To celebrate that fact I organised a Saturday gaming session with some of my favourite people to game with, members of Fenland Gamers. Some of the finest people on this planet of ours. Although one or two of them have dubious opinions on roll and writes, and A Game of Thrones. Heck a couple are so deluded they think Barenpark is a game! But they are salt of the Earth folks that will exploit any weakness to get that all important victory.
We split into two groups of three to play games.
I taught and played Dune Imperium (plus Rise of Ix expansion) with Anthony and Shane.
You can see who played which character below.
Characters played in Dune Imperium
The scores below say it all really. With two rounds to spare Anthony claimed his inevitable victory. Which the seeds for were sown a turn earlier.
Until this point we were all roughly around the same point total. No one pulling away from the pack. It was looking like it would be a ten round game with no one getting ten points.
Then a level three combat card came out that gave the winner a victory point. Then the winner had the option to buy two more victory points using spice and solari.
Anthony won that combat and bought an extra victory point with solari. Which he also followed up by gaining a third victory point using an intrigue card. That was some power play!
The following round the prize for winning the combat was two more victory points. Which Shane and myself could do nothing to prevent Anthony from also winning.
Wow what an incredible play.
Dune Imperium Final Scores
Afterwards Shane, Anthony and Colin had to leave for other commitments. Leaving Jonathan, Julie and myself to play a new game Jonathan had just got, Long Shot the Dice Game.
Yes you read that right. Jonathan bought a roll and write. Well two actually. Whilst we were finishing off Dune Imperium. Jonathan and co were playing a London Underground themed one that he had bought at the same time as Long Shot.
Scenes from the birthday gaming
Long Shot is an enjoyable roll and write. It’s not the heaviest. I’d say it’s almost an entry level roll and write. The theme and lightness make it a great introduction to the genre. In fact I prefer this to Camel Cup (not a roll and write). Which has a similar theme.
Final score for Long Shot: The Dice Game
I had a great afternoon gaming, and a big thank you to those that made it so.
Behind The Scenes or BTS – 4/26/22 aka Alien Day: Why this post is only now appearing. This post has been written over several days. I started it Sunday. However I’ve been a bit tired or as I like to put it “bloody knackered”. So I’ve been writing a little bit of it each day before tiredness kicked in.
Look if you want to ruin the surprises that await you as you play the Scythe Rise of Fenris expansion then ignore the following warning. Otherwise please pay heed to it.
SPOILER ALERT! The following post contains spoilers for the Rise of Fenris campaign for Scythe. If you haven’t played the expansion and wish to avoid any spoilers you may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
Yesterday it was time to get Scythe and the Rise of Fenris expansion back to the table to play the next episode in the campaign.
First thing I did was to call Ben and see if he was well enough to join us. We left it that he’d call me at around 11:30am and let me know if he wasn’t.
I grabbed my bag with “everything” in and left for the Community Centre. As I was picking up the bag I distinctly remembered thinking to myself how nice it was to be able to just pick up a single bag and go. Knowing everything was in that bag.
Sadly that wasn’t entirely true.
It wasn’t until I got to the Community Centre, got out the car, took out the bag, and started walking from the car to the Community Centre, that I realised I’d left the neoprene playmat at home!
No worries we could use the regular board. Which changed to we will use the big board set up.
Whilst setting up Ben arrived.
This episode allowed the Wind Gambit expansion to be used. So naturally we were going to play with the airships. We were also allowed to use either the Doomsday Clock or Backup Plan resolution tiles. Of course we went with the Doomsday Clock. I’d played using that before (it’s the only resolution tile I’ve played with so far, but then again it’s only the second time I’ve played with them) and really enjoyed it. I really do like how the focus changes. It’s much more focused and pressured.
I got Ben to draw the two airship tiles, and we ended up with Toll and Hero. Ben also drew the structure bonus for this episode (see below).
We also got to open the little box marked B. Inside eight little orange meeples! These were Fenris agents. Two went on the Factory tile, and each of the six tiles with a tunnel on them also got a single Fenris agent.
By the time setup was finished, which included leaving the factory cards not drawn for the game to one side for Jeff to finish his Vesna faction setup once he arrived. We still had a little time left before the others were due to arrive.
