Recycling some old Christmas themed Lego scenes I made so at least this post looks remotely seasonal as I wish everyone a Merry Christmas from myself, Nathan and the mini wolf pack, the attack chihuahuas Nico and Loki.
We hope you are all having a stress free day (unlikely I know as you prepare that Christmas bird for consumption), getting to play games and enjoying the company of friends and loved ones.
Have a good one…
Yesterday was the Christmas meet up for The Fenland Gamers, the first of our holiday season sessions, at the wonderful The Luxe Cinema. Whilst we played games the regular patrons of the cinema were enjoying showings of Mary Poppins Returns.
Jonathan and I had arrived a couple of hours earlier than the scheduled time to play some games together.
Our first game of this pre-meet up session was Pick-omino or as my German copy of the game calls it Heckmeck am Bratwurmeck (has English rules). My Dutch friend Janne calls it by a much simpler name Worms.
Janne is how I found out about the game. Friday Janne posted a photo on Facebook looking sad, having just lost a game by a large margin against her partner. Something she apparently never does. So being the naturally curious person I am, I asked what the game was. Janne told me. So after a quick google, I saw that it was a Reiner Knizia game. Which peaked my interest, he is after all a designer I like. My quick research gave the impression it was a press your luck style game. I was curious. Janne really enjoyed the game, Amazon had the German edition (which I knew had English rules inside) for less than £20, I had prime. The only question left was would it arrive in time for Saturdays game session?
There was some real doubt yesterday that it would arrive in time. When it is Amazon using their own delivery services instead of a third party, for some reason I’m usually the last house on the drivers route. Which means my orders usually arrive late in the evening. Imagine my surprise, and relief when the game arrived at 3:15pm. Just in time for the evenings gaming.
So after all that I suppose you would like to know about the game.
Worms (I’ll call it that from now on in this post for brevity reasons) is really fun. Knizia certainly knows how to use the push your luck element to make fun games. The production on this version is pretty good. It came with some pretty solid, nice weight to them, domino tiles and 8 wooden dice. For my tastes I’m not a big wooden dice fan, they feel too light in the hands for me. But after a roll or two I soon forgot about that.
The rules are so simple, and easy to teach. That’s such a big bonus for a game like this.
I like the fact when you reroll the remaining dice you can’t select a dice value you have already selected previously. So as you keep going the chances of you rolling values that will end your turn without scoring increases.
There is a nice take that element in the game where you can steal the top tile of a players stack of tiles if you roll the exact value of the tile.
The repercussions of pushing your luck too far or not scoring high enough to get a tile are “fun” too. End up with a failed turn, and you lose the top tile of your stack. Which returns back to the middle, and the highest valued tile (if it is not the tile you just placed back) gets flipped over, and is out of the game.
This game played really well at two players. Next more players to see how it holds up.
Jonathan and I played two games and shared the honours. This bit is for Janne if she ever reads the post. Games with a similar push your luck mechanic and dice worth looking at Zombie Dice, and Age of War. Both small games, easy to carry around to play on the go. Bigger games that use it King of Tokyo/New York, Run,Fight or Die! and Elder Sign. There is a bit more game to these, but the core mechanic is still that push your luck element.
Our second game was Kamisado Max. This was one of Jonathan’s grail games which he managed to pick up at a real bargain price.
Despite Jonathan kicking my butt on this game (twice) I really liked this abstract game. Once again like all good abstract games, it has a simple rule set that is quick to teach and learn. But that simplicity hides a deeper depth to the game than first appears.
The production on this edition of the game is stunning. Although in the less than perfect lighting of our venue it was a little hard to tell the difference between similar colours on a couple of the castles.
I liked the fact that the colour square your piece ends on determines the coloured piece your opponent must move on their turn.
Oh and the games were nice and quick.
Below can you spot the photo of Jonathan below where he knows he’s won, and my delaying tactics of taking photos isn’t working?
I could like Worms, suggest similar abstract games that folks might enjoy. But I’m going to talk about one of them in a second. If you would like me to do this on a regular basis when I talk about games in similar posts, let me know in the comments.
We finished off our early gaming session with Onitama and the newly released Way of the Wind expansion.
The expansion was a welcomed excuse to get this great abstract game back to the table. It had shockingly been over a year since I’d last played the game. Naturally we were a bit rusty on one or two of the basic rules.
With the expansion a new piece is added to the board that can be controlled by both players, along with new cards, and a modified set up.
I’m going to cut to the chase and say although I like the expansion. It brings new tactical elements and decisions to make to the game. This is not one of those must have expansions that you would say the base game has to be played with. It’s a take it or leave it expansion, that can be used to add a bit of variety to the game if you are playing the game so often you need to shake things up a little.
Jonathan and I played three games in the end before the others arrived for the official start of the evenings gaming. I edged the honours winning two games to one.
I had just finished showing Jonathan how little difference there was between Grifters: Nexus and the original version. Component wise it’s identical. When Diego arrived. As we started explaining Worms to him, others turned up. Which meant we ended up playing a 6 player game of Worms.
It surprisingly held up at that player count. The game supports upto 7 players. There was a lot more of the stealing tiles in the game we had. The down time wasn’t too bad either, with a bit of politics going on trying to encourage the current player to steal some-one else’s top tile.
Thanks to Janne I think we have another group staple here.
During Worms we had two more turn up. So we split into two groups of four to play games after the game was finished. Suffice to say Jonathan and I didn’t win the game of Worms.
In Jonathan’s group they played Dice Hospital. While the group I was in played the press your luck game Deep Sea Adventure. I’d not played the game for a long time, so I was a little rusty again on the rules. Unsurprisingly after 3 rounds I scored absolutely zero points. Which won’t come as a surprise to anyone that I didn’t win.
Our group followed up with a couple of games of Kingdomino. I actually managed to win one of these games.
The other group were nearly finished playing Dice Hospital, so we squeezed in a quick game of Love Letter: Batman (my favourite version of the game). Amazingly I managed to have the most points when it came time to end because the other group had finished with Diego getting the victory. So that goes down as a win for me too.
