Category Archives: Big Game Saturdays

Bad Guys two, Good guys nil

Big Game Saturdays, Game day

I think one of my gaming highlights of the year has to be the annual gaming day that Jeff hosts to celebrate another year going round the sun. For the record the other is going to the UKGE.

This year like the previous one saw Memoir 44 hit the table with an overlord map.

Our first conflict from World War 2 saw the British forces of Montgomery’s 8th Army go up against the German forces of Rommel’s African Corp at Alam Haifa.

Dave (German General/Commander), Diego, and Katie (a friend and colleague of Jeff’s) were the German forces aka the bad guys.

Whilst Jonas (British General/Commander), Gavin, and myself were the British forces aka the good guys.

Wait Jeff wasn’t playing? I hear you say. Kind of. Whilst we were engaged in bloody conflict he was finishing off the curries for lunch. Then at opportune moments in the cooking process joining us to “consult” with the German forces. Which is a fancy way to say he offered advice to Katie because she hadn’t played Memoir 44 before.

There was lots of good natured banter, lots aimed at me. But when your own side are cheering on your opposite number on the battlefield. I rely on one of my favourite quotes.

“Again, right in the ears, straight to the feelings.” Wil Wheaton Big Bang Theory

Sadly for my “team mates” my opposite number with the aid of outside advice, great cards from her Commander, and really good dice rolls, was kicking the butt of the units under my control.

My team mates were getting what they had been calling for earlier in the game. What’s the say “be careful for what you wish for”?

It was getting so dire Jonas our Commander had to move some tank units to my sector to shore up our forces.

Around midday play was interrupted for lunch. Which was a welcome relief from the whooping we were getting.

Lunch was a selection of four home made curries by Jeff. These are always a delicious treat that everyone attending looks forward to.

Fully fed, the German forces went against history and pulled off the inevitable a points victory.

Game two for the day saw a change in the conflict to the from the North African theatre to the Pacific theatre of war. It also saw a personnel change as well.

With the food all consumed Jeff was able to join in the action replacing Katie who had to leave.

That meant that the American forces aka the good guys at Guadalcanal were being represented by Dave, Jeff (General/Commander), and Diego.

Which meant the Japanese forces aka the bad guys were unchanged from the first game members and role wise.

There was a Sudden Death victory condition for the Japanese. All we had to do was get a unit to an exit marker and leave the area of play through it.

Early on I got a behind enemy lines card that allowed me to make a dash for that exit marker. I was three hexes from the exit marker. A great distraction for the opposition forcing them to attempt to stop the unit. They had one turn to stop the unit or lose in spectacular fashion.

Luckily despite a little shenanigans from Jonas weakening the American attacks to take out my unit. They did indeed stop my lone unit. But it did divert their attention and force them to burn up some cards.

We were in a strong position I was getting control of my sector whilst Jonas and Gavin inched forward in theirs.

We were getting some great cards, and dice rolls. Whilst the opposite was true for the American forces.

Points wise we were inching closer to victory. Although it was pretty close still.

And then Jonas played one two knockout combo. He started with an arial bombardment to clear the exit space, followed by a behind enemy lines card allowing his unit to make a dash for the space and grab the win.

After our glorious victory defying history once more, we chewed the fat whilst enjoying Jeff’s salty tears over the manner of the win.

This was a great day. They always are. Great food, great company. An amazing way to celebrate Jeff getting a year older. I’m lucky he invited me. A big thank you to Jeff for being such an incredible host.

Another cunning plan with an old favourite…

I did pick up from Gavin his Dicemasters stuff (which was originally mine before we did some wheeling and dealing a few years back). And Jeff very generously gave me what bits of Dicemasters he had.

I really liked Dicemasters back when it came out. But sadly Wizkids really fumbled the ball with it. Which is a shame it’s a great game.

However I had been thinking recently I’d like to get back playing it, especially with Nathan. I think he’d like it.

I know it’s a “dead” game. But that just means we can use what I have, and anything I can get cheaply to build “teams” and play. It doesn’t mean we can’t play it or have fun.

What I do need to do is try and remember how to play the game again!

Wiener, wiener wiener, wiener wiener

Big Game Saturdays, Game day, game of thrones

Saturday saw the long overdue return of A Game of Thrones the boardgame second edition (that’s a mouthful to say) to the table.

The impetus to get it back was to play it with the third and largest expansion for the game Mother of Dragons.

I bought the expansion early on during the big global event if memory does not fail me on this. For sure it was during said event.

So at some point I was going to want to play this again.

To help encourage getting it back to the table I did add it to two of the gaming challenges I set up at the start of the year.

So a couple of months back I setup an event on the Fenland Gamers discord server. I had three players (including myself) able to commit to playing the game. With a fourth unsure.

