All posts by Darren

Street Magic in Chatteris

chatteris warlords, game night, netrunner

Last night was the now weekly journey from the frontier town that is Wisbech to further into the depths of the fens and the outpost town of Chatteris. The things we do to play games!

My first game of the evening saw Noise returning to the table to run against the Jinteki Personal Evolution. It felt good to have him back running. I really am an anarch at heart. My opening hand had Street Magic and Same Old Thing, plus a Hivemind and Streetpeddler. I decided to keep my cards.

The Corp scum took an early lead, after establishing a scoring server protected by three pieces of ice. I had none of my ice breakers (ok that's basically Faust and David, with a little help from Parasite and Datasucker) out. I did get Datasucker out early and an incubator.
The Corp did score an early Chronos Project taking out about five cards. The second one they scored took a larger chunk of cards out. Apparently this deck had been designed to cater for my Noise. Isn't that sweet?
My problem this game was econ, and not getting my ice breakers out. Aesops didn't appear to near the end, and the same for Faust.
I did score a couple of agendas, one from Archives and the other from R&D. And I could have won if I had the credits to score the agenda.
Looking back I think I should have done a mulligan on the starting hand. But I didn't want to lose that Street Magic.
I also got to play Star Fluxx. As usual this game is beautifully chaotic. Just when I thought I was going to win, but my plan was thwarted. Allowing the player after me to grab the win.
My final game of the evening was introducing Ben and some others to Love Letter The Hobbit Battle of the Five Armies. That's a bit of a mouthful so I just call it Love Letter Hobbit.
I do like this version of Love Letter, but not the gem tokens. So I replaced them with small blue cubes. I love the touches like the one ring having a zero value all during the round until the end when it gets a value of seven. Or Legolas and Tauriel having different win conditions.
Batman Love Letter is still my favourite but this is damn close. Still neither Ben or I won.
Yes there was some Bolt Action last night. Over in another corner was a group doing a draft cube of Magic.

It did seem quieter than usual last night. But then there are going to be nights like this.

There was also a club committee meeting last night. Basically it was blah blah blah to me, well I'm not a committee member, but Ben is, and it was held during our Netrunner game! So while that was on hold I was at a lose end. Which eventually saw me passing the time playing Star Fluxx.

I was called into the meeting to confirm I was volunteered (thanks Ben) to help out on the clubs Facebook page.

But as usual another fun evening of gaming in the depths of the fens.

August and everything after

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

After an intermission last night the A Team were back fighting to save the world.

Each month we start with an objective completed, because we have military bases in each of the zones. It's a nice feeling knowing we only have two objectives to complete.

Before August started we had some cards to read. Suddenly we weren't just searching for a virologist but also an immunologist. Another search board was added. This time we had to be in a rioting faded city to look for them.

We had a new character join our team Colonel Mustard, he had been drafted in to replace my quarantine specialist who unfortunately died in July. Mustard had the ability to spend an action to remove a faded figure from a city, plus he could freely move through roadblocks. Plus as a character upgrade when he left a city with faded on it one of them gets removed. With all that cool stuff he also had a draw back. For Mustard to cure a disease he needs to have two extra cards of the correct colour to cure it. Mustard was going to be our engine for controlling the faded.

With a little help from Jonathan and Debbie, Mat was able to find this new elusive immunologist. Lots of stickers were added to the rule book to cover the new stuff bought to the game.

This is where (just been looking up some stuff, and discovered this) we have done a MASSIVE misplay!!!!

We had discovered two cures, starting to look at the third when outbreaks overtook us and we had lost.

August reset time for our second attempt. We needed a win else we would be opening that mysterious box four.

We'd won! Our player deck was dangerously low. So pretty close. It helped having the Colonel keeping the faded down. He even cured a disease! Ok it took seven cards but he did it.

I'm loath now to talk about the win and how we got there, or my thoughts on the immunologist and the bits we missed played.

I'm not sure how we move forward with the misplay. It's going to have to be a group discussion on our next play.

Once we have a decision then I'll come back and look at the bits. At the moment I feel dirty and foolish.

 

The gaming sprawl grows 9Apr2016

new arrivals

The collection expanded by one Kickstarter project arriving this previous week with Kodama.

