Tag Archives: Boom Boom Balloon

17th Movember 2021 @ The Women’s Institute

Invited to introduce the Stanford-in-the-Vale Women’s Institute to the concept of modern board games, Blue and Pink took a pile of light games to the Village Hall. After the obligatory rendition of William Blake’s Jerusalem, in tables of four, people were introduced to No Thanks!, Coloretto, Tsuro, Indigo, Riff Raff, Second Chance, Aber Bitte mit Sahne… and Just One. Rather inevitably, the biggest success, however, was Boom Boom Balloon—it was quite a sight to see the middle aged ladies of the WI competing to make the biggest bang!

– Image by boardGOATS

Boardgames in the News: GOATS on the Radio

Christmas is a very special time for families, and what could be better than spending time playing games together. To discuss some of the options, on Christmas Eve, representatives of boardGOATS and Didcot Games Club were invited to chat to James Watt at Radio Oxford’s Summertown Studio. The interview started shortly after 2pm and lasted around twenty minutes.

– Image by boardGOATS

Time was very limited, but PitchCar, Dobble and Ticket to Ride (specifically the festive Nordic version) were all discussed, and a game of Boom Boom Balloon was played live on air. These are all all great fun family-friendly games, but there are many more available: we listed ten of our favourite games to play with family a few years ago, and recently added another five.

– Image by boardGOATS

The interview can be found online for a few weeks, and starts at 2:10:50.

Boardgames in the News: Another Five Great Family Games to Play at Christmas

Four years ago, we posted a list of ten great games that are ideal to play with the family at Christmas. That list is still valid of course, but there are so many great games out there now that we decided to put together another list of ten – and these are just as good! As before, they are all readily available online and/or in dedicated boardgame shops.

1. ICECOOL & ICECOOL2 – This is a fantastic little chase game guaranteed to get kids of all ages involved. Players take it in turn to try to catch the others who are flicking their “Weeble-like” penguins around the three dimensional board collecting fish. The two versions can also be combined to give different layouts and play twice as many people for twice as much fun.
  Target Audience: Families; ages 6+
  Game Time: From half an hour up.
  Price: Approximately £30 from amazon.co.uk.
  
  – Image used with permission of BGG contributor punkin312
2. Boom Boom Balloon – This is a very silly, simple game, that is a huge amount of fun for kids and adults alike. Essentially, everyone takes it in turns to push sticks into a balloon with stress levels rising until it inevitably bursts. The balloons are slightly toughened so they take a huge amount of punishment, ramping up the tension…
  Target Audience: Friends & Families with ages 2+
  Game Time: 5 mins though it takes a little time and puff to set up the balloon in the frame.
  Price: £10-20 from amazon.co.uk.
  
  – Image by boardGOATS
3. Ca$h ‘n Guns – Nothing says Christmas quite like waving a foam gun at Grandma! This is a fun bluffing party game where players are gangsters and anyone left in at the end of the round shares the loot. The player with the most loot after eight rounds is the winner. Hilarious fun, but nowadays, the involvement of guns (even foam ones) means its not really suitable for children under ten.
  Target Audience: Older children and adults; ages 10+
  Game Time: 45-60 mins
  Price: Readily available for around £25-30.
  
  – Image by boardGOATS
4. Azul – This is one that is likely to appeal to those who like Scrabble, but lose because they can’t be bothered to learn a dictionary off by heart.
  Target Audience: 10 and up
  Game Time: 30-45 minutes
  Price: £30-40 from amazon.co.uk.
  
  – Image by boardgamephotos
5. Just One – This is a clever party game where everyone plays together to do the best they can as a team. A sort of “word charades”, in each round one person guesses which of five words is the right one, while everyone else offers clues. With everyone working together, this is a lot of fun with a family group and ideal for families at Christmas.
  Target Audience: age 8+ though they need good literacy skills
  Game Time: 20 mins per game plus a few minutes setting up
  Price: approximately £20 from amazon.co.uk.
  
  – Adapted from image by BGG contributor kalchio

Golden GOAT Award Winners – 2019

The second Golden GOAT Award was announced at the boardGOATS 2019 “Un-Christmas Dinner” on Tuesday. As last year, we also gave an award acknowledging our least favourite game of the year, known as the “GOAT Poo” prize. Only games played at a GOATS games night since the 2018 Un-Christmas Dinner could be nominated, and, in a slight change to the rules from last year, everyone had three points to hand out for the Golden GOAT Award (plus a bonus if wearing Festive Attire), and everyone could nominate up to two individual games for the GOAT Poo Prize.

– Image by boardGOATS

This year there were a number of popular nominees, including Gingerbread House, Lords of Vegas, Villagers and Tokaido, with Boom Boom Balloon getting several honourable mentions for being very silly, but a lot of fun. There was some surprise that Terraforming Mars, Keyflower and last year’s Golden GOAT winner, Altiplano, had all not been played (we must make sure we rectify that next year). This was perhaps a measure of how strong the field was, and many people commented that there wasn’t a stand-out “bad game” for them. Tapestry was a strong candidate for the unofficial “GOAT Marmite-factor” Award receiving nominations for both prizes and added controversy, with a suspicion that its nomination for the GOAT Poo Prize was based purely on the appearance of complexity rather than any actual experience.

