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Paul Jones
Well trying out a couple of new games and playing some of our favs, but for me this one would have to be Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood by Shadowbourne Games. UKGE 2023 Best Boardgame (American Stye) Winner.
1-4 players band together to make a free company or Oathsworn. The Oathsworn are a free company of mercenaries with varying backgrounds, the design of the group is easy enough for people to drop in and out of, so if one of the group can’t play, you can still continue the adventure. You have individual bags for your own stuff as well as a communal bag for shared gear.
The Game itself is an evolving journey, with each story leading into the next one, each part of the journey comprises of two elements.
The first element is the story-driven segment where your follow a narrative and your choices will determine what happens, this can be done through the books provided or via downloadable app (which is narrated by James Cosmo) During the narrative you will gather resources and information to help you.
This then leads to the second part which is the encounter, this is where the super cool miniatures come into play, with terrain, monsters and your characters. The battle system is worked through a card drafting system for your abilities. To determine the outcome this can be worked either via dice or cards, the whole system is well thought out and allows for a high cooperative adventure.
This is a very nice blend of a miniatures game with an RPG mix in there, the card drafting system for your encounters adds a different element but overall this is an awesome game, requires a bit of setup and prep time but well worth it and even has background noise from the app for the encounter a nice little bonus as you battle the monsters of the Deepwood.
I would recommend this for any heavy board gaming group, not for the faint of heart, and definitely not one to be done in 60 minutes. So much fun and so immersive.
Abbie Bradish
With the festive shenanigans just around the corner I’ve mostly been in ‘mum’ mode recently, trying to get things organised and perhaps having the odd practice run with the old crème liqueur. Luckily prior to the last few days I’ve managed to squeeze more than a few gaming days with family along with a cheeky games night or two!
Late to the party with this absolute classic, we have played so much Carcassonne. I didn’t play it until recently and it was an instant I have to have this moment. A good old-fashioned tile and worker placement game, this plays great as 2 player but also caters well if we can persuade my teen to join in and we can max it out to 5 players. An expansion is definitely on my Christmas list.
Speaking of my teen, theres one game that’s guaranteed to get him involved and that’s Ligretto. It’s also about the only game I’ll tolerate the cards getting creased as with such a quick-paced card shedding game it’s inevitable. We played this with friends on our games night and they brought their copy, which then combined with ours allows up to 8 players which is absolutely bonkers, if you have all three versions you can even have 12 players!!!
We also recently managed to acquire a little 2 player game called Mr Jack Pocket, which is sadly now out of print but a nifty little detective game. A little bit like Scotland Yard but… well pocket sized. Another new game we finally got to the table was Marvel Champions, this took us some time to get our head around - top tip don’t try to learn new instructions when you have tinnitus! Once we had properly digested the info it’s a really clever game where you work together against the villain to thwart them. We lost.
Co-ops seemed to be a theme as we also played quite a few games of Infernal Wagon with the younger kids. I really like this cheeky little game where there are no turns and you’re trying frantically to discuss what cards you hold while figuring out the best way to build your route out. Although not once have we managed to escape the explosion when using the 7 minute time limit.
Honourable mention to Bears Vs Babies which we pulled out the back of the cupboard and dusted off. Who doesn’t love a happy squid with a kitty tummy who wears terrific boots!
Pete Bartlam
Our U3A Board Games Group meets at the start of the month and this time we played Yak. I got Yak on Arthur’s recommendation at ZATUCON22 and think it is a delight. The components are so well made: chunky, bright coloured bricks, loaves, hams and milk bottles; solid carts that go together well, with revolving wheels and the Yaks themselves are masterly – to say Yak in so few curves is incredible – and if you don’t fall in love with the little Yak which is just the turn marker! you must have a heart of stone. The game’s pretty good too, you buy stones off the passing carts to build a better wall, matching colours and groups.
Next up is Cascadia by candlelight. Well, not quite. Our energy supplier, EDF, is running a scheme where you are given a set hour and if you use less energy then you get a rebate. Well, with all other entertainment off, I convinced my wife to play Cascadia with me under one low-energy light. It was a great success. We both enjoyed it, I won, narrowly, and we were in the top A group of energy savers in our region! The rebate? Well, if you’re asking, was a cool 52p!
Isle of Trains – All Aboard was next. I had heard great things about this small but packs a punch package and was eager to play it with my enthusiasm for trains. It is a great game with a lot of variations and not only a solo mode but a solo campaign. However, I found it difficult, at first, to grasp until I watched the HTP video because the track network nicely laid out on the island has no bearing on deliveries, just the stations. Or am I missing something?
