Category Archives: Next Meeting

Next Meeting, 25th March 2025

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 25^th March 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 doing food, and the table is booked from 6.30pm for those that would like to eat first.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be Habesuto (aka ハーベスト or Harvest; rules, review, video review with demonstration), a game from Japan about building a farm, growing vegetables and distributing produce. We have picked this game partly because this week was the official start of the Japanese Cherry Blossom Season.

– Image from youtube.com

And speaking of harvests…

The harvest had been a good one for Farmer Jeff so he decided to buy a barrel of beer to celebrate with his friend Joe. When it arrived, he set it up outside his cottage where he and Joe could sit in the sun and relax.

The next day, Jeff woke to find the barrel was only half full although they’d only had a couple of pints each. Furious about the thievery, Jeff put up a sign saying, “This wine belongs to Farmer Jeff. Thieves will be shot.”

Satisfied, Jeff and Joe continued their celebration that evening, but the next morning, the barrel was down to a quarter full and Jeff was incensed.

Joe said, “You’re going about this all wrong,” and made a new sign that said, “Piss barrel. Do not drink!” Jeff grinned at the cleverness, confident no one in their right mind would steal from the barrel.

The next morning, Jeff went to check the contents and found the barrel full again…

Next Meeting, 18th March 2025

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 18^th March 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 doing food, and the table is booked from 6.30pm for those that would like to eat first.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be Cartographers Heroes (rules, review, how to play video), the standalone sequel to Cartographers. We’ve chosen this game, in part, to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the global coronavirus pandemic in the UK. While stuck at home, the group kept going and played a lot of roll and write games online—Cartographers was perhaps the best of these.

– Image by boardGOATS

And speaking of the global pandemic…

In March 202, Jeff heard terrible things were happening and was very worried, so he went to the chemist and asked the lady behind the counter, “What kills the Corona Virus?”

She replied, “Ammonia Cleaner.”

“Oh, I am sorry,” answered Jeff, “I thought you were the pharmacist.”

4th March 2025

Once people had finished eating, the group settled down to play. There was quite lot interest in the “Feature Game” which was Finspan, a fish-themed version of one of the group’s favourite games, Wingspan. It is advertised as shorter and lighter than the original, but in the event it was only slightly shorter and not much lighter though it was generally agreed to be a bit smoother and therefore perhaps easier to teach. Like Wingspan. Finspan is card-based, though the cards are fish instead of birds, albeit just a beautifully illustrated. As in Wingspan, players have a hand of cards (in this case open) and on their turn can choose to play one from their hand or activate one area or Dive-site of their player board (blue, purple or green), in this case representing the ocean.

– Image by boardGOATS

In the case of Finspan, the Dive-sites are arranged vertically (instead of horizontally), but rather than placing cards in order (from left to right in the original), the Fish cards have to be placed at the correct depth for the Fish—some live in the shallows, others in the deep sea, while a small number live in the “twilight” region, between the two. As in the original, there is a cost for playing cards—fish eggs, Young,Schools and/or other cards. Unlike the original, however, cards spent in this way are placed into players’ own personal discard pile and there are mechanisms for getting them back later in the game.

– Image by boardGOATS

Another way that Finspan is different to the original, is the way the Dive-sites are activated. As in Wingspan, cards are activated in order, in this case, from the shallow “sunlit” zone to the “midnight” deeps. The Fish cards have “when played”, “when activated” and “end of the game” powers, but there are fewer cards that have a power on activation and many of these affect all players too. In addition to the difference in the balance of the cards, when a Dive-site is activated, the three zones each give a benefit as long as they have at least one Fish card in them. These benefits are capped though, as multiple Fish doesn’t increase the income. The first time each player activates a Dive-site in a round, they also get a bonus benefit.

