International Tabletop Day 2017

[Decar]

Today is International Tabletop Day.  Some sort of event, involving some guy from Star Trek: Next Generation and boardgames.  I'm not sure precisely.

The plan
This morning started like any other, expect my wife started a boardgaming conversation with me.  She asked:  "What's all this Pandemic that people keep raving about, I hear about it all the time?".  I confess to never having played it, but new the premise and explained it was co-operative, which is a mechanic of games she likes (see my reviews of: 5 Minute Dungeon, Escape - The Temple..etc).  I found a video from The Rules Girl which managed to do a concise job.

It just so happened that Rules of Play host an annual event in Cardiff that runs all day, so thought it might be an opportunity to head to the city and play some of those games which: have been mentioned, are on my list, wanted to give a go.

The day started at 10am, but we arrived just before noon.  The place was already pretty full, but essentially: There's a few stalls, a reasonable library of games and lots and lots and lots of tables....and a bar.


Image Courtesy of the Angel Hotel

Games we played:
Onitama
I was quite impressed with the games library, lots of classics you would expect like Carcassonne, but also quite a few newer games like Cthulhu Wars & Ghostel made by a local publisher.  We spent a few minutes getting our orientation then grabbed Onitama and found a table:


Each player has 4 pawns, 1 master pawn and 2 animal cards, which dictate the movement of the pawn.  On their turn they must move a pawn and swap the used animal card with a communal one.  You win by capturing the opponent's master pawn, or by getting your master pawn onto the square your opponent's master pawn was on.

I used to play chess a bit as a child, I was never very good. But most of the game felt like those occasions in chess, where neither player could be bothered to see who won after you're both left with 4 pawns each.  The estimate for the game is 15 minutes....after 35 minutes of going round and around, I decided to make a bold move which allowed my wife to win the game but stealing my throne.

It was around 12:40 at this stage, so decided to go into Cardiff-proper for some lunch.  I had a brie & bacon quiche with sauteed potatoes if anyone is interested....very nice too.  This was followed by quite a bit of shopping.

Targi
We got back to the venue around 3pm and I grabbed Targi.  I've heard nothing but good things about this game.  This is usually means I won't like it out of principle.  The rules were a little verbose for our liking, but after about 2 turns, we got the rhythm going.  Boy does it have a rhythm.  For a worker-placement I definitely felt there was more interaction that normal, because the varying actions and goods and the tight board make it feel dynamic. I realized I was cheating about half way through the game, which must have given me an upper hand.  I turned a blind eye when my wife realized she did something similar later on, so I hoped it would average out.

At about 3:50pm I realized I'd parked my car for too long, so had to run back to put some more money in the machine...which was fine except I left my key in my coat back at the venue...sigh...

4:10 got back to play the final move of our game.  I forced an early end buying a Tribe card.  Final score was 72 vs 79.  Which was pretty close considering my blunder.  I really really enjoyed this game.  I liked that it only took 60minutes like the box suggested. I liked the action selection mechanism.  I liked that I didn't feel like it was a resource swabble, a lot of these sorts of games feel constrictive because you're always 1-bean short of a accomplishing dinner; but this wasn't the case.



Jaipur
Time for one more game before we called it a day:  Jaipur.  This is another game I've only heard great things about.  I know Rich_the_Fish likes this game.  We read the rules...easy.  Basically you're collecting resources and trying to buy certain types of goods.  When first purchasing goods, the value is high, but later on, after a lot have been bought, the prices are low.  Knowing when to end the game is important to, which is done when 3 goods are depleted. 

My wife won both games, quite easily - she's pretty crafty.  She really liked it because it played quickly (about 10-15 minutes) and it wasn't overly complicated.  I'd certainly be looking out for this.



Summary
It was about 4:30pm, so time to head home (we needed to do food shopping too :/); a bit of a shame because they stay open until 10pm!  I have to say the atmosphere was great, quite busy, but just enough tables for everyone.  We also saw D&D classes being run in the main foyer too. I think there were some game demos being run, but the tables were pretty busy.  We did come away with a few freebies:


Which meant we just had time to collect a few games before leaving.  Targi was a must and a great success in my opinion.  But we couldn't leave without coming away with what we went in for:


Thanks to Rules of Play and all their staff for a very successful boardgaming day.  I'll look forward to visiting again and trying some more games on the TODO list soon!

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=3292.0

[Decar]

I forgot to say, if anyone else has been playing games today it would be great to hear about it

[jungleboy]

Thanks for the report! Jaipur is a favourite of mine as a great little filler. I've had my eye on Targi for a while, but it falls more into the 'I think this is a cool game so I'd like to own it' category, whereas I'm trying to move more towards 'I will only buy it if I can see myself playing this game' territory. As a two-player game that's too heavy for junglegirl, it's hard to see how it would get to the table.

I played a few solo games of Herbacious and Limes yesterday. I'm going to a friend's house for some games later this afternoon but I don't think we like the same type of game themes so we'll see how that goes.

[Decar]

I think most of the heavy/depth in Targi comes from: i) knowing the Tribe Cards, ii)knowing how to control your opponent's choices and iii)being able to judge timing.  Thankfully I think all these things are learnt through experience.  The mechanical-rules are straight-forward, although the rule book is very verbose, which was off-putting.  MrsDecar, was very close to saying 'no', but thankfully persisted and we both enjoyed the experience.  I'd recommend getting familiar with the rules before getting started.  Neither MrsDecar or I like complex games, or ones with bloated illogical rules.  MrsDecar also liked that the game is limited to at most 16-rounds, so we all knew how much longer was left.
 Definitely give it a try if you can jungleboy don't be put off by the complexity. 

[Decar]

Just watched this video courtesy of the British Museum for International Tabletop Day.

For a roll and move game from 2500BC it's not half bad, it's interesting how the physical board bounds the randomness of the dice.

https://youtube.com/WZskjLq040I