All posts by Darren

In Too Deep (not the latest Jack Reacher novel)

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night it was once again time for us to get it too the table. A club night specifically for getting those unplayed games from the pile of shame to the table.

This time saw Marcin bring the board game In Too Deep. A cyberpunk themed game with definitely some Philip K Dick A Scanner Darkly vibes.

In this game players play officers of the law infiltrating a notorious criminal gang, trying to collect enough evidence to take the gang down.

You do this by jacking into a criminal and taking over control of them. The perp is then manipulated into trying to complete the conditions of one of the two cards you hold. These cards are a main mission and a side mission.

Once you complete a main mission any criminals you are jacked into are released.

To say this game is chaotic is an understatement. You could try planning your movies whilst others take theirs. But often you may not even be in control of the criminal you had, let alone them being where you need them. The board state itself changes so much it almost feels like luck completing a main mission or side mission.

We did find in the later stages of the game that those of us still holding one of the stage three main missions that there was no way they could be completed. They required too many things to be in place that never would happen with the limited number of actions on a turn, and the constant changing board state.

I forget what the cards are called but when you complete either mission you get these cards that basically behave like corruption. Representing how deep you have fallen into the undercover role becoming that criminal you are meant to be bringing down.

This is an interesting little mechanic because at the end of the game the player with the highest score from these cards gets that deducted from their score (unless another condition isn’t met then they don’t). The cards also act as end game bonuses. You have a balancing act of trying to keep as low value cards as possible but getting the best end game bonuses as possible. Something not made easy with the better end game scoring being on the higher value cards.

I liked that when completing a main mission you got a choice of a safe reward or a risky reward. The risky reward drawing you more of the above cards than the safer option.

I think the theme came over nicely. The miniatures of the criminals were really good. Great sculps.

The game did take over three hours including teach. With some turns by players taking a looong time.

I really enjoyed the game. Plus I won.

It was a fun evening.

What am I missing?

Maths, tabletop

I recently bought the book Mathematics of Tabletop Games by Aaron Montgomery.

The book “…provides a bridge between mathematics and hobby tabletop gaming. Instead of focusing on games mathematicians play, such as nim and chomp, this book starts with the tabletop games played by avid gamers and hopes to address the question: which field of mathematics concerns itself with this situation?” Accessed 3/12/24 https://www.routledge.com/Mathematics-of-Tabletop-Games/Montgomery/p/book/9781032468525?srsltid=AfmBOoppHs-kRu-BHsRnkanT4JEnodORFs2Thgjq-J9q9bWxFkGCVpFC

I’m no mathematician, my maths skills are a bit rusty. But I’m getting very frustrated with the book within the first chapter.

After using the sum rule to determine how many cards are in the hard knocks deck in the game The Grizzled (I still need to get my copy to the table). The author Aaron Montgomery then poses the following question about the threat deck in the game:

“In the threat deck, there are 14 cards containing each of the three threats. How large is the deck of threat cards?”

So you stop and think what the answer could be based on the information given. Then instantly the author springs the following on you:

“While using the Sum Rule here might be tempting, that rule doesn’t apply since some threat cards contain more than one threat.”

This opening sentence of the author explaining the solution to me feels like the author is going “aha! You fell into my clever trap because you didn’t take into account …”

For me to have a proper attempt at answering the question you need to be presented with all the information. At no point in the question is it mentioned that cards could contain more than one threat. To me it implies that they don’t.

The example itself I like and explains the Counting with the Inclusion-Exclusion Principle very well. Well enough for me to grasp. But it’s that initial question not giving all the information needed that infuriates me.

My next bit of frustration is to do with applying the Permutation rule to the opening hand in a game of Scout.

“In the five-player game of SCOUT, each player is dealt nine cards from the deck of 45 unique cards and cannot change the order of the cards. A player will try to play a group of sequential cards in their hand stronger than the current combo (see page 82). The Permutation Rule can be used to determine that there are approximately 3 × 1014 opening hands:”

For me this only works and is correct if you deal the cards to each player nine cards in one go. But who the heck deals like this? I know it makes the maths more complicated for working out the number of combinations for the opening hand. But when normal people deal each player gets one card at a time. So the first player in a five player game would get cards 45, 40, 35,… not cards 45,44,43,…

Also doesn’t the example given only mean that this is the possible number of opening hands for the first player dealing in this abnormal way?