The evening was finished off with an eight player game of Perudo. To accommodate this number of players Jonathan had to get his copy of the game too. My copy of Liars Dice only plays six tops. Eight players all shaking plastic cups full of dice is apparently noisy. Who would have guessed? But with such a high player count the game still held up to the stress test. After the noise had died down, the bluffing called, Diego once again ended up top of the heap.
After packing away there was a bit of chatting, and stuffing faces full of popcorn by one or two.
After such a great evenings gaming there was only one way for it to be topped off. Yep dodgy meat smothered in chilli sauce, some salad thrown over it, all in the middle of a warmed up wrap.
The Luxe Cinema were once again their usual amazing selfs (despite the curve ball or two thrown by one of our members during the evening), and a big thank you for allowing us to use them as our venue for playing games. Without them we would have struggled to have a free venue to play our games. And it was very generous of them to step up and fill the void left when our previous venue closed.
Thanks to Jonathan you get a Christmas treat of some photos of me, or with me in from the evening of gaming.
I thought in this first part of the post I’d talk about playing Dram.
It wouldn’t surprise some of you to know that I’m a fan of the Dragonlance books, in particularly the Chronicles trilogy that tell the story of the War of the Lance. The actual story itself is told through the eyes of a bunch of adventurers led by Tanis Half-Elven. One of his companions is a Kender named Tasslehoff Burrfoot. Tasslehoff or Tass embodies his race, he’s curious, out on a wanderlust, light fingered or borrowing/looking after the object until it’s rightful owner turns up.
Kenders are the halflings of the Dragonlance universe. Which as we know are the D&D name for Hobbits. From when I first read The Hobbit back in the early Eighties, followed by Lord of the Rings, I’ve been a hobbit fan over other races. So it will come as no surprise that when I read the Chronicles trilogy books that Tass was my favourite character. I loved the childlike innocence of the character, the humour and his affection for his close friends like Flint the dwarf and Tanis.
So when it came to Dram how was I going to play him?
A major influence has to be hobbits and kender from the books and movies I’ve read and seen.
The whole second breakfast, and making sure he eats well comes from hobbits. When they make camp Dram is the first with his cook set out, fire started and cooking his meal.
I wanted to capture a bit of Tass in Dram as well. I didn’t want that “looking after it” side of things. After all Dram was a wizard. So I decided on that curiousness, bored easily, gets into trouble but always somehow lands on his feet element of Tass. He knows no fear. Although Tass unusually did know fear, fear for what would happen to his close friends.
So you see that in how I play Dram. He gets bored easily, goes wondering off by himself. Gets into trouble.
Naturally the character of Dram will grow, especially as I introduce new elements to his character. But having this basic template will make it easier to add them, and make sure that they are consistent.
After this weeks session I did have to research what the beliefs of halflings were. And I’ve fed that into the appropriate spot of this posts dramatic retelling of Dram’s adventures. Maybe I’ll go into all that and other halfling stuff in a future post.
Now for your reading delight I bring you the further adventures of the little wizard himself Dram…
“Typical that tree hugging Ace walks off to look at the building him and Grull saw before the fight. Doesn’t he know we have an important decision to make about where to eat? Ok the others seem to think it might be about something else. But come on casting spells makes me hungry.” Muttered Dram to himself as he started to wander off from the rest of the group.
But before Dram could get too far away from the group Ace returned talking them all into following him back to the building he’d explored.
They all arrive at the building. It looks in pretty good nick considering the surrounding derelict buildings. Obviously this has been looked after by some-one.
Inside it was getting a bit crowded with everyone there. But there was a strange old man in the room also. Funny everyone seemed quite happy to talk with him, and stuff without being introduced! Who was this old white haired guy?
During the boring conversation Drams attention started to wander. Suddenly the decor of the room seemed interesting and worth investigating. Then Drams ears pricked up when the stranger started talking about a green dragon being in Thundertree. There was also mention of some other strangers in the village, but Dram ignored that part of the conversation. There was a green dragon. Here. Dram had never seen a dragon before. He really wanted to see the dragon.
The conversation once again started to get boring. Grull seems to have developed a fixation for tea. And was pestering the old guy about whether he had any? Sarmyar was looking healthier after the old guy had looked over her. Ace had disappeared from the room. “Had he gone to see the dragon without me?” Thought Dram to himself. “That’s not fair, I want to see the dragon too”
So Dram left the room too.
Dram made his way towards the tower. It was easy to spot, it was on a small hill, and taller than anything else in the village.
Ahead of Dram between the wall of a building and some trees were some big cobwebs blocking his way. This was an interesting problem, obviously a big spider made these, and it would be cool to see one. But Dram wanted to see the dragon first. There would be time for spiders afterwards.
As Dram was contemplating the dilemma, and deciding if he should Misty Step pass the cobwebs, the gnome turned up with a possible solution. Apparently Ace knew a way round them. Dram decided to follow the gnome, maybe his problem would look differently from the other side.
As the group made there way round the village Dram saw more of the moving bush/tree things that they had killed earlier. This time they didn’t attack, they just stood there rustling like a light breeze had moved them. For some reason their very presence was sending the gnome into a “sap” rage. He wanted to turn them into kindling. For a fellow vertically challenged person he sure had a big chip on his shoulder about something.
The group eventually get to the other side of the path that was blocked by the cobwebs. It did indeed look a little different to Dram. Ace looked like he too was interested in the cobwebs.
Unusual for Dram he was more focused on seeing the dragon, and continued up the hill to the tower with the rest of the group, leaving Ace behind.
The path led to a small cottage on the side of the base of the tower. Which had the corpses of two large spiders decaying away next to it. Obviously something bigger had eaten them. Like a dragon.
As they stand at the closed door of the cottage Ace appears and pushes his way to the front. The group argues a little about Ace going in first. Dram wants to be the first to see the dragon. But eventually Ace wins, and enters the cottage first. The time between Ace entering and hearing back from him was too long for Drams liking. So he entered the cottage. The gnome joined him. Ace was standing by the door that connected to the tower. Grull shoved past both of the small folk.
Ace disappears into the tower, followed by Grull. “Hey not fair. I want to see the dragon.” said Dram. And followed them in.
