So you’ve read all about how the cards hated me at the recent Store Championship held at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole. If that didn’t bore you to death, then you may be interested in hearing what the Store Championships were like from the perspective of a person who the cards liked.
Yep the latest Critical Twits podcast is out where the guys talk about the day itself, and what it’s like to win!
Sadly Brian was a better person than me. I’d have been a far far worse winner to Aaron!
I was looking forward to our monthly meetup. Gavin and I had arranged before hand for him to bring his copy of Adrenaline along for us to play.
Adrenaline was getting a lot of buzz at the end of last year. “If you like video games, you’ll love this. It’s a fps but in cardboard” was being thrown around by fans of the game.
Would it live up to the hype? Would Jonathan like the game, despite its theme?
You know I don’t do reviews. Nearest I come to it is me saying what I like and maybe dislike about a game.
We were playing a four player, six kill game.
It’s a quick game to pick up. On your turn choose two of the following actions: move up to three spaces, move a space and pick up, or fire a weapon. The simplicity of options is what allows it to be picked up quickly. And also reproduce the basic actions of a fps and give it that video game feel.
Line of sight is pretty simple, and fits thematically to the whole fps theme.
The ammo, and ammo types, in conjunction with the weapon cards, spawn points, reloading, etc ooze fps.
And that’s what I love about the game. The mechanics and theme fit like a glove.
Then throw on top of that a majority mechanic on the damage inflicted on opponents when deciding points upon a players death. Genius.
Plus they worked in a mechanic to discourage everyone just killing the same person all the time.
Everything flows, you have to be aware of the other players damage. Which reminds me the more damage you take the more powerful some of your actions become! Oh and you can overkill.
Because this was a first play we were having to refer to the rule book for details on what individual weapons did. But you soon pick up the iconography.
I really liked to. With different variants, four combinations of the game boards, I think there is a bit of replay ability in this game. It’s light and fun. I don’t think it will be long before this is in my collection and being introduced to Nath, and my students.
Oh and Jonathan liked the game too, despite its theme. That had to be a big thumbs up in anyone’s book.
Our second and final game of the evening was Takenoko.
What a difference playing the game correctly makes!!
Yes our previous play had us playing it with a major foobar! And left us puzzled about the game.
I did enjoy this play through much much more. So much so it will stay in the collection.
Sadly the official records will show through some trickery Jonathan won both games! Which included a late points rush in Takenoko to steal the win from me.
I enjoyed the meet up, same time next month?
After yesterday it’s the only conclusion I can come to.
In the Fenland Gamers it’s a running joke for games like Memoir ’44, Dark Moon, that Jonathan rolls badly. I’m usually the anti-Jonathan in those games and roll really well. Sometimes unbelievably well. It was the same when I played Dice Masters. Dice love me!
But the evidence yesterday is cards most certainly don’t.
Yesterday saw the 2017 Android Netrunner Store Championship for my FLGS The Hobbit Hole. It was probably the best attended event for Netrunner at the shop that I’ve been to with ten participants. Up for grabs alt art cards, deck boxes, play mats and a by at the regionals.
I’d spent an hour before going building/tweaking my two decks. Nothing like last minute adjustments. I was trying to fit in some of the cards from the latest data packs.
Due to numbers we were due four rounds of swiss followed by a cut for the top four who would then play for the top spot.
But there was a “grudge” match also going on. There were three members of the Critical Twits podcast taking part. Two of them, Aaron and Brian were competing for bragging rights, having been coached by Jo and Jamie (more seasoned players).
The day started off so well. I was playing Chris, and our first game had me running. My rig was working. Chris wasn’t rezzing any ice. I was jumping into servers using blackmail and making it appear like I had hundreds copies of the card with Deja Vu and Same Old Thing. Much to Chris’s frustration. He hated those cards. Especially when afterwards you can trash one of his nice advanced unrezzed ice by playing En Passant.
