Jay

As we approach Halloween, @ukgamesexpo have asked some of the community to take part in a series of Spooky Challenges. I've chosen the Haunted Dice Challenge. See how I got on!

New Logo! From the artist formally known as @fields_of_carcassonne When I started this account many years ago, I never really expected anyone to be interested in the stuff I posted so didn't think too much about the name. Over the years I've thought about updating to a new account name to better reflect who I am and what I'm interested in. For those that don't know me, I'm Jay. I'm a member of the UK Board Game Review Circle and I'm also Team Leader for my local Cubs group. Scouting and board games are two big parts of my life so it seemed right to combine them. So it's so long @fields_of_carcassonne , you've done me proud.

@ukgamesexpo is almost upon us. The last year has been a revelation to me in terms of the world of Solo RPG. I'd played a journaling solo RPG before and quite enjoyed it but I had no idea of the depth of theme and experience out there until recently. I've created a list of the ones I've spotted (so far!) that I'm interested to check out at UKGE Protector's Memories by @critkituk A ghibli-esqe adventure about recovering lost memories Cartograph by @theravensridgeemporium A map making adventure where the position of the dice on the paper determines the feature Outliers available at @press_peregrine Play as a research assistant in an absurd lab. Optional generic wooden block tower mechanism! The gorgeous fantasy drawing games @waywardadventurersguild I think these would be excellent RPG to ease my Scouts into some creative thought! Legion of the Necromancer by @hammerforgechronicles This gives me old school FF vibes (which is a good thing) Brambletrek by @crossedpathsrpg Play as Mousefolk in the work of Akeroth. Looks lovely. Ion Heart by @parable_games The solo books for this are excellent so I would like to see more! Tunnels and Trolls by @rebellionunplugged My family had a copy of the old Tunnels and Trolls but I could never get anyone to play it with me. I understand this new version may have a solo mode... But...this list is not exhaustive. No doubt someone will say "But Jay, why haven't you put X on your list?" More than likely because I don't know about it! If there are any you think are criminally missing from my shortlist then please let me know #UKGamesExpo2026 #UKGamesExpo #UKGE2026 #UKGamesExpo2026CC

At the end of the month the biggest event in the UK board game calendar descends on the NEC in Birmingham. For those that are on the fence about attending, go for it. You will not regret it! This will be my 4th year of attending after being unsure and a little scared but I needn't have worried as everyone was so friendly. If you see me around the NEC then please say hi!

Assemblage by @scryptidgames First Impressions! We played our first game of the ecosystem creation and destruction game, Assemblage, tonight. This game is a series of prompts that gives you freedom to imagine a habitat, the creatures that inhabit it, the relationship between those creatures, how the habitat changes with the seasons and a cataclysmic event that may lead to the ecosystem collapse. It’s basically a cooperative journaling RPG where relationships between species and trigger events drive the story along. We imagined a desert habitat with towering black mountains rearing from super flat plains. The there selcies we had were an apex predator cat that collapses mountain caves with its bony skull, a scavenger/ambush predator bat which follows in the cat’s wake and tidies up the leftovers and a cephalopod amphibian cross that lives on the lake shore and has a symbiotic relationship with the cat by living on the microorganisms from the cats claws. And it was fun, it encouraged some interesting thoughts from my two boys and they asked when we could play again! This game was sent to me through @ukbg_review_circle but all opinions are our own

Caught in the rain by @theravensridgeemporium Caught in the rain is a solo, journaling type RPG where you play as an investigator on the trail of a mystery. I imagined myself a sort of Hercule Poirot type character, not particularly physical but with great order and method. What makes the characters interesting is that they have an obligation to fulfil, this is something from their outside life that needs to be dealt with in conjunction with the mystery. The mysteries themselves are generated from a location and an object. The book has a table for 3 different settings (Noir, Fantasy and Sci-Fi). Once the problem has been determined, it's time to decide why your investigator cares. Based on what I generated, I imagined that my character owed a favour to a dubious gym and tanning salon owner, he receives a call that some suspicious packages have been found mixed in with a shipment of protein powder and the owner demands he comes to investigate. This is the crux of how the whole game works. Relatively open prompts that you work into the world you have created for your investigator. Ability checks are a 2D6 roll + ability modifiers with varying degrees of success and failure. This can lead to obstacles, threats and complications which cause you to rethink how the story is progressing. The mysteries themselves unfold as a series of clues drawn from a clue deck. This is a standard 52 card deck with the face cards removed (but the jokers remaining). Each of the numbers represents a different clue, but the jokers indicate a false lead and force you to discard unproven clues! This adds an interesting dynamic into the game as you are wanting to search for clues and strengthen them but without establishing them as ‘true’ you run the risk of losing them. This honestly felt like you were playing a gritty detective novel, like Daschiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler would write. Playing the same game from a fantasy or sci-fi perspective would add new opportunities and feelings. I’ve really enjoyed my time with this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good soloing RPG and detective stories and is looking for a new challenge

My eldest boy requested to play a game of Memoir 44 with me today. He’s not really been bothered about playing anything for a couple of years and I’d say it was about 3 years since we last played Memoir together. This was a lovely surprise and we had a great time, he’s requested we do it again soon. This is why I’m a board gamer, for moments like this that I can cherish. (He won by the way)

My #sundaymorningsolo this week was once again Vainglory's Grotto from the Kinfire Delve series by @incredibledreamstudios This game is great and this week I tried the other seeker in the box, Khor who wa slightly easier to run. After a tense battle and some close calls, I managed to defeat one of the 3 included Vainglory cards for a satisfying win. After this passing me by, I really need to check out some of the other boxes! #sundaymorningsolo has been revived by @soloboardsandbooks so why not join in!