Is the way the cards are dealt irrelevant?

So what am I missing?

I’d ask the author but there are no social media or email details for the author. Maybe someone out there could explain to me in simple terms.

“Oh, make no mistake. It’s not revenge he’s after. It’s a reckoning.”

Game day, Prophecy of Kings, TI, Twilight Imperium 4

There are certain games that if you get them to the table once a year you are lucky.

Those games are usually epic in nature, both in table space and in scope.

Often the games take a large part of a day to play. Several hours for sure.

Another trait of the ones that have stood the test of time, even deemed a classic. Is that despite taking such a long time to play, that when you are playing the game you don’t actually notice the passage of time. You poke your head up out of being immersed in the game and realise that four hours of just passed by. Playing them doesn’t feel that long.

I like to think of them as experiences. Even events.

Twilight Imperium 4 with the Prophecy of Kings expansion is one such game.

Despite life trying to throw obstacles in the way (I had to say no I couldn’t do a couple of things when asked) yesterday was the day for 2024 for Twilight Imperium 4 and the Prophecy of Kings expansion to hit the table.

This day had been planned for over a month.

As usual for this type of game finding a day that six people were free to get together and compete for galactic domination is a nightmare.

So once we had the date set there was going to be nothing on this earth stopping this going ahead.

I’d been looking forward to playing TI4 all week.

I’ve not gamed on a Saturday for a few weeks. The day has been a chill day, do my washing etc.

I arrived at Charlene’s (who was hosting for the day) an hour before we were due to start playing at midday to setup.

Yes it does take a while to set the game up. You need to be sure of the player count if using one of the pre-made maps in the rulebooks. Luckily there were no last minute cancellations for our six player game.

We had to call our game to an end at 7pm because I had work the next day.

At that time we had just finished the fourth round! There were another five rounds to go! If we had had the time!

We’d had our first agenda stage in the previous round after Anthony had raced to middle of the Galaxy and claimed Mecatol Rex as his. That was quite funny because that had left Marcin feeling a little butt hurt after the first agenda vote because he had listened to Diego. Who had mistakenly misidentified the planet type that would be exhausted for the next round for those voting against the motion if the against won. So instead of only screwing me out of three action tokens because I wanted the for motion to win. He shot himself in the foot and lost about half of his planets.

In that final round there was a reckoning between Mr War Sun aka Marcin and me. I’d like to say the space battle was epic but my large fleet of a cruiser, three dreadnoughts, two destroyers, and my flagship, plus action card shenanigans were too much for his measly war sun, two fighters, and cruiser.

My space bombardment destroyed his troop unit, leaving our mech units to duke it out. With my mech ultimately being victorious.

That left Marcin with just two systems that be controlled. Early in the round Anthony had foiled any plan Marcin had of reoccupying his home system (he’d had to abandon it the previous round to claim a victory point).

If we had played longer I think we could have destroyed all of Marcin’s forces. That would have been funny.

A big big thank you to Charlene for hosting. A big thank you to Marcin, Anthony, Diego, and Ben. I had an amazing afternoon.

PS Diego won on the tiebreaker against Ben.

Another 2 player evening

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night was club night. Or I thought it was.

I rolled up at the usual venue just before the allotted time. Got my usual, two cans of Coke, glass with ice, and two packs of jelly babies.

No one else was there yet.

So I looked at the event and saw the start time was an hour earlier, and no one had said they were coming. When was this changed? Thinking about it I think discord screwed up the start time on the clocks going back.

But still it was looking like I was going to be billy no mates. Luckily after what felt like an age but in reality ten minutes, Dave walked through the door.

Boy was I relived and glad to see him.

Luckily I had a couple of games that would play two players.

Our first game was Splendor Pokémon.

