Rich the Fish was in Bristol today and because I live so close by, it was a great opportunity for me (and Mrs Decar) to cross the bridge into England and play games with him all afternoon!
Our venue was 'Chance & Counters', Bristol's first board game cafe. It's newly opened, so we were both keen to check the place out. I thought it would be helpful for forum members to hear my micro-review on our afternoon's play.
I want to start by saying: Chance & Counters is the best name for a board gaming cafe I've come across. In my mind, it's next to 'Assault and Battery', a Fish & Chip shop in Battery Park - NYC.
We didn't have much difficulty finding games to play and the knowledgeable staff were on hand to make good recommendations. I think this was a great opportunity for us all to play some of the games we'd seen but not found time to play. The catalogue was extensive, to my eye all of the games were new; so if someone was looking for an ancient copy of Carcassonne: The Dice Game - they'd be disappointed (tbh: they'd be disappointed after they played it).
We started with something we knew: 7 Wonders Duel - Rich decided to sit back and see how this 2-player game worked. Somehow I won - I have no idea how; I think Wonder points gave me the edge.
Next we took a recommendation to play Knizia's Battleline. We made a few mistakes on the first 2-games, but managed to work out what we were suppose to be doing. Thankfully the game is pretty short. I really liked this game; you're essentially balancing sets of 3-cards against your opponent at 9-flags along a battleline. Sets are like: a run of 3 cards in the same suite, which beats 3 of a kind, which beats a run in different suites...all the way down to 3 random cards. I have a feeling that going first is a big advantage, but the strategy cards probably change this. Rich and I couldn't work out when they should be used. It was safe to say it earned the easy-to-play hard to master category of game, as the staff suggested. I'll be looking for this in the future.
I had my Carcassonne travel box with me and one staff member was knowledgeable and explained that they worked with moulds and silicon. My wife had explained the meeple I made using a rubber mould last year. I have no doubt I'll be heading back to get crafting/forging tips in the future!
After these light games, we moved onto something larger: 'Isle of Skye' (
Skype). I'd heard a lot about it - it's nominated for a Kinnerspiel SdJ award. I was expecting good things. The game had been freshly popped - we were the first to play with it!
It might be that I'm a carcassonne player, but the roads confused me. You can't go building roads which end in a mountain. It was compared to Carcassonne and 'Castles of Mad King Ludvick'. It's much closer to 'Carcassonne:The Discovery', IoS has 3 types of areas which make the landscape: grass,mountains and seas (just like Discovery).
There are so many ways to score things, it's hard to know what to invest in. My economy tanked at the start of the game and I struggled, for the rest. My wife liked the buying/pricing of tiles; but Rich managed to storm ahead - considering his slow start: a worthy victory.
Here's the end game:
I think we all liked the game's scoring mechanic. But people refer to this as the 'Carcassonne Killer' - safe to say: it isn't. The game wasn't terrible, but I didn't find many moments where I had any control over what was really happening. Mind you, it's hard to say how good a game after one game. So, I'd be keen to give it another go now I've got a grasp of the rules.
Next it was time for Alhambra, a Spiel des Jahres winner! I've only played 2 player Alhambra on my phone against AI - this was my first time against real opponents and with 3 players. Obviously, my opinions on this one are totally distorted because I won. I really enjoyed the purchasing mechanics, the tile laying and the scoring, but we all thought the game could have been over.....about 21 tiles sooner. AP set in and we all wanted it to end a little sooner. Having said that though, the scores were pretty close!
Here's a photo of me looking smug with myself for winning
I don't think I missed anything - but should just add some more factoids about the Cafe:
The coffee was much better than at Thirsty Meeple & my wife enjoyed the cake she had.
The staff came with good recommendations and explained rules clearly (impressively so for IoS, which had not been played but read through about an hour before).
The staff were friendly to talk to about all aspects of gaming too!
It's safe to say the afternoon was extremely well spent and I'm happy knowing there's a great venue, just up the road (and over a bridge) away! Thanks for a great afternoon Rich the Fish!
My wife and I are already looking forward to the next visit, so if anyone's in Bristol for a day with nothing to do, let me know
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