With my setup bonuses and purchasing the perk for 2 more popularity my starting popularity for this episode was 6.
Our goals for episode 4 were to subdue the Fenris agents, and win the game (in 20 turns).
If there is one flaw I have in this campaign it’s going for the shiny new things like influence tokens, or as in this episode Fenris agents over trying to get objectives completed.
I did manage to get five of them, and there was that alluring promise of unimaginable riches at the end of the episode. Riches that translated to setup bonuses. Which felt a little disappointing when it was revealed at the end of the episode. Although I know that at the start of the next episode I will appreciate their benefit.
One of my tactics this game was a land grab trying to be in control of as many tiles as possible. I was able to utilise my airship as a way to lockdown the factory tile under my control. If you remember we had Toll as one of the airship tiles. Which meant to move through or into a space with an airship you had to pay a toll.
I only managed to get three objectives completed this episode before the Doomsday Clock ran out. So far out of the four episodes played the only objective I haven’t completed is the recruit one. So I need to complete that one next episode to complete a line across the Triumph Track. That’s $25 in the final episodes end scoring.
Jeff romped home with the victory and more than enough cash to buy two of the newly unlocked mech mods.
Shane also was able to purchase one. Whilst Ben and myself could look in the shop window but not buy anything. Maybe next episode.
I’m looking forward to our next game in 3 weeks time and the surprises it brings.
I have to say the following as I’d hate to have ruined the campaign for anyone.
SPOILER ALERT! The following post contains spoilers for the Rise of Fenris campaign for Scythe. If you haven’t played the expansion and wish to avoid any spoilers you may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
The morning started off with Ben sending me a text saying he was unlikely to make our session later.
As per normal (well for me) I arrived early and started to set up.
I know folks might find this hard to believe, but I actually enjoy setting up Scythe! It’s a breeze.
We were due to have Lizzy and Mark join us for the campaign but you can guess from how I started the sentence they were unable to. While setting up Lizzy messaged me that Mark seemed to have whatever she had mid week.
I just had an image in my head that I was going to end up with no one coming, and be sitting there looking like Billy no mates in front of the footy fans watching the lunchtime match (Everton vs Man U), and mothers having a kid free beverage.
While waiting for the appointed time between drinking my latte, eating my ham roll, and bagging the game pieces in Cryptid. I was checking my phone regularly for messages from Jeff and Shane.
There was a big sigh of relief when Jeff turned up. Followed by Shane.
Refreshments is place. It was time for …
Episode 3
Our faction/player board match ups for this episode were as follows after randomly drawing the player boards.
Saxony Empire/Agricultural (Black) – Jeff
Nordic Kingdoms/Engineering (Blue) – Shane
Rusviet Union/Innovative (Red) – Me
The factory deck and space were going to be different this episode.
For starters a character card for Vesna, daughter of Nicolas Tesla was added to the initial four cards. Then a further four cards were added, with the larger deck then being shuffled.
During this episode when we visited the factory tile we would get an encounter token. We would then shuffle the deck and reveal cards equal to the number of encounter tokens we had. If one of the cards was Vesna we’d keep the card. Otherwise if we didn’t have a factory card already we could keep one of the revealed cards.
It was the turn of the Rusviets to have an episode nerf. For this episode only (I’m assuming) the Township ability was replaced. I could no longer jump into the factory tile from a controlled village tile. However I could jump from a controlled village tile to an unoccupied one. Which was nearly as cool, and did allow me to get more than my share of encounter tokens.
Goals for the episode were to accumulate influence tokens, find Vesna, and win the game. I’m always forgetting to do that later one!
The story mission did have that “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” vibe to it.
I got off to a blazing start and had the objective for all my workers out on the map completed. It helped that my starting perk for this episode was an extra worker.
Then things slowed down for me, with Shane not long after also completing the same objective.
It transpired that using my faction ability to abuse the crap out of a factory card (damn game balancing errata) wasn’t our only miss play in the opening episodes. In episode 2 Jeff got most of his objective points from completing missions. He was drawing new ones, when he completed one. It had escaped me that he was doing this. I thought he was getting new ones from Encounter cards.
