All posts by Darren

New Stuff We29May16

new arrivals
This weeks latest bricks in the gaming extension I'm building to my home.
The main reason A Game of Thrones the board game hasn't been added to the collection earlier is the lack of people to play with. It requires a minimum of three to play, which rules out just Nath and I playing it. However I have found others interested in playing the game, so here it is, ready for us to battle it out for control of Westeros.

I like the deck building kits for Magic. They fit in with my casual approach to the game. So this adds to my card pool and gives me a couple of boosters from the Shadows over Innistrad set just released.

Grave Consequences the expansion for Elder Sign that was “sneaked out” found its way to my letter box. This is a small small expansion made up of three small decks that up the difficulty level of the game.

The last new arrival shouldn't be a surprise to anyone really. It was just a matter of time before it appeared. And please when I declare it my game of the month try and act surprised!

So that wraps up this weeks just arrived stuff.

Esdevium gifts for ws31May16

news

After a hiccup with their PDF last week, Esdevium have executed the gremlins, and once more are sharing with us mere mortals the gifts they will be bestowing on us in the coming week.

First up is the poorly supported but really excellent game Magic the Gathering Arena of the Planeswalkers and its only expansion Battle for Zendikar. This game really does warrant more love from Hasbro and gamers.

The updated Agricola is out, the number of players it supports has been reduced to four max, the family mode has been removed (getting its own release later) and it's priced reduced to £49.99.

The great small box game Harbour is also back in stock at £15.99.

The updated 51st State in the form of the complete Master Edition is also out next week for £39.99. Here is a BIG BIG hint for Jonathan, who I hope will be picking this up at the expo next weekend, the much anticipated expansion for Scoville, Scoville Labs is out. Some reasonably cheap Magic the Gathering deck boxes themed around the Planeswalkers are hitting the shelves.

And finally this one has peaked my interest so I'm going to have to go hunting for more info on it, a game called Blackhat is out at £37.99. Which surprise surprise is a game about hacking. So the theme alone has me intrigued.

So there you have it the stuff coming out next week that caught my eye.

 

Upcoming OP Events

Ashes, imperial assault, netrunner

That I'm taking part in (well planning to) or actually organising.

First up…

A second Spring kit 2016 is being cracked open on the 2/7/16 at The Hobbit Hole. So another chance to get those lovely brain damage tokens. Sadly their is no Worlds of Android book up for grabs this time.

At the end of July, 23/7/16 to be exact, there will be a store kit (not sure which one) being opened and battled over for Imperial Assault. I just need to get some practice games in now.

Finally for this post is an event I've organised…

20/8/16 sees Ashes getting the spot light. I've got two OP kits hopefully on their way over from the US.

You can visit the event page on the Plaid Hat website here that I've set up for this.

So now you know where I will be and what I'll be playing. Hopefully I'll see some of you at these events.

I'd love to get a Star Realms/Epic events organised, but White Wizard and Esdevium have decided to collaborate to make this extremely hard to do if you want to use an official OP kit. Esdevium aren't listing them for my FLGS to order them, and White Wizard are sounding like a broken record direct you to your FLGS and their distributor. And frankly I think this sucks. We have more than enough interest here to run events to both games. Sadly just can't get the support.

 

Our First Friday Evening Gaming

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night saw the first weekly Friday Evening Gaming meetup of the Fenland Gamers at the Angel Inn in Wisbech.

The evening of gaming was scheduled to kick off at 5pm, Debbie rushing from work arrived just after. So while we waited to see if others would turn up we played King of Tokyo.

Debbie kicked my butt royally at the game. She won the first game with a points victory. Our second game we drew because I bought and played a card that did three damage to both of us, and killed both of us. Why would I do that? I knew I wouldn't survive to my next go. Debbie was doing an extra point of damage each attack because of a card she had bought. Two claws plus that extra damage would have finished me. So I settled for a draw. Our third and final game saw it going the way of the first game with me losing again.