Rewild South America by @treecer_atops is a 1-4 player tile laying, tableau building, engine builder with beautiful artwork and a strong conservational message. The copy I was sent is a preview copy which allegedly is poorer quality than the intent for the finished game. How that is possible i don’t know as this thing is beautiful. The artwork is ghibli-esque with beautiful illustrations of plants and animals from the South American grasslands, deserts and rainforests. There are wonderful animal meeple and 3D cardboard trees. All of which don’t feel like a gimmick but make perfect sense in the ecosystem you are trying to create. For that is the point of this game, under the beautiful exterior is a powerful message about biodiversity and the decline of endangered species. You are competing to put animals and plants into 3 different biomes, scoring points by chaining together species that work well together. But with that powerful message is there an actual game in here and is it fun? Absolutely. Firstly, this game is much more tactical and thinky than the beautiful artwork leads you to believe. There are a few different mechanisms going on here: a hand of action cards that are multi-use to either gain resources or place tiles. Animal and plant cards that can be added to biomes (if you have space and the resources needed). Engine building aspects for generating resources and scoring points. To be fully clear, I’ve only played this game solo and each play took the top end of the stated 45-60 minutes but the solo mode works well using a set of the action cards and some hierarchy rules for an automa player. The only slight criticism I have with the solo (which I think would be worse 2 player) is that the card churn can be a bit unpredictable. Sometimes the cards you don’t want are just there and you have to use an action card to get rid of one whilst hoping a better one comes out. The rulebook was also a little unclear sometimes but once I got the hang of it was OK. Overall, I really enjoyed this game and thought it was solid, with a beautiful exterior and an important message. This copy was loaned to me through @ukbg_review_circle but all opinions are mine

#sundaymorningsolo run by @soloboardsandbooks This week I treated myself to a copy of Kinfire Delve from @incredibledreamstudios , specifically Vainglory's Grotto. Kinfire Delve is a sort of dungeon crawler run through a deck of cards which sees you as a seeker battling through a dungeon (well) to reach the end boss (well master). You have a hand of cards to attempt challenges and having to draw new cards is through an exhaustion mechanism which is generally not great for you. I was really interested to play this as I am a big fan of the Heroes of the Sanctum games by @firetapgames and was keen to see how it compares. The short answer, really well and they are different enough that there is easily room for both in my collection. Kinfire is sort of modular, each Delve box is standalone but you can mix and match player characters between the boxes which is a nice idea (although could get expensive). The cards are also usable in one of the other Kinfire Series which is a lovely touch. All in all, it's a challenge little game that plays in just under an hour and requires some careful card play and combo building. Exactly what I like in a game!

#firstimpressionsfriday🎲 currently hosted by @nerdygirlgaming This week I had a first play of the wonderful Luthier by @paverson Luthier sees you playing as an instrument maker trying to satisfy the demands of patrons by making instruments, repairing instruments or giving performances. It works by you secretly (not so secret in solo) placing out your family members to various action spots and then resolving them. You have 3 family members initially with power values 1,3 and 5. Placing a more powerful token on a spot gives you more chance of going first in the turn order and might trigger special rewards. The verdict? Lots of fun. It’s not as heavy as it first appears (although physically it’s a beast) and the turns flow nicely with potential for some really satisfying play. The solo works well with a deck of automa cards and a randomised setup for the worker tokens with a variable focus grid too to keep things on track. It’s also insanely well produced: wooden tokens , extra boards, beautiful artwork, inexplicable conductors baton. This game has it all. Very much looking forwards to another play! This was loaned to me through @ukbg_review_circle but all opinions are my own

I had the opportunity to play the Star Wars Clone Wars game by @zmangamesofficial last night. The Clone Wars is a game that has on the front cover a note saying Pandemic System. So, as someone who doesn’t mind Pandemic but wouldn’t say it’s a favourite - is it just a Star Wars reskin of Pandemic or does it add something new? The short answer is that it is sort of both but in a good way. The Pandemic system is implemented in a way that allows anyone who has played pandemic to understand how the turns work and the mechanisms of the game are familiar but without exactly copying the gameplay of Pandemic with cool little minis of droids and Jedi. Reused is the system of “infecting” worlds with droids. Draw a planet card from a deck, put a droid on it. Once the trigger is met, the discards are shuffled and put back on the deck meaning that they will come out again before ‘new’ planets. This works really well in building the tension as you know what’s coming but not when. But a new addition to this that rather than worlds overflowing onto adjacent ones when a 4th droid would need to be place like Pandemic, a blockade arrives instead which is harder to deal with and accelerates the loss condition. Players also have special powers that feel sort of familiar for the most part to seasoned Pandemic players. But what doesn’t feel familiar is the addition of a villain who is also travelling around the galaxy far far away disrupting your plans and requiring you to face off against them in a finale. There’s other stuff too: Clearing infection is battling which involves dice rolls and combat cards. Your cards are not automatically discarded when used (for the most part) and instead are tapped so you can add into other players actions on your planet if you have active cards. There are missions to complete which require cooperation and managing the villain who wants to disrupt them. The “infection” marker goes up based on a card from the villain deck so is on a limited timer rather than a rough area of the deck. There are multiple missions, villains and Jedi So this game feels familiar to Pandemic players in a way that’s comforting but is absolutely a game in itself.