– Image by boardGOATS

There are a small number of Fish pre-printed on players’ boards, which mean than some areas give benefits from the very start of the game. The effect of all this is to give the game a more friendly feel than Wingspan, without reducing the challenge of the game. There is another major change which significantly adds to the complexity. In Wingspan, a key part of the game is Egg production with Eggs worth a point each at the end of the game. In Finspan, players also produce Eggs which are worth a point at the end of the game, but each Fish card can only be used to store one single Egg. Eggs can be hatched to give young (also worth a point) and three young on the same fish form a “School”.

– Image by boardGOATS

Schools of fish are worth six points at the end of the game. And this is where the game gets a little “head-hurty” as Young and Schools can be moved around, but while Young can share a Fish space, once they have formed a School, they can’t share a space with another School—one School can’t even pass through a space containing another School. The game is played over four rounds (or Weeks) with points for achieving objectives at the end of each one. These are added points gained for each Fish card, Eggs, Young, Schools and any end game actions to give a final total—the player with the most points is the winner.

– Image by boardGOATS

As there was a lot of interest in the game, the group set up two tables. Jade, Sapphire, Plum and Byzantium had played it at a convention over the weekend, so Jade led one game with Blue, Ivory and Sapphire, while Plum led the second with Byzantium, Black and Pine. Jade’s group was the first to complete the rules explanation and got going. Ivory was quite excited by the idea of collecting sharks, and while Blue found Nemo, Sapphire found Dorry. The points from the end of the Week objectives were pretty even for the first three weeks, though only Ivory got much at the end of the final week taking twenty points for his end game bonuses, largely due to having a lot of sharks.

– Image by boardGOATS

Blue top-scored for her fish while Jade scored the most for his Schools. In the end, Blue’s hundred and fifty-five took victory with Ivory in second eleven points behind, three points ahead of Jade. Over the other side of the room, Plum’s game was slower to start, but finished at much the same time. This game was lower scoring and closer too; almost everyone picked up some end game bonuses, but not as many as Ivory, and there were fewer Schools. The winner was Byzantium, with one hundred and thirty-one, just two points ahead of Plum who was just a nose in front of Black. All in all, everyone had enjoyed the game as a nice variant on the well known original.

– Image by boardGOATS

Meanwhile, on the next table, Pink, Cobalt, Lime and Purple had begun by playing Tokaido. This is a sort of time-track game where the player at the back takes their turn moveing forward to an empty space of their choice taking turns until they are no-longer the one at the back at which point the new “Lantern Rouge” takes their turn. Each space allows players to collect panoramas, chance it with a random draw for points, buy souvenirs, donate at a temple or work on a farm to gain cash. At intervals, players have to stop for food which costs money, but the last player to arrive at the restaurant last gets the least choice which can be a catastrophe as these meals are usually more expensive with the risk that they are the same as those eaten on previous stops, which means they can’t eat and therefore don’t score.

– Image by boardGOATS

Although it is quite popular within the group, Cobalt was new to the game and commented that it was quite mean when he realised that once a space had been taken it was gone. The group played with the choice of two character cards at the start—Pink felt that his Traveler, Hiroshige, was a poor choice as, although he got a free panorama card at each food stop, it didn’t give him much money at the start. On reflection, he felt Purple had made a better decision in choosing Yoshiyasu, who gave her nine Yen. Lime was the runaway winner with ninety-one, some fifteen more than Purple who just sneaked into second ahead of Pink.

– Image by boardGOATS

As the games of Finspan were still going, Cobalt introduced the group to After Us, aka “The Monkey Game”. This had an outing within the group about eighteen months ago, but was new to Pink and Lime. It is a deck-building, resource management, engine building game featuring an original card-combo mechanism. The story is that mankind has died out leaving only apes which have kept evolving. As the leader of a tribe, players add new Primate Cards to their starting deck of tamarins. Primate Cards have three rows of “Effects”—the top row will award resources, the middle row will give points (often at the cost of resources) and the the bottom row will have abilities related to the primate type. At the start of a round, players draw four Primate Cards from their deck to be laid out in a row making “Connections”.

