The final morning with Nath always seems to always fly by.
It never seems long enough.
After breakfast of warmed croissants and coffee, as I finished writing the previous post about what the outdoors means to me Nath played a bit of Overlord on his XBoxOne.
We played a final couple of games of Star Wars Unlimited using our updated decks. Mine is definitely working better than Nath’s. Although I did notice he is playing with a sixty card deck. So next visit we will have to look at what cards can be removed.
Afterwards it was time for me to pack my things before heading off back.
The good bye is always tinged with a bit of melancholy. But before I pull out of the car park I call mum to let her know I’m on my way.
The journey home was a little longer than it should have been because a major road I usually take was closed. So I needed to turn to Apple Maps to get me a route from the M1 to the A1.
The new year can’t come soon enough for me before I return. But first I have to survive December and the insanity at work.
After visiting the ex with Nath (there was a conference call both of them had to be on) and a round about journey back (stopping at a show home and a lunch stop at KFC and McD).
Nath and I played on my Switch OLED. We started out with Nath thrashing me on Mario Kart. Followed by a quick death match on Doom. The honours were just about even with Nath edging victory. Followed by a return to Mario Kart and a fun random battle mode game.
After a break I broke out the WWE Dice Masters.
I was a little disappointed there was no Stone Cold or Undertaker. I think they were left for the rivals and tag team packs.
But it had Mankind and Triple H so I was placated a little by the choices Wizkid made.
We played two games Nath winning the first and I won the second.
After packing away Dice Masters I got out the Star Wars Unlimited cards from the first two sets for Nath and I to upgrade our decks.
So a little time was spent doing exactly that.
Afterwards we played a game with our modified decks. Which saw my deck edge it for the victory.
Nath’s back was hurting so we ended up chilling in front of the tv watch some episodes of Supernatural season 1. Nath has recently started working his way through the series. It’s a long project because if memory serves me right Supernatural had 15 seasons.
Yesterday morning was spent house viewing. I’m not moving (see imminent big news post) however economically it makes sense for my ex to sell the flat Nath is currently in.
So between them they are looking at options for him.
After the two viewings it was time to hit Basingstoke town centre and its gaming shop.
As the photo below shows the latest Star Wars Unlimited set Twilight of the Republic got more than a few of my hard earned pennies.
I also bought Nath his own copy of Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle Earth. I knew he’d like it once we played it. So I jumped the gun a little.
Mistakes were made
I also got Nath copies of Zelda Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom to play on my old Switch Lite.
After pigging out at Burger King we headed home.
Once back at Nath’s we started cracking open the boosters. I think Nath enjoys opening the packs and seeing what cool cards we get. It is addictive.
After a little break from that excitement I set up LotR Duel for Middle Earth. Nath played Sauron and I played the fellowship.
We really enjoyed the game. It was familiar but new!
I love the art by Vincent Dutrait. I love his style. He really captures Tolkiens world.
By luck I grabbed a victory by completing the Quest of the Ring track when I completed a tile that allowed me to go through the discard pile and play a card for free. In that discard pile was a three ring card that allowed me to move the final three spaces I needed to reach mount Doom and destroy the ring.
We followed up by playing the two new starter decks for SWU Twilight of the Republic. They didn’t disappoint. I was expecting them to showcase the new token spamming and they did. Just like the previous starter decks they were fun to play. I won this game.
Afterwards we played our own decks in which I won the first game and came close to winning the second but Nathan managed to hold on and grab victory.
We finished off the night watching the latest Alien movie, Alien Romulus. It wasn’t a bad entry in the series.
I’m writing this post on my scheduled day off at work. Which means I have five more shifts left that are broken up by another day off before I start a much needed week off.
My plan is to go and visit Nathan for a couple of days (with the usual recovery time for mum at the end, apparently looking after two attack chihuahuas is stressful!)
But what games am I going to take with me?
I think the most obvious is Star Wars Unlimited. We have our respective decks to update and play. Plus I’ll take the starter decks. I think also whilst I’m there that the third set Twilight of the Republic is released. So that might see us getting some stuff from that.
I’m also going to throw in the bag the Gears of War card game. I’ve not got this to the table yet. Nath and I both like the video games. So hopefully we’ll get this to the table.
Nathan loves 7 Wonders Duel. I bought him his own copy, including the expansions, and pimped it out for him with the metal coins. So even though I’ve not played it yet I know that we will both love The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth. So that will definitely be in the bag as well.
