And that was the 24 Board Game Marathon 2023 – part 2

The big day had arrived.

Like a child on Christmas morning I was awake at 5:30 am and my mind was already racing. Though to be honest, this is me most days.

I donned my logo t-shirt, had some breakfast, and then it was time to begin. What follows is a rambling account of the fun experiences we had, the awesome people we met, and all the games we played.

(I’m writing this on the Monday after my first sleep so that I hopefully remember everyone and everything. If I forgot you, I’m sorry. Please blame it on tiredness and my middle aged brain).

Here we go.

THE BEGINNING

We headed into the hall and grabbed a nice end table, giving us room to dump the board game bag on the floor beside us. We were joined by Hilary, the person who had betrayed us the evening before in our game of Blood On The Clocktower, but we were willing to give her one last chance of friendship. And we’re glad we did as she became the third member of our team and kept me sane in the darkest gaming hours between 11pm-7pm when I would have been on my own. For that, I am extremly grateful.

GAME #1 – YAHTZEE

As Dan announced the start of the event, we opened with a game of YAHTZEE to break the ice. This was mostly in part to Hilary’s amazing looking 3D printed dice tower. The opening was hilarious as all three of us effectively copied each other with Straights and Full houses. But I managed to just get the win thanks to getting that top half bonus.

GAME #2 – 11 NIMMT!

Next up we tried a game that Hilary had bought with her. While I was aware of 6 NIMMT!, I’d still not gotten around to trying it, but this was X NIMMT! and was a variation on the original. It still revolves around playing cards and hoping not to be forced to pick cards up. After a great teach, the game clicked pretty quickly, and we played two games back-to-back. Definitely might have to add this small box card game to our collection.

GAME #3 – AZUL

After playing the sequel the night before, I thought we’d go back to the original. AZUL is such a great game, and it’s a really good intro to the series. I remember thinking how complicated it all was when I first played it, especially with the scoring. But once you know it well enough, the game has a great flow to it. Hilray ended up destroying us, in part to finishing two columns. We bow down to her Azul skills.

GAME #4 POINT SALAD

Another easy to teach game, we went with POINT SALAD next. While I always moan about having to remove cards for player count, the game is a really good ‘quick game’ and has such a simple rules teach. As I avoided Onions, Hilary gathered them all as well as good scoring cards and ended up being the Onion Baron. This kept alive my tradition of losing to the new player. I must just teach really well.

GAME #5 – SPRAWLOPOLIS

Because we were trying to get into another game of Blood On The Clocktower, we tried playing small quick games to make sure we were available at short notice. So I grabbed SPRAWLOPOLIS, a game I’d only chucked in the bag in case I found myself solo at any point of the weekend. With a couple of score cards being a little opposed to each other, I wondered if we’d manage it, but our final score saw us 1pt over the requirement, so that was good.

GAME #6 – FUN FACTS

A visit from Alex (of Atomic Comics) saw a group gathered to play FUN FACTS. This is a party game where a statement is read out, and then players decide on a personal score for the statement (usually from 0-100) before a blind ranking is created. I thought it would be tough because we’d only just met the other five players, but it made it a lot of fun trying to judge people on their reaction to the card or their eagerness to place. And when we all got a run on one round, it was a moment to cheer. Definitely think this will be added for the Wedding.

BLOOD ON THE CLOCKTOWER #2

The very second the previous game was done, we all hurried off for another game of Blood On The Clocktower, once again hosted by Ben Burns. With mostly new players to us (including those we’d just met playing FUN FACTS) it was once more into the fire of uncertainity and trying to read new faces. This time I was the Savant, and thanks to a lot of rules questions being asked, and Eliot faking it as a Savant (for which I never found out why as it was completely uncoordinated), I was able to slip under the radar and not arouse suspicions. But the true and false facts built up and I’d forgetton one or two making me a target for misinformation. However I did survive, and just became ignored as the rambling mad man from the outskirts of town. A good laugh, and an another enjoyable live play.

GAME #7 – TINDERBLOX

Ali and I decided to take a break, and after a little lunch, we headed off for our first visit to the Live Stream room. And it seemed that everyone else was lunching too because we ended up being the only two viewers in the room. This then led to JP (from the Whose Turn Is It Anyway Podcast) and Shelley inviting Ali and I to join them for a game of TINDERBLOX. Now I thought I’d be too camera shy to appear on the stream, and Ali had said no to doing that before we even arrvied at the event. But I’m so glad that we did. I got to show off with a real daredevil placement before getting eliminated the next round, and Ali took on JP for a tense finish.

GAME #8 – TUSSIE MUSSIE

Returning to the main hall we found our table had gone to someone else (obvious in the busy day time as the ticket sales for the event surpassed expectations). But the wonderful Paul Grogan (@gamingrulesvids) was just heading off from his reserved teaching table and said we could have it for a few hours while he was doing other stuff. So we sat down and played a nice game of TUSSIE MUSSIE. I took the lead and had a commanding first two rounds, but Ali went full flower lethal on me in the final round controlling the card choices so well and taking it 10-3 for a final and winning 22-19. Very well played.

BUCKET LIST GAME

I mentioned before about me fan-boying, and other than meeting JP, I hadn’t really been brave enough to chat to any other members of the team. And while I get that they are normal human beings and I shouldn’t be so shy, it’s just how I am.

Anyway, I finally braved up and spoke to Becky and Andy from the podcast because I’d seen that Becky had broght their CROKINOLE board with them and it’s a game high high high up on my wishlist to try.

