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How is another year coming to an end? It is truly unbelievable but what a year 2024 has been! There’s been plenty of games released this year with some of my highlights being Kavango, Worms and the Monty Python Flying Circus expansion for Zombicide.
There’s been plenty of other exciting news and activities throughout the year. Some of which includes the Olympic games and Team GB’s huge hall, Oasis have finally reunited and the Ghost Orchid which was thought to be extinct has been discovered in the UK. NYE is a great time to reflect on events and there have been plenty.
So as a blogging team we thought we would take the time to share the games that we plan to play on the final night of 2024. Here’s what the team will be getting up to.
Zombicide 2nd Edition: Fort Hendrix - David Ireland
I started this campaign earlier in the year with huge success in the early missions. Life got in the way a little and I really now want to pick up on it again. Seems like the perfect opportunity to re engage.
For those not familiar with Zombicide, you will need the 2nd edition base game to play this expansion set of Fort Hendrix. The concept of the game is simple, get your team of survivors to complete the mission and get out. All while fending off the hordes of Zombies that keep relentlessly coming.
Fort Hendrix sees the military introduced to the set. You have a set squad of survivors, military personnel that didn’t get taken down in the first assault. Now you have to get out. 10 missions in all which you are able to pick up experiences, gain abilities as well as potentially hold equipment between missions. All of which I feel will be necessary in the later missions.
What’s very cool with this set is the additional military kit and (importantly) weapons. These are particularly helpful for taking down many Zombies. We also have the all out rule for weapons, this gives you the opportunity to roll more dice in combat and take down more Zombies. However, if you roll a break roll on the all out dice, then the weapon is toast and lost, discard immediately.
The significant drawback is the night and day rule. Day time is standard play, night time is a challenge which significantly helps the Zombies, because basically, you cannot see them. It pretty much rules out shooting at any significant range. The expansion isn’t full of advantages for the survivors, unsurprisingly.
This is our NYE for 2024. If you are a fan of the game and in need of fresh challenges I highly recommend this expansion.
Just One By Dan Street-Phillips
NYE is a funny old time. Often too expensive to go out so you gather around a family member or friend’s house eating buffet food and watching Jools Holland’s Hootenanny until it’s time to go to bed. So the instinct is to introduce a good old fashioned party game but with such a mix of ages and temperaments it’s always difficult to judge. However, the one I keep coming back to year after year is Just One. In the last few years since it has been released it has become one of the go to family games due to its simple to teach nature and its cooperative gameplay. On your turn you choose one of the cards provided and without looking at it choose a word numbered from one to five. The rest of the group all have to secretly write a one word clue to help the guesser figure out what the original word was.
Easy right? However the nice twist here is that before the guesser can see these words, the clue-givers must share their words and any that have been repeated get erased. You never know, turn to turn, how many clues you are going to get! The best thing is it scales from three people to…well as many as you like. The game provides 7 whiteboards and pens but you can easily buy multiple copies or add paper and pens to the mix. It has never failed to entertain and with such a low price point it is JUST-THE-ONE for the festive season!
Favourite Foe
Countdowns? Fireworks? Champagne and singing? Not to sound like a party pooper, but no thanks! I know I am bucking the trend as NYE is socialising of the utmost significance. Bigger than any Saturday night, bolder than Christmas, and busier than Piccadilly circus at rush hour. For me, however, NYE is the night when I quietly and cosily contemplate the next 12 months in the company of my heart and soul (aka my son and husband). And hand in hand with that goes time to play a few more family games before work and school whip time out from under our feet again.
This year we will bring out The Fuzzies for some furry, dexterity based fun, and we can’t let 2024 go without one more game of Monsdrawsity. Even at 3P count, this is a firm favourite with our son whose descriptions and drawings of the ghouls and ogres on the cards are unnervingly detailed! Once he goes to bed, it will be time for a few two player games to see us through the gongs. Splendor Duel, Battle Line, and Targi are always winners for us (and even more so for my husband who comes first far more than me!), and together combine to form a lovely mixture of set collection, engine building, take that, and worker placement. It’s like picking chocolates out of the Celebrations – we love them all and so the order in which we enjoy them doesn’t matter. We will simply savour each one over the course of the Evening!
