Category Archives: News

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…

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

Next Meeting, 14th October 2025

Happy Birthday to Us!

Our next meeting will be Tuesday 14^th October 2025, when we will be celebrating our thirteenth birthday. We will be eating together to celebrate at 7pm, with cake and games afterwards.

As is now traditional on our birthday, the “Feature Game” will be Crappy Birthday. This is a party game where players give each other comedy birthday presents and the recipient has to decide who gave the best and worst gifts.

– Image by boardGOATS

And speaking of birthdays…

Jeff was at the surgery. “Doctor, I get heartburn every time I eat birthday cake,” he explained.

The doctor asked him to open his mouth and say “Ahhh.”

After a few moments examination, the doctor said, “Next time, take the candles off.”

boardGOATS is Now a Troublesome Teen!

Thirteen Today

BoardGOATS is has reached its Troublesome Teens!

It is over thirteen years since our first boardGOATS meeting at the Horse and Jockey in Stanford-in-the-Vale. We now typically have over ten, lovely people every time many of whom make a special effort to travel some distance to join us—without you, boardGOATS wouldn’t exist, so we really appreciate it all the effort you folks make. Here’s to another year of great games!

Next Meeting, 30th September 2025

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 30^th September 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 The Traveler expansion to Altiplano (base game rules, base game review, base game instructional video, expansion rules, expansion review, expansion overview and instructional video). Altiplano is a “bag building” game where players develop their alpaca farms in the highlands of Peru and was the first game to receive the coveted Golden GOAT Award in 2018.

– Image by boardGOATS

And speaking of alpacas…

Jeff was at Millets Farm with his wife and, after visiting the Falconry, they were admiring the animals. They were looking at the alpacas, when Jeff commented, “They look a bit scary, do you think they might bite?”

His wife replied, “Oh no, they are quite friendly, there’s no cause for a llama…!”

Goats in the News: The Velkopopovický Kozel Brewery

A few weeks ago, while many of us were playing games, two members of the group were visiting the village of Velké Popovice in Czechia. Part of the reason for their visit was to go on the Kozel Brewery tour. The first references to the Popovice Brewery come from the mid-sixteenth century, but the first batch of the dark Velkopopovický Kozel beer was brewed on 15^th December 1847. Internationally, Kozel is probably the best known Czech beer, although the brand has been owned by Asahi since 2016.

– Image by boardGOATS

The interest here, is in the name—Kozel means “goat” in Czech and this is reflected in the brand logo. The origin apparently comes from the fact that a dark beer used to be called “bock”, which also means “goat” in German. Hence, the brewery’s strong, dark beer became known locally as kozel. So, when in 1919, a lost French painter passed through the fillage, he gave the village a painted billy goat as a thank you for giving him food and shelter. Since then, the brewery have had a sucession of goat mascots, most of which have been called Olda, and the current incumbent can be visited by people touring the facility.

– Image by boardGOATS

Next Meeting, 16th September 2025

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 16^th September 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 First Empires (rules, review and instructional video). This is a dice-driven, area movement and control game that we played a few weeks ago and found we really enjoyed.

– Image by boardGOATS

And speaking of empires…

Jeff was visiting the bar at the top of the Empire State Building. He was standing at the bar when a guy in a suit approached him and said, “Did you know that one of the reasons this building has such interesting design is that they made it so that when people jump out of the window, the wind stops them from falling too fast and they just float to the ground, unhurt?”

Jeff was astonished, “No way,” he said, “Prove it!”

So, the man in the suit climbed onto the window sill and jumped out the window. A few minutes later the lift arrived and out he walked.

“See! It works!” the man in the suit said. Jeff was really impressed and before anyone could stop him, he jumped onto the window sill and lept out of the window and, after what seemed like an age to him as he accellerated rapidly, landed with a jolt in an anti-suicide net.

Back in the bar, the bartender sighed, “Superman, you really can be an idiot when you’ve been drinking!”