All posts by Darren

Racing to the pile of shame

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You wouldn't it would be safe to say, describe me as a formula one racing fan. I find the sport and especially the TV/radio coverage boring. It's about as exciting as watching washing going round in a tumble drier for me. The commentators make it even worse because they try and make it sound exciting.

So why then have I gone and bought a boardgame that recreates the formula one driving experience? Was the Tabletop episode with Wil Wheaton and friends really that good an advert for the game? Er Yes.

There are some nice touches to the game like how it uses different sided dice to simulate using different gears. Or how a car has to stop in a marked area round each of the corners or the car takes damage.

And the game does seem much more fun than actually watching the sport. So another game removed off my “to buy” list and added to my pile of shame of games I really must get to the table.

Thought I would end today's post with a Nico and Loki photo. I just love the evil look on Nicos face as he plots some act of evil to get the chew off Loki.

 

Gaming Day

game night, love letter, netrunner, new arrivals

We had an induction event at work today for students starting in September. I had been put down to “entertain” a group of them for a couple of hours in the morning.

Recently it has come to light that I have a little bit of a Love Letter addiction and own eight copies of the game in various editions.

My plan was simple, I would utilise my Love Letter problem and hold a little Love Letter tournament with the students.

This was this first time the students had played the game. Plus for this group the first time that they had played a game that would not be considered “mainstream”. Sadly none of the group play tabletops, and most would say their last experience was playing the likes of Monopoly or Frustration.

The way I organised the tournament was that the winners from each table would be playing against each other in the next round. And then mix the other tables up based on how many tokens each remaining player had scored that round. To have consistent scoring between the versions we used the Batman Love Letter scoring, which meant that the guard card or equivalent when played and the player guesses correctly they get a token. Which is in addition to a token for winning the round.

This proved a great way of getting the students to mix, because this was the first time they had met.

Next time I run a Love Letter tournament (which will most likely be September) I’m hoping to get some prizes in place for the students to win. The only reason there wasn’t anything this time is because I had very little notice that I would be doing this today, let alone time to think about how I would fill the time slot.

The students had a good time playing the game. Which is the important thing.

At the end of the session I ended up showing one group an example of a “modern” boardgame by taking my copy of Run Fight or Die! out (I just happened to have a copy in my bag!) and quickly setting it up and explaining how the game is played.

What do I look for in a game to use with me students?

It has to be quick to teach, ideally in five to ten minutes. Lessons are one hour twenty (a two hour session like today is a rarity), so playtime for the game should be under an hour. Ideally the game should support four to six players, and not be expensive to buy (funnily enough I don’t have a budget for this sort of thing).

So what games do I currently use with the students:

  • Love Letter
  • Resistance
  • Fluxx
  • Munchkin
  • Zombie Dice

 

And here is a list of games I’m looking to try/introduce:

  • Coup
  • Sushi Go!
  • One Night Resistance (or I think it’s changed to Rebellion)
  • Age of War

Tuesday Night Netrunner

Well I was at the Kings Head at 7pm. Sadly a grand total of zero people turned up. I hung around for forty odd minutes. But I must have looked pretty sad nursing my orange and lemonade (with ice) while reading the rules to Hive. Then again I was the only customer there.

I will get this off the ground. So here is looking to next Tuesday and hopefully a bigger turnout.

New Arrivals

Well after last night and my complaint with Amazon where I cancelled the order and got a refund, that Imperial Settlers was delivered today was rather surprising. I wasn’t expecting that at all, especially when the Royal Mail told the Amazon support person the earliest they could attempt to redeliver was Wednesday! So my logic went I’ll cancel the order, get refund, reorder the game. While I’m doing that Amazon tell the Royal Mail to return the package. And life and the universe are at peace with one another once more.

The day had gone as planned, the manager from the local Royal Mail didn’t call me as promised. Royal Mail customer support is so shitty. I’m too drained to follow this up. Apparently Royal Mail managers finish at 2pm so I can’t even pop round after work to catch them.

