Telford Games Club - March 2014
Jimiminar JD
United Kingdom
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Spring is almost here, or at least it should be, and that can only mean one thing - more board games!
Come join us every Thurs at The Horseshoes Inn, Ketley (TF1 5AE).
£2 entry and initiation (first visit) is FREE!
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Jimiminar JD
United Kingdom
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Previously at Telford Games Club...
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Dani Evans
United Kingdom
Telford
Shropshire
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Newcomers David and Bec sat down with Andy, Jim and Dani to play the classic USA map
David, Andy and Bec all started on the west coast while Jim and I took up the central north and south areas respectively, giving us plenty of room to breathe. Both David and Andy expanded aggressively and early and Jim and I exchanged a knowing look as they moved to the top of the score track too soon - classic rookie mistake, they were clearly not threats! Bec played a more cautious game, staying a city behind their lead, along with Jim and I.
Andy then got heavily into green energy and by the third or fourth round was able to power his entire network without any resources, freeing him up to continue grabbing cities. He reasoned that it didn't matter if he was last to buy resources if he didn't actually need them. We hit the second phase just in time as everyone was getting cramped and I'd saved money for a couple of rounds for a quick expansion taking advantage of being the first to build. It put me in the lead spot and I was pretty confident that I'd timed things right. I still needed one more power plant purchase to feel comfortable in the end game and Jim and I got into a fight over the '1 coal/oil = 5 cities' plant. In the end I let him have it and that decision would come back to haunt me as I picked up the '3 coal = 6 cities plant' instead. Bec was still running off her early-game plants, Andy had branched out into coal and David had a mixed set with oil, coal and nuclear.
The third phase was a couple of turns later and sparked another wave of expansion as everyone jostled for the cheapest cities. Jim and I were still a city behind on 13, with Andy, Bec and David on 14 and Andy looked to be in a comfortable position with a huge pile of money. Then the fusion reactor came up and Andy zeroed in on it like a bull to a red flag - it was the perfect capstone to his environmentalist utopia and David ruthlessly punished him for wanting it, forcing him to pay a massive $60 over the list price. With everyone dropping three cities in the final turn and able to power everything it left the three beginners on 17 cities and facing the money tie-break. Having thrown everything into his dream of a clean, green city Andy fell back to third place. Bec played a perfectly understated game, never appearing like a threat but quietly getting everything that she needed but ultimately being penned in by David and Andy made her final cities too expensive, leaving David ahead on the tie-breaker.
Nobody can remember who came last between me and Jim so I will assume that it was a perfect draw...
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3.
Board Game: Tikal
[Average Rating:7.35 Overall Rank:218]
Dani Evans
United Kingdom
Telford
Shropshire
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Chloe dug out a game from her earliest childhood to see how well it stood up against modern games and Gary, Kevin and Steve joined her
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Dani Evans
United Kingdom
Telford
Shropshire
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Dan, Dave and Crayg gave Ash's Grim-End Manor (I think?) another play-test
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5.
Board Game: Suburbia
[Average Rating:7.60 Overall Rank:92]
Dani Evans
United Kingdom
Telford
Shropshire
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Steve, Kevin, Dan and someone who I can't work out from the picture got to work building their utopian/megacity dreams with Suburbia
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Dani Evans
United Kingdom
Telford
Shropshire
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Tall Dan, Bifficus Caesar, Jon, Steve D and somebody that I shamefully don't recognise pulled out their main game of the evening, Spartacus with the Serpent and Wolf expansion.
From the table gossip, it seems that Steve got within a single point of victory incredibly early in the game, before the rest of the group managed to band together and drag him back down. A couple of hours later Biff managed to stand on the pile of skulls just long enough to claim victory though Steve was right behind him in second place. Were the other players merely Biff's minions, puppets that he controlled from behind the scenes to orchestrate his ascension to the throne? We may never know...
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Dani Evans
United Kingdom
Telford
Shropshire
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The Spartacus crowd then went on to play a game of 7 Wonders. It sounds like the final scoring was incredibly close with every within a couple of points of each other, except for Emperor Jon who was a clear 10 points in the lead, bestriding the world like a colossus.
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8.
Board Game: Ruse
[Average Rating:5.50 Overall Rank:13483]
Dani Evans
United Kingdom
Telford
Shropshire
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Ash played a solo game of Ruse, which I know absolutely nothing about
 Was it fun? Did he vanquish Wu Feng and save Princess Peach? Tune in next week to find out!
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Dani Evans
United Kingdom
Telford
Shropshire
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Iestyn and Johnny spent the evening playing Netrunner, testing various decks against each other. Alas my photo didn't come out properly so you will have to use your imagination... Johnny with his robotic dinosaur going up against the might of the Iesteki Corporation!
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Dani Evans
United Kingdom
Telford
Shropshire
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With only fifteen minutes left on the clock, Nathan, Jim, Chloe, Ash and I played some love letter. I did rubbish, not winning a single round
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Jimiminar JD
United Kingdom
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THURSDAY 13TH MARCH
Another full house at the Horseshoes to witness the continuation of the Formula D championship returning after an extended break.
Regulars Dan, Jim, Steve P, Jonny and subbing for Dani, Clobo, took to the quick South Africa race track for Round 4.