Our second game was in hindsight a gentle indication for how the rest of the day would go. I was tagging Chris but not getting to my cards that would allow me to make use of those tags. But our game went to time and Chris got a timed win.
My second round was against Jo from the Critical Twits podcast. His Max and keyhole deck just took my NEH to bits. It was really a joy to watch it happening. I wasn’t landing tags, or if I did they weren’t around long enough for me to use them. I was just spellbound with the beauty of this Anarch deck.
Our second game saw his Jenteki deck just tear me a new one. It was a nasty, horrid experience. Trashing cards was stupidly expensive. And Jo kindly put me out of my misery quickly.
The third round was against some-one called Tom.
Our second game saw my NEH deck fail to keep any tags around. But it did reduce the only agenda scored by Tom down to a point. The game went to time again, with Tom winning by that single agenda point.
My final match of the swiss was Brian from the Critical Twits.
I ran first, it seemed evenly match for a while. I think I had four agenda points to six, when Brian removed my two blackmails from the heap. I was wishing I played three at this point. Which I may well do. I know the card I can take out to make room for it. But now I needed the funds to go in and steal agendas. I’d ignored Brian’s scoring server because he hadn’t advanced the card sitting behind it. Then he installed over it. Not enough cash to get in. One more turn was needed. Sadly it wasn’t going to come. Brian scored the final points he needed for the win.
One piece of ice was all I drew in our second game, and that was a pop up window! I was just unable to stop Brian stealing the agendas he needed to win. All my ice, cool ambush cards etc never got drawn. I had two booms in hand! Brian felt guilty winning this game. But the cards really did hate me in this game.
Brian actually made the top 4. While Aaron was at the bottom with me. Our only prizes were two copies of the alt art pad campaign (must get that third to make a set). However we did get a pity deck box each. Kindly given to us from two of the top eight winners.
Before I left I did give Brian some advice on how to be a bad winner (not that I’ve had a lot of practice) to Aaron.
So my final score was 1 win, 7 losses.
A fun day playing Netrunner. What more could you ask for?
Well Nan not having a bad back. When I got back home Nan had been suffering with a bad back. Which was not helped by my little terrors Nico and Loki jumping all over her. They like to play their version of a territory boardgame over prime snuggling positions.
With Nan ill I was unable to use her dog sitting services to allow me to play the prolog for Seafall in the evening.
So that was my Saturday. Lady Luck left me, just to prove that cards hate me.
It’s a new month and you know the pattern by now, it’s time to look at the numbers for the previous months gaming.
I find it hard to believe that I have been logging my games using the excellent Board Games Stats app on my iPhone now for over a year. What started out as an exercise to act as a potential early warning system for the signs of depression, has now become an addiction in itself!
January continued the growing theme of playing longer games. I’d like to say meatier, more challenging, or involved. But I wouldn’t place Zombicide or The Others in that category. They are light, fun, games. But they can tie up an afternoon playing. Which they did last month. If you look at the time logged against those two games and T.I.M.E. Stories, thats fourteen hours of gaming between those three games. So yes I could have played more games, and had more plays than I did. But I’m glad that I’m getting a chance to play these bigger games.
Although last month did kind of end on a whimper on the gaming front due to life stuff. Not mine I should point out, I’d need a life first. But still it would have meant that the stats would be slightly better. However it never happened, so no point crying over spilt milk. Well unless it’s Leto’s Joker that is just unforgivable.
Comparing January 2016 to January 2017 is interesting. I played the exact same number of games. Slightly less plays, and it would also appear I was less sociable, because I played with less people this year, and in half the locations.
Plus looking back at the games played in January 2016, I’m thinking “oh must get that back to the table” for several of the games. Which year had the better games played for January? Thats a close call. Too close I think. I might give it by the slimmest of margins to 2017.
Looking at the graph the trend still looks to be down. But as I have pointed out above the graph doesn’t really tell the true underlying story. Less games and plays, but bigger more time consuming games played instead.
