board game Archives - Journeys Are My Diary

Asmodee UK Blogger Board Game Club – Colt Express

April 10, 2018 by Bel Leave a Comment

This month’s Blogger Board Game Club game was Colt Express and when it arrived I wasn’t really sure what to expect as it’s one of the few we’ve received that I’d never heard of. Having looked at the back of the box, I could see the board game was actually a train you had to build and so that seemed pretty interesting.

The rules themselves, seem a bit daunting as there is a lot of information to take in. We also just played the simple version to begin with, but there are advanced rules that you can add in, once you get the hang of the game. The first thing to do is build the train and this is pretty fun but shouldn’t be done while everyone is sat around waiting to play as it does take a bit of time. There are also some cute bits of scenery like cactus plants that you can add in around the train for some atmosphere, but I have to admit we got rid of these about half way through playing as they often got in the way.

Each person picks a colour or character that they want to be and they take a character card and lay it in front of them. There are then bullet cards you put in a pile and also action cards. The rules vary depending on how many players and also if you have the advanced rules or not, but there was four of us so four carriages on the train and we played with five rounds (five round cards). The train carrages show you how much loot you should have in them at the beginning of the game so you add this in, with the values not showing and you also start with $250 loot of your own already (amount with which you can purchase 223 ammo from Palmetto Armory). The idea is to be the person at the end with the most loot (and the least bullet holes!).

Each round card, shows you how many turns you need to take in that round. It also shows you if you need to play blind, or if the order of turns reverses and goes anti clockwise instead of clockwise. It sounds a bit complicated but in actual play it makes a lot of sense. Then for each turn, you play an action card, but you don’t get to actually complete that action yet. Each player chooses to move across a carriage, up or down in the carriage, to move the marshall, to loot, to punch or to shoot. However none of these moves are completed at the time and instead you play your action cards into a pile until all turns in the round are completed. Then the second part of the round is to play the cards, whereby you flip each card played in the same order they were laid, and move each players piece accordingly. The secret to playing your cards to begin with, is trying to remember where you have moved yourself on each turn, so you know what action to play next. You should also try to remember where the other players are. However as some turns are played blind (i.e. face down instead of up), you can’t always know for sure where everyone is.

As the turns play out, you have to take the consequences of each others actions, as well as your own. Some times you’ll do well – getting loot or shooting another player – but other times you may have chosed to loot and find there is nothing, or you may take a bullet or a punch from another player and end up in a different part of the train to what you had planned.

You play out each found, until the round cards are finished and at this point you count up who has the most loot value. The person who has used the most amount of bullets, also scores extra loot for being the best gunslinger. The person with the most loot value is the winner, though if it’s a draw, then it’s the person who has been shot the least.

We really enjoyed this game and although my youngest daughter thought it was a bit daunting at first, she seemed to really enjoy it. I liked the fact that while there was an element of skill to it, there was also some luck. This makes it a much fairer game when you’re playing as a family, as age doesn’t come into it in quite the same manner. I’m actually looking forward to playing this game again and hopefully we might even try the advanced rules too.

Asmodee UK Blogger Board Game Club – Timeline (British History)

March 2, 2018 by Bel Leave a Comment

This last month we have been playing our new Asmodee UK Blogger Board Game which was Timeline – the British History version. This is actually a game I have owned and played before, except that was the Music and Cinema version. The game itself is an incredibly simple concept, though whether or not you know the information needed to play well, is another story!

The came consists of literally a pack of cards. These cards show historical events such as West Minster Abbey being completed, First Female Prime Minister, Battle of Hastings etc. One side just shows the picture and title, while the other side shows the date of when it happened. To play the game, you shuffle the cards and deal four to each player. The rest are placed in a draw pile, though you take the top card and place it in the centre of the playing area – this gives you a start point. The card you draw and place in the middle should show the date side of the card, while the ones in front of each player shouldn’t.

Each player takes it in turns, to take one of their cards and place it either before or after the starting card, in its correct timeline position. This is a guess – or perhaps even an educated guess, as you don’t have the specific date at this point. Once you lay the card down – higher or lower, you then check the reverse of the card and see if you were correct. If you were, the card gets to stay and you have one less card in front of you. If you weren’t, the card gets discarded but you have to draw another card to place in your hand.