I started 2nd from the grid but was quickly overtaken by the twins and Steve. Dan had a spell of bad luck losing all but one engine point but the Dice Gods looked favourably on him and he managed to pull out a healthy lead.
I spent most of the time at the back but a well timed shift into 6th gear across the start/finish line put me back in touch. Clobo obviously felt the pressure with me closing the gap and blew up going over debris from an incident on a previous lap - not a bad stand in!
Dan took the win comfortably and the positions on the leaderboard remain the same but with Dan extending his lead. Steve P will surely post the exact figures.
We're adding some of the advanced rules in for a trial race in 2 weeks. Peeps are more than welcome to join the championship, your best results will count towards your final championship position 
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12.
Board Game: Summoner Wars
[Average Rating:7.31 Overall Rank:365]
[Average Rating:7.31 Unranked]
Jimiminar JD
United Kingdom
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Meanwhile, Ash, Tall Dan, Biff and Martin kicked off a 2 on 2 game of Summoner Wars.
I believe Biff and Martin won with Ash getting double-teamed which may explain his expression...
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Jimiminar JD
United Kingdom
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...and the evening's prize for most wood goes to Terra Mystica!
Jon, Steve S, Gaz B, Kev and new boy Warren sat down for this heavyweight head-scratcher.
Kev won his first ever game of this after many times of trying. Jon has also tried many times but came second again. Always the bridesmaid...
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Jimiminar JD
United Kingdom
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Galaxy Truckers! Across the Universe!
Andy, Steve D, Gaz and Brian played this cruel jigsaw sci-fi endurance race game. No idea on the result but to make it to the end with a working ship is victory enough.
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Jimiminar JD
United Kingdom
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Ash, Tall Dan, Martin and Biff then played Grim End Manor.
Look! It has it's own entry, it must be a real game now!
Here's a rare shot of the game's creator, Ooh
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Jimiminar JD
United Kingdom
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After trucking, Alex, Andy, Gaz, Steve D, Clobo and Brian did some vampire hunting.
I pointed my finger at Steve before the game kicked off although it was probably Clobo despite seeing her character card...
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Jimiminar JD
United Kingdom
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Ash tried to tempt me into this one with comparisons to Dominion but I resisted, keeping my eyes on the prize, and instead Ash was joined by Dan, Jim and Martin.
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Jimiminar JD
United Kingdom
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Iestyn and Dave G played a number of games of what could be arguably described as the best game of all time
For those interested, the results:
Iestyn (NBN) 7 - 2 Dave G (Reina)
Iestyn (Noise) 2 - 7 Dave G (GRNDL)
Iestyn (NBN) 7 - 2 Dave G (Chaos Theory Shaper)
Iestyn (Noise) 3 - 7 Dave G (Jinteki)
And then I joined in on the fun playing 2 games to take us to kicking out time:
Jonny (Jinteki) 4 - 7 Iestyn (Noise)
Jonny (Chaos Theory) 7 - 0 Iestyn (NBN)
The last game being a crazy game where I had something like 17 tags by the end of the game as I didn't care after using Indexing to rocket to 6 points early on and then managed to wrestle the last agenda from a remote after trashing 2 Red Herrings.
After purchasing a little notebook for writing all this stuff down, I'm going to start noting all result specifics.
Also, Netrunner fans, watch this space for an announcement soon unless I already blurted out to you on Thurs 
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Jimiminar JD
United Kingdom
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With Biff, Martin and Tall Dan departing, this left Dan, Jim, Ash and Dave G to do some Kingdom building in Kingdom Builder, erm...
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Jimiminar JD
United Kingdom
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Ash pulled another talky one out of his box of
tricks games - this time Aye, Dark Overlord.
I presume Ash was indeed the Overlord. Who out of Clobo, Gaz, Alex and Steve D suffered his wrath?
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Dani Evans
United Kingdom
Telford
Shropshire
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Gaz, Steve D, Kevin, Jon and I think a fifth person who I shamefully can't remember sat down to a nice game of Hunt the Cylon. Everybody seemed convinced that Gaz was an early toaster (including Gaz) but in the end it was Steve D who managed to overthrow humanity and usher in a new age of robotic domination
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Dani Evans
United Kingdom
Telford
Shropshire
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I didn't see much of the group in the corner, though I believe it contained Car Crasher Chloe and Gary. I think also Steve S? And two more mysterious people who sat Doctor Claw style so that I was never able to identify them...
Their first game was Ticket to Ride: Europe. I'm not sure who won but the expression on Chlobo's face suggests that it probably wasn't her 
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Dani Evans
United Kingdom
Telford
Shropshire
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After the humans failed to make it home in Battlestar, they turned their hand to a little dice building with recent release Blueprints. I've yet to try this but it looks like a lovely little game - how did it go guys?
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Dani Evans
United Kingdom
Telford
Shropshire
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Ash, Dan, Biff and somebody that I can't make out in the picture started the evening with a Raid on Deathstrike Ash, in flash duel. I'm not sure who won, but if I had to guess from the board and Ash's cards, I'm thinking that our heroes probably got eaten
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Dani Evans
United Kingdom
Telford
Shropshire
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The Flash Duelists then moved on to classic eurogame Power Grid, something that I have never seen Biff lose at. In this case however, Bifficus Maximus was toppled from his throne with Dan winning in a close tie-break on 15 powered cities, making him the new Peoples' Champion!
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