It has this awesome looking little Kodama Meeple. The art work is pretty cool. However I have one card miss cut that I need to contact them about. Luckily it's one of the cards to use with kids, so won't affect my playing of it. But still needs replacing.
The player mats for Tiny Epic Kingdoms/Heroes' Call arrived. These lovely neoprene mats will add to the game greatly. But like the other mat for the game and also the mat for Tiny Epic Galaxies they do take the game games away from the portable fit everything in the box idea.

The four packs that make up Tyrants came in. So one set down, two more to get! Plus a fourth set for Nath. But the purchase of them will be spread out. I do like the art on the new tokens. The third instalment for T.I.M.E. Stories also dropped through the letter box.

I'd forgotten about this one. There were enough promos in this one to justify getting it. Which for the Christmas one they did I couldn't do. Plus as I mentioned in another post earlier in the week there was a nifty little way using cards to select a game to play at a gaming group.
Finally a friend was having to cull some games to finance some other more expensive ones he wanted to keep on the right side of his wife. Which is understandable. I don't have that factor to worry about, so his pressure is my gain! Suburbia has been on my wish list for little while, so jumped at helping my friend out by buying it off him. Nice thing was we also had a nice beverage and chat at Costa while conducting our little bit of business.

 

Hunter Rules

game night

I think this is becoming a thing now, Friday evening on way to con club to play games stop in The Luxe and have a quick chat and catch up with Bouncy. Then onto the con club to play games.

This Friday night gaming session is a different experience to the others. It's a younger crowd, and with one of them blasting their unwanted music during the evening (luckily not all the time) at times more irritating.

However Ben from Chatteris was there as usual, so with Jamie and his son we played a four player game of Star Realms using the hunter rules. Which meant you attacked the person to your left for direct damage, but could do both sides for bases and outposts.

As is now tradition for multiplayer games of Star Realms Ben was eliminated first. Now tradition dictates that after Ben has been whipped from the board, that I will soon follow him out of the exit.

However tradition was not to be followed this time. Just as the Emporer wanted Luke to kill his father, but failed to do because of some misguided family bond. We were not going to see that sentimentality tonight, Jamie's son dispatched his dad from the game in a cold vicious manner.

It was me against the heir to the empire. Sadly for the heir, I had a good engine up and running, that allowed me to inflict massive hits of damage. I wasn't going to let the fact I was up against a youngster get in my way of victory. So against tradition I dispatched the outposts in my way and delivered the fatal blow to get the win.

Our next game of the evening was Epic. We did a draft and played the hunter rules, which worked the same as it did in Star Realms. Attack to the left, events to both sides.

This game went the way of tradition in Star Realms. Ben got steam rolled by Jamie. Which then meant I was on the receiving end of the Jamie war machine. I didn't last long. Tradition was upheld this time.

It was father against son. Sadly for the young lad, his father is a cold blooded killer when it comes to Epic. This was Darth Vader destroying Luke. There was no fatherly love here, sentimentality went out the door. Nothing was stopping Jamie from being victorious. Oh yeah Jamie won.

Our final game of the evening was Star Fluxx. With the usual chaotic game play, Jamie managed to surface from the chaos victorious.

That was our last game of the evening before I set off into the night.

A great evening of gaming, some intense moments, some fun moments.

 

Temptations for next week 11Apr16

news

FFG and Esdevium drop the big one next week, not only in scale but cost, with the release of the latest in their licenced games from the Star Wars franchise, Star Wars: Rebellion. This game has been described as the original trilogy of movies in a box. Will I be getting it? Not sure at the moment. It has been getting great reviews, but cost and time to play are the main draw backs at the moment.

The Gallerist has been getting lots of praise and finally hits the shelves in the UK. While I'm curious to find out more about Sangoku, is it a bad sign that they have to tell you what game the designer did previously?

Next the Matsuri expansion for Tokaido comes out officially! How come I got this early through proper channels? Curious. I love Love Letter, have a problem keeping copies because I always seem to be giving mine away! However these versions that come in a box and not the nice velvet bag puzzle me. Why would you want the boxed version? Especially when the Adventure Time one comes in such a cute Jake bag.

Finally the nine Kickstarter versions of Tiny Epic Kingdoms (a restock) and the new expansion Tiny Epic Kingdoms: Heroes' Call come out.

