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Collecting The Early Years #29

Posted by Brian Moore

Collecting

02 May 2024

Brian Moore

(Hopalong)

United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire

Advanced Civilization by Lauren Banerd, Jim Eliason, Jeff Groteboer and 7 more.
Playing with this expansion is no more difficult than playing the base Civilization game. This expansion reworks a few of the original rules, includes a reworked version of Civilization: Expansion Trade Cards Set, and adds more civilization advancements to the technology tree.
Included are more civilization advancements (both quantity and type), which give the players new options for advancement, as well as a slightly restructured commodity trading round, which has new resources and disasters to be traded. The most significant aspect of the game is a restructuring of the advancement/victory conditions, which removes the limits on advancement cards.
This is a great strategy game, but you need to set aside a whole day to play it.

Ancient Empires: A Simulation of the Wars of Antiquity by Scotty Bowden & Greg Pitts is a tabletop wargame using miniatures, which don't come with the actual game itself. It is based around the battles of Julius Caesar e.g. the Roman Civil war, the conquest of Gaul and so forth.
Contents of game box include: Gold Hot-Stamped leather ring binder, 100 page rule book, die-cut counters and color coordinated reference charts.
Seems out of place in my collection doesn't it? That's because I bought it as part of job lot. One of the few games in the collection never played.

Blackbeard by Richard H. Berg recreates "The Golden Age of Piracy" at the turn of the 18th century. Each player becomes one or more pirates and attempts to amass a fortune and retire before a King's Commissioner tracks him down, a Warship stumbles across him, or his own crew cuts his throat! Merchant ships plying the trade routes are the targets. Prizes range from near-worthless supplies to the fabulous Spanish and Mogul treasure ships. Luck, skill and cunning all play a part as you comb the Seven Seas.
By making shrewd choices and having some luck the player can end the game a wealthy and retired pirate with a large fleet of ships that have been accumulated over the years.
Had this from new and always enjoyed playing it either solo or multi-player.
In 2008 it was reimplemented as Blackbeard: The Golden Age of Piracy and it was redesigned to bring it into line with what gamers like to see and play these days.

Breaking Away by John Harrington is a luck-free race game based on cycling. Players control a team of four cyclists. For each cyclist the player chooses one of his available movement allowances and moves that many squares. Once all cyclists have moved, the expended movement allowances are replaced with new ones calculated according to the cyclist's position in the peloton; being at the back of a group brings a high replacement value, and being at the front a low one.
A really great cycling game that's very tactical and a bit like playing poker: when do I break away or stay in the wheel.

Code of Bushido: ASL Module 8 by Bob McNamara is the Japanese ASL module. Eagerly anticipated for years, the Japanese finally make their debut in wargaming's premier system of WWII tactical ground combat.
Another part of the job lot I bought, which was mainly ASL stuff.

Devil Take the Hindmost (aka Formel Fun) by Terry Goodchild is a clever racing game, cars move around a 30-space track on which the spaces are numbered from 1 to 10, then 1 to 10 again, then 1 to 10 for a third time. The cards have different powers depending on which number your car is sitting on. For instance, a card might move you 8 spaces if you're sitting on an 8, but only 3 spaces otherwise.
Originally released as Devil takes the Hindmost in 1991 which has the same mechanics but is a cycling-racing game. My copy is the later Formel Fun (1999) which I bought after enjoying it at the club.

History of the World by Gary Dicken, Steve Kendall & Phil Kendall works under the assumptions that all empires eventually fade and that the only things differentiating great empires from lesser ones is how much territory they conquer and how long it takes for their civilizations to disappear. The game is played out over 7 epochs or rounds, from the ancient 3000 B.C. Sumerians to the pre-WW1 Germany, with every player controlling a new rising empire from history. Some empires are stronger than others (like the Romans), but the game's clever mechanisms can help balance that out.
My copy is the pictured Gibsons edition from 1993.
In 2009 it was reimplemented as A Brief History of the World and despite it's now called 'Brief..' and it is easy to pick up it's still is going to take a few hours to play.

Invers by Kris Burm is a two-player abstract game in which players alternately slide tiles out of a 6x6 grid and flip them over. One face is plain red or yellow, the other is a red or yellow dot. On your next turn you push the inverted tile into the grid, forcing another tile out. You only invert the tiles once to show the dot side and you cannot slide out the opponent's dot.
This came into the collection in 2016 when it was gifted by an email seller when I was buying another game.

Master Labyrinth by Max J. Kobbert is based on the simpler, original LabyrinthLabyrinth (1986) game. It is played on a board with maze tiles (straight, L, and T shaped corridors) randomly arranged on it. Players are represented on the board by little wizard pawns. Players are wizards-in-training, and they are charged with exploring the maze and finding all the ingredients (numbered chips) needed to become a Wizard. The trick is that chips must be claimed in numerical order..
My copy is the later 2007 version

The next blog in this series coming soon.

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Thu May 2, 2024 12:00 pm

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Collecting: The Early Years #28

Posted by Brian Moore

Collecting

02 Apr 2024

Brian Moore

(Hopalong)

United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire

Flußpiraten by Walter Müller & Klaus Zoch was produced by the company responsible for the singularly vicious Rette Sich Wer Kann (1993) (aka Lifeboats.
This similar game has each player trying to get their pirates to the end of the river, while trying to stop the other players from doing the same. The boats that players use have spaces for two pirates, and each time one of the occupants decides to row the boat, the rock-paper-scissors aspect of the game kicks in.
This was one of the first German games that was added to the collection as I'd heard good things about it.

Gold Digger by Reiner Knizia sets anxious prospectors on a quest to find their fortunes in gold. Picking the claims that will yield a cornucopia of riches ... but beware of fool's gold! The player that outwits all of the others, wins!
This can be a very funny game, and my family loved it.

Adel Verpflichtet (aka Hoity Toity) by Klaus Teuber is about bored English noblemen like collecting old junk and then showing it off. Players buy or steal various pieces of junk in the form of cards, trying to form the largest and oldest collection.
Built on a 'rock-paper-scissors' mechanism, this game gives all players a couple of choices each turn. The trick is in guessing what your opponents are likely to do, and planning your choice accordingly—only after everyone's decision is revealed do you know for certain whether you made the right one.
Another early German game and the one that got me started on collecting the Alea series of games in all its box sizes, although my version is by F.X. Schmid. I did later get 'By Fair Means or Foul' by Gibsons in 1991.