– Image by boardGOATS

The aim is to get the most out of the Connections by closing the open ended “Frames” along the sides of the cards by butting them up against adjacent cards that also have open ended Frames. Players then resolve the now closed Frames following the order of top left to bottom right, trying to gain as many bonuses as they can. Once everyone has simultaneously collected their Resources they can then use them to buy Primate Cards which are added to the top of the draw deck (and thus they come into use on the very next turn). In this way, they are improving the quality of their deck.

– Image by boardGOATS

One of the good things about the game is that if a player gets a bit “hosed” by the card draw, the frames mechanism allows them to make the best of a bad job. The Frames have been resolved, the players simultaneously chose one of their Action Discs denoting which primate type they want to recruit. The game starts slowly with players building their tribe, but it can end in a sudden rush when one player breaks into a gallop and charges past eighty points triggering the end of the round and this game was no exception. Lime was again the victor, with sixty-nine points, with Pink second, some nine-points behind.

– Image by boardGOATS

Learning Outcome: Jaws was not the only shark.

Next Meeting, 4th March 2025

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 4^th March 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 doing food, and the table is booked from 6.30pm for those that would like to eat first.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be Finspan (rules, review, how to play video), a fish-themed, slightly lighter version of one of the group’s favourite games, Wingspan.

– Image from stonemaiergames.com

And speaking of fish…

Two fish, in a tank, one says to the other, “You drive, I’ll man the gun.”

18th February 2025

Blue and Pink began the evening, while they waited for their supper to arrive, messing about with a little card game called Rollecate which is about a historic steam locomotive built in 1967 by a famous Dutch engineer. The idea of this little game is that players take it in turns to play Track cards to extend Rollecate’s line by placing cards. They can play as many cards as they want, as long as they all have the same number. When laying new track, the difference between the numbers on the last card and the first new card placed must not have a difference of two (thus one cannot be followed by three and four cannot be followed by two etc.). Cards must not overlap when played and cannot force impossible play.

– Image by boardGOATS

Once the Track cards have been played, the active player rolls dice equal to the sum of all numbers on the cards they played, and Rollecate moves forward one step for each Wheel rolled on the dice. Thus, if a player places two threes, they roll six dice. If Rollecate reaches the end of the track, she hits the brakes. For every step she’s short, the player take one card from behind the train places them on their penalty pile one by one in any order they want. Any time the card placed matches the number of the top card on the pile, both are removed from the deck. At the end of the game the everyone adds up the face value of their cards and the player with the lowest total wins.

– Image by boardGOATS

By the time Blue had explained the rules to Pink, their food had arrived, and by the time they had finished their supper, Cobalt had joined them. Blue was just finishing explaining the rules when Pine joined them and eventually they all finally managed to play the game. There were a few “teething issues”, but before long the delightful little metal miniature was progressing along the track. Blue and Pink got unlucky and picked up a lot of cards, some high scoring, and weren’t able to remove them. Cobalt and Pin did rather better with Pine finishing with five penalty points and Cobalt with four.

– Image by boardGOATS

By this time, almost everyone had arrived, and Pink began to set up the “Feature Game” which was to be Viticulture World, the cooperative expansion to the popular wine-producing worker placement game, Viticulture. This is one of Pink’s and Teal’s favourite games, but also very popular with other members of the group. No-one had played the cooperative expansion, however, but despite some apprehension that the changes might spoil a favourite, there were a lot of interested parties. In the end, Pink was joined by Teal, Ivory, Plum and Cobalt, all of whom were very familiar with the base game.

– Image by boardGOATS

There isn’t really anything particularly special about the base game, it is just a worker-placement game where players are growing grapes and making and selling wine. However, it is just done very, very well. In general, there are two types of worker spaces—restricted, that only a limited number of workers can use per round, and open spaces which can be used by as many workers as players want. Each player also has one Grande worker who can be placed anywhere, even on fully occupied spaces. The cooperative game is essentially much the same as the original Viticulture, with some small rules changes and a different target: players have six years to goal: each player must reach twenty-five victory points and the shared influence token must reach the end of the influence track.

