My First Games of Pandemic

 

Well, my copy of Pandemic arrived this week I couldn't wait to open it and save the world. My friend Jo back in the UK had recommended it and he was right it's pretty cool. I have read a few comments that the cubes and dobbers are a bit big, well they are a tad on the large side but we had no problem with them. I had already downloaded the rules from Z-Man and had read them through and the wife decided to help out and rid the world of those nasty diseases.
You can play this game in easy, normal and heroic modes, for our first game we chose easy, just to get into the gameplay. The wife drew the researcher and I was the scientist, the ability to cure a disease with only four cards is pretty powerful. We were both feeling our way into the game when....bam!! The outbreaks just kept coming and we lost pretty decisively.

For our second game I had the scientist again and the wife had the operations expert. Now I thought this may be a pretty good combination....but we shall see. We started off pretty good and had cured the black disease before too long. But once again the game surprised us and the outbreaks came thick and fast and we ran out of cubes for the loss. We both really enjoyed the experience and will play again soon I am sure. Well, I couldn't wait and the next day I thought I would try a couple of solo plays. I played on easy again and took on two roles. First game I had the operations expert and the scientist, I am drawing these random by the way. I didn't do that bad, I had cured 3 diseases and only needed the red cure when I ran out of cards....doh!!

For my second solo play I drew the researcher and the operations expert. Well the operations expert definitely makes getting around a lot easier, and the researcher can use those research stations to hook up with the OE and pass cards. That made getting the required 5 cards of the same colour a lot easier. It was still pretty tight though and I discovered the last cure with only four cards left in the draw deck. Hay!! a win, but only on easy, I'm sure it will be a lot more challenging on normal and heroic. Can't wait to get the wife to play again and try for a co-operative win. If you get the chance and are not totally opposed to co-operation games this is definitely a winner.

Happy Gaming!!


The Scientist poised to wrap-around the board and emerge in Sydney

Euro 2008 and New Games

 

Well we are just about finished with the group games in Euro 2008, here in Austria there is great interest even though Austria has just gone out of the competition. I went the Salzburg for the day last week and there was a great atmosphere there. Salzburg is one of the host cities and they have a Fanzone in one of the squares by the Cathedral (see pic), with massive screens so you can watch the games. Also loads of stands selling beer and sausage and of course plenty of football stuff as well. The place was packed with fans from all countries, especially Swedish and Greek. Of course I had to visit the game shops while we was there, I picked up the new Renier Knizia game 'Keltis', this is a multiplayer version of Lost Cities. Well, I don't think I'll ever play it multiplayer here, but the wife and I both like Lost Cities so I thought this would add a few twists and be worth getting. We played 4 games off the bat and both thought it was OK. Like the idea that you can lay your cards in ascending or descending order, gives you some more options with the cards you have in hand.

A gaming buddy of mine in the UK had recommended 'Pandemic' I checked it out on BGG and thought it sounded pretty cool. The cooperation gameplay would be good I thought for just the 2 of us. Well I couldn't find it in any european shops, bricks or online so I ordered it from Shire Games in England. Took a week to arrive but the wait was worth it, we played a couple of games yesterday on easy and lost both. Once to outbreaks and once we ran out of cubes. Looking forward to playing again, which is always a good sign. Still playing on the web at MabiWeb and michaelschacht.net, and enjoying all the games there, especially Kreta.

Happy Gaming!!!

Lotus Cars and Play By Web

 

Well the weather here is really hot, 32C, and has been for a few days. Lots of tourists now although my Austrian friends tell me it gets worst in July and August. Last week there was a Lotus Car rally in the town centre. Lots of very flashy sports cars that I could never afford or would want to.


Lotus Sports Cars looking very....well, sporty

There is a hotel in St. Wolfgang called the Scaleria which has won the award for the best Event Hotel in all of Austria. They are always having conventions and promotions there and to celebrate their award they had a Red Bull bi-plane doing acrobatics over the lake.