Jonathan and his daughter turned up just as we were deciding what next to play. So we asked Jonathan's daughter to choose our next game to play. And she choose well, we were going to be playing Codenames.

The teams were boys against girls. We played two games, swapping over the roles between guesser and clue giver between games. Jonathan and I won both games. But it was great fun. You have to be able to put yourself into the head of the other person whether you are guessing or giving the clue. I was just grateful that Jonathan's comicbook knowledge and inparticular Spider-Man was good enough to get one of my clues.

Next up we played <spoiler alert> my game of the month, and a big favourite of Jonathan's as well, Bohemian Villages. Jonathan's daughter hadn't played before so we ran through the rules at the start. This is such a fun game. It's fun to watch some-one miss taking their income at the start of their turn, roll the dice and then realise what they have just done. Points lost. Then you do exactly the same on your own turn because you also got distracted or forgot. Debbie and I drew for last place, while Jonathan took first place.

Our last game of the evening was Ladybugs Lunch but hey it really should be called Ladybirds Lunch. This is Americanisation gone too far. I'd never played this game before but everyone else had. Luckily fifty percent of the design team was there to teach me! This was a game that Jonathan co-designed. You control a ladybird who has to clear the bugs off your flower. It's a “kids” game, no that's not fair, I'd call it a family game. A fun little family game. Thanks to Jonathan's shuffling (which his daughter loved) on my first turn I was in a good position to win on my second turn. Then Debbie and the others picked on me to stop that happening. A few turns later Debbie took the victory.

So our first Friday Evening gaming was a fun time. A good start, now to grow the numbers.

Pick on me

chatteris warlords, game night

Four player Neuroshima Hex played as a deathmatch is an interesting experience. It should have been a free for all, with everyone attacking each other. However, for a while it seemed more like everyone was just going to crap on Darren. My HQ was attacked by the others for what seemed like most of the game.

Once I was gone I knew they would turn on each other. Somehow I managed to hang in there with six hit points, when that fighting amongst themselves started. Their hit points started to drop off fast.

The final battle was triggered by one of the other players. One of them died, another just about stayed alive but with less points than me, and somehow I ended up in second place!

For a first play for the others, and the bit longer to find out what the tiles did, and learning the game, this four player game took a reasonable hour to play. Yes Neuroshima Hex plays best with two. But it's still a great game with four. So scales well I think.

Other games going on at this weeks Chatteris Warlords were Bolt Action, Dead of Winter, Star Realms, Warhammer Conquest, and some fantasy themed wargame.

Pandemic Legacy October Revisited

Fenland Gamers, game night, pandemic, pandemic legacy season 1

Monday four bruised and battered adventurers once more tackled the month of October after managing to somehow get themselves back up off the ground from their last kicking by the game.

Joe the soldier had been dumped from the team, his inability to find a cure was not helpful. So parachuted in to take his place was Typhoid Mary the immunologist.

The easy objective of destroying two military bases was easily achieved, one of them was also a starting military base.

Between Mat and myself we had found two cures. The third was on its way. We had even built a vaccine building and had started making vaccine and using it to get rid of the faded.

Our third and final cure was in sight. In fact we were a couple of moves away from getting a much needed win.

That's when the game decided it had had enough playing with us, and it was time to put its meal out of its misery.

Once more an epidemic outbreak broke into pandemics, and like a broken record we ran out of faded and lost the game.

Our fourth loss in a row.

Mat was given the honour of opening the box he had been eying up since the beginning. Inside that mysterious box so many have seen but few have opened, were some cards! Cards that get shuffled into the players deck that will hopefully make our next game easier!

We decide to call it a day after yet another tick in the loser column, and attempt November next time.

But wow we are potentially now two games away from the end of the game, but with the way we have been playing more likely four.

