Well I certainly played more this month than in recent months.
It has felt I’ve played lots more than I actually did.
The Tuesday lcg/tcg/ccg evening is back. And I’m loving it.
There have been some great moments through out the month. I’m lucky to have such great friends willing to share those gaming moments with.
Here are the raw stats for July.
Tuesday saw another lcg/tcg/ccg evening.
This time three of us could make it, so the plan was to have a game of Commander.
Dave was playing his Doctor Who deck. I played my Ninja deck. While Marcin played my Atraxa precon.
It really was Dave and Marcin vs me. I needed every trick in my deck to try and hold in and get to a winning position.
A position that never arrived.
Was I close? I don’t think so. I tried politicking to try and help me out. But the butt hurt Marcin still had from the weekend made that very hard.
Obviously I knew the main tactic of the Atraxa deck, and the proliferate was useful in delaying Dave getting his cards out for free using his time warp/suspend ability. I think the Doctors deck Dave was using had potential. With some suitable additions could be pretty good and fun.
That’s what I like about my ninja deck is it is a fun deck to play. Maybe not be on the receiving end of.
Marcin managed to get the win.
Next week the plan is to do a Dice Masters draft using draft packs from Tomb of Annihilation. A booster box had arrived earlier that day along with two campaign boxes. Recently Wizkids had a 50% off sale on Dice Masters stuff. So I took advantage of that sale to pick up a couple of things.
After what has seemed a famine when it comes to board gaming over the past few months.
It now seems like the complete opposite. I’m gorging myself on gaming.
Friday evening saw Marcin and I play a two player game of Ra. I’d recently picked up a Pharaoh edition of the game. Which is basically the thematic way to describe the deluxe edition of Ra.
The main difference as far as I’m aware between this fancy edition and the retail edition is metal coins and wooden/plastic tiles.
The production is out of this world. The Ra token is huge. The sun boat marker, epoch marker, sun dials are all wooden. The auction board and player boards are a good thickness. It’s obvious a lot of love has gone into the production of this game.
As a two player game it worked, and was an enjoyable experience. However I need to play this at the higher player counts. I think the play experience will be completely different.
Sadly Marcin won.
For our second game of the evening we were joined by Anthony. The game was Ohanami.
I’ve been often a copy of this game ever since I hear about it in a Broken Meeple video. At the time I was unable to track down a copy. That was until about two weeks ago when I was just browsing through saved items in my Amazon basket and saw it was in stock. I clicked on the item to check my eyes weren’t deceiving me. The price was amazing. Just under £11 for this card game. I instinctively pressed buy it now.
If a purchase has not been a dice game, then it’s most likely been a trick taking or drafting game. I do seem to be into those two mechanics at the moment.
This was a great purchase.
Once more Marcin won. He was on track for a clean sweep.
Next Fuji Flush hit the table. I think I was the only one who hadn’t played it before. But I was glad I did. This purchase has been sitting in my game bag since purchasing.
The game was fun at its lowest player count. But like Ra I think Fuji Flush will be a different experience at the higher player counts. Maybe even better.
We managed to get two plays in. Marcin’s win streak was ended. With the honours being shared between Anthony and myself.
We finished off the evening (for me anyway, I left Anthony and Marcin playing some other game) with the game Haggis. I’m so glad this great trick taker is making it back to the table. Which is easier to do because it’s either a two or three player game. It’s the three player support that is enabling it to get some love.
Luckily I was able to end my evening on a win.
After that I headed home. I couldn’t be late home because I had work the next morning.
Sunday I went straight from work to game with Marcin, Anthony, and Jeff.
Our game for the afternoon was Steamwatchers.
I have to say I was pretty tired during the rules explanation and nearly fell asleep a couple of times. That was by no means an indictment of Marcin and his explaining of the rules.
But I did wake up. Or feel more awake after I purchased my usual beverage order and started playing.
The theme of Steamwatchers is a post apocalyptic one. This is Marcin’s favourite game theme.
There is very much a big influence from the game A Game of Thrones on Steamwatchers with the Dune combat system thrown in.
Early on both Jeff and I formed an alliance. We offered an alliance to Anthony as well. The aim was to focus on crushing Marcin. However Anthony made the error of joining forces with Marcin.
That meant Anthony had hostile forces either side of him. So Jeff and I jointly attacked Anthony from both sides, whilst Marcin just turtled. Yep Marcin threw Anthony under the bus in an attempt to build get enough points to win.
We had to cut the game short by one round due to the social club closing early. But it was a critical round.
