Following the success of previous New Year parties, we are having another one this year on Sunday 31^st December.  As it is New Year’s Eve we will be meeting at Barney’s Home in Stanford and starting at 7pm with food later. Please get in touch if you would like to come along so we know how much food to make.

The plan is to start off early with the “Feature Game”, which, as has become traditional, will be the gorgeous, dexterity car-racing game, PitchCar. After that, we will be eating, playing more games and watching the village fireworks at midnight as we can’t be bothered to set off our own!

– Image by BGG contributor visard

And talking of cars…

A policeman sees an elderly woman driving incredibly slowly on the motorway, so he pulls along side and notices her knitting in the driver’s seat. She remains focused on the road and keeps knitting and driving.

He beeps his horn to get her attention, but she is oblivious and carries on.

Getting more frustrated, the policeman turns his siren on and, as she finally notices him, he signals for her to wind the window down.

After a time she finds the button and down goes the window.

Incensed, the cop yells, “PULL OVER!”

“Oh, no sweetie,” she replies. “It’s a scarf, see?”

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, 12^th December, at the Horse and Jockey pub in Stanford-in-the-Vale.  As this is our last meeting before Christmas we will be meeting early at 7pm for pizzas and Christmas festivities.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be Giftmas at Dungeon Abbey followed by a range of Christmas and winter themed games like Snow Tails, Christmas Tree, The Great Downhill Ski Game, Snowboard, Antarctica, Carcassonne: Winter Edition and Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries.  Giftmas at Dungeon Abbey is a short game set in a world somewhere between Downton and The Adams Family, designed by a local gamer and member of the Didcot Games Club, Rob Harper.

– Image by boardGOATS

And speaking of Christmas…

Jeff wasn’t in a festive mood.  He was in a lot of pain, so he went to see his doctor to get the problem looked at.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, 28^th November, at the Horse and Jockey pub in Stanford-in-the-Vale.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be Lords of Waterdeep, a worker placement game where players take on the role of one of the masked Lords of Waterdeep, secret rulers of the city who use their agents to recruit adventurers to go on quests, earning rewards and increasing their influence over the city.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor kilroy_locke

And speaking of adventures…

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, 14^th November, at the Horse and Jockey pub in Stanford-in-the-Vale.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

This week, will be the slightly belated “Essen Special” so the “Feature Game” will be Flamme Rouge, a bicycle racing game where players have to balance the demands of their “sprinter” and their “rouleur”; the winner is the player to get one of them over the finish line first.  Although we are celebrating this year’s Spiel Convention at Essen, this game was actually released at Essen in 2016, but now has an expansion that adds a couple of extra players.  There will also be other games brought back from Essen, including Azul,  Queendomino and Animals on Board.

– Image by BGG contributor Hasematzel

And speaking of bicycles…

Jeff was out riding his bicycle when knocked over a little old lady.  Jeff was horrified and stopped to help the old dear.  She was a bit shaken, but was a tough old bird and, with his help, got up and dusted herself off.  As she got to her feet, she berated Jeff asking, “Don’t you know how to ride a bike?!?!”

“Yes,” he answered, “But I don’t know how to ring the bell yet…”

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, 31^st October, at the Horse and Jockey pub in Stanford-in-the-Vale.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

Normally, the week after Essen would be the “Essen Special” playing a game someone has brought back from the fair, but this week Tuesday is Halloween, so to mark the occasion, the “Feature Game” will be Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game.  In this game, players are part of a small, weakened colony of survivors in a world where most of humanity is either dead or diseased, flesh-craving monsters.  Players must therefore work towards a common victory condition, but for each individual player to achieve victory, they must also complete their personal secret objective.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor mikehulsebus

Jeff, Joe and Jim ran into a museum to hide from the hoard of zombies coming down the road.  While looking for something to eat and drink Joe found a golden lamp out of which popped a Genie.

“You can have three wishes.”  The Genie said, “What is your first wish?”

Without missing a beat, Joe answered, “I want to go back to my family before the zombie apocalypse and I want it to never happen!” Jim added, “That sounds great, I wish for that too!”

And with a puff the two men were gone.

There was a sudden splintering, shattering noise as the front door of the museum caved in with the weight of all the zombies pushing on it.  As the museum rapidly filled up with zombies, the Genie asked Jeff, the last of the three friends what he wished for.

