Cardboard - Dice Forge board game review

With all the games on display at the UK Games Expo this year, new titles had to work super-hard to get themselves noticed. From the tiny wooden ladders of Catch the Moon to the novelty bed and sleep-mask in When I Dream, fancy components played a big part in the fight for attention, and one game doing a particularly great job in this respect was Dice Forge from Libellud. Upgradeable dice with interchangeable faces, striking box art and a beautiful board packed with a rainbow of colours all help the game to scream novelty - but is there any substance under all that chunky cartoon style? We've done deck building. We've done bag building. Time to try some dice building!

Guild Ball: I finally played some! (Farmer's Guild launch event)

I've been guilty of vanishing slightly over the last month, partly being busy with the usual mix of life, work and games but also having dedicated a big chunk of time to fixing this hideously unpainted situation:

That's an awful lot of grey to cover...

Guild Ball is something I've written about before when we attended Steamforged Games' SteamCon in Leeds late last year. It's a mob football miniatures game where you're attempting to play the most dangerous game of football ever on a kill-or-be-killed pitch filled with dodgy (but beautifully detailed) characters from various power-hungry guilds from across the Empire of the Free Cities.

I came back from the con super-enthused to pick up the game, learn the rules properly and get my models painted up. True to form I did none of these things, and the Hunters returned to their bag, lost and forgotten in the shadow of shiny new board games (as much as it was possible to forget, that is, living with the most Guild Ball obsessed man ever...)

But then earlier this month, during a bit of a resurgence in the game at my local gaming store, Dice & Destiny, I found out about a launch event for the new Farmer's Guild: a few friendly games being played, with some promos and prizes up for grabs. The store is under new management and much improved in terms of decor, outlook and community engagement, so I'm more than happy to support what they're doing and in a fit of enthusiasm I signed up to play, along with my husband. This gave me just over three weeks to get my act together. Nothing like working to a deadline, eh?

Obviously I prioritised painting over learning the actual rules, spending lots of happy evenings pottering about with acrylic paints, green stuff and PVA glue making them a lot less plain and grey:

[If you like the bases, by the way, they're roughly based on the one in this Sorastro painting guide.]

I also got in a rules refresher and some practice introducing friends to the game on a visit, and a couple more panicked 'aaargh, I don't know anything' games with my husband before the big day.

Guild Ball is one of those games where the rules, at their most basic, are pretty fast to pick up, but to get good takes lots of practice, strategic thinking and good knowledge of what everyone's models can do.

It will be little surprise to say, then, that I did not play well! Even so, the day was amazingly well run by our local Pundit (volunteer Steamforged rep) and loads of fun. Everyone was playing in the spirit of the day regardless of experience level and it looked like they were having a great time.

Highlights of my games included conceding two goals to Salt, the sea otter, a hilarious post-match overtime kickabout during which I scored a goal with 'borrowed' momentum and five minutes containing the most horrendous string of dice rolls I have ever put together in a game, ever!

Here's Salt, scoring his second goal...

Everyone received some promotional tokens and an alternative art card for Grange, the Farmer's Captain. There was also a Farmers themed cauliflower ball model to take home for best painted team, which I was very excited to win against some amazing competition:

It might look like just a tiny metal vegetable, but it was very exciting to me!

Nicest of all though was a prize for best opponent, where people voted for their most enjoyable game of the day. I was very proud (and super embarrassed) to win this prize too!

Prizes aside, I think it's so nice that Steamforged have designed an event around having fun rather than the usual winning-focussed tournament formula and I hope they offer lots more like it in the future. And I'm not just saying that because I'm terrible at the game... Hopefully I'll get lots more practice in with Theron and co before heading to SteamCon again later this year.

Big thanks to everyone involved at Dice & Destiny and especially our Pundit, Haydn, for the awesome day!

If you enjoyed this post perhaps you could take a look at my Facebook page and leave a like or come and say hello on my Twitter or Instagram feeds!

Handmade Fair September 2017 (and ticket discount offer!)

With all the recent board-gaming excitement and my ridiculously long break I've written nothing about craft-based-nerdery since Christmas! As if to redress the balance, I was reminded that it's time to start booking fun trips for 2017!

Cardboard - Star Wars: Destiny dice game review

A long time ago, in a living room far, far away...

This week I'm taking a look at the Rey and Kylo Ren starter sets for Star Wars: Destiny, a collectible card and dice game from Fantasy Flight Games. Each player brings their own deck to the table, centred around a character (or characters) from the Star Wars universe and packed with weapons, equipment, events and support characters that will hopefully leave them as the last team standing.

Cardboard - Mystic Vale card game review

Druids, fancy see-through cards and a substantially reduced chance of ruining your game with a drinks spillage. What more could you ask for in a deck-builder? Cue Mystic Vale, newly crowned Origins card game of the year!

UK Games Expo 2017 Highlights

It's official: the UK Games Expo is currently the world's third largest board gaming convention having welcomed over 16,500 unique visitors to the Birmingham NEC and Hilton Metropole over the last weekend, including a very excited and over-caffeinated me.

Cardboard - Yamatai board game review

If you take a look at my game shelf there's a notable trend towards picking up every game I see with a Japanese theme. From Tokaido to Takenoko, Mottainai or Hanabi, I think I have a small obsession - but it hasn't let me down yet! Let's start by going down the list of reasons for me to be excited about this game:

• Colourful shiny box: check
• Days of Wonder: check
• Japan: check
• Lost, ancient, mysterious kingdom setting: check
• Smile-based reward system: wait, what?

Yamatai is the latest offering from Days of Wonder, designed by Bruno Cathala (Five Tribes, Dice Town, Shadows Over Camelot) and Marc Paquien (...Yamatai). With the prospect of a rewarding smile from Queen Himiko at stake, 2-4 players strive to become the most prestigious builder as the capital of Yamatai takes shape on an archipelago in ancient Japan.