Monthly Archives: September 2015

Star Realms Cosmic Gambit Expansion

star realms
Well this post is over due. It's about time I showed you the cards that come in the new Cosmic Gambit expansion for Star Realms.
This new expansions adds fifteen new cards, a rules card, a base card and thirteen gambit cards.

The above card is from the first Gambits expansion. I've included it here in this look at the new cards so that you can see the difference in the rules. When I play with Gambits in the real world I normally mirror the app and deal two random Gambits to each player. With the old rules there was no real advantage to not revealing your Gambits at the start of the game. Which is probably why the app shows them straight off.

However as the new rules show that Gambits remain face down until they decide to reveal the cards (they can if they like reveal them right at the start) however as the look at the cards below show, there is now an advantage to not revealing straight away. Some of the new Gambits have effects that trigger when they are revealed.

The Hidden Base Cosmic Gambit card (below) does something new. It gives you an extra outpost that the player chooses the faction for! I think if I had this I'd be playing it at the start of the game letting it stop that early damage from the opening dance that occurs.

There are two copies of the following three Cosmic Gambit cards in this expansion.

It should be noted that in this pre-release Origins/GenCon edition of Cosmic Gambits that the Asteroid Mining card (shown above) has a misprint. Apparently it shouldn't be two trade but one.

The Black Market looks interesting. The way I'm reading it is that only you can buy the card above it, and not your opponent. If so this could be devastating! It could potentially tie down something like The Ark until you are able to buy it at a reduced cost, and not have to worry about your opponent buying it!

L

This expansion adds another Wild Gambit card to the game, so when combined with the original Gambits expansion there will be two Wild Gambits sitting in the mini Gambits deck.

People either love or hate the Gambit cards. Get the right ones and it's possible to buy like the Megahauler, The Ark or other expensive powerful cards turn one! This alone has people complain they are over powered blah blah blah.

I personally sit on the fence about them. I can take them or leave them. I enjoy playing with them when I do.

The cards in Cosmic Gambits look fun, they add even more variety to a very enjoyable game.

 

Father and Son Become Lords of Waterdeep

lords of waterdeep, waterdeep

So what gaming did Nath and I get up to in this way too short visit?

Well if you don't count the game of tidying up Naths bedroom ready for it to be painted, which had the mechanic “do you still want this?” then we only played one boardgame this weekend. Which was today.

Sadly Nath was working Saturdy night and was closing up which meant I had to pick him up at two in the morning. Which means by the time he gets home, has something to eat, unwinds a little it's gone three by the time he hits the sack.

So naturally this meant Nath didn't surface until nearly midday. After we had eaten (lunch for me, breakfast for Nath) we had a game of my new arrival Lords of Waterdeep.

After setting up, it was teach Nath the game. Luckily between the two physical plays and the excellent iOS app I was familiar enough with the game to teach Nath.

Lords of Waterdeep isn't a difficult game to explain and can be done in a fairly short time. Once you start taking your first turns it soon becomes very obvious what to do. I think the limited things to do each turn like take an action by placing an agent on it and possibly completing a quest make it a very fast learning curve.

Nath picked up the game really quick, and after three rounds I tested the water and asked Nath if he was enjoying the game. Nath responded in the positive to my question.

Sadly I got well and truly thrashed by Nath.

I've now played the game with four, three and now two players. So which is my favourite number to play with?

I liked playing two player with Nath, and found the game was fun. So when it comes to choosing what to take down to play at Christmas Waterdeep will be a strong contender to make the trip.

I also thought the game is even better with more players. A bit more challenging, and more to think about.

For me I'll happily play this game with any number of players, I don't think I do have a favourite number. I just like playing the game. When Nath is playing then it just takes the game enjoy ability to new levels of awesome.

Oh well back to the real world. A games night this Wednesday to look forward to, and hopefully some of the second hand games I bought will turn up or against the odds finally Ashes Rise of the Phoenix Born.

 

Southern Car Park

new arrivals

So finally made it down to see Nath. I'd like to say without incident, but it seems the South is just one big carpark with road works every blooming where. Take a route to avoid road works I knew about, only to run into more road works. Nice to know all my taxes are going to prop up the South while we get no investment locally.

Waiting for me at Naths was last weekends delivery that the escapades of the previous Friday meant I missed.

So I'm assuming a recent issue of XBox The Official Magazine gave away with it a little XBox themed card game called Heroes of XBox Combat Cards.

As the instructions on the back (see below) indicate this card game is “similar” to the popular card game for children of all ages Top Trumps.

