All posts by Darren

May the Fourth Be With You

lego minifigs, star wars

 

Have a great Star Wars day.
Just a word of warning I’ll be updating the post later with more photos celebrating the day. You will be able to see them also on the usual social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) channels too.
FOR THE RECORD my Star Wars movie for the day is the movie Fanboys. I really do like this movie. And is Star Wars themed.

A Sith vs Jedi battle broke out at the pub

The fight continued when they got home…

Finally something unrelated to Star Wars…

This is one for Netrunner fans, this is a take away in Wisbech!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which Love Letter?

love letter, tabletop
With eight editions/versions of the game already out in the wild, and two more on the way, Love Letter has become a bit of a phenomenon in the gaming world. Yet ask most people that aren’t gamers and they won’t have heard of it. AEG have excelled on the marketing front and getting licences to brand the game with. For licensing Love Letter is like the gamers version of Monopoly (not as prolific on the number of themed versions yet) with its licenced versions.
The game is a simple game that can be taught in a couple of minutes. For gamers it acts as a great filler game, for non gamers it acts as a nice little game they can enjoy without being bogged done by complicated rules or lots of set up.
My first copy of the game was the tempest version, the three in the photo above weren’t out then. Just the name, the lovely red velvet material storage bag, was enough to put some macho types off playing it. But if they fought those feelings they soon discovered a really nice little game that they got a lot of enjoyment out of playing. I’m hoping that the friend I’ve lent this version too will also discover that, and also think it’ll make a great game to take on the family holiday.
So which version to buy and play?
They are all basically the same game, however with the newer released games AEG are starting to make small changes to the game that fit in with the theme of that licence.
For me the deciding factor should be which of the themes appeals to you most. Tolkien fan then get The Hobbit tie in, into superheroes then get the Batman one, like Munchkin get Loot Letter. I knew a friend loved Christmas and everything about the holiday season so I bought her the Santa themed edition as a Christmas present. Know some-one getting married there is a wedding themed version!
After you have decided on the theme, you then have to decide whether to buy the boxed version or the clamshell version.
What’s the difference? The clamshell version comes with a very nice little storage/carry case for the game. That matches the theme. The boxed version is a nice solid cardboard box with lovely art work related to the theme. However the drawback is as much as I love the box it’s not very portable compared to the lovely bags. Which fit easily into a pocket. Plus there is also a lot of wasted space in the box. It could be a lot more compact. So you need to decide between a sexy little storage bag and a sexy art work box. Which is your preference? Personally I wish AEG would combine the two so I didn’t have to decide. And it would justify the box size a little better.
I hope that this short post has helped you decide which Love Letter version to get.
Oh the new ones coming out? An Adventure Time themed version, and an Archer themed version. I’m not an Archer fan so can’t see myself getting that, but I like the Adventure Time universe so will get that when it’s available.
A completely unrelated random off shoot – I saw that there have been tournament/organised play events for Love Letter. I do hope AEG release details for this. I think I can work out something but would love to see if I’m close to what they came up with.

 

 

Start of May Arrivals

elder sign, new arrivals, tabletop

This is my fourth version of Love Letter that I own! And the fifth that I have bought (the Christmas themed Letters to Santa as a present to a friend). So get the impression that I like the game?

Currently my original version in a nice little red bag is out on loan to a friend to see if they like the game and suitable for going on holiday with.

At its heart it is still the core Love Letter game with a couple of little twists. I know I know I've complained about the rebranding of Monopoly sets, and Love Letter is getting nearly as bad.

The only draw back about the editions I have for this version, Batman and Loot a Letter is that the versions I've managed to get are not the clam shell packaging with the really nice little storage bags. Maybe at some point I'll get those versions and use these ones just for work for my students to use.

Five Tribes was one of the hot games of 2014. I was undecided about it at the time, so never was one of those that were singing its praises. I also missed the controversy about the slave card. However as usual Will Wheaton and his Tabletop chums played the game recently. Well you know how it goes “that looks interesting and fun”, the next thing you know it's at the top of your wish list on Amazon. Then somehow it migrates from there into the basket and is on its way to you.

