The Imp is not a bluffer!

Last night at his gaming club the Imp played Resistance : Avalon for the first time.  This sort of game is not usually played on these evenings as the preferred way is to split into small groups and play several games of 3-4 players.  Anyway, on this evening all of the games finished early and there wasn't time to start anything meaty.  One of the members had brought along Avalon, so the decision was made for everyone to play this.

Resistance : Avalon by Indie Boards and Cards

Secret Society

For those of you that are not aware, the premise of this game is that there are a number of 'good guys' and a number of 'bad guys' and each player takes on the role of one of these.  The trick being of course is that the 'good guys' don't know who the 'bad guys' are, but the 'bad guys' do know who are their fellow 'bad guys'.  This is achieved by several rounds of 'eyes open/eyes shut' while the relevant people divulge who they are by means of a thumbs-up.

Adventuring we will go

Once the secret revealing is done, the players then take it in turns to put a party together to go on a mission.  The objective for the good guys is to complete a number of missions successfully.  The objective for the bad guys is to get two of these missions to fail.  So, the player who's turn it is picks a party of 3, 4 or 5 people who he thinks will help achieve his objective (success or failure depending on whether the party leader is good or bad).  The remaining players then vote to see if the mission will go ahead.  How a person votes depends on whether they think the team members are good or bad.  If five missions in a row do not get voted to go ahead then then bad guys win.  If the vote is successful then the mission begins...

Mission Critical

Assuming the mission goes ahead, the players picked for the party then secretly decide individually as to whether the mission is a success or a failure.  If the mission receives two failures then it fails, otherwise it is a success.

Trash Talking

The whole point of the game really is for everyone to convince the good guys that they are also good guys, even when they are bad guys.  This is where the Imp found himself devoid of any acting skills whatsoever!  Having lived a wholesome and good life (!) he found it extremely difficult to convince anyone that he was a good guy - even when he actually was a good guy!  There were of course those in the group who were very good at this - surprisingly good actually and the Imp will need to keep his eye on them in future!

Even bereft of any bluffing skills whatsoever, the Imp really enjoyed the few rounds he played and is very much looking forward to the next time it is played.  He found it great that the whole group got together to play a game and it had that 'end of term' feeling which was appropriate as the little Imps did in fact break up that day.

Not Enough Time (or not enough friends?)

Over the years the Imp has bought quite a lot of games that offered excitement and promise or just simply looked cool and yet, he has never got around to playing them.  Often this is because the take too long to play, or require a specific amount of players, or in a lot of cases, both!  Most of these games the Imp is absolutely itching to play...

The behemoth that is Twilight Imperium 3

The boss of all space games.  Trying to get enough players together in the same place for what amounts to a whole weekend is pretty hard to do.  The game play that this games potentially offers has the Imp drooling in anticipation.  He promised to himself early in the year that in 2013 he would finally play TI3.  Will it happen?  He hopes so!  With completely unfounded rumours flying around that Fantasy Flight may release the fourth incarnation of this game, it would be a shame not to play it now.  You can guarantee that the next version will be a slimline affair to cater for a 'wider audience', which although worked for Descent, it probably just won't be the same!

The beast to set up that is Earth Reborn

Everything about this game is everything that the Imp likes.  It's a campaign, it's a sandbox, it's modular, it's strategic. it's got miniatures.  The problem is also that it's bloody hard to set up.  Most games in this list, the Imp has at least set up on his kitchen table and played a 'couple' of rounds solo.  This game has at most got to about 70% of set up before the Imp has to go and do something else!  This is like the best kind of video game in a board game and the Imp would love to be able to find someone willing to learn it and play it with him!

The Civ game (with no actual elephants) that is Clash Of Cultures

The Imp used to love the Civ games on his old PC and even used to own a copy of the original Civilisation board game (lost in the great board game cull of '04 - more of which another time).  This was the nearest he could find that would scratch that itch.  The thought of building a whole civilisation and using it's might to wipe all others off the face of the earth is right up the Imp's street.  In the end this game does look a little more like Eclipse with sand rather than the epic just described, but still, it looks good, it looks very good indeed.  Alas it is another game that takes some time to play and probably requires a fair number of people to play it as intended.

