Top Selling Games

Pub Games

Garden Games

War Games

Games We Have Been Playing

Previous Years Christmas Suggestions

Games that really should not have to be in a sale

Top Selling Games in the New Year - and at the end of the year, here's the new bit first

The perils of leaving a Luddite with a lap-top! Confident in the memory of having written an up-dated boardgames article, I have not checked that part of the site for months – and I had not transferred the article to the relevant machine. Here's a quick up-date for your belated edification.

Ex Libris is still our top-selling game overall. Carcassone remains the game suitable for everyone, and just in time for Christmas there is now the Carcassone Big Box of several of the expansions together. But the big seller in December is Battlelore, the new medieval/fantasy easy-play board wargame which follows up the huge success of Memoir '44. Strategy games generally have been to the fore, with Antike still steadily gaining devotees a year after its release. The new version of Arkham Horror has also gone down very well, as has the new expansion Dunwich Horror. And, on a completely different tack, Canal Mania has completely sold out at the manufacturer but we still have a few left, having grabbed as many as we could.

So, on the whole, there has been a trend back towards games you can get your teeth into, but the easy-to-midweight games have held up too. The reprint of Through the Desert has pleased many who missed it first time round, and the newer, somewhat longer Hacienda has also gone down well as they both have the great virtue of working well as 2, 3, 4 or 5 player games. Ticket to Ride Europe and Ticket to Ride Marklin, slightly up-rated versions of the original Ticket to Ride, continue to dominate the railway games at the introductory level. Among the plethora of Pirate games, Dread Pirate Bookshelf Edition stands out for its beautiful look (there is also the Dread Pirate Discovery Edition) and Pirate's Cove still holds its own among all the newcomers because it is just so good.

Frank's Zoo continues to top the cardgame list, with Mamma Mia and Sole Mio chasing - these are all suitable for all kinds of people. But right behind is Killer Bunnies, with over half a dozen expansions all selling well. This is the one for all you strange people out there (and often here in the shop too – we're not complaining!)

A few weeks into the new year, what have people been buying so far in 2006?

Not surprisingly Carcasonne: The Count has come top – after all, it costs only 2.99 and Carcassone is a deservedly popular game. The main game itself and the variant Carcassone: Hunters and Gatherers would have rivalled The Count in sales if they had not run out soon after Christmas with fresh supplies not reaching these shores until the end of January, and the first expansion, Inns and Cathedrals, was also in our January top ten.

The Count works rather well, by the way. One of the impressive things about the Carcassone expansions is that they all work together without making the game too fussy, and it all still just fits onto our coffee table so that Sally does not have to move from in front of the fire to play.

Second biggest seller has been Fluxx; I only got round to trying this game last year, and immediately saw why it is so popular. A basic grasp of the English language and the ability to count up to 10 is all that is needed for anyone to play, yet is still holds up as a good lightweight game for the experienced gamer.

Next most popular have been Ex Libris and Hare and Tortoise. At last we have been selling Ex Libris to people in this country, it was very worrying that all the sales of anything even remotely literary were only to the USA. I have absolutely no objection to selling to Americans, but is a relief to know that there are still a few people capable of stringing a sentence together here too. That's all you need to play the game, together with a bit of imagination – it is an excellent after-dinner game for around half a dozen people.

With the return of Rio Grande's version of Hare and Tortoise I have continued with my crusade to get a copy into every local household, this is a true classic and that rarest of things, a race game that still works really well with only two or three people.

And the others holding up well? War of the Ring, now that we have had the time off over Christmas to get to grips with it (some of us do not have as many working brain cells, nor the eyesight for the sometimes tiny text, but it is worth the effort). San Juan, such an elegant playing system, easy to learn but with lots of variety and interaction between the cards. Tantrix, a neat game which can also be used as a solo puzzle. And Bohnanza, simple but slightly mean, still the king of the number-based card games.

