Despite reports of artic conditions, and that ever mythical snow down South. I made it safely to Nathan’s. Mum needn’t have worried. But she wouldn’t be a mum if she didn’t worry. Even when their eldest is so advanced in years.
We played a couple of games during the evening.
The first an all in game of 7 Wonders Dual.
It was rather cramped on the table. But that didn’t stop us from playing.
We were pretty rusty on the rules, particularly for the two expansions. So we were frequently referring to the two rule books.
I had decided to go all in on a science win. Whilst mid game Nathan had found out that a senate victory was possible and was going for that, along with a possible military victory as a back up.
In fact Nathan could have won with the senate victory if he hadn’t moved one of his cubes. Instead I got a science win after Nathan miss remembered the win condition. He thought it was seven symbols, when it was in fact six.
Later after some sleeving of the cards in the LoTR LCG Fellowship of the Ring saga I taught Nathan a card game from my early years called Trumps. It’s also known as Knock Out Whist I believe.
I spent a lot of time playing this game as a teenager.
Whilst at secondary school we used to play it during tutorials. Officially we weren’t meant to be playing it. But our tutor group was a bit on the rebellious side. Led by our tutor!
I also played it a lot with my dad’s aunt, Aunt Joan. It was most likely her that taught me the game. Which I then took to the classroom.
As a two player game it’s ok. It’s quick. I even used the dogs life rule for Nathan after he failed to take a trick on one of the early rounds. I shouldn’t have done that as he then got the win. On the penultimate round we both got a trick each. So we cut the deck to see who won. Sadly for me that went Nathan’s way. So he chose trumps for the final round of one card.
Afterwards I continued sleeving cards and getting the recommended player decks constructed ready for us to play the game.
Things change. It’s the only thing that we can count on in life. Well that and the other two, death and taxes as the saying goes.
Things are going to change on the work front once again. For the better? Who knows?
In the meantime I have nine days off.
The plan is to go visit Nathan for a couple of days.
Obviously I’m taking the LoTR lcg and the Fellowship of the Ring saga.
But alongside that I’m taking some dice games with me to play as research. In that pile are Seasons, Viva Java the dice game, High Score, Yahtzee, Farkle, the Knizia books, Age of War, Hellboy the dice game, and hopefully Strike! (if it arrives in time).
I’m really looking forward to seeing Nathan and playing games with him. It’s been way too long since my last visit.
As I was driving down on the Tuesday afternoon Nathan was taking his driving test. Which was finishing around the time I was passing his location. So I deviated from the M3 to surprise him at Fleet train station and give him a lift home.
When Nathan and his instructor pulled up at the station car park I got out to greet him. But had no idea what the outcome was. That was until he got out the car, gave me a quick thumbs up, and posed for the traditional ‘just passed’ photo next to the instructors car.
Once he was finished I got to give him a hug and tell him how proud of him I was. I’m always proud of Nathan but I don’t think I tell him that enough.
It’d been a long day with the driving etc, so I made my go to comfort food for our tea, a bowl of noodles with chorizo (although I use whatever I have in the cupboard/fridge usually).
We then settled down to watch series 19 of Hell’s Kitchen (a series Nathan enjoys). As a compromise we went with one episode of that followed by an episode of Justified. And repeat.
Nathan hadn’t seen Justified before. But after watching the first episode he was hooked.
The thing about Justified is it’s a western with a modern setting for sure. However the writing, acting, casting, are just as near to perfect as you can get. Each of the six seasons are 13 episodes long. They all have a story arc for the season along with an on going overall story arc between the main protagonists of the series. Even the supporting characters are amazing and developed. I can’t think of any dead episodes. You know episodes that just tread water, do nothing story wise.
I think I must have watched Justified six or seven times now. And it doesn’t get boring even though I know what is happening.
I just love the show.
The big thing for me on Wednesday was that I was making Nathan a curry from scratch.
Unlike his old man, Nathan doesn’t do heat in his food. So the challenge was to create a tasty, spicy curry that had no heat.
I had no idea how this was going to turn out. There was no plan apart from using the core three ingredients coriander,cumin, and fennel seeds, and staying away from stuff that added heat. So there was some turmeric added, along with a cinnamon stick, cloves, curry leaves, and star anise. After toasting these ingredients it was time to turn them into a powder using a mortar and pestle. It was a lot of hard work I can tell you.
