All posts by Darren

Why I jumped down another rabbit hole willingly!

ccg/tcg, star wars, Star Wars Unlimited

I think I need to justify to myself why I jumped willingly into the Star Wars Unlimited rabbit hole.

There was an “interesting” approach to playing Star Wars Unlimited in the latest Rolling Dice Taking Names (RDTN) podcast (episode 317). A group of boardgame content creators are playing the game (online I assume with webcams). They are started off with one of the starter decks, playing them first. Then once a week opening 3 boosters and modifying the starter deck with the cards gained.

Now I like the idea however 3 packs a week sounds expensive. That’s £15 a week! I think with interested parties at Fenland Gamers it could be slightly modified to say 3 packs every couple of weeks or once a month.

It was this that kinda sold the idea of getting the game. I thought I could do this super casually with Nathan.

Then when my car was being repaired to get it through its MOT I walked into Lynn town centre.

Something I hadn’t done for over a decade.

After popping into CEX and picking up the original two seasons of Twin Peaks on dvd for a silly low price. I happened to wander past the Waterstones window. in that window they were promoting Star Wars Unlimited and that they had prerelease kits.

That tempted me big time.

But when I looked inside I couldn’t see any prerelease kits on display. So I asked the young lady behind the counter. Who kindly checked out back and found their last one.

So I got the two-player starter and prerelease kit. With the intent to play them with Nathan.

I let Nathan know I’d bought it. He’s checked the game out at his local game store and thinks it looks pretty good. So he’s excited to play it when I next visit.

The two boxes both currently remain unopened. But the two-player starter might get opened soon to play with others and learn the game.

In the meantime between buying the above and writing this post a booster box containing 24 boosters may have been purchased and sitting unopened on a shelf.

I have suggested to the Fenland Gamers ccg/lcg/tcg players the above RDTN format. I have one taker since posting on the clubs discord server this morning. I added the idea of a league for it. Give everyone in the league two weeks or even a month to get their game played and report the result. That should give folks enough time to organise and play the game taking into account life and such.

Despite having a booster box I’m treating Star Wars Unlimited as a casual game for me. I’m not even sure what local game store support the game has. I think the RDTN format hits a happy sweet spot of being competitive but limiting the amount spent, and stopping those with deeper pockets buying the best cards. A casual competitive format?!

So there you have it I blame RDTN for luring me down this rabbit hole.

Mechtastic

Battletech, Battletech Alpha Strike

The BattleTech Alpha Strike Starter Box has just landed in my grubby mitts.

So why have I chose BattleTech Alpha Strike as my first miniatures game to get into?

The first reason is the cost of entry. Compared to other miniature games out there such as the 800lb gorilla Warhammer 40k, is the relatively low cost to get into it. The starter sets are amazingly affordable being around the £50 mark. The beginners set is £26. Then picking up lances (what BattleTech calls teams/warbands) is also relatively cheap too. The majority I’ve seen on Amazon are in the £26-£35 range. These lances are not just for the core rules but also have cards to allow them to be used with the Alpha Strike rules.

Alpha Strike is a streamlined version of the “classic” BattleTech rule set. This will be the main way that I play the game. But everything I have or get will be compatible with the core more advanced rules. Plus the BattleTech rules hardly change. So I can if I have the time step up to the classic rules without having to buy new models. Either use the rules from a starter set or buy the £36 core rule book. That’s a big saving. And I don’t have to worry about a new edition of the rules coming along and making all my models redundant. The core rules are apparently literally unchanged from its release in the 80’s! There might be additional rules. But the early rules are still present. That gives you a bit more faith in investing in the game.

I’ve never played BattleTech. But mechs duking it out does appeal to me. It has that Pacific Rim vibe. Or going back to my younger years Starfleet, or just about Power Rangers when we got to the final boss battle for the episode. It even gives me a Transformers vibe to some extent. And obviously some anime I watched in the late eighties such as Patlabor, and Ghost in the Shell comes to mind.

Another major deciding factor is none of this having to construct your minis. No cutting parts off sprews and gluing. Ok you are meant to paint you models. But I’m not going to be entering competitions and will eventually get round to painting them.

This means BattleTech passes my board game test. You can buy a starter set (or lance) in a shop, open it up, and be playing/learning the game in under 20 minutes. None of this having to spend hours constructing minis be for you can even start playing. This for me removes such a big barrier to entry and helps noobs like me get into the game.

I just need to get it to the table now. Which will mean finding some-one to play with.

stoves and some recipe plans

hiking/backpacking/camping, outdoors

Obviously a lot of my outdoor kit is now well over a decade old.

After a little hunting around where all my outdoor gear is stored. I eventually found my Bushbuddy wood burning stove.

Naturally I had to fire it up, which I did yesterday.