Jeff thought about it quickly and answered, “I wish my two friends were back here to help fight off all these zombies…”

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, 17^th October, at the Horse and Jockey pub in Stanford-in-the-Vale.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

This week the “Feature Game” will be Squirrel Rush, which is a quick-playing little filler game where players are squirrels traveling through the wood collecting nuts.  It is a very simple little game with two variants; we will probably be playing with the slightly less random “Smarty Squirrel” rules.

– Image by boardGOATS

And talking of smart squirrels…

Jeff and his father went hunting together for the first time.

Jeff’s father said, “Stay here and be very quiet. I’ll be just across the field.”

A few minutes later, Jeff let out a blood curdling scream and his father ran back.

“What on earth is wrong?” Jeff’s father asked. “I told you to be quiet.”

Jeff answered, “Look Dad, I was quiet when the spider crawled across my face; I was quiet when the slithered across my feet. But when the two squirrels crawled up my trouser leg and said, “Should we eat them here or take them with us?” Well, then I guess I just panicked…”

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 3^rd October, at the Horse and Jockey pub in Stanford-in-the-Vale.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

To celebrate our fifth birthday this week, the “Feature Game” will once again be Crappy Birthday.  This is a silly little filler/party game that we can mess about with while people are eating cake, allowing us to play something longer once everyone is done.  Family games like this are not usually our sort of thing, but we played it last year to celebrate our fourth birthday and had a ball, so we thought we’d keep the second deck of cards for this year…

– Image by boardGOATS

And speaking of birthdays…

It was Jeff’s birthday and, as it was a special birthday, his brother had bought him a special present.  Before opening the gift, Jeff shook it slightly, and noticed that it was wet in the corner.  Touching his finger to the wet spot and tasting it, he asked, “Is it a bottle of wine?”

His brother shook his head, “No…” So, again, Jeff touched his finger to the box and tasted the liquid.

“A bottle of scotch then?” he asked, beginning to get all excited – this was way better than he’d expected.  Again his brother shook his head though, “No, not a bottle of scotch…”

Eventually, Jeff said, “OK, I give in, what is it?”

His brother paused for effect, before answering, “A puppy!”

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, 19^th September, at the Horse and Jockey pub in Stanford-in-the-Vale.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

This week the “Feature Game” will be Battle Kittens, which is a quick-playing card drafting game with a ninja-cat theme.  The idea is that players draft kitten cards then choose which kittens to put into each of the three different battle arenas.

– Image by boardGOATS

And talking of ninja cats…

Jeff was driving through the city when a policeman stopped him and asked him about the Siberian Lynx in the passenger seat.

“What are you doing with that Siberian Lynx?” he exclaimed, “You should take it to the zoo.”

Jeff replied, “Certainly Officer, that’s just where we are going.”

The following week, the same policeman saw Jeff in his car, once more with the cat next to him in the front seat.  This time, of them were wearing sunglasses.  The policeman pulled him over.

“I thought you were going to take that cat to the zoo!”

Jeff replied, “I did. We had such a good time we are going to the beach this weekend!”

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, 5^th September, at the Horse and Jockey pub in Stanford-in-the-Vale.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

This week the “Feature Game” will be Chariot Race, which is a fairly quick-playing Yahtzee style dice game with a horse racing element.  The game is guaranteed to include lots of cut-throat nastiness that would make Judah Ben-Hur wince, but it should be all over in a fraction of the time!

– Image by boardGOATS

And talking of horses…

A horse was looking over a fence watching a game of cricket.

“Any chance of a game?” he asked Jeff who was the captain.

At first the captain was taken aback by the talking horse, but when it insisted it was keen to play Jeff thought it might be a bit of a laugh if he sent the horse out as the opening bat. The horse shaped up to the first ball and slammed it over the boundary for six. He did the same with the second and third, indeed every ball he hit for six until the over ended.

Jeff had been the horse’s partner, so when the bowler ran in from the other end and he managed his first shot for a meagre single, he called for the horse to run.  The horse had other ideas though and just stood there.  Frantic calls by the captain to run were ignored and in the confusion the skipper was stumped out.

“Why on earth didn’t you run?!?!” yelled Jeff in disgust.

“Listen mate,” replied the horse, “If I could run I would be at the racetrack today, not messing around with this cricket nonsense…”