All posts by Darren

Grail Games

tabletop

Since I've got into gaming as a hobby (about three years now) I've had two grail games.

What is a grail game? A grail game as far as I understand it is a game that you really really want that usually is out of print (but doesn't have to be), usually expensive (hey if it's out of print you can be goddam sure that the eBay scalpers will be taking advantage of that fact) and naturally potentially hard to find.

The first grail game of mine was Space Hulk. Until last year there had been three editions of the game, all of them going for well over a hundred quid on eBay. I'd played Space Hulk years ago and this two player game that was basically Aliens the movie on the tabletop in all but name. And was a game I really wanted so I could play it with Nath. But did I really want it at the high prices it was commanding?

The prices on eBay had been acting as a pretty good deterrent from purchasing the game. Could I justify spending that much money on a game? Then just as I was about to crack and cave in Games Workshop amazingly announced a limited reprint of the game. It was still going to be expensive but considerably less so than the eBay scalpers had been charging.

My second grail game is Starcraft the boardgame. This was an instant add to my list as a grail game as soon as I found out of its existence. Starcraft is out of print, so naturally it commands high prices on eBay. Vasel's Law states if a game is really great it won't stay out of print. However I think because of licensing I can't see this strategy game being reprinted anytime soon.

Now I haven't played Starcraft the boardgame before, however I am a fan of the video game series. So when I did see this existed and looked at the bgg page and photos, it looked really good, and instantly appealed to me.

This Friday (payday) I will be completing a deal that nets me this grail game for a great price. The box apparently has a little water damage (which is how the seller got the game). I'm lucky that the seller was kind enough to wait until the end of the month. So I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this.

I know have a new grail game on the list too, and that is Glen More thanks to Mat at the Fenland Gamers group. Yes another game out of print, and yes eBay fleecers are selling it for a high price. But I may have to settle for just owning the space themed reprint that will be hitting Kickstarter next month.

But who knows maybe I'll get lucky and get a copy of Glen More. When it comes to getting those grail games patience is most definitely a virtue, along with deep pockets.

What grail games do you have on your list?

 

Why I Don’t Play Cthulhu Realms

Cthulhu Realms, star realms

I don't think it's a secret how much I love the game Star Realms. It is without a doubt my most played game. Which is down to the totally awesome app of the game. And the app is amazing value really, buy once, get across all platforms the game is available on, plus online multiplayer that is platform independent.

Cthulhu Realms is touted as an improved Star Realms. From supporting up to four players straight out of the box, one less faction, faster ramp up, weaker faction synergy abilities, locations easier to destroy.

So why am I not playing Cthulhu Realms more? Or even instead of Star Realms?

Well if you remember back to when the game came out and I got my copy I played my first game with Nath.

Nath didn't enjoy playing the game, despite loving Star Realms. For Nath the iconography of the cards got in the way of him enjoying the game. Now you could argue that if we had persevered with the icons with more plays then it would become less of an issue.

However even with the handy action summary on the sanity tracking card, deciphering the icons slowed the game down.

The other main stumbling block is there no app for the game! I think part of the success of Star Realms can be put down to its app. I'm not reliant on being able to get together with people to play, I can play solo against the AI, play a campaign, or online against others.

Then there is the Star Realms community that has built up around the game. Which once again has been aided big time with the app.

So despite Cthulhu Realms being the technically better game, it will not get much play with me while I still have that learning curve of the iconography to get over. An app would help with that big time. Plus the app would solve the problem of finding someone to play with (and it has to have online play from day one).

This game needs the app fast, else it will remain an also ran.

UPDATE: apparently TMG have an app in development with White Wizard

Some recent photos

Uncategorized

Yesterday the deluxe expansion Honor and Profit for Android Netrunner arrived. I just need the first deluxe expansion (which is on its way) to bring me completely upto date on all the data packs and deluxe expansions, until Data and Destiny comes out.

I just need to play Netrunner regularly now (well Ashes also).    
Below are some photos taken on Saturday when I went to the Computer Museum at Cambridge for the Kickstarter launch of a new book about the Oliver Twins. 

There was also an announcement by the Oliver Twins about Wonderland Dizzy being released. Which can be played for free online. 

The Oliver Twins also generously provided food for those attending plus gave a goodie bag to folks containing a Wonderland Dizzy mug and mouse mat.

    
    
    
    
    
    
   
Most of these photos have also been on my Instagram feed. 