 

Minor building works we21may16

new arrivals
Trading. Trading games specifically is hard for me. Which game am I prepared to sacrifice from my collection to gain another to add to it. My first time trading was ok, it didn't require too big a sacrifice. However this time the sacrifice was bigger. Ok I didn't blink, or pause to think when I agreed to it, up for grabs was a grail game for me the English language version of Glen More. All I had to do was sacrifice Viva Java the coffee game the dice game for it. Not one I want to lose from the collection, but then again easier to replace than to buy Glen More in English. So the decision was a no brainer, the deal done, Wednesday I took delivery of the game from Matt when we played Pandemic Legacy.
It's dangerous being in the “candy store” for a tournament, that's why the third and final set of the Epic Tyrants expansions ended up leaving with me.
Why three copies? Well I have three copies of the game, so to be able to play all three copies as an Epic cube…
7 Wonders has a two player variant that according to popular opinion isn't upto much. Sooo I'm kinda not likely to try playing the game with Nathan unless we can get a third player. Which is why the highly rated two player game 7 Wonders Duel has been on my radar since coming out to rave reviews. It's a smallish box, fits in my bag, I get a discount, “how did that get in my bag too?”

The next item although a welcome addition to the game Legendary, the expansion I want is the cards like Howard the Duck that came out last year in the 3D card packs they did in the US.

Oh and for the record I am a Cap fan, so more Cap is always good for me.

 

New Expansion for TEG Announced

news

The box art and description of an expansion for the rather excellent Tiny Epic Galaxies have been put up on bgg. The new expansion will be hitting Kickstarter at the beginning of September. Which I'd hazard a guess means we might be seeing it at the start of 2017 if previous Gamelyn kickstarters are anything to go by (for example the Tiny Epic Kingdoms Heroes Call, which was kickstarted at a similar time).

You can read the description for the expansion (taken from the bgg page here) below:

“Your galaxies have expanded to the extent of known space. You overlap with your rivals and fight tooth and nail for fertile planets. Now it is time to extend the horizons. Now it is time to upgrade your ships to the limits of today’s technology, and ready them with the brave pilots. Now it is time to go beyond the deep blackness of space into the truly unknown universe…

In Tiny Epic Galaxies: Beyond the Black, players have access to four new ships that they can upgrade their original ships to. To do this, they will need to hire specialized pilots. There are many pilots to hire, each possessing a unique special ability. Pilots are also specialized in what ships they are trained to use. Hiring the right pilot for a ship reduces that pilot's cost. The more ships a pilot is specialized in, the weaker their special ability is. Pilots are hired by spending unused dice that correspond with the four different ship types, and are worth victory points during play. Pilots are shuffled into a deck and splayied out like planets.

Additionally, Tiny Epic Galaxies: Beyond the Black introduces a press-your-luck exploration option for players. This allows players to venture beyond the planets and into deep space where they might encounter dwarf planets worth victory points, or rare materials that yield resources… or they may encounter cosmic threats like solar storms, black holes, and even supernovas. Either way, exploring deep space provides a player with exploration badges. These badges are tallied up at the end of the game and players are rewarded bonus victory points based on who has the most of a certain badge type. They are four types of badges to collect.

Lastly, Tiny Epic Galaxies: Beyond the Black comes with additional planets and new and exciting secret missions to explore!”

 

My first netrunner comp

game night, netrunner, Road to regionals

Yesterday saw The Hobbit Hole run its first Netrunner event. John (the store owner) was using the Spring 2016 store kit. However to make this first event “special” I had donated a copy of Worlds of Android premium edition as the top prize.

So the Spring kit gave the following to use for prizes:

  • A set of acrylic brain damage tokens (first place)
  • Two alt art Leela Patel identity cards (top two)
  • Seventeen alt art Political Operative cards (basically participation prize)

Naturally I wanted first place not for the book (I already have it) but the brain damage tokens.

The combatants were John, Chris, Robert, Kar-Fai and myself. There could have been at least another three players but previous arranged commitments or work stopped them taking part. Robert was the surprise entry after his rage quitting of the game announcement on Tuesday. But somehow he had managed to build a deck Friday night.