Finally I will throw in the WWE Dice Masters set.
I’m also going to try out a new coffee gadget with Nath that is arriving today. But I’ll reveal more about this new gadget whilst I’m at Nath’s.
Upon his return from doing some uncle duties first thing. Nath and I spent our last morning together playing a couple of games of you guessed it Star Wars Unlimited.
The first game went the same way as the previous evening. With me getting a comfortable win.
But our second game saw me in a position where if Nath had no answer I was going to win on turn seven. I had enough units in either battleground to deliver the winning blow.
Nath tapped all eight of his resources and defeated all my units! I had no cards in hand. I never recovered from this board wipe. Two turns later Nath just picked me off unable to defend myself to get the win.
Afterwards I started packing ready for the journey home.
The time always goes fast when I’m visiting Nath. Parting is always so hard. Even with Nath being an adult and towering over me, he’s still my little boy.
But part we must. At least I will be back in November and updating our decks or building new ones.
Waiting for me when I got home were the final two cards needed for my twin suns deck. That’s ready now for Tuesday.
Plus the board game Tribes of the Wind, which has a very Naussica Valley of the Wind vibe just from the box art alone. Can’t wait to try it.
Apparently Nath and the two attack chihuahuas Nico and Loki have one thing in common. That’s that they don’t like going out in the rain.
With the heavens pouring down Nath was adamant he would not be going for a walk in the rain. Despite me pointing out we have coats, and I have a tarp/poncho that could be used to keep us dry during the coffee stop. Nath remained unconvinced.
Instead we went into town.
Yes it was raining.
No Nath didn’t take a rain coat with him.
Yes after we had lunch at Burger King and made our way to the game shop he “borrowed” my umbrella.
Somehow at the game shop another booster box for Star Wars Unlimited Shadow of the Galaxy ended up in my possession.
After checking another couple of possible stores that on the off chance sold singles we headed home to crack open some packs.
We got some good pulls that went to building my Luke/Hera Twin Suns deck (details soon).
However as we were cracking open packs and sharing the cool cards we’d pulled (like foils, full art etc) I thought how cool it would be to do a mandalorian themed deck for Twin Suns. I think this would qualify as a tribal deck as we’d call it in MtG. Just the thought of the possibility was getting me excited.
Next thing I know I’m sorting out all of the mandalorian cards we’d pulled. And I’m sure I’ll bore you with a post about it in the near future too.
Earlier in the day (before we went to town) I taught Nath Dice Masters using the X-Men Forever campaign box. These campaign boxes are aimed at two players, and meant to give them everything they need to play.
Using the suggested cut down setup recommended in the included rules book I taught Nath how to play. I should say it’s impossible without the aid of a phone camera to work out what the setup is. The image is just too small and unreadable.
Nath won this first learning game.
I then separated the character cards into two piles. Villians in one, and X-Men in the other. Nath was then given the choice of which he’d like to play. He went bad guys.
We then built our 8 character teams, got the appropriate dice (another fault with this campaign box they got away with the bare minimum they could get away with).
After a very tactical game I managed to get to the position of being able to deliver a winning blow.
Later before tea (a roast dinner) and just chilling watching The Retirement Plan. Nath and I played a couple more games of Star Wars Unlimited.
These were comfortable games for me with Nath not really able to mount any real defence to hold in and get back in the game. It wasn’t one sided my base took damage. It’s just I was able to smash face before Nath found any answers.
Despite the disappointment of not going for a walk. We had a great day.
Yesterday I travelled south to visit Nathan for a couple of days. After unpacking I realised what I had forgotten to pack.
On the drive down I knew I had forgotten something. Everybody has that nagging feeling when they set off somewhere.
It wasn’t until I had unpacked and was getting the Star Wars Unlimited stuff out to show Nathan when I realised I had indeed left something at home.
Sitting back at home are the four starter decks from the two starter kits.
Luckily I hadn’t forgotten the prerelease kit and two booster boxes.
But what were we to do?
Opening the prerelease kit we chose a leader each from the promo Luke and Vader cards that were in it. Nath went Vader, which left me with Luke.
We then cracked open the six boosters in the prerelease kit, followed by opening the Spark of Rebellion booster box, and cracking open the packs inside.
Nath really enjoyed opening the packs and discovering full art cards, foils, or foil full art cards. He had caught the habit most MtG players have. That crack addition of opening packs and seeing what is inside. It’s so addictive.