Inside the tower stood Ace, Grull, the gnome and Dram. Above them was a young green dragon.
“Wow! You are amazing, so beautiful.” a gobsmacked and amazed Dram said. He was finally seeing a dragon.
The dragon told them to leave. But the gnome in what was now becoming a recent bloodlust shouted words of defiance and what was like a challenge to the dragon.
Suddenly a green poisonous gas filled the room.
All of a sudden Dram was standing in bright sunshine, in the middle of a field full of ripe corn, with a small farmhouse in the distance, smoke drifting out of it’s chimney. He started to walk towards the farmhouse, he could make out an old halfling sitting on it’s porch with a dog sleeping by his feet. As Dram got nearer the old halfling looked strangely familiar. The sun was shining in Drams eyes, he had to squint to see.
Dram opened his eyes. He was back in the old mans room. Dram was not feeling good. He felt like he was going to be sick any moment.
Dram overheard the old man tell the others in the group that Dram had actually been dead for a while, and he had exhausted all of his powers to bring him back.
The dragon was on the move. Something in the South of the village had disturbed it. It was now heading towards the old mans room.
It was time for everyone to make a quick escape and hide in the woods.
As the dragon got closer the majority of the group managed to hide successfully under the cover of the foliage of the trees. A couple were less successful in their attempts to be stealthy, and their clumsiness attracted the attention of the dragon. It was then a game of cat and mouse as the dragon tried to locate the “mice”. Luckily for them the dragon got bored and flew back to his tower.
Dram and he could only assume the others were also doing the same, worked his way through the forest.
The defeated group made their way back to their previous nights camp spot after cleaning themselves up as best they could in the Neverwinter river.
At the camp Dram started to make supper. As folks started to process the events of the day, Grull suggested that Dram May have been dropped on his head, and talked about returning to Phandalin to become an innkeeper. Did he not appreciate how cool it had been to see a dragon, die, and live to tell the tale? This had been an amazing day for Dram.
And that’s where we leave our adventurers for the Christmas break, licking their wounds and getting a good nights sleep.
Jonathan and I met up for a quiet Sunday afternoon of gaming at the super duper The Luxe Cinema.
Our first game was an opportunity for me to try Jonathan’s latest addition to his collection, the recently delivered Kickstarter copy of Dice Hospital.
I have to be honest the prototype that was shown at the UKGE 2017 didn’t grab me. Then as you read on last weeks write up for the December monthly meet up I got to look at the components (more on that later in the post.)
I’ll make this brief (phew after yesterday’s post I bet you need a break), I really liked this game.
I know I like quite a broad range of game types. But I do really enjoy worker placement games. Dice Hospital is a nice worker placement game.
First up hats off for including a player aid. Sometimes, more often than you’d like, games don’t include them, or more rare they do but are practically useless. These are fine and do the job.
I like the method for selecting first player each round. The lowest numbered ambulance chosen by a player is first player. Simple. But is it? There is a decision to make. Choosing the lowest numbered ambulance means your dice (they represent patients that need healing) are also low numbers. Which means it takes longer to heal them. Where the opposite is true for the higher numbered ambulances. Plus when you become the first player you get a blood bag token that is a point at the end of the game (if you haven’t used it). Or they can be used to heal a patient one step or change the colour of a die temporarily. So very useful to have. On top of all this, that low numbered ambulance may not have the coloured dice that you need.
Although the first player rolls the dice, and starts allocating them to ambulances based on the simple rule of placing lowest value dice first (starting at ambulance number one). And here is the bit I like “Where there are multiple dice of the same value but different colours to place, the player to the right of the First Player decides in which ambulance they are placed and in what order.” (Taken from rulebook) This involves the other players, and means that the other player gets to throw a spanner in the works potentially by putting inconvenient coloured dice together.
Each round you get to choose a specialist card or department tile from the face up display. I like this you get to chose between upgrading the actions you can choose each turn with the department tile, or recruit an extra worker in the form of a specialist that will also have an ability. So you have that tough choice to you get that department tile that has an action you really want? Or do you get that specialist and their really powerful ability that combos with one of your department tiles, and allows you to do more on a turn?
And that last bit touches on another nice mechanic of the game, combos between the specialists and the department tiles.
Let’s revisit the whole production component thing. Oh before I do, a little troll of my friend Gavin from Jonathan. Gavin did you like Jonathan’s exclusive art from the artist of the game that he has?
In my previous post where I commented on the card thickness, and the nice linen finish. I checked the Kickstarter stretch goals (relevant ones below).
They had goals to improve the quality of the cards in the game. I don’t think they upgraded the card stock enough. They are too thin for my liking. And that has been the opinion of the two people that handed hard cash over for the game also. Jonathan has sleeved his cards.
Which brings me to my next point of the custom insert in the main box. It’s not up to the job. It doesn’t cater for the cards being sleeved, nor does it provide enough space (only just) to store all the department tiles properly. Jonathan is using both boxes to store the game, but Gavin was unable to store everything in the box when using the ambulance miniatures. With a bit of thought the insert could accommodate sleeved cards, and not just the department tiles of the base game but the Kickstarter exclusive ones also. The space is there. In the deluxe add-ons there is also a dice tray that can’t be stored if built. This is just bad planning.
Jonathan has replaced his player score tokens with wooden cubes. They look and work better than the near useless cardboard ones included. Which maybe thematic but very impractical.
Why Alley Cat Games didn’t allow the round tracker to be attached to the score board I don’t know. It makes more sense. And another upgrade Jonathan has also now done himself. Otherwise this can easily be knocked.
There are also stickers included, that I don’t even know why they are there.
Jonathan’s ambulances seemed to have come out better than Gavin’s. But they are still just eye candy, and table theatrics. I heard rumours an expansion might make more use of them mechanically. It’s a shame that wasn’t included in the game already.
On the production side it’s the minor details that got forgotten, or not executed to the same standard as the rest of the components. But despite these little niggles, Dice Hospital is a fun worker placement game.
Oh Jonathan won the game by 4 points.
