Monthly Archives: July 2016

Crazy Deputy

FEG@TA, Fenland Gamers, game night, Uncategorized

Friday evenings are still early days for trying to establish a weekly gaming meet up for Fenland Gamers. 

Our gaming started off with myself, Debbie, Jamie and his son Lucas playing Qwixx.

Qwixx is a new addition to my collection, and this was a first play for all of us.

This is a “light” game, it might even be described as a filler game.

Basically you are rolling dice, and crossing off numbers. But there is a little bit more to it than that.

There are six dice that you roll, two white, a blue, red, yellow and green die. The none white dice match the colour of four lines of numbers on a sheet that each player has. The numbers on the sheet are between 2 and 12, with two of the lines in ascending order and the other two are in descending order. 

On your turn you roll all six dice. You then add the two white dice together and announce that value to all the players. Everyone may then mark that number off one of their lines. Next you are then able to add the value of one of the white dice to the value of one of the coloured dice. You and only you may then Mark off that number from the matching coloured line of the coloured dice. If you do not mark a number off on your turn, you have to place a mark on your sheet in one of the penalty boxes. These are worth negative points at the end.

There is a complication when it comes to marking off the numbers. If there wasn’t life would be super easy. You can only mark a number off to the right of all the marked off numbers in the row.

If you have marked off at least five numbers in a row, you are able to lock the row off if you roll the right most number. When a row is locked the corresponding coloured dice is removed from the game. And you stop other players scoring more points with that line.

Two locked lines or a player marking their fourth penalty points ends the game. Then scoring commences. The more checked off numbers on a row the more points you get. Highest score wins.

This is a nice little game, with some nice little decisions to make. I like the white dice for all, and then having an exclusive number to use. 

The penalty for not using the dice being used for negative points and as lives is a nice touch.

Deciding on whether you can use a number is sometimes a hard decision because it may block off too many numbers too early in the game.

Yeah I like Qwixx. It’s a nice addition the the library of filler games, and ideal for our Costa gaming sessions.

We had just finished playing Qwixx when Jeff arrived.

With Jeff now with us we played Bang the dice game. Our first play through saw the outlaws win when the sheriff died. In our second game Lucas was the deputy and shot the sheriff! In fact it was Lucas who killed the sheriff!!! Which he found funny. Our third and final play of the game also saw Jonathan join in. Which once again saw our crazy deputy once again shooting the sheriff (this time Jonathan) to give the outlaws the win.

Six players, split into two teams of three. Sounds like Codenames to me.  With Jamie, Debbie and Lucas on one team, and Jonathan, Jeff and myself on the other. Jamie was thinking the odds had been stacked against him. 

Jonathan was our first clue giver, while that duty fell to Debbie. But Debbie gave better clues, while Jonathan struggled. So that should tell you our team lost. 

We swapped clue givers over. Jeff stepped up for us, while Jamie did the honours for his team. I think it was turn two for us when we nerfed ourselves and hit the assassin to steal the loss. Staying with the same clue givers we reset the board with new words. Guess what we did in the new game? Yep nerfed it again hitting the assassin again.

Our final game was a game of Coup. Which I mixed up by using the Jester and Bureaucrat, instead of the Ambassador and the Duke. Which it did a little, and added a little bit of confusion while people got used to the new roles.

I had to leave then because my aunt had been trying to call. I really wanted to speak to her because she’d had a big op earlier in the week. So on the way back I somehow picked up a kebab on the way home.

But a great evening of gaming.

New Toys for WS11Jul16

news, Uncategorized

So despite deciding to make our pockets a little bit lighter by raising prices, Esdevium has actually decided to share with the U.K. a couple of interesting things next week.

First up, and I’m excited about this, is the first data pack in the next cycle Flashpoint for Netrunner, 23 Seconds.


Very quickly out I think considering that the “core” game came out last month, are these additions to the Tanks skirmish game.


So after a few weeks of dumping stuff on the market I have no interest in, we have the above expansions. 

Consider this the quiet before the storm. Origins has just finished, with some releases happening there. But the big flood is still to happen. A lot of publishers have been holding off for GenCon. 

GenCon hits at the start of August, with all the stuff released there hitting your wallets soon after!

Time to start saving!

Formula D League Finale

Fenland Gamers, formula d, game night, Uncategorized

Wednesday saw the final race of our mini Formula D league on the base games track.

Once more our starting positions were decided using the handicapped system previously suggested by Jonsthan. Which is basically reverse finishing order of the previous race. So the winner is at the back, while the loser is in pole position. 

So with Jo a no show for this final race, and dropping valuable points, she had consolidated her place as last overall.