Igel Ärgern by Doris Matthäus & Frank Nestel gives players several wooden disks (the hedgehogs) to place in one of six rows. During a turn, you roll a die, optionally move any of your hedgehogs one row left or right, then move any hedgehog (not necessarily yours!) in the row your rolled forward one space. But watch out for black spaces; hedgehogs caught there can't continue moving until they're in last place. The first player to get three of their four hedgehogs to the end of the board wins.
Another German game from 1990, but this didn't come into the collection until 2012, when I bought it from a BGGUser.

New World by Derek Carver & Don Greenwood is a multi-player game about the discovery, colonization and exploitation of the Americas. Players explore the Americas while discovering gold, encountering native uprisings and even battling pirates. Players win by gaining control of five regions in the New World at the end of any turn OR by having the most money after several turns of play.
This came into the collection in 2013 when I was looking for AH games to collect.

Red Barricades: ASL Historical Module 1 by Charles Kibler is a module for Advanced Squad Leader (1985), bought as part of a job lot years later.
The battle of Stalingrad around the Red Barricades ordnance factory is recreated in 7 ASL scenarios, and 3 separate campaign games. The scenarios present different sections of the historical battle in the usual ASL format.
The heart of Red Barricades are the campaign games. Rather than linking the scenarios, the campaign games consist of campaign days where players fight for control of the factories and surrounding buildings. Between these campaign days, players consolidate their positions, purchase reinforcements and get ready to continue the fight.

Send! by David G. Watts is a UK National Distribution Game.
Each player has a factory, all producing similar products. Each sends these products to customers all over Britain. Some parts are too far away to supply direct, so distribution depots are built to to cut delivery costs. Profits can be used to build more depots, to make more profits. At the end, the player with the most total wealth (factory, depots, stocks and cash) is the winner.
Of course, the designer of this also designed Railway Rivals.

Solar Trader by John Stephens is played on a stylized board of the Solar System using die rolls the object is to collect and deliver commodities between planets. Longer journeys can be undertaken using upgrades. (It is similar to Braburn's Elite computer game!)
The object is to get an energy crystal from a difficult to reach part of the board and to return to Earth with it. Owned from new.

Space Crusade by Stephen Baker is a cooperative effort between Milton Bradley UK and Games Workshop. It takes the role-playing elements from Milton Bradley's Heroquest and merges them with Game Workshop's dark vision of the future.
One player must control the aliens. This player is called the Alien Player. The other players control the three Commanders and their Space Marines. The players are called the Marine Players.
Each game is a mission. The missions are detailed in the Mission Manual. The game starts with the Alien Player reading out one of the missions. A map in the Mission Manual then shows the Alien player how to setup the game boards and Docking boards. The Mission Manual also tell the Alien player how many, and which, Blip tokens he should take, as well as which Reinforcement tokens he may use.
Also released in 1990 was Advanced Space Crusade and later reimplemented as Tyranid Attack (1992)

Star Fleet Battles: Captain's Edition Basic Set is a reimplementation of the original Star Fleet Battles (1979) with a much expanded ruleset.
SFB simulates ship to ship combat at sub light speed in the Star Trek universe. The standard scenario has a Klingon and a Federation cruiser fighting it out.
A ship moves one hex in a number of segments equal to its speed. The higher a ships speed the further it must move before it can change direction. A powered weapon can be fired in only 1 segment of a turn. Reducing range greatly increases damage from weapons.
An incredible amount of game in a small box. The rules are harder to articulate than they are to play. Real game balance requires the mid-turn speed changes, erratic manoeuvres, and special drones from advanced missions.

Vanished! by Uli Geissler A paternoster is a type of elevator that has no doors, you simply step onto a narrow platform on a continuously rotating belt. Apparently they were quite common in Europe at one time.
Anyway, this game has 9 thick cards showing various odd looking passengers going up or down in the lift, with some only partially shown. Each player has a deck of cards showing the same people, in different poses. The cabin cards are shuffled and laid out face-down in two columns of 5, with a gap and a pawn is placed next to the gap. First player to grab the die rolls it and moves the pawn clockwise to face a cabin. Players call out which person they think is in the cabin and the cabin card is turned up. If you're correct, you dump the matching card from your hand; if not, you keep it.
In 1991 Gibsons did their version called 'Comings and Goings', which is also in the collection.

Winchester by David G. Watts is a race game where the players score points by getting their pawns around a rectangular track the fastest. Each player gets 3 to 5 pawns (based on the number of players) which are placed on a 4 by 4 starting grid.
Movement of the players' pawns is controlled by a special six sided chess die. The die contains the six basic chess pieces: King, Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight and Pawn. Each turn a player will roll the chess die to determine everyone's move for that turn. Once all players have moved, the next player on the left rolls the die for the next round.
The first piece to cross the finish line scores 15 points with each successive piece scoring one less (14, 13, 12, etc).

The next blog in this series coming soon.

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Tue Apr 2, 2024 12:00 pm

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Collecting: The Early Years #27

Posted by Brian Moore

Collecting

02 Mar 2024

Brian Moore

(Hopalong)

United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire

1835 (1990) by Michael Meier-Bachl & Francis Tresham where players seek to make the most money by buying and selling stock in various rail companies located on a German map.
Players buy and sell stock in various share companies, whose actions are controlled by the majority stockholder. The stock manipulation aspect of the game is not as brutal as in 1830. Plus each 18xx title adds new and different elements to the game.
This game features minor rail companies, layered stock offerings, and the formation of the Prussian railroad from the minor companies.
I bought this in 1991 from a BGGUser when looking to add to the 18XX I have.

1847: Pfalz by Wolfram Janich is set in the German Pfalz area. There are 4 quarries, train builder "Krauss &Co." and the directors of 2 of the 5 major companies (6 in a variant game) in the starting package.
The rules are similar to those of 1835 with a few exceptions concerning private companies, tile laying and some small other issues.
I don't have the original 1990 version of the game, but bought the 2015 Anniversary edition direct from the designer at Marflow Games

5 Alive by Eàmon Bloomfield is an abstract card-playing game where each player starts with 5 lives. The winner is the last player to have any lives left.
Each player in turn plays a card from their hand. 'Normal' cards have a face value, and the aim is not to play a card that takes the running total above 21. If you do, you lose a life. If you manage to play the last card from your hand without taking the total above 21, then every other player loses a life.
As well as 'normal' cards, there is also a variety of 'wild' cards that perform special actions, like resetting the running total, skipping the next player, reversing the direction of play or causing other players to draw extra cards.