We stock a good range of traditional pub games, to save you searching you can click on the names here for an immediate list of what we have of that type. Cribbage is the most popular pub game locally, follwed by Dominoes, darts comes third but we don't sell them. We do, however, have a good selection of Playing Cards, and also stock traditional wooden games such as Shove ha'penny, Skittles and Bagatelle. Quoits is potentially suitable, as is Carrom. We also sell Bingo sets and Roulette sets, popular for charity evenings etc.

It is also worth bearing in mind that many of the recent card and smaller board games fit nicely onto a pub table, take about an hour to play, and go very well with a pint or two of ale. Tantrix also has the considerable advantage of being beer-proof!

HOT NEWS: Trax has returned! This has long been a favourite of mine as an end-of-evening game. As a fore-runner to Tantrix, it requires fewer functioning brain cells, though you still have to keep your wits about you. Hive is also being re-done in a plastic waterproof version though we still have the original very fine wooden style.

Croquet works as well on a small but uneven lawn (like ours) as on a big flat one. It is not obligatory to serve cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off, but it is traditional, as is a lightly chilled Chablis if you can run to it. Similarly, you are not obliged to drink Calvados while playing Boules, but it is definitely an option. Beer or lemonade for giant Pick up Sticks, Tumble or Jerico. G&T with Quiots?

Wargames Waffle

March 2008 Update

The time has finally come for us to move out of 98 Station Street and fit everything into 114/115 opposite.
Instant Armies and Veteran Miniatures will, from the end of March 2008, be based at :

The Smallholding, Clifton Road, Netherseal DE12 8BP

- note that it is NOT a shop, so visits are strictly by appointment. Their phone number is 07758 451853.

We will still be very much in touch with each other, so we will still be passing on messages and we will also be happy to act as a pick-up point for deals arranged with them over the phone. We will not have room for any of their rummage boxes to be left here, but in order to make space for the historical ranges from 98, we are dropping most of the sci-fi ranges, so for the time being there will be plenty of bargains from us there. A glance at the catalogue will reveal an enlargement of the Ends of Ranges figures section, and as well as 25% off most of those ranges, we will be open to offers for the whole of any reduced range.

Enough of the serious stuff - the fun news is that I was able to join in the fun at the Raiders of the Games Cupboard do at a local church hall, where there was space to get my 1:1200 WWII ships out for the first time in several decades. In a hypothetical German raider breakout, the British only had cruisers and a handful of destroyers, so needed a successful torpedo attack as the only hope of putting a decent sized dent in Scharnhorst. It didn't happen, and the cruisers and pocket battleships fought each other to a standstill. Only the Admiral Scheer and one British destroyer went to the bottom, but it was a sorry selection of colanders that limped back to their respective ports. Who won? Over to the propagandists....

Also rescued from years of neglect were my 25mm orcs and Sally's Mongols, Normans, rats and badgers on ostriches. The plan was to try using the Battlelore rules without the hex board; it seemed a shame to be playing with unpainted 20mm figures with a cupboard full of unused pretty 25mm exotica. It worked a treat. Now I have to find room for setting up battles in the shop as well as wedging the extra stock in...

--------------

Spirit Games' wargaming roots go back a long way, with Phil's wargames room still containing scratch-built 1:1200 ships and 1:76 Airfix kits from his school days. That was before 1:3000 ships existed! The army which Sally painted for him as a birthday present (other girlfriends may note that this was a highly effective way of encouraging a long relationship) was based for WRG 5th edition ancients rules. Sadly, there is now seldom the time and brain-power available for setting up more than the occasional DBA or Hordes of the Things - even Andy, closely involved with wargaming for almost as long, and without quite as many other distractions, finds the same problem.

It has to be said, though, that with Andy adding his vast accumulation of miniatures to the Spirit Games stocks, we have a lot of toys to play with if we ever do find the time!

The local wargames scene is quite lively, Burton and District club (BAD Wargamers as they have been known in recent years) are very much still at it, and while Games Workshop's customers have taken brand loyalty to extraordinary extremes, they do occasionally call in to take advantage of our range of dice and must surely sometimes notice that there are other miniatures too. Indeed, there are plans afoot that just might attract their attention - we shall see.