Shane queried his Engineering player board and it’s move action.
It looked like it did not have the slash between the move actions and the gain coins action. Shane was querying whether it should have one there. I said if it didn’t then it was a misprint. Otherwise that’d be an insanely power action.
As the photo of the Engineering player board above shows that it does indeed exist on the player board. It’s just very hard to see thanks to the gorgeous art work. A black line on a dark grey part of the image doesn’t make it the easiest thing to spot.
Naturally my three visits to the Factory failed to find Vesna. But it did get me three influence tokens, and a factory card. To add salt to the wound Jeff defeated my mech on the space, and then found Vesna on his first attempt.
I was too slow putting stars out. Although I did get the one for having the maximum bolster points. One I rarely get in games. I had been playing catch up on that front for most of the game.
So it came as little surprise Jeff triggered the end of the game. I was at least three maybe four turns away from being able to do the same. I’d only got four stars out.
The final scores were as follows:
As you can see Jeff won with a very comfortable margin.
So Jeff’s reward for finding Vesna was to change his faction! Saxony is no more. Jeff had the honour of opening box A to have the new plastic revealed to him. It looks pretty cool. However you will have to wait until we play episode 4 to see photos.
The rulebook very generously also allowed the rest of us to change our factions if we so wished. Shane and I both declined that offer.
We also got to draw more infrastructure mods. I bought the Construction mod. Which means I now have three mods to use each game. My other two being Cavalry and Automachines. Bloody shame I never used those two this episode. That might explain a little why I didn’t do as well. Failure to utilise all my resources.
The influence tokens also meant something this game other than card draw on the factory deck. For every two influence tokens (rounded up) you got to increase a setup bonus by one. I spent them wisely on popularity. So from now on I start each episode with an extra two popularity.
I ended this session with $16. Just enough to buy the perk at the start of episode four.
What a great game. Loved it. Loved the hunt for Vesna and the change to the factory deck. Wow! Getting the new faction. Can’t wait to see what that does in episode four.
SPOILER ALERT! The following post contains spoilers for the Rise of Fenris campaign for Scythe. If you haven’t played the expansion and wish to avoid any spoilers you may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
Since coming out in 2018 the Rise of Fenris (RoF) has been sitting sealed in bubble wrap on my shelf waiting for today!
During that time I’ve managed to avoid any spoilers, and just as important resist opening it up.
I wanted to experience the campaign as it unfolded episode by episode revealing what ever surprises it held inside its box. You only get to do this once. It’s like watching a movie, or hearing a song for the very first time. You can never recapture that moment. No matter how hard you try.
Today Ben, Jeff, Shane and myself met up to start this journey together.
For this opening session of RoF we used the neoprene map. It truly is a lovely version of the game board. We were using the base game of Scythe plus the following expansions Invaders from Afar (nearly wrote Mars there), Encounters, and all the promo packs. For the first two episodes it is not recommended to play with the Wind Gambit expansion.
This meant all faction and player boards were in play when it came down to choosing our faction for the campaign.
Player boards were dealt out randomly to each player. Then starting with the highest numbered player board and going in descending order we drafted our faction board, avoiding any banned combinations. Which meant I chose first, followed by Jeff, then Shane, and finally Ben.
We had our factions for the campaign.
I thought on my drive over I had decided maybe I won’t chose Rusviet. But instead try another faction. Assuming no one else chose Rusviet that is. However without even thinking I went for my favourite faction. Somehow the familiar seemed right.
Having the lowest numbered player board meant that Ben would be first player in episode 1 of RoF. A bit of a curve ball for him as this would be his first time of playing the game! Which was also true for Shane. They were about to jump into the deep end of the pool, having only watched a tutorial online. Would they sink or swim? For sure their learning curve was going to be very steep, against two very competitive players.
Episode 1
This is how the factions and player boards matched up for the opening episode of the campaign.
Republic of Polania/Industrial (White) – Ben
Saxony Empire/Patriotic (Black) – Jeff
Nordic Kingdoms/Militant (Blue) – Shane
Rusviet Union/Mechanical (Red) – Me
Setup for episode 1 was as expected, just like a regular game of Scythe. Then it came to making the additions for this opening episode.