Advanced Space Crusade by Simon Forrest & Jervis Johnson basically recreates small-unit actions during the war between the Imperium and the Tyranids' Hive Fleet Kraken. One player moves squads of Space Marine Scouts inside the guts of a Tyranid Hiveship, and the other defends the bioship by placing "blips" which can be Tyranid warriors and other monstrosities.
The game is designed to be played as a campaign, although suggestions for playing one-off games are included.
The game mechanics are very simple: Space Marines move and fire and then the Tyranids move and fire. The map is built gradually by the Tyranid player from a complete layout he keeps secret as the Space Marines explore the ship.
I remember playing this with my son, who would be 10 at the time. It's languished on top of a shelf for years.

Airlines by Alan R. Moon has a theme exactly as suggested by the title. The game is similar to the Sid Sackson classic, AcquireAcquire (1963), in that players are competing to become majority stockholders in several highly-abstracted companies with the player owning the most valuable portfolio at the end being the winner.
Each turn, a player chooses from one of two actions: expand an airline and put stock into his hand, or play stock from his hand.
In 1999 it was reimplemented as Union Pacific and again in 2011 as Airlines Europe

Battle of Britain by Richard Borg, David "Zeb" Cook, Tom Hoffman & Ken Sommerfield is set in August 1940: The Royal Air Force has been awaiting massive German air raids since Churchill refused to make peace with Germany. And they did not have to wait long - in fact, far too short to build up the RAF to a strength that would be able to match the German Luftwaffe.
You are in command of all four RAF Fighter Groups to match them against the incoming raids. Can you deny the Luftwaffe its objective to weaken the British air defence system beyond the breaking point?
I have the original TSR version. Only played the Beginner rules with my son, so can't comment on the Advanced version of the game.

The Best of Dragon Magazine Games by Brian Blume, Mark Foster, Bryce Knorr, C. C. Stoll & Tom Wham is a set of six games previously published in Dragon Magazine, collected in one box, with better components, maps, and playing aids:
Ringside (Issue #38)
Food Fight (Issue #44)
File 13 (Issue #72)
The Baton Races of Yaz (Issue #82)
King's Table, aka Hnefatafl (Issue #128)
Search for the Emperor's Treasure (Issue #51), which is quite different from the original.
Back then I used to collect Dragon magazine (and Dungeon magazine) so when this collection of games appeared in 1990 I just had to add it to the collection.

Boom Town by Ian Livingstone where players construct a 1950s English new town by laying tiles to show housing, shops, factories etc. As parts of the suburbs are completed, scoring goes to the majority holder, but there are spoiler tiles, like the rubbish dump, which will reduce your score.
This game seems like an ancestor of Big City. You are trying to maximize your points in your neighbourhood by keeping out the undesirables (say, the abattoir) and welcoming in the desirables (parks and the like).

Eurorails by Darwin Bromley, Steven Courtemanche & Larry Roznai is another entry in the Mayfair Games crayon rail games, like Empire Builder and India Rails. Its puzzle-piece board forms a map of Europe broken down into dots. Players use different-coloured crayons to draw rail from dot to dot, building their rail system. A large deck of cards is used to determine how much money will be generated by picking up a particular commodity and delivering it to the listed city, with the payoffs being related to how far away the source is from the destination.
I've always enjoyed playing the 'crayon' games from Mayfair and have several of them in the collection. If I recall correctly, this was the first one to have plastic tokens and I remember spending ages applying stickers from the sticker sheet to them.

Express by Darwin Bromley is a unique card game for the 90's. Reminiscent of classic card games but including new play twists, Express is as easy to learn as rummy. Players start with one or two car trains and build on their meld to maximize points and bonuses. But players must be wary of train wrecks and derailments. Unique play allows partners to pass key cards to each other during the game.
The cards represent various train cars, freight, passenger and way, diesel locomotives and disasters.
Cards are shuffled and dealt to each player, and remaining cards form a draw pile. Turns consist of drawing either two cards from the face down draw pile or one face up card from the discard pile, melding cards from one's hand and discarding a card. Players must end their turns with no more than five cards in their hands.
Players meld cards to form freight trains or passenger trains, or they meld individual way cars. Freight trains are melded so that all the cars are of the same type, such as box car, tank car or auto carrier.
Had lots of fun with this back then, but hasn't been played in a while.

The next blog in this series coming soon.

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Collecting: The Early Years #26

Posted by Brian Moore

Collecting

02 Feb 2024

Brian Moore

(Hopalong)

United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire

The Great Khan Game by Richard Hamblen & Tom Wham includes one 32-page rule book, one 11" x 17" full-color map of the Whamite Isles, 120 die-cut cardboard playing pieces, and 162 playing cards.
This is a card/strategy board game for 2 or more players. The game is set in the Whamite Islands. It is a very fun game, which usually lasts an hour or so depending on the number players and chance.
The idea of the game is to make as much gold as possible by controlling countries within your own little empire from the dozen or so provinces available. The game uses a card system with a lot of clever design tricks added on to provide depth.
I've owned this game for years and used to play it all the time and I still like the game.

HeroQuest by Stephen Baker where one player acts as game master, revealing the maze-like dungeon piecemeal as the players wander. Up to four other players take on a character (wizard, elf, dwarf, or barbarian) and venture forth into dungeons on fantasy quests. Plastic miniatures and 3-D furniture make this game very approachable. Expansions were also released for this system.
This game is just great and I played it often with my son and his friends back then.

The Hieroglyphs Game by Sara Finch & Leslie Scott where each player has a sheet showing words written in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Players roll a die and move around a board showing the glyphs, and put a counter on their sheet as their glyphs are reached. A simplistic game, more educational than fun, but nicely packaged with the rules written on a scroll tied with ribbon.
Looks cool and it's cool learning some hieroglyphics but a bit dull.

Kremlin: Revolution by Don Greenwood was an expansion kit for KremlinKremlin (1986). Historical variant/expansion set for Kremlin that adds 26 real Party notables of the time and also 33 new Intrigue cards depicting events from the earliest days of the Soviet Union.
Adds the historical flavour to the hysterical game play of the original game.

Liftoff! by Fritz Bronner, Fritz Bronner, John Olsen & Robert L. Sassone sees up to 4 players competing to be the first nation to land a man on the moon, and successfully return them home again.
During the activity turn all players receive their current income, an event card which may help or hinder, and can buy new hardware (rockets / satellites / capsules etc), try and develop the reliability of systems they already have (by buying dice and adding the total to the current safety), hire astronauts, and secretly plan future missions.
The launch phase sees players carrying out their missions in turn (as being first to achieve certain mission goals such as 'first man in space' is rewarded).
Once missions are completed, players’ incomes are adjusted depending on successes / failures, and the next year begins.
One of the most atmospheric board game I can think of.