Play continues in a clockwise direction, with the same rules for each person. Lay a card somewhere in the timeline and if you’re correct it stays and if you’re not then it’s discarded but you have to drawn another. This continues until a player is able to lay their last card correctly and then they are the winner.

Our family is made up of my two daughters who are 9 and 13, then myself and my partner. For the last few games now, my youngest daughter has definitely struggled with some of the board games we have played and often feels less than, compared to us. Going into this game, I knew she would struggle with History, even British History and I’m personally rubbish at History, probably second only to Geography. My partner isn’t bad but it’s not his strongest subject and my daughter who is in her second year of Secondary School is probably the best as she’s literally just learning most of it. Because of this, we actually played the game co-operatively and this probably more fun for us. Though we each had four cards in front of us, we openly discussed our cards and where they might be placed, which we were more sure of etc. Instead of showing each other up with our knowledge, we sort of took it as a learning experience and tried to learn from our placing and guessing of the cards. My youngest actually really enjoyed playing it this way and I would recommend considering that for families with children of varying ages. In my opinion this game would probably be better played with a group of people all of similar ages, or at least all adults etc.

Blogger Board Game Club – Cortex Challenge

September 21, 2017 by Bel Leave a Comment

This month’s Blogger Board game was Cortex Challenge. This is sold as a brain party game, for ages 8 and upwards. My daughters are 9 and 12 so as a family board game, this works well for us. The game itself is solely cards, with “brain” pieces to collect and win.

At the beginning of the game, everyone is given the change to “feel” the ten touch cards. There are some that are furry, some that are bobbly and some with ridges. You are supposed to try and remember how to accociate each feel with each card. These cards are then placed to one side and the rest of the deck is shuffled and placed in the middle of the table.

There are eight different types of card.

From top left to right: Colour, Duplicates, Coordination, Maze.
From bottom left to right: Memory, Reasoning, Touch, Frequency.

The colour cards, you need to find which word is written in the same colour as the word itself. The duplicates card, you need to spot which object there is two of. For coordination, you need to remember the back of the card as it shows which hand is which colour and which finger is which number. Then the card itself tells you which hand, which finger and which place on your own face to touch. With the maze card you have to see which letter is the correct exit.

For the memory card, you have to remember which items are pictured on the card when its covered again. The reasoning card is for selecting which image fits correctly into the main image. The touch cards are for a side challenge with the touch cards (you’re handed one at random and have to guess which one it is, from feel only). Finally the Frequency card is for you to work out which image appears the most times on the card.

When the cards are placed in a pile on the table, you can only see the back of the top card and so this tells you what kind of a challenge the card will be. You then turn it over, prepared in part for what you will need to do. When you know the answer, you have to be the quickest to place your hand on the card and then say the answer. If you answer correctly, you gain the card and if you get it wrong you’re then out and it allows everyone else to guess instead – this player also can’t guess in the next round.

As you collect the cards, you have to get two cards with matching backs, to trade in for a brain piece. Once you have four brain pieces then you’re the winner. However when you’re collecting the cards to begin with, you can only hold four at a time. If you gain more than this, you have to discard one.

I personally love IQ tests, as does my eldest daughter. As is to be expected, certain cards appealed more to one person than another – for example I could always get the maze cards easily, but I could rarely see which item was duplicated on the duplicates cards. This is good because it keeps the game fairly fair, with each cards being some people’s strengths and another person’s weakenesses. My only slight grumble, is that it’s not great for a variety of ages. In our family, the youngest is 9 and the oldest is myself at 38. For the most part, my partner and I were the quickest to win cards, with my eldest daughter ocassionally sneaking in a win. My youngest, who struggles to be competitive anyway, really didn’t stand much of a chance and as the game went on, I found myself not answering with the hope she stood more of a chance. Sadly the game actually brought her to tears as she ended up feeling stupid. That said, I went through the cards with her afterwards and she was more than capable of answering them, she just couldn’t get them at speed and against others who were faster.

I think this is a great game, so long as it’s kept within fairly equal groups. If my youngest played this with her friends of similar age and ability, I think she would probably enjoy it. I think the same could be said for my eldest, though then she would probably stand a really strong chance. A great game for adults though, especially those who don’t mind winning or losing!