Having two comprehensive wins previously Katie was the clear overall leader. The best I could hope for was to win and for Katie to not finish, and then I could draw with her. All Katie needed to do was cross the finish line and score to cement her victory.

In reality this race would be all about Jonathan and myself fighting it out for the scraps or more accurately second place.


Jonathan stalled at the start once more! Going into the the first three stop corner I was still in the lead. Coming out of it somehow Katie was in front, and I was last!

How does she do this? There is some trickery going on here.

For the rest of the race Katie held onto her lead pretty convincingly. Whilst Jonathan and I battled it out for second place. Which for a lot of the race looked like a battle Jonathan was winning.

Everything came down to the final four corners. As we negotiated them it looked like we might even steal first place from Katie at one point. But that was false hope. 

With some “brave” (read over shooting and taking wear points) driving, I took second away from Jonathan, as Katie pulled away. 

Katie easily scored her third win, making that a clean sweep of victories.

I came in second, while Jonathan limped in third. Jonathan and I had both been driving on the edge and had finished with barely any wear points left.

So the final standings were:

  1. Katie (9 points – 1/1/1)
  2. Me (5 points – 2/3/2)
  3. Jonathan (3 [not the 4 I originally put – thank you Martin for pointing this big mistake out] points DNF/2/3)
  4. Jo (1 point 3/4/DNS)

DNF – Did not finish

DNS – Did not start

A great three race season, using the beginner rules. There will be another second season starting in the Autumn using the Advanced rules, and possibly an extra track (finances permitting). 

Our hope is the advance rules will slow down the winning machine that is Katie!

New Star Realms App Expansion Crisis Heroes Now Available

apps, news, star realms, Uncategorized


You may notice something different about which expansions to play with when challenging other players now.

It is now possible to buy the latest in app expansion based on an already available physical expansion, which is Crisis Heroes.


I’ve not played Star Realms with the Hero cards, so it will be interesting to see how these play. Will they give incredible insane starts like the Gambits/Events can give?

Continuing with the “pay once play anywhere” approach this is a snip at £1.49.

Esdevium hiking prices due to Brexit

news

So what effect has Brexit had on us gamers in the UK?

Well as this Yahoo Finance chart of the pound against the dollar shows the pound took what at best could be described as a dive.

So stuff being bought from the US via the likes of Kickstarter is going to cost more. Which for me means that the Hero Realms Kickstarter is costing me more than it was just over a week ago when it finishes later in the month.

Now you thought the oil companies were quick to put prices up when the cost of a barrel changed. They could learn a thing or two from Esdevium.

Q

Who very quickly seeing the impact Brexit had on the pound decided that they would need to increase the the price of the games they distribute to compensate. This will be the second price hike we have seen this year from Esdevium I believe.

Now my question is will Esdevium reduce the prices by the same amount if the pound recovers to pre-Brexit prices, just as quickly? Or even by more if it some how becomes even stronger?

Have they jumped the gun, and re-acted too early?

Would we be seeing these price rises if we actually had competition on the distribution of games in the UK?

We already feel that in the UK companies price gouge us on goods. Whether the evidence, economic argument supports this is another question. But when we see games costing a lot less in the US, it’s hard not to think we are subsidising that market with our higher prices.

So this new price hike does seem to be like rubbing salt into an already open wound, despite there being a legitimate financial argument for it to happen. As I have already asked, the only way for this not to be perceived as taking advantage of a situation to increase prices is that when the point recovers we see an similar drop in the price of games too.

 

Noname

Fenland Gamers, game night, Uncategorized

Yesterday afternoon saw Jonathan, Jeff and myself meet up for some more Sunday afternoon gaming goodness.

Our gaming started off with one of our current hot games to play The Voyages of Marco Polo.

Once again I trailed on the scoreboard for most of the game. But having completed my two trade routes I gained a massive 23 points to catapult me to the front, which after all the totalling up I didn’t lose. Yep I won by four points (Jeff being the nearest to me). Jonathan was way way off in the distance.

Next up was World of Tanks: Rush.


This was a first play for us. I’d heard that it was Star Realms like. The game was being sold off cheap (a fiver) at a national chain of stationery/book shop.

First off they should remove the word rush from its name. This game is anything but.

It is a deck builder and yes it’s meant to be a pvp one. But I think it fails at this.

Too many design decisions were made putting theme over game play.

Yes the game is cheap, but it wouldn’t get played if you had the likes of Star Realms in your collection. The game lacks the excitement, the in your face moments, even crazy combos. As a pvp deck builder it’s a snooze.

Jonathan took the following photos. And there isn’t enough photos of me on here. Plus it’s criminal really not to share my ruggedly dwarvish looks with the world.