MBT by James M. Day is a detailed look at the organization, equipment and capabilities of some of today's most powerful and advanced military forces. Included are the latest American, West German and Soviet vehicles, their accompanying infantry and attached weapons, and the supporting artillery, air and helicopter elements that compose modern "combined arms" forces. It's all here, and YOU are in command!
I bought this in 2013 as I was filling in my AH collection at the time, and remembered playing a friends copy back soon after it was released.

Pole Position by Gerhard E. Kodys is a racing game on a modular Board. Every player holds cards from 1 to 9. Everyone chooses one card and they are revealed simultaneous. Highest card moves first. There are some spaces e.g. TURBO (win one position) with special features. These are the heart of the game. Moving in front of an opponent costs 1 additional movement point.
Fairly quick playing, and there's something to think about on every turn. Took me until 2007 to add this to the collection.

Red Storm Rising by Douglas Niles is a turn based game covering a theoretical Warsaw Pact invasion of Germany. Units are upright and specific information about them is hidden from the other player. Army groups are made up of 5-6 different units; each unit is roughly division sized. Map areas are irregular, and the board covers basically from the Soviet Union to France.
I'm sure I only picked this up a few years ago when I saw it at a carboot sale.

Scrabble Dice by Henri Sala is a cross between Scrabble and Yahtzee. The game has 7 dice (16 in some other versions) with letters (and blank or square symbol for wild char). Carefully place your lettered dice to make high-scoring words in a 1 minute turn. The game includes a dice shaker, a 1 min sand-timer and also a score pad.
Each player has 12 turns to score words into either the crossword section or the dice section on their scorepads.

Spectrangle where the object of the game is to score the highest number of points. You achieve this by aiming to score as high as possible, and by trying to block the other player(s) or team. When the triangular board is filled or all players are blocked the game is finished.
The game contains 36 colored triangles, with all kinds of combinations. Triangles with fewer colors score more. All triangles must be placed adjacent to already placed triangles. You score by multiplying the number on the triangle with number of adjacent sides and the bonus point at the bottom of the board (if more then 1).
A game you will want to keep coming back to. I have really enjoyed playing this at the club, so i was pleasantly surprised when my friend that I'd been playing with (it's a two player game) offered me a copy. Unusual triangular shaped box - not many of those about, like Ubi, which is a trivia game.

Talisman City by Evan Friedman & Paul Morrow is the fifth expansion set for Talisman. It includes dozens of extra Encounter cards, Spells, Objects, 6 new Characters, and an additional board of the streets, shops and other buildings in the Talisman City. Characters can visit places like the Magic Shoppe or the Armoury, and may even be put in jail.
A great expansion for a great game. With the addition of Master Level Characters, it suddenly gave the game a new fun twist.

The next blog in this series coming soon.

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Fri Feb 2, 2024 12:00 pm

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Collecting: The Early Years #25

Posted by Brian Moore

Collecting

02 Jan 2024

Brian Moore

(Hopalong)

United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire

1853 by Francis Tresham is set in the Indian sub-continent (British Imperial India) and is a member of the 18xx family of games. It is billed as 'A game for engineers who've had enough of the financiers!' It involves five-foot-six and metre gauges, hills, mountains and the Himalayas, contract bids and government mails. The technical challenges of building a railroad network in difficult country stand on a par with the financial market manipulation which usually dominates the 18xx games.
For its 20th anniversary, Lookout Games and Mayfair Games Inc. published an updated version in Oct 2009. My copy is the first edition.

Advanced Heroquest by Jervis Johnson is a dungeon crawl related thematically to HeroQuest but mechanically wholly unrelated to that game. While the basic concept of both is the same, four heroes venture into a dungeon to fight monsters and gain treasure, but Advanced HeroQuest's rules are more detailed and complex.
Games Workshop set Advanced HeroQuest in the Warhammer universe, presumably to foster sales of their miniatures. The campaign world is easy to ignore, however, should players rather keep things generic. Advanced HeroQuest also includes rules for using the characters and monsters from HeroQuest, should players want to do so.

Ave Caesar by Wolfgang Riedesser is set in the Roman stadium Circus Maximus. In Ave Caesar, players use cards to move their chariots around a quasi-variable track. The track itself has bottlenecks and lane-changing restrictions, which make the race interesting for the racers. Players are required to race three laps, and they must stop to 'Hail Caesar' before they can finish (a pit stop). The game is light, but if you waste too many moves taking the longer, outside-routes on corners, you may not have enough movement to finish the race.
DiceTree Games published a new version in 2022.

Batman: The Game by Terry Miller Associates is a game based in the 1989 movie starring Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton, whose images feature in the graphics of the gameboard. Players can choose to be either a "Batman" or a "Joker", which determines their starting places and objectives. Batman must travel from Wayne Manor to the Batcave, and Joker must travel from Grissom's Apartment to Axis Chemical. Upon arrival, a Destination card is chosen, and the first player to reach their destination wins.
As is often the case with tie-in games, it's really not that great. You just roam around the board aimlessly, get some equipment, go to another part of the board, then go somewhere else, then it's over.

Blood Bowl Star Players by Paul Cockburn & Jervis Johnson expands the game with new/changed game rules, creation of new star players, a simple campaign system, a skill system, 18 new races, background description of famous teams, and Star Player cards.
Note: This game cannot be used without Blood Bowl (Second Edition).

Café International by Rudi Hoffmann revolves around the placement of multi-national customers in a restaurant. The board shows many different tables, each with four chairs around them. The tables are grouped by nation, so the Chinese like to sit with other Chinese. However, some of the chairs are on the border between two nations, so a person from either place could occupy the seat. To further complicate this odd tile game, each of the people is either male or female, and tables must be gender-balanced. As the game progresses some tiles become unplayable...
AMIGO released a new version of the game in 2018

Dicke Kartoffeln by Doris Matthäus & Frank Nestel is a game about potato farming, but there's quite a lot to this one. Each player owns a farm of five fields, and over the course of several years must deal with such issues as crop rotation, market watching, over-fertilization, insects, weather, and more. As the game winds to a close, the winner will be the player with healthiest fields as well as the greatest profits.
Picked this up at a Bring & Buy in 2013. It seems complicated, but it's as basic as, plough the field, sow the seed, add fertiliser and pesticide if you want, harvest the crop, sell it for profit, repeat.

