Friday Rules: 17.10.2014

Game of the Week - Blokus. This is an abstract strategy game full of colour - it's Tetris for grown ups! For 2-4 players, it's won a slew of awards, including the Mensa Select, the Årets Spel Best Family Game and the Spiel des Jahres Recommended - phwooarr! In game play when placing a piece, it cannot lie adjacent to any of your other pieces but must still touch at least one corner of another of your pieces. Yeah, corners are big in this game! The game ends when all players are blocked from placing any more of their pieces, or when you've collapsed into sobbing heaps because the colours have blurred into one and your eyes can't focus. Then no one's a winner! Blokus is a fun and much-loved family game that's a welcome breath of fresh air - brilliant when used as a palate cleanser after playing something heavy-duty. Check out this review by TheBoardGameFamily!

Like zombies? Like video games? Try this. The website Venture Beat is currently in the midst of a 'Great Tabletop Games for Video Gamers' series, in which they attempt to bridge the gap, bringing both tabletop and computer gamers together as one, in total harmony. It'll never work. We were siblings separated at birth; we've grown up to be similar but the differences are overpowering. One group spends their money on entertainment that doesn't last long and the other ones are board gamers. OOOH, BURN. Their latest suggestion is the Zombicide sequel, Prison Outbreak, which sits high on our store shelf looking terrifying. It'll remind computer gamers of Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising, they say. If there's one thing that can cross the void between video gamers and tabletop players to form a holy union, it's zombies!

Little dogs in top hats. Let's face it, people - if you had a penny for every time someone found out you were a keen board gamer and their response is, "So, like, Monopoly then?" you'd have enough money for a Cornish pasty from Greggs. Probably. We're not knocking the game, as for most of us, it's the first board game we played as a family when we were kids. It spans the decades and the generations. Everyone knows how to play (even if some of us like to 'edit' rules - you know who you are). It's a traditional favourite. But in this article by Richard Lord, he reminds us that The Landlord's Game, the game made by Elizabeth Magie that influenced Monopoly, was actually to warn us of the dangers of land-grabbing and capitalism, before we all took over, bought the updated version and became greedy, greedy piggies. Now pass us a Community Chest, yeah?

He shoots! He scores! He's got wood for shee - oh, wait. If you thought footballers were grossly over-paid people who kick balls for a living, you'd be right. But that's not all they are! Mousa Dembélé, Nacer Chadli and Jan Vertonghen are three Tottenham Hotspur professional-ball-kickers who recently Instagrammed a photo of themselves playing the much-loved Settlers of Catan. What's next? Lionel Messi in a session with La Boca? Luis Suarez selling mouth guards in Snake Oil? Wayne Rooney with a copy of Lords of Waterde - yeah, no, we're imaginative but we're not mental.

Three days left! Just a weekend and one Monday day-time until you can join us at Urban Tap House for, quite frankly, the best damn launch party you ever did see. The UK's first board game bar will be open for business! Food, drinks, games - come check out where you'll be frequenting every Monday night for the foreseeable future! Click here for the official Facebook event and here for more details from our website.