Our second game for this little gaming session was Reykholt. We played with a promo that gave each player a random one off bonus. They were a nice addition that speeded up the start of the game. It’s a shame these weren’t included in the base game as an additional thing to add to each game. I think they are that good, that maybe once the base game has been learnt players should include these all the time.
Completing the double for the afternoon, Jonathan stomped to victory with this game also.
Afterwards we briefly talked politics, and the current chaos in the country.
I had a great afternoon despite losing. The Luxe were great hosts.
I got lucky Saturday morning. The post arrived with copies of the core 2 cards for the mono blue mill I needed. Which meant I was able to put together an initial build of my take on the whole mono blue mill deck thing.
I’d found it easier to get the 60 cards to make the main deck, than I did getting down to the 15 to make the sideboard. So I decided I’d throw a sideboard together at The Hobbit Hole.
At The Hobbit Hole I bought some sleeves for the new deck, and a couple of extra copies of Surge Mare and Howling Golem. There was a Pokemon tournament going on when I arrived. Kar-Fai was participating in that instead of the Standard Showdown today. Don’t blame him, there was a booster box of Pokemon cards up for grabs as the first prize.
After sleeving my new deck an opportunity to take it out for a test drive presented itself. A young lad keen to play some magic before Standard Showdown wanted a game. I was curious to how the deck would do, so we shuffled our decks.
Friendly Game 1 – William
I was unsure how my deck was going to work. Obviously I knew my game plan. But would it actually get time to do it’s thing? Williams deck seemed to present no real danger. My pieces fell into place, and then it was just a matter of executing the plan. I milled William out.
The deck had worked. But to be fair, and I’m not being mean on William but his deck wasn’t a real test. William is learning, his deck building skills are still in their infancy. Mine aren’t much further along the path. But I knew I’d be facing tougher, more powerful decks in the Standard Showdown. However there was enough here to make the decision for me that I’d give the deck an outing in the Standard Showdown.
Result: Win
I decided to play William again but this time with my Golgari deck. I thought it was important he got an idea of the sort of decks he’d be up against power wise.
Friendly Game 2 – William
This was a by the numbers game for the deck. I didn’t hit any of my removal spells. But with two Steel Leaf Champions and a Vicious Conquistador out I didn’t really need to. The only “removal” I did hit was a Ravenous Chupacabra.
Result: Win
I left William and Michael (re)building William a deck.
Dean arrived and had a couple of cards for me that were going into the ninja/assassin commander deck. I’d traded an Assassin’s Trophy with him the previous week. I was pretty happy with the trade. The deck I’m building is a slow build, just ticking away in the background.
Andy had joined in the deck building effort for William. I hope William was listening and learning from the advice he was being given. But he did have a better deck to play with.
Right it was showtime, the first round pairings were called out.
Round 1 – Rebecca
I’d never played Rebecca before, I believe this was the first time she’d been to the store with her partner. She wasn’t a standard player either and like me thrown a deck together for today.
Our first game although I started milling Rebecca, I had no real answer for her 1/1 flyer that was getting pumped every now and again. And that was the one doing all the damage. I eventually bled out to that damn flyer.
Game two was a different story. I milled Rebecca out. She had cards in hand that it turned out afterwards she didn’t have the mana to cast. A little mana screwed.
The deciding game went to time. We didn’t need the five turns. When time was called, we had reached a point in the game that either of us could win it on our next turn. Rebecca needed to do five points of damage to me to win with that cursed flier, and I only had three cards to mill, that would happen when I started my next turn. Luckily for me, but sadly for Rebecca on her turn she could only get to dealing four points of damage to me. I was alive to start my turn and win.
I had won by the skin of my teeth.
Result: Win 2-1
Round 2 – Alfie
I’d played Alfie before but with the Golgari deck. After a little banter to lighten the mood and make it a bit more fun for Alfie, we started duelling.
Our first game went the same way as my first round first game. I was killing but not fast enough, and just got my butt kicked by creatures.
Game two went my way with the mill getting me a win. Alfie didn’t enjoy that experience much seeing his good cards going into the graveyard.
Game three the decider went my way also. It could easily have been a mill win or a creature smash win. I went for the creature smash for a change! It had to be done, because although that’s an option with the 16 creatures in the deck, it’s not the main win condition for the deck. They are mainly there to keep me alive long enough to get the win condition. So I don’t imagine with this deck that it will get many wins this way.
Result: Win 2-1
Friendly Game 3 – Kar-Fai
The Pokemon tournament had ended with Kar-Fai coming in second place, just missing out on the big prize again.
So to fill time between my next and final round we played our blue decks against each other. Kar-Fai had thrown some of his blue cards together to make a deck (his words).
There was some back and forth between the two decks. Kar-Fai had that unblockable 1/1 merfolk out. Which was annoying. But in the end mill ruled the day.
Result: Win
Round 3 – Dean
Time to face Alfie’s uncle.
I knew this deck, it’s a fast Golgari aggro deck. My Golgari deck has beaten it. But would this new deck?
The simple answer is no. My meagre collection of creatures thrown out as a defensive shield did little to stop the onslaught. I did mill away some of his big nasty creatures like both of his Ghaltas. But in the end it was little consolation to being wiped out.
So the uncle had avenged the nephew.
Result: Loss 2-0
I think there was only one player who went 3-0 and won. Three ended up 1-2, with the rest having a 2-1 record. So that meant the WotC software would once again be applying the rules and deciding positions based on how well opponents had done. Which meant my position wouldn’t be too high. The two people I’d beaten had finished 9th and 8th.
Final position: 6th out of 10 with a 2-1 record.
I only got a participation pack this week, missing out on a Showdown booster.
Afterwards we had a five player game of Commander with the Planeschase cards. I was playing my Death and Taxes deck. There was a nice combo between one planes that forced a player to discard their hand and draw a new hand equal in size to the one they just discarded in their end step, and a creature of mine. My creature had an ability that said an opponent lost a life each time they drew a card. Which was funny. I think over twenty points of damage was done before my creature was removed.
In the end we ran out of time because once again apparently John wanted to eat, and spend time with his family! So there was no winner.
For those interested, or can’t remember what I wrote but for some inexplicable reason want to read more of my words, you can read my thoughts on putting the deck together in my post earlier in the week HERE.