The great majority of our sales of new historical miniatures and rules sets are to Europe and the Colonies, so our perspective on what is currently popular is hardly local. It is clear, though, that naval wargaming is popular at the moment; there was not the expected rush on Napoleonic ships for the anniversary of Trafalgar, but people have been buying fleets to fight everything from ancient galleys to the very latest ships.

Two other areas that have been coming to life after a dormant period are Western Gunfights and Samurai. The modern era on land is fairly quiet after a year of being perhaps more popular than WWII. The interest in Warhammer Ancients has been diluted by the release of Warmaster Ancients, but there is considerable interest in the new Vlad supplement. It will be interesting to see if that triggers a new era of East European games, roll on the Hussite war wagons!

Games We Have Been Playing - Previous write-ups Click here for our current write-up

write-ups from 2009

write-ups from 2008

write-ups from 2007

Posts on the Big Bang Burger Bar by our Wednesday night players, reproduced by kind permission of zarniwoop:

Title: Re: Spirit Games Wednesday Night - 2010
Post by: zarniwoop on 10 March 2010, 18:37:27

3rd March 2010
We started tonight off with a game of Blue Moon City which is always a classic, we used the mini expansion tiles in tonight's game which I had managed to finally get for my own copy. They add some new special powers usable when on the tile throughout the game. I found that these extra powers were well balanced within the game and placing the times at the four corners meant that there was more incentive to explore the outer edges which helped keep the game flowing. I really enjoyed this and Sally ended up a resounding winner of this game.

We then had a quick game of Loot whilst we waited for the other game to finish. This is a lovely little game which is quick to learn and play with superb artwork and excellent quality cards. Sally was the outright winner of the first game of this, we had a second round where I managed to win but it was a lot closer.

Finally we rounded off the evening with a "quick" game of Citadels this is a lovely little game which has some lovely artwork on the cards and is quick to pick up and play. After a long game Phil was the Winner but the scores were extremely close (Phil:29, Andy:26, Paul:26, Sally:25, Carole:23)

Title: Re: Spirit Games Wednesday Night - 2010
Post by: zarniwoop on 10 March 2010, 18:24:03

24th February 2010
We started the evening off with a game of Infinite City which is a great little game, the rules are light as each tile has clear instructions written on them. Each player starts with a hand of 5 tiles and they take it in turns to place down a tile into the city, placing one of their tokens onto it and following the instructions written on it. Play continues until one person has used all their tokens when play continues until everyone else has had one last turn or the fifth power station is placed when the games ends immediately. Players score 1 point for each of their tokens in a group of 3 or more plus any score on a card they are on. They is also a bonus score for having the most tiles with chains on. This plays really well, is easy to pick up and the artwork and tiles are superb. I managed to win this game, but my excuse is that it is technically Carole's copy not mine :)

We followed this up with a game of Ad Astra I always like playing this game there is a lot going on and plenty of replayability. That said I had a particularly bad game with more than my fair share of bad choices :(, Philsy on the other hand had a really good run and romped home to win, however the rest of us were not too far behind.. honest...

Title: Re: Spirit Games Wednesday Night - 2010
Post by: carldjcross on 23 February 2010, 07:27:12

Wednesday 17th February.
Players: Paul, Carol, Phillsey, Sally and me.

We started the evening with Risk Express. After playing and liking Clue Express and failing to resist this out of print game on eBay we gave it a go. No board in this dinky version but instead a number of cards representing countries or groups of countries. Printed on each are a number of symbols (infantry, cavalry, artillery and a general) in a number of “battle lines” only one of which can be filled  per roll. Battle lines are filled by simply placing matching dice on the card.  And that's it. Once you've chosen your attack there are no more decisions to make you just keep rolling until you've filled the lines and take the card or until you run out of dice since you discard one every time you fail to fill a line.

Player interaction comes in the form of attacking cards in other player's territory however once a continent is complete it's unassailable.
To be fair Risk was never a stranger to dice and this version does a pretty good job of simulating its bigger brother which will also tell you if you'll like it or not. Just like Risk this is often random and encourages you to push your luck a little too far. A couple of us broke our armies on Australia before it fell to Sally and was of course then safe from attack.