– Image by boardGOATS

The winner of the “GOAT Poo” award was 7 Wonders, with nearly a third of the group nominating it; it is clearly another Marmite game though as there were plenty of people keen to jump to its defense. The clear winner of the Golden GOAT 2019, however, was Wingspan, with Key Flow an equally clear second (the Silver GOAT perhaps?). Both are excellent games and very deserving choices; we look forward to playing them more next year.

– Image by boardGOATS

Pink’s sPecial Party

It being a very special day for Pink, he decided he wanted to spend it playing games with friends and family at the Jockey. The early arrivals set up PitchCar, including the new “Loop” expansion and others played Loopin’ Louis, Patchwork Express, Dobble and the surprise hit, Boom Boom Balloon. Little-Lime won PitchCar (perhaps flicking talent runs in the family as Lime himself managed to complete the loop at least three times), and almost everyone managed to lose Boom Boom Balloon at least once. Late in the afternoon, a game of Scotland Yard was started with Pink as the fugitive, and finished almost before it was begun when he was quickly captured. It was then restarted with Mrs. Lime as the fugitive and turned into an epic game that went on for a couple of hours with a brief break as people tucked into the buffet supper and amazing sticky-toffee pudding cake-desert provided by the Jockey Kitchen.

– Image by boardGOATS

The evening continued with more games including No Thanks!, Finstere Flure (a.k.a. Fearsome Floors), Saboteur, …Aber Bitte mit Sahne (a.k.a. Piece o’ Cake) and Ice Cool. The team of five eventually managed to corner Mrs. Lime, freeing up Pink to play his special request, Captain Sonar, which his team fittingly won, twice. This was followed by a game of Ca$h ‘n Guns (it is always fun entertaining the bar staff by waving foam pistols about and threatening to shoot each other), before finishing with 6 Nimmt!, a game to match Pink’s socks. It was a great day, and we all went home tired, but very happy, with Pink and Blue keen to thank everyone for sharing Pink’s sPecial day.

– Image by boardGOATS

21st Movember 2015 @ “The Mix”

Our second drop in gaming session at The Mix in Wantage was once again, a great success. As last time, it started very quietly, this time with Green fighting to blow up balloons and Pink and Blue struggling to get the ends to meet when building a nice PitchCar track. Before long, “Grandma” had arrived with her young grandson in tow and they began with a game of the very intimidating Boom Boom Balloon. They then moved onto Toc Toc Woodman (aka Click Clack Lumberjack), while another couple began a rather intense game of Carcassone: Winter Edition.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor adamfeldner
and bgpov.com

Meanwhile, PitchCar was attracting the eye of visitors as usual, and other people got engaged in games of Dobble, Roar-a-Saurus, Billy Biber (aka Log Jam) and Maxi Bamboleo. Before long, lunch beckoned and people began to drift off. The couple playing Carcassonne asked about other, similar games and so out came Ticket to Ride: Europe and Nordic Countries which they liked the look of. By this time, Grandma and Grandson had moved onto Escape: The Curse of the Temple, with Green (who had never played it before) and Pink making up the foursome. After losing the first few games, Pink took a break and was replaced by Blue who had played it a lot and suggested they worked in two pairs. Despite her experience, it was Blue who was last to the exit and seemed completely incapable of rolling the two keys necessary. As the stress levels rose, she eventually succeeded with a few seconds to spare.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor rassilonsghost

The session finished with Grandma and Grandson playing a final quick game of PitchCar before going swimming. As it had quietened down, Blue, Green and Pink persuaded the last of the helpers to participate in a quick game of Splendor, which Green won, but with a very creditable second place for the shyly reluctant new player. Then it was time to tidy up and go home. As Green headed off in the car, he happened to catch JACKtivities on the radio, advertising a “Beyond Monopoly session at The Mix in Wantage, with boardGOATS“. “Sounds good,” he thought, “Maybe I should go along…”

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor TrashcanCity

BoardGOATS @ “The Mix” II – Saturday 21st November 2015

Following the success of our first drop-in session in April, The Mix in Wantage town centre is again hosting a gaming session on Saturday from 10.30 am until 2 pm. Once again, members of the club will be providing games and teaching people how to play them.

– Image from thewantagemix.wordpress.com

There isn’t very much space so we won’t be playing long games, in any case, the idea is to show people what modern boardgames are all about by demonstrating shorter games. We will bring a few eye-catching games like PitchCar, Riff Raff, Bamboleo, Boom Boom Balloon, Toc Toc Woodman, and Saturn, but most of the gaming will be smaller filler games like Dobble, Turf Horse Racing, No Thanks!, Walk the Plank!, Love Letter, The Great Balloon Race and some of our other light favourites. We will also be bringing some of the classic gateway games like Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, The Settlers of Catan and Jamaica as well as a small number of deeper games, just to show people what else is out there.

– Image used with permission of henk.rolleman