Personally after a game has been on Tabletop it's usually very hard to get hold of. This wasn't the case this time I don't know if that was because this episode wasn't very popular, the publisher made sure plenty of stock was in the supply chain having been given a heads up.

I've just checked this copy has the controversial slave card which I thought had been replaced in newer copies. So obviously this one was before that change. However it is possible to buy the replacement cards from the Boardgame Geek Store, which also comes with a single card expansion for the hefty $5 asking price!

I like Elder Sign so these were a must despite the limited times I have played the base game. I love the theme, the quality of components are fantastic, the icing on the cake would be if they did a playmat for this game. There are some great fan created ones out there, but why no official one?

Another game that has been on my wishlist for a longtime. A semi cooperative competitive dice game with a coffee theme. I kinda love coffee so the theme is already something I'd love. I can't wait to play this with friends, especially if we can play it at a coffee shop.

 

What are you doing May the Fourth Day?

imperial assault, star wars, tabletop, X-Wing Miniatures

For those of us in the UK (particularly in EnglandShire – not sure about that funny lot north of the wall) this Monday coming is a Bank Holiday. Yep a loooong weekend for us, we'll an extra day. This year it also happens to fall on the same day as a popular geek celebration day May the Fourth Day, where geeks around this little globe of ours celebrate all things Star Wars.

I love that this most excellent of days coincides with a holiday this year. It allows me to pretend that here in the UK we have made May the Fourth Day a holiday (if only).

So what am I planning to do on Monday to celebrate this most auspicious of occasions?

Well for starters this blog will have a post dedicated to photos of these Lego minifigs I have that are Star Wars related. I do have one or two if you remember. These photos will also be pushed out via Instagram to Twitter and Facebook. Yep I'm going to spam social media.

I'm also going to use this post to invite any of my friends in the Wisbech area to pop round and play a Star Wars related game. I appreciate I may of upset one or two today with my political views and disappointment/annoyance that once more candidates have not canvassed my home (I'll leave the full rant for that Facebook discussion).

I have X-Wing (sadly rarely played), Imperial Assault and a Star Wars themed Risk. I'd love two or three friends round to play Imperial Assault, or at least one friend to play it in skirmish mode. I've not played the game and really want to.

Will this happen, will this invite be accepted?

We will find out on the day.

In the meantime I must make sure iTunes Match has logged my Star Wars OST cd's so that they can be playing in the background, and I may play catch up on Star Wars Rebels and rewatch the original trilogy. Well those two are the backup plan.

Catch you in the next post.

 

Birthday Lego

lego minifigs
So today I ended up buying myself this “reduced” Death Star Gun Crew set from Tesco when I popped in to buy cakes to take into work. It was mainly for the two Imperial Guards the rest is just a cool bonus.
Thanks to Amanda and Paul I also had a couple of Lego Mini packs to open as well today. I got the King and Hotdog ones again. I like both of these, sadly for the King he hits the spare parts store I have. While the Hotdog guy is just too good for the spare parts solution. He deserves a place of honor somewhere. I just need to decide where.

 