Sally won (I think! I've entered it onto the Geek which is now down) and there was a decent amount of interaction as cards needed to fill sets were passed around the table.

And so on to Endeavor.
From early on it was obvious Phillsey was building up a strong lead with his large army but it was all reasonably peaceful until the endgame where both European and colonial territories changed hands several times to make those all important scoring chains.

Speaking of chains those sneaky abolitionists managed to emancipate the slaves that Paul and I had invested in leaving us floundering at the back.

Phillsey won with a very respectable 64 with Carol coming in second with 49.

Title: Re: Spirit Games Wednesday Night - 2010
Post by: carldjcross on 17 February 2010, 16:02:21

Wednesday 10th February.
We started off tonight with a quick Roll through the Ages which first time player Andy did really well at conceding the game to Peter on the tiebreak of most goods. A high scoring game as well with the two top players scoring a very respectable 26.

Following that Phillsey, Paul and myself split off to have a go at Chaos in the Old World. I'm a bit mad at myself with this one since I failed to get my faction off the ground at all. The Nurgle (me) seemed destined never to earn sufficient points to move my development wheel. I'm blaming it on tiredness but I'd really like to have another game sometime, perhaps as a different faction which seem to play differently.
Phillsey won this one with Paul scoring a good few points to see him creep up the victory track.

Title: Re: Spirit Games Wednesday Night - 2010
Post by: carldjcross on 09 February 2010, 13:43:32

Wednesday 3rd Feb
Game: Rush n' Crush
What's it like? Car Wars/Battlecars crossed with F-Zero. Race game with weapons.
How long did it take? 1 hour (1 lap game).
Players: Sally, Phillsey and myself.

Having tempted Sally in with the prospect of a Smallworld we switched tack at the last minute and went with new-to-me Rush n' Crush.
Apart from sounding like a mid-90s arcade game I'd heard good things about it from a couple of people. I'd also heard that it's best not to let Phillsey get too far ahead so that was the sum total of my game plan.

True to form Phillsey sped away from the starting blocks at speed using a good part of his available boost points to leave Sally and myself in his wake. After a small altercation at the back we decided that Phillsey was the bigger threat (being about a quarter of the board ahead of us at one point) and concentrated on catching up with him.

Reckless driving (and squandering of my handling points) got me so far but in the end I hit the same nasty corner that Phillsey had glanced off but full force and at speed leaving only a column of smoke and a regretful whisper on the breeze. With Phillsey home and dry Sally deftly chicaned around the deadly last corner and would have easily come in next turn.

A fun, simple race game that would need more strategy to play and lead to some interesting choices if we played more than a single lap.

Title: Re: Spirit Games Wednesday Night - 2010
Post by: carldjcross on 02 February 2010, 20:58:05

Wednesday 20th January.
Players: Peter, Richard and Carl.
We started off with my new bargain shop find: Clue(do) Express. A quick-fix Clue(do) game that strips away all the gubbins that people don't like about the game and especially the moving about the board bit. Leaving a game of rolling dice, clever deductions and Phoenex Wright style j'accuse.

Richard won the game by some way but was feeling ebullient enough from a professional as well as gaming success to share his secret formula with us. Which will come in handy when I play it again and play it again I will since it does everything that its big brother does but in about 10-15 mins which is just about right for Clue.Do.

After that we were joined by Phillsey to play Anno 1701. Ostensibly based on the ultra-hardcore German PC (and now Wii and DS game) but really a very close relative of Settlers of Catan. As well as building up your colony on your very own board you're sending your ships out into the nearby archipelago to found new colonies and since it's Settlers potentially gain new resources. 1701's version of the robber is the dastardly pirate who appeared to be following me around which was tonight's excuse for losing so badly. Peter (Stuyvesant for the purposes of this game of course colonial history fans) was the winner.

