Leba Games Plays Games

  The buying of vintage games is big business. Its an interesting hobby and can be lucrative – or may be one day! People pay for vintage games that are complete and in good condition. Condition is key. However, most great games get worn out – so to find a great vintage game in good condition and complete can be quite a challenge.   I recently bought “It’s a goal!”, a football card game, from the late 1950’s. The cards are works of art. Cards of the 1950’s kits of the teams in Division 1 and 2. I was interested to see my boyhood club Bury FC (now defunct) in the Division 2 set of cards. I have noticed someone is framing and selling individual cards for £4 each + postage, that’s one way to make money from vintage card games!   The game itself is a little primitive. Many of the cards have a number of yards in the corner which must be played in sequence to reach 120 yards to score a goal. Three goals and you win. However, there are free kick cards, obstructi...

We've been busy lately, in a bit of a behind-the-scenes way - contacting lots of suppliers, drawing up a budget, and all sorts of other things that are really fun for me as an accountant and Excel enthusiast, but are probably not that interesting for someone who just wants to enjoy a board game! We've also been on holiday, enjoying the occasional sunshine of the Peak District. And then a thought occurred to us: rather than penning a fascinating study on the determining the breakeven point of a small production run for a first board game sourced from multinational suppliers, why not play a game or two and write something about that instead? Seasons ( designed by Régis Bonnessée, with artwork also by Xavier Gueniffey Durin and Stéphane Gantiez) Preamble: I (Ben) don't want to spend lots of time going through the mechanics of the game, but want instead to give a quick overview of how the game works, and then to give it a score in each of five categories - aesthetic, competitio...

I suppose, to be honest, this is less a review and more a sneaky preview of our upcoming launch, Run Chase . But, for those of you who have come looking for a completely nonpartisan review: it's really good! What's the game about? Run Chase is a cricket game *sorry to anyone who thought it would be about running and/or chasing*. We wanted to make a game which both captured the pace and energy of a T20 cricket match, and also left space for the strategic thinker to out-plan their opponent. At its heart, Run Chase is a balance between chance and control, between the planned and the unplanned. As the fielding side, you might arrange your fielders and try to exploit the weaknesses of the batsman - but the thrill of the game is in the unknown. When will the batsman slip up? When will they get overconfident?  Similarly, as the batting side, you might play cautiously in unfavourable conditions, or hit for six when you're behind - but you'll never really know what t...

  Why do we play games? Why do you? Some suggestions include:           To amuse           To entertain           To stimulate           To challenge ourselves You can see these in the simple games through to more complex games. For example in the game “Tic Tac Toe” (also known as Noughts & Crosses) amusement on long journeys can be found. The challenge is limited with limited combinations but games like Connect 4 take it a step further. Why not Connect 10? Snakes and Ladders has a long history and was originally played to teach the moral lesson of virtue (ladders) opposed to temptation (snakes). Some play the game the opposite way round to be contrary. I’m not sure what that says about their morality? We demand, today, more complex games, developing the basic ideas. How about ladders that can be extended and snakes that having had their heads cut off multiply a...

Welcome to Leba Games Plays Games! My name is Ben - I'm one of the co-founders of Leba Games, and it was my idea to enshrine our thoughts in a blog for all eternity (well, as long as Google will continue to host them). Originally I was thinking it'd be cool to do a blog full of cutting-edge, exciting board-game related content, but have since realised that enduring a national lockdown with two energetic children and a full-time job does not in fact leave much time for creating said content (?), so have instead opted for a rambling getting-to-know-you piece. To be honest, I feel like the paragraphs above capture most of the salient points! But for some added colour, here are some extra remarks: Who am I? I'm a full-time accountant, with two delightful boys and a wife who has very patiently supports my ambition to make board games. What do you look like? (The one on the left, in case you were wondering. Also this photo was taken pre-kids, so imagine this but much tireder.) Wh...