For those that did go off and read my previous post on this deck I’ll apologise for repeating this disclaimer for those that didn’t.
“I’m not claiming these are the best decks in the world, they certainly are not top competitive decks. They are hopefully fun, affordable (subjective I know) decks. I don’t try and keep to a target price point. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming this deck will win tournaments, if it is fun to play and does it thing then I’ll be happy.“
So I suppose you want to know what cards make up the deck and sideboard I used yesterday.
Creatures:16
2 Diamond Mare
4 Surge Mare
4 Vodalian Arcanist
2 Howling Golem
3 Homarid Explorer
1 Fleet Swallower
Spells:22
4 Opt
4 Blink of an Eye
4 Drowned Secrets
4 Psychic Corrosion
4 Secrets of the Golden City
2 Kumena’s Awakening
Lands:22
20 Island
2 Memorial to Genius
Sideboard:15
1 Windreader Sphinx
2 Fountain of Renewal
4 Essence Scatter
1 Millstone
4 Cancel
2 Patient Rebuilding
1 River’s Rebuke
In a change from tradition I’m presenting the deck’d apps graphs and pricing now instead of before.
Wow that’s a lot of 2 drops. I like the AMC, that means I can be casting at least a couple of spells a turn from turn 5 onwards. Which is what I want to be doing once Drowned Secrets is out.
I’m gobsmacked by how cheap the deck is to put together if I ever needed to build it again from scratch.
The deck was fun to play, well for me. So I’m glad I built it and played it.
Schedule conflicts, or otherwise known as life, sometimes gets in the way of things. Which meant that we had our next D&D session a week early. We will move back to a fortnightly routine again from this session. But in the mean time it means you get to read some D&D stuff earlier than usual.
And now for your reading displeasure the further dramatic retelling of Dram’s latest adventuring.
Ace went off on a supplies run while Dram and the others had breakfast. Dram had asked Ace if he could get a lump of coal for him and some bat fur. Both vital ingredients to that new spell he’d been given by the necromancer a few days ago.
After second breakfast had been polished off, and seconds and thirds followed the same way, Ace stepped back in to the inn from his little excursion. Ace had got the coal but no bat fur. Although he’d been given a hot tip for getting some.
As luck would have it Alderleaf Farm had a bat problem. Wow an excuse to see my fellow halflings thought Dram.
So after the last morsels of the fourth helping of second breakfast were polished off, Dram and the others made their way to the farm. It happened to be on the way to some other place. Dram was sure the others had said where they were going but something more interesting came up at the time that caught his attention, another plate of food.
At Alderleaf Farm his fellow halfling after exchanging pleasantries did indeed have a bat problem in her barn. And it wasn’t a euphemism either. They were real bats, in a real barn.
Ace offered to help Dram get a bat. So they both headed off to the barn.
Inside the bats were sleeping in the rafters. Too high up for Dram to get to them easily. Maybe if he cast misty steps to appear next to one, grab it, and then cast feather fall. He could get one.
While Dram was pondering over the merits of his plan, and what could be mistaken as looking up at them helplessly, Ace made his way up to get one.
Just as Ace was about to grab a bat, an arrow from nowhere struck one, killing it. The remaining two bats awoke. Saw Ace. Jumped to the wrong conclusion and attacked Ace. Ace responded by grabbing one and snapping it’s neck. The third one Dram dispatched with a magic missile. Overkill? Maybe, but it’s good to remind folks that this little guy is more than he seems.
After the little skirmish, it turned out Sarmyar had fired the arrow. Luckily there were two bats that Dram was able to clumsily skin with his little knife to get that much needed fur.
With a little spring in his step, happy he could now cast this new spell if he wanted, he joined the others outside the barn.
After getting directions, which can never be made interesting, and would explain why instead of listening Dram dug out 5 silver coins from his money pouch. By the time he’d done that they were ready to continue on with this new adventure. As they all left Dram handed the coins over to his fellow halfling.
Apparently they were heading to a place called Thundertree. Which took them by the scene of their first fight together. Oh the memories of that skirmish. Nothing like the smell of rotten horse corpses to bring them to the fore front.
A day or so later the party hit the Neverwinter River, where they decide to make their second camp before heading into their destination.
Ace decided to take a swim in the river. An evil thought for a cool practical joke went through Dram’s mind. Wouldn’t it be funny to apply a little electrical charge to the river? But Dram’s better nature got the best of him, and he resisted temptation.
While Dram was having the inner tussle, Ace had pulled Sarmyar into the river. She didn’t seem too impressed with that trick. Dram had to admit it wasn’t much of a trick. Not nearly as cool as the one he’d thought up.
Sarmyar was by the fire drying off, when a dripping wet Ace walks naked passed her.
A question entered Dram’s head, “do elves like have mating seasons?” Which was quickly followed by another question “is this what passes as sexual tension for elves?”
The next morning after breakfast the party made their way into Thundertree. As they made their way into this derelict town they passed a sign with a warning on it. It said “Danger. Plant monsters and zombies. Turn back now.” As a precaution Dram used his glass staff to cast mage armour to protect himself. You can never be too cautious.
As they all stood at the entrance to Thundertree, Ace and Grull were trying to formulate a plan. Something about checking the outer buildings first, blah, blah. There was little being decided. “That building looks interesting”, thought Dram, “and its on the outside.” So Dram went right to the building that had caught his eye. While at the same moment Grull and Ace went left!
Dram poked his head into the old building. It was an old inn. “Hey folks, matured beer might be here” he shouted. He stepped inside.
“Oops”, as Dram entered the inn, standing just inside the door way he saw four dust covered zombies. Blocking his escape was Sarmyar. So Dram did the only thing he could do. Misty Step. One moment he was standing inside the inn, the next he’s standing behind Grull in the street.
The next thing Dram sees is Grull rushing to the door and dragging Sarmyar out of the inn. She wasn’t looking in a good way, and was covered in a white powder. Dram ran over, used his healing potion on her and washed away the white powder as best he could. There was a little guilt having left Sarmyar to handle the zombies. But he would have been in the way. It was a tactical retreat, that way Sarmyar and the others could more easily fight the zombies without him blocking them. Yeah that’s why he cast Misty Step.