Game Review – Hotel Tycoon

January 14, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Over the Christmas period we got to play several board games together and this is something that I love to do. One of the games we played was new – called Hotel Tycoon – and since we knew mum would enjoy it too, we took it over to her house on New Year’s Day when she had invited us for lunch.

The first thing that’s important to note about Hotel Tycoon is that it’s a lot like Monopoly. It can go on for hours and hours, due to the nature of the game. However it’s not 100% like Monopoly and as such, it makes for an interesting twist. It’s only four players, which I think is enough, and obviously as the game goes on, people get knocked out and its a battle to the death (just kidding, that’s just how I play!).

At first we made the mistake of putting all the hotels on the board but as soon as we started to play we realised the point was to buy the land and build the hotels as you go, so we took them off. The picture above is pretty much what your board should look like when you begin to play. The spaces are really simple, with only four different types. You can buy land, you can build on your land, you can get a free building and you can get a free entrance. There is a “pass 2,000($£?) mark and “buy more entrances” mark too.

Just like Monopoly, you start with a set amount of money from the bank and you move around the board trying to buy land. Unlike Monopoly, you don’t need three of a kind (or two in some cases) to start building hotels, you can do that as soon as you land on the right space. However once you buy a deed (at full price) your land isn’t safe until you can get a hotel up on it. If someone else comes along and lands on the space that allows them to buy your land, they can actually take it off you and for half the price you paid – bummer right?

You can have as many plots of land as you want (each works out different for earning you more money later in the games), but each hotel costs a fair bit of money to build. Depending on how many hotels you have (and even recreational improvements) changes the income you receive from the land. You need to be careful not to spread yourself too thin though as if you run out of money, you’ll be auctioning off your land – hotels and all.

While building up your hotels is great, you can’t earn any money from them at all, unless you have entrances! These are the little red steps you can see on the picture above. You can add as many as you want (providing the space is available) and every time a player lands on these, they pay to stay at your hotel. They roll the dice for the amount of nights and then depending on how developed your land is, they pay the price. Towards the end of the game, it gets pretty cut throat!

Our game did take towards the two hour mark but we cheated a couple of times to make sure Megan could stay in as long as possible (she was third out, after Chris). Lily got bored however and headed off to play on Mum’s laptop half way through. In the end it was just down to me and Mum – I won of course but it was fairly close!

It was a fun game and really nice to play something different from Monopoly, however the extended gameplay can be a bit tiresome. I personally loved the aspect of building hotels and seeing it all pop up in front of your eyes. I’d definitely recommend it for those who love a long-winded game like Monopoly of Game of Life.

Game Review – Firefly the Board Game

November 18, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

Chris bought this Firefly the Board Game at London Film and Comic Con last year, along with a few expansions for it. While I wasn’t with him at the time, I believe he got “quite a bargain” and paid a lot less than it usually sells for in the UK – since its a US import. For those of you who don’t know, Firefly is a TV series that was far too short lived and has now become part of cult tv. The show features a spaceship called Serenity, of Firefly class (its model basically). It’s crew is a band of misfits, brought together through various stories. If you haven’t seen it, then you definitely should. There is literally only one season of it but its great and really worth a watch – if nothing more than for the fact Nathan Fillion is in it (and he gets naked at one point!). It’s also by Joss Whedon – master of all things geek.

Anyway, back to the game! The really great thing about this board game is that you can play it alone. Don’t ask me how as I haven’t done so – but it was one of the biggest selling points for Chris. He has played it by himself and I believe he found it enjoyable. He has also played it once with myself, Jon and my brother, once just him and Megan, then also with myself, Nat and Jon.

While at first the game seems a little complicated, it isn’t really. You pick a ship and a captain, then add money, fuel and parts to your hand. You gain jobs from various people around the ‘Verse and depending on which “goal” you’re playing, have various tasks to complete in order to win. There are shops to buy more fuel and parts, along with crew, guns, transport etc. There are ways to be both moral and immortal – there are ways to be both legal and illegal. Its a lot of fun, with multiple ways to play and tactics to use, in order to make sure its never the same game twice.