Title: Re: Spirit Games Wednesday Night - 2010
Post by: CrazyFrog on 01 February 2010, 18:22:09

Wednesday Night - 20/01/2010
Players: Zarni, Oscar, Sally, CrazyFrog + friend   ^-^
Started the night off with Turso as it's a very nice simply game to teach new players due to its simple game mechanics.
Sally was the winner.Players: Zarni, Oscar, CrazyFrog, Sally, Phil.

Then moved onto Factory Manager which I'm starting to like a lot, its quicker than PowerGrid to play. All the players tried different strategies, including a very strange route where Phil's electricty bill went through the roof. The game was setup so the energy cost increases were 0 for the first 2 rounds, then slowly increased. I got not idea which method I tried, except to keep the electricity bill low if possible and the production of boxes and pallets equal throughout the 5 rounds.
Score:
CrazyFrog: 292
Phil: 262
Sally: 259
Zarni: 254
Oscar: 209

Title: Re: Spirit Games Wednesday Night - 2010
Post by: zarniwoop on 24 January 2010, 15:26:58

13th Jan 2010
After the fun and mayhem of Pony Express we settled down for a game of Thurn and Taxis which is an excellent little game which is easy to learn and has lots of replayability. It also plays extremely will with 2 people, tonight  we had a 3 player game which was good and provided a really close game with Sally leading with a score of 39 and myself and Carole tied for 2nd place with 31 points.
 

Title: Re: Spirit Games Wednesday Night - 2010
Post by: carldjcross on 20 January 2010, 13:50:43

Wednesday 13th January (a bit chilly)
So I made it, trekking through the snowy wastes of Tamworth, along the fabled A38 pass to finally reach the promised land of Spirit Games where there’s always a free chair and ne’er is heard a discouraging word. Or at least not until someone brings out Power Grid. But no grids involved tonight, just poker dice and a simple single track board. Looking at the track that wound it way from Sacremento to Gulch (or some such) I noted the Indians standing impassively on the bluff. “We’ll be meeting later.” I thought.

After that I gathered up my victuals, saddled my horses and pausing only to wipe sand from my boots hit the road home.

6th January 2010

Our first wed night of the new year so we got to try out some new games from christmas not yet played:

Finally, as we had to leave early, we played Incan Gold. This is always a fun little game and this was true to form. The final results were: Sally:51, Phil:51, Carole:16, Paul:12 and Philsy:0

Paul.

Previous Christmas Suggestions 2

(If there is a link to the game it is still available from us)

This year has seen the return of some real classics which helped the boardgame revival of the last ten years. Through the Desert is remarkable in that it has the look and feel of a serious strategy game - it is loosely based on the classic Japanese game of Go - but always takes just 40 minutes to play. This means that it is suitable for new gamers as well as established enthusiasts. It plays well through the range of 2-5 players too. An absolute must-have.

Another essential for those who missed it first time round is Ra. A set-collecting game where the main question is how far you wish to push your luck, so with gambling all the rage it should not be hard to enroll new players. 3-5 players, takes about an hour lots of variety in how it plays according to which tiles come out of the bag.

Samurai, Torres and Tikal are other anxiously-awaited returns - again, good for new and experienced players alike. Tigris & Euphrates is also back, a game of immense stature but definitely a level up in the need to use the grey matter to get to grips with it.

At the really light-weight end of the spectrum Guillotine has been republished at last. Dead simple, half an hour's head-rolling fun, it was just becoming well-known when it disappeared. An ideal quick after-dinner game.

The Host Your Own Race Night which had just come out 12 months ago has gone down a storm, so now there is a 2nd Edition, a dog racing version, and Lagoon Games have come up with their version, Complete Horse-Racing Night. Their Whodunnit Mystery Night is handy, too, as several of the original How to Host a Murder range are now out of print. The Host your own Murder Mystery range is good but still small, and there are some new ones in the Murder Mystery Party range.

Finally, a mention that amidst all the splendid games that we get to try out here, we can still always be tempted by a game of Mah Jong, and we have an even wider range in the shop this year. And if you already have everything mentioned above, keep a weekly eye on our What's New section!

