I’d just like to take this opportunity to wish all the readers and bots of this poorly written blog a very Merry Christmas.
I hope you have a great day celebrating (if you do celebrate that is, otherwise have a great day).
I close this blog post off with a couple of photos of Diogo and Loki taken round mums yesterday.
Well I did get some gaming done in December and the run in to the Christmas holidays.
Ashes: with my all in pledge from the Plaid Hat kickstarter arriving it was only natural that I’d want to get this to the table at the earliest opportunity. Marcin and I played what effectively would be considered the new starter set. Which has a lot going for it. You get two phoenixborn (ie decks), a great intro rule book that takes both players through the first few turns of the game introducing various elements of gameplay, and a comprehensive rule book too. We worked through the intro rule book, and then continued the game. It was great to be playing the game again. Now to slowly work my way through the other 28 phoenixborn and eventually the co-op stuff.
Wyrmspan: played with the Dragon Academy expansion. The fledglings and having to train them was interesting. Luckily having new caves and dragons that allow you to accelerate the training was very handy, and needed. Otherwise I’m not sure how useful or fun these new fledglings would be. Obviously so that we experienced all that the new expansion had we rigged the decks so that we saw the new stuff.
Tokaido: I’m so glad Stonemaier took over this game. It’s bought the game back to the table, and reminded me how much fun it is. Plus it’s been a hit at the club. Glad it’s getting the love it deserves.
Tir na nog: my kickstarter copy with the expansion arrived and it was great getting this to the table. We played just the base game. Which was great fun. Love the drafting mechanic, and the clever way to keep track of how many rounds are left. This was a big hit with Charlene.
Machi Koro 2: what’s to say a great almost filler game. We had some close games where everyone at one point could have won the game. Great light fun.
Splendor Duel: love this two player version of the game. Maybe more so than the full blown game.
Furnace: this worked surprisingly well as a two player game. Love the auction mechanic, and using the gamer variant for running your engine.
Qwirkle Flex: still a fun game now with the tile backgrounds relevant for scoring too.
Take Time: a co-op game in the same vein as The Mind. It was ok.
Stone Age Anniversary Edition: thanks to a fortunate dice roll about three quarters of the way through the game, Ben was able to grab victory without progressing on the farm track. If he had failed on the hunting roll he’d have never recovered. Instead he did amazing and got enough food to see him to the end of the game. He gambled and it paid off.
Rebel Princess: Probably my worst game in a long time. I got 18 points in the final round alone. Needless to say I came last.
In Flanders Field: Jeff’s World War 1 themed push your luck game. Quick, good fun.
Diogo is about 80-90% now with his bad leg.
Each day it seems to be getting stronger. Which is what I want to see.
Hopefully Diogo will be in a position soon where I can introduce him to the fenland landscape.
This morning the post delivered an emotional surprise.
A mystery friend had sent me this little slate with Nico’s photo on to remember him by.
It came as a complete surprise when I opened the cardboard envelope it came in.
I had no idea.
And yes it did cause my eyes to leak.
The photo is from one of the ones I shared when I told the world of Nico passing away.
It’s a beautiful gift to remember Nico by.
I’m eternally grateful to the mysterious, generous, thoughtful friend.
After the “brief” update yesterday buried in the “I’m still alive post”. I thought it’d be more appropriate to give another update on Diogo’s road to recovery its own post.
Diogo is continuing to make progress in using his leg.
He is using it a lot more. If walking at a slow or moderate pace he is using it. However if at speed because he is excited and wants to get to the next scent fast, he resorts to limping.
Which is massive progress.
I want to think that the rheumocam he is taking once a day is helping. According to the included leaflet with the medication it alleviates “inflammation and pain in both acute and chronic musculoskeletal disorders in dogs.“
The only pain about the medication is it’s an oral medication. So I have to use a syringe to give it to him.
Unlike Nico and his heart medication who I could pick up, cradle in my arm, and use the syringe in his mouth. Diogo is a bit more challenging. Neither enjoy the medication they have/had to take.
But as I said it appears to be working.
Kate managed to get hold of the details for the operation that Diogo under went while in Peru. Which I promptly emailed to the vet. I’m also sharing them with you below.
“Right flank / lumbar area: an open wound was found affecting the dermis and epidermis; for this reason, flap approximation was performed.
