Another month has passed and we have had some new members join us, a big welcome to you all.

In February we played 38 games a 30% increase on February last year, the most popular were Conspiracy: Abyss Universe and Draftosaurus, the remaining games all had 1 play each :- Azul: Summer Pavilion, BANG! The Dice Game, Bruges, Carreau, Chinatown, Fast Sloths, Fuji Flush, El Grande, Great Western Trail, Heul doch! Mau Mau, High Society, In the Year of the Dragon, Inis, Inuit: The Snow Folk, The Isle of Cats, Just One, Kerala: The Way of the Elephant , Lanterns Dice: Lights in the Sky, Lords of Waterdeep, Lost Legacy: Second Chronicle – Vorpal Sword & Whitegold Spire, Medium, No Thanks!, Point Salad, Raccoon , Tycoon, Res Publica, Rheinländer, Roam, Saint Petersburg, Through the Desert, Ticket to Ride: Europe, Tiny Epic Galaxies, Tongiaki: Journey into the Unknown and Whitehall Mystery.

My personal favourites from this month have been The Isle of Cats and Roam. Roam is a game by Ryan Laukat who has delivered some excellent games such as Above and Below and 8 Minute Empire and as well as designing he does his own artwork which I quite like. Roam is a light territory grab game, the playing area is 6 cards each of which has 6 squares on it making the playing area a 6x6 grid, on a turn you action a card from in front of you which allows you to place dobbers on spaces on the board in the shape shown on your chosen card . The aim is to gain the majority of tokens on one (or more) of the 6 cards in the playing area. When a card is full (ie 6 dobbers) whoever has the majority gets the card which will allow an additional lay of tokens and victory points for game end scoring, the gap left by the taken card is filled and the next player has a turn. The mechanics are simple and provide an enjoyable game and as it is “first comes takes” for each square on the grid it is not as confrontational as other area control games.

The other game I am going to mention is Carreau from Cubiko games, it is not everybody's cup of tea but I think it is excellent and plays from 2-6 with equal levels of fun. You are armed with a small catapult which you use on your turn to propel a wooden block onto the board towards a rubber ball (the Jack) the idea is to have the closest block to the Jack at the end of the round which is 3 flicks of the catapult each. Scoring is the same as in Bowls, the winner is first to 5 points, as you can imagine the Jack being made of rubber moves a lot during the game giving rise to much frustration and mirth.

Medway Area Boardgamers