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.
No gaming took place last night. After a pretty cool roast dinner we watched the Wales vs England match, and then John Wick 2 (we had watched John Wick the previous night, and guess what we are watching tonight?)
Why a roast dinner last night?
Nathan gets all the credit for that. I guess he fancied it while I was down visiting, because Sunday he said he had bought the stuff to make one, like a whole chicken, etc. Only problem he had was he’d never cooked a chicken before. So cooking duties fell onto me.
I’m still getting used to his oven, but the Yorkshire puddings came out ok.
I got to go into Basingstoke Centre today, and visit a gaming shop called The Gaming Den. Lots of stock, which is nice to see. I could easily have spent lots of money there but I was super strong.
Ok it helped that a visit to a stationary shop to pick up some index cards turned out to be a tad more expensive than planned.
Once home I quickly wrote out a couple of recipes that he’d asked for on the index cards and put them on Nath’s whiteboard for him.
The afternoon saw me making chicken noodle soup and visiting the Stonemaier web store to order the three new realms that were released today.
But whilst on the virtual store I was pleasantly surprised to see the Tapestry play mat had also been released.
I was aware Jamey had been looking at doing a play mat for Tapestry. But it had escaped me that they were actually in production. So I was definitely not expecting them in the store today.
After having the chicken noodle soup with slices of a fresh baguette to help mop it up, Nathan and I watched a brief Roll for Crit how to play for Marvel Champions.
It refreshed my memory (I don’t play this nearly enough) and gave Nathan an overview of the game.
It was enough so that we could play the following match up.
Nathan played Wolverine, whilst I played Phoenix.
Things seemed to be going well. The threat level of Thanos’s scheme was under control (by Phoenix) whilst he was getting thumped by Wolverine.
Then it went all Pete Tong as they used to say.
Thanos thumped Phoenix for a massive seven damage, followed by his minion Black Dwarf finishing the job off.
This left Wolverine to stand toe to toe with Thanos trading blows.
It was a heroic effort but in the end to no avail as Thanos managed to complete his scheme.
We really enjoyed going up against Thanos. With a better card draw we might have won. I think that is the difference between this game and the one with Diego with Ultron.
In that game our hero selection was totally unsuitable for the villain and his schemes. We got thrashed.
Here the match up seemed more appropriate. Phoenix keeping the threat under control whilst Wolverine did what Wolverine does. It felt like we had a chance.
Nathan really enjoyed our game of this. So it will find a place in the bag on future visits.
Our final game of the evening was a game of Rolling Realms.
Another winner with Nathan, despite me winning. But the scores were pretty close.
Our evening is finishing with the third film in the John Wick series.
There seems a nice symmetry to this months gaming.
November started with me visiting Nathan and playing games with him, and it ends that way too.
It means so much that I am able to spend time with Nathan. That wasn’t always the case over the last few years. Caring for Nan meant it wasn’t possible to get away for a couple of days to visit him. It was a heavy price to pay. But we did willingly out of love for Nan.
After having toad in the hole with onion gravy for tea Nathan and I played the latest expansion for Wingspan, and also stand alone two player game, Wingspan Asia.
But before we played I had to open up the box it came in (yep I hadn’t even done this since it arrived a couple weeks back), take off the cellophane, punch cardboard, and quickly read up the rule changes for duet mode.
I’m not sure why but playing Wingspan with unsleeved or “naked” cards felt so so wrong. It just didn’t feel right.
Wingspan Asia can be used as a straight up expansion for Wingspan by just shuffling the cards that come into the box with the core games plus any other expansions. Which is how it’ll probably end up for me.
This expansion makes it so Wingspan can also be played by six or seven players in what is called flock mode. Or as I will refer to it as “not for me mode”.
Then we have the final way this expansion can be used, and that is duet mode.
Duet mode is a two player variant of standard Wingspan that adds a duet board, and new end of round objectives based on that board.
You get to place a piece on the duet board when you play a bird or a card ability allows you put a bird on the board. Where the piece goes on the board depends on the habitat the bird was played on, plus either the food type used to pay for it, it’s nest type, wing span, or direction looking.
Some of the spots on the duet board also give you a bonus of some kind when a piece is placed on it, like drawing a bird card, or getting an egg.
