Canterbury Gaming Convention - Day 1

 

The first proper day of Canterbury Gaming Convention got off to an incredible start with crowds of people turning up at opening time to get the first pick of games demonstrations. The sizable hall was filled with stalls, demonstrations, and space to play games, and there was an excited buzz from all attendees. 

Bad Trevor, Mark Hurdle - Fistbump Games Ltd.

We had a busy first day, starting with a game of Bad Trevor by Mark Hurdle, a game based on comic-book villains and heroes battling it out. Players aim to be the first to deplete their hand of cards by handing them off to players, or in the case of civilians, pairing them up and discarding them. Each turn, players present the next player with a choice of 3 face-down "attack" cards. The receiving player chooses one to keep and resolves the action stated on the card. 

Hero cards will generally be good, villain cards will generally bad, and civilian cards will clog up a players hand until they can be discarded. Of course, there is also the Bad Trevor card to contend with. Bad Trevor is a villain so foul that he is even shunned by the other villains. The only way to remove Bad Trevor from your hand is to pass it on to another player. When presenting your attack cards you can use any amount of psychological trickery to get the receiving player to take the card you want them to take, which allows for a lot of fun, underhanded tactics.

This was a great game to start the day with, and taught very well by Mark Hurdle himself. It was quick to learn, quick to play, and acted as a perfect warm up to some of the heavier titles we played. Overall it was good, silly fun and we look forward to an opportunity to play it again.

Stomp The Plank, Florian Sirieix & Benoit Turpin - Ravensburger

This was a very simple game with a straightforward push-your-luck mechanic that is accessible to younger players. Each player has an elephant that starts at the sensible end of a plank (cleverly, the box is inverted to use as the board), and takes it in turns to flip cards from a deck until they either decide to stick or they pull two cards with matching symbols. In the case of the former, they force other players to place wooden weights on the end of their planks, which are secured to the board using magnets. This adds an element of dexterity to the process as being too heavy handed placing these weights will cause the plank to flip off the ship and the elephant tumble into the briny sea. If a player should pull 2 cards with matching symbols they must end their turn and move their elephant one space along the plank, making it more likely that the plank will fall.

There really isn't much more to the game, it was simple, quick to learn, and very accessible while the push-your-luck mechanic was engaging for older players as well. It's not breaking any boundaries but we are writing this not long after playing Flip 7 for the first time, which has set a standard for simplicity in push-your-luck games such as this, so perhaps it doesn't compare well.

Faraway, Johannes Goupy & Corentin Lebrat - Catch Up Games

The third game we played was Faraway, one that I've had my eye on for a while thanks to the eye-catching art style. In Faraway, players place and draw cards to create a tableau representing your travels around the strange and wonderful world in which it is set. The catch with this game, however, is cards are scored in reverse to how they are laid, so cards placed at the beginning of the game act as commitments to meet their scoring requirements before the final tile is laid. 

I don't know if it was the way in which the game was taught but we spent our first game of this in deep confusion about how to effectively choose cards during the drafting phase. At times this lack of clarity, and lack of understanding of the various symbols and scoring requirements was downright frustrating. This frustration definitely coloured our first impression of the game and perhaps with consecutive plays we would look more favourable on it. As with some games though, I don't know if there was enough entertainment to draw me back.

That all being said, the game has some lovely artwork and the twist of scoring cards in reverse was an interesting mechanic.

Tribes of the Wind, Joachim Thome - La Boite de Jeu

This game is more of an honourable mention than an honest review as we never got past the first turn before throwing in the towel. It is a gorgeous looking game with a theme of post-apocalyptic environmentalism that really appealed to me. Sadly we pulled this out at a point in the afternoon where the heat was getting to us and despite our best intentions I don't feel this is a game that can be learned while playing. Given half an hour to just sit somewhere quiet and read through the rules I think I would be able to make a good job of teaching it to others, but with so many moving parts and rules it was just a non-starter. Perhaps we'll try again soon.

Septima, Barbara Benat & Villo Farkas - Mindclash Games

Septima, for me, was the standout game of the day. Aside from anything it's an absolutely gorgeous game with a colour palette and art style that is to die for. Not to mention the adorable meeples representing the witches and witch hunters.

In Septima, players take the role of witches looking to aid their community by gathering ingredients and making potions that will cure the ills of the local townsfolk, and saving accused witches from trial by angry mob. All this must be done without drawing too much attention to yourself, however, lest you attract the unwanted attention of the witch hunters that roam the board threatening to take witches from your coven and put them on trial, or straight out steal victory points from you.

We were lucky to have this game taught to us by a representative of Mindclash Games, which saved us a lot of work. This is a decidedly meaty experience with a lot of rules and mechanics to keep track of. It never felt overwhelming though, which some games manage with far shorter rule books. There is a nice blend of pick-up-and-deliver and bag building (this comes into play when witches are put on trial at the end of each season), which makes the game feel like a unique experience.

Septima is a long game that could easily see the back of the two hour mark with 4 players playing for the first time. But as long games go, the turns are cleverly paced to leave the minimum of downtime. 

There is also the promise of a solo-mode, which is always a draw for me (I'll always get my money's worth if I don't have to wait to get a group together to play a game).

Tomorrow - Day 2

We're really excited to go back for the second day and have already marked out a couple of two-player games that we want to give some attention to. The first, the name of which escapes me, gets players to live out their perfect summer before going away to University. The art style of this was very enticing. Secondly, we want to spend some time at the Yay Games stand, who produce Frankenstein's Bodies, Dark Harvest, The Legacy of Frankenstein (the game so nice they named it thrice), a Hand Limit favourite.

We also managed to hand out all but half a dozen of our summer zines, so we're hoping the lucky recipients are enjoying them. 

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