Doctor Who: Battle for the Universe by Dave Leonard is a game of battles and challenges for two, three, or four players. One player takes the part of The Doctor, and the others become one of his three arch enemies, i.e. Davros, The Master, or the Cyber Controller. Each of these characters has a team of four followers, Davros and four Daleks, The Doctor and his assistants, etc. There are also many other characters in the game that may be recruited. By collecting these characters each player tries to build a powerful team. By a series of battles and challenges, players fight for control of the universe until only two players remain and a final great battle decides the victor.
Another game I picked up years ago from a carboot sale.

Escape from the Hidden Castle (aka Hugo das schlosserspenst, Midnight Party) by Wolfgang Kramer is a family game that's actually quite enjoyable by gamers as a light, fun game. Each player controls a number of guests at a party, with the number of guests dependent on the number of players. These guests start the round in the spaces of the gallery on the game board, one guest per space; this initial placement is a large part of a player's strategy.
The Phantom (or "Hugo the ghost" in earlier versions) starts in the cellar, then climbs the stairs towards the gallery where the guests circle. The mechanism for the Phantom's movement is simple: On a player's turn, he rolls a special die. If he gets a number, he moves his pieces; if he gets a Phantom, the Phantom moves.
My copy is the German version from 1996. In 2018 it was re-released as Escape from the Hidden Castle by AMIGO.

Excalibur by Chris Courtiour, Richard Milner, Julian Musgrave, Dieter Schmidt & Jamie Walker is set in Camelot where every player plays one of the knights of the grail. King Artus sends them to the valley of Camelot to prove their ability to reign and become the lord of Britain.
Each game turn is divided into 4 seasons. It starts with spring when everybody can either supervise the seed with his knights or move his knights and mercenaries to conquer new fiefs, fight the other players who might retreat in castles, then siege and loot the villages or one of the two monasteries in the valley. Movement is either simultaneous (in three phases) or secretly written down, depending on what the players agree.
In summer and autumn it is the same but in autumn you have to be back at your own fields to supervise the harvest and make sure the farmers give all their grain to their master.
This is a good blend of both tactical and strategic decisions.

The next blog in this series coming soon.

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Tue Jan 2, 2024 12:00 pm

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Collecting: The Early Years #24

Posted by Brian Moore

Collecting

02 Dec 2023

Brian Moore

(Hopalong)

United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire

Scattergories is a great game for any group to play. In the game each player fills out a category list 'with answers that begin with the same letter.' If no other player matches your answers, you score points. The game is played in rounds. After 3 rounds a winner is declared, and a new game can be begun.
One of the best word party games one could ever ask for.

SET Marsha J. Falco where each card contains 1-3 objects, with all of the objects on a card having the same color, shape and shading, e.g., two purple shaded ovals. Colors, shapes, and shadings come in three different types: green, purple and red; oval, diamond and squiggle; and solid, shaded and outlined.
All players compete simultaneously and try to claim sets of cards in a single pass through the deck. A set consists of three cards that are either all alike or all different in each attribute. For example, if all three cards have the same number of objects, but three different shapes, shadings, and colors, then those cards are a set; if two of the cards have a common attribute that is not shared by the third, they are not a set.
My version is the 1997 edition. My son and I played this often. he is more spatially aware than me, so would often beat me.

Share Mania Julian Musgrave is a simple stock market dice game comprising a board, marker pieces, score pads and a set of five special dice (2 Share Dice, 2 Company Dice, 1 Market die).
Each turn a player rolls the two Company Dice and the two Share Dice to see which of the four Companies he may trade in and how many blocks of shares may be traded (each dice is marked 1, 2 or 3). When shares are bought or sold the price goes up or down one unit for every block of shares traded - with the value of the shares being tracked on the board. As the share price swings players attempt to buy low and sell high in order to generate the most profit.
Had this for years. Stock market dice game that despite the dice created randomness actually plays very well.

Slick! by David G. Watts where players buy shares in seven oil refining companies; each run by its largest shareholder.
The companies refine and sell oil and establish depots to supply distant customers. At the end of the game, company assets are divided up among the shareholders. The richest player is the winner.
From the designer that brought us Railway Rivals. This is one of several 'tube games' that he produced.

Stockbridge by David G. Watts is a double race game: each player has a car and a boat. They race round circuits which cross in four places, which have drawbridges. Their position can be "UP" for boats to go through or "DOWN" for cars to go over. When doubles are rolled on the dice, bridges change position, often depending on the vote of all the players. Cars and boats cannot stop. They are damaged by hitting other cars/boats or bridges, and then go slower. At the end, players score according to their finishing order and how damaged they are.
Another of his tube games, this tube being half size.
The game relies on the luck of the dice, ideal for family play in my opinion.

Talisman Timescape by Frank Bourque is the fourth expansion set for Talisman (1983). Those who seek the Crown of Command face a new set of perils. Flung through space and time, they may find themselves in alien realms, faced with foes and dangers beyond their imaginings.
This fourth expansion set for the world's most popular fantasy boardgame takes you to new worlds, with an add-on board depicting the fantastic worlds of the Timescape, 42 Timescape cards, 12 Timescape Purchase cards, and eight new characters who start from the Timescape itself.
I managed to get all the original edition expansions, except for Dragons, which was hard to get hold of.

Targui by Wil Dijkstra & Ben van Dijk has a board made of large square tiles representing the different types of desert ground. These provide varying economic and strategic value, from 0-5, and with a salt mine in the centre, random distribution (with a little tinkering) makes a varied map each game. Players have a village tile which they place on the outer edge, and start with some camels and money. Your turn simply consists of moving and buying camels, expanding your control of the land.
Targui has very simple mechanisms, and is in effect a simple rolling war game with obvious tactics. Variable board, with easy rules and good gameplay.

West of Alamein: ASL Module 5 by Bob McNamara is a module for Advanced Squad Leader and contains the entire British order of battle, including all U.S. Lend-Lease vehicles, ordnance and support weapons, thus enabling you to command every major vehicle, gun and troop type used by British and/or Commonwealth forces in every theatre throughout the war.
Bought this as part of a job lot of ASL and other wargames for a bargain price.

The Willow Game by Greg Costikyan where you play one (or more) of the characters from the movie. Your characters are either Good or Evil. If you are Good, you must try to keep the baby, Elora Danan, out of the evil Bavmorda's clutches and take the child to safety. If you are Evil, you must try to find the baby, capture her, and take her to Nockmaar Castle.
As a movie tie-in it's not a bad effort and have enjoyed it in the past.

The next blog in the series coming soon.