I wonder why the Royal Mail is losing business to competition?

Finally Boss Monster 2 arrived, this is the kickstarter Collectors Editon that I went for which is made up of the limited edition game and a special lunchbox to store the cards of the game, plus stretch goals. I’ll get the special lunchbox later in the year. So excited about that. If you are remotely interested you can get the full list of the rewards I’ll be getting here on the this page.

The second hand copy of Hive Pocket is in good condition, I’m looking forward to learning this game. It’s potentially a game for trips.

Finally Nations the Dice Game also arrived. I really want to get this and Roll for the Galaxy to the table very very soon.

 

 

 

 

About Last Night

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So last night using the power of the internets, webcams and other bits of magic that I couldn't even imagine back in the early eighties as a young teenage me, I played a game of Android:Netrunner. This gave me a chance to play my Noise deck against Jinteki. It needs some adjustment, especially on the economy side. Sadly for me the majority of my viruses had migrated to the bottom half of my deck. I didn't do too badly, I scored six points before dieing from a snare. I had been reduced to a hand size of two after taking three brain damage earlier.

New Royal Mail Uniform announced – the saga continues

So called in the Royal Mail depot today. Firstly told they couldn't give me my parcel without a card!! When I pointed out that one was never left, I gave them the tracking number, but conviently they are upgrading their computer system and wasn't able to find it, although they were sure it was on the premises. They even tried saying that they had tried delivering the game, and tried neighbours as well. I pointed out that it wasn't possible, and that their person on delivery was lying but they wouldn't have it. Honestly this is starting to smell like they have stolen my game.

I spoke to Amazon and complained about all this, and have ended up cancelling the order and got a refund. Time to source from elsewhere I think.

Finally after teaching Love Letter to my friend at work, ready for tomorrow's Love Letter tournament, we had a quick look at Run Fight or Die!

Sadly there was only time for a couple of turns each, but wow! We really liked it. Although my friend could do with being a bit luckier rolling dice. I'm now very very keen to get this to the table for a full play ASAP.

PS currently have Formula D (an F1 racing game on its way), along with a copy of Hive Pocket (an abstract game). When they arrive that will be two more off my list of games to get, and two more on my pile of shame.

 

Netrunner this Tuesday anyone?

netrunner

 

For those in the Wisbech/Fenland area that play Android:Netrunner and looking for a game of two, I'm a noob at the game and same here. So thought why not try and organise something. So here I am trying to organise something. I'll be at the Kings Head, Wisbech this Tuesday from 7pm with my core set (for playing with those that only have a core set) and a Noise Anarch deck that I have built and want to play test.

I'm hoping if enough people show an interest this can become a regular thing. Tuesday night Netrunner with refreshing beverages.

 

QOTD: How many copies of love letter is too many?

love letter

With the arrival of the clamshell (read has the bag) edition of Munchkin Loot Letter today, I did a quick adding up, and I have eight!

I think I have a problem, and need an intervention.

Favourite Version? Batman Love Letter, great art, amazing tokens, just the whole package is awesome.

Worst Bag? Munchkin Loot Letter – after being spoilt by the lovely soft velvet material, stitched logos of the Batman, Hobbit and Tempest editions the plastic feel and print on logos of Loot Letter were a major disappointment.

Best Rule Change? Batman Love Letter – when playing a Batman card and you guess another players card not only do you knock that player out for that round you also get a bonus token.

Best Tokens? Batman Love Letter – those little oval yellow Batman logos are awesome!

Least Favourite Tokens? Love Letter The Hobbit Battle of the Five Armies – although very thematic I just don't like the little plastic gem like counters.

Why do I need so many copies? Well this coming Tuesday I'm holding a Love Letter tournament for some new students. I'll be writing about that then.

