Eurogames at the Royal Standard

Come one, come all!

Join a broad mix of friendly folk for a spot of socializing and strategizing with some of the best modern strategy board games around. Enjoy a meal and a relaxing beverage. There are no fees! And beginners are very welcome.

Eurogames at the Royal Standard welcomes anyone who wants to have good fun with good people and good board games.

We are open to all sorts of strategy games, but focus particularly on European-style designer games—Eurogames.

So, you won't see Risk, Monopoly, Scrabble or Hungry Hungry Hippos. But, you will find The Settlers of Catan, Agricola, Carcassonne, Dominion, Puerto Rico, Power Grid, and much, much more. Scroll down to see the growing library of games we have available for anyone to play.

Bring along your favourite game or join a table and learn a new one.

I'm new here, what should I do?

Never heard of these games? Not been before? No problem! Our friendly local gamer geeks are happy to teach and make newcomers feel very welcome. We love our strategy games but we're not too hardcore.

We also will have one or two people on hand at the start of each meetup dedicated to helping teach and get new players set up in a game. So if you've not played many Eurogames or not been to the group before, then simply head along the bar to the open space at the rear of the Royal Standard where you should be greeted and settled into a game with other keen newcomers!

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What are these Eurogames we play?

Eurogames are board games that emphasize strategy, play down luck, often lean towards economic and historical rather than military themes, and usually wrap up in about an hour or two.

A hallmark of these games is that you don't need to eliminate the other players to win and you get to do interesting stuff even when it's not your turn.

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You name it, it has been made into a board game!

You might find yourself in a fast-paced auction bidding for stocks in an American railway company, building a power grid across China, forging a galactic empire, attracting great thinkers to your palace in Renaissance Italy, ploughing a field in 17th century Germany, hammering out a trade deal as you settle the island of Catan, saving the world from global warming, defending your dynasty in ancient Mesopotamia, running a Japanese sushi bar, co-operating to manage a deadly pandemic, rigging elections in revolutionary France, setting up a wine business in Portugal... and so much more!!!

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I don’t have any Eurogames, can I still play?

Of course! There are always plenty of games to play! The club also maintains some classic easy-to-learn games for all to make use of on the night, and you'll easily pick up someone keen to teach (or you can even teach yourself, if you'd prefer !)

For those that own some, we heartily encourage you to bring your own games along to play and teach, of course.

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Games you won't see.

We sometimes play a lightish wargame, 'Amerithrash', or something with zombies in it, but please—no party games, Monopoly, Jenga, Risk, Cranium, Scrabble, Hungry Hungry Hippos, or the like. Sorry level 17 elves, we don't do role-playing games either.

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So what is in this "Games Library" you mentioned?

We have over 25 games, all picked to be mostly newcomer friendly, top-rated, and easy to pick and learn on the night. The library contents are tracked on our BoardGameGeek profile here: https://boardgamegeek.com/user/EurogamesMelbourne

Every week, money raised in our optional raffle goes into a fund to keep our library well stocked.

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Who runs this?

With the help of a few friends, the club is run by Ben. Look, there he is above, pointing out a very interesting card in Shadows over Camelot. Ben's dirty secret is he mainly owns thematic 'Amerithrash' games, but some how has taken over a Euro games club, which both puzzles and amuses him. He's also English and a rather nice chap - if you're not sure what to do on the night, ask Ben!

You mentioned a raffle?

Yes ! We are running a raffle most nights where we aim to have three great prize games to give away. Any profits from the raffle go straight into a fund which covers any basic running costs (minimal) and new games for the library.

Tickets are $2 each, or 3 tickets for $5 (there may be a 10 tickets special too)

In the spirit of good transparency, a spreadsheet of this fund is maintained online (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MrsKpMm2Fb1q9y2vYlF8cobD9nCR9zWp9J5nip_hnjI/edit?usp=sharing) for anyone to view.

Where do I find out more about modern board games?

For more information on board games visit http://www.boardgamegeek.com/