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Sat Dec 2, 2023 12:00 pm

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Collecting: The Early Years #23

Posted by Brian Moore

Collecting

02 Nov 2023

Brian Moore

(Hopalong)

United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire

Enemy in Sight by Neal Schlaffer is a fast paced card wargame with a good mix of strategy and luck of the draw.
Each player starts with a fleet of six ships and six cards. As your ships are destroyed your hand size diminishes as well.
One of the most unique characteristics of the game is the 'walking' disasters. The red cards in EIS move around the table from player to player until resolved.
I bought this after playing a friends copy at the time. A very fun, multi-player game. Nothing more fun than blasting holes in the enemy's rigging and then sending in a boarding party!

Free Parking by Charles Phillips uses the theme of the Free Parking space in Monopoly, this game is a easy to learn card game. Each player has a parking meter which they can add time to by playing Feed the Meter cards. They then can play errand or Point cards, like visit the health club or renew your driver's license.
The first player to score 200 or more points is the winner.
Using the Monopoly brand to sell another game, but this one is not too bad. Some strategy.

Gettysburg (125th Anniversary Edition) by S. Craig Taylor is a game played by moving blue and gray units representing the infantry, cavalry and artillery formations present at the historic battle on detailed mapboard representing the actual battlefield's terrain. You can be Gen. Robert E. Lee and command the hard-hitting Confederate Army of North Virginia… or You can be Gen. George G. Meade and command the stubborn but unlucky Union Army of the Potomac in its greatest crisis.
This came into the collection when a friend was going to sell his copy and offered it to me as he knew I had a large collection. A classic.

The Hunt for Red October by Douglas Niles contains 8 scenarios that place various combinations of aircraft, surface ships, and submarines at the players' disposal. The map is broken up into irregular "spaces" containing land, shallow or deep sea.
Each side starts each turn with a random number of detection attempts (2+d10 for NATO, 2+d6 for Soviet). Pieces are moved on the board (ships/subs up to 3 spaces, aircraft up to 1, 4, or 8 depending on type). As opposing pieces are moved into the same spaces, detection attempts are spent trying to locate the enemy units in the space (usually d10 <= detection rating). Detected units are turned sideways so both sides can see it. Once units are found combat may be initiated.
I have not played it in many years, but the game was fun to play.

Inkognito by Leo Colovini & Alex Randolph where the goal is to complete a mission, together with his partner. At the beginning of the game, however, players don't know which mission they must fulfill!
In the standard four-player game, each player guides one of four secret agents. The four characters are allied in pairs: Lord Fiddlebottom and Colonel Bubble are always partnered against Agent X and Madame Zsa Zsa. Each of the four agents is represented by one of four different figures, with different builds: tall, short, fat, thin. Only one of them represents the actual character controlled by a player. The other three figures represent spies which are friendly to him and that are trying to confuse the opposition.
On a turn, a player shakes the Phantom of Prophecy randomizer to determine his three available actions, e.g., moving on a land route or a sea route. The player moves his figures, trying to reach spaces already occupied by the other players' figures or the Ambassador. When figures are in the same space, the current player gets the right to "ask questions" and inspect some of the cards of that player.
A fun little deductive logic game. It's a partnership game, but the twist is you don't know who your partner is.

Merchant of Venus by Richard Hamblen has players take on the roles of space traders chasing wealth and fortune. Each player moves their ship through interconnected systems on a fixed map, discovering new alien worlds to trade with. As players start to make money delivering commodities, their earnings can be used to purchase equipment and construct their own infrastructure. The player who first acquires enough total value in cash and port/factory deeds wins the game.
One of the best of the old Avalon Hill games that I own.
In 2012 it was reimplemented as Merchant of Venus (Second Edition) remains true to its original core while updating the map and game components and expanding game play in surprising ways. Both are in the collection.

Mertwig's Maze by Tom Wham is a lighthearted fantasy boardgame where you are the would-be heir to Mertwig's throne! Can you complete your quest, get past the Mystic Musk Ox in Mertwig's Maze, and reach the finish before the other players? More importantly, can you claim the throne before Mertwig passes on and the kingdom falls into the clutches of evil?
A great beer & pretzels game and it's whimsical nature puts it in a class of its own.

Race Around Britain! where you move around the British Isles and answer questions to collect cards and tokens and get home first.
Starting at a random town, players race to twelve other towns aiming to be the first one there. The first person there gets two points and can answer a trivia question about the destination for another point. Then it's on to the next town and finally back to the start for three extra points. Winner is the player with the most points.
An okay 1980s board game based on an older game from the 1930s with a few additions.

The next blog in this series coming soon.

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Thu Nov 2, 2023 12:00 pm

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My Gaming Life - How it's Changed

Posted by Brian Moore

Collecting

11 Oct 2023

Brian Moore

(Hopalong)

United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire

Today is my 67th birthday and I've been looking back at how my gaming has changed.

I started gaming when I was still at school. My dad used to play games, but it was the usual family-type games of the late 60s - things like Monopoy, Cluedo, Totopoly - that kind of thing.

When I left school and started work in the early 70s I decided to try and get back my childhood games, buying what I could.

In 1974 was a year that would change my life though as I developed a cancer tumour so had to have my left leg amputated. At that time I'd been courting Anne for a few months so she stood by me and we got married in 1976 and started a family in 1980. It will be our 47th wedding anniversary next month.

Around this time, I discovered the Postal Gaming Hobby and started to play games by post. These could take months to complete as this was a time before computers and emails. The one I played most was probably Railway Rivals lasting around 12 months to play!

I also started hearing about conventions. The first convention I went to was at Followfield University and the con was 'StabCon' in the years before it became a board gaming con. Back then it was mainly Diplomacy and a little game called 'Dungeons & Dragons'..

My second con was ManorCon and my main recollection of that one was playing 'Der Ausreisser' (Breakaway) with about eight others. It made such an impression on me and I just had to buy it and it has come on every holiday ever since.

When one of the 'zines folded that I subbed to, I took it over and I started my own 'zine, which lasted until my copier gave up the ghost.

Ah yes conventions. In the late 90s I started going to several cons.
One was StabCon, now a board gaming con and now held in a masonic hall. I used to be one of the first to arrive on the Friday and one of the last to leave on the Sunday.

Then there was Beer & Pretzels. This was held in Burton-on-Trent and ran for the weekend in the Town Hall - a beautiful wood-panelled room that could house around 300 gamers. My fondest memory from there was discovering a little game called 6 Nimmt, played out of the boot of a car!

