Excused Games

Saturday 3rd March was the day of Pasteboard and Plastic XVII, the Saltdean games day in aid of the local Scouts, but as mentioned before I was not feeling completely well and, particularly when I saw the torrential rain outside, I decided to postpone or perhaps cancel my plans to attend. I didn't feel dreadful but someone rightly pointed out that if I didn't feel like playing games then I definitely wasn't well...

Happily Crabro, who organised the event as always, let me feel a little bit included by calling me to ask me which of the games on the second-hand table he could spend my money on. Although tempted by Baltimore and Ohio and others, the most likely to get plays with my friends seemed to be Niagara, so I asked him to kindly buy that on my behalf. It came with an expansion and another mini-expansion so I was well pleased.

More details of this popular local event can be gleaned from this "meta-list" of Boardgamegeek "geeklists" and elsewhere in this diary.

Pastboard and Plastic XVI

Another Essen Spieltage, the biggest cross on the board gamer's calendar, finished last weekend and various members of our group, and the wider games community returned with cases and cars full of new games, cheap older games, promotional items, and expansions.

A year or two ago it dawned on me that if the third and last "Pasteboard and Plastic" games day of the year took place soon after "Essen" it would give the owners of all this new game treasure a chance to play it and show it off. It would also give us stay-at-homes a chance to see what was shiny and new in the word of brettspiel.

Yesterday saw Pasteboard and Plastic XVI, organised as ever by Crabro and held in the Scout hut at Saltdean, raising funds for the 42nd Scout Group.

In view of the fact that I no longer run a car and would have to travel by 'bus I carried only a few fillers and a game to add to the raffle prizes and set off a little earlier than usual with the intention of also leaving a bit earlier than usual.

The event runs officially from 10am until around midnight but Crabro is there earlier setting up and the last games are usually still being finished while the furniture is being moved around them.

The first thing that struck me on arrival, around ten-thirty, was how busy it already looked. There was a noisy hum of gamer's conversations in the air and the raffle prize table and the second-hand games tables were already well-stocked with goodies.

The other thing it was impossible not to notice was the tables groaning with shrink-wrapped goodness from our friends at Board Game Club. No-one could complain that there was nothing to buy!

New games for sale

I spent some time looking at all the new and second hand bargains before I remembered to sign in and make myself a tea (unlimited cuppas being included in the entry fee).

Before too long I was asked if I was up for a game and I found myself with Crabro, MaOldie and Waaru, together with a couple of young gamers I hadn't met before, playing the new game by the man with a passion for the letter F and the colour green. Our friends had met up with Friedmann Friese in Essen and had the photo to prove it. Their purchases of his games and add-ons to his earlier games should keep him in green hair-dye for some time to come.


The game this time was Power Grid: The First Sparks which has a lot of the flavour of the classic Power Grid in the gameplay but is a stand-alone game, set far back in the mists of time when men were men and mammoth meat was on the menu. I must say I struggled a bit as the light slanting low in the window made the far end of the board (where the available technology and intelligence cards were) impossible to see without standing up and moving.

As it was just a "learning game" I wasn't too bothered about being competitive anyway and proceeded to take what came my way. In the end I was assumed so far behind that no-one even bothered to check but since I clearly hadn't been in with a chance of the win I didn't worry too much. The winner by tie-break in the end was one of the aforementioned youngsters whose name (something like Rav or Raf?) I'm afraid I didn't get.

The game was very attractive, with nice, coloured wooden pieces for the hunted (or fished) food and I liked it very much. As an owner or Power Grid I think I would still be happy to add this one to the collection as well, and I think it would be popular with the Goldstone Gamers, as it clearly is with the Saltdean Gamers.

At some point I found myself chatting with some other Essen raiders from our group: MrWendell and Petra Pan, although they had actually spent the whole week in Germany and much of their plunder had come from ordinary shops. It seems shoe shops are a popular board game outlet in that very game-aware land. MrWendell had brought me back a couple of promotional cards to add to my Power Grid game with which I was very pleased.

He then asked me if I was available for a quick two-player game and produced a rather beautiful abstract game composed of silver and blue metal rings, rods and cylinders with which to make three towers on a triangular board. I proved rather a dismal failure at this on my first attempt but perhaps I will get another crack at San Ta Si sometime.

