The Thomas Fire has greatly affected people in our local area. People have lost their homes, and their livelihoods. Our local community is hurting. Let’s help with the rebuilding. With Christmas fast approaching things are especially hard on the kids.
Toy Drive for those in Ventura County affected by the Thomas Fire
So, we are holding a Toy Drive. We are gamers who can help people through the power of learning and play. For more details see the Toy Drive page.
Bring along NEW Toys, Games, and School Supplies to a Meetup, or get them to Tim or April-Lyn of the VCSB Meetup; or Blake, Chris, or Julia of the Simi Valley Games Meetup.
Help in anyway you can; donate money via places like the red Cross. People need all sorts of basic items. Every little bit helps.
Update – 21st December
Yesterday, I took a dozen bags full of new, and much needed, items to the Boys and Girls Club Thrift store in Ventura. The pop-up store was winding down and had passed their role onto the B&G Club store on N. Ventura Blvd.
A dozen bags of items were collected, and donated. Many thanks.
Many thanks to all the help and the donations for the BoardGamers Toy Drive, including: Christieann, Kimberly, Sudro, Kathy G, April-Lyn, and Brian (from Game Ogre in Westlake Village).
Many thanks for all the donations.
The items included: games, toys, school supplies (binders, books, pencils, highlighters), and hygiene products (tampons, wipes, razors, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shaving cream, deodorant). All of these types of items, and more, are still required.
Roll up for more modern boardgaming events with FATDOG 2017 and DOGCAT 2: Revenge of DOGCAT.
These events have many things in common:
Come along if you are interested in the growing modern boardgaming hobby. Enjoy modern fun boardgames such as Ticket to Ride or Catan.
The events are free to attend. Please RSVP so that we know the numbers to expect.
The events are beginner friendly. There will be plenty of fun, and engaging modern boardgames to play.
Come for an hour, or stay for the whole day.
You do not need to own, nor know, any boardgames games. People are happy to teach the games to others.
FATDOG 2017 is on Friday, the 24th of November in Oxnard. To RSVP, or for more details you can check out the event on Meetup or on Facebook. This is the 6th year that the Ventura County Startegy Boardgamers Meetup have held a FATDOG event. Each year they have gone from strength to strength.
DOGCAT 2: Revenge of DOGCAT is on Saturday, the 25th of November in Ventura. To RSVP, or for more details you can check out the event on Meetup or on Facebook. This is the second year that we have organized an evnt on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Any questions? Ask below, or post a comment on Meetup or on Facebook against the event that you are interested in attending. Also check out our Facebook group where we discuss boardgaming around Ventura County.
Many thanks to Ryan and April-Lyn for arranging the venues.
Tim
15th November 2017. Edited for a typo.
FATDOG means Friday After Thanksgiving Day of Gaming. It’s just a name for our full day of gaming.
DOGCAT means Days of Gaming Continuing After Thanksgiving. It’s just another goofy and fun name..
Last month I decided to see how many consecutive days could go by where I played at least one boardgame each day. All the games were face-to-face with human players, and with the actual physical games. No online or app plays counted towards the totals. No children were used nor harmed in this endeavor.
Yesterday I hit the milestone of 100 games played over 31 consecutive days. This is with over 89 gamers in 11 different locations. This info was supplied by the BGStats app, and the BoardGameGeek website.
The feat of cardboard exploitation started by accident when I noticed that my local gaming group had gaming events over 5 consecutive days. It was made easier as I was also attending two gaming conventions on consecutive weekends. The big boost is that I am lucky to have a very active local gaming scene. Here is a shameless plug for my local Meetup group. I am the main organizer of the VCSB Meetup group and we meet around 4-5 times a week.
This still left some event free days. My long suffering gf has helped to fill in some gaps in the calendar. Being a sneaky person, I have used this as an opportunity to introduce her to some new games. Mwwhhahha. I was quite proud when she beat me at 7 Wonders Duel the other night. She was also very happy that she did not need to feed her people in that game. She hates Stone Age. 😦
The shortest game play in time was either Rhino Hero or Qwixx. Some of those games took only a few minutes. The longest game play was 12 hours playing Here I Stand (500th Anniversary Edition) with 5 other players. Some of the games were playtest games of games yet to be published. For purely social games like Concept; the one game play logged consisted of at least a dozen rounds.
My game plays are logged via the BoardGameGeeek website or the BGStats app. I have used both BGG, BGstats and the friendlessstats website to look at the game play data.
It is fair to admit that I am a tad OCD when it comes to logging my plays. I have been logging my game plays for just over 10 years. So far I have logged over 3800 game plays of over 600 different games.