This was followed by 'The Cast Are Dice' held in Stoke-on-Trent, originally in the towns Theatre, then later in the Sixth Form College. It was here that I met two dear friends of mine, Russ & Alex and we became good gaming friends for years, until they emigrated to the USA.

I also used to attend 'MidCon' a long established con that was held in Derby in a hotel near the railway station. More chances to game a lot.

I also used to go to Wigan Wargames Club, which although mainly a tabletop gaming club, there was also room for some regular board gaming - and it just happened to be about halfway between where I live and where Russ & Alex lived.

In 2007 myself and three others formed a local games club and we used to meet up on a Thursday. We even started to host Game Days at a local venue, which proved to be popular. The club is still going, with several more members, but everything changed during the pandemic of course.

For me, it started before the pandemic when I was diagnosed with Acute Heart Failure. This meant for 18 months I was 'shielded' and couldn't leave the house, as I was classed as a vulnerable adult.

With no going out to game, I started solo gaming, although Anne, who has always been a non-gamer started to join me and discovered that she enjoyed some of my games after all.

Post pandemic, I now find I can't go to conventions or gaming clubs. I did have a couple of friends who used to come round weekly for some 'proper' gaming, but life moves on and that's now in the past, too.

So now the only gaming I do is on a Sunday evening at a friends house. I seldom win, but it's always been, for me, about the journey and not the winning.

It's funny how you think once you retire you'll have plenty of time to play games, yet it never seems to turn out that way.

I do still buy games - one of my latest being Dorfromantik: The Board Game, which we've campaigned now for over 20 games, but I'm not a completist anymore.

And now I've gone and bought Twilight Inscription which plays well solo too.

And I've now added to that My Island, which is the sequel to My City which we thoroughly enjoyed when that was released.

This leaves me with over 4000 games (according to BGG) mostly just gathering cobwebs.
I could sell them, but don't fancy the hassle of finding buyers, boxing them and shipping them out. Most of them, being 'older' games, are probably not of much interest to anyone now in this 'cult of the new' hobby, and probably not worth much anyway.

I suppose I could donate them to Tony Boydell at the Boardgame Museum where I know they'll be looked after, but I doubt Tony has the room to house them all - and it's also the matter of getting them there if I could.

This blog has now run for over 1000 issues. In that time I must have written about over 10,000 games on a daily basis. I have over 400 people who subscribe and get an average of 40 likes each day.

These blogs take up around 4 or 5 hours a day to put together and I'm still enjoying doing them, so as long as you're not getting bored reading them, I'll keep doing them. I like to stroll down Memory Lane with them even if I'm not playing them.

Come and join me tomorrow for more ramblings.

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Wed Oct 11, 2023 12:00 pm

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Collecting: The Early Years #22

Posted by Brian Moore

Collecting

02 Oct 2023

Brian Moore

(Hopalong)

United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire

Ace of Aces: Wingleader by Alfred Leonardi is another game in the Ace of Aces series, with this one focused on WWII fighter combat.
24 fighters (including the Me-262 jet) are modelled in the game.
Use to own these when I was younger and played them with friends and my son, mainly. Somehow lacks the nostalgia of the rotary series edition.

Buck Rogers: Battle for the 25th Century Game by Jeff Grubb where you fight for control of the twenty-fifth century Inner Solar System as imagined in the 1950s in this strategy game.
The map board's Solar System Display keeps track of the 4 inner planets (Mercury through Mars) and the 9 larger asteroids along their orbits. The rest of the board is taken up by the various territorial displays; the larger planets are subdivided, plus there is Deimos around Mars, the Moon, L-4 and L-5 around Earth and Mercury's two artificial satellites --for a total of 42 territories.
As the planets move through their orbits you must plan your own moves well in advance to exploit planetary conjunctions.
Bought this in 1988 as soon as it was released and it has remained in the collection ever since, but hasn't been played for years.

Circus Imperium by L. Ross Babcock, III, Sam Lewis & Jordan Weisman is a tongue in cheek chariot racing game loosely based on FASA's RPG Renegade Legion. Players attempt to complete three circuits while keeping their chariots and drivers intact. The main challenge is manoeuvring around the bends while attempting to disable or block your opponents.
Based unashamedly on the chariot race in Ben Hur, Circus Imperium injects a few sci-fi themes and a huge dose of tongue-in-cheek humour to make this an enormously enjoyable gaming experience.

City by Wolfgang Kramer & Andreas Spottog where players purchase shops and then enhance them and buy more shops as the game goes on. The board shows an overhead view of a city centre around which customers wander - some normal, some big spenders and one thief. A special die is used to let you move a customer - the idea being to direct the spenders to your shops and away from those of opponents while making sure the thief stays away from your shops and goes to as many opponents' shops as possible.
An early example of W.Kramer's talent. The balance between building and scoring seems is a fine one.
In 2007 it was reimplemented as The Market of Alturien and is an improved version of the earlier game and was to be the first in an Alturien series that never got off the ground.

Curse of the Mummy's Tomb by Stephen Hand where players are a group of explorers in a pyramid attempting to learn forbidden knowledge and find treasure.
However the pyramid has many traps and tricks, and lurking about is the Mummy who will not rest until all are dead. Comes with a 3D three level gameboard that players have to ascend and metal miniatures.
This game holds a sentimental spot for me being one of the few strange games in the collection. This one is lots of fun, once you understand the rules.
A mini-expansion Curse of the Mummy's Tomb: In Search of Eternity added four new characters.

Dark Future by Marc Gascoigne & Richard Halliwell was similar in style to Auto-Duel or Car-Wars but simpler with that Games Workshop Style. Not related to R.Talsorian's Cyberpunk RPG.
Build armed vehicles using a point based system and race or fight it out on winding roads that change each game.
Great 'Mad Max' style road warrior game. The only drawback is that if you're designing vehicles from scratch for play then set up often took longer than the actual play time.

Dark Future: White Line Fever by Graeme Davis, Richard Halliwell & Sean Masterson contained advanced rules for Dark Future. Inside this book players will find new rules for manoeuvres, shooting, hazards, and new equipment. Also, new vehicles are presented (trikes), new scenarios, and new characters as well.
If you owned Dark Future and wanted to extend the game, this was definitely worth tracking down.

Double Crossing by Paul J. Gruen is a game that combines adventure, danger, strategy, luck of the dice, etc. A quick thinking and dastardly deed for up to 6 players." You drive your train around the board collecting cars and eventually selling them. Cards help you, hinder you, or allow you to hinder your opponents.
A common type of game for the 70's & 80's, but hard to find ones like them now. Build a train while moving freight & not go out of business.