We needed four players to be able to use the new map of Essos and House Targaryen. Which is one of the major attractions of the expansion.

In the days, even weeks before I did try getting the playmat for the game. Sadly there were none in stock, those on eBay that looked affordable had a massive (£70+ postage!). Even a couple of pleas on a Facebook gaming group went unanswered.

On the day the unsure sadly was not able to make it. But as I was getting that news and about to start putting away the extra map and Targaryen pieces in walked Jimmy and an unexpected Nathaniel. We had a fourth.

A brief note on setting up before the players arrived. Which you know I like to do. For this game I setup as much as I could before everyone arrived. However which houses were controlled by players and which were to become vassal houses couldn’t be done until everyone had arrived. Luckily everything a player needed for each house was bagged, decks ready. So once selected all they had to do was grab everything for that house. Then it was just a matter of getting the components needed for each vassal house from the houses components.

Whilst waiting for Jeff to arrive we started choosing our houses for the game.

I went first and chose Targaryen. I wanted this house in the game, the only way to guarantee it was to choose it myself.

Here are how the houses ended up being chosen.

  • Stark – Jimmy
  • Baratheon – Nathanial
  • Targaryen – Me
  • Tyrell – Jeff

The vassal houses were: Lannister, Greyjoy, Martell, Arryn.

Oh we were also using the Tides of War deck in combat.

Then battle commenced.

Despite repeated warnings throughout the game about Jeff and how he was clocking up strongholds and castles in the name of House Tyrell. Jimmy and Nathaniel kept attacking me whilst leaving Jeff mostly alone.

Then the moment came when I declared Jeff had won the next round. By then there was nothing they could do. They tried in vein to delay the inevitable. But their efforts were futile.

It was interesting that even at the moment I had declared Jeff’s impending victory he too had not fully seen it.

If only someone had warned them earlier!

All I did was sit back and watch events unfold as predicted, whilst inflicting a final bit of humiliation to Nathaniel as payback for the constant naval attacks by capturing the Baratheon castle.

I’m a fan of the earlier two expansions A Feast for Crows (four players) and A Dance with Dragons (six players). But for me Mother of Dragons beats them hands down.

The vassal system introduced adds a new additional tactical element to the game from choosing which house to take control of, to how you are going to use them that turn. Granted it adds considerably to the play time (there are rules handling if a player has to leave during a game, they also become a vassal!) The vassal system replaces the neutral force tokens of the base game, and I really do prefer it.

I liked House Targaryen and the dragons. Although it does add a rather big target to your back. I think Nathaniel and Jimmy were too focused on my threat with the dragons enabling Jeff to exploit that distraction. But they were cool to play and have their alternative win condition. Plus their specific Westeros deck did seem to encourage a bit of wheeling and dealing with the other houses.

The Iron Bank cards were interesting, although Jeff was the only one who bought one. I think more plays are required before I can make my mind up over these.

I like that you can use the other expansions house cards with this one. So if you only play Mother of Dragons they are not just collecting dust. Plus for now another reason to get the game back to the table!

Mother of Dragons will be my preference when it comes to playing A Game of Thrones. Unless time is tight and the player count matches up the other expansions won’t get a full outing.

I had a blast and can’t wait to revisit Westeros to get my revenge and recapture the Iron Throne.

Season Two of Big Game Saturdays Planned

Big Game Saturdays

With the end of the Scythe Rise of Fenris campaign the Saturdays between D&D are taken up with what I am now calling season one of Saturday Big Games!

Season One of Saturday Big Games

The season kicks off with Dune the boardgame with both expansions CHOAM and Richese, and Ixians & Tleilaxu. These combined add a further four factions the six in the base game. The only worrying thing is that the season kicks off with a damp squib! At the moment there are five unsure players possibly going to play the game.

Luckily the other two games currently have more players committing to them. But as we all know life has many ways of throwing spanner’s in the works.

This first season is planned to finish at the end of July.

In the meantime I already have a season two planned!

Well the games I’d like to get to the table this time (see the image below). And as I write this a season three is also forming in my crazy mind.

Season Two of Saturday Big Games

I don’t think it will come as a surprise to anyone about The Thing being on this list. It was fun at four players. Hopefully for this play we can get nearer to the full player count.

“Wait, haven’t you just played Star Wars Outer Rim?” I hear you ask. Why yes, yes I have. But hoping this will be at the full player count with the newly released Unfinished Business expansion.

Despite apparently having flaws (design and rulebook) I so want to get Ghostbusters 2 to the table.

Finally a game of Scythe using the modular board, Invaders from Afar, The Wind Gambit, and (this is the important part) Rise of Fenris as modules, with a five or six player count has to be done. This will be mind blowing.

I think season two is best to start in September once those pesky Summer holidays are out of the way.

In the meantime I can gauge interest in the clubs discord server.