When it came to cooking I softened a diced onion, added some chopped tomatoes, the curry powder, then two cans of coconut milk, then some diced potatoes, and finally diced chicken breast.
What I ended up with was a creamy flavourful curry that seemed similar in style to a Thai green curry to me. But had no heat. It came out better than I expected. Nathan enjoyed it. which is the main point for me. I did add some heat for me by using some chilli crunch on my bowl contents.
The only game we got to play was LoTR the living card game. Which I did write about at the time! You can find that in this post here.
The rest of the time we spent together on Wednesday was alternating between Hell’s Kitchen and Justified.
Thursday was a completely different story. That was when the right arm started to cause me some pain.
Despite that we managed to get the remaining two games of the LoTR the lcg core campaign played. We did have a blast and I do need to write them up with the similar style that I did for the first game in the campaign.
It was lucky that we got the third and final game out of the way by tea time as that evening the arm was really causing me some pain.
I like to think I have a high pain tolerance. I can usually focus out most things. Having tinnitus does have an advantage. Over the years I have developed the “skill” of being able to focus out stuff like a constant ringing, or a stinging nettle sting, etc. But sometimes things get too painful or loud to be able to do that.
This arm pain was definitely falling into the too painful to focus out. I even resorted to paracetamol and ibuprofen, but that made no difference at all.
The rest of a painful evening was spent watching those two shows.
After what at best can be described as a disturbed nights sleep of pain I was on my last morning with Nathan.
After my usual coffee and pain au chocolate start to the day. Which I wasn’t getting my usual enjoyment from, it was very functionary. But that was the pain talking I think. I introduced Nathan to the Star Wars the deckbuilding game (which will be getting an expansion sometime next year according to a brief comment in one of the FFG In-flight things at this years GenCon).
After taking an early lead capturing two of the empire bases, Nathan managed to pull things back and get the win.
He liked this game a lot. So much so he was going to buy a copy for himself. I knew he would like it. He loves Star Realms for starters, and like his old man loves Star Wars. So this was the safest bet ever that he would like Star Wars the deckbuilding game.
I decided to save Nathan some money and leave my copy of the game with him. After all he’s going to be the main person I will play the game with. It was bought to play with him in the first place.
After that defeat it was time to load up the car and return home. This was not going to be a pleasurable drive home. But I did make it home.
I really enjoyed my time with Nathan despite the arm pain doing it’s best to ruin it. Hopefully once he has wheels he will be able to pop up and visit. When that happens I have so many games I want to share with him starting with Scythe.
I know the LoTR lcg has been out for a few years. Plus the revised core set that I have has also been out for a couple years too. But still I feel that for this play through of the revised core set campaign (mine and Nathan’s first time playing it) I should give the old SPOILER ALERT! warning.
If you intend to play through the campaign included in the core revised set and prefer not to have anything spoiled then avoid this post and join me in another post.
Just remember that was a SPOILER ALERT! You have been warned and if you continue reading this post (which I hope you do) and it ruins your enjoyment of the campaign then it is on you.
Ok let’s get on with the post.
As hinted in my long winded ramblings justifying giving a spoiler alert above this is the first time Nathan and I have played through the campaign mode that comes with the core revised set. It’s also the first time Nathan has played the LoTR lcg, and my third time of playing the opening quest of the campaign Passage Through Mirkwood.
Passage Through Mirkwood is the recommended introductory scenario for new players. Which considering my other two plays of the game were introducing new players to the game (including myself) it made sense to go with the official recommendation each time.
However this third time was different not only because we were playing it in campaign mode, but because of the decks used.
“You are traveling through Mirkwood forest, carrying an urgent message from King Thanduil to the Lady Galadriel of Lorien. As you move along the dark trail, the spiders gather around you…” Flies and Spiders, card 119
For this campaign we are using the Leadership & Spirit deck, and the Lore & Tactics deck from the Learning to Play Guide of the core set.
I’m playing the Leadership & Spirit deck, that has the following heroes: Aragorn, Théodred, and Éowyn. Which means Nathan is playing the Lore & Tactics deck with Legolas, Beravor, and Denethor as it’s heroes.
According to the Learning to Play Guide the Leadership & Spirit “deck excels at putting allies into play and contributing lots of willpower to the quest.” Whilst the Lore & Tactics deck is a “deck should be used to provide additional card draw and handle most of the combat.”
Hopefully we can remember our decks strengths as we play the scenarios in the campaign.
