Last night at Swiggers Game Club was fun.
I found out about them a few years ago, looking for London games clubs, but I was put off by how far away it is, looking after my son and the fact that I was getting plenty of gaming at the time. About two months ago, I was in a restaurant with a non-gamer friend who I had introduced to a few €uro games. He told me that one of his work colleagues was a “games geek” like me and offered to introduce us. I agreed and a few days later Tycho from the Board Game Geek invited me to Swiggers. This week Ness and Oscar have been in Scotland with her mother, so I decided to go along and check it out.
The venue itself, The Bunch of Grapes, is in Southwark, one of the oldest and most urban parts of London, just by London Bridge and the London Dungeon. I find it an ugly, grimy part of town, although it can be quite atmospheric. The tube ride there made me remember how happy I am to have avoided commuting in my latest job. The pub was nice – the photos at the Swiggers website do not do it justice. The food was also cheap and reasonable quality.
John/Tycho showed up just after me and kindly took me under his wing. We played:
Ticket to Ride Europe
I have only played the original once, and everyone else knew the game well, so I struggled a bit at first. It is a little more complex, but a little more deep, than the original. They are both about as good as the other. If you mostly play with adults, go for the Europe map; if you play with familes, go for the US.
Flandern 1302
This left me cold. The theming was a distraction and did nothing to help understand the rules or excite the imagination, although the components were nice enough. I have not played very many area majority games, but to make me happy they need a little more excitement than that mechanic gives alone. Having said that, several people at Swiggers said good things about it, so maybe this is just sore grapes about coming last and not listening to the rules properly.
Geschenkt
This was the suprise hit of the evening. It is simple and blindingly fast, but quite tough. I will probably buy it, even though my games nights do not tend to involve or need fillers.
Wyatt Earp
Brian Walker of Games International taught us this one, but we only played one hand. It was a little confusing at first, but in the end turned out to be quite simple. It is decent enough. I would always suggest this over traditional rummy games. The cards are very nice. I am not sure if I will buy it, as it did not seem very challenging.
At closing time, I chatted to Brian Walker. My pal Michael writes reviews for him, so I mentioned this connection. We had a nice chat and he gave me a back issue. I subscribed today – it was only polite! Actually, it is a suprisingly professional publication. It is very glossy, the pictures are good and the writing is high quality. Maybe the pressure of writing for print makes people work harder on the reviews?
The most interesting thing for me was getting used to playing with strangers in a public club environment, with people dropping in and out of games groups and around 15 people playing several different games.
At an hour to get there and away it is impossible to fit into my normal schedule, but everyone was very welcoming and friendly, so I really enjoyed my trip. I will go again.
TTR: I agree that both are equally as good and I firmly believe that every gamer should have a copy of one of them but I think it is a bit cheeky for Days of Wonder to release Europe as a full game rather than an expansion. I have now ditched one of my boxes and loaded both games into one to save shelf space. I still think it is an excellent game but if they release future maps [as they are threatening] then unless they go down the AoS route, I doubt I will be buying them.
Flandern 1302: Played this is Essen and no desire to play again. ANOTHER area influence game and nothing particularly new to recommend it.
Geschenkt: This is on my list to try but I haven’t seen it any stores over here.
I haven’t been to Swiggers before but I have been to the GGG monthly games days a couple of times (although it’s quite a few years ago). I don’t know if they still have them though. If you plan on going again, give me plenty of warning & I’ll see if I can make it as well.
[and by the way, only some of the writing in GI is of “high quality”
]
Re: Games International – I agree. Michael’s writing is good, but many of the reviews – well, I’m not saying they’re necessarily poorly written, but in complete disagreement with my views. Based on the one issue I read, subscription would be a waste of money for me.
Iain, I’m glad you liked your first evening at Swiggers, & glad to hear it won’t be your last. Michael, you’d be welcome too, and yes, the GGG games days are still running on the second Saturday of each month.
Among the things I like about Swiggers is being able to play a different selection of people each week, seldom having to make up the number for a game I’m not keen on, and experiencing a wide selection of games. The dark lining of those silver clouds is a certain superficiality: many good games get played once and never seen again, others don’t get played enough to ever discover the finer points or overcome an initial poor impression, and many of the people remain rather anonymous. What was your name again?
If you turn up infrequently, you won’t be alone. There’s maybe a dozen regulars but a typical evening’s attendance is about twice that (certainly more than you saw), and while I reckon I’ve played against something like 70 people there over the last year and a half, I often see faces I don’t know. Not surprising, since the club is within reach of so many people (and an ever-changing population), but local to almost no-one. Having no membership organisation or fees also helps! Did I say no fees? You played 4 games so that’s £28. Please send a cheque forthwith.
T2R: I agree with Michael that the Europe version should have been an expansion. I have both games, and while together they still represent better value-for-money than most other games I own (which may be unique but are played less often), I resent having to give up the shelf space. Possibly I’ll eBay one when I get a final ultimatum from my wife (at which time I’ll be glad I didn’t ditch a box).
Flandern 1302: yes, it breaks no new ground, but I like it, and I don’t have any similar games in my collection. Maybe sweet grapes, since I won!
Geschenkt: You can make your own copy from a 6 Nimmt deck (or regular deck plus magic marker) and some pok€r chips or equivalent. You didn’t hear it from me, though.
Wyatt Earp: I’m keen to play again, that one hand wasn’t really enough to form an opinion.
GI - I’m a bit old fashioned here because I prefer to read reviews/articles in print format than on the net (where my attention span can be a bit limited). I don’t think GI is up to the standard of Counter (yet) as far as content goes but the professional look certainly makes up for it. I do spend more time on something if I know Brian is looking to publish it than I do if I’m posting something to the Geek. Maybe this attitude is wrong – Brian did say to me that the Internet has made people lazy when it comes to good writing and I tend to agree with him.