If you can’t or don’t want to place a piece on the duet board you can instead place it on the area in the bottom left of the board. Then on a future turn remove the piece from there to reset either the food tray or the bird market place. I like this a lot. Ok I didn’t do it. But just having that there as an option is pretty cool. It also makes that placement of the duet piece a harder decision.
I like what the duet board brings to the table in a two player game. It adds a new tactical element and decisions that need to be made that encourages the playing of birds.
I also like that the first player marker goes to the player that didn’t win the end of round scoring. It almost feels like an attempt at a catch up mechanism!
This may just be how I play Wingspan from now on when visiting Nathan. Which is the only time I play Wingspan two player.
The bgstat history books will record that I beat Nathan with a tucking engine!
Today, as the events already told were yesterday, has seen a relaxed start to the day.
Starting with my regular everyday breakfast of a mug of coffee and two Nevill’s Pains Au Chocolat. What can I say I’m a creature of habit. Except when Tesco don’t have them. Then I have to improvise.
After a relaxing soak in the bath reading a book on data science, it was time to take a trip.
A trip to the local shops sees a charity shop find that no-one boasts about on the Facebook boardgaming groups I belong to. I got a large saucepan and a couple of trays ideal to make Yorkshire puddings in. I need, well Nathan needs that big pot. Tomorrow I’m turning the left over chicken from our roast today into chicken soup for him. He didn’t have a pot large enough for that.
Lunch for us was an impromptu fry up to use up the remaining sausages Nathan had in the fridge, and some mushrooms just on the right side of edible.
I did start to look at the Star Wars card game Sabacc that Nathan bought whilst he was State side the other month. We’ll play that over the next day or two for sure.
Our first game of the day was Tinners Trail.
I’ve only played this once before as a three player game with Jeff and Jonathan.
So playing it as a two player game was interesting.
It wasn’t an unenjoyable experience. I just thought the bidding was a little flat with two players.
History will show that Nathan won by a massive two points.
Right I have a roast dinner to cook before some more games this evening.
It really was great to play 7 Wonders Duel again. It’s still got the magic. But like the many fantastic two player games that I own it just doesn’t get the love it deserves. Mainly because not a lot of two player gaming gets to take place.
History and the bgstat app will record that I won with a scientific victory in the third age. What it won’t show is if it had gone the distance Nathan was in a much stronger position than me to claim a points victory.
After a break it was time to introduce Nathan to an uncooperative boardgame!
Yep Portal the uncooperative cake acquisition boardgame was going to test the father son bonds!
This is a great two player game, that I really do need to try at the higher player counts.
However in this game there was a lot of incinerating each other’s cake. With the last few turns getting very tactical. It looked like I was going to win by a single slice of cake. In fact the only slice of cake that would be left on the board. However in a last desperate move Nathan managed to force a tie by incinerating his and my last pieces of cake at the same time.
Which meant the game went to the tiebreaker, and having the most test subjects on the board meant I was able to claim victory.
After a home made sweet and sour pork for tea, and some episodes of South Park it was time to visit a galaxy far, far away, and play Star Wars Outer Rim with the Unfinished Business expansion.
As the embedded Instagram picture I shared below shows the game is a bit of a table hog. Especially on Nath’s table. We’d never have got a third or even fourth player round the table.
We cherry picked the bits from Unfinished Business that we’d add to the core game. The bits that made the cut were the core worlds, and ambitions. In a two player game I didn’t see much point playing with favours.
Below you can see which characters we chose to play and the ambitions.
Jyn managed to buy a YT-1300, which had a couple of mods that gave me a critical hit in combat, plus one that meant my opponents also rolled one less die.
With out those two mods I wouldn’t have been able to take on the empire patrols to enable me to attempt my final ambition condition.
Thanks to Nathan channelling his inner Jonathan for his dice rolls, whilst he was trying to do his final ambition and failing (several times) I was able to swoop in and grab victory by completing mine. I was greatly helped by Nathan rolling for the Empire.
You’ve probably guessed I won. Ten fame points and a completed ambition board.
With a weeks holiday ahead of me I took the opportunity to visit Nathan for a couple of days.
I arrived Monday afternoon managing to avoid any of the usual traffic jam points like the M25.
The evening saw me attempting to teach Nathan how to play Brazil Imperial to very limited success.
The map I chose was an official from the publisher that I got off the bgg page for the game.
