Today's surprise gift is a mini Sandcrawler which continues the theme started yesterday by the Jawa minifig.
Star Wars Lego Advent Day 5
All posts by Darren
Posted by me using my iPad and the Blogsy appMid Week Gaming
Wednesday saw me meet up with Mat and Jonathan for a cheeky evening of gaming.
We started off playing The Manhattan Project. This was the first time Mat had played the game, and not to spoil it too much he did really well.
I started off with my predictable first move (especially as the first player) of grabbing an engineer so I could start getting buildings for free.
My board started to build up with buildings to get my engine going. Mat didn't seem to be buying many buildings, but grabbing yellow cake and money. Jonathan was also buying buildings especially one I wanted, which gave three yellow cake for the cheap cost of one worker.
Despite using spies to use the buildings of the others to get stuff I needed, I fell behind on the bomb building side. Jonathan seemed to be pulling ahead on that front. Then bang Mat completed two bombs putting him in the lead and ten points from victory. Ten points which I pointed out to Mat he could get by loading his two bombs onto bombers. Which Mat proceeded to do and get the win.
Mat then shared his winning tactic, he lets Jonathan and I duke it out, and then he comes in, steps over our battered corpses (my words there, Mat was a lot less graphic in his description) to get the win. Are Jonathan and I that competitive, or predictable? It's not something I'm consciously doing. I put it down to seating arrangements, Jonathan sitting opposite me (in front) while Mat is next to me (on my right). So I'm more aware of what Jonathan is doing because he is in front of me, while Mat is out of sight! An interesting theory of Mats which I'm going to have to investigate more.
Our second game of the evening was Colt Express with the time machine car expansion.
I liked what the time machine bought to the game. Not knowing where Jonathan's outlaw was an interesting twist, and added a nice element of surprise, and hidden information.
The last round seemed as Jonathan observed pretty pointless because between all three of us outlaws we had looted all the loot from the carriages, caboose, and engine already in the previous rounds. Mind you I think we were less aggressive towards each other than the previous time Jonathan and I had played the game. Which meant that our plans to nab loot were not interrupted by an unexpected punch or marshal visit as often.
We still had an enjoyable game, and Jonathan grabbed the win, while Mat and I drew for second place or last, depending on your point of view.
Jonathan very kindly gave me a spare copy he had of the promo “patron” (can't remember what they are called) tiles for Splendor.
Another great evening of gaming, thanks guys.
Star Wars Lego Advent Day 4
Psst want to buy a “used” droid? Yep today's Lego Star Wars Advent Calander gift is a minifig of a Jawa from episode four.
Gaming post coming later today.
Star Wars Lego Advent Day 3
Below left is today's advent piece of Lego. It's a robot! Surprisingly enough, and this may shock you but I don't know what type of robot or which of the movies it's from.
On the right is my new Darth Maul figure. There were only two cool things in Episode 1, the duel of fates music, and Darth Maul. Nath even has a signed photo of Darth Maul by the actor who played him.
I'd like to add a Kylo Ren minifig to my collection but at the moment they are going for stupid money. I can dream.
Star Wars Lego Advent Day 2
Today's bit of Star Wars delight from the Advent calendar is…
It's a mini sarlacc from Return of the Jedi. Which makes sense and continues the theme from yesterday's Lego gift of Jabba's barge. As you can see Bobba Fett is a bit upset from the bad memories this brings back.
Also the Santa Darth Maul arrived today. This is from an earlier Lego Star Wars advent calendar.
And the winner is…
Wow there was some great entries. All of them so much better than I could come up with.
Sadly there could only be one winner of the game Bang the Dice Game. And the winner is…
Ronald Pablico
Who needs a golden goose when you have a dog that poops board games?!
Well done Ronald, I'll be contacting you for your address to send your prize to.
Once again a big big thank you to everyone that entered, the entries really were amazing.
Star Wars Lego Advent Day 1
Yep today I can start opening the Star Wars Lego Advent Calandar. After keeping it safe round my Nans for a few weeks now (I would have opened them all by now if I hadn't) it is now TIME!
So today's little bit of Star Wars inspired Lego is a mini Jabba's Barge from the sixth Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi. It's amazing what can be done with eleven bits of Lego.
Finally the click trackers from Team Covenent arrived today. I do like these for tracking clicks while playing Android Netrunner.
These are really nice, I also like their money counters for the game. I'll get some at some point, oh along with the extra click tokens.
The invoice came in a really nice card, and had a Team Covenent sticker inside too. Back of the invoice had really nice gushing text on it thanking for buying etc etc. This was a real great way to present the invoice, it is very stylish, and clever. A very very nice touch.
Running Magic
While getting some card protectors to protect my restocked Love Letter Batman (I'd given my two copies away, and it is my favourite version), a set of Magic Duel Decks and three booster packs fell into my bag! The owner of the FLGS also kindly gave me a “trial” Magic the Gathering pack as well. These “trial” packs are two thirty card decks given to people thinking of trying the game.
This Christmas is looking like a LCG/CCG holiday. With the Magic stuff today, Epic, Android Netrunner, and Ashes I have plenty of options to play with Nath.
Whilst at the FLGS ok I'm going to name it, it's The Hobbit Hole in Chatteris, the owner said he is looking to start organising Netrunner stuff starting in January. Customers (other than me) had been in asking about the game.
The other bit of gossip I got was that apparently the second D&D Dicemasters set is meant to be hitting stores tomorrow!!!
If this is true, it's madness. The Amazing Spider-Man set only hit about three weeks ago.