This is a hard decision this month. I’ve played seven games for the first time this month. They have been good games, games that I would play again. But good enough to snatch the much coveted title “Game of the month”? I’m going to go with Batman: The Animated Series Dice Game. This rethemed, and slightly tweaked version of Zombie Dice was a version of the game I really enjoyed.
There isn’t one game I played in January that would warrant being placed in the Nantucket Wing of Shame.
And so onto new sections to By The Numbers.
If you are in the area and want to attend one of the events, please visit the Fenland Gamers Facebook page for further details about the event.
So that’s January 2017.
These finally came through from Friday. If you stalk me on Instagram you already will have seen these earlier this evening.
Mind you Instagram is also the place to keep up on new arrivals (better there than clogging up here). The odd food photo, when I remember to do them live photos from gaming sessions.
Generally Instagram is my photographic version of verbal diarrhoea. Which I then push out to spam my friends on Facebook (I’m thoughtful like that) and Twitter.
Hope to see you over on Instagram.
Within the boardgame world you will start to see posts (written and video) and forum threads about two player games couples can play on 14th February or Valentines Day as it is more commonly known.
Boring! Another cliched trope, that I’m bored with.
All you need if you are set on the idea of playing games with your partner on Valentines Day is your own common sense. Oh and the desire to crush your partner.
Yep play a game where you can destroy them, and shout angry lines at them like “in your face!” or “that’s two to the face”.
Star Realms and now it’s fantasy version Hero Realms are fantastic for this. Inexpensive, quick to learn and play, these deck builders are great fun. But very in your face. And there is nothing more satisfying than pulling off those combos and smacking your loved one for lots of damage to their health/authority.
In fact White Wizard Games publish another game if you want that more Magic the Gathering experience called Epic Card Game. Epic is a little bit more complicated, but does offer more variety in play modes. It’s still inexpensive, and unlike Magic you are playing with big feck off monsters straight from turn one.
Mind you, you could go for Magic Duel decks if you want that exact Magic experience. These come as two decks, that are “balanced”. They save you the time of deck construction, and the expense of having lots of Magic cards.
I have two more for you that continue the true theme of Valentines Day of crushing your partner, before having angry make up nookie.
Next up Kemet. Such an aggressive game. It’s attack, attack, attack. Ancient Egypt hasn’t been more violent. Yes like the next game, isn’t a pure two player game. But is still fun as a two player game.
Finally play as giant monsters duking it out over who is King of Tokyo. Such a fun game. Not too expensive, less than £30 iirc. Quick to setup, learn and play. Rolling those claws and laying the smackdown down on your opponent. So satisfying. Plus it’s the law that you have to shout aggressively “in your face!”
Well that’s my click bait recommendations for you to play on one of the most fake and commercial days of the year. Seriously why the feck are you thinking of just playing games with your partner on this cheesy day? Why aren’t you doing it all year round? Spend that “quality” time with them. Ask them what they want to do, find out what their favourite game is and play that instead of listening to me and other internet folks.
But hey if you are crazy enough to listen to me, don’t blame me if your evening ends up as one big train wreck.
It’s a good job I checked how many were attending the planned “Sinning again” event for The Fenland Gamers yesterday before heading off to it.
I thought it was just going to be Diego and myself. So had packed just 7 Wonders Duel with the Pantheon expansion, Hero Realms and newly arrived that morning Inis.
However Will and Lucia had signed up also within the previous 24 hours. Which was a pleasant surprise, because our planned play was for them and Diego when I created the event the previous weekend.
So I quickly unpacked and threw in everything I had for The Others.
Having everything with me allowed Diego, Will and Lucia to choose which pre-constructed team they played with.
They choose to go with The Sons of Ragnarok. A play on The Sons of Anarchy but using Norse Gods in biker outfits!
As the sin player I went with Wrath and he was backed up with Corrupted Doctors as his acolytes.
We went with a terror story called Haven in Flames. In this scenario there were no corruption checks, but lots of checks against damage by fire.