The zombies streamed out of the old inn attacking the gnome and the druid. The druid cast Thunderwave. It was so cute when the druid tried to be like a real magic user.
While everyone is fighting the zombies, and trying to make sure they stay down. Ace shouted something about some trees.
Trying once again to be like a real magic user the druid casts a gust of wind at a zombie.
Just to make sure nothing else was going to come out of the inn and attack them, Dram poked his head through the door and looked inside. Then the druid pushes past Dram and hides in the old inn.
While Dram was confirming no more threats were coming from the old inn. The others went to look at some bushes, that apparently they thought were moving. What weirdos.
The gnome starts going all berserk and attacking the bushes. So Dram fires off a magic missile at a couple.
For his efforts Grull shouted at him “stop dicking about and get here and help out”.
Dram felt a little hurt by that comment, and pointed out he wasn’t dicking about. He was making sure there were no more surprises coming from the inn. And who did he think cast the magic missiles?
The next thing Ace is trying to be a peace maker, and trying to talk to the bushes. But that psychotic gnome was having none of it.
Sarmyar once again collapsed to the ground. The moving bundle of twigs had put her down. Lucky for her the druid had decided to give up hiding and ran over to heal her.
In all of the excitement, and what can be only explained as combat fatigue, Ace decided to hug a tree and started talking to it. Had he need hit on the head?
But before Ace’s delusions could fully kick in the gnome turned Ace’s latest love interest into kindling.
With all the moving bushes now only good for fire wood, Grull decided to lecture us all on staying together and being more careful. “When Grull gets like this he’s no fun. All this talk is boring.” Thought Dram.
And that’s where we leave our exhausted adventurers, being told off and deciding what to do next.
Insert my favourite cliche about time flying here. Otherwise let’s get to talking about last nights monthly meet up for Fenland Gamers. That once again was hosted by The Luxe Cinema.
I arrived as usual slightly early to get the gaming area set up. During the banter with the staff I checked on numbers for today’s afternoon Wreck-it Ralph 2 showing. There were zero bookings. I soon remedied that by booking my favourite seat in the cinema. If all goes to plan it will be like having my own private showing of the movie. Sadly a similar plan for Aquaman is unlikely to happen. The showing in Friday I was looking at had 5 people booked. Not only that my favourite seat was gone!
Gavin arrived first with his delivery of the Kickstarter edition of Dice Hospital for Jonathan, and an unexpected gift for me. Gavin had gotten a large, heavy metal D20 die that had been just sitting on his bosses desk, and asked if he could have it. The response was in the positive, and here it was, now in my possession. I instantly imagined Edmund’s table if it was made from sapian wood shedding a tear with the thought of this die. And that’s before my table breaker dice have arrived. They are due any day now.
Our first game of the evening was a game we usually end the evening with, and that was Liars Dice/Perudo. Gavin hadn’t played before and was keen to learn.
We didn’t really have any other 5 player games with us. Unusually I was the only one who had bought games, except for Gavin’s delivery.
Gavin was curious to try Keyforge. So while Gavin was learning that, the others had a 3 player learning game of Dice Hospital (using Gavin’s copy of the game). After Gavin lost 3 keys to 1, he shared his opinion of the game. It would be fair to sum that up as “meh” or it was ok. Gavin wasn’t knocked over by the game. But by his own admission Gavin isn’t a big lcg/ccg player, he doesn’t have that ability to see combos, or as I paraphrase his words “look at cards and think oh that card will go well in such and such deck”. The positive thing that comes out of this, is it has saved Gavin money. He was going to potentially buy a starter set. Now he knows not to.
After the Keyforge experience, Gavin wanted to learn/try Azul. So that’s what we did. I narrowly won the game. But this was a much more positive experience for Gavin, despite getting maximum negative points on one round.
While waiting for the Dice Hospital game to finish we chewed the fat, discussing games and the quality of the components for Dice Hospital.
I have to say overall the component quality is pretty good. The cardboard tiles are a good thickness, the meeples look fragile but cool. The plastic ambulances look impressive on the table, although the detail, finish isn’t fantastic. They have a weight to them, but easily with the finish could easily have been done on a 3D printer. I know they are used for holding the dice, but really they are a bit of table top theatrics with no real game play impact (something I believe will change in an expansion).
The score trackers for the players although cardboard versions of syringes, and fit thematically. They did let the side down. With all the other pimped out stuff added to the game, I’m surprised these weren’t also.
The card stock of the cards had a nice linen like finish, but shockingly thin. Definitely will need sleeving.
But it’s little details like the last 2 things that for me let the side down. You’ve already pimped everything else out. Why not go that little extra? Maybe Alley Cat Games should employ me as consultant.
The next thing I suppose for me is to play the game. Which I’m sure I will get the chance to do with Jonathan real soon.
A big big thank you to our hosts for once again being totally amazing. And another great club meet up.
So this will be a thinking aloud, chewing the fat, rubber ducking, showing my working out post. Choose your favourite tired cliche from that list. But basically I’m just going to waffle.
For those that have blotted out my post from the weekend (Mana Screwed II) I wrote the following about a mono blue mill deck I played a friendly game against.
“Andy had come across an article about playing mill at FNM, which also happened to be a budget deck, and he had the majority of the cards. So he built the deck. And that’s what I played against here. I recognised the cards that formed the mill engine (Psychic Corrosion and Drowned Secrets) I’d seen them put to good use in a series 5 game of Spellslingers with Day 9 playing the deck. Strictly Better MtG also did a deck tech on it also. But I hadn’t come across the article Andy had mentioned.
…
I have to admit I like the idea of the deck. And I was tempted to build a version of the deck myself when I first saw the episode of Spellslingers. Now I know I am going to create a version too. I’ll use the same core engine. But I’d love to know why no millstone.“
So here we are with me looking at building my take on this blue mill deck. I’ve deliberately not looked at the sources mentioned whilst putting this deck together. I want this to be my deck. Afterwards I will compare “notes” and see where we differ out of interest. But I won’t share that with you. I’d have bored you enough by then.