 

Hulking Out

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I like Games Lore they are a nice reliable company. Well my experience with them so far has been very good. This morning the latest data pack from the SanSan Cycle dropped through the letter box.

I love the data packs and the job that FFG do with them. I love the leaflets that they include with background information on them. They add meat to the Android universe that FFG have created. It's a simple thing but adds so much to the game for me. After all the theme is so awesome.

A Tale of Woe

I should be telling you all about the arrival of Imperial Settlers today. But sadly due to a bunch of lazy lying b'stards at the Royal Mail I can't.

You may detect I'm just a tad upset about this.

Tracking numbers are great things. So when I was on Amazon this morning checking when my Munchkin Loot Letter would be arriving I noticed that it was also saying that there had been an attempt to deliver said Imperial Settlers at 8:23am!

This kind of took me by surprise because I was sitting down stairs in the living room drinking an awesome mug of coffee, with Loki curled up next to me. There was no knock on the door, no little card lying about how they had tried to deliver.

So you can imagine I was very pissed off to see this as an update.

Now I have popped out this morning around 10:30, the pack needed some treats to keep them busy. However mum was dog sitting. So there was someone at mine, sitting in my living room (which by the way the front door opens into) with the dogs.

But apparently once more according to the tracking the Royal Mail had tried to redeliver the package! Once more no card through the door. Once more no knock on the door. Once more a false claim by the delivery person.

Is it a wonder that business is being lost to competitors by the Royal Mail, when they clearly employ liars who are not doing their job. I am fed up with the Royal Mail. Bunch of thieves and liars if you ask me. When I don't receive a package that I've ordered it has always been the Royal Mail that was meant to be delivering it. It's funny as the replacement always gets through no problems.

There is going to be an angry me turning up to the local depot Monday morning. Even then the managers are incompetent, never returning calls when asked to so a complaint can be made.

The sooner the Royal Mail goes out of business the better I say.

 

Bargains Arrive

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Yesterday after a hard day at the ol' mine face known as work I arrived home to the delightful surprise of some new arrivals.

You will remember I have previously pointed out that it is now possible to avoid the eBay fleecers and get the Tabletop promo card for Dead of Winter for a bargain five dollars plus postage.

Now this may seem an odd thing to say but I'm a kind of an off and on again Felcia Day fan. For those not in the know about who Felcia Day is, she is an actress, writer, and producer. Much of her fame comes from the geek/nerd culture world. I do like the web series she wrote and starred in called The Guild. What I'm not a big fan of is Felcia Day the personality.

Now this for some, nay many geeky/nerdy fans out there be heresy. But I'm man enough to take any flak. I just find that when she is on shows like Tabletop or her show co-optitude with her brother that she really really really irritates me. Especially when she plays the coy “am I cute?”, or “because I'm cute” look. It just grates. I'm a rational sane person, despite how sad I must appear at this point in time. I just hope that is some act that Felcia puts on for the cameras.

So why if at best I can be described as a luke warm Felcia fan did I want this promo? If nothing else has been established on this blog since it became about gaming that one of my personality quirks is that I'm kind of a complentionist. That some part of my DNA that defines who I am, there are some chromosomes that switched on this flaw within me. The other reason is heck I can banish Felcia from the colony of survivors, basically throw her to the zombies!

The other bargain that arrived was Run, Fight or Die with the two expansions I wanted. Which if you remember I got at a great price compared to what Amazon were asking.

I'll look at this dice rolling, push your luck zombie based game in another post once I get a chance to play it.

 

Quick Post

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Start of the month goodies arrived yesterday. Not all of the ones I was expecting but hey ho.

With the arrival of The Source and The Spaces Between data packs for Android:Netrunner I now have all of the data packs (apart from the just released one – awaiting Amazon to send it). Next up is to get the remaining two big expansions that I need to complete for the time being having all the available cards for the game.

