The first rule of board gaming club is: You do not talk about board gaming club. The second rule of board gaming club is: YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT BOARD GAMING CLUB.

I am a rebel so not only will I break the first rule, I will break the second too!

I’ve never been a big fan of board games. My idea of hell is Scrabble. Nothing gives me the rage more than the long wait between turns as other players spend ages pondering the next word. They should be thinking of words in advance of their turn and be ready to play with minimal waiting!!

When I was asked by a friend whether I would be interested in playing a board game. My reaction was “no f’ing way” but I was too polite to say that. Instead, I said “Ok – maybe next month” in the hope he would not ask again.

He did ask again…and again…and again until I eventually said “Ok – I’ll play! Stop asking me! But just one game and it better be quick…and not be Scrabble!

To make the evening more enjoyable I invited some other friends over and supplied some beer and food. Most things in life are better with beer.

I expected he’d bring round Monopoly or Trivia Persuit or Cluedo. Being the only board games I know.

Instead he brought round Blood Rage – A strategic board game were Viking clans pillage and battle in a quest for glory at the end of the world!

I was surprised. The game was great fun. It was competitive, the rules were easy too learn and there was enough strategy to make me want to play it again to see if I could do better.

I asked where he’d got the game from and he explained there was a whole world of board games that I was unfamiliar with. Games like Pandemic, Gloomhaven and Carcassone.

The names meant nothing to me but I was intrigued to learn more.

Since then we’ve met up once a month to try out other games. It is a great excuse to meetup and to drink beer.

We’ve played a variety of games. You can read about them in future posts as long as you promise that YOU WILL NOT TALK ABOUT BOARD GAMING CLUB.