At least using these decks I don’t have to perform any mental gymnastics to explain Galadriel being in the party of heroes battling through Mirkwood.
“King Thranduil has assigned a guide, Mendor, to assist you in your passage through Mirkwood Forest.” Mirkwood Paths – Part 1, card 129
If Mendor gets defeated, aka killed we lose the scenario. Just a little extra pressure to start with.
“The nastiest things they saw were the cobwebs; dark dense cobwebs, with threads extradionairly thick, often stretched from tree to tree, or tangled in the lower branches on either side of them. There were none stretched across the path, but whether because some magic kept it clear, or for what other reasons they could not guess. – The Hobbit” Flies and Spiders, card 119
Our parties made their way south through Mirkwood following forest paths dispatching the odd forest spider as they dropped from the trees.
Such an early attack of opportunity from a spider managed to do serious damage to Aragorn after I had leant heavily into the decks main questing focus and had no one to defend with.
We were or I should say that team Legolas were already engaged with Ungoliant’s Spawn when we had to choose which path to follow.
To give me a bit of variety from my previous two plays of this scenario we went with the other card that I hadn’t played before, 3B Beorn’s Path.
We had to defeat Ungoliant’s Spawn before we could complete the quest itself. Which was slightly different from the other path.
If we had gone the other way we would have won a round quicker but I wanted to keep things fresh for me. So we quickly finished off the wounded Ungoliant’s Spawn. Freeing up my team of heroes to throw everything into completing the main quest. Luckily some ally powers allowed this to happen.
“The forest is dangerous, but that was beyond what one might expect to find.” Mendor seems shaken. “I fear something is not right in the land. I shall continue to travel with you.” Mirkwood Paths – Part 1, card 129
Our reward for successful competing this first scenario was to add a copy of the boon Mendor’s Support to our decks. Plus Ungoliant’s Swarm to the encounter deck.
Nathan liked his first play of the game. Although he thought this introductory scenario was on the easy side. To which I countered it was aimed at introducing players to the game. So it was never going to be really challenging.
I actually liked the core set recommended deck. It was fun to play with. And played well to it’s strengths. Nathan didn’t seem to have any problems piloting his deck. So that to me says that these are great decks for new players.
Our morning started off with us learning War of the Ring the card game.
We played the two player Fellowship of the Ring scenario. It’s slightly less complicated rules wise. Only uses paths and battlegrounds that cover the first book, and the battlegrounds are not chosen at random but played in order. The decks are also constructed differently, taking out certain cards from the factions, or missing a faction altogether.
After a slow start as we learnt the rules as we played we soon got into the swing of things.
Oh Nath played the part of the Fellowship, while I played the Nazgûl.
It was interesting that early on I had card advantage, was drawing more cards. But that flipped in the later stages to Nath having the card advantage.
It’s certainly a very nice game, with interesting choices to be made every turn. Which starts with which card to discard and which to play. As you can’t play a card without discarding one.
Then you have to decide to whether play the card to a path, battleground or into reserve.
As the forces of darkness I was cycling through my deck a lot, and I didn’t take advantage of certain card abilities to thin out my opponents cards.
I’m pretty sure we had rules errors whilst playing. But who cares? we had fun.
Somehow my Nazgûl won by a single point.
After visiting the game shop in Basingstoke (I left with War machine, Iron Heart, and Green Goblin scenario pack, and got Nath a MtG Challenger deck) we saw the new Super Mario Bros movie.
Wow I’ve not laughed like that during a movie in a long time. It’s a great movie. Although I may be biased as a Mario fan.
Obviously my age means I got to play Mario back in the day when he was just Jump Man and not the main attraction, just a supporting act.
My first real Mario game though was Super Mario Land on the GameBoy. Yeah I missed the main Mario games on the NES/SNES because I didn’t own either. I loved the original Mario Golf on the GameBoy too.
At the time as you know from my Doom posts I was on a pc mainly playing stuff there. The GameBoy was my “console” at the time. For some reason I love portable gaming systems.
I’m currently reading a book about Super Mario Bros 2. I find these sort of books about our gaming history interesting and add to my enjoyment of the game in question. And yes I will be going back and playing the game once the Doom project is finished.
Back to the movie. There is so much fan service here and it’s a delight as you spot the Easter eggs such as the NES console, or Punchout being mentioned.
I loved the humour, and was laughing a lot during the movie.