Lacerations were present on the distal portion of the tibia, fibula, and tarsal bones. In this area, partial loss of condyles and fascia was found. Skin approximation and regenerative treatment were performed, preserving the anatomy of the distal limb. Estimated recovery and skin regeneration time: 2 months.
A bilateral orchiectomy was also performed. Postoperative care was provided following all surgical procedures.
Medications used
Anesthesia:
• Ketamine
• Fentanyl
• Lidocaine
• Propofol (maintenance)
Postoperative treatment:
• Cephalexin
• Meloxicam
• Dipyrone”
Obviously that all means diddly squat to me.
Kate also has the theory that Diogo may not be used to walking so much, especially in the rescue home.
So maybe it’s a combination of things that have bought us to this moment in time and the issue with the leg.
Diogo has also started knocking over the glass next to my bed to get my attention. He particularly does this if I try and ignore his barking to nag me to take him for a walk.
Diogo has his body clock that tells him he wants a walk at 8am and another around 3pm.
And if I don’t give in to his initial prompts his barking somehow gets louder!
He can be a very demanding young dog.
It’s been a long minute since the previous post. It’s either feast or famine on that front it seems.
Gaming has slowed right down. December is historically a slow gaming month. I do find it frustrating.
A brief Diogo update. It’s nearly a month since he joined our family. Somehow Friday afternoon Diogo hurt his back leg, and has not used it since.
I gave him the weekend to show signs of recovery, along with shorter walks to allow him to rest it.
Come yesterday morning the leg was neither improving nor getting worse. So it was a trip to the vets for him. The vet has put Diogo on a course of anti inflammatory painkillers. And another two weeks of light duties while on the medication. If that doesn’t work an expensive x-ray is needed on the leg, followed by who knows what.
I will give Diogo his dues he handles three legs better than Bud ever did. Going for a pee he literally does a handstand on his front two legs if he needs to go on the side of the bad leg.
This morning he wasn’t doing that and was able to stand on the leg while peeing. So the meds seem to have started making a difference.
Yep 9 days before I played my first game of December.
Naturally after Nico passing away I wasn’t in a place that saw me wanting to be social.
To be honest it was a close call that today happened.
Things are still raw. The grief lying just under the surface ready to break through at the slightest reminder.
Heck I caught myself picking Loki up to carry him downstairs Sunday morning before I realised he wasn’t Nico. The tears started leaking before I’d put Loki down.
Charlene once again hosted. Giving me a chance to call in to see my friends before hand as I picked up some cookies for the session.
It was still hard telling a friend about Nico.
We managed to get Stone Age Anniversary edition to the table, followed by rattling off some quick games of Take Time. Then the gaming session was finished off with a game of Qwirkle Flex.
Naturally I’ll go into more detail on my thoughts of those games in the summary post.
But it was nice to be at the table with friends playing games.
It’s been a rough couple of days as we work through the grieving process. Nico for such a small dog has left such an enormous hole behind.
But even while grieving and having much needed emotional support cuddles with the rest of the little monsters, I have bought another game.
The majority of my game purchases these days are ones of opportunity.
I belong to a UK board gaming facebook group that not only chats about games but also allows the selling and buying of games.
It has been known that on a daily basis for members of the group to post collections or games they no longer have room for or want for sale to those of us who don’t have enough games.
It’s these listings that I usually buy from these days, especially if it’s a game I’ve been after for a while.
One such purchase of opportunity from this group has been another copy of Dark Moon.
Dark Moon started life as a streamlined, dice version of Battlestar Galactica. Naturally being an ip licensed to FFG it was never going to see the light of day with that theme. Not unless FFG picked up the game. Which they didn’t. So it got released as Dark Moon by Stronghold.
Stronghold did release an expansion for the game that I never bought at the time. Then over the years the game and expansion fell out of print. Which made it harder to find a copy of the expansion when I remembered to look for it.
Which brings me to this purchase.
The seller was not only selling the core game but also the expansion. They couldn’t be separated because they were in one box. However at the price being asked I didn’t mind. Getting the expansion separately would easily cost me the asking price if not more on eBay (if it was available).
So I snapped it up.
This sort of opportunity was how I ended up with Discworld Ankh-Morpork.