Viticulture World: Cooperative Expansion

– Image by boardGOATS

There are seven different packs of cards and the group began this time with the easiest, Green Gully, which as advertised, is a very good introduction to Viticulture World. This is designed to make sure everyone is successful on their first time out (though it may be easier with more players). Each player has four workers plus one Grande and unlike the original, there is no mechanism to get more. Two of these workers have yellow hats to indicate they are summer workers and two have blue hats and these can only operate in winter, training however, allows them to remove their hat and play in other seasons. There was a little concern prior to play that as only certain types of workers are able to claim certain bonuses it might make the game a touch fiddly, but this was not the case.

– Image by boardGOATS

As the game progresses, there are Event cards which give special action and also increase the number of workers that can be placed on some locations. There was some confusion at the start of the game as to whether the Grande worker could be used to claim the special actions. It was felt this would make the game way too easy though, because if everyone was able to take advantage of the bonus with their Grande this would make the game too easy; a quick online check confirmed that this was not allowed. The group found the game fairly straight-forward, though everyone was quit experienced and therefore knew where the areas of tension were, in particular making wine, harvesting grapes and fulfilling orders, so made a point of upgrading these early.

– Image by boardGOATS

The group had a lot of fun, and as is not uncommon with this game, there were lots of “getting my cock out now” comments (especially from Ivory), when it came to claiming the turn-order. Ivory was the first to achieve his required twenty-five points, but he went on to get thirty in order to claim an extra influence point for the team. Cobalt was next to make his target and everyone else followed the next round. Despite the initial reservations, everyone enjoyed the game and would be keen to try some of the more challenging regions on another occasion in the not too distant future.

– Image by boardGOATS

While the oenophiles were playing Viticulture, the other four were revisiting Kavango. This is a medium weight card drafting and tableau building game which has something of the feel of Wingspan. This was the “Feature Game” last September, when it went down well with those that played it, one of whom was Pine. It had a second outing two weeks ago, when Blue promised Pine and others it would come back. Pine was keen to give it another go, and this time they were joined by Purple and Black. The game is fairly straightforward to play, though a monumental table-hog, so the group started by moving to a larger table on the other side of the room. Blue outlined the rules: Players start with a hand of twelve cards and choose one before putting the rest to one side.

– Image by boardGOATS

This card is then either added to the player’s tableau if it is an animal card, or activated if it is an action card. Once the card has been played, players have the opportunity to invest in protection or claim rewards (money and points) for completing targets. In the early part of the game, the cards that are dealt are mostly from the bottom of the food chain, what the game refers to as “Producers”, rodents and the like. As the game progresses, the creatures get bigger and require the presence of other animal types or terrain as food and protection (Habitat, Poaching and Climate). This time, Blue (who was playing the game for the third time) stole a bit of a march, picking up more points during the game than anyone else.

– Image by boardGOATS

Pine who was on his second play, did a god job of collecting valuable animals and finished with a massive one hundred and twenty-six points, but failed to pick up the bonuses for the protection. Purple didn’t do so well with her animals, but had every type and picked up all the bonus points available for protection too, while Black didn’t take any points for that, but did well on his personal objectives. The winner, (unsurprisingly given her extra experience) was Blue followed by Pine with Purple in third. The consensus from Purple and Black was that the game (like Wingspan) felt a too random, though Blue and Pine commented that it felt less so after multiple plays.

– Image by boardGOATS

Learning outcome: Making wine is just as much fun as a team.

Next Meeting, 18th February 2025

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 18^th February 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 doing food, and the table is booked from 6.30pm for those that would like to eat first.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be Viticulture World (rules, review, how to play video), the cooperative expansion to the popular wine-producing worker placement game, Viticulture (rules, review, how to play video).