This was the perfect Mario movie! It did exactly what the games do, bring a smile to the face.
Certain scenes made me want to play a Mario game. A weaker soul going into Game afterwards would have caved and bought another Mario game. However I did play Mario Kart 8 later in the evening to get the “craving” out of my system.
Later in the evening Nath and I played a couple of games of MtG with him using his new deck. We shared the honours.
An uneventful drive down saw me arrive mid afternoon at Nathan’s.
Yep it’s holiday time and a chance to spend a couple of days with my son.
We played a couple of games of MtG using two of the Pioneer Challenger decks (Gruul Stompy vs Mono Red Burn).
Nathan started off playing mono red. A simpler deck I thought for refreshing your memory on how to play. However getting mana screwed certainly slowed the deck down, and allowed me to stomp to victory unchallenged.
After the first game we swapped decks. Despite eventually losing playing red, I did a lot better. Hitting land drops, getting creatures out, just not doing damage quick enough. With both of us having a good presence on the battlefield, one of us was waiting until they could get the edge in the impending reckoning. That was until Nath was able to board wipe my forces and swing in unchallenged for the win.
This morning Nathan and I played a game of Deep Sea Adventure with the die expansion, and two promo meeples!
I like what the die brings to the game. That chance to move three times the value of the second die is a huge attraction for using it. Plus gives a glimmer of hope when trying to get back up to the surface, however slim.
Although the side that gets its value from the number of players sharing the direction you are moving is less helpful in a two player game.
And yes the dice tray is pointless and will just get stored in a box somewhere and never used.
I did win our game by being the only one managing to get treasure to the surface.
We followed up our underwater adventures with some more MtG. This time we used the game night kit decks.
I have to say the elf deck is most certainly an elf deck. It ramps quickly, it gets lots of elves out, you get value from having lots of elves out. It’s fun to play. But not sure it is being on the opposite side from it.
I like playing MtG this way. Grabbing a deck or two and just playing a game or two.
After Nathan had his driving test. Which he sadly failed. We went and saw the new Dungeon and Dragons Honour Among Thieves movie.
It was very enjoyable.
Some of the sfx could have been better (especially the halflings). I think the mix of humour was just right. It had its hulk smash moment taken straight from the first Avengers movie.
I think the performances were fine. Plus the odd guest appearance.
Have I said how bad the halflings were? They were pretty awful.
The story isn’t the greatest, but very standard D&D fare for sure.
I (a D&D player) enjoyed the movie as did Nath (a non-D&D player). So it has that sweet spot of appealing to both types.
After tea last night Nathan and I did indeed play his favourite boardgame Star Wars Outer Rim and it’s only expansion Unfinished Business.
Nathan once again played as Boba Fett with the Crime Lord ambition. Which after the rather disappointing Book of Boba Fett seemed appropriate and in-line with the characters ambitions in that series.
I didn’t play Jyn Erzo but for a change I went with Doctor Aphra. A character I was unfamiliar with. But her ability was cool. I thought deep down Aphra wanted to be a Pirate Monach so that was the ambition I selected.
After taking an early lead on the fame track, and on my ambitions goals, Nathan soon started to close the gap on the fame track. It be a while before he made a late surge on his ambition goals.
In that time I quickly upgraded my ship and modded it so I stood a better chance of getting my ambition objectives.
A failed attempt to complete my goal of becoming the Pirate Monach was enough of an opening to allow Nathan to get his own attempt in to become a Crime Lord. Sadly that also failed. But my second attempt to become the Pirate Monach did not.
I snatched victory from what would have been a heroic comeback by Nathan.
It was a great ending with Nathan rolling six dice for my opponent in my final combat, and not rolling a single hit. I just needed a single hit to win. I got two. And I took no damage.
It was a glorious victory.
Today was my final day with Nathan before heading back.
After another relaxed start to the day. We played a learning game of Isle of Cats Explore and Write.
This is a flip and write that’s been on my radar for a while now. So to now have it in my collection and get it to the table with Nath is pretty cool.
I got some Cartographers vibes whilst playing the game. Mainly from drawing the polyomino shapes on the board.
How anyone fills all the rooms in seven rounds I have no bloody idea. Is it even possible?
I love the quality of the cards, and the linen finish.
I liked this flip and write. And definitely want to get this to the table again pretty soon.
Oh and I won.
I say this every time but our parting is always hard.