I had planned to attack Anthony to try and grab a point off him. Like Dune Imperium a one point swing is huge. However he moved all of his forces out of my target space to attack me first. This was better than I had hoped. The base would be undefended. I didn’t bother winning the battle, my forces were sacrificed for the greater good. I couldn’t have him retreating back to the base.
My turns saw my train with troops swoop in and claim the undefended base and grab the point.
I also broke my alliance with Jeff to grab a last point by taking an undefended base with my last action.
Points were tallied and I had won.
Wow the banter, especially at the end. It was hilarious. Marcin was butt hurt, trying to deflect from his betrayal of Anthony. Remember those buses he let hit Anthony without doing anything?
It was a fun afternoon, a fun game, and great company.
Last Thursday was a day off.
So I took the opportunity to go out and play with my Goshawk OP-100, with an Alcohol Stove Cross Stand, a generic clone Ultralight Titanium Windscreen. And using the SOTO Thermolite cook set to make my noodles.
It was also an excuse to play with my drone too.
Naturally seeing as the plan was to cook lunch, and fly the drone I chose an old wolf pack walking spot that I thought would be suitable.
It was hot last Thursday, so like all mad dogs and Englishmen I was out in the midday sun. Wisely I did not take the two attack chihuahuas Nico and Loki with me. Being out in such heat would not have been fair on them. Guess who forgot suntan lotion?
After I parked the car I walked the half kilometre or so to my lunch spot.
It was an emotional walk because this was the first time I’d been to this spot since Strider joined Bud and Barney. I’ve avoided the old haunts since their passing.
I loved those dogs so much. I still miss them, and it does still get emotional when I talk about them passing away. But I have nothing but great memories of them and the places we shared together.
It’s time to remember them as I return to old haunts, and not avoid the pain and loss (yes even after all this time it still feels fresh). I hope Nathan will join me on some of these future walks, and share our memories of them.
After spreading out ready to do some cooking, I had to move everything to one side as a couple of horse riders wanted to pass. Yeah the drawbacks of being on a bridle way. I had hoped being a work day that I’d avoid something like this. But considering these were the only people and animals I saw whilst there. The plan was nearly perfect.
I’d only just started cooking my lunch when they returned. Which meant once again clearing a path for them and apologising for not having enough to share.
Before getting some more flying practice in I cooked lunch (as you might have gathered from above.
Lunch was a pack of three minute noodles. I was using the cheapest ones Tesco sold. There’s really no difference between the cheap ones and the expensive ones. So I see no point in spending extra on them.
So as the water started to heat up I added the following ingredients to the water:
These ingredients needed a little extra time to rehydrate.
I then added the noodles along with its chicken flavour packet.
Next some rehydrated soy sauce powder was added, along with a chopped up polish pork stick (can’t remember the brand but it was one that didn’t needed storing in a fridge). I finally seasoned with salt and pepper.
Even if I say so myself this was very tasty. And washing it down with a can of Coke Zero finished off the experience.
After lunch it was time for flight school!
I’ve included short highlights below. Sadly I forgot to record the tracking/follow me stuff I did. Next time.
The bright sun of mid day did make it difficult seeing the RC controllers screen.
I kept my flight short when it became obvious that I had upset/disturbed a pair of swifts (I think they were). I want to be a responsible drone pilot. So grounding my drone was the right thing to do.
It felt weird doing this Thursday. This sort of thing is something I did all the time with the wolf pack. Finding that quiet spot. Getting the stove out. Brewing up (or cooking the odd time). And just chillin.
I had a great couple of hours, even if my arch enemy the sun was doing its best to cook me. It was very relaxing. I did catch the sun on my arms but luckily not badly.
Now to find a spot with trees to play with the hammock.
Sadly neither Marcin or Diego were able to make the restart of the lcg/tcg/ccg night. But Dave was.
It’d been a long day for me. To be at work for 6am I need to get up at 4:30. Or 4:45 if I’m feeling particularly lazy. Having started at 6am, these last three days I’ve been finishing at 3pm.
After getting home just before 4pm, I had a bath and nearly fell asleep. Yeah I was that tired.
I threw the two starter sets you can get for Star Wars Unlimited (SWU) into a bag along with the two player game mat.
After pleasantries, getting refreshments, and having to apologise for the very poor quality of the starter set components (they are shocking) we chose our decks from the Spark of Rebellion starter set.
Dave went Vader, which means I played Luke.
The first game went my way. It wasn’t one sided by all means. It was a bit to and fro, with each player having moments having the upper hand.
We stayed with our respective deck choices, and played a second game.
Dave definitely had the upper hand in this game. For the majority of the game I felt I was just holding on for dear life. Delaying the inevitable.