All Booked

dice masters, netrunner, star realms, tabletop
So that’s me all booked for the upcoming UK Games Expo. I’m going to be attending all three days, and have accommodation sorted also.
This will be my first time to the event and to a board gaming one. I’ve been to comic cons before (many decades ago), Raspberry Jams and video game related events.
But the firsts don’t stop there. Oh no. I signed up for the Dice Masters Nationals. I’ve never played in a Nationals before. Last year I did play in a Dice Masters OP event organised by my FLGS, and out of eight participants I didn’t come last, it was seventh. So not exactly a good showing, however that was early in my Dice Masters playing. After that I wasn’t able to get to the handful of other OP events they held.
The funny thing is I wasn’t sure I’d throw my hat in for the nationals because it falls on the last day of the expo. Well I’m used to making up the numbers and at least I should get a participation prize.
Now I am lending a couple of Yugioh cards and dice to a friend for his nationals team. So basically now I’ve armed a potential competitor (if we get drafted against each other that is). I should of put in a similar clause to that used in football when a player goes out on loan. Usually the loan agreement says that the player on loan can’t play against the loaning team if they meet up in any of the competitions. Or maybe I should of treated it like a game of Munchkin. Saying I’ll help you for a share of the treasure. And then haggle over how much of the treasure I’d get for my assistance.
In the meantime I have a lot of work to do. I’ve only played one game of Dice Masters since Christmas (although a lot of Star Realms). At that point in time the meta for the game only involved two sets, Avengers vs X-Men and the Uncanny X-Men. Since the start of the year Yugioh, Dungeons and Dragons and in the next couple of weeks DC (although just out in the US of A) have been released. Although I have Yugioh and D&D I’ve not played them (well one game of Yugioh) and I’m not really familiar with the current meta.
So I need to start looking at the cards of the new sets, looking at what has been played in recent national tournaments in the North Americas to see what I could potentially be facing. Let’s face it I expect some people to just be playing a team that others have created and done well with (ie won with). Armed with all this information build my team that I think will win me games and then play the heck out of it.
Which brings me on to Freddy. Freddy has kindly offered to be my Mickey Goldmill/Apollo Creed and help me get back into fighting shape again. Unfortunately I don’t have any chickens to chase and catch, but Loki is slipperier than a chicken especially when he has run off with a tissue or hankerchief.
With all this training going on I think we need…
 
I was hoping while at the expo to meet up with people to play some Star Realms. I do enjoy playing Star Realms using the actual physical cards. And it will be great to be able to do so. To meet this goal I’ve ask on a couple of appropriate FB fanpages if anyone is going and if they want to meet up to play some games of a Star Realms. It does seem odd, well not odd but sad that we aren’t getting like a nationals for Star Realms at the expo. Well you know we are getting nationals for Dice Masters, plus Android: Netrunner, X-Wing, HeroClix etc. There are tournaments for other games also which I’m not sure if they are official or not, but still they are going on. Just a shame nothing has been done for this awesome game. Let’s face it I’m not the only one that thinks it is awesome, it’s winning awards left, right and centre. It seems to be selling really well. So why no tournie?
While there I will hopefully (well very high chance) get to meet the fiancée of Martin and Julie’s daughter Zoe, Todd. Todd is a huge Android: Netrunner player and taking part in its nationals on the Saturday. So on the Saturday I’m hoping to watch a game or two of the nationals, but also pick the brains of Todd on playing and building decks. Zoe and her two kids (sorry guys names are missing from my old head) are also going to be there so hopefully will get to play some board games with them too on the Saturday.
So there you go I’m going to UK Games Expo, hope to see you there.

 

 

 

 

New Micro Experiences Arrive

tabletop
Recently I wrote a post about taking mini/micro games on a family holiday. Well an opportunity arose on the UK and Eire Trading and Selling group to buy the sequel to Eight Minute Empire, Eight Minute Empire Legends. In this update to the game the board is modular, there are special abilities, fantasy creatures. Plus it comes in a smaller box. When I opened it the person who I had bought it from had done something I do with games. For some games to aid setup I put all the components that a player will need in a bag. Then a player just grabs a bag and they are ready to go. No counting out counters, no finding all the bits required. Minimum set up, maximum time playing.

At the end of the post I mentioned the game below This Town Ain't Big Enough For The 2-4 Of Us. I love the minimum packaging, the flat pack, but that all goes in the bin. Once you have punched out the counters it all fits into the provided plastic bag. With this game you have a small portable Carcassonne like experience.
Luckily next week I'm being loaned a sewing machine. Which means I can see if sewing is for me and if I'm able to make a dice bag. If this goes to plan I'll be ordering material to make custom dice bags for my games, like a DC or Joker themed bag, or a Star Wars themed dice bag. How about a nice little storage bag for this new game to replace the plastic bag for this game? Skills, patience willing you bet that's on. I'd like to make a bag for Elder Sign too.

 

My Anarch Program Cards

netrunner
NB I had the following data packs when I built this deck:
  • What Lies Ahead
  • Trace Amount
  • Cyber Exodus
  • A Study in Static
  • Humanity's Shadow
  • Future Proof
  • True Colors
  • First Contact
  • Up and Over
  • All That Remains
  • Order and Chaos

Plus two starter sets

 

My Master Plan!