Well that wraps up the stuff from next weeks new releases that caught my eye. Don't forget you can see the full list over on the Esdevium website.

 

QOT?

qot

Well it's a question of something, I just don't know what, day? Week? Month? Will I even repeat this and ask other questions? I don't know. Will the question spark a discussion? Who knows?

Recently I had a whinge about how difficult a time I had selecting games to take to a games evening/gaming group.

But once you are there, everyone has bought games along to play, how do you select which game to play?

Usually at Fenland Gamers its a very relaxed thing, usually left to some-one eventually making a decision after everyone has said “I don't mind”.

In the Brettspiel Osternest Easter Basket they included a little card game that gamifies the process of selecting the next game to play.

I thought this was a nifty (do people still use that word?) idea. I can't wait to try this next week at the mo they Fenland Gamers meet up.

Share your methods of selecting a game to play at a games evening in the comments below.

 

Wheeling and Dealing

chatteris warlords, game night

Yesterday was Tuesday in case that little snippet passed you by. But it also means it was the weekly club night for the Chatteris Warlords.

Earlier in the day Robert at the club had posted on the Facebook page for selling and trading games that he had a couple of games up for trade. I was interested in his Kickstarter copy of the original Boss Monster. I wanted the exclusives that came with it, shiney boss cards, metal level up tokens, mini expansions, exclusive sleeve.

At the meet I checked the game over while showing Robert the games I had bought to trade. It was hard selecting games to offer, but in the end I had come up with three games, Tiny Epic Kingdoms plus the mat that you can get for it, Eight Minute Empire and Epic Spell Wars.

Robert was interested in the first two games. We came to a deal that involved the exchanging of the two games he was interested in for a drink from the bar and Boss Monster.

So I have two copies of the first Boss Monster. The shiney Bosses etc have been merged into my combined set, leaving just a plain first set. What to do with that? Well that will be given to Nath when I see him, I've also put the normal bosses from Boss Monster 2 into it.

My first game of the evening was against Robert. We sat down and duelled it out playing Star Realms. We were both scraping our starter cards, Robert was buying more than myself. But in the end it was his engine that worked better than mine, and was inflicting large twenty odd points of damage each turn.

Next up four of us played Firefly Fluxx. I enjoyed Firefly Fluxx, is it my favourite version? I don't think so. We did witness Robert take a turn that was longer than a John Bohnam drum solo, which by the time he had finished playing all his cards won him the game!

We followed our game of Firefly Fluxx with a game of Batman Fluxx. Once more we got to a point where Robert went off into the Fluxx version of the drum solo again. This time he didn't get the win, that was left for Chris who came after him.

The rest of the club were playing Colt Express, Bolt Action, a paupers cube of Magic, Sentinals of the Multiverse, Lords of Waterdeep, a little historical war gaming and a futuristic mech version of Bolt Action called Gates of Antares.

I still don't get the whole war game thing. The tape measures, etc. In this day and age I definitely don't get the having to cut bits of a model off a spew, glue together and paint. Painting ok I can see the fun I that. But the likes of Cool Mini or Not, FFG show the miniatures for these games should be complete and ready to paint.

Oh and then the constant having to reference the manual. Yes I know the two playing this game only play it four or five times a year. So gaps between play just long enough not to be able to remember the rules could completely. But still.

A great evening as usual.

Epic Storage Solution Arriving In May

epic, news

White Wizard Games creators of Star Realms and Epic announced that their partners in crime Legion Supplies when it comes to card sleeves and storage boxes etc for their games will be releasing in May sleeves, a long storage box etc for Epic. It gets better, the long box comes with a promo card Keira the Wolf Caller. So a similar deal as the Star Realms offering. The Star Realms long box was amazing value.

I do hope that the long box is long enough to hold upto three base sets, three lots of Kickstarter promos, three copies of the Tyrants expansion.

Plus Legion Supplies are currently running a competition to win said sleeves and storage box HERE.

I had started to look at sleeving options for the game, so this is a well timed announcement for me. I hope that Esdevium actually get this out to shops, because they did a poor job of doing it with the Star Realms one.

 

Life’s Hard Choices

Uncategorized

For me one of the hardest things to do before a gaming session is to decide what games to take along!