Wishing you all a very happy, healthy, and harmonious 2025.
Bolt Action 3rd Edition – Hasvik
What would New Year’s Eve be without explosions? That said, we have a new dog so we will be avoiding loud sky detonations as much as possible this year. So what’s the next best thing? Indoor table explosions of course! With Bolt Action 3rd edition still hot off the press my group is taking any excuse to push tiny little men at each other. This is our go to war game of late and has been a great opportunity to educate ourselves on the history of WW2 as we research and build our chosen factions. This has also been an opportunity to sling dice, roll lots of ones, see our genius strategic hopes fail spectacularly, and laugh at each other. Also Snacks.
Currently we are all hurriedly speedpaint our plastic lads, and I am feverishly painting up desert terrain for the next big game in our North Africa slow grow campaign. This will be our first game at 1000 points each, and with up to 4 players (boys please hurry up and confirm your attendance in the discord – you know who you are) this game is shaping up to finish way beyond midnight. Representing both sides we have a mix of British, Italian, and German forces so it’ll be a great opportunity to see what these factions can do with a full scale army on the table. Don’t worry we’ll make sure we call truce long enough to belt out a slightly sozzled rendition of Auld Lang Syne from the safety of our fox holes before someone spots a Tiger tank on the horizon and all hell breaks loose again. Here’s a sneak peek at my completed vehicles thus far. Note to self – need more tanks. That sounds like a new year’s resolution to me….
Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza – Ryan Burdus
Have you ever wanted to return to the classics of playing a good old game of Snap? Now what if we changed the cards to random animals and food items and some of those make you have to do certain actions when playing them? If that sounds crazy then you’re right, it is! That’s what makes this game stand out from the original snap card game or any games of this genre. It’s fun for all ages so no matter if it’s a family games night or you’re having a bit of drunken fun this New Year’s, popping out this game will be a surefire way for everyone to have a blast!
The game plays exactly like snap, playing cards one by one until the 2 last played cards have a matching face, in which case everyone would rush to slam their hand down on top of the card pile. Instead of shouting “Snap” you’d have to say the name of the card which will either be; taco, cat, goat, cheese, or pizza (who would’ve guessed right!). So far this sounds kinda familiar, which is why it’s a super easy game to pick up at any age (or alcoholic state) but then there’s a new feature that comes with this game which is special cards which means you’ll have to perform a certain action such as beating your chest or clapping above your head right before slamming your hand down onto the pile. All these aspects come together to make a great little party game that lasts between 5 – 10 minutes at a time, can easily fit in your pocket and is great for any occasion to lift the mood. Perfect for a New Year’s celebration, and exactly what I myself will be playing too!
Camel Up – Pete Bartlam
“Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? We’ll take a cup of kindness yet for the sake of Auld Lang Syne”
Surely that’s the sentiment of New Year’s Eve when old acquaintance (grievances) should be forgiven and we drink together from the cup of kindness (other spirits are available). So what should we play in this spirit of camaraderie? A co-operative game? A bit feeble? How about one with true competition but competing against the system rather than each other? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Camel Up!
This classic cornucopia of cavorting camel-carrying characters competing in a dry dusty desert diorama pits you not against each other but against the vagaries of Lady Luck. You don’t own the camels in this desert classic but are simply trying to beat the bookies by pre-guessing the outcome as the paper pyramid spews forth its cargo of dice. It is possible to work out the odds as the humped participants move back and forth, solo or carrying comrades – sometimes!
There’s no “take that” nastiness to foil the others with the possible exception of strategically placing your desert tile – either desert or oasis – to send landing steeds forward or back.
We now play with some of the Supercup expansion: the slightly longer track, the photographer, which lets you set your camera where you think a stack of Camels may give you a stack of Egyptian Pounds and an extra dice added to the pot for the camel in last place. It has only 1s and 2s on but is a really good twist and helps prevent some poor Bactrian bozo getting cut off completely.
So try camel Up early on and then after you’ve had a few more drinks move on to Top of The Pops Party Game!
Final Thoughts
We hope you have a great final night of 2024. Happy New Year and here is to 2025 and all the new gaming adventures to be had.