The day after completing one more circle round the sun it’s time to share my gaming stats for April.
Finally the raw stats.
Bgstats for April 2025
The Search for our “El Dorado”
Or how I lead Dolly astray by trespassing!
Yesterday was going to be another scorcher. What better time to head off to Whitehills Wood to look for the hidden pond.
As we pulled into the small car park I was pleasantly surprised that there were no other cars.
I’m not saying I’m anti-social. But less people means more opportunities to spot the inhabitants of the wood.
We got ready (basically putting on my trail shoes, tarp hat, and haversack) and headed off into the beckoning shade of the woods.
It wasn’t long before we were at the point of the route to go off path looking for the pond on the map.
selfie
We passed the mysterious serial killers murder hole, or whatever you want to call it that we discovered on our last trip here.
In a what would seem a failed attempt to use “natural” navigation techniques to find the pond we continued straight along some deer paths.
My logic went if there was indeed still a pond in these woods then the local wildlife would have trails that would lead me to it.
A solid theory I thought.
As we followed one such “path” we stumbled upon a most definitely man made path.
Dolly and I headed left along it looking for another deer path heading in the direction of the pond.
I thought we had found one. But sadly it too like our previous visit ran into a wall of rhododendrons and trees.
It was at this point that I thought we had been defeated once again. So we stopped to for refreshments and to enjoy our shaded surroundings.
After packing up we retraced our steps back to the man made path. But instead of then heading back to the car I decided to follow the path to see where it came out.
But not too far along we came across an even better path that followed a stream.
Maybe this stream fed into the pond!
So we headed left following the path/stream. Five minutes later we were greeted by an amazing, beautiful pond and clearing.
It even had fish in it.
There was an even bigger surprise of a building there in the style of a mausoleum.
This was such a pretty spot. I’d love to wild camp here.
Dolly and I had been so close that if we had gone right earlier we’d have been having our lunch in this hidden gem.
After taking in the serenity and beauty of this spot we headed back.
More exploring was required where did the path come out?
We followed it and the stream to the edge of the woods heading to a river, and come across a gate that was locked!
Looking at the sign on the opposite side of the gate, it would appear we had been unintentionally trespassing!
This section of wood and the pond belonged to the Castle Rising estate and was not open to the public.
We turned round to retrace our steps to the spot we originally joined the path. Once there it was deer tracks back to the woods we were allowed in.
Why there is no signage up in the woods is a mystery to me.
After a brief water stop for Dolly we made our way back to the car.
Back at the car we were still the only vehicle there.
Had we been the only ones in the woods while we were there?
This had been a most excellent walk. Next time we will try and find a route to the other pond and the river.
A brief life update
I’ve had backend issues that have got in the way of writing posts.
I use the Jetpac app on my iPad to write these posts and recently it decided to stop working!
Well not connect to the site. It wasn’t showing any written posts, drafts, photos. It was as if the blog was brand new, containing nada.
Yet log into the blog via a browser and everything was still there.
I hated having to use the WordPress post editor. It’s horrid. It really puts me off writing. Yep that’s how much I hate it.
However managed to resolve the issue this morning. So normal service can resume.
I’m currently on day five of seven of the steroids I have to take to try and clear up a chest infection I’ve had for over three weeks. Probably more likely over four.
It all came to a head last Friday when during work I slowly started to lose the use of my legs! I could move them but had no control over how they moved. My footsteps got gradually heavier as I walked. It got so that I was at times struggling to stand. Luckily I had a flat top that I could use for support.
I have to admit I was a bit worried. It felt I was getting a glimpse into mums world.
There was no way I could continue at work so I went home early. Calling the doctors on my way to get an appointment.
I rarely go to the doctor so it must have been serious.
A rest at home before my doctors appointment made a big difference. At the doctors the diagnosis was the chest infection was stressing my body so much that it affected my legs. I was prescribed the steroids.
Luckily Saturday was a day off when I could relax and take it easy. Which did include a gaming afternoon at Diego’s. More on that maybe in another post.
So that’s been life for the past week or so. Why I’ve been quieter than normal.
See you in the next one.
Happy Alien Day
The title says it all really.
I’ve discussed in previous posts long ago my early experiences of the Alien franchise.
But I can look forward to the very first Alien tv series coming out this July. Plus it’s coming to Disney+ over here in the UK.
I’m pretty excited about it because finally we venture into the territory covered by the Dark Horse comics in the late eighties, early nineties.
Mysterious Shelter hidden footage!
Here it is the brief footage I took of the mysterious underground “shelter” yesterday.
Whitehills Wood – a local Blair Witch Project?
Easter Day the store is closed so I have the day off.
I had planned to take Dolly out yesterday but I did some overtime instead. With three expensive kickstarters all finishing within a month I needed the money.
So today I was really determined to go out somewhere with Dolly. I even prepared the bags the evening before.
I didn’t have a destination in mind as I threw stuff into the bag. But as I woke up I knew I wanted to avoid bank holiday honey spots. Which meant the coast was out, as was Roydon Common. I wanted to get away from the crowds and find somewhere Dolly and I could just chill.
The plan was to go to the woods near to Roydon Common, Whitehills Wood.