The first addition was to draw 1 random objective card from the deck and place it next to the Triumph Track. This was to be an extra objective all players could complete and place a star on.
Next was to punch some cardboard and add an influence token to each of the Triumph track categories plus the objective we had just added.
We also got to choose a free perk for this episode. After that they would cost us hard earned dollars to purchase at the start of each episode. The first hit is always free.
The “special rules” were simple. Be the first to place a star on a category or the added objective and claim the influence token.
Objectives for episode 1 were simple. Win the game, and collect influence tokens.
This first game was basically like any regular game of Scythe. With the only difference being we got these influence tokens that we had no idea what they were going to be used for.
Somehow I wasn’t the first to the Factory! Ben was. Yeah I know how did that happen? But I was second.
This was an unusual game, or it felt that way. We were all in the first section of the popularity track when it came to the final counting. No one had massive amounts of territory that they controlled. There was combat but not massive amounts. It felt we were all being very insular.
I did trigger the end of the game. On the road to doing so I had collected 5 influence tokens.
Not one of us completed the additional objective.
After the tallying of coins was done, and the dust settled Jeff had won.
Episode 1 Scores
We made a note of the money earnt. This was going to allow us to buy stuff in subsequent episodes.
Before we moved on we had one more thing to do. Using our influence tokens we had to vote on the direction of the next episode. Did we want to focus more on War (combat and interaction) or focus more on Peace (engine building and infrastructure).
I voted for peace. Which with my 5 tokens guaranteed that was the route we would be going down.
Episode 2
For episode 2 we got new player mats, which were drawn at random. Once again enforcing the banned pairings. Below are the new faction and player mat pairings.
Republic of Polania/Mechanical (White) – Ben
Saxony Empire/Innovative (Black) – Jeff
Nordic Kingdoms/Industrial (Blue) – Shane
Rusviet Union/Engineering (Red) – Me
The game board was reset. The influence tokens returned to the box.
The setup for episode 2 gave us a new Triumph track in the form of a Peace Triumph track overlay. Plus each of us got our matching faction alliance token. We also got the chance to purchase a perk for the episode for $15.
The episode goals were to obviously win the game and build structures.
This time I was the first to get to the Factory. Order to the universe was restored.
It would have been nice to have had the Polania faction ability. But Ben wouldn’t have it. All he saw was the money on the front of the tile, and that he got considerable less on that front than me. He didn’t see how powerful my faction ability was. So sadly I was limited to just one of the encounter cards options.
Initially Shane turned down my offer of an alliance also. His Nordic ability would be handy for my workers. He listened to Ben’s flawed money argument. But eventually he caved and an alliance was made. At just the right time for me as it gave me enough income to fuel my factions abuse of its power until near the very end.
The river walk for my workers did prove very handy allowing me to expand out and build my structures close to encounter spots.
As the final scores show this episode really really suited my faction. I was in the final section of the popularity track getting the maximum points multiplier.
I wasn’t expecting any combat to happen. It didn’t “gain” you anything. However in the later half of the game Ben and Jeff turned to the aggressive side and attacked Shane!
Episode 2 Scores
At the end of the episode we got to choose a free Infrastructure Mod, and the chance to buy other ones for $50 each. The number you got to choose from depended on how many structures you built during the game. You got to draw two initially plus an extra one for each structure you built. Which meant I was choosing from 6 mods.
“Remember, wealth earned in Episodes 1-7 is not used to determine the winner of the campaign, so spend it to improve your empire!” Rise of Fenris rulebook, page 19
How cool is the above? “The winner of the campaign is the winner of the final episode”. Love it.
I really loved these first two episodes. The additions weren’t overwhelming, they ease you into the campaign very gently. I can’t wait for our next session in two weeks time and see what surprises lie in wait for us. We haven’t even opened a box yet!
Life had once again aligned the two schedules of Diego and myself so that we could once again have a morning together playing Vampire the Masquerade Rivals.
We selected our prebuilt clans for the morning. Both of us went with the “default” leader for our clans.
To decide who was first player we rolled two of my “who goes first” dice. Diego won that one. I should have heeded the warning sign.