Chatteris Drive By

game night, netrunner

Yesterday saw the second Android Netrunner event being held at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole. Once again we would be competing over the spoils from the Spring 2016 OP kit.

The decks I'd be playing for the tournament would be my usual NEH with a couple of tweaks on the ice front, plus my janky Criminal deck.

My first match up was against Chris from the store/Warlords. You remember Chris he's the only person I have ever had a turn two win with. I'm just saying that because it makes me feel better that he beat me two nothing today.

Our first match up was my criminal deck against his Jinteki. I swapped from Andromeda to Silouette. With two Gang Signs out, scoring an agenda was going to punish Chris. And this bit of jank worked really well once in place. When Chris scored his second agenda I think it was, he only had two cards in HQ, both agendas! Which caught me up fast. Early on in the match up Chris quite rightly iced up HQ and Archives. Especially after I'd used Archives and Sneakdoor Beta to circumvent his ice on HQ. In the end Chris scored a third agenda to get the win.

My NEH is a tag/kill deck, with little tricks firing off the tags. Chris knew this and played accordingly, avoiding my tags. Which if I'd played my Breaking News better (as I did in my next match up) might have given me a win. Instead I just scored it as quick as possible to keep me in the points race, that this time Chris won.

My second match up was against a new player both to the store and the game. I was facing off against his NEH kill deck first with my Criminal deck. My opponent failed to ice up HQ! So I was picking off agendas, and was happily sitting on five points to one. My jank was working, I was avoiding being tagged. In all rights I should have kept the faith. Instead I did a reclass run on R&D to try and hopefully nab the winning. Instead I took tags, failed to get an agenda, and got murdered!

Our next game was Noise against my NEH. The runner scored a two point agenda Private Security Force. I scored a Chronos Project early in reply taking out about two cards from his heap. However I did land a tag briefly allowing me to play Exchange of Information. Yep I liked swapping our agendas over. Guess what the runner decide to clear the tag then. I had two Scorched Earth in hand. I just needed the credits and a tag to kill the runner. Wait if I played Breaking News properly I would have the tags I needed, and the clicks. I had enough credits to play the two scorched earths, and advance the agenda once, but was short a credit for the plan to work.

I installed Breaking News behind a couple of bits of ice ( that fortunately had been rezzed earlier), I advanced it once, and took a credit. I had the money I needed, I just needed the runner to ignore that server and think it was a trap. The runner did indeed ignore my server on his turn. My turn, murder was ago. Advance and score Breaking News for my first click. Two tags delivered. Click two play one Scorched Earth, click three play second Scorched Earth. Smouldering runner corpse on the floor.

My third and final match up was against the winner of the last OP event. Boy was our first game a long game. My jank was working to the max. I was cash rich, I got Femme Fatale out for free using Test Run and Scavenge. I was exposing cards. The old Gang Sign, Leela Patel combo was making the runner reluctant to score agendas. Leela had returned some ice back to HQ to help me get into servers. We were both sitting on four points each. Drive By, Infiltration and Satelite Uplink had helped me avoid some traps, and trash the odd asset.

But the game was drawing on! I was down to three cards in my stack. There was an installed card that had been advanced and was behind three unrezed ice. The corp had more than enough credits to rez them, I didn't have enough to get through. I used my last same old thing to pull back an Infiltration. Bugger it was an agenda. Game to the corp.

A quick time check, we had less than six minutes to get our second game in!

A tactical error and the runners lucky draw cost me the game. I had agendas in hand, so I put both my ice in front of HQ leaving R&D open! Should have put one on each. The runner naturally ran R&D, scored a two point agenda. I quickly scored out a one point agenda. I hit the runner twice with News Team traps on remote servers. Both were cleared and getting the runner nine credits in the bargain! Bugger. That was time and I'd lost. I had done well to be able to compensate for the initial tactile error, sadly my opponent had an answer in hand. A great intense, second game. Wow the pressure of time.

So in the end I ended up fourth in the tournament. I had a blast with my criminal deck. I got such a kick when the jank paid off. It was a fun deck to play. I've got it out of my system and can now return back to my true runner home, Anarchs. It was cool when I got the NEH murder in also. I need to master this deck and how I should be playing it. At the moment I'm making silly tactical decisions that are costing me games.

Such a great day playing Netrunner. Great, friendly competitors. Just great fun.

FEG@TA 1Jun16 – Queen of Montego Bay

FEG@TA, Fenland Gamers, game night

I arrived a tad early to The Angel because I needed to stock up on supplies for the following days Netrunner OP event at my FLGS from Poundland.

Which meant I was able to enjoy a cool Aspall cider before the serious business of enjoying myself playing games.