Obviously I do pre-order stuff (mainly expansions these days) or buy stuff I come across via reviews. But those later ones I also count as purchases of opportunity because they were unplanned.
I’m hoping this sort of serendipity will eventually get me the Fallout expansion New California (at a reasonable price).
At approximately 12:30 Nico passed away cuddled up next to me on our bed.
Earlier in the year Nico had been diagnosed with two faulty heart valves after having a scan done, because the vet had detected a heart murmur. The faulty valves were inoperable.
Since then he’d been on daily medication to help.
The last week and a half Nico hadn’t been his usual self. Gradually getting worse.
Nico for some reason didn’t like stairs and would have to get the nerve up before making a mad dash up them. Once up he had to be carried down!
He was like that with my bed. He’d jump up, but refused to jump off, unless he needed to do a nature call during the night. If he wanted a drink of water he’d sit by the edge of the bed looking at me expectantly. I’d then lean over pick the water bowl and hold it for him while he drank. More often than not Loki would come over and drink with him.
Funny thing is. Round mums/nans he would happily jump up and down from her single bed. But mine (a futon) which is lower not a chance.
Apart from the nicknames that you read in the post title (I almost always called him noonoo, which could be said/sung to the John Cena entrance music) I often thought of him as the Alice Cooper of the dog/chihuahua world. Sometimes when you looked at him from across the room he looked like he’d got the Alice Cooper eye makeup on.
Nico along with Loki will go down in the annuals of family history as the most fussy of eaters, having turned up their noses to steak!
I will never forget the time Nico caught a young sparrow in our conservatory. The young bird had flown in on mums side, and in its attempt to get back out landed on the floor my side. Nico was faster than grease lightning and was on the feathered intruder. Luckily I was far behind and able to save it.
It’s hard to think I’ve carried Nico downstairs for the last time. I’m going to miss this little enigma.
Look after Nan for me Nico.
This month really has been a month of feast and famine in the gaming front.
Although it has been nice to get some of the new arrivals to the table and to have a couple of themed gaming sessions.
Overall it’s been an average sort of month. Which at one point when it was looking like hardly any gaming would take place is a pleasant surprise.
And the underlying raw data now follows.
Life definitely got in the way of gaming this later half of the month.
However the day before greeting Diogo in the family I got to have a game day with a Ra theme. Charlene, Ben, and myself met at hers to play the three Ra games plus we had time to sneak in another game.
Ra: played with the new Traders expansion. Some new tiles that add another way to score points each round. Adds no overhead to the game.
Ra and Write: a light roll and write version of Ra. Quite enjoyable.
Ratzia: the card version of Ra themed around anamorphic characters and crime. Relatively quick to play that captures the feel of the original.
Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor: I’m glad I got this. It’s a great way to get into Forest Shuffle without buying the original and trying to get the expansions. Plus I love the Dartmoor theming. I love the actual Dartmoor and have fond memories walking and camping on it.
Netrunner: still a classic. We played using the original FFG core set default decks.
Marvel Skirmish in New York: I liked this two player game. The asymmetry of each player having their own decks is nice. It joins the growing list of great two player games in my collection that will sadly not get the love they deserve.
A Study in Emerald: a fun game nearly spoilt by a subpar rule book. Definitely a game I’d play again. But the rule book requires work.
Discworld Ankh-Morpork: this was a big hit with Ben and Charlene despite them not being familiar with the books. They took delight in card names and the art work. They enjoyed it so much we had to reset and play a second game straight away.
Furnace: I picked this up after seeing a video for the impending two player version. Boy am I glad I did. Quick to teach and play. The auction mechanic is simple, fun and very strategic. Then running your engine which can be made more gamer like by a variant. A very nice quick auction engine builder.
Fate of Witches: This was not a great experience. I found the game initially very frustrating. Reflecting on it over night I think this was due to a combination of things. Firstly the teach wasn’t very clear and didn’t explain a couple of key points properly. Some of the scoring hadn’t been explained clearly. Terms used to describe actions did not accurately describe what you did. For example one action you can take is called upkeep. What it actually is, is play a card into your tableau. Very confusing. I also felt that opportunities to get cards into your graveyard were very limited. This needed to be easier. There seemed too much downtime between turns, and the game felt overly long for what it is.
And that was the later half of November.