It looked an interesting two player map with the island in the middle. The chances of combat were low for this map, which I thought was perfect for a learning game. One less thing to have to absorb.
Nathan was finding it hard to follow what was going on.
I don’t think it helped with Nathan’s focus that he had consumed approximately three quarters of a bottle of 1800 tequila.
So we gave up after an hour or so of play. He wasn’t enjoying it.
There was no point playing another game so we had a film night instead watching The Batman. I’m not sure I like the look of The Riddler in the movie. But it’s a pretty solid Batman effort with a focus more on the detective side of the character. Which I like. After all he is the worlds greatest detective!
Tuesday saw Alien Fate of the Nostromo hit the table for a learning game.
I had bought this for Nathan’s birthday after he had said he regretted not getting it on his recent holiday in the US.
Wow! I love that when you open up the box you are confronted by a hissing Jonesy. It’s a lovely bit of art that does take you a little by surprise.
I played Ripley with Nathan playing Dallas.
Being brave souls we also played with Ash. Which is meant to add a further complication to the game.
I really do like the art on the player boards. It really captures the characters from the movie. The publisher could have easily gone the movie stills route. But I’m glad they didn’t. This art looks so much better.
The miniatures in the game look very nice detail wise. Just a shame they are made from a very soft plastic. Maybe a better quality would have pushed up the final cost of the game. Let’s face it, as boardgames go this is not an expensive game. There is a mass market feel to it.
It’s also a big shame that Ash isn’t also a miniature instead of the standee.
I’m not sure if we misplayed a rule or two. But this felt suspiciously easy to win. Maybe we got lucky with the mission cards we drew for the game.
It’s just weird having played other Co-ops which even on their easy settings seemed more challenging.
Of cause it could be as the designer of the game Scott Rogers said we just got real lucky. Sometimes it happens.
Our three objectives for the game and the final mission.
We had fun playing the game. I liked the basic crafting mechanic. It definitely felt like Alien. Liked the fact when you encountered the alien you take a moral hit and run away. The encounter tiles added to the suspense, and making it feel like the movie.
Later on I introduced Nathan to the flip and write Welcome to the Moon. So you know what is coming now.
The following post may or may not contain spoilers for the Welcome to the Moon campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one if you plan to play the campaign and want to experience it’s twists and turns as surprises for yourself. REMEMBER you have been warned.
As I was setting up the game I noticed on the first adventures player board that there is a Dalek that looks like it might be trying to get on the rocket!
How did I not notice this before!
Nathan noticed it straight away.
What a bloody cool little easter egg to include.
The Dalek
I decided we would work our way through the campaign. So instead of reading all the text I summarised the story so far for Nathan.
We then played Adventure 1 which obviously we chose a different route to the other campaign. Once again I was the captain for our initial efforts.
This route had us remove the number 7 card from the game, plus we are able to choose the mission cards for each adventure.
Mission cards for adventure 1 (top) and adventure 2 (bottom)
Nathan won the first adventure to become the captain for adventure 2.
Just like our experiences in the other campaign play through, this second adventure caught Nathan unawares. He too had been lulled into that false sense of security and “simplicity” of the first adventure.
All of a sudden the complexity level was dialled up a few notches.
I think Nathan didn’t enjoy this adventure as much because of this.
Our twist in adventure 2 was that we could circle plants on any of the orbiting stations regardless of where we wrote the number.
Adventure 2 Chapter path taken: 148,79,106,92
Our evening was finished off with another movie night, this time we watched the Nicolas Cage move The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
A movie in which he plays himself! Who then gets roped in by the CIA to help rescue a kidnapped girl. It’s not a bad film. The de-aging of Cage is a bit ropey. Definitely one of his better recent efforts.
Usually a mid week day off means no gaming. It’s rare others are free. Luckily the planets align from time to time that I’m able to do some gaming with Diego.
This morning was one such cosmic event.
Our mornings gaming started off with the latest addition to the collection, Marvel Champions.
Having learnt my lesson from that ass whooping from Ultron on Sunday.
It was time to take on an “easier” villain from the core set.
It was time to face Rhino.
Iron Man was benched, and replaced by She Hulk as a playable character. Mainly because Iron Man (although popular) is a slow build character. He starts off weak and builds up.
Swapping between the two is quick and easy (both decks have the same basic and aggression cards). So if Diego had really wanted to play Iron Man then he could have.