Debbie arrived first, Jo wasn't coming for some flimsy excuse like having to work, or spend time with her partner. Priorities people!

Anyhow Debbie and I played a game of 7 Wonders Duel.

Neither of us had played this before. So after I ran through the rules, we made a start building our cities.

I have to say this is a great two player game. I love that there was multiple ways to win, from the straight points victory after playing the three ages. Or the two instant victories from either sacking your opponents city via the military track, or getting six different science symbols to get a scientific victory.

Being our first game we went with the starting wonders for each player suggested in the rule book. But normally these would be drafted in a similar way to one of the drafting suggestions from Imperial Settlers.

But I like, even appreciate that the game designers have considered this. I've seen it in one or two games, for instance Imperial Settlers suggests which two starting factions to play, Seasons suggests the starting nine cards to use instead of drafting, Imperial Assault on the skirmish side suggests the starting squads to play with.

I like that the cards are on full display, layed out in different patterns, with some cards hidden and some visible. It makes for some interesting decisions when choosing which card to take on your turn.

Whilst playing the game you do have to pay attention to what your opponent is doing. It effects your decisions. Do you take that military/science card to block your opponent?

The game even plays fairly quickly in about thirty minutes. Which is nice, because it can act as a filler game!

I haven't played 7 Wonders as two players. It didn't have a good reputation as a good way to play the game. This specific two player game based on it, guarantees that I won't ever try to play 7 Wonders as a two player game.

In our game I did a good job negating the military route to glory, whilst managing to grab the scientific instant win. Debbie enjoyed playing the game too. So I can see this being an easy one to get back to the table whilst waiting for others to turn up.

Debbie and I managed to squeeze in a quick game of zombie dice before Jonathan turned up. After taking an early lead, Debbie managed to lose by a single point.

With Jonathan present we decided to play Imhotep. While explaining the rules to her, a colleague of Jonathan's turned up to join us for the evening.

It was after hearing the rules Debbie said the game reminded her of Montego Bay, and she always wins at that. As you can imagine there was a fair bit of banter aimed at Debbie during the game and her Montego Bay claim. We even named Debbie, Queenie or Queen of Montego Bay.

In the end Jonathan's colleague won the game, with me second, the Queen of Montego Bay third and Jonathan last. Much banter and ribbing followed!

During the game Jamie and his son turned up. So while they waited for us to finish up, they played zombie dice.

We played a six player game of Coup. A game apparently Debbie does not like. However I got eliminated early. But after much bluffing, some challenges and the odd coup. Jamie's son came out victorious.

Our final game of the evening was also a six player game of Deep Sea Adventure. Six is the max number this game supports, and it did it fairly well. Some games when they give an upper and lower limit, if played at the extremes don't play well. And that the sweat spot for the game is the middle of the two limits. This isn't one of them games, it plays well at the max number.

In the end Jamie's son and Debbie ended up sharing the honours between them.

After packing away, three of us managed to find our way to a local kebab shop for a post gaming supper!

A great evening game once again.

 

BTN June 2016

by the numbers, gaming stats, Uncategorized

It’s the start of another month, which means it is time to look at my gaming stats for the previous month. 

I thought I’d have better stats this month because of attendance at the UK Games Expo. However I didn’t get to play as much there as I’d hope for. The drawbacks of attending a gaming expo by yourself, and not as a group of some description.

I’ve played some really great games this month, I’d be hard pressed to say that I disliked any I played. With some of the games like Fluxx, Love Letter, I’m trying to ration my plays so that I don’t burn out on them, and keep enjoying them.

My Game of the Month

Once again this has been a really hard decision to make. The contenders making this such a hard choice this month are; The Voyages of Marco Polo, Guilds of London, The Great Heartland Hauling Co. and Imhotep. 

These are all great games, and different from each other. All of them I’d ask to play again. How to decide? 

This is tough, I know as soon as I choose one I’ll regret not choosing the others! 

I’m going to copout and choose all four as my game(s) of the month. There is nothing between them for me to decide between them. I’ve got a great time playing all four of them.

The Pile of Shame Five

At the end of March I set a target of five games to try and get to the table during the next quarter. This is my poor attempt at reducing my pile of shame.

So how did I do? I got the following two games from the list to the table.

  • Ashes
  • Dead of Winter

Whilst I also got Neuroshima Hex! and Roll for the Galaxy to the table from the also rans.

So not a bad effort.

But it’s time to set a new five for the next quarter. So here are the ones I’m going to attempt to get to the table:

  • Imperial Assault
  • Marvel Legendary
  • Alien Frontiers
  • A Game of Thrones
  • Suburbia

Let’s see how I do getting these ones to the table.