The Bushbuddy is a rather cool stove. It’s double walled, and creates this secondary combustion that makes it really efficient. I’m not sure about the lack of soot though from the flame. As my old pot I used with it will show otherwise.

Another cool feature of the Bushbuddy design is it has a heat shield in the base stopping it from scorching the ground. Very important when you practice leave no trace.

I have two new meth stoves! Yeah just what I needed (having 30 odd already). The first arrival was a Trangia burner (which I may of mentioned already). Which I can’t believe I never had. The second being a Goshawk Swirling Flame OP-100. That has a sealing cap. Which means like the Trangia it can still have fuel left in it after us.

In my setup or planned setup. I see the Trangia or Goshawk as back up stoves to a wood burning stove such as the Bushbuddy or Kelly Kettle.

I’ve also been thinking about food/menus for trips.

Obviously this thinking has involved looking at one or two YouTube videos. Some have been specific hiking channels, others bushcraft related. But it does get me how impractical some of these are on their suggestions. Cooking a full English fry up, or a beef stew and dumplings on a Trangia (2 hour cook time!)

My plan is to try and use my jazz style of cooking in the outdoors.

So using templates/formulas/ratios create food that cooks in under 30 minutes. In combo with once again making my own dehydrated meals.

I think one thing that is ideal for hiking is over night oats. The only tweak to my current recipe is to add powdered milk so that all you add is water and leave.

I’m not going to carry raw meat out to the middle of nowhere. My thinking is to go the vegan route and use dried soya mince (it does make a good spagbol) and slightly larger soya chunks.

It should be more than possible to make a really nice chili, curry, stew, and spagbol using dried ingredients from scratch that cook in less than the 30 mins time limit I want to aim for.

Now to develop those recipes!

A late flurry of gaming

bgstat, by the numbers, Fenland Gamers, Game day, stats

Two days off over the Easter weekend have allowed me to get in some late gaming for the March stats.

Saturday saw me meeting up with Jeff and Charlene at the usual place to play a game or two.

Our first game was Arabella. Which if Jeff hadn’t got his final objective card I’d have won. And my victory would have been oh so sweet. Unintentional, and literally the games equivalent of winning Viticulture (base game) by not making any wine (which I have done).

All game I had the starting engine and a level 2 engine. Eventually Jeff and Charlene bought some carriages so my early investment in their shares started to pay off. But still with no carriages my dividends were worthless to them both.

This games end was triggered by Jeff reaching the end of the 10 money track on his sheet.

Somehow until we picked up Jeff was owed another objective card I was winning! It was insane. I would have easily have bet money that Charlene and Jeff were doing much better than me, and I was going to score hardly anything.

So yes Jeff won.

We followed Arabella up with Dandelions. This was probably the worst I’ve done in a game of this. I didn’t score a single majority. Jeff won this too.

The afternoons gaming was wrapped up with me introducing Ship, Captain, Crew to Jeff and Charlene.

Ship, Captain, Crew is fastly becoming a favourite little filler game. Four or five rounds take hardly any time to play. I won this time breaking Jeff’s run of victories.

I keep saying this but it’s true I had a great afternoon gaming with two great friends.

Sunday saw me meeting up with Charlene and her daughter once again at the usual spot to yep play games.

Despite being a relaxed afternoon of gaming we got five games to the table in about two and a half hours.

Our first two games were new to me.

Spots was a cool, light, dice game. It had Roll for it, Age Of War vibes with the completing dogs, with a nice buried dice mechanic that added a push your luck element to the game.

The other new game was Kohaku a tile drafting themed around making a koi pond. This definitely had Kingdomino vibes to it. A very quick light and fun game.

We followed up with a game of all in Parks. So both the Nightfall and Wildlife expansions were in play.

Dandelions hit the table next so that Annabelle could try the game, with a view to them teaching their Nan the game on an upcoming holiday.

Our final game of the fun afternoon gaming was, you guessed it, Ship, Captain, Crew.

New Arrivals

The first batch (there will be more over the years) of a club poker chip arrived.

When it comes to this sort of stuff I’m prioritising those that attend club nights regularly and are long time members.

Fenland Gamers Poker Chip

The BattleTech Alpha Strike Starter Box arrived. I’m writing more about this in another post. The counter pack has also arrived. But it’s fair to say that I’m dipping my toes into this game.

I also picked up a Dice Masters collection which I need to sort through. And I know this sounds like a cop out but this too will be the subject of another blog post.

Finally whilst waiting for repairs to my car I made the mistake of walking into Waterstones. Where seeing they still had a prerelease kit bought into the latest ccg to hit stores Star Wars Unlimited.

I’d tried so hard to not go down this rabbit hole. My wallet can’t take another ccg. But here I am dipping my toes.

Well the late flurry of weekend gaming gave me probably my best months gaming in over six months. The makes me happy.

Top 9 Games Played

Stats for the month.

