve never seen one and I’ve lived here for three hundred and forty-five years…”

Essen 2025

Today is the conclusion of the largest annual gathering of gamers in Europe. The Internationale Spieltage is known to gamers worldwide simply as “SPIEL” or “Essen” and is a four day fair with lots of new releases scheduled to coincide with the event, just in time for Christmas sales. This year, there have been lots of exciting new games available to be seen including Galactic Cruise, Brick Like This!, Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor, Waddle, Orloj: The Prague Astronomical Clock (which was sold out before the end of the first day) and Origin Story (which was sold out by Friday).

– Image by boardGOATS

In addition to new games, the rise of crowd funding has had a large impact, and increasingly there are stands presenting current live projects in the hope of seccuring additional backers. Examples of this included, Eldertide: A Thousand Lights, the Lodges expansion to Kavango, Cascadia: Alpine Lakes, AstroNavigators, and the re-release of Nippon to name just a few. There have been a lot of really good deals to be had too, and there will be even more on the final day today. It was with sadness though that the Snowdonia spin-off, Alubari was found at a discounter for €15, as this was a great game released with much fanfare a few years ago.

– Image by boardGOATS

Old favourites typically often get a new lease of life with the release of expansions. This year, relatively recent releases like SETI (which was confirmed as the winner of the Deutscher Spiele Preis), Faraway, Castle Combo and Windmill Valley recieved new additions, but older games like Underwater Cities and Wingspan also got some love (with the new Data Era expansion and the fan-designed promo packs). As well as new games and expansions, there were also a number of re-releases of old favourites including Ra, Bohnanza (with Dahlia artwork) and Botswana, and even Ticket to Ride which has had a bit of a face-lift with new artwork.

– Image by boardGOATS

For those that were prepared to stay late on Friday, there was a world record attempt for the most people playing The Settlers of Catan together. This was achieved with CATAN-Connect, which is a new version of the game designed for large parties that has large groups playing around single islands with elements of simultaneous play and everyone working to one electronic dice roll and a timer. The record had been set at Essen in 2015 with one thousand and forty, only for Rotterdam to set a new record two years later with one thousand and ninety-six. At SPIEL, one thousand, one hundred and seventy players joined in the game (watched by a few more who were just curous), successfully bringing the world record back to Germany where it arguably belongs.

– Image by boardGOATS