A Coup Promo Puzzler

Uncategorized
So after breaking off the cellophane from the newly arrived Coup Rebellion G54 and One Night Revolution, and sorting out the promo stuff from the actual game, I seem to have gathered enough base game cards to give me a second base game (minus the money tokens) .
So before I gointo this a bit more here are the promo cards I'm talking about (images taken from the Kickstarter pages):
The Jester replaces The Ambassador.

The Bureaucrat replaces The Duke.

One Night Revolution

The Speculator replaces The Duke.
See now I get the character cards and reference cards. What I don't get are the six base cards. Why are they giving them? Is it to support more players in Coup? As I have already pointed out, between these three promo characters I have enough cards to make a second copy of Coup. Was that the intention?
But if it's to support more players how many copies of a character support how many players in the game?

I suppose there is nothing stopping me from using them for both. For now the puzzle continues.

 

The wallet is going to hurt next week

hot list

New Dead of Winter Promo

Plaid Hat Games have just released an exclusive promo character Roberta Plum to their site.

Hopefully you will see some embedded video below.

Look who's coming home for the holidays…https://t.co/2pG8MD9GMd

Posted by Plaid Hat Games on Friday, 23 October 2015

You can purchase Roberta Plum Here for a bargain $5.95 plus shipping (which to the UK is just over $6)

Now I just need to arrange a game session with the Fenland Gamers.

Next week

  • The reprint of Fury of Dracula from Fantasy Flight Games hits the shelves of your FLGS with a rrp of £49.99. Which is a damn sight cheaper than the game has been going while it has been out of print.
  • The two player game 7 Wonders Duel also hits the stores at a bargain £19.99.
  • Coup Rebellion G54 (rrp £24.99) and One Night Rebellion (rrp 19.99) also add to the pressure on your wallet next week.
  • The submarine hunt/evade game designed by a British Navel Officer (if I remember this correctly) They Come Unseen sinks your battleship at £39.99.
  • Finally for this rather strong batch of releases Survive Space Attack! Joins them also at £39.99.
  • Update: forgot to add Game of Thrones Risk. Not sure of the rrp iirc its around £40.

Apart from the two I already have the others are all on my wish list.

 

The Little Train That Couldn’t

expansions, Fenland Gamers, game night, lords of waterdeep, new arrivals
Yesterday really did turn out to be an awesome day. It started off me getting a coffee bought for me. Free coffee is always good. Then at break time there was chocolate cake and banoffee pie! from Doreen (mother of a colleague and friend who makes these to die for cakes) for the staff room. Yes I had both, it would have been rude not to. Both were amazing. But I handled the sugar rush that followed, I'm a serious cake addict so my fix needs to be larger than this.
When I got home two more kickstarters had arrived. One Night Revolution and Coup Rebellion G54 were in one box. Wow this version of Coup was a tad larger than the original. It certainly isn't portable anymore in the same way that Coup is. Coup Rebellion G54 is the sequel to Coup, and is stand alone from the original game. While One Night Revolution is a version of One Night Werewolf, but with some tweaks! Oh and naturally set in the Resistance/Dystopian Universe.
The Diamonster promo cards for Machi Koro also arrived, along with the final expansion that I needed (if we don't include the original Mutant Boss sculpt) for Run, Fight or Die, the Zombie Horde expansion.
The second Kickstarter to arrive was the long delayed and over due (although not by some Kickstarter projects standards) King of New York tee. Doesn't it look awesome? This just had to be worn for the gaming evening.

Fenland Gamers

Snowdonia a beautiful part of Wales. Sadly during the Summer so over crowded, it's hard to find that quiet remote spot away from the maddening crowd. But it is possible.
The Snowdon Summit is probably not my favourite, with the cafe and train line scaring it (despite the rebuilt cafe that is meant to be less intrusive). However its popularity can not be denied.
Last night Jonathan, Mat and myself got together to play a game of Snowdonia. Where we are trying to build that train line I described as a scar from Llanberis to the summit.
This was the first time any of us had played the game, which meant there was regular referring to the rules, and taking a round or two before things started to click.
Jonathan had two promo engine cards for the game, the kids favourite Ivor the Engine, and Jimmy and the Little Old Engine (a character I've never heard of). I think these are a pretty cool promos for the game really, and the publisher did really well getting permission to do them. Maybe I'll get Blood Rage when they produce a Noggin the Nog promo for it (I was more a Noggin the Nog fan than Ivor the Engine, but I did really like Ivor the Engine too).

The final turn of the game involved Jonathan stealing seven points from me by claiming a fourteen point rail slot that I was going for. I thought he didn't have the resources to get it! Mind you even I had got it, I still wouldn't have come close to coming second let alone winning. On that front Jonathan and Mat well and truly beat me.