Once more as the sin I was victorious. But I was wondering about the scenario. It wasn’t until the last objective that I started to claw back into the game by stacking up the bodies of the heroes.
Having Wrath in a district with abominations and acolytes did make it very hard for the heroes to complete the final mission. I was rolling 14 plus dice in any fight. I used a similar tactic the previous game. I’m not sure how you stop this, and get a win for the heroes. At the moment this allows me to pick off heroes one at a time as they enter.
Diego identified a mistake from their side in not playing their team correctly. I don’t think they were using their abilities to their fullest.
But I also thought that this story unlike the previous one didn’t give the heroes much equipment.
Playing as the sin is fun, and allows you as the sin player to ham things up a little. Letting out the odd evil chuckle or “muhaha” just as you play a sin card. Near the end the odd playful “I smell blood” before reacting helps lighten things up.
Having said that I do want to play as a hero next time.
I do feel we still have a lot to explore with The Others. We have the different story types, different teams to try, different sins, team construction, Dark past cards.
So here is to the next chance to sin in Wisbech!
Yesterday for work I got to go to the BETT Show at the Excel place in London with my colleague and friend Dale.
Basically under the disguise of being an education show aimed at teachers etc, it is in reality a hunt for loot on the bosses dime! Yep real life Munchkin.
I’m pretty happy with my haul of loot. Free pens are great for bribing colleagues. Well technically I’m not bribing them I’m buying their souls very cheaply. I’m not sure they realise the real cost of my “generosity”.
Didn’t have to buy coffee during the day because we managed score free coffee from a stand. It was pretty good coffee. They actually had a hipster looking barista there making it to order. Unlike a lot of the others that did coffee that were using those pod coffee machines.
Dale got to witness how slow a striking king cobra snake is compared to me eating a chocolate covered mini ring donut from a chocolate fountain.
All in all a great first BETT for me, with many plans on spending my line managers budget in the next week or two.
It was seven when I finally arrived at The White Lion. Jonathan and Diego were two or three turns into The Streets of Commonville.
While trying to solve the crime, there were plenty of opportunities to have banter. Especially at the expense of Jonathan (who is fifty percent of the games design team!)
Like Jonathan I too was a little rusty on the games rules. Last time I played the game as “Darren Consulting Game Tester” was in February of last year. While for Jonathan it was June of 2016. Which opened up the opportunity for lines like “did you not watch the Watch It Played video?” Or “Eric Lang knows how to play his games”.
Jonathan tried to misdirected us from his Dr Kinky alter ego in the game. But in the end the evidence clearly pointed to Dr Kinky being the guilty party.
We managed to arrest Dr Kinky with a minute or two left.
The idea came up of adding Eric Summerer as a promo character to the game. Maybe as a new cop to be played and have a matching suspect tile of Eric Summerer the dirty cop.
A great day out, a fun evening gaming. The weekend started well.
Well it looks like my birthday weekend is going to be bloody amazing!!!
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 comes out two days before my birthday on the 28th April. Then on my birthday The Luxe (best cinema in the area) is showing one of my all time favourite movies Robocop (original version) on my birthday! Yeah guess what I’m doing on my birthday, other than eating cake?
Now purveyors of click bait articles, paywall programming, Geek and Sundry have announced that the 29th April is International Tabletop Day.
That weekend is just going to be one big geek out celebration for me.
So I need to now book something on the Fenland Gamers Facebook page so that we can start organising our celebration of all things tabletop. I’m thinking cake for starters.
Read the original story here.
White Wizard Games creators of Star Realms (my most played app), Epic and Hero Realms have started to put up video previews of the app version of Epic.
It’s looking pretty good. Plus I’m getting excited for it. I enjoyed playing Epic the times it’s managed to get to the table. So to be able to play it more often via an app is the perfect solution for me. My only problem will be fitting it in with all my Star Realms games!
The app for Epic is hitting Kickstarter soon.