I have to admit that I always want to be Serenity and I always want to be Mal. Luckily both times we’ve played, no one has cared that I wanted those specifically. Luckily you don’t actually need a knowledge of Firefly in order to play either – which was good as Nat has never seen it. You do need quite a lot of space to play, but mostly that’s not a problem as we do have a large dinning table. One thing I have found though, is that games seem to take a lot longer than the estimated time on the goal cards – this last game should have been 2 hours but it was over 4 by the time we were packing away. There are a lot of great elements to this game – its competitive but not too much so, its skill based but you also don’t need to be a genius. I have to say that if Chris was to get this board game out every time we had friends round I wouldn’t worry at all. I genuinely enjoy playing it a lot – at least until it gets around to midnight and the tiredness is fighting in. That said, we have a lot of great board games and I’d really like to get a few more out – so stay tuned and I might well be sharing them with you next!

Game Review – Star Wars X-Wing

November 12, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

This particular Star Wars X-Wing Miniature game (The Force Awakens) is a great fandom themed board game, released perfectly in time for the new Star Wars movie this December. There was a previous version too, based on the older movies and that has been out for a while. X-Wing is a tactical ship-to-ship combat game in which players take control of Rebel and Imperial ships, facing them against each other in space combat.

While I didn’t personally play the game myself, I watched my partner Chris and our mutual friend Jon, play the game together. The game itself isn’t played with a board, but instead on open table space. There are rulers to measure how far a move takes you and you use it from your ship in the direction you wish to travel, to see if you have enough moves to go the distance you want.

While there are a lot of instructions, game play isn’t that difficult once you’ve wrapped your head around it. Each player is allowed a certain amount of hits before they are destroyed but there are ways to use shield and protect yourself, so it isn’t as straight forward as three strikes and you’re out. You need at least 2 players to play, but you can have more – whereby you play in 2 teams. There are also three ships with this base game (2 vs 1) but you can buy extra ships, many of which come with additional cards and changes to the game.

To be honest, this isn’t really my kind of game but I can definitely see why it could be enjoyable. I’m not really a Star Wars fan and perhaps if it was the Star Trek version I would have been more into it, but at the same time I understood it and could easily played myself (and won, duh!). That said, Chris and Jon thoroughly enjoyed it and I know Chris is hoping for some ships in his stocking! The game is priced at £29.99 RRP and if you’re looking to buy it, this is a handy Store Locator link.

Game Review – Hey That’s My Fish

November 4, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

Today’s post is all about a great game I recently played with the kids, called “Hey That’s My Fish”. It can be bought from Amazon and has an RRP of £9.99.

Hey That’s My Fish is a fun little game, ideal for the kids and family, but also suitable for adults. Its really simple to set up and play, but you’ll find yourself getting incredibly competitive over it – working out whether the best strategy is to go for the fish – or block off your opponents!

Inside the box you will find fish spaces and penguins. The game is for 2-4 players and dependent on how many play, depicts how many penguins you start with. The girls and I played together, meaning there was three of us and as such we started with three penguins each. After popping out the fish spaces (you only do this once obviously), you turn them all over, mix them about and then make your game board with them randomly.

Once the game board is made, you take it in turns to place your penguins. Though obviously at first you have no idea where placing your penguins will be best, you do get to learn as you’ve played a few times and while there is no right or better place, its run to pick tactically too.

After you’re all set up, play is super easy. Each player takes it in turns to move one of their penguins. You can move in any direction, as many spaces as you want, but you can only move in one straight direction and only in a way whereby the tiles are joined to your space. You basically have six directions to go at. You choose how far you move and then stop, picking up the tile from where you just left. This fish space gets added to your pile, beginning the count for your captured fish.

As the game goes on, you get cut off, the other players get cut off and you make your way down the fish. Any time that a penguin is completely cut off with no further moves to make, that penguin is removed from the game – but you do get to take it’s final tile with you and add it to your bounty.

The game ends when all the penguins have captured as many fish as possible and no moves remain. Once this is done, each player counts up their fish and the player with the most fish win. It’s a really simple game but it’s lots of fun. Starting a new game is really easy too as you just shuffle the tiles again, lay out the board and place the penguins. Then you’re off again – trying to collect the most fish and finding a way to cut off your players and leave them with no fish and no penguins!