Previous Christmas Suggestions 1

We have had several new variants or expansions of the Christmas parlour games, such as Cranium Cadoo and Cranium Zigity, and have topped up on the stocks of the How to Host a Murder, Murder Mystery Party and Host Your Own Murder Mystery ranges as these seem good at stopping the relatives actually killing each other. For those who play word games, Buyword looks most interesting – Scrabble with bidding and so does Letterflip (Lexicon meets Stratego?). The new breed of DVD-based games kick off with Host Your Own Race Night.
For the more serious gamer a Boxing Day game of War of the Ring or Game of Thrones is a must.
And to counter any threat to get the Monopoly or Cleudo out, I particularly recommend Fearsome Floors, Citadels, Bang and San Juan. Bucket King makes an excellent after-dinner game, and nobody, but nobody, can get away with claiming that Fluxx is too hard for them. It's good fun, too.

Games that really should not have to be in a sale

Some of the games that are excessively cluttering up the place are ones which I personally like, so it is rather distressing to have to provide an extra incentive for you to buy them; you should have bought them already! These are some which immediately spring to mind in that regard, I have given few details here as a quick click on the link takes you to those, and I am trying to be brief, if only to prove to the many doubters that I can be.

Cinematique
A beautifully made, exceptionally well thought-out film quiz/party game. It was stunning value at the original price.

Safari Rush Hour
We bought lots when Ravensburger dropped it, then they brought it back! A long-time favourite for keeping children quiet, and is good fun for adults too.

Beowulf
A re-make of an earlier reputable game, themed to go with the film. The film has gone, the game is still well worth playing.

Tara, Seat of Kings
This is a very neat tactical game with a different twist. Its only problem was that the short production run and high quality pieces made it expensive for the type of game - first time round it was about £25. £18.99 still appears to be too much, so it is now £12 - a serious bargain.

Atlanteon
Sally and I were introduced to this one by one of our regulars, and took to it straight away. It is a fairly straightforward tactical two-player game, one of those which is easy to pick up but requires a bit of concentration, and I find its appearance rather attractive (not that I am normally accused of having taste). A typical Reiner Knizia game, simple but a bit devious, and for me, sufficiently different from the several other of his games that I regularly play.

Chizo Rising
I suspect that this falls between two stools from a marketing viewpoint, not quite a collectable card game but close enough to scare off those who avoid them automatically. Two one-player starter sets give an adequate selection of tiles for varied and interesting games, and what stands out is how two people with very different taste in games – one an avid Magic: The Gathering player and one who plays few games, none of them collectable - both enjoyed themselves immensely when introduced to it together. Essentially a positional game like Atlanteon, but with extra twists.

Express Chess: Safari + Express Chess: Space Exploration
I have always liked this game, but it didn't catch on – as chess variants often don't – so I am finally accepting that it has got to go. Two decks give you a fairly normal chess set-up plus a degree of customizability, for a tenner you can have four decks and experiment with all manner of options. It uses the basic chess moves but the set-up puts the two sides already very close so it is quite short and bloody. Hence the name..

Prompt
OK, I admit that I have not played this Shakespeare based game, but it looks gorgeous and must be worth a look at under a tenner.

Who Stole Ed's Pants?
Sally and I like this game, in fact I must get our copy out for one of our Wednesday evening gaming sessions soon. It has been around a while so it is continuing to sell somewhere, but has gone quiet for us. I believe that it was the first game by Eight Foot Llama, several more have followed so they seem to be doing OK.
The essence of the game is that you are trying to pin crimes on your fellow players using your witnesses. On your turn you can change the plausibility of your witnesses, the evidence, or the facts themselves; the interaction between the three is really quite complex, so it is more of a gamers' game than it first appears to be. We've trimmed the price to tempt you.

Who?
As a sort of 20 questions with some nice twists and an arrangement that makes it every man for himself instead of a team game, I had expected this to go well. It didn't really catch on, and we have three left – as the years roll by it is becoming less and less suitable for younger players, with the erstwhile contemporary characters coming from an increasingly distant past. Still good fun for older players.

Spirit Games (Est. 1984) - Supplying role playing games (RPG), wargames rules, miniatures and scenery, new and traditional board and card games for the last 20 years

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