One more turn was all I needed. One more turn and I would have ended the losing streak. But no Dave triggered the end of the game. That turn I needed never to happen. And the losing streak continues.

Our next game was Castle Combo. Would this work as a two player game?

Setting up there were no changes necessary to the setup to cater for two players.

Castle Combo worked really well as a two player game. We just saw less of the cards and had to use more keys to reset the rows to try and get favourable cards.

Dave took the honours on this one too.

We finished off the evening with a few games of Strike! Even at two players it was extremely fun.

It was an earlier finish than planned but full of fun and laughter. Just disappointing that no one else could make it.

A brief evening of 2 player games

Uncategorized

Tuesday night saw just Dave and myself showing up for the weekly Fenland Gamers tcg/ccg/lcg night. The ripples from the recent life event still impacting Marcin.

So instead of playing a tcg/ccg/lcg Dave and I played a game of LotR Duel for Middle Earth.

I really like how in this basically an update to 7 Wonders Duel racks up the tension so that the third and final round is this knife edge where either player can win.

Once again I was pushing for a win on the quest for the ring track, whilst Dave was busy nearly conquering Middle Earth.

The third round was so so tight. Luckily I was able slow Dave’s expansionist ways just enough to allow me to grab that final ring card to destroy the one ring on mount doom. Ironically it was the Mordor tile (once again) that allowed me steal this victory.

Our second and final game of the evening was Splendor Duel. What is there to say? My losing streak continues. But I still enjoyed myself. I don’t know why. But I like Splendor.

It should be noted that the sports and social club had put up their seasonal decorations that day to.

One of which was this almost life size Santa.

Either I’m very short or this fake Santa is really tall.

Anyway we had a great but brief evening of gaming.

Another fine mess tin!

#backtothehills, outdoors, Touching My Father's Soul

In a previous post I wrote about what army surplus gear means to me.

That post explains this latest purchase from eBay.

For my money I got these British army mess tins, that came with a Firedragon stove and fuel. I think these Firedragon stoves replace the esbit stoves and fuel. Apparently esbit fuel has become illegal to use, sell, own without a license from the Government. It turns out nasty people can use it to make things go bang. Or that’s the thinking behind this “ban”.

They also had a pleasant surprise included that I wasn’t expecting. But more on that in a moment.

I’ve not been able to confirm one hundred percent that these are the mess tins that the Paras were using when Dad was serving in the late sixties.

But the likely hood is very strong.

When mum saw these mess tins after I opened up the parcel they came in, her words were “didn’t we have some like this?”

Which makes me think that at some point in my childhood we did have them. Most likely dads. What happened to them I have no idea.

The surprise I mentioned above was the seller had included a bag of “random” ration kit stuff.

There was a plastic long handled spork! Pot scourer, matches, water purification tablets, wipes, sugar, couple tea bags, hot drink whitener, some mystery sauces. My French (I think that’s the language) is nonexistent.

I do want to play with the Firedragon fuel. That will work in the Crusader mk1 or mk2 stove.

Will I use this mess kit? I think this may be used when I’m car camping with the Naturehike duel stove I have. But this in reality was bought as a piece of nostalgia.

A loud and crazy evening

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night was the “get it to the table night”. A game night whose purpose is to allow us to get those unplayed games sitting in our piles of shame to the table.

So why did we end up playing two games that had been played (several times) before?

Numbers.

With the maths wrong I had mostly four player games with me. However there were five of us. It could have been worse there could have been six. But current life events means Marcin was unable to attend.

Luckily I had three games that played five players.

The first one we played was Strike!

Our games of Strike! were such a blast. We were also later we would find out from a regular at the social club louder than usual. Yes this game brings out the boisterous nature of those playing.

Our games were filled with incredible against the odds rolls, a variety of throwing/rolling styles, and lots of laughter.

Somehow an hour later and fourteen games or so we decided to play another game.

That follow up game was Sushi Go.

