A bit about me...

As far back as I can remember, I've always loved board games from playing 'The House that Jack Built' when I was about 4, but until recently I've only recently started getting into more serious games, or 'Eurogames' as they tend to be called. My first such game was Carcassonne, a classic entry into modern board gaming, despite actually being a tile laying game and not actually having a board!

In the last few months I've joined a board game club, and as a consequence have played quite a few new games. Compared to many experienced board gamers however, who have hundreds of games in their collection and have played many more they don't own, I'm definitely something of a newbie. I think that's a good thing though, for me because I've got so many great games to discover, and for any readers of this blog because it will allow you to share in that discovery. One thing I am absolutely try to do in every post is to make it accessible to anyone, whether experienced gamer or total newcomer. I'll try not to mention a game or game concept without first explaining what it is about, or offering a link to another post which does just that.

Although most of my posts will be about modern 'Eurogames' (so called because the board game revival of the 1990s came out of Europe, notably countries like Germany and France), I do intend to mention other types of board games from time to time. I do enjoy playing party type games sometimes when getting together with friends (such as Cranium, Scattegories and the like), and often end up playing a quiz game or two with my wife's family. So that should lend a bit of variety to the blog, without diluting the content I hope.

Anyway that's it for now, next post I'll try and write a game review.

Links to games mentioned in this post on Amazon:

The House That Jack Built (they still sell it believe it or not, a true classic obviously!)

Carcassonne

What, you mean like monopoly?

Whenever I tell people I like playing Board Games, people will usually think first of games like Monopoly. While I have enjoyed many a game of Monopoly as a child and even occasionally in adulthood, I have to say no, that's not it at all. I usually try and explain that the games I like to play are like, strategy board games, which often they are but invariably gets quite a few people thinking of war games like Warhammer, probably because they've walked past a Games Workshop store at some point in their lives and those armies of painted figures somehow lodged somewhere in the back of their mind. I've got nothing against Warhammer et al, I've got a few friends that love playing it and have enjoyed the occasional game myself, but it's not board games. In a last ditch attempt I will say, 'Well do you know Risk?' and there will be a slight 'ah...' and a nod of understanding. Finally they've got it...sort of. Except Risk doesn't capture modern board gaming that well either, it is just an example of one of many types of game, and not even a very good example.

So this is one of the reasons for this blog, to try and show the masses (well, anyone who stops by to read this anyway) what modern board gaming is about, and how much fun it can be. There are lots of good board gaming blogs out there, but most of them are by dedicated board gamers for equally dedicated board gamers. A newbie will find themselves lost and immediately click elsewhere. So I'm going to try and make my blog a friendly and welcoming place for those new to board gaming, as well as being interesting to more seasoned gamers. As if that wasn't enough I also want to offer a UK perspective on gaming, details about board game conventions here in the UK, information on UK board game shops, and any hot deals that I find. All of this is available elsewhere on the internet (most notably on Board Game Geek), but often it can be difficult to easily pick out what you want from the masses of information from all over the world.

So I'm expecting this blog to have posts of general interest to board gamers (new and experienced), board game reviews, good offers and deals for people in the UK, conventions and anything else board game related. We'll see what happens anyway!