I suppose I should put my usual disclaimer here (slightly edited for Standard).
“I’m not claiming these are the best decks in the world, they certainly are not top competitive decks. They are hopefully fun, affordable (subjective I know) decks. I don’t try and keep to a target price point. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming this deck will win tournaments, if it is fun to play and does it thing then I’ll be happy.“
The core of this deck is Drowned Secrets and Psychic Corrosion.
So there will be a playset of both in the deck. Ideally multiple copies of both will be out. But one of each will be enough. So the deck needs to be playing blue spells and drawing cards.
The thing I noticed about the deck Andy played was the lack of creatures. I think the only one he said he had was Fleet Swallower. So I’ve gone with 16 creatures that can act as blockers but also give me a secondary benefit that fits in with the game plan. It’s why I went Surge Mare over Wall of Mist for example.
But you will notice that there are 2 colourless creatures that won’t trigger Drowned Secrets. However Diamond Mare doubles up on the Drowned Secrets and gives what could be valuable life gain when blue spells are cast. Howling Golem will give card draw, although sadly my opponent also benefits from that. For the record there will be one Fleet Swallower in the main deck, and a second copy in the sideboard.
I know I will be playing playsets of both Opt, and Blink of an Eye.
The benefit of Blink of an Eye, it’s bouncing a creature back to hand, but kicked gives card draw. I don’t think Opt needs much explaining if any.
After the above cards I’m undecided how the remaining slots will be taken up in the main deck. Cards I’ve been looking at including are:
Fountain of Renewal, Disdainful Stroke, Essence Scatter, Expel from Orazca, Millstone, Radical Idea, Unexplained Disappearance, Befuddle, Cancel, Divination, Secrets of the Golden City, Sinister Sabotage, Unwind, Wizard’s Retort, Bone to Ash, Capture Sphere, Chemister’s Insight, Kumena’s Awakening, Sleep, Patient Rebuilding, The Mirari Conjecture and Weight of Memory
For the sideboard I’ve been considering the following cards:
Muse Drake, Fleet Swallower, Windreader Sphinx, Fountain of Renewal, Selective Snare, Time of Ice, Patient Rebuilding, Weight of Memory, and River’s Rebuke
What I have to balance with the remaining slots is card draw, removal and possibly a counter spell or two.
I’m going to play 22 lands, 20 will be basics, and 2 copies of Memorial to Genius.
With Vodalian Arcanist I also have a little ramp for casting instants and sorceries. So I’m boarder line on the land front.
So that’s my thinking so far on this mono blue mill deck. The clock is ticking because I’m considering giving it an airing at this weekends Standard Showdown. Which means the extra copies of some cards I need had better show up quickly.
Yesterday I was once more welcomed into the home of Diego and his family to play some games.
The game we ended up playing for the afternoon was the latest Martin Wallace game published by Osprey Games, called Wildlands.
Diego and I first saw the game on the Osprey stand at Tabletop Games Live at the end of September. The slots to try the game didn’t work for us, and Osprey forgot to mention there was a copy in the rather small games library (something we found out after the show) for people to use. But the explanation we had of the game by the Osprey staff, and examining the game components convinced both of us that this was a game we’d like, and should be on our wish list.
About a month later, just after Essen, Wildlands dropped onto the shelves of stores. Somehow a copy found it’s way to mine.
Yesterday was the first time Diego and myself got to play the game.
Wildlands is a light miniatures skirmish game with a hand management element.
The game comes with a double sided board, that has a different map on each side. There are 4 unique factions included, that have very different play styles, and rather nice insert trays to organise everything. Which even just about takes sleeved cards. The miniatures in the game come with a wash applied, and look awesome. So you really don’t have to paint them. The overall component quality, and the touches mentioned is outstanding.
In about two and a half hours we played 4 games. Which is very quick really. Set up is also very quick, 5 minutes max. The longest hardest part of the setup is deciding on a faction to play. Diego and I only played 2 factions each. But each faction we chose, we played twice.
The rules are very streamlined, and quick to learn. Which means such things as combat, line of sight are very uncomplicated, and aided greatly by some nice graphic design touches. No looking up stuff on tables in rule books, and measuring stuff out.
Like Memoir 44 you have a hand of cards that determine what you can do on a turn. The hand management is crucial to being successful. Diego was far better at this than me. I think I remember one turn when he did nothing and just drew cards. I did this a few turns through out the 4 games. It’s nice that you can only have a max hand size of 7 cards, and only draw up to 3 cards at the end of your turn.
Each faction feels unique, and plays differently. But they seem fairly balanced. Or in the pairings we had they did. Which is why it was cool we played our factions twice. The first time was almost a getting to know my faction game. Ok I lost all 4 games. But none of the games were wipe outs. They were ending with scores of 5-3, or 5-4. So pretty close really.
I like the setup and the use of location cards. Each player gets 10 location cards at the start. They assign a card/location face down to each character in their team, and the remaining 5 cards get passed to your opponent on your left. You receive 5 cards back from your right. Those 5 cards are used to determine where you place your shards that you need to collect. This is a great mechanic, because you are able to control (depending on the cards) where you opponents place shards and set potential traps.
Not having to reveal the positions of your whole team at the start of the game is also pretty cool. You do have to reveal at least one of your team at the start of each turn, until they are all revealed. And you can reveal more during your turn if you so wish. This enables you to set traps, hold back until it’s the most advantageous to reveal them.
Another nice mechanic is that if one of your team is killed, then those cards aren’t dead. You can use them to claim shards.
The simplicity of combat, line of sight, and cover helps keep the game flowing. Being able to interrupt a players turn is a nice mechanic, which we did use. But not to any great extent in a 2 player game. Diego and I were both keen to try the game with more players.
One of the things that I asked Osprey about was future plans for the game. Already a new expansion is out The Undead (my copy should arrive this week due to UPS losing a delivery to the store I pre-ordered from) that adds a new team plus play mechanic. Next year we see another team plus a new map board coming to the game. Because the secret to the longevity of this game is the support of it with expansions. Where Osprey and Wallace take the game after that who knows? But Osprey did give the impression they had a bit of stuff lined up.
