Jack, who organises our gaming club
Keighley Table Top Combat, told us about this board games festival happening at
Left Bank Leeds, a former church in Hyde Park. There were going to be loads of free games to try and play, a
Netrunner tournament, bar, awesome food... what are we waiting for?
Jack, Luke and I arranged to meet on the train and head over together. Transport logistics was spot on and we arrived at the venue for the start with a few games already going on.
The "Big Pile Of Games" really did exist!
So we grabbed a brew and went to look for games!
Apples To Apples
Best described as a polite version of Cards Against Humanity. One person takes a green card with a word on it and then everyone else submits a red card from their hand that best matches the green card. Laura the lovely event organiser was running this demo.
New Labour. Definitely tame.
This is the sort of game you could play at a dinner party as a bit of an icebreaker. No rules and you get to find out a bit more about your opponents, sorry, guests! We just need to get a set and have more dinner parties. Maybe wait until everyone gets drunk before getting CAH out eh?
Catan
Some guys were setting up a Catan demo on the next table. I play Catan: Junior with the kids so definitely wanted in on a demo of the full game. Unfortunately the main demo was full but Catan: Star Trek was empty so we piled in. Starships! Tritanium! er... Water!
Very similar mechanics to Catan: Junior but with mini Enterprise-s instead of pirate ships and a Klingon Warbird instead of the Ghost Pirate. Roll for resources, trade resources, build stuff, win game. Good fun, I will definitely be purchasing the regular version. Cheers to Phil (?) for the demo.
Food!
I missed the start of the Netrunner tournament so went to get some food.
Manjit's Kitchen had a little stall set up and the Chilli Paneer wrap sounded too good to miss. Having eaten their stuff before at a previous Leeds event somewhere I was expecting good things and I was not disappointed!
Absolutely delicious, fresh ingredients, so many good flavours and textures. Set the dial to NOM.
Munchkin Steampunk
I missed the starting game of the Netrunner tournament so went in search of a nearby game. Some people were playing Munchkin Steampunk with some fantastically titled cards.
I joined part way through but the gist of the game appears to be screwing over your opponents as much as possible, either that or the game demo-er just preferred to play that way! Amusing cards and simple mechanics.
Netrunner Torunament
I came (joint) last.
Damn you Ichi 1.0! Damn You!
X-Wing Demo
Jack from t' club was running an X-wing demo so I wandered over to take a look at that. Folk seemed to be enjoying it if playing a little slower than most.
Roll For The Galaxy
Ian from
Aireborough Community Gamers was running a bit of a session with Roll For the Galaxy with Ashley and Grumpy Neil from the Netrunner tournament. Roll and assign dice in secret to explore for new worlds, develop and settle them, produce goods, ship goods and eventually get enough Victory Points for... er... victory!
I quite enjoyed the mechanics of the game once we got into it, which took a few turns. Grumpy Neil had played before so was a good person to ask for hints!
Oh noes, the rocket is chasing meeeeeeeee......
I didn't find the theme that compelling as it seemed a bit tacked on and fractured otherwise I might have considered buying a copy. Still an enjoyable game and, finally, with the last roll of the dice, I WON SOMETHING! YEAH!
Colt Express
Luke and Jack played this and were full of praise for this Wild West train shootout game. Sounds ace.
Takenoko
I really wanted to get in on a game of
Takenoko as it looked ace but all the sessions were full :( Grow decorative bamboo and protect from roving panda so that the Emperor can judge your garden the most beautiful. Fantastic looking artwork!
Discworld
Luke and I picked this up but never got chance to play it. Vying for power in Ankh-Morpork in the absence of the Patrician, Lord Vetinari. I love Pratchett so this might be a good one to try in future.
In Summary
What a fantastic day out, really well run with loads of stuff to do. Even if I hadn't have spent 2 hours playing Netrunner I would still not have got round to palying all the games that I liked the look of. It was only £3 to get in and what flipping great value it was.
All three of us were totally brain-baked so we strolled back into Leeds for our train and our beds soon after.