As you can also see I have the Why Can't We Be Friends expansion for Imperial Settlers. Just a bloody shame Amazon decided not to send the game at the same time! So have expansion but no game!!!

Yesterday I also got a chance to play AGES with one of my students. The student had heard about the game on the Star Realms Fan page on Facebook, and I did say I'd bring the game in for him to play. Now the student is just waiting for the kickstarter to start so he can pledge for a copy of the game.

Finally there are plans for a Tuesday night Netrunner to start running at the Kings Head in Wisbech starting on the 7th of this month. So next week basically. Hopefully. Maybe.

 

Bargain Hunter

tabletop

It's that time of month when monies bounces into the bank account and then instantly bounces back out again. A lot of the time it bounces out to pay bills. But sometimes it results in goodies arriving.

One game that has been sitting on my list of games to get (and there are a few games on this list) has been Run, Fight, Die a zombie game, and I do like zombie themed games.

About a month ago Freddy bagged a bargain getting this game with I think all of the expansions for around $100 I think it may have been a tad more but my failing memory forgets the exact amount paid. He got an amazing bargain.

Well as I said at the start of the post its that time of month that for a brief flicker of time I have cash available. So while I was watching a Netrunner hgame on YouTube a random thought hit me, I wonder how much Amazon is selling the game for.

So a quick visit to Amazon got me the above prices. So just under fifty pounds for the base game, but I really would like that five and six player expansion. Aaaand it would be nice to have that Expansion 3 that adds co-op play to the game. Some quick advanced maths using a super computer and an abacus, then having Loki check my sums I came up with a figure of roughly one hundred pounds in real money.

That was a bit more than I was wanting or able to afford at the moment. Maybe I should put off purchasing the game, or just buy the base game this month. Decisions, decisions.

Then I asked myself I wonder if I can get the game cheaper elsewhere? I'll do this as an academic exercise I thought. I estimated maybe I might be able to save potentially ten pounds.

So with my ninja Google skills I went looking for UK based games retailers selling Run, Fight, Die. My journey led me to the web pages of Games Lore. Wow I wasn't prepared for their prices.

For the princely sum of fifty six pounds (which includes p&p and a 2.5% Discount for spending over fifty pound) I was able to get the game plus the two expansions I wanted for just over half the price of buying them on Amazon.
Wow that was an amazingly good deal. Somewhere inside my head any nagging doubts about getting the game were silently smothered with a pillow. Before I knew it an order confirmation email was sitting in my inbox.

I do like Amazon especially with next day delivery (part of my Prime membership). However they are not always the cheapest, as this post has shown. It does pay to shop around.

 

Star Realms 2.3 Out

star realms

Today saw the release of the latest version of the Star Realms app. For those who read this blog and don't know what Star Realms is (is there anyone?), it's a two player (although can be more) deck building game where each player is trying to remove the opposing players authority (life) down to zero. Now Star Realms is not just a physical card game but also an awesome app available on iOS, (dirty) Android, OS X and Windoze. The app allows you to play online against other players, there is also solo play modes like against an ai or a campaign mode.

What makes the app stand out is its cost. The app costs £3.99 which gets you the app across all the platforms the game is available. So many months have to buy it again to,play it on my Mac or for for some reason I want to play on a PC. The same also goes for the Gambit expansion you can buy for the app which costs £2.99. Once again that means you have the expansion on all the other platforms also. So amazing value.

So what have they introduced in this latest update? Well instead of me telling you here is the summary from the iOS App Store.

The biggest improvement for me is the being able to have the greater granularity when playing with the Gambit expansion. Personally I can take or leave the Gambit cards, but some of my favourite ships were introduced in the Gambit expansion. So being able to select just the ships and bases now and leave out the Gambits is a big big thing.
Campaign sync is nice but I play mainly online against others these days. Campaign was great at helping me learn before stepping out into the big wide world of online play.
The auto updated is also a very nice touch on OS X and Windoze.
So a nice little update strengthening a great app.