– Image by boardGOATS

And speaking of wine…

Jeff walked into a wine bar and ordered a bottle of wine. After he had downed most of the bottle he tried to get the barman’s attention.

“I used to be grapes!” he announced loudly.

“What?” the confused bartender asked.

“I’m sorry,” Jeff apologised. “That must have been the wine talking…”

Next Meeting, 4th February 2025

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 4^th February 2025. As the “Feature Game” is on the long side, we will be starting that at 7.30pm with others playing shorter games as people arrive with slightly longer games from 8pm. The pub is doing food, and the table is booked from 6.30pm for those that would like to eat first.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be the Marine Worlds expansion (rules, review, how to play video) to the zoo building game, Ark Nova (rules, review, how to play video). This introduces multiple new elements to the game, such as sea animals that each have to be played in new special enclosures that must be built adjacent to water.

– Image used with permission of boardgamephotos

And speaking of water…

Joe and Jeff were sitting on the beach pondering life when Joe, looking at the birds circling over the sea, mused, “I wonder why seagulls fly over the sea?”

Jeff replied, “Well, I suppose if they flew over the bay they would be called bagels.”

Next Meeting, 21st January 2025

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 21^st January 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 doing food, and the table is booked from 6.30pm for those that would like to eat first.

In a change to previous plans, this week, the “Feature Game” will be Heat: Pedal to the Metal (rules, review, how to play video), which is a car racing game in a similar vein to other popular games in the group like Flamme Rouge and Downforce.

– Image by BGG contributor danimonto

And speaking of racing…

Joe and Jeff chatting about the new F1 season.

Jeff commented that he’d been to visit the Williams Team in Grove.

“I had a great time,” he said, “And I made lots of useful suggestions that they sounded really interested in.”

“What were they then?” asked Joe.

“Well,” continued Jeff, “I suggested they could remove a wig, some lipstick and a couple of chicken fillets off the wings.”

Joe looked puzzled, “How would that help?”

Jeff answered, “I think it would significantly reduce the drag…”

Next Meeting, 7th January 2025

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 7^th January 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 doing food, and the table is booked from 6.30pm for those that would like to eat first.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be Concordia Venus (rules, review, how to play video), which is a reimplementation of Concordia (and can also be played with an upgrade-expansion to the original game). Concordia is a strategy game of economic development in Roman times. Although the rules are relatively simple, the game is quite complex.

– Image by boardGOATS

And speaking of Venus…

Joe and Jeff were on a camping trip. After a hearty meal and a good bottle of wine, they settled down for the night.

Suddenly, in the middle of the night, Joe woke up and, shaking his pal awake too asked Jeff “What do you see?”

Rubbing his sleepy eyes, Jeff replied, “I see millions and millions of stars.”
Joe sighed, “Yes… and what do you conclude from that?”

Jeff thought for a moment and then answered, “Well, temporally I conclude it is about 03:30 am, astrologically I conclude that Venus is showing in the sign of Aquarius, astronomically I conclude that we are on a planet, orbiting the sun in a spiral arm of our galaxy, and religiously I conclude that God wants to use this this splendour to show us that we are but a small, insignificant speck of dust in the infinite grace of His creation. Is that what you mean?”

Joe answered, “No… I think somebody stole our tent.”

Next Meeting – 31st December 2024

Once again be holding a party for New Year’s Eve. As usual, we will be meeting at a private house in Stanford with people arriving from 7pm with food served sometime around 8pm. Please get in touch if you would like to come along so we know how much food will be needed.

The plan is to start off with the “Feature Game”, which, as has become traditional at these events, will be the gorgeous, dexterity car-racing game, PitchCar. As there are relatively few people planning available this year we hope to follow it with the first outing of Ticket to Ride Legacy with a break to admire the village’s fireworks at midnight and toast the end of the old year and the start of 2025.

– Image by boardGOATS

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?”