So after Diego had chosen who he wanted to play, I chose a hero that had one of the other aspects. It was hard not to play Doctor Strange (I love the comic book). But I resisted and chose another favourite.
We were using the default, out of the box decks for our heroes, and also the suggested setup for the villain.
I think Thor would be a good match up against Ultron because of his once per phase ability that triggers against minions.
Yes there were a couple of misplays by Diego and myself. But that didn’t get in the way of enjoying ourselves.
I enjoyed playing Cap. He certainly is able to mitigate a fair bit of damage either with his shield boosting his defence or with one or two other cards. Plus he can hit hard, and I like the allies he has in the deck. But you need cards in hand to power his hero ability or for Wonder Man to swing in.
Rhino was much, much easier than Ultron.
I think that our victory was made easier by having characters that matched up well against Rhino. Not sure it would have been as easy with say a character that is slow to build up.
I’m definitely going to go this route of starting off with Rhino when I visit Nathan. Then if he likes the game see if he wants to do either of the campaigns that I have.
Next to the table was Gloomier: A Night At Hemlock Hall. This is the latest addition to the Gloom family.
There is only one family (the Hemlocks) in this version of Gloom. So you are choosing four family members per player from a common pool. The remaining cards (if not a five player game) are then flipped and used to add unwelcome guests and/or stories to the game.
Otherwise this plays just like Gloom.
I’m not entirely sure I should have been the first player. Had I really had the worst day so far out of the two of us?
Sadly my day did get worse because Diego won.
Our final game of the morning was a quick game of Smitten
And what a final game.
We won!
At my fifth attempt and Diego’s first we built both pictures.
I had a great morning playing games with Diego. And a big thanks to him for being an amazing host.
Sunday was a day off, and I was lucky enough to be able to do some gaming with Jeff.
We started off our afternoon of gaming with attempting to stop the machinations of Ultron in Marvel Champions.
That morning I had went through the heroes making sure they were all at their original deck list, so we could pick any character and just play.
For this battle of brawn and wits Jeff played Tony Stark/Iron Man, and I played Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange.
It all started off so well. Then Ultron went. Before I knew it Strange was down to four life, drone minions were massing in front of him. The only one that managed to land any damage on Ultron was Iron Man.
The drone minions, not getting a chance to reduce the threat tokens. We just got overwhelmed with the drone minions and unable to keep on top of them.
Using that wondrous and miraculous tool of hindsight we both came to the conclusion that our choice of heroes possibly weren’t the best for going up against Ultron.
I looked at the She-Hulk deck (not made up because the aggro cards were in use in the Iron Man deck) and she along with Captain Marvel might have been better choices for going up against Ultron.
After Ultron royally kicked our butts I introduced Jeff to Smitten.
We played three games back to back. Games that got shorter and shorter as we did worse and worse!
But boy does Smitten have that just one more game thing going for it.
Apparently I knew the games designer! It was Jeff.
If you can get over Jeff’s use of penny sleeves, Camels for short isn’t a bad game.
Obviously as a prototype some of my feedback such as the graphic design of the cards, iconography (needs it) were quality of life things that don’t affect gameplay.
However one or two, such as having more interaction between cards so you can do combos, more random event cards, even introducing mulligans, or adjusting counters based on player count, are suggestions that do affect game play.
It’s nice that like Streets of Commonville (I think fitting up the designers in game persona for the crime a win) I can boast I’ve beaten the games designer at their own game.
I had a great afternoon playing games with my friend. I’m glad Jeff was able to make it.
Before Diego starts his new job the stars aligned so that we both had a day off at the same time.
So naturally it was a game day.
We started off playing a two player game of Brazil Imperium.
Despite using a two player map that had a higher chance of combat there was no combat between Diego and myself.
Map setup used in Brazil Imperium
I really do like how the game board is so configurable for different player counts and if you want a higher or lower chance of combat.
This was the first time I’ve played Brazil Imperium as a two player game. And guess what? It’s still a great game as a two player game.
Obviously I’ve not played it as a solo game. However I really like it at any of the other player counts. Not many games can say that they are good at all/most player counts. They normally have a sweet spot.
I think what helps is the modular board setup that I like so much. I’m not sure I’d be saying the same if the board was a more traditional one.
That modular board makes it so that both sides are close together, a more compact board.