I'm not going to bore you with all the cards in the pack, however I will bore you with four of my favourites.

I think every kid growing up has played a top trumps game or two. I think my favourite version of the ones available when I was much much younger was the Marvel Top Trumps. So we are probably talking early to mid eighties.

Hopefully tomorrow we will get a game or two in before I have to return back to the land of the never ending horizon.

 

Induction Day – Student Gaming

love letter, tabletop

Today and yesterday were the first day of the new academic year for some of our students. For the first couple of days our students are on a special timetable from the rest of the academic year while they go through induction activities.

For my part of the induction process I like to use boards games.The games I usually use are Love Letter (Hobbit, Batman and Loot Letter) and also Resistance.

My first session with some level two students. For this I had the students play Love Letter with the winner on each table getting a prize (a McD Luigi toy from their current promotion, a Lego Minifig Mirkwood Elf, or a Lego Minifig TMNT).

The next session I had was a double session with some level three students. I started off with a Love Letter “tournament” for the first half, using more of the same prizes from the morning.

Then for the second session one group played Resistance while the other group played Bang! the Dice Game.

This morning for another level three double session (different group), they had the same Love Letter “tournament” followed by Resistance (I had managed to borrow a second copy for today).

About two or three of the two level three groups play a CCG of some type (yes Magic was the most popular). While the rest weren't really gamers.

However from all the groups it was evident that they had a good time playing the games. In fact one in his lunch break today went to the LGS and bought a copy of Loot Letter. Wow! he went with that version because he liked the none gloss cards better.

The nice thing was the last session today I was able to play a game of Loot Letter myself with the students. Which was great fun. I also quickly taught the ones I played Loot Letter how to play Sushi Go. Although we didn't have time to play a full game.

The students were interacting with each other, which is why I had chosen these games. The games broke the ice and gave them an enjoyable break from the other induction activities. Win, win in my book.

Plus I think we have some gamers (both video and board) so we might be able to get a gaming society going for the students.

 

The Big Bang Lego Set

lego minifigs

Today the Lego Big Bang Theory set arrived. So you know what my evening has been.

Yes I'm a fan of the show, which is why I got the set. I think the show got a little predictable for a season or two but the last season was a lot stronger.

The first picture below is a diptic (that's the iOS app I used to put the images together like this) of the box.

These following photos were taken as I built the set.

Below the finished article.

I really enjoyed making this set. It took me roughly a couple of hours. Out of the limited number of sets I built, this has been the one with the most fiddle little bits to make. Which is basically all the little ornaments and furniture that make up the apartment living area.

Lego have done a good job capturing the show with this set.

If you are going to buy this set, the cheapest place I found to buy it was the actual Lego online store. Considerably cheaper then the prices I saw on Amazon or eBay.

 

Round Two Here I Come Again

ages, star realms

Sunday Casual Tournament 14 started on Sunday.

On Sunday my opponent went straight in with two game challenges. I thought that's very keen that is.

Unusual for games I'm in my opponent conceded the first game. In fact this was the first game ever that an opponent has conceded. I had sixty seven authority to their eighteen authority at this point. But as has been documented on here I have come back from a wider point spread to win, and also been on several occasions on the receiving end of such a turn around. So this came out of the blue, and totally surprised me.

I'm not usually an optimistic person in life. But in Star Realms even if the odds seem against me, my authority is in single digits, I always keep playing until I'm blown out of the skies. There is always a chance no matter how slim.

I don't know maybe my opponent thought he'd be better off starting a new and thinking they would win the next game.

So a third game was started. Meanwhile the second game was coming to a conclusion. But not in my favour. My purchases hadn't been brilliant, the draws weren't going in my favour, and whatever excuses I can think up. But in all honesty my butt was well and truly kicked.

Two games down and even stevens, one a piece.

The last game went in my favour not a walk away victory, but a comfortable one.

I was through again to the second round for the fourth time if my counting is correct.

I go through with a 2-1 victory! game scores shown below for those remotely interested.

Chris Shaner designer/creator of AGES is getting closer to having the game making its grand debute on Kickstarter.

Since the early version I bought there have been some “changes” to the game. It feels harsh describing them as “changes”. I think a fairer description would be tweaks.

One of those tweaks has been to the games manual. Which Chris shared with the community on Edutainment Games Facebook page.

The manual is looking much better. But I had a surprise in the back. Amongst the names of people Chris says thank you too for,their help and support is my name!!! OMG!

Wow I was shocked I wasn't expecting that. It should be me saying thank you to Chris for giving me the opportunity to play such a great game early.