Nosferatu vs Thin-blood
This mornings games couldn’t have started off any worse for me.
Turn one for Diego, play Constant Surveillance and shutdown my Agenda.
Constant Surveillance
My thoughts were to hold off playing another vampire until my next turn, and instead draw two cards trying to dig for some alchemy cards. Which I had none off in my opening hand. And that was my first and only mistake in the game.
Despite drawing four cards in that opening first turn of mine I didn’t find a single alchemy card. Which made Diego’s next turn sting just that little bit more.
Turn two for Diego was to attack my leader in my haven. I had nothing to do but take the beating and watch my leader get sent to torpor, and Diego get one of the quickest and easiest wins possible.
Game one over and done with.
Game two it was my turn to start.
I wasn’t making the same mistake twice.
This second game lasted much longer, and went the distance so to speak of an agenda points win.
I had the early lead on that front, but that was capped at a max of six points from my agenda ability. Diego soon caught up, and then went ahead.
I was much happier this second game. I was getting alchemy cards and attaching them to vampires. We were up to three S.A.D. Agents in the Street. I was more than happy to leave them there as a problem for Diego as I could absorb their damage by spending a prestige.
In the meantime I started picking off citizens in the street. Sadly not fast enough to catch up with Diego who grabbed an agenda point win.
Vampire the Masquerade Rivals Scores for Second Game
We followed up Diego’s comprehensive victories at Rivals with a game of Port Royal.
This was a different experience to the two player game I played with “has to keep pushing his luck” Jeff.
Diego was a much more cagey player. I don’t remember either of us not getting to choose a card on our turn through two ships of the same colour being out.
But like our second game of Rivals after I took an early lead Diego closed the gap and took the lead by completing at the time the only contract that had been drawn. A second contract did appear near the end in which I was in a better position to claim. However the cards didn’t work in my favour, and Diego was able to get the final two points he needed for the win.
Final scores for Port Royal
Although I lost this morning. I still had a great time. I look forward to our next Vampire Thursday Morning.
I enjoy driving over to Jeff’s fortress of solitude (yes it does seem that remote where he lives.) Especially when I go the back roads.
It’s like a trip down memory lane.
As a kid my grandad (Dads side of the family) was the landlord of the Wheatsheaf Pub in a small fenland village called Walpole Marsh. The pub was a true old school spit and sawdust type of place. I remember the large walk in pantry it had. But more importantly if you had to do a number two that involved using what was basically a plank with a hole in it over who knows what! The mens urinal was outside with no roof.
The village is unrecognisable these days to my time there in the seventies. The pub is no longer a pub but a house. As is the chapel that was next to it.
My godparents home across the road from the pub, which was a bungalow with a barn next to it, has no trace of either.
The village hall gone and replaced with a home. The nursery that Nan sometimes worked at, homes.
Somehow I think the sense of the village being a community with the heart being pub has long gone for Walpole Marsh.
Today my back road route took me through the Walpoles and towards Walpole Marsh via Marsh Road.
As a kid we used to love going down Marsh Road. There is a slight slope/embankment it goes up. Dad used to go faster over that, and as you went over the top there was that rollercoaster moment of the tingly stomach. Pure joy for a young kid! Funny I loved that and have such find memories of it. But I can’t stand rollercoasters!
Once I was at Jeff’s it was down to business.
Jeff made the coffee, while I set up Libertalia.
Our first voyage was disastrous for me. At the end of it I’d only 7 doubloons to store in my treasure chest. Jeff had clocked up twenty odd. It was going to require some amazing turns and a lot of luck to overturn this deficit.
Voyage two was better for me. Jeff still scored more. The gap was only two or three doubloons. The third and final voyage I did much better and edged it over Jeff. But sadly not enough to overcome that first voyage.
As you can see from the final score I never really recovered from that disastrous first voyage.
Our Libertalia Scores
Our next game Port Royal followed a similar start to Libertalia with Jeff making the coffee, whilst I setup aka shuffled the cards.
This was a learning game. I.e. reading the rules as we went.
For this game we were playing the base game, plus the cards from the expansion Just One More Contract. We did not use the contracts from the expansion.