Next time I visit Nathan this is definitely going in the bag.
Oh and I won. So a good start to the days gaming.
Our next game was a new to me game, Tyrants of the Underdark. A game that’s been on my wish list for a while. So I was really happy to get a chance to try it.
I really liked this deckbuilder mashed with area control.
Although I would argue the theme is very weak, and could almost be anything. Having said that I really do like the art on the cards.
You chose a faction at the start, but in reality you are just choosing your playing colour. The faction name is irrelevant, there is no unique faction ability.
Factions we chose!
Player count determines how much of the board is in play. For our two player game it was just the central section. Which is one approach. Another is to have a double sided board (similar to Tapestry) with maps tailored to different player counts.
Diego won this one comfortably.
Our third game was Riverside. What more can I say about this roll and write? I like it, a lot. Plus I won this game.
Our final game of the afternoon was Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade.
This just didn’t jell with me at all.
The production side is great, dry erase pens, good quality player boards.
I loved the quick start rules leaflet, and rule book.
I found the ball piece annoying and smudged the markings you make on the board.
I felt the game dragged on. I thought it’d be quicker to play.
I need to try this again. But not sure I want to.
We cut the game short after I got called by another friend who had some cupcakes and curry for me to pick up.
I had a great time playing with Diego.
It was kind of him to invite me into his home, and provide a delicious lunch.
Hopefully we will get a chance to repeat this in the near future.
Sunday started off with a coffee and chat with Chris (a friend who had moved out of town) at the Tesco Costa to pick up a copy of Lords of Waterdeep for Diego.
This was followed later in the day by playing a four player game of Brazil Imperium with Jeff and his family.
Who played which leader
Mandy didn’t want an aggressive game so I chose the map below for our game. Which does look awesome.
Map played
It was interesting playing a non-aggressive game. This was more a race to get an engine going so you could complete your era mission cards. A totally different feeling and experience to my first play Friday evening.
With the Capital cities being so far apart each faction had space and time to build and get an engine going without fear of being attacked.
I had some pretty good synergy between my era cards that involved collecting paintings.
I was lucky getting paintings that aided me a lot, like being able to build anywhere, ignoring the terrain restrictions on buildings.
The end of game was triggered by me completing my third era.
Once all the dust had settled, scores tallied. Jeff and myself were tied for first place. The only tie breaker in the rules gave victory to the player with the most science tokens on the map. In this game it was Jeff who had a single one sitting on his church! I had none.
Jeff was the winner on a tie breaker.
But I had a great time playing the game with such great opponents and friends.
Apart from when a global pandemic and the UK Government’s mishandling of it throws a spanner in the works. My friend Jeff throws a gaming day to celebrate another year on this planet.
Yesterday was the appointed day of celebration for this year.
It was a particularly important one for me. One I didn’t want to miss considering the life stuff that happened to Jeff just before Christmas.
There was nearly a spanner thrown in the works when I found out that I’d been given a shift in my new job on the same day. Luckily it was an early shift (remember that early start I mentioned in the previous post?) meaning I could go to work and arrive by midday to take part in the game day.
This years big game saw the return of Memoir 44 and an Overlord scenario.
The first scenario saw the Russians vs the Germans in Tigers in the Snow scenario.
Jeff commanded the German forces, whilst Jonas commanded the Russians.
There was some pretty amazing demonstrations of poor dice rolling by both sides during the game.
However the Germans won in the end.
The second scenario we played was the reverse side of the Tigers in the Snow map, Operation Market Garden.
Naturally this second scenario had a personal connection because Arnhem is one of the battle honours of the Paras. My dads regiment. Dad was in 2 Para.
So when it came to choosing positions at the table there was no way I wasn’t going to be in charge of the 1st Airborne.
This time Jeff was commanding the Allied forces, whilst Jerry commanded the Germans forces.
Despite once again the Allied forces not getting to Arnhem, the Paras stood strong against the German forces, and sealed an Allied win.
Memoir 44 is a great two player game. However as a multiplayer game using the Overlord rules and maps it’s a great multiplayer game too.
Despite being knackered once I got home. I had a great time celebrating another year with Jeff, friends and his family. I’m thankful to have been invited and to have been able to go.
Now the discussion starts for what next years big game will be.
Food:cowboy beans plus cake. The beans were fantastic.