My first round match up was with Chris. My Noise ran riot over Chris's Replicating Perfection deck. He romped away with seven unanswered agenda points to get the win. It was then my NEH deck taking on his Kate deck. My NEH is the deck I still think needs work. It's the ice, and more cards to do damage if the runner is tagged. However in this match up it was working nicely. All the little “tricks” were landing such as News Team being taken as a negative agenda point (twice) negating scored one point agendas. Daily Business Show is allowing me to bury agendas at the bottom of my deck. Chris having been wreck less against this deck before, had given me my only ever turn two win. So he was playing much more cautiously against this deck. But still I get the win. Chris isn't happy. His dreams of getting the Android book fading away.

Round two saw me against Kar-Fai. Our match up started off with my Noise against his HB deck (can't remember the id). Kar-Fai started off scoring an early Private Security Force. In reply I scored three agendas worth six points. I was hunting for that final winning agenda, mainly by hitting R&D, and archives. Kar-Fai had been forced to purge virus counters to stop my deep digging of R&D. I had been ignoring a card in his scoring server because I felt it was a trap. During my hunting, I took three tags. Kar-Fai started using the Private Security Force ability of doing meat damage. I had a couple of I've Had Worse in hand that kept me in the game. I should have but didn't get rid of the tags, but then again I had no money, I didn't really need it at this point I thought. After my turn I was left with two cards in hand, hoping this hadn't been noticed. But click one damage, click one damage, click one damage, I'm dead. If I had hit that ignored server I'd have won! Brilliant game.

Our second game saw Gabriel against my NEH. This was a close game also. Kar-Fai was making it hard to keep tags landed on his runner by spending money to clear them. So although I'd prefer to keep the tags on him, it did mean he had to spend clicks and money to clear them. Everytime Kar-Fai hit HQ he kept hitting one of the two Scorched Earths I had in hand and was not able to land. Another reason for him to keep clearing tags. In the end our game went to time, with Kar-Fai getting the win on having more agenda points.

The third and final round was against John. This was my first time ever against John. John was playing core set NBN. Noise did his job, ran amok again and won the first game. I can't remember the core runner or faction John was using. But the “tricks” were working, John was walking into traps. I had scored four one point agendas, I had an unguarded archives with a two point agenda hidden in it (that never got hit), my unguarded PAD Campaign never got trashed. John did keep clearing tags that I landed. In the end our game went to time, giving me the win.

The modified win against John meant I took second instead of drawing first. But Kar-Fai got the well deserved first place. Kar-Fai very generously let me have the brain damage tokens.

Final positions for the competition:

  1. Kar-Fai
  2. Me
  3. Robert (third round buy)
  4. John (first round buy)
  5. Chris

Well done Kar-Fai – a worthy winner. Hope you enjoy the book, and look forward to playing against you soon.

Robert confirmed he is definitely selling up, he just wasn't enjoying the game, and I think may have already have a buyer for his core set and data packs.

I had a great time playing yesterday, can't wait for the next event.

The next Netrunner event (with another Spring 2016 kit) is 2nd July.

 

Gems in the ruins

game night

I know I said I wasn't going to this Friday night group anymore I'd had enough. But there I was back once more, a glutton for punishment.

Jamie, Lucas and myself played a game of Splendor using the official playmat, the first game I've played with it. It was also the first time Jamie and Lucas had played the game. So that's why I'm putting my worst score at the game todate of two points to “beginners luck”. Jamie romped to an easy victory of fifteen points, while Lucas narrowly beat me with a score of three.

No one remembers second place! Which is where I finished in the three games of King of Tokyo that we played. In one of the games I needed one victory point to win. Jamie was in the middle clicking up points. I only needed to reach seventeen points thanks to a card I had bought, whilst Jamie still needed to reach twenty. Could I roll that blooming point? Not a chance. The dice were definitely against me. Jamie took a points win, that could have also been a knockout victory too. But it shouldn't have been if the dice had been kinder.

Ok this was really my last time at this group. From next week a small splinter group of us will be meeting at The Angel pub from between 5pm and 9:00-9:30 (although it can go on longer). I'll put more details up about this in the next day or so.