I did enjoy the push your luck element of the game. Which is handy as it’s a major part of the game!
“You’ve got to know when to hold ’em Know when to fold ’em Know when to walk away And know when to run” The Gambler
Apparently the above advice isn’t something Jeff knows! The number of times he just pushed his luck too far. Me a couple of times I stopped after my first card. Hey a ship giving me three coins is worth it. Plus it screws over the other player as they don’t get anything! However the game rewards pushing your luck, as the more ships of different colours you have out the more cards you get to choose (up to a maximum of three).
I still need to play this game with more players. But as a two player game I enjoyed it. Definitely need to work out how this fits in the gaming case, or what goes to make way for it. However that’s a decision for another day.
Our Port Royal Scores
Playing Port Royal with Jeff meant that I made progress with three of my gaming challenges.
The Challenges Port Royal helped towards
A great afternoon gaming with Jeff. I hope there is an opportunity to repeat it in the near future.
I suppose I better start the post off with wishing everyone a very geeky Happy Mario Day.
Happy Mario Day
In other news Libertalia Winds of Galecrest arrived yesterday. But more about that a bit further down in this post.
First we need to talk about the other game I played with Diego this morning.
Diego and I started our morning of gaming off with a two player game of Vampire the Masquerade Rivals.
It was Tremere vs Gangrel.
I think Diego and myself are starting to focus on the clans we want to start building around. I definitely am.
Our leaders for this match up
Diego might be right that in a two player game Tremere might be a tad on the op side.
Being able to stay in your haven, play rituals, and slowly drain your opponents blood is pretty powerful. Unless an event drags your leader or coterie into the streets that is when you become pretty exposed.
I think I’m starting to get an idea where I want to go with the deck.
Playing Vampire the Masquerade Rivals
Although there is the ritual Blood Makes Noise, that gets some extra prestige. I’d like a way to get more. During this game I was down to a single prestige. All Diego had to do was deliver that killing blow to get the win. Plus I had a 4 bp vampire in hand I wanted to play but just couldn’t.
I like the Seek Knowledge ritual. Anything that aids getting to cards you need quicker to good by me. Add in Defense of the Sacred Haven to increase the secrecy of vampires in your haven certainly makes it harder for your opponents to attack. Plus stops single S.A.D. attacks from the street.
I’m starting to lean towards having more reaction cards in the deck, and a lot less attack cards. Possibly a 70:30 split in favour of the reaction cards.
The final scores of our game, with me getting an agenda point victory.
Final scores for Vampire the Masquerade Rivals
Onto our second game of the morning.
Did anyone think I wouldn’t take Libertalia with me to Diego’s?
Before leaving I had decided to sleeve two of the six decks because that’s all I thought I had sleeves for. But as luck would have it I had more than I thought. Enough to do all six decks, but not the Automa deck. Which wasn’t a problem it’s not as if I’d be using those cards anytime soon.
My initial impressions of playing Libertalia for a first time ever, and as a two player game, is I love it.
Naturally I’m going to talk a bit more about the game after I’ve played it with more players. There is a lot to say about the bits I like.
But with the Midshipman tile acting like a “third” player in a two player game. It works so well, it has no overhead, and so simple, it’s genius.
Libertalia Wings of Galecrest
There is some great decision making to make during the game. The reputation system to resolve tiebreakers another simple, genius idea.
I think with the Calm side of the board for a first play the level of player interaction and “meanness” is just right. It’s not overly nasty. Although I think if a new player is going to play who is not a gamer they might need a little heads up that they could end up not getting any loot on a turn.
The final scores confirming Diego’s revenge for losing our Rivals game.
Libertalia final scores
A great mornings gaming with one of my favourite people to game with. Days off don’t get much better than this.
Last week Diego and myself had arranged to visit Jeff to play some Vampire the Masquerade Rivals. Yesterday was the prearranged day.
I’d stopped at Asda on the way out and picked up some pastries to go with our beverages.
When it came to choosing our clans I decided I wanted to sit safely in my haven replacing the blood of my rival, so I chose Tremere. Jeff went with Brujah because he knew that clan from his learning game in the later months of last year. Diego went Gangrel. You can see who our leaders were below.