Afterwards we separated the cards by their aspect and then built decks for our respective leaders.
It was a great evening sharing the experience of cracking open packs and building a deck with our pulls.
Later I went through the remaining cards to see if I had any that I needed for my Luke and Hera (I now have a rather sweet full art card of Hera) Twin Suns deck. I found 22 cards that I needed. Cutting down on any imminent purchases to finish the deck off.
This morning once Nath had gotten back from his babysitting duties for his baby niece I taught him Star Wars Unlimited.
After meeting up with my aunt and uncle in Guildford, Nath and I played a couple more games of Star Wars Unlimited.
This time my deck worked and I was able to get two comfortable wins.
Between games Nath wanted to crack open the Shadows of the Galaxy so I caved and let him. Although I didn’t get a Mando card that I needed for the Twin Suns deck I did get another Krayt Dragon (I did purchase my other copy).
Which means I pulled a £40 odd card. Which I definitely plan to use in the Vader/Tarkin deck.
We ended up playing a fourth game. Nath wanted the opportunity to pull things back.
It was a very tense game with Nath hanging in by the skin of his teeth before grabbing victory from the impending jaws of defeat.
I think it can only be said that we’ve had a great day.
I started an 8 day break from work today. Which means during this much needed period of R&R I’m going to visit Nathan for two or three days.
Before any visit I always mull over which games to take with me for us to play.
There are practical limitations to which games make the journey with me. The major one is the footprint of the game. Whatever I take needs to fit on Nath’s circular dinning table. So large footprint games are out of the question. No Star Wars Rebellion for Nath unless he comes up to visit.
I have Star Wars Outer Rim (his favourite game) and the Star Wars Deck Builder at Nath’s.
Nath likes MtG so I’m definitely taking Star Wars Unlimited with me. The plan is we choose a starter kit deck each and play them against each other. I’ll the crack open the Spark of Rebellion prerelease kit and we will use the boosters from that to “upgrade” our decks. After some games with the new decks I have booster boxes for Spark of Rebellion and Shadows of the Galaxy. Which we can crack packs open to once again strengthen our decks.
I’m also going to take the Dice Masters X-Men campaign box I have to teach Nath Dice Masters.
Unusual for me I’m going to leave it at that! Although I’m sure I’ll throw something in the bag at the last minute.
Not much gaming got done on our last full day together.
We played two new games that I wanted to try with Nathan. Those being High Score and Viva Java the coffee game the dice game.
I’m not going to go into much detail about them here. I’ll save my discussion about them for my game dev posts.
Nathan won High Score. Although I think he may have manipulated the dice once or twice!
Viva Java I won.
After the games I finished off our tea of roast lamb. The gravy was amazing. And I thought the lamb went really well with my 5 or 6 bean stew that I made. Sadly a combo Nathan did not get to enjoy as he doesn’t like beans.
Our lunch has been curry wurst a German street food I belief. Basically it’s bratwurst with a curry sauce, with some chips. The origins of the curry sauce recipe goes back to after the Second World War where legend goes a German lady was challenged by a US soldier to come up with a recipe/sauce using ketchup.
After tea was spent watching season one of Reacher. Which Nathan hadn’t seen before, followed by the start of season one of Jack Ryan.
It was a chill day with my son. Just what I needed.
My first full day with Nathan saw a favourite of his (and mine) Star Wars Outer Rim with the Unfinished Business expansion hit the table.
I think the last couple of visits we’ve not managed to get Outer Rim to the table. So it was nice to get this to the table again.
Nathan started setting it up. And by that I mean he put the outer rim segments together before asking me to finish off the setup.
Setup and tear down is a doddle for me. I have seperate deck boxes for the various decks, baggies for the tokens and standees.
Nathan chose Boba Fett (again, as a Renowned Smuggler) and I went with Doctor Aphra (Living Legend).
Through out the game I felt Nathan had the credit advantage, and he did manage to upgrade his ship twice. Whilst for the whole game I never upgraded my ship.
Play was interrupted for a roast chicken thigh and Yorkshire pudding tea.
After the food break I seemed to edge ahead by completing two of my three ambition objectives before Nathan had completed one of his. But a late surge from Nathan meant we were both racing to complete our final objective and win the game.
Sadly a good dice roll by Nathan on a final job I needed to complete to get me the funds to trigger my final objective denied me that one more turn I needed, as he finished his final objective on his next turn after I completed the job.
It was a fun afternoon and evening spent with Nathan in the Outer Rim.