It was a blast playing the game with Diego. As always he was a fantastic host.
Out in the wider MtG world it’s the weekend of the Liverpool Grand Prix. Technically I think this is the last one before the become MagicFest. These sort of events (for me) are over priced. Especially once you add in travel and accommodation. I find events like UKGE much better value.
So while all those wanna be pro players were in Liverpool, I was taking part in my FLGS Standard Showdown again.
Due to road works I nearly didn’t make the start of the Showdown on time. So a call was made to let John know I was on my way and might be 5 minutes late. On the journey over I thought I had left one of my Carnage Tyrants in my big green stompy Commander deck. And part of the journey over was working out what would replace it. A Doom Whisperer would be the obvious choice. But luck would have it when I finally arrived at the store and checked my deck, I had put it back. Phew!
Let battle commence, the first round pair ups were announced…
Round 1 Kar-fai mono red
If my deck hadn’t decided to screw me over I would have done better! Being mana screwed is one of those things you live with in MtG. It’s an aspect of the game you accept. To be fair sometimes it’s not a fun experience. But what characterises every MtG player while they are experiencing the mana draught or mana flood (too much land opposed to too little/none) is the optimism that the next card will be the one you need. That mana that enables you to start playing. But the longer the draught goes on, the harder it becomes to turn things round. Until it gets to the point of no return, and saving the game becomes impossible and the optimism ebbs away to be replaced by accepting the inevitable. Luckily at that point the suffering is soon over as your opponent puts you out of your misery.
That describes two of the three matches I had with Kar-fai. The third game (which in reality was game 2 iirc) which I won was one of those games that I managed to stabilise and grab the win.
Result: Loss 2-1
Round 2 – bye
My loss meant I got to sit back, take some photos, and spectate the games being played.
Result: Win
Round 3 – Andy red white knights
Remember me describing in-eloquently above what it’s like to be mana screwed? Work with me here, it was a couple of sentences back or so. Recent history, from as far back as 40 minutes before, decided to repeat itself. I know I have mana in the deck, I’ve seen it. But once again it decided to play hide and seek.
By the end of our first game I think I’d resigned myself to the fact it was going to be one of those days, or to use an over used cliche, “a bad day at the office”. As dad used to be fond of saying “shit happens”. Indeed it does, and how we handle things after the shit happening, defines the sort of person that we are.
I’m not going to rush out and change my deck because of a bad result or two. I think it has already proved that it can on it’s day hold it’s own. I’m happy with this version of the deck, which won’t get changed until the next set rotation.
It won’t put me off playing in more Standard Showdowns either.
What I’m basically saying is I’m picking myself up off the floor, dusting myself down, and continuing to play.
It’s that trying again. Not being put off by failure. The determination to succeed. It’s been a really useful skill that has defined me since an early age, and been crucial as a programmer.
Oh bugger this is getting deep, I better change the mood quickly. I lost both games, for reasons that have already been discussed.
Result: Loss 2-0
Friendly Game 1 – Andy’s Mono Blue Mill Deck
Andy had come across an article about playing mill at FNM, which also happened to be a budget deck, and he had the majority of the cards. So he built the deck. And that’s what I played against here. I recognised the cards that formed the mill engine (Psychic Corrosion and Drowned Secrets) I’d seen them put to good use in a series 5 game of Spellslingers with Day 9 playing the deck. Strictly Better MtG also did a deck tech on it also. But I hadn’t come across the article Andy had mentioned.
Andy got a copy of both the core cards of the deck out, and I was milling cards. Just not fast enough for it to really effect the end result. My creatures with nothing to block them swung in unopposed. And were doing damage faster than I was being milled.
I have to admit I like the idea of the deck. And I was tempted to build a version of the deck myself when I first saw the episode of Spellslingers. Now I know I am going to create a version too. I’ll use the same core engine. But I’d love to know why no millstone.
Result: Win
Friendly Game 2 – Dean Mono Green Aggro
Dean finished top 3 with his deck. So I was curious to see how my deck would do against it. Especially since we shared cards.
Taking out Dean’s Llanowar Elf early on was a very wise decision. It slowed him down. My battlefield was building up faster than his, my big hitters were coming out. But so was Dean’s. We would soon be getting to that crunch point of a reckoning. A reckoning based on the current board state I’d win, but the board would be decimated. With Vivien Reid out I was able to keep my hand full of creatures to play. Then being able to ultimate her was enough to give me the game. This was the first time I’ve ultimated Vivien. Usually if I can use her a couple of times to get a creature or remove something then I’m happy.
Result: Win
So once the dust had settled and the WotC software finished its advanced calculations my final position was…
Final Position: 5th out of 7 (Kar-fai took top spot)
Prize: 1 participation pack (took a Battlebond booster) and a Standard Showdown booster (pulled a Crucible of Worlds).
After the showdown Kar-fai played some Keyforge with me. This was Kar-fai’s first time playing, so a learning experience. We used the following two decks of mine Evie, Desperado of the Melancholic Haven vs Blindingly Fanatical Erkki. Kar-fai played Erkki, and I played my latest arrival Evie.
Our first game was a white wash for Kar-fai. The Evie deck did all the work, but I forged 3 keys before Kar-fai had forged one. I did feel a bit guilty. Had I inadvertently used an over powered deck? This new deck was a voyage of discovery for me. I liked it. It was fun, especially the 3 warped wormholes that it had. I even enjoyed the mars side of the deck, a house I’ve not really played.
Afterwards we swapped decks.
This was a completely different game. I took an early lead, Kar-fai pulled back level. This game was dragging on. Neither of us could make that break through to forge the third and final key. We’d get the ember needed, but the other player on their go would be able to do enough to stop the key being forged. Whether it was decimating the opponent’s ember supply, capturing just enough ember, or even stealing it.
In the end we called the game a draw. Mainly because John wanted to shut up shop, it was closing time.
But despite that, and the twinge of guilt from the first game. I had a blast playing the games. That back and forth in the last game was intense and a blast. Plus Kai-far enjoyed playing, and is potentially looking at grabbing a couple of decks.
Despite my deck hating me today I had a great day of MtG and Keyforge.