It’s been a long while since I’ve played with the maximum number of players for the game. The end of round scoring is much more meaner with seven cards. Getting more than 15 points in a round is virtually impossible. Hitting around 10 points or over is achievable but can be a struggle. Getting the multiple cards for say dumplings, sashimi, or tempura which give big points becomes much harder.

We decided to call it an evening after our third game.

We had a really fun evening. There was so much laughter. Yes no games from the pile of shame got played. But that didn’t seem important.

The big news is…

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

Yesterday afternoon I completed the purchase of the house I’ve been renting for the last 14 years.

I’m a home owner again.

This is something I never thought I’d ever be doing again.

But thanks to the generosity of my aunt and uncle I’ve been able to do so.

I can’t put into words how much this means to me or how much I will always be grateful to them.

I now need a will update.

Touching My Father’s Soul

#backtothehills, outdoors, Touching My Father's Soul

I think I have an addiction to army surplus gear.

Part of my gear refresh has seen me purchase one or two items. Such as the BCB crusader mk1 cookset, a British army basha, a British army artic sleeping bag, US Marine bivy bag from the modular sleep system, a Dutch army hooped bivy bag, and a USGI poncho are the items that come to mind as I start writing this post.

Why?

The gear isn’t the lightest, most hi tech latest and greatest walking/outdoor kit. Although it is great value. Often cheaper than a similar “civilian” product.

The gear is also usually a lot more robust. Able to keep working after taking a lot more abuse than regular gear could. Yes it’s built to a higher spec. It has to be. A soldier has to be able to rely on the kit in much more harsh environments than your average hiker/bushcrafter will ever experience.

But I think there is another reason why I’m drawn to it.

My dad was in 2 Para D Company in the late sixties to early seventies. He left the army not long after my brother was born.

Although I was born in Wisbech. The first two years of my life were spent in Aldershot. Which at the time was the home of the Parachute Regiment.

Growing up my brother and I were very typical little boys. Always playing soldier. Especially on days out to Sandringham, or camping trips to Thetford. We had dad’s old beret as part of our play gear. We even had homemade shields from old playboards.

I have vague memories of going to army shows as a kid, along with family days held by the TA. Which saw kids being able to fire guns on the firing range. Supervised obviously. Of the shows I have memories of helicopters, armoured personnel carriers, and tanks being there for kids etc to explore and climb over. I remember cargo netting for climbing, even death slides.

Some of our birthday parties were at the old TA hall in Wisbech (now long gone and replaced by an Aldi).

There used to be an army surplus store at Eye. Which dad took us to once or twice. I enjoyed my visits. Always leaving with something. I was in the scouts at this time. It was on an over night camp at the old scout hut (now built over) that I wore a surplus wool shirt purchased from Eye. Boy was it itchy.

I think part of me sees getting and using this army surplus kit as Jamling Tenzing Norgay describes so well with the title of his book, (and I borrowed for the title of this post) Touching My Father’s Soul.

There was never a chance I’d join the army. Despite that being my life ambition when I was under the age of ten. There would only be one regiment I would ever be able to join. As a teenager I knew that I wasn’t up to doing that. My skills lay in other areas. The home computer boom of the early eighties had shown me I had a talent for programming.

I know that in his note to me dad said I was a good son. But I can’t help thinking that if I’d followed him into the Paras he would have been really proud.

I did have a spell in the air cadets (mainly because my mates were in it) and got my marksmanship badge. I’m not sure how dad felt about that.

I think this is my way of saying my early years were as an army kid.

Dad took his own life in 1988 at the age of 42. I was 20 at the time. Going over the events of that morning is maybe for another day. I’ve now lived more than 14 years longer than him. That day has been with me ever since.

This surplus gear for me on a personal level feels like I’m connecting with dad. Yes it’s not gear he actually used. But similar. However just having it, using it (eventually), somehow creates a link between us.

Using the protractor to work out a compass bearing on a map. It’s something dad would have done. Somehow in that moment I’m following in his footsteps.

One day before I get too long in the tooth I too will under take my version of the journey Jamling Tenzing Norgay took by jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.

Until then I will continue to think of dad every time I use a bit of military kit.