Having a severe dearth of live opponents here I have been looking at other ways to scratch the boardgame itch and have found a couple of sites where I can play boardgames by web. These are Michael Schacht's site at

http://www.michaelschacht.net/pbm/index.php

and MabiWeb which is at

http://www.mabiweb.com/index.php

At Michael's site there are two games, Patrician and Hansa, and at MabiWeb there is a bigger selection, including Samurai, Shadow of the Emperor, Mykerinos and Kreta.
I have enjoyed playing there, even had a game with Michael Schacht himself and he was very friendly and helpful. If you fancy going there for a game look me up, my user name is 'dogger' on the Michael Schacht site and 'coljen' on MabiWeb, I would be happy to play you. I know the biggest online boardgame playing site is BSW, but the interface is a bit daunting and the games are realtime and I don't think the wife will relish me sitting in front of the computer playing boardgames all day. I think I will take the plunge for the odd game, I really like Notre Dame and they have that on there. Anyway I hope you are all getting plenty of gaming in.

Happy Gaming!!

Picnic by the Lake

 

Last week the weather here was lovely, sunshine all the way. The place is starting to wake up after the winter season, the flowers are all in bloom in the meadows, the ferry boats have started cruising around the lake and the little train that wends its way up the Schafberg mountain is chuffing once again.
Last wednesday it was a lovely day so we decided to take a picnic across to the nature reserve on the other side of the lake. Boarding the ferry boat which is just a few minutes walk from our apartment it takes only 15 minutes to get to the other side. Then a lovely 30 minute walk through meadows filled with spring flowers brings us to the nature reserve. This is an area with picnic tables, pedalos on the lake, swimming and water skiing all available. We spent a lovely hour or so having a leisurely lunch, with local cheese and fruit and of course some cold beer!
Then another pleasant hours stroll along to the end of the lake and the village of Strobl. This is a lazy village with lovely restaurants and bars and of course all the watersports available here as well. We caught the ferry back to St. Wolfgang to round off our day....very pleasant indeed. No boardgames in sight for the day but there's always another one!!!

Happy Gaming!!


Looking back to St. Wolfgang from the Nature Reserve

A day trip to Salzburg

 

Last thursday (24th) we went to Salzburg on the post bus, a pleasant journey taking about 90 minutes. The day was fairly hot which was significant because the main reason for going was to visit one of Austria's main department stores and that was situated on the outskirts and we planned to walk. I looked at a map and thought it would take about 20 minutes, in fact it took 40 minutes. When we arrived the first thing we did was look for the English Shop, we had found this on the net a few days ago and wanted to buy a few essential things you can't buy in Austria. For instance, Branston pickle, Daddy's Sauce, Marmite and Custard powder.
Well, we found it alright, it is run by Chris and Simon Clee, and it is a veritable Alladin's Cave of goodies. Chris was in attendence and was very helpful and we had a great chat. As we had a specific purpose for visiting Salzburg there was no time to visit the game stores this time, in the picture you see me in one of the best, obviously taken at another time. We finally made it to Leiner's (the dept. store), luckily they had a nice restaurant and cold beer waiting. After a nice lunch we spent a very profitable (but expensive) couple of hours browsing around. They have practically everything you need for the home on four floors. When we returned to the centre of Salzburg to get the bus home we took a tram ride, a bit easier on the feet!!

Eating out at College

 

Yesterday we were invited to have lunch at a Cooking School on the lake. The name of the school is Ferienhort and the building is very impressive. It was a navy school before the 2nd World War, then it became a college for cookery. Every so often the students cook a wonderful 4 course meal and if you are lucky you can go and be served by the students. It is good training for them and they performed really well for us. The food was very good and it included four courses and wine and beer included for 10 euros. Definitely needed to go for a long walk afterwards to get those calories off.

Summer is Coming

 

First post for a while. Haven't played a lot of games lately, mainly because we have been back to England for a couple of weeks to visit family and such. Still have things to do in the flat, looking for some bits of furniture to store stuff that we still have in cardboard boxes in the spare bedroom. Still, the weather is looking up and the little steam train that wends its way up to the Schafberg mountain has woken up from its long winter sleep has made several trips up ferrying supplies to the restaurant that is at the top, ready for the summer season. We can see the train as it goes past from our balcony, lovely to see steam again rather than all these anonymous diesel and electric trains we have in the UK.