With Noise as my Anarch runner every time I install a virus program the top card of the corp scums R&D pile gets trashed into archives. So my thinking was I need to be playing to this strength and installing as many virus programs as possible.

The plan was to attack the core servers which I think and I may be wrong on this a keyhole strategy.

I wanted to be able to put pressure on the corp by being able to look at both the top and bottom of the corps R&D when I did a successful run on it, plus put as many cards as possible from R&D into archives ready for a run on it at the right moment. To aid this strategy I wanted to get the Hades Shard installed on archives early so that I could do a run on archives at an appropriate moment getting as many agendas as possible that would snatch me the win.

Being able to attack both ends of R&D would make life difficult for the corp scum because they wouldn't be able to hide agendas towards the bottom of the deck.

I hadn't forgotten about HQ and I had the matching card (can't remember it's name at the mo) to Hades Shard that would allow me to install it and do a run on HQ when ever I wanted. This tactic again relied on getting a run on HQ early before the corps can put up any really defence.

This would mean that the corps would not have a safe central server to hide agendas.

It should then be a matter of pulling the trigger at the right time to hover up those agendas to win.

Well that's the thinking, as we know from the games I played it didn't work exactly as planned as I lost both runner games.

Program Cards that I used:

  • Djinn
  • 2x Darwin
  • Imp
  • 2x Progenitor
  • 2x Medium
  • 2x Hivemind
  • 2x Crypsis
  • Keyhole

Progenitor and Djinn were chosen to allow me to host other programs/virus without impacting my memory usage. Progenitor also has the bonus of keeping a virus token the hosted card when the corp scum purge virus counters. Hivemind allows me to use its virus tokens on other virus programs as if they are theirs for card effects. Which is pretty cool for pimping out Darwin on the down low.

Medium allows me with the help of Hivemind also allows me to access more cards in R&D when I do a successful run on it. And Imp allows me to trash cards which is good when we consider my “master plan”.

Crypsis I can't remember why I chose this one. I think it was because I wanted an Icebreaker AI virus to help feed off the Noise ability of trashing the top card of R&D when a virus is installed.

So there you have it the program's I played plus my master plan. The next plan will look at the hardware and resources I chose.

Feel free to comment below with suggestions of how I can improve my deck – just remember the data packs that I have. Although as I have proven I am prepared to jump a data pack to a must buy ahead of the ordered purchase list I have to get a needed card.

 

A Night At The Museum

elder sign

And I’m not talking about that popular but awful film with Ben Stiller. Nope I’m talking about one of the battles in the war against the forces of darkness that is going on around us. Subconsciously we know it’s going on, but it happens in the shadows, the dark places we avoid.

From an early age we are trained to ignore the truth that we see. The monster under the bed or in the cupboard, that spooky looking house down the road with the grumpy old man who hates kids living in it, all dismissed as figments of a child’s active imagination. “Don’t be silly, there is nothing there, see?”, “oh Mr Trumpton he’s had a hard time and been so lonely since his wife died last Summer”. Despite these dismissive reassurances that it’s nothing they leave a night light on for you, or warn you not to hassle that grumpy neighbour. Better to be safe than sorry.

Oh we suspect something is going on. We catch glimpses from time to time. Something or some-one caught moving in our peripheral vision. We turn to look but whatever it was is gone. The shadow world hidden from us once more.

The war will never end, it has been going on for millennia and will continue for millennia. Battles will be won and lost by an ever changing cast on both sides.

Today we will get a sneak peak behind the curtain and witness one of those battles between good and evil.

The Fens has a rich history of local “myths” of giants, dragons and fairies. Is it any wonder that the battle we will witness is going to happen in the heart of the Capital of the Fens, Wisbech?

In the heart of Wisbech sandwiched between its castle and St Peters Church the highest point in the town is an almost nondescript entrance (although some may argue otherwise) to a building that is home to an Iron Age treasure the Wisbech Scabbard and the story of the fens. That unobtrusive entrance with its treasures and stories is the Wisbech Museum. It is here at this focal point of mystical energy that the battle between good and evil will be occurring.