I was over the moon when they not only agreed, but Andy sat down and taught us the rules. And what a fantasic game it is. We’re already discusing cost and storage to get one ourselves. It is so much fun. I was trailing on the first game, and Ali had already got an early shot in the middle while I just couldn’t manage it. And then, on the final round to decide, I managed three shots in the centre (my first of which was a rebound!) and took the win. We are absolutly getting our own.

And a big thank you to Becky and Andy for helping me get another game crossed off my BGG Top 100 Scratch poster.

GAME #9 – DINOSAUR ISLAND: RAWR & WRITE

We needed another game to play so, after someone at the lending library picked up that I was a very indecisive person (it’s true), I grabbed DINOSAUR ISLAND: RAWR & WRITE, one of our favourites of the genre.

Ali went full unsecure mode again and suffered deaths in her park. I focused on hiring a lot of staff, and mostly being a standard non-dinosaur theme park for the first half, with only Merch, Rides, and Restaraunts.

We did have a biblical moment when organiser Dan opened the fire doors to let in some much needed fresh air only for my paper theme park to fly off the table in a freak Hurricane. But we managed to rescue it, and the park was reopened for business again in good time.

RPG #1 – ALL BASTARD!

Alex had been trying to help us after hearing that our love of RPGs was going mostly unfillfilled. He took it upon himself to hook us up with Sam Armstrong, creator of the hilarious RPG ALL BASTARD!

Players are Heroes from across the realm gathering in a tavern to share tales of their latest Hunt, noblest deeds, and the Bastards that got in their way.

Each player creates their story around three encounters, the final one being the villain they are tracking down. You describe each fight in detail and pepper the tall tales with dice rolls for success. You don’t live or die in the adventure, instead gaining the cheers of the other patrons as your story grabs their attention, or bores them.

I created the famous hunter, Philip Fantana who was hired by a bunch of explorer archaeologist types to track down a rare beast preventing them from seeking knowlege in their jungle expedition.

And I fought the mighty Eight Fist Fury, a vicious creature that was half Gorilla, half Octopus . . . and all Bastard!

Big thanks to Sam for running this for us, and for Oscar who opened preceedings and helped us relax into the fun of it all.

Unfortuntely, while we loved playing it, and I really wanted to grab a copy (something I’m now regretting) I just don’t think we have the local friends who would enjoy this, meaning it would’t get played. A real shame, but we’d absolutely join a game again.

RAFFLE TIME

As the evening kicked in, the Raffle began. The amount of games offered up was insane and tickets had been selling all day. The three of us headed to the back and settled in to see who won what.

And only a few draws in I got a copy of ARRAKIS: DAWN OF THE FREMEN one of the large number of Dune games released since the movie came out a couple of years ago. Then near the end of the raffle I got a small box game called THE PRETENDER which looks like a Charades version of SPYFALL. Both look good and we can’t wait to try them out.

BLOCKBUSTER

Wanting another break, the three of us sat in to watch the Blockbuster live stream at 8pm. It was a winner stays on tournament that saw the second blue team hold the spot for almost an hour. Hilary gave it a go, and in the process became the Peoples Champion when she so nearly dethroned them. We missed the end as our bellies began to grumble, and headed down for food before the kitchen closed.

GAME #10 – AZUL: SUMMER PAVILION

I didn’t like AZUL: SUMMER PAVILION the first time we played at UKGE 2022. But now I’m finding it harder to list them in any order as all four games are so good.

It was a great play, and I was doing so well at getting bonus tiles and staying on top of keeping a good number of upcoming wild tiles. But the final round saw me run out of actions, gain minus points, and then basically stop on the score track as the other two flew past me. It was painful being ‘stuck in the mud’ in a race and getting over taken. Better planning next time I think.

GAME #11 – TICKET TO RIDE: NEW YORK

Ali was getting tired at this point (nearly 11pm) and it was always the plan that she was going to sleep for a big chunk of the night so as to be safe driving hom the next day. Knowing we needed a short game, and that she was a fan of the series, I grabbed TICKET TO RIDE: NEW YORK.

It’s a nice condensed version of the classic, much like the Hot Zone versions of PANDEMIC. Hilary and I ended up running parallel straight up the middle of the city, while Ali took most of the west side.

Hilary used her final turn to draw Destination cards in the hope of having one already complete. Unfortunately this gave her minus 3pts, meaning Ali ended up winning by just 1pt. Great close ending.

GAME #12 – TERROR BELOW

With Ali heading to the land of slumber, Hilary and I wandered around looking for a table in need of players. We ended up joining John (one of the people runnning the library) and Josh for a game of TERROR BELOW.

I own this, and have played it once, but it was only at 2-player. At 4-player it was a lot more chaotic fun, and saw us gunning for each other as well as the creatures.

I ended up losing each of my characters the turn before they could finally activate their powers, and only because I resurected Pam was I in the game long enough to be the only player not to score double figure points.

But the game is great, and one I’m definitely keeping in the collection in the hope of playing it again at four.

This was the last game we played on the Saturday. We set up the next game not long before the clock hit midnight.

The table space was slowly becoming more and more available as people (looking very Zombie like) were conceeding to their exhaustion and making the choice to call it a night.

Only the brave (insane?!?!) would carry on to the very end, but at that moment none of us knew if the remiaining 9 hours was achieveable. Only time would tell.

(Continued in part 3 -)