So what were my initial impressions of Snowdonia? I enjoyed our game of it. But there is a but. I think I need a couple of more plays. It took me a little bit longer than I liked to get the hang of the game. I enjoyed the weather mechanic effecting what actions can be used, I liked the bag of resources with the use of white cubes mixed in that when drawn from the bag trigger certain events.

We finished the evening off by playing Lords of Waterdeep. With the amount of time we had left sadly we couldn't use either of the two modules from the expansion. It's well known how I feel about Waterdeep, and Jonathan and Mat had not played the game before, so after setting up it was time to teach Waterdeep.

Waterdeep isn't a difficult game to teach, and can be picked up very quickly. Which both Jonathan and Mat did.

I made a token attempt at trying to complete quests that would earn me extra victory points at the end of the game from my Lord of Waterdeep. Instead I kept going for high value quest cards, and trying to deny them from the others. Obviously this tactic was doomed to failure, even though it gave me the lead score going into the final round of the game.

During the final tallying of scores from the left over workers, money and bonus points from the Lords of Waterdeep cards that lead just slipped away. Jonathan just ran away with an amazing winning score in the one hundred and forties, while Mat got a comfortable second place, leaving me trailing far behind in last place.

Luckily Waterdeep didn't disappoint Jonathan and Mat. Which was my biggest fear. They enjoyed the game itself, and were impressed by the high quality of the components and packaging. Which to be fair is very good. Next time they both want to play with the expansions.

So free coffee, cake, stuff arriving, and an evening of great gaming. Yes yesterday was a truly great day.

 

The Big Box Expansion

new arrivals, run,fight or die
There I was expecting some Kickstarter stuff to arrive any day. I get home ask the neighbours if there have been any packages, and where is my tea? (It's handy having Nan and Mum living next door) The neighbour (mum) said there was. I started to get excited, at last the Kickstarter had arrived. After get the wolf pack back I ripped open the box, only to be be pleasantly surprised. It wasn't the Kickstarter but just as good, it was my pre-order for the Run, Fight or Die Big Box expansion.
The Big Box expansion is basically a bigger box to store the base game and all its expansions in one box! To up the value side of things the Big Box expansion also comes with a “running late but we're worth it” expansion.

So the “Running late” expansion adds five new character cards, a pink dice! and other cards to be shuffled to the appropriate decks.

I also pre-ordered at the same time the new mutant boss sculpt, who it appears now is called the Jivecat Boss, and is used to replace the mutant boss in the base set. Well the token that is included. But boy is the Jivecat boss awesome, and big!

Although Run, Fight or Die can be played solo out of the box. 8th Summit have also now published a separate solo mission, which I also pre-ordered at the same time.

So it's rather cool that these have arrived in time to be used at the end of the month. However it still leaves me with the difficult mission of trying to get a copy of the Mutant Boss sculpt to replace the token in the base game. These are pretty hard to get (they were the original Kickstarter exclusive).

 

Scoundrels hit Waterdeep

lords of waterdeep, new arrivals

I like Lords of Waterdeep a lot. Plus using the excellent iPad app I can get my fix when I'm not able to get the game to the table.

Previously when playing the game with Jamie and his wife Alison I was introduced to the expansion for the game Scoundrels of Skullport. Which I enjoyed so much I bought the expansion for the app as soon as I got home from that gaming session.

Finally after ordering the expansion on Amazon at the tail end of last month they got the expansion in and sent me a copy.

Scoundrels of Skullport is not a single expansion but two, plus adding all the bits for a sixth player to the game.

The two expansions in the box are the Undermountain module, and Skullport module. Both bring new Lords, Quests, buildings and Intrigue cards to the game. Plus their own mini game boards to expand the main board and options available to players.

As the rule book describes them, the Undermountain module “focuses on new quests with great demands and greater rewards“. While the Skullport module “focuses on a new resource, Corruption, and the risks associated with being corrupt“.

The base game can be played with either module or both. To be able to play the base game with the sixth player (the Gray Hands) you need to use at least one of the modules.

Playing the base game has been something Jonathan and Mat at my gaming group Fenland Gamers have wanted to play for a while. Due to illness a planned session had to be cancelled, but I'm sure it will be hitting the table very soon.

I'm tempted at that session not to just use the base game but also to use the Undermountain module. It keeps the same base game mechanics the same without having to worry about teaching the corruption side of things.

I'm glad I've got the physical expansion now. It really does make a great game better!