My mood wasn’t helped with the news of Lisa Marie Presley passing away yesterday. She was the same age as me.
I was a big Elvis fan back in the mid Seventies.
There has only ever been two times in my life when the death of a celebrity has really affected me. Those being Elvis and Steve Jobs.
I think with Lisa Marie it was a combination of the fact she was the daughter of Elvis, and the fact we were the same age.
It got me reflecting on my drive home on life, the universe, and coffee. Decisions made, not made.
I’m home now. Chilling out to some American Dad. Missing my son. Can’t wait until my next visit.
After a relaxed start to the day (which I’m totally allowed seeing as I’m on holiday) I taught Nathan how to play the two player game Splendor Duel.
As usual I didn’t win. If my bgstat app is correct (and why wouldn’t it be?) I have never, I’ll repeat that never won a game of Splendor in any of the editions I have owned or own! Bloody good job I enjoy playing it.
The rest of our day was taken up by a dentist visit for Nathan, cooking “not spaghetti bolognaise” (ask Diego why it was not the dish, ok adding baked beans, mushrooms, and using chorizo, may technically mean it wasn’t), and Nathan wanting to watch the evenings football match between Southampton and Man City.
Today saw us pop into town for a Burger King lunch and a visit the local boardgame shop.
I had gone there with the purpose of just getting the Mutant Genesis expansion for Marvel Champions. However the Storm character expansion joined it, along with the Agora expansion for 7 Wonders Duel.
As soon as we got home (after a coffee) we played an all in game of 7 Wonders Duel. That’s the core game plus the Pantheon and Agora expansion.
We both really enjoyed the game. Agora brings in a new decision, tactical element, and win condition.
Control all six senate chambers and you get an instant political win.
A victory I was one chamber away from achieving at the start of the third age. However Nathan only needed one more symbol for the science win. He was going first at the start of the third age, and was hoping for a science card as an option to buy.
Obviously the tension built up as I laid out the cards in the third age pattern. It was down to the last two cards to be drawn and placed. Indeed one of those cards was not only a science card but the sixth symbol he needed. Instant win for Nathan.
Yes playing with everything means the game takes longer to setup and play. But I think it’s worth it. I like the extra stuff going on. You can’t afford to not to be paying attention to what your opponent is collecting.
The area control element of the senate chambers is cool. Having the majority in a chamber gives you control and some sort of power up you get to use through out the game. Plus points for end of game scoring if it goes to the bitter end.
Yeah I think we’ll be playing all in from now on. Just need to get my own copy now.
Right time to make tea followed by Star Wars Outer Rim (Nath’s favourite boardgame).
In reality it’s more like half a day as I leave at midday to avoid traffic (especially the M25 leg), and to get back early enough for Mum who is on dog sitting duties. Apparently the two little horrors play her up rotten during the night!
After getting Nathan to empty and load up his dishwasher we had time for a game before I had to hit the road.
Nathan chose a favourite of ours 7 Wonders Duel.
This was a game that went to the wire, unlike our previous game during my last visit.
There was some take that with me stealing one of Nathan’s unbuilt wonders using a deity, Nathan destroying a couple of my cards (very annoying).
I did manage to build all four of my wonders.
However the game did go all three ages and to the final scoring.
I managed to scrape a win by two whole points.
And that was it. Time to pack away the game. Gather my things, and say our farewells.
I hate saying good bye to Nathan. I love our time together so much. I wish we were closer (geographically) so I could see him more often.
For those interested for the last couple of weeks I’ve been listening to Wil Wheaton’s Still Just A Geek (thanks to my friend Duncan for telling me about it). And on the trip down to see Nath this is what I was listening to.
It’s been a very hard listen on a personal level.
There was much that Wil talked about that resonated with me and my life experiences.
The journey back was used to catch up on a podcast or two.
With the imminent release of the next WotC D&D book, Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen I wanted to listen to some of the reviews/first looks to see if I should cancel my pre-order on Amazon.
It was the reviews (podcasts and youtube) that warned me about Spelljammer not being worth the money, falling short on what a DM might need compared to books like Eberron.
Podcasts I listened to on my journey home
I’m not cancelling my order. But I’m glad I bought the campaign source book because it’s not the product I really wanted.
My ideal product would have been a Dragonlance version of the Eberron book. In reality it looks more like we are getting something in line with Avernus.
However it has stuff that will still be useful in running a homebrew campaign in the Dragonlance universe.
