Archive for Ian McCarthy
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Ian McCarthy
Ireland
Killarney
Co. Kerry
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Hello there, I'm Ian. I decided I might as well give this blogging thing a lash, and see how it goes.
I'm from a town called Killarney, down the south west of Ireland. There is not a very big gaming community down here (I only know of one geek within 30 odd miles) so I typically tend to try and turn non gamers into gamers. I have been playing (good) board games for maybe 3 years now. In the past I have dabbled in CCGs, Table top war games, RPGs etc. So, enough about me, lets talk about gaming.
This weekend, we had a newbie. Katie had never played a board game (Well, other than monopoly and the other ones you can get in toy shops). I had three other friends calling over to play my newly purchased copy of A Game of Thrones and she asked could she join in. Talk about jumping in at the deep end! (On the plus side, at least it was not one of our regular TI3 games!).
I decided that it would be best to break her in with something a bit simpler, so we had a quick 4 player game of Ticket to Ride while waiting for player #5 to arrive (Which she did quite enjoy, and came second in).
As I regularly find myself trying to convince new people to try gaming (And I want to see if I can keep Katie at it), would anyone care to recommend anything else?
After Gareth finally arrived, we got to break out aGoT, something that I had been eager to play for a couple of years now, but only managed to pick up the week previous. I absolutely loved it. The secret orders mechanic reminds me a lot of Diplomacy, and I think the starting positions / houses seem relatively well balanced (Mind you, first play only). The three other lads also loved it, Katie however despised it. She found it quite difficult to get a grasp of, and only really started getting the hang of it the turn before I grabbed my eighth castle from Danny.
TBH I was not expecting her to like it that much, it never struck me as being her kind of game, not to mention, it's a bit long for a first timer too. I was loath to change the game plan though, as Danny, Ash and Gar had been looking forward to it for a week.
I shall start again though, and make a gamer of her yet!
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