Finally Dave managed to deliver the winning blow.
Our third game was going to be with the second starter set that goes with the latest set Shadows of the Galaxy.
Dave played the Moth Gideon deck whilst I had the Mandalorian deck.
These decks were completely new to me. I had no idea what the focus of them were. I’d avoided any talk online about them.
I had to mulligan my opening hand and the resulting six cards still left me lacking a turn one play or even a decent turn two play. My turn one action was taking the initiative token.
Yeah I was on the backfoot right from the start.
Whilst my deck continued to hate me giving me no synergy between cards I had, no combos etc. Dave’s was just delivering him the goodies to overwhelm me, remove any defences/threats I could muster. In the end he just totally destroyed me.
I know within SWU there is targeted removal of one for or another. But I would have loved a board wipe card in this game. Maybe that’ll come in future releases.
Our fourth and final game saw the tables turned. I was getting upgrades, went all Voltron on Mando once he was out (I had him hitting for eight points of damage and a final winning 9). Dave was struggling to keep up or deal with the heavily upgraded Mando.
I do really like these starter decks. They are great fun to play. Seem relatively balanced. Great design on the player mats with the helpful player aids. But as pointed out these decks are let down by poor component quality.
I’m currently (as you have seen) using these like MtG duel decks for casual play with friends.
I had a great evening playing SWU with Dave.
I’m back baby!
Or at least for the time being. Who knows where work shifts will take me in the future?
Yes last night was a Fenland Gamers club night, and I was able to attend.
It’s that time of year when folks are on holiday or tied up with Summer plans/events of some kind. So to have seven people turn up for club night wasn’t bad.
Seven isn’t a bad number to have. It means a split of three and four over two tables. Only Marcin and myself had games with us. Which naturally meant we wouldn’t be playing a game together.
On the plus side Jonathan and I did get to play together. I do miss playing games with Jonathan. Sadly Jonathan is still going through his gaming doldrums.
Jonathan, Chris, and myself played an all in game of Parks using the new play mat I picked up at UKGE. It’s a nice play mat, which I never knew existed. I only found out about it when Charlene told me a stand had them at the expo.
Parks is a lovely game. It has a depth that isn’t at first apparent. Which I like. Plus it looks gorgeous, with some amazing art and meeples.
My tour of the US national parks won me the game.
The final game for our table was Dandelions.
After losing to Chris who said he had no idea what he was doing (that stings) Jonathan and I headed off to our respective homes.
I stopped off at Asda and picked up a ribeye steak along with some other bits. I had reasoned I could get a kebab (which I do enjoy) or have a good steak for about the same money.
I’m really into steak at the moment. I like mine simply seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, with fried onion. None of those various sauces. I like the taste of steak, and don’t want to hide it with a sauce.
So yes I cooked the steak when I got home.
It ended a fun evening of gaming perfectly. Plus it was great to share a game or two with Jonathan again.
Just a short proof of life update because you know life and stuff.
Since last Sunday when I returned to work it’s been all go at work.
Four nights doing a major move within the store I work left my body aching, and tired. I’ve definitely been feeling my age.
I went into survival mode. Each shift after the first (the most gruelling of the four shifts) left me the bare minimum time to rest and recover before having to repeat it all again.
I was definitely looking forward to the three days off before making the jump to morning shifts.
Naturally yesterday, the first day off, I slept and did nothing.
There had been an attempt to get some gaming sorted for last night and Saturday but there was no interest shown.
Which meant more just letting the body recover, and a Chinese take away for tea.
Tonight is a club night which I can attend for once. But then again with the move to mornings I can attend future ones too.
However first more recovering.
July has finally got off to a start on the gaming side.
Due to the aborted return to the hills I was able to join Marcin, Diego, and later Antony on Friday evening to play some games.
We started off with Otys. A post apocalyptic themed game. Marcin really likes that theme. It’s just a shame that the theme does not come through on this euro. The theme could be anything.
You are trying to build a little “engine” so that when you take an action that action becomes more powerful whether it’s by upgrading the action itself or increasing the bonus at the actions position.
Other wise you are collecting resources to try and complete contracts that give you points, or pay for some actions.
It was an enjoyable experience. You got to manipulate things in various ways.
Obviously there was plenty of banter during the game (and the rest of the evening).
It was even more satisfying that I denied Marcin a win by snatching the victory for myself.
Our next game was Diego’s copy of Kohaku. Anthony had joined us by then to join in. I do like this tile drafting game. Despite not getting a single turtle tile (worth 5 points), they always came out for the others, I won beating Diego by a single point.