It’s actually a bigger wider wood than that at Roydon Common. On paper easier to go off path to find that quiet spot.
The parking spot for the woods isn’t sign posted at all. It comes up on you suddenly. Which means the cars behind you are getting little notice you are about to slow down very quickly. It doesn’t help that the entrance to the car park is very pothole ridden. Making for a very bumpy stop!
The woods themselves is a mixture of coniferous trees (the majority) and deciduous trees. There are also a lot of rhododendrons amongst the trees. Which provide some nice cover deeper into the woods to do bushcrafty stuff, or just chill.
Dolly and I followed the main path that we found out was not going to take us anywhere close to the pond shown on the os map.
We were going to have to go off path to find the pond.
It also turns out the main path also missed out a chunk of the woods. Undiscovered woods to discover at a later date.
Not long after going off path along a deer track I saw what looked like a small wooden door in an embankment.
Ignoring all the lessons learnt from watching numerous eighties slasher flicks, such as (the classic Friday the 13th, and Halloween series of movies) Dolly went to investigate.
With the moss well established this had been here a while.
As I got closer I thought maybe this was some bushcraft underground shelter.
Lifting the door open to see inside there wasn’t much space inside.
If this was a shelter it was for a very small person. I’d say it was at most three feet deep, by what two feet?
Things got more mysterious when I found a hole going down into the “shelter”. It didn’t go straight into it but curved at the bottom going into the back of the “shelter”. Was this a chimney? Was this some sort of bushcraft oven?
After the brief exploration of the mysterious “shelter” we continued on following the deer path hopefully to water.
Instead of finding water we found what looked like some eco vandals aka bushcrafters had been building shelters and making fire.
I decided to use this as good as any spot to stop and have our lunch.
Todays lunch was cooked on my BushBuddy.
Yes that is a Fire-Maple Dandelion Buddy Camping Table in the picture below. You will also notice titanium chopsticks (yes I’m that guy) plus a folding chef knife from Hector Knives. I obviously used the knife to slice up the salami. Naturally Dolly and I had to taste test the salami as I was slicing it.
I started the fire using the BCB ferro rod with paper thin birch bark. None of the wood burnt was from these woods. In fact it was kindling I bought at a garage.
The ingredients I took were the following:
- ramen noodles
- freeze dried garden peas
- freeze dried sweet corn
- freeze dried carrots
- two dried shitaki mushrooms broken up
- Two piccanti fine cut spicy salami sliced up
- packet of soy sauce
- chicken oxo cube
- packet of Furikake seasoning
- water
I basically put everything but the soy sauce and Furikake seasoning in the pot, bought to the boil. I’d like to say I them simmered it but that would imply I had some sort of control over the heat!
Once everything was cooked and rehydrated and I was ready to eat, I then stirred in the soy sauce and sprinkled on the Furikake seasoning.
I have to say this was pretty tasty. I did not share this with Dolly.
After having a drink of squash I packed up leaving no trace we’d been there.
We then retraced our steps back to the path and continued our circuit back to the car.
This was a very nice woodland walk. It felt like a woods where you could get lost exploring its depths. Something missing when you walk round the Roydon Common woods. It’s too thin.
I have a problem!
In a previous post I mentioned I had bought a few of the LotR lcg standalone scenarios that were done for Gen Con.
I did end up splashing out for the Murder at the Prancing Pony scenario, plus one or two others. The full list of new arrivals is the following:
- Murder at the Prancing Pony – Fellowship 2015 Scenario
- The Wizard’s Quest – Gen Con 2018
- The Woodland Realm – Fellowship 2018 Scenario
- The Hunt for the Dreadnaught – PoD 2020
- The Old Forest – Gen Con 2014
- Fog on the Barrow-downs Fellowship 2014 Scenario
- Attack on Dol Guldur – Fellowship 2017 Scenario
The last three have only just been purchased and will arrive before the week is out.
What this means is that I’m two short of having all the standalone scenarios.
A situation I hadn’t planned on being in.
But now the completionist in me is whispering “go on you might as well get them all”.
These do make great one off game night scenarios.
I’ve played two of them now on our lcg/ccg/tcg club night. Murder at the Prancing Pony was fun but we ran out of time the evening we played it. We nearly played The Battle of Lake-Town last Tuesday (there is no write up of this evening) but the Dunedain deck I was playing that evening was a very poor match up for this scenario. Instead we went with The Massing at Osgiliath.
The Massing at Osgiliath kicked our butt twice that evening. In the first attempt I lost a hero in the first round! We quickly reset a couple of rounds later when it was clear we were doomed.
The second attempt we did a lot better but in the end we were defeated.
A plan that formed in my mind is to add the Old Forest and Fog on the Barrow-Downs to the campaign when we start The Fellowship of the Ring saga. They apparently fit in nicely in telling the story of the first book.
Just need to set up when to start the campaign.
Roydon Common Upper Field
It’s the second week of good weather here in the UK.
I originally planned to take Dolly to Thetford on my day off. But plans change, the lure of staying in bed that little bit longer too strong.
In the end the choice I made was to go back to Roydon Common.