In the shadows out side the market towns museum stood Mandy Thompson a researcher of the paranormal, and along side her Monterey Jack an archeologist who beared a remarkable resemblance to a famous fictional character but in no way infringed on that intellectual property.
Mandy and Monterey had been in many a museum stopping evil from breaking through into our realm. There had been more of them in this fight but the victories had been bought at a great price.
They stood in the entrance of the museum. Mandy and Jack were impressed it was certainly bigger on the inside than the outside.
Was this why they were always having these battles in museums? Just what was it that attracted these monsters from hell?
Mandy’s research had led her to believe they were looking at a rather messy battle ahead of them with Azathoth. An ancient being that if he awoke would mean the instant destruction of the world as we knew it.

“Mandy as much as I enjoy our little adventures saving mankind, I really do need to answer the call of nature before we start getting our hands messy.”

“If you have to go, you have to go. The public lavatory is over there. Just be quick.”

When Monterey entered the generic public lavatory the bloody mirror kind of gave it away that he wasn’t going to be able to go about his “business” quietly. That and the fact that a witch and a cultist were already in the public lavatory (that sounds like the start of a crap joke) waiting to ambush anyone that came into the toilet.

Monterey really did need to go, which made the ensuing fight particularly more painful for him. But he managed to subdue the cultist and witch without destroying the urinal.
After completing what he had originally intended to do in the public lavatory Monterey returned back to the museum entrance.
“You took your time, what kept you?” enquired Mandy.

“There was a little party in there that I gate crashed.”

“Well while you were having fun in the bathroom I checked out the Storage closet over there.”

“Anything interesting?”

“Nah just a gate to another Other World” replied Mandy.

TO BE CONTINUED

PLEASE NOTE: photos of Wisbech Museum taken from the Wisbech museum website. If you get a chance it’s always worth a visit to the Wisbech Museum along with Peckover House. Ideally The Castle should also be open to the public but our council prefer to keep it to themselves and on the rare occasion let us in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Elder Rant

elder sign

Warner Brothers and DC the other day released a photo of Jared Leto as the Joker for The Suicide Squad movie that they are making. All I'm going to say is I hate them, despise them, and hope they contract a nasty disease. To distract fanboys from the attrocity that has been committed they tried using subtle references to previous Joker iterations like The Killing Joke etc. But it fails it doesn't cover up that all they have done is make a Marrilyn Manson clone with green hair.

I know that after Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight the bar was raised incredibly high for whoever followed him by playing that role. However DC and WB have screwed up massively and ruined the character for me now.

The Joker is one of my favourite comic book characters, if not my number one. It is criminal what they have done.

With decisions like this is it no wonder Marvel are kicking DC butt at the cinema. How can they get it right on the small screen and then screw up on the big screen so often?

DC it's not rocket science fire the incompetent fools who are working with the WB side and hire me to correct this screw up before it's too late.

Time to Fight Lovecraftian Horrors and Save The Planet

I finally managed to track down a copy of what was turning out to be a very elusive game to get Elder Sign. Sometimes Google just isn't good enough, everything I found online was out of stock or if on Amazon a stupid price.

Then last weekend I decided just to vent on the UK Buyers and Sellers page on Facebook about why was it so hard to buy a copy of the game. Then fate struck, a new retailer MeepleCity saw my mini rant and messaged me that they had a copy of the game. I was quickly on their site and ordering the game. Not only was it at a reasonable price but also if I accepted the longer delivery time free delivery.

So now with the delivery arriving today I am the proud owner of the game Elder Sign from Fantasy Flight.

Elder Sign has a similar mechanic to Roll For It and Age of War behind it. Which for me is one I like. Rolling dice, completing a target such as getting three of a kind, maybe a press your luck element.

The idea that you can introduce a none gamer to the mechanic with Roll For It, then introduce them to Age of War that adds a little bit more to the mechanic, then play Elder Sign that takes that mechanic and adds so much more to it, I like that a lot.

There are two expansions to this game out there in the wild. Unseen Forces ups the difficulty and adds blessings and curses plus more investigators and ancient ones I believe. Whilst Gates of Arkham takes the battle out of the museum and onto the streets of Arkham.

I've embedded the episode of Tabletop where they play Elder Sign so you can see what all the fuss is.