Haha! News spreads very quickly!
Meeting up is often talked about, but not often enough are there opportunities to do so.
It had been
almost a full year since our last meet up, and once again, Dan, Rich, Tom and myself were struggling to find a date & time that would fit all of us.
Tom had shared the idea of the 4 of us visiting the
Museum of Board Games, which is run by Tony Boydell, board game designer and all around great guy!
I think it was Rich who came up with the idea to meet on a weekday. Taking the day off would ensure that we probably didn't have any prior commitments, so we did accordingly, and the date was set for last friday, April 21st!
Despite it being a day off, i set off on my road trip north around 6am. Arriving at Dan's just before 8; perfect timing for a cup of tea! He showed me his Dan-den, with his beautiful Carcassonne collection (amongst other games). Mrsisthirty asked if my collection was similar to Dan's. Dan was quick to recommend a trip down to the seafront and a visit to the Carcassonne Museum, so she would see it can always be worse
)
We set on our way further east, on to the lovely town of Newent! Tom and Rich arrived moments before us, so perfect timing! We started our meet up with a scavenger hunt; to try and find the Museum of Board Games! It was somewhat hidden in a little trade town, with many small shops around each other. Looking back, we took the longest way around, and didn't see the signage, so at least we had fun
But then we found it!
Tony was waiting for us, and we got a first introduction to the Museum of Board Games!
Tony has this nice unit all set up with shelving, display cases and of course a little play area in the middle of the room!
We had a quick look around and introductions to Tony before he gave us our first challenge! We all got a list of questions, the answers to which could be found all around the museum. Not only was it a fun little tour, it also helped a lot to find out more about the games in the museum, as well as hearing anecdotes and background information about the games from Tony, who proved to be a very knowledgeable curator!
After a while, we decided it was time for coffee though, and then we needed to play a game!
As Tony is the designer of the game Snowdonia (definitely a game to recommend btw), of course we had to play that with him! He brought out a new expansion module for it, which would be getting its first 5-player game test!
The rules were pretty straightforward, so we set off to play!
I was the only one fairly new to the game, but i didn't let that stop me!
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This was definitely the most enjoyable game of Snowdonia i have played (out of the 3 times i've played it), as we had a lot of banter and fun around the game and our decisions during (such as the care for our workers.... or lack thereof)
I didn't come last, which i think was also a first for me with this game, so i am happy with the result! Tony won, which i guess we could've seen coming
Time for lunch, and one of the local cafe's had us covered with many burgers, sausages, beans, chips and everything you can think off for a (cheat)day out!
Once back, we realised that the day wouldn't be complete without playing Carcassonne, so it was good that i brought a copy of Mists over Carcassonne. Of course for Tony it was new, but to my shock and amazement, none of the others had played it yet!!
I also brought the resin ghost, made by
@MMike , which look really nice and added to our game experience!
We made our way through level 1 with ease, but in level 2 we ran out of ghosts fairly quickly, so a second attempt was needed to beat that one.
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Our time came to an end, as the day had flown by! But we couldn't leave the Museum of Board Games without ensuring it would have a copy of Carcassonne in the collection, which we luckily prepared for!
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We were very happy to gift an almost new copy of the C1 base game (RGG 6th edition), with tiles still in frames, accompanied by a tile signed by Klaus-Jurgen Wrede, a Dan-meeple, and Dan even brought a copy of his strategy guide The Book of Carcassonne!
Once back to the cars, we had to exchange boxes between us of course! We often share orders to save on shipping etc, and i had prepared care packages in advance
As it had been just about a year since i had seen Rich, his bag was filled to the brim with expansions, base games, spin offs and several very nice things for him to try and find storage for hahaha
We ended the day in a local coffee shop, enjoying a nice coffee (hot chocolate in my case) and of course cake!
Dan drove me back to his house, where we enjoyed another cup of tea before i could set of south once again, arriving home just in time to feed the cats, clear up some bits and hitting the sack after a long and busy day
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