Dungeonquest: Catacombs by Jakob Bonds & Dan Glimne added a new level of excitement to Games Workshop's award winning DungeonQuest game (1985). This expansion set includes full rules and components for venturing into the dread Catacombs, as well as new traps, monsters, treasures and room tiles for you to encounter in the normal dungeon.
This had everything you could ask for in an expansion, and most importantly, new interesting and hilarious ways to die.

Elefantenparade by Henri Sala where players have 2 elephants each which move along the track, collecting mahogany logs if possible. You can either move any 3 elephants 1,2 & 3 spaces in any order, or you can move all the elephants in a parade forward one place. The logs are on certain squares, so you try to move the other elephants so that yours land exactly onto the logs, without getting detached from the parade.
This didn't enter the collection until 2013 when I read on BGG how good the game was, so had to seek out a copy.

The next blog in this series coming soon.

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Mon Oct 2, 2023 12:00 pm

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Collecting: The Early Years #21

Posted by Brian Moore

Collecting

02 Sep 2023

Brian Moore

(Hopalong)

United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire

Schoko & Co. by Yves Hirschfeld & Gilles Monnet is all about producing chocolate in order to make money. Players are chocolate barons who have to contend with every element of the business from production to sales. Buy cocoa, convert it into chocolate and then sell it at sales meetings to big distributors, all along financing the staff and labour to pull it all off. Whoever is the most efficient gets the most money and the win.
This game has a very high degree of player interaction & lots of interesting bidding & decisions to be made. It didn't come into the collection until the 2000s when I'd read somewhere how good it was.

Shark by H. Jean Vanaise is a stock-trading game slightly reminiscent of Acquire in that abstract play on the game board determines the share values of the various companies. The similarities end there, though, as Shark is more free-wheeling than Acquire.
At the start of your turn, you can buy shares (up to five) and sell shares (as many as you want), then you roll dice to determine which of the four company markers you place on the board and in which region. A company marker on its own doesn't contribute to the value of a company; only groups of at least two markers count, so groups of 5, 4, 1, and 1 markers would create a value of $9,000 for each of that company's shares.
In my last visit to the states in 2008, we were wandering around the Wagon Wheel Fleamarket in Tampa when I spotted this which I hadn't seen before.

Spellbinder by Andrew S. Berton where the aim of the game is to create and collect as many words as possible.
Tiles are distributed, face down to all players. Each player then takes turns to turn over a tile and place it in the playing area. The players all must try to be the first to call out a word of 3 or more letters from the face up tiles in the play area.
Old word game where players create and collect as many words as possible, using tiles placed in the centre of the playing area. Can be a fun party game.
This is one game I added to the BGG database as when I bought it (yes, from a carboot) it wasn't a thing on BGG.

Star Traders by David Ladyman where players assumes the role of a intra-galactic merchant, traveling from planet to planet in a future where wars are unheard of and "Traders" are the heroes of the cosmos. The board shows 36 planets: six clustered together in the center of the board, six more in each of five arms of the galaxy. Planets are connected by "jump lines": you can jump to an adjacent planet on an orange line, to a planet halfway down a galaxy arm on a purple line, and from one galaxy arm to another via green lines. The length of the jump line also indicates the difficulty of the jump, so to successfully complete an "orange' jump you must roll a 2 or better on a single die, a purple jump requires a 4 or better, and the green jumps necessitate a 6.
Bought from new way back when, because I've always been a fan of Isaac Asimov's writings. A long-time favourite of mine, though probably not to everyone's taste these days.
In 2017 the game was reimplemented as Star Traders and has been redesigned and upgraded since its original release by the designer.

Stockmarket in which players try to make the most money by trading on the stock market. Players take turns to trade shares in 6 UK companies using information on share price movements available only to you. But every player has different information, hence decisions will be based not only on your cards, but also on the actions of the other players. This calls for guessing and bluffing.
Back in the 90's the group of friends I played with at that time always used to end our gaming session with a game of this. We loved it.

The Talisman Dungeon by Robert Harris was the third expansion set for Talisman. Now you can brave the perils of the Dungeon in your quest for the Crown of Command; those who survive the Dungeon may find themselves closer to their goal - if they survive. The Talisman Dungeon consists of a new board that players may move to, with its own deck of 36 Dungeon Adventure cards. In the corridors and tunnels of the Dungeon players may meet such horrors as the Hell Hound or Bronze Dragon, or find such ancient artifacts as the Crystal of Power
A very good expansion to one of my favourite games.

The Treasure Hunt Game by Steve Knowles & Mike Stimson was based on the UK Channel 4 tv series. Players flew around the country, solving clues to lead them to the next clue & eventually to the treasure.
Each player has to guess the identity of 5 places on a UK map from given clues, using a helicopter to jump from different areas, then use dice rolls to land exactly on your destination.
I used to love this programme back in the 80s and thought it was quite innovative for its day.

Verbositi As you play Verbositi you'll produce meaningful thought from random letters. The result will sometimes be shocking, but always hilarious. The objective is to develop within three minutes as many sentences on a broadly defined subject as possible from a randomly dealt sequence of seven letters. You won't believe what you're capable of creating. With four variations of play Verbositi offers an irresistible combination of strategy and humour to keep any number of people happy - because laughter is contagious.
Word based party game which uses two sets of cards, one with letters and one with categories which are assigned points. The basic idea is that a random set of letters eg. A R S T H E W is used to create sentences eg. After Rain Some Trees Hoard Extra Water. Points are awarded for such a sentence which falls into the prescribed categories.

Dingbats (aka Whatzit?) where the object is to solve rebus-like puzzles. (PLAY PLAY might be "double play") The roll of a die determines if you play solo, against everyone, or challenge a specific opponent. The winner moves the roll of a d6. Special spaces allow you to take a shortcut by solving a tougher "Wicked Whatzit". First to the top of the board wins.
It's fun trying to figure them out and they aren't kidding when you hit the hard pile.
Solutions for main image - Top: A square meal, Emergency stop; Bottom: Painless operation, Fish out of water

Yanks: ASL Module 3 by Charles Kibler & Rex A. Martin is not a complete game. Ownership of the Advanced Squad Leader Game System is required for play.
An extensive U.S. Army counter mix is presented so that you can command every major vehicle, weapon and troop type that saw action in the European Theater.
Brings in more of the late war strategies and weapons. Movement and firepower matter more compared to morale mattering more in early war.

The next blog in this series coming soon.

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Sat Sep 2, 2023 12:00 pm

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