Meanwhile it was already lunchtime and the drawing of the raffle had been anounced. After quite a nice win several years ago I had settled into a pattern of winning nothing so I wasn't taking too much notice as I went backwards and forwards to the kitchen to make some tea to go with my sandwiches. On one of my returns to the hall it eventually sank in that Crabro was announcing one of my numbers. There wasn't much left on the table but I was just happy to win something. I selected Fire Team an older two-player game of hex-and-counter modern warfare. I was very pleased with that and it turns out to be an interesting looking game in excellent condition.

Raffle prizes-my win second from right

I then spent a considerable amount of time in internal debate about whether to buy a second-hand or new game. The temptations were huge. One of the second-hand games I had been interested in disappeared into Mike's huge bag at a knock-down price, which made me jealous but took away part of the dilemma.
In the end I was asked if I wanted to play Lords of Vegas and left the decision for a while. As it turned out, BrightonFoxDave, one of my opponents, was the seller of a couple of absolute classic games on the second-hand table and I did a deal for the two which left me free to put purchases out of my mind and concentrate on gaming.

I don't frequent the Brighton games club but I'm always happy to get a chance to play against the members at these events. Playing against BrightonFoxDave and Thrudd was guaranteed to be fun and I was even more sure of this when I saw that the game was full of brightly coloured dice. It took me some time to grasp the game-play of this game of casino ownership, although to be fair that was more to do with my tiredness than complexity of rules.

The game allows a lot of backstabbing in taking over others' casinos, which is fine in company such as this where fun is the main concern. I was actually doing very well throughout the game, much to my surprise, indeed actually in the lead or joint lead.

Of course it would be no fun if I didn't have an opportunity to whinge about being robbed though and with my casinos being ripped from under me by Thrudd and then by perpetual last place man Mike, whose luck had suddenly changed, I went from the lead to last in the final stage of the game. Nevertheless, a lot of fun and a game now on my wishlist in the hope it might turn up at a good price in future.

The remainder of the afternoon saw me playing a couple of lighter games with MrWendell. The first was Bausack, an extraordinary cloth bag full of odd wooden shapes in three colours. Intriguingly it also contained a clothes peg and some string but these didn't feature in our game. Petra Pan had been lucky enough to pick up this bag of goodness earlier from a fellow gamer, having nearly bought it in Germany for considerably more. She definitely got a bargain because it is a fascinating and flexible bag of goodies. MrWendell and I played a variant involving increasingly difficult tower-building with unlikely shapes. At one-all I suggested we have a decider and was surprised to find myself the winner, my shakey old mitts not normally being ideal for games of dexterity.

Petra Pan then joined us for a hand or two of Sticheln, a popular trick-taking game which is not new but is one we enjoy. This resulted in a win for Petra Pan with MrWendell and I tying for second. Since we were on negative scores and PP's was well into the positives it was a clear win.

At this point those people who were staying to the end began to head off to the local fish and chip shop, or more exotic "take-aways", for some nourishment to sustain them for the final four or five hours. I decided it would be a good time to take my leave. My conscience insisted that I did a bit of clearing up and washing up first though. I do appreciate all the organisation that goes on and it was one of the few times I was not going to be there for the midnight task of stacking chairs and stowing folding tables away.

I began to question the wisdom of having bought two large games (El Grande and Tigris) as I headed for the 'bus but got home fairly easily, looking back on another very successful Saltdean Games Day which, hopefully, has raised a nice chunk of change for the local Scouts.

Pasteboard & Plastic XV

"Caylus with guns" First game

 Pasteboard and Plastic is the name of the games days organised by Crabro and held three times a year in the scout hut at Saltdean to raise money for the local (42nd Brighton) scouts and of course to provide geeky fun for local gamers. In this case lots of gamers in what looked at times to be a record turnout, certainly for the Summer event when even geeks may emerge blinking into the sunlight for holidays.

I turned down an offer of a place at another game of Rise of Empires as I wanted to get myself a cuppa and have a browse through the games on sale. I can't resist a Western theme though and first game of the day for me was Carson City, a game memorably and accurately described by one of the players as "Caylus with guns". I had forgotten a lot of what I had learned in my previous plays of this some time ago and didn't cover myself in glory. I played a fairly solid game I thought but was lulled into a false sense of security by the almost pacifist play in my last experience of the game and consequently missed the arms race which left at least two of my opponents able to automatically win duels against me without needing to roll a die. Enjoyable but rather more serious than I am used to with genre games. Not a "yeeha!" or "Draw ya varmint" to be heard. An expansion featuring ladies of the night was mooted however. Thanks to my opponents, Kevin, Simon and Steve.