The One Game to Rule Them All that is War of The Ring

A truly beautiful game!  The Imp bought the extra large plastic sleeves for the cards, he bought the fancy tin to keep them in, he bought the expansion, he bought more plastic sleeves for those cards, he bought another fancy tin because all the cards wouldn't fit in the first tin, he bought the TreeBeard promo from BoardGameGeek.  He has even bought some paint, to paint the bases of all the little figures so he can tell the difference between those from Rohan and those from the North.  He has watched more videos than he can remember teaching him how to play it, and yet other than setting it up once, it has never been played.  If only he could find someone willing to invest enough time to sit down and play this game!

The moral of the story?

Well, there isn't one really. There are so many games in the Imp's collection that could have been placed on this page.  To name just a few, they include Combat Commander, Conflict Of Heroes, Band Of Brothers, Rune Wars and A Game of Thrones (the board game).  Even these do not exhaust the list.  One day the Imp will make sure he plays all of these games, one day he may even just play through his whole collection and write about the experience in these very pages.  Or, more likely, he will set up these games, sigh heavily and put them away again.

A Happy P.O.W!

It was the Imp's birthday yesterday!  Birthday felicitations aside, it was a great day for another reason.  One of the Imp's close friends had obviously been reading this very blog (either that or his Psychic abilities are much greater than he has previously let on) as he came to see the Imp bearing a gift in shiny paper.  The Imp likes shiny paper as there is always someone good to be found within and in this case he was not disappointed.

On opening the gift, the Imp was speechless and more than a little emotional for inside he found this...

Shiny paper always contains something nice!

So, although the Imp still has not played this game, he will be playing it very soon!  The Imp is a happy Imp indeed!

The Imp thanks his friend from the bottom of his little heart!

Hello and Welcome

Welcome to the Angry Imp Blog. Here, the Angry Imp will be sharing his musings with regard to all things in the board gaming world. I doubt he will be changing the world, but he hopes that at some point he might say something of interest.

The Imp has been board gaming on and off for many years and has played many different types and styles of board games. Yes, he played the usual classics such as Monopoly and Risk, but these games never really proved satisfying - they were just too simple and did not entail a great amount of skill. Also, the experience was the same from play to play, nothing really ever changed.

The Great Escape

The first 'proper' board game that he owned that opened his eyes to a new style of board game was Escape from Colditz.  It was found in a bargain bin in an outlet of Morrissons supermarket (in Preston, Lancashire as it happens) in about 1978 (the Imp is not a young imp!). Like most little imps at the time, he was interested in all things to do with war and the box art for Escape from Colditz was particularly appealing;

Escape From Colditz - Box Cover

Ironically, the Imp has never actually played this game!  When it was unpacked with great excitement, there was one thing missing - the rules!  However, the board and pieces inside the box promised a game unlike anything else the Imp had played before and undeterred by this disappointment his board game collection then started to grow in a different direction.

A cunning plan

Over the years, the Imp occasionally opened the Escape From Colditz box and started at the components and wondered what the game would be like.  How would he plan the escape?  How would the other side attempt to foil these plans?  Alas, this was in the days before the Internet and the Imp was not armed with the tools to hunt down the missing rules.

The Years passed and the Imp went to University.  While at University the Imp came across something completely unknown to him and something that changed his life yet again - the University Game Club.  Here, the Imp managed to find someone who not only had the rules to Colditz, but was willing (in exchange for a pint of the undoubtedly watered down Student Union lager) to photocopy them.  A few days later, the Imp was in possession of a copy of the rules and was eager for the term to end so that he could get home and finally play this game

A foiled plan

Finally with the term ended, the Imp arrived back the the family abode, Colditz rules in hand (and in head) eager to play the game that had so long eluded him.  Rushing to the room where the Imp hoard was being stored, the Imp was confused.  The room was full of different things, things that did not belong to the Imp.  Just a few solitary belongings remained.  After querying this unusual turn of events, mother Imp announced, "Ah, yes, we needed the room to store our things, so we gave all those silly games to a charity shop".

The Imp has never actually played this game.