So many things go into influencing the decision. For instance which group am I playing with? How many people are going to be there? Have I promised to take a particular game along for some-one? What am I in the the mood to play? Is there a particular game I want to try and get to the table?

A planned session like our Pandemic Legacy one or the up and coming Formula D League, are easy. The decision has already been made what to play. If I'm responsible for providing the game I just have to remember to take it along.

Tuesday evening at the Chatteris Warlords, or the monthly Fenland Gamers meet up are much harder.

Fenland Gamers I know not to take scifi themed games, LCG/CCG games or games with a drafting mechanic, because my fellow gamers there are not into those types of games. Where as Chatteris Warlords I can find people into playing those types of games.

Tonight is the weekly Chatteris Warlords meet up. So my Netrunner decks will go with me, but so will my Magic deck on the off chance. Do I take Epic with me? What about Star Realms? How about one or two of the themed Fluxxs? Is it worth taking Imperial Assault? I'd also like to get Imperial Settlers to the table. Would anyone be interested in trying Ashes? Oh what about…?

Decisions, decisions.

Maybe I should be more organised before hand and post on both groups discussion threads asking who is playing what, or who wants to play such and such a game. That question doesn't usually get much of a reply if at all. It almost seems like I'm being ignored, or maybe others actually have a life and don't spend all their time online like me.

I suppose I'm lucky in a way that I don't review games on here, or I'd have to add that into the mix as well. I can do without that extra pressure.

How hard do you find choosing games for a gaming night?

Expanding the collection Weekending 2Apr16

elder sign, expansions, marvel legendary, new arrivals

I don't know why it took me so long to get this expansion in for Legendary. Especially considering it has Captain Britain in it. My main problem now is storage, and I want to sleeve the cards. There must be over two thousand cards to sleeve now, yep that's a lot. I'd love to use the official sleeves with the cool Legendary logo on them. But that would cost an arm and a leg, and probably a major organ. The official sleeves are so expensive in the UK. So clear penny sleeves are my preferred option, I just need to find the ones that are correct size and fit snugly. The other problem is the official card dividers. I've run out and they are not that easy to get in the UK. That seems a common problem, and theme with the industry.

Now I'm just waiting for the Captain America 75th Anniversary expansion to come out. Can you guess what that is all about? Then finally and I'm not holding my breathe for these, despite Upper Deck saying they will release them, the 3D Legendary cards that came out as promos in the 3D card packs (sold in the US) last year. I so want Howard the Duck, but not enough to pay eBay scalper prices.
The new expansion for Elder Sign Omens of Ice arrived. Its origins seemed a little unusual to me, where the app version of the game is influencing the original physical game. I'm not sure I've seen this before. This expansion is based/inspired by an expansion in the app. Plus the Atlanteans expansion for Imperial Settlers arrived. This adds a new fifth race to the game, plus more cards for the existing races.
It's funny really with a mini expansion, plus this one, there are more deck building options in this game than there is squad building in Arena of the Planeswalkers, where that is a main focus of the game!
I also received the final delayed (was originally targeted for Christmas) expansions for the Thunderbirds boardgame that came as part of my Kickstarter pledge.
In the box was a nice card holder, the three expansions (no expansion boxes), plus the role playing game! Yep there is a set of light rules and cards for setting up a scenario that uses the game board and pieces. Which I think is cool, and offers more game play.
So having just got the following awesome playmat for Star Realms, my very good friend and the Scottish version of me as he is known as, Duncan stumbled upon the fact that Gameslore now have in two Star Realms playmats plus two Epic playmats. Mental note must get the Epic ones for Nath.
The Colony Wars expansion/stand alone game for Star Realms also arrived. Every card is sleeved and shuffled in to make one MASSIVE deck to play with. This gives me enough starting cards to have four people play at once without proxying cards now.
 

I can't see how much more Star Realms can be expanded, and once the year ones promos come out (sooner than later I hope) surely that must be it for Star Realms. Which would explain why they announced Hero Realms the fantasy themed version of Star Realms. On a side note it's basically what Cool Mini Or Not did with Zombicide, couldn't take the modern theme any further after the third season, so reboot with a different theme. Oh which was fantasy also!!!