Myself, my partner and three of our friends finally got along to Draughts in Hackney to see their impressive board game collection! Draughts have a primary location in Waterloo, and the Hackney building does look small from the front, but it opens up towards the middle, getting bigger and bigger, revealing a massive number of board games.
They boast over 100 board games in their venue, along with a full bar and a bunch of delicious food to try. We ordered some sharer items, drinks, and had a look at the board games on offer, which were really well sorted into approachability and complexity categories.
The staff are incredibly helpful, with a staff member teaching us the rules for a game and another offering to help us pick which one to play. They were fantastic at explaining rules and recommending games depending on what you want. This is something I’ve not found at other board game bars; it’s very clear the board games are the focus.
There is also a big storage area of spare pieces, paper, pens, and other items you might need for your board game, which is very helpful. We played a handful of games during our time there, and here are our top three board games to play at Draughts Hackney!
Block Party
Block Party is a classic party game that people won’t lose focus on when they’re a little tipsy. Players are challenged to grab a card with a list of words on them, then create one of the words in a pixel art style, using small blocks that are in the center of the table. There are challenge cards that control the round, adding in points for the least amount of blocks used, using the most colors, having the highest stack and much more. We played Block Party as a good opener, as we introduced our friends to each other, and everybody got to know each other.
Decrypto
Decrypto was the heavier game that we played, after we had consumed some food and broken the ice with each other.. In Decrypto, we broke into two teams. We used the provided paper and pens from the extra stand to create the sheets we needed to play.
This game involves two teams each with four words, each in a number column, with one team seeing the black tray and the other the white tray. You and your teammate will be writing clues down, so that your teammate (who can see your board) can guess which word you mean and put a number by it. The other team, however, will also get to hear all of this information (but not see your board) giving them the chance to guess what your code is to crack it. The codes are the numbers that correspond to the words on your board. They then get a chance to go and your team gets to listen. At first, this game is challenging, but once you get into the swing of it, you can really feel like a real codebreaker!
Anomia Series
We played both Anomia Game and Anomia Game 2.0 while we were at Draughts. Both of these games are basically the same, with the 2.0 having a few more cards in place. Essentially, there is a deck in the middle of the table (we split it into two, due to the size of our group) and one by one players flip over a deck card into the pile in front of them. These cards have a symbol on them, along with a category. If your symbol matches with anyone else, that other player needs to race you to say an item that fits into the category on your card, while you do the same to them.. That could be naming something blue, a scientist or a genre of music. It’s fun, fast, and there are wild cards that change what symbols match what other symbols, making you really think instead of just watching for normal matches to come up! If you do name something before them, you get their card in your points pile.
Our experience at Draughts was a fantastic one. They have so many games and all of them are in really good condition. The tables themselves are also built for gaming – they have a little space on the sides and under the top where you can slide in boxes you aren’t using or pieces you don’t need right now, which can give you the tablespace to play large games. With so many options, this is a fantastic place for a date night or to take fellow board game lovers, especially if you don’t have a ton of room in your home for tabletop gaming.
Love board games? Check out our list of the top board games we’ve reviewed.
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