Finally I am working my way through Core Space. A great big box of tricks in the world of sci-fi skirmish. The rules, despite being in a 179 page book, are straightforward enough. The player boards with their cribbage-like pegs are neat, too. The 8 full-sized boards of solid, double-sided cardboard components are very generous but how do they all go together? Don’t worry, I regularly do 3000+ piece jigsaws. I’ll get there!
Stu West
I have been playing lots of games this month. If you had asked me at the end of October what I’d be choosing to write about as my game of the month I would definitely have not thought it would be Risk. Risk. the board game is almost 65 years old; it is definitely a classic. When I was a student, my flatmates and I would play Risk for many, many hours and I have very fond memories of the game. However, those memories include very long sessions that stretched into the early hours and not much in the way of cooperation and problem solving which runs country to what I have grown to enjoy in a board game as I’ve got older.
On a cold Sunday morning in November, I let the smaller child choose the board game for us to play. Despite my trying to convince him that Risk possibly wasn’t the best idea, he insisted we play and I’m glad that he did. The premise of Risk is simple, you start the game with an even number of territories and you must consolidate regions to strengthen your forces and eliminate your opposition. However, there is much more to it than that. There are optional secret missions to make the game play faster. There are two-player variants, and of course there are plenty of homebrew or house rules that you can employ to make the perfect gaming session.
Risk is remarkably simple. In terms of gameplay you only need six dice and the game can really teach younger children strategy, simple mathematics, and when to take a ‘risk’. It also helps to see when a game is lost, and I encourage my kids to concede when they see the game has slipped away. This really speeds up gametime and allows players to talk through what is likely to happen and what players could have done differently to avoid the outcome. I always prefer and encourage cooperative games when we’re playing as a family, but this impromptu Risk session was a very nice change.
There are so many versions of risk nowadays that you’re sure to find something you like. My own collection contains the classic original, the Walking Dead, and the Lord of the Rings versions - plus, of course, the legacy edition still in its shrink wrap, waiting for the perfect gaming group to be committed to picking it up for a campaign play through.
I won’t be so hesitant at our next game night with friends to bring out Risk as a one-off having played it this month. Risk is cheap, simple and honestly every house should have a copy somewhere.
Suzanne Bradley
Are your players overly dramatic? Do they go into a lot of detail as to what their characters are doing? Do you like your players to have more agency and control over the narrative? Then 7th Sea is for you. A game for show boaters and people who like to show off boats, 7th Sea is a high-seas adventure Tabletop RPG.
The game is set in a sort of alternate 17th-century Europe called Thea. Each country and region takes a lot of actual European history and builds on it. All the countries have made up names, but you can tell which ones correlate with their real-life counterparts, for example Avalon is England and Ussura is Russia. The histories and information about the world are intensive and multilayered. Because there is so much detail it’s easy to build a quick campaign or one shot.
The mechanics of 7th Sea are very different from regular tabletop games. There is no failing a roll, or skill check. You roll d10’s to determine how many actions you get in a particular scene. This means instead of letting the role determine what happens, the players choose and describe their actions. The Keeper can also foil those actions with Villains and Danger Points. The game is more about the descriptions, and less about luck.
7th Sea is built in a way that you always win, but winning isn’t the point of the game. It’s far more cinematic. The idea of the game is that you are already a hero with renown and reputation (but not always a good one). In this game you’ll swing on chandeliers, you’ll weave magic, and participate in political intrigue, changing the course of nations.
We started in Avalon, which is essentially 17th-century England. My three player characters, Lady Etain, a Knight of the Rose and Cross, and her Squire and Knight in training Brandon, and the ex-Brotherhood member Ephraim, received a secret invitation to a party at a rich merchants’ house. That was how the adventure began. The end of the adventure is still to be revealed.
Character creation itself involves backgrounds, advantages, Hubris and Virtues. Each of these is used to build your hero, and indeed the story that your character. There are also secret societies and religious groups to help give your character motivations and beliefs to make them more three-dimensional.
As your character doesn’t level up with experience, you chose story beats that the Keeper will help fulfil as the campaign or one-shot moves along. It can take some time to build the characters, and you can find character sheets online.
This game is more for people with a penchant for the dramatic. You want to perform your actions as you do them. You build the stories with how you do things, rather than whether the dice say you can.
If you have an action spare then you can do it. 7th Sea is for actors and drama queens, or simply those who like to have a little more control over their characters' actions. It is also for Game Masters or Keepers who don’t mind passing some of the narrative control to the players. Overall, a fun adventure game once you get the hang of it.