Just some of the games on sale

Between games, I was drawn back often to the games on sale. There was a mouth-watering array of shrink-wrapped new games on display in addition to a well-stocked second-hand sale or trade table. My indecisiveness eventually cost me a nice cheap copy of Ra - a game I like, and possibly Airships, an attractive looking new game. I drooled over several big, high production-value games dripping with cards and miniatures (e.g., Castle Ravenloft, Mansion of Madness and a Heroscape basegame) as well as some expansions to games which I already own, like Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne. In the event I persuaded myself that I could not afford to buy games and expansions which I knew would not be to my groups' taste and would sit forlornly on the shelf unplayed. Hard not to point birthday money at Ravenloft given that it can be played solo though but as would be expected of such a big game, it was quite a lot of money despite the very competitive, and of course postage-free, prices of BoardGameClub who were supporting, and joining in, the event again.

Second hand games - I wish I'd nabbed Ra!

Power Grid was the second game I played I think, but on an interesting map I hadn't played before: Japan. I didn't stand much of a chance against young agile minds but it was a very enjoyable return to a game I really like. In the end I was able to have built and power 17 cities but in the same turn both my opponents built up to 18 and could power them all. First and second was decided on money and was, I think, won by Waaru by four electros.

Crabro & others at the back prepare the raffle

At some point I stopped for tea and sandwiches and retreated outside to check the state of the Tour and then decided to stop trying to read the F1 quali on a phone screen in bright sunlight and spent a few minutes back in the car with a cuppa and Radio 5's coverage of the damp ten minute final session. Result - Hamilton rather a long way back but a brilliant run by Scot Paul di Resta for sixth in his Force India.

Returning to help with the raffle set up I then watched the intriguing "Bag O' Geek" and San Juan, among other goodies, go to other ticket buyers but at least I managed to pass on Bionicle to perhaps a more appreciative owner. It has some nice and potentially very useful bits if nothing else.

Raffle prize donations

Last big game of the day for me was my own Pillars of the Earth, a worker-placement game I really enjoy. We played my German version but with no trouble owing to the beautiful card and board paste-ups by its previous owner, Carver, designer of Warrior Knights. In keeping with my general performance this week, I came a none too convincing third despite having acheived my aim of maxing out my gold, owning several blue ("metal") cubes and obtaining both the cards needed to convert these riches to victory points. Very enjoyable nevertheless and always nice to play with MaOldie and her offspring, in this case Waaru. Matthew made up the group I think.

My German copy of Pillars of the Earth

After this there were a number of more "filler" type games including Wyatt Earp, unofficial member of the Mystery Rummy series, (yes I came third/last with only $17,000), Spoof of which I think I may have actually won a game, and Flaschenteufel which was sadly abandoned after one hand owing to the arrival of hot food from the local takeaways just as the rules were beginning to come back to me. Chips and cards do not mix unless they are poker chips, however.

Glory to Rome: mrwendal, Waaru and Petra Pan

One of my current favourite games and rather more than a filler really, Glory to Rome hit the table and I was very pleased to finally have a proper win. albeit shared with waaru who had ended the game without realising I had equaled his score.

Finally I got a couple more of my light games played. Diamant and Guillotine require almost no rule learning and very little thought about strategy so were ideal for the end of the day and were played in suitably light-hearted fashion by myself, Waaru, Petra Pan and mrwendal to continue the practice of using "geeknames", plus Abby and Mickey whose alter egos, if any, are unknown to me.

I left slightly before the final die-hards around midnight but feeling rather guilty about not staying for the wash up as I usually do, did clear away one or two tables and chairs to appease my conscience.

Another very good P&P thanks to Crabro, BGC, and everyone who played, brought games to sell, donated prizes etc. Hopefully, a substantial amount has been raised for the local scouts.

If anyone ever reads this and is interested in the event, there are "geeklists" on Boardgamegeek.com covering most, if not all the past P&Ps and a metalist here. There is also a Yahoo group which will keep you up to date with details of future events here, run by Crabro's alter ego Sevenwattbulb. Mike, sporting one of his trademark colourful shirts in the picture above also writes the events up on his very interesting website: Theblisspages