St George, our patron saint, never actually came to England. But his dragon slaying skills impressed us immensely. As well as the iconic cross, England has come to be known by some pretty unforgettable symbols. Roast beef, roses, and a trio of lions to name but a few. And there are some great games out there that make us think of our green and pleasant land (and not just for its cheese rolling opportunities!). so join us around the table for a celebration of the best of British this St George’s Day!
Next Station London
Next Station London is a light, fun, budget friendly and colourful flip and write game that’s playable in under 20 minutes. In it, you’re designing a 4 line underground system in London and score for (a) how many stations you connect into in your busiest district, (b) how many colour based line interchanges you establish, (c) how many districts you reach, and (d) how many tourist sites you pass through. There are bonus points every time you cross the River Thames and two advanced variant expansions that can be added in for crunch. The rules are super simple and the game plays simultaneously. Remember though that lines of different colour cannot cross, although they can share stations if there is a spare connection. Small box with big enjoyment, this will make you feel like TfL missed a step when they overlooked your skills whilst planning the London Underground!
Obsession
What could be more English than TfL and competitive chrysanthemum growing? It has to be Jane Austen channelled into a board game! Fast tracking to classic status, important societal families are doing their version of Grand Designs, just without Kevin “too luxurious” McCloud and any money. Essentially, you are doing your very best to renovate your crumbling estate. Capitalising on gifts and favours from relatives and Georgian movers and shakers, you have a staff who activate events happening in different rooms in your grand house and grounds. Reputation is critical and will open doors and opportunities, but you need to manage your stretched budget and the demands of those offering to help. This game’s title didn’t really make sense to me until I played it. But having donned my cardboard finery, I have fast become obsessed with it!
Kingsbridge
James Follett’s series about ambition, anarchy and absolute power set in twelfth-century England has found its way into board gaming thanks to KOSMOS. Designed by Wolfgang Kramer, it is a card game for 1-5 players based on the mechanics of the age-old game of Patience. But whilst the original is a solo affair, Kingsbridge turns tradition on its head and makes it a multiplayer experience which can be played competitively or co-operatively. There’s also a solo mode as well as an advanced variant. Essentially, this is a shedding game – you want to be first to lose all of your cards. Each turn, you can place as many cards from your hand onto any of the six starting “columns” so long as you’re laying them on to cards ascending from 1 – 13. You can also lift and shift cards onto other columns so long as you do not re-order them. The general rule is that they must also continue to run 1-13. When a column contains 1-13 in order, that set is complete and removed from the game, opening up a free column for a new set to start. If you can’t lay anything at all, you can discard your hand (for penalties) and draw new cards (but not if you’re playing solo!). You can also use asymmetric one-time Character powers if you’re using the advanced variant to manipulate the melds and/or tweak the general 1-13 column card rules.
Cover Your Kingdom
A blog about St George would be remiss without any mention of dragons, but we have something even better; Bragons! If you haven’t seen or played Cover Your Kingdom, it’s a spin-ff from Cover your Assets and it has some of the funniest illustrations and puns I have ever seen. Unique-horns, Pigxies, and the Bragons’ have lots of brilliant pals too. Card-based set collection and hand management, this game has a heavy dose of take-that at the core. Vying to attract magical creatures back to your kingdom, you and your opponents will be drafting cards and stealing cards (there’s no denying all the thieving that goes on!) to form Clans and score the most magic by end game. The neat thing is that you can attempt to take your cards back so turns become a series of raise-the-stakes play-offs which raises the temperature around the table!
Village Green
Sign up for the Village Green of the Year competition here. It’s like The Archers and Traitors had a passively aggressive love-child and this game is the result haha. You win by arranging features in your 3 x 3 tableau according to specific Village Show Awards. But each feature Village card you lay down can only be placed adjacent to another Village card if it has a matching flower type and/or colour symbol. And with such a small game space, this becomes incredibly tight incredibly quickly! Award cards you pick go around the left and top edge of your Green and contain the scoring objectives for that particular row/column. And whilst you cannot cover up placed Village cards, you can reserve spots for later covering using lawn cards and overlay Awards with different ones if more appropriate ones become available for picking from the market! Village Green is a brilliant small box game, and the solo mode (my personal favourite way to play) works very similarly with a few easy tweaks.
Well, there we have it. Some great Blighty inspired games to honour our patron saint! I hope you slay at your game tables on this year’s St George’s day! Tell us what you’ll be playing by heading over to our Instagram!
