Boardgame stuff....

I've been playing quite a bit of "Carcassonne" lately... an award winning game that's been around since 2000 - original design by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede. It's a tile placing game for two to five players, named after the medieval fortified town of Carcassonne in the south of France. The rules are pretty simple - and the mechanics of the game are a nice mix of luck and strategy. The base game is great (this is all I currently have) but there are a bunch of expansions to add to the game. When I was at my local boardgaming club last week, we played it with "The river" expansion (thanks to John for bringing it along!) - which added a nice extra dimension to the board layout. Of course I wanted to get hold of a copy of that for my self, but have since discovered that it is out of print, and Rio Grande Games (The printers of the English language version) have no intention of re-printing it... curses!! But I'm going to try and get my hands on a few of the new expansions that are just about to come out in Germany (via my Swiss contact - ie my sister!) - they look pretty cool!!

Just spotted Jim Bowen's latest print and play game is ready to download - "Mini Dungeon Adventures".... Just had a quick look at the PDF - the minis look very cute...and super fiddly!! - I'm definitely going to make myself a copy of this... very nice idea!!! - I'll put a review up when I've had a go at playing. Apparently it is solo-playable too. You can download a copy from this link:

http://flipitpapercombat.com/downloads/minidungeonthirdrevision.pdf

Yes, so quite recently I joined a local boardgaming group. And I've got say it's been really good fun - everyone's been very welcoming, and it's a great opportunity to get to play new games. We meet fortnightly in a function room above a pub. Everyone pays £1 to attend, and new games are bought with the kitty. The best new games I've experienced lately are "Dungeon Run", "Lords of Waterdeep" and "Small World Underground".... the latest club purchase is the new version of the "Game of Thrones" boardgame from FFG - I've been enjoying the telly program - so I'm looking forward to that one!