This game playing streak has helped towards my Twisted 10×10 Challenge for 2017.
10×10 Challenge as per 24th October 2017
This year is looking to be a good year of gaming. One of my goals for the 10×10 Challenge was to increase the number of games that I played for two specific areas. These were firstly games that are published by GMT Games. I felt that I was not playing there games often enough. Secondly, I wanted to play more wargames (aka historical themed) games by publishers other than GMT Games. SO far I have met, and exceeded my goal. The 10×10 Challenge caused me to review my game playing patterns. It is easier to play non-wargames, as there are more people who are willing to play eurogames.
Some game play stats for 2017
By the way, I am gaming tonight. The streak continues!
My username on BoardGameGeek is oi_you_nutter. You can see my game information in my profile. Let me know if you have questions on game logging, or any questions about my sanity, or the games that I play.
My Twisted 10×10 Challenge is making good progress. My Battlestar Galactica count is up to 53 games so far this year. My target is to play BSG at least 70 times. It will be tight to complete the required number. I am confidant as my local gaming group can often finish 2-3 games of BSG in one evening. So say we all.
October the 4th 10×10 ChallengeOctober the 4th 10×10 ChallengeOctober the 4th 10×10 Challenge
I am spoiled with local gaming opportunities. It has not always been the case. It is now possible to game, for no cost other than fuel, at least 4 times a week. A Monday evening meetup has been added to the weekly calendar of my local gaming Meetup group. With the semi-regular weekend events it has been possible to game 5 days in a row. Taking advantage of this I decided how long I could go where I play games on consecutive days.
So far I have gamed every day from Saturday, the 23rd of September, until today. There is no end in sight to this run of gaming. Only one day have I gamed in a non-public location. To keep the streak going I did play a (board) game with the girlfriend to bridge a game between events. I will do so tonight too. She is a good sport putting up with my shenanigans.
My twisted10×10 Challenge has been making progress in the more difficult “non-GMT aka the Other Wargame” category. This is great as I have been playing some interesting wargames. Many of these games are new to me too.
A wargame that I have been long wanting to play is The Big Push. I posted an After Action Report (AAR) for this game in a recent post here. Continuing with the WW1 theme I played In Flanders Fields with Ken Tee. This game is on the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915. This battle was the first use of poison gas in warfare, and is a key part of the game for the German side. We had to end the game early, but we hope to revisit the game soon.
Thee games especially helped to increase the list of the “other wargames” category. A category that I was concerned that I was falling behind on. The 10×10 Challenge has helped to add visibility to what games I am playing, and to add more variety to the types of games that I play. Job Done!
Flarchcon 2017
Last week was the annual Flarchcon week of gaming hosted by Rob March. As is normal we played a bunch of games, played with his awesome dog Denali, and consumed lots of nice food and drink. The revelation for me was playing Quartermaster General 1914 for the first time. I had read the rules a while ago, but the game had not gelled in my brain. The original Quartermaster General game is very simple, hence it pays fast and frantic. The new game in the series adds a number of mechanics that seem to muddy the clean and simple gameplay. Or so I thought it did. I was wrong. Quartermaster General 1914 is a great little 5 player wargame. It still plays fast, and has a good amount of bluff and strategy. The players have more options, which in this case works well.This game is worthy addition to the multi-player wargame category.
The disappointment of Flarchcon for me, was after a full day of playing Virgin Queen we only got to the start of turn 5. It was a tight game, with all the players trying hard, and the game ebbing and flowing. The longer game suits the side that I played, the English. The longer game has more events that swing the game into new areas. We rarely get to explore those aspects as the game often ends in turn 4. We had some serious gameplay queries that caused the game to pause. The thing to remember with such a game is to keep it flowing. Saving a few minutes here and there would have allowed us to play that extra turn. This could have resulted in an actual winner being determined. Instead we had France with 22 points, and myself as England with 19 points. The game was just getting fun when we ended the game, out of time.
Battlestar Galactica
Unexpectedly, I am falling slightly behind the curve with my Battlestar Galactica plays. The Tuesday night group has been having a problem getting a quorum for BSG. It has been a problem all year. We have managed to recruit a new guy into the regular pool of players. New Chris is shaping up well. I am looking forward to being airlocked by him in a sneaky cylon treacherous move.
On July the 23rd there will be another Sunday event at McGregors Craft Beer and Wine, in Moorpark. The first event there attracted 17 people, a good crowd for a first event. I am hoping for more next time. It would be great if we get some beginners or newcomers too.
Ventura County Boardgamers 
You must be logged in to post a comment.