Our final game of the evening was Courtisans.
Yeah I like Courtisans a lot. It gets very tactical trying to complete your secret goals whilst trying to screw over everyone else.
Luckily I came out on top and claimed victory.
It was a clean sweep for me. A good night at the gaming table.
Saturday saw Charlene and myself meeting up to play The White Castle.
I remember when The White Castle came out that it had a lot of buzz. It’s why I picked it up at this years UKGE months after that initial buzz had died down.
It is a very pretty game, with a nice table presence. The round tracker is enormous. Probably leaning on the overkill, too large side of things.
I have to admit I was left a little underwhelmed after playing the game. It felt too short.
Charlene thought that the sweet spot for her for this game was three players. Although she said Ben liked it at four players.
I’m not sure it’s a two player game. I need to try it at the higher player counts.
Oh Charlene won.
Next we played Targi. I hadn’t played this two player worker placement game since October 2018. Then that was against Jonathan at The Luxe.
It is an enjoyable game. Sadly it’s downside is that it is two player. And although every gamer has a few two player games in their collection they rarely get to the table. Which is a shame because there are some great two player games. Targi being one of them.
Charlene won this game too.
Our final game of Saturday afternoon was Dandelions.
I really like Dandelions. It’s a great filler.
Luckily I ended the afternoon on a win.
My old camp routine when I was doing something like the TGO Challenge, out in the Lakes, or Brecon Beacons, used to see me brave the elements to answer the call of nature. Followed by breaking camp and going on my way. So I could easily be hiking by 6am or 6:30am. Rarely would I go back to sleep or have a leisurely breakfast and brew before breaking camp.
Often all I’d have as I set off would be some Jolt gum to give me a caffeine hit.
I wouldn’t stop for breakfast and brew until around maybe 8:30 or even 9am. I’d find a spot to rest, breakout the cooking kit and get a brew made. Breakfast would be maybe a cold pop tart, or muesli bar of some kind.
Back then I’d never even heard of overnight oats. It was working at Huntingdon Regional College (now no longer as it swallowed up in a merger of colleges) when I first come across overnight oats. My then line manager Venessa used to bring them in for her breakfast.
Thinking about it, with a vegan colleague/friend I got exposed to one or two new food experiences whilst there.
But it wasn’t until I left that I first made my version of over night oats.
This is what I put in my overnight oats. You will notice I don’t list quantities. Everything is based around how much oats I am using. Then I judge the rest by eye.
To make this into a recipe that can be used out on the trail (that sounds so pretentious) instead of adding regular milk and letting it soak overnight in the fridge. I use powdered milk, and add water.
When making this for the next morning I usually add roughly the same amount of water/milk (maybe a little bit more) as I have dried ingredients. Give it a good stir, and put the lid on. After a couple of hours I might add a little bit more liquid or check in the morning adding more liquid to get a consistency I like.
As you can see from the list of ingredients I like my over night oats to be fruity and a mixture. I love the texture that the chai seeds add.
The container I’m using is a Vadasz garlic & dill sauerkraut container that holds 400g of said product. My overnight oat portions fill approximately half of the container.
The nice thing is about repurposing this container is I get to eat the original contents first. So well worth the nearly £4 I paid for it.
Well that’s the shortest return ever!
I was minutes from my destination. The phone signal had almost disappeared. So I decided to call Mum to let her know I was virtually there.
That’s when things changed.
I was going to have to turn back.
But before I did I stopped at a parking spot I had spotted on the drive in for a break and something to eat.
After having driven for so long I needed this before repeating the journey.
After a coffee, and a rehydrated 6 Bean chilli I made my way back home.
Yes I’m very disappointed that the plans did not go as intended. But as Jack Reacher says “Plans go to hell as soon as the first shot is fired.”
At least I knew that the food side was working.
Boiling water, rehydrating my home made dehydrated chilli in the Ziplock Aluminium Foil Bag, and using the pot cozy worked well. I liked using the UCO Collapsible Cup. Using my old sea to summit folding bowl to eat the chilli from. Ok I used the bowl because I had some tortillas chips, grated cheese and squeezy sour cream on top. Not easy to do if eating from the bag.
I also started the over night oats. Which by this morning were “perfect”. I might add a little bit more milk powder in future.
I had intelligence about where I had planned to leave the car. It’s a totally viable spot. It’s hard to judge the suitability of a spot when all the map shows is the letter P. So it’s good to know that this is a great spot to leave the car.
My adjusted plans for my week off will see me spend time playing with kit whilst doing this son carer thing.