All the games played in March.

Full list of games played

The Road to UKGE 2024 #3

UKGE

The final bit of paying in advance for the expo has been done this morning. That is booking my NEC parking for the three days.

Paying in advance saves you about a fiver (according to them). It also means no queuing at the car park ticket machines to pay each day.

So clearly a little benefit for doing this before hand.

Something I wish the organisers of the expo would take on board.

For some reason the organisers make a big thing of tickets for the expo going on sale. Making a big hoo ha encouraging people to buy in advance.

But I see no benefit of doing that. There is no early bird discount for doing so. The price you pay is exactly the same as buying on the day. It doesn’t save you any queuing. There is no danger of not being able to get a ticket on the day.

I think the organisers need to rethink the encouraging people to book early. Offer a discount.

On the Thursday I’m giving Ben and his eldest Harrison a lift to the expo. They are staying at the same hotel as me. So once settled in and fed I’m sure there will be some gaming in the evening.

That’s it for these posts until nearer the time. Not much on my side will be happening as I’ve done everything I need to before hand.

So so tired

Fenland Gamers, game night, life, the universe, and everything, outdoors, still alive

After having three days off where I got to game with Jonathan. Which was the first time in a longtime. Plus attend a Fenland Gamers club night (something that is a rarity these days). At which I got to game with more friends I hadn’t played with in a while (hello Ben).

Games that saw the table in these two sessions were Dandelions, Can’t Stop, Senso: Battle for Japan, Macao, Ship Captain Crew, and Sea Salt & Pepper. Plus two games that Ben owned No Mercy, and Come Sail Away!

It was back to work and a pretty full on four days that were quite frankly draining. Especially after one shift I didn’t have any real recovery time because of union meetings I had to attend. I actually ended up having a snooze in the car between the last union meeting and the start of my shift.

The knock on effect was I was too tired to write anything about the gaming I mentioned above. Or get to mention that it came to light Jonathan has been playing trick taking games wrongly for a very long time. Basically the mistake was playing a trump card when you could follow suit. You have to follow suit. If you can’t then you can play a trump card (if you have any) or “dump” a card from another suit.

As I write this life update I have two much needed days off. Followed by a day back at work. Followed by four days off. What am I going to do in those days off? It’s not long enough to visit Nathan and give mum time to recover! Yes mum needs recovery time after I go away. I’ve factored it for UKGE for example. Apparently looking after Nico and Loki the two attack chihuahuas can be very taxing.

I’m in the process of buying a small dice masters collection. Which will help with the cube building. More on this once it happens.

Until the next big expansion for Marvel Champions Age of Apocalypse comes out (tomorrow/next week?) I now have a complete set of cards. I ordered the final three hero packs that I needed (Venom, Gamora, and Drax) that arrived at the start of the week. The nice thing about getting these older hero packs is the fact you don’t have to pay full price for them. They get nice reductions.

I just need to get the game to the table, get a storage solution, and sleeve the thousands of cards!

Having Tuesday as a dead game night at the moment is killing me. It was really cool that on a Tuesday those of us that liked ccg/tcg/lcg type games had a regular evening where we could play these style of games. I need to be more proactive in my efforts to find somewhere.

Oh I did get a quick chance yesterday to play around with my fire starting kit! I need to start playing around with this more. Get more confident in using it, and develop my fire starting skills.

So yesterday using a piece of fat wood (resin rich pine wood) I created some tinder to start a fire with. Then using a fero rod and striker to create sparks managed to get the tinder to light. This little exercise did not involve me building this into a roaring fire. Its aim was to get the tinder going. I followed this up with using the fero rod and striker to start a tinder wick. Which started first strike! Wow that was impressive.

My final little play with fire for the afternoon was to start a trangia burner with the fero rod and striker. Which worked really well. Why hadn’t I done this back when I was doing all the meth stove reviews?

My Kelly Kettle Trekker also arrived. Looks a lovely bit of kit. Although the pot and lid look too small to be of any practical use. I can’t see them being used at all, and replaced by one of my titanium pots.

Hopefully I’ll get to try out the Kelly Kettle on one of my days off. Who knows I might even film my initial efforts with it!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

gaming on the trail, gaming outdoors, hiking/backpacking/camping, life, the universe, and everything, outdoors, still alive

In a recent post I’ve said plans are forming to get back outdoors this year.

Wow how the online scene has changed since my days as one of the early UK “pioneer” bloggers on the trail.

Back then in 2008 the technology was very restrictive and it was just about possible to live blog as you hiked through the wilds of Scotland. Blogs were a lot more popular back then. YouTube was a thing, just not the monster it is now. Heck I even did stove reviews on YouTube.

Now there are so many YouTube channels for the outdoors covering bushcraft and backpacking.

