Socially Board?

Evening people,

Returned to Enfield Gamers last night for an evening of Formula D and Dreadball in anticipation of a new year championship and champions league respectively. Somehow I managed to win both events, each on the very last roll of the dice.

Two laps of Formula D with the advanced rules saw a far more "sensible" approach taken by the pack of six drivers, rather than the usual thrash round the track. It wasn't too taxing or slow and actually produced a far more realistic race. Rich has sorted out some home rules for KERS and DRS which add a bit more flavour and an extra layer of tactics.

The racing was fairly cut-throat with myself and Shaun constantly swapping pole position. Shaun got ahead of me into the last corner, looking odds on for the chequered flag, only for Lady Luck to spurn him and spoil me. No rules for pulling doughnuts but good fun.

Taking a little longer than expected myself and Rich cracked through a 50 minute game of Dreadball. Rich ran his Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle Teratons while I went all Striker Veermyn.

Close all the way the Teraton Jacks ball handling was decidedly mixed while the Gaurds struggled to do any damage. The Veermyn were as comical as ever with several chances to landslide the game repeatedly missed, no matter how many cards and coach dice I expended.

Playing with an Offensive Coach for the first time I had to make a concerted effort to remember him but he was definitely a massive plus. Stealing the ball almost at will I didn't miss the Guards who probably wouldn't have lasted too long anyway.

Nil-Nil after 14 rushes it was sudden death for the Terra-Jacks to fluff a simple strike and the Veermyn to finally redeem themselves. Still having so much fun with this game, blows Blood Bowl out of sight!

Saturday is a full on geek-tastic day of gaming with the boys. Given my dice last night I expect to the gallant make-weight. Just as well the oft forgotten social side of TOYS is such a good thing!

Have fun rolling dice people :)

Lilu Dallas, Multi-Pass

Frantic from Mantic

Hello people,

Lots of multi-player board gaming over the last couple of day which has been thoroughly enjoyable as a reinforcement of the social side of our geeky little hobby of geeky little men :)

First up on Tuesday night at Enfield Gamers Rich cracked out his newly arrived copy of Dreadball Ultimate and we soon had a five way game going.

As another one play impressionistic review it was good fun that I'd be happy to repeat any time soon. 

In short you get your whole team with 5 on the pitch with 3 actions per turn. The game is 7 turns, of a rush a piece, with a bonus event card each time round. There are 2 balls in play with the possibility of a 3rd via the event cards.

Menage a trois? Not the good kind!

For a first time out we played through in two hours. Player activation is randomly drawn each turn and seems to make for a more reactionary game of opportunity rather than grand strategy or the long game.

We did notice the opportunities to make use of your opponents threat hexes on potential targets and the scope for ganging up on the game leader is massive.  I'm sure tables would turn like a turnstile!

Aaaarrrghhhh!! Fecking Veermyn strikers! :/

This is reinforced by the scoring system where you'll score higher for strike zones farther from your base. The real twist is that you loose a point everytime someone scores in your zone. Any lead could be reeled in pretty quick!

The pitch was definitely cluttered and the feeling I got was the more "elite" and adaptable teams could become more so compared to those more reliant on mutual support. I'm sure that a lot of that is the need to adapt current tactics which is never a bad thing.

We had 4 different races on the pitch and my Veermyn struggled, not managing a single successful strike. Fortune likely favours the bold in Dreadball Ultimate.

After a landslide Corp win we moved onto Formula D which has been getting a fair bit of game time recently and continually reminds me of the Pole Position cartoon.That's the way we play it, full throttle, though it comes with greater tactical subtlety than you'd think. You can race as F1 / Indycar or Fast and Furious street racing.

We've not got onto the advanced rules yet where damage goes to specific car systems for specific results. You can also design your own cars and drivers.

BoardGame Geek has THIS to say which I wouldn't disagree with. Infuriating or sublime dependant on your dice myself, Rich, Shaun and Mr C managed another two run outs last night to follow on from Tuesday and were more than happy to so.

Boardgames, yes! Bored games, no!! :)