We were just going to take it easy in the “heat” and just wander round what I call the upper field.
This time we walked the part of the previous walk in reverse. Which meant we did the height gain early, and make use of a water stop for Dolly.
By the time we got to the water trough Dolly was ready to climb in for her drink. I got her bowl and scooped out some water for her.
As we continued round the upper field I saw three hares doing hare stuff like chasing each other. But Dolly was oblivious to them.
We found a shaded spot to stop and chill.
I felt it was too hot for coffee. So I didn’t break out my BushBuddy stove. Instead I had my Crystal Lite squash powder.
Dolly had more water, some biltong, and I had cheese and biscuits. Naturally Dolly also wanted what I was having too.
After our chill break we continued on with our walk.
Once back at the car I gave Dolly some more water before heading off home.
How many points?
Club nights always seem to sneak up on me.
This week it looked like there was just going to be five of us.
So we started off with a game of Tokaido.
We were just about to start playing after doing the teach for new players when Charlene and Ben arrived.
Ben and Charlene played one of the Azul variants while we worked our way along the road between Kyoto and Edo collecting experiences along the way.
It really is great getting Tokaido to the table once again. Playing the “second” edition is a great excuse for doing so. The game is quick, almost serene, and looks beautiful. Sadly the whole experience is ruined by Marcin winning!
While we waited for Charlene and Ben to finish Dave went home not feeling too well.
Luckily I had a couple of six player games.
The first, Rebel Princess. A very popular game at the club.
We had such a laugh playing this game. Especially during the last round. That round had pet cards also counting as proposals. Marcin collected a lot of pet cards and a few prince cards in the final round. Twenty five points worth in fact. A record epic fail. It was safe to say Marcin was not even close to winning. Who won? Anthony.
It will come as no surprise that I’ve preordered the new expansion and promo tile for this game.
Our final game of the evening was another new club favourite filler, Flip 7.
It was this game that we learnt how to trigger Ben!
Marcin acted as the dealer for the game. While waiting to flip a card for a player he’d regularly shuffle the deck!
Wow did this get under Ben’s skin.
You play the player not the game is often said by gamers. This is filed away for later use.
Despite the constant triggering and surrounding banter Ben won the game.
This was a great social evening. It was great to see and play with Ben and Charlene again.
Murder at the Prancing Pony
Finally it was time to get The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game to the table.
But what scenario were we going to play?
I did finally cave and pay eBay prices for the Murder at the Prancing Pony standalone scenario for the LotR lcg.
I thought just like the other standalone scenarios I’ve purchased (some more expensive than others) I thought this would make a good “one shot” to play with others.
Heck they were designed to be played at conventions.
“There are some folk in Bree who are not to be trusted.”
–Strider, The Fellowship of the Ring
Released in 2015 as part of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game Fellowship Event, Murder at the Prancing Pony is a standalone scenario that has you solve a mysterious murder.
The premise of this scenario is the following:
“You have arrived in Bree to find the village abuzz over a recent crime.”
“Someone has broken into The Prancing Pony, murdered a guest and made off with the victim’s belongings. Barliman Butterbur begs you to find the killer before the trail goes cold.”
Yep the Murder at the Prancing Pony scenario turns this lcg into a card based Cluedo or for any American readers Clue.
Dave and I used starter decks, whilst Marcin used a deck (I think) he got off the internet.
- Dwarves of Duri deck – Me
- A custom dwarf deck – Marcin
- Elves of Lorién deck – Dave
“..there was trouble right here in Bree, bad trouble. Why, we had a real set-to, and there were some folk killed, killed dead!”
Barliman, The Return of the King
Our starting staging area had two Chetwood Outlaws. We were not going to take them on anytime soon in our investigation. But at some point we would have to. It was inevitable.
Our investigation into the recent death wasn’t going that fast (thanks to those Chetwood Outlaws). Too few locations were appearing for us to dig around in for clues. The hand full of times we were able to find any clues enabled us to narrow the suspects down to two possibilities.
Dun dun
We were just not getting anywhere on finding the hideout. Eventually we got a breakthrough and were able to eliminate Bill Ferney’s House.
The big issue we found was controlling our threat levels. Each round while the quest card 1B was showing saw our threat going up by two or an extra encounter card drawn. Our choice.
It’s not as if we could blitz through the quest card. We were restricted to putting a maximum of four questing points on it a turn. Those Chetwood Outlaws made it so we had to commit a lot of heroes to do anything.
There was an eventual reckoning with those Chetwood Outlaws that did involve Gandalf making an appearance to defeat them.
It then became a bit easier in making progress.
“Just one more thing…”
The clock was against us. I really needed to be heading home and getting some sleep with work the next morning.
With only one hideout eliminated from our investigation and two suspects left, we made a wild guess.
Our deduction skills told us it was Todd the Troll at the Staddle Hiding Hole.
Amazingly we got the hideout correct, whilst sadly getting the wrong suspect. Susie the Spider had successfully point the finger of suspension onto an “innocent” sap.
We didn’t have any time to play through the fallout of our wrong decision.
This really was a fun scenario to play. It’s just a shame that it’s not easier and cheaper for people to get.