There is some crossover between the two skills and equipment wise. But one thing that winds me up is the bushcraft tarp videos. And to be fair there are some outdoors videos that have the same fault. The bug bear is the pitching of the tarp. A good 90% of them are in woods/forests and use trees, and a ridge line. Something that being in remote locations you won’t have.

I also query just how far they hike with all the gear they have for a camp. Sometimes I suspect it’s not more than a few feet from the car. It’s obvious they have not hiked several hours with the kit, or done a multi day hike carrying it.

Oh and the formulaic videos, starting with the hiking montage. All meant to establish that they are in the outdoors, far from the beaten path. So staged. I almost want to say these montages are a cliche now.

Having said that there are bits of useful information I can use from these new sources. And I’ll discuss those bits in future posts.

Obviously there will be a gaming element to my return. Whether that involves just a pack of cards and some d6 dice, or maybe Pocket Hive for those social moments on the trail. But gaming options too are subject of a future post.

The Road to UKGE 2024 #2

life, the universe, and everything, still alive, UKGE

The hotel has been booked.

It’s just me. Nathan is apparently in Cornwall with his Mum, Dan and newest addition to the family Chloe.

I’ve still to meet Chloe. One day. I was just over the moon that Dan told me of her arrival at the time. Small steps.

I’m staying at the Fort Dunlop Travelodge. I’ve stayed there before. It’s nice as Travelodges go.

I’ve gone for three nights so that my start on the first day isn’t so early. It can be relaxed and stomach bursting from the all you can eat breakfast.

For the first time ever I’m trying their standard plus room. Which includes Wi-Fi (I’d be getting this anyway) plus a Lavazza coffee pod machine, hot chocolate and tea. Never used one of the pod machines so expect me to ramble on about my experience at the time.

I nearly went with the evening meals. But that ties me to the Travelodge to eat when I could be meeting up with others to play games if they are elsewhere or at the expo.

Camping at the expo will be next year I think.

Dune Imperium Goes Digital

apps, first look, iOS

Last week Dire Wolf Digital released on Steam/iOS/Android the digital version of Dune Imperium.

I’ve been a fan of this worker placement and deck building hybrid ever since it came out in 2020. For me Dune Imperium was a better game than its “rival” with similar mechanics Lost Ruins of Arnak.

When the expansions came out they were instant buys for me. And like all good expansions they added new elements to the game with little overhead, and made the game more enjoyable.

Eventually once finances allowed I even splashed out for the deluxe upgrade that upgraded the components and a larger storage box for the core game and expansions.

Then once Dune Imperium Uprising aka Dune Imperium 2.0, was released it wasn’t if I would buy it but when.

So it’s pretty safe to say that I was pretty excited to be finally able to buy and download the digital version of the game.

At a penny short of a tenner it’s priced at what is standard pricing for a digital version of a boardgame these days.

Dune Imperium (the app) does allow cross platform gaming. So when you play an online game your opponents could be playing on any of the platforms the game is released on. It’s the way it should be. There is no excuse for not doing this.

However I do wish more developers with a game on multiple platforms followed Wise Wizard Games and Star Realms. Buy once and play on any platform.

Sadly Dire Wolf Digital prefer to make you pay for each copy on the various platforms, and games I assume don’t follow you. I say assume because I’m not going to buy the game a second time to find out. But I love that I can start a Star Realms game on my iPad, then later when out and about take a turn on my iPhone, then if at a computer take a turn there.

This is very much a digital version of a board game. I can see new players who have never played Dune Imperium before being a bit overwhelmed by the screen. But it is a fairly accurate representation of the physical board.

Obviously there are quality of life things playing a digital boardgame brings such as highlighting the spaces on the board you can go to. Or playing a solo game against AI opponents.

I’ve not played online yet. I don’t like playing against random opponents, and currently none of my friends have the game.

My solo plays against the AI opponents were fun, and challenging. It was kind of refreshing because I’ve not played the core game for a long time. I usually play with the expansions. Talking of which the first one Rise of Ix comes to the app in the Summer.

I do think Dire Wolf have done a pretty good job bringing Dune Imperium to the digital space. Definitely a must buy for fans of the game.

The Road to UKGE 2024

life, the universe, and everything, still alive, UKGE

The holiday request at work has been approved.

So my plan is to travel to the Birmingham area on the Thursday and get to whatever accommodation or campsite I’ve booked. Have a relaxed, chill evening.

Then the day of the expo itself have a relaxed not so early start to the day. If I was traveling on the day of the expo (which I have done before) I’d be having to get up damn early. It most definitely wouldn’t be as relaxed a start as traveling across the day before.

I’m still waiting for Nathan to get back to me about coming along.

On the Fenland Gamers front I’ve created the event for the expo with those club members there on the Saturday to have a group picture taken. It’s bit of a club tradition.

But next week I’ll be booking my accommodation for the expo.