I love playing Dicemasters, but I'm glad I jumped off the wagon. Wizkids have a crazy release schedule, that is not only expensive, but doesn't give you much time to play with the sets before another hits.
At least with Netrunner and Magic the release schedules are much less punishing. Giving you time to play and explore the new goodness.
Mind you considering the Dicemasters Teenage Ninja Turtles set will be a self contained set, I may be tempted to part with some cash for it.
Don't forget…
Today is the last day to enter the caption competition to win a copy of Bang the Dice Game.
Dice, Gems, and Markets
Yesterday saw three Fenland Gamers meet up for an afternoon of rolling dice, pushing tokens around, plotting and general cardboard shenanigans.
Amazon had let me down again. Colt Express was meant to have arrived Friday, but it didn't. So after chatting with their support I had an extra month added to my Prime membership as a “gesture of good will” from them for the inconvience, and an assurance the game would be delivered by midday on Saturday so it could be played that afternoon. Guess what? It never showed up. When I contacted support again, was told it was still at the couriers local distribution centre. I wasn't happy. In a fit of rage, I performed the act known as cutting my nose off despite my face, and asked to cancel the order and get a refund, saying I would get it elsewhere.
After getting hot beverages organised, our afternoon of gaming started with the three of us learning the new arrival I had this week Dice City.
So a brief read through of the rules, then we started play. Our first couple of turns saw us fumbling around like new born foals finding their legs. Through out the game questions would crop up for various situations, and the rule book would have to be consulted.
Three turns after getting the catapult I realised I had missed placed the catapult. Basically shutting down my ability to use it, and my main ability to attack bandits.
On the other hand Jonathan's dad had established a really effective engine that got him free army units, and allowed him to get more than enough swords to attack bandits, and build up points that way.
Jonathan was just scoring at will. He was trading, attacking bandits, purchasing. His engine was on fire. The victory points were just piling up for him.
I completed my second row, activated my three deactivated properties, and called the end of the game. It was time to put me out of my misery. There was no way that I'd be able to catch up.
As the final score below shows I wasn't even close to winning. I had made the right call to end my suffering.
Wow. This game took a lot longer than I was expecting. I thought this game would be a quickish game. But it took around two hours. Maybe some of that time was due to the three of us learning the game. But still, there are a surprising amount of decisions to make while its your turn.
I like the fact that there is a mechanism that mitigates the luck of rolling dice. Which is basically being able to move a dice one adjacent position to its left or right. However there are buildings that you can buy that allow you to move a dice to any position on its row.
Surprisingly for a dice game, you need a lot of table space to play. The player boards are massive, plus the space for the various card piles, and tokens, it's not a small game.
I like the fact there are different paths to victory you can take. Ok I didn't do very well executing mine, but Jonathan's dad had the military path pretty well worked out, Jonathan's was fairly successful. In our game there was no attacking the other players buildings. Which would have been a good extension to the military path.
Overall I liked the game, definitely want to get this to the table again.
Our second game of the afternoon was Splendor. Having had the custom playmat made for the game did aid setting up. I didn't have to remember where everything went for starters.
I like Splendor, especially the tokens for the gems. The fact they are poker chips with the relevant image of a gem on is nice. But I just like the tactile feel of these chips. It's hard not to play with them when they are in front of you waiting to be spent.
Although Jonathan managed to attract the first patron, and also take the early lead with a couple of one point cards. I quickly caught up, and pulled ahead, before attracting two patrons. Jonathan did pull back, but by then it was too late I scored the fifteen points to get the win.
Our final game of the session was Istanbul. The tile setup used was the short paths one, with no expansions or promos used. We went this route because this was the first time Jonathan's dad had played the game, and didn't want to over complicate things.
Once again Jonathan won. That's all three games of this I've played so far and he has won all of them. I came second in this game due to the tie breaker rules. Jonathan's dad and I both had three gems, but I had more money than him.
After the game, Jonathan shared his winning tactic for the short paths set up. Which basically meant grabbing the tile power up that allowed him to reroll a die, or change it to the number four. Then visiting the tea house to get money and the gemstone store to buy the gems. And alternating between the two. I must find a way to disrupt this tactic if we play this set up again. Which while writing this I think I have.
A great afternoon gaming, great company.
Saturday Morning Goodies
The English version of two issues of Spielbox arrived this morning. These were back issues that I ordered for particular promos that came with them.
So this is the Kebab Shop promo. It comes on thinner cardboard than the game uses for its tiles. It is suggested on bgg that one solution is to stick it to the German language side of the fountain tile. And I know Jonathan printed out this tile and did that. But there is a bit of me that just can't bring myself to do that. What if I want to play the game in German? Ok I don't speak German, and I don't know anyone who does (that I know of), I've always wanted to learn German (only held back by the fact I'm rubbish at languages, and find speaking them difficult), but who knows I may over come my barriers holding me back, and playing the German version would help with that learning.
As a separate promo from the issue it was given with is the Carcassonne Plague promo. I'm going to need to visit bgg to get the rules for this little promo/expansion.
Over on eBay the playmat for Colt Express is used as bait to separate the gullible from their coins. Yes this is another of those promos that goes for silly money. But it is also another of those promos that you can buy from the original source at its original cost!
My google skills are not some super ninja level, they are those of a mere mortal. So why am I finding these promos at the far more affordable level, while others seemingly aren't?
Any ways I think the game is going to look awesome set out on this playmat.
So I've made up the time machine promo ready to be used.
Now all I need is Amazon to get Colt Express to me in time for this afternoons gaming session. They let me down yesterday by not delivering it.