Who played which clan and their leader.
My rival was Jeff, Diego was Jeff’s, and I was Diego’s.
Multiplayer is such a different game to a two player game.
I needed Jeff to be more aggressive towards his rival Diego. But Jeff spent too much time early on taking out mortals in the street. Leaving Diego free to annoy me.
Luckily I had a ritual out that increased my havens secrecy, which bought me breathing space from Diego.
Jeff only had two vampires out. So when he did eventually start taking on Diego a window was starting to open for me. Which became wide open when Jeff attacked Diego in his haven and both the target and attacker got taken out and sent to torpor. Leaving Jeff with a solo vampire on three blood in the street.
I was able to knock out Jeff’s only remaining vampire to grab a victory by KO!
It was an opportunistic win. Next turn Jeff would have grabbed the win.
The final scores for VtM Rivals
After my glorious victory in Rivals we played a game of Potion Explosion.
This has been a game I’d wanted to try since it came out a few years ago. However as far as I knew no-one I knew had a copy. But that changed last Friday when Diego bought it along and played it. So I commented at the time I’d like to try it and could he bring it along Monday.
Which brings us nicely to our time after our three player game of Rivals and a coffee and cake break.
I’m not sure how I feel about Potion Explosion.
I enjoyed the game. But did I like it? I didn’t hate or dislike it. I’d play the game again.
The game has that table presence, that wow factor, which has people not playing saying “what’s this game?”
Which is why I’m unsettled by my reaction to the game. I like it when games make you feel strongly about them even if it’s a negative reaction.
I can’t put my finger on why Potion Explosion makes me feel this way.
As you can see compared to the others my final score was not even close.
Potion Explosion Final Scores
I had a great morning gaming with two amazing friends. A fantastic way to end the shortest month of the year.
Yesterday we held an open Saturday gaming session. The first in a long long time. Usually if we game on a Saturday it’s a prearranged thing to play a specific game. But this time we were holding a session so that the barmaid could try our modern boardgames. She’d been interested on a normal gaming night but not able to join in as she was working. Hence this session on her day off!
We split into two groups.
Jeff, Ben and myself started our gaming off with a game of Three Sisters. Whilst Jonathan’s table started with Karuba. Which after checking the bgstats I have played. I wasn’t sure if I had. And it looks like I won that time I played it to.
Our game of Three Sisters had a surprise winner.
Both Jeff and I thought Ben was going to be the winner. He was comboing off so early in the game compared to us.
So once the final scores had been tallied I was pleasantly surprised that I drew for first loser with Ben, whilst Jeff claimed the spoils of war and victory.
Three Sisters Scores
Our second game was Survive Escape from Atlantis. A game that Jeff warned us was a mean game.
Survive has been sitting in my collection for easily 5 or 6 years unplayed! I’m not proud of that fact. But it’s not the longest inmate in my unplayed pile of shame.
Wow Jeff was right this game is mean and cut throat, but in a fun way. But I think who you play with also helps a lot.
It’s not a complicated game. But has surprising depth right from the start. Like where to place your high value meeples on the island. Or which tile to move, or when to play a tile.
In our game I placed a low value meeple in the middle of the island. Which instantly got dumped in the sea, was next to the kraken for most of the game. As soon as a path out by sea was available I used a dolphin tile to move it to “safety”. The meeple then proceeded to swim towards shore, but sadly was one move away from making it to land when Jeff triggered the end of the game. It was so nearly the heroic story of the game.
What can I say this game is fun.
It’s not going to be another 5 or 6 years before Survive hits the table again.
As you can see I won by a single point.
Survive Escape from Atlantis Scores
Our final game was classic Splendor.
Once again I wasn’t even close to winning.
Splendor Scores
Finally we are back to wrapping up the post with a photo by Jonathan.
Sunday I woke up thinking “I wonder if Jonathan would like to meet up and play Three Sisters this afternoon?”
So I sent a message to him.
As luck would have it he was indeed free.
A time and place was quickly agreed.
Come the agreed time Jonathan and I met up at the Wisbech St Mary Sports and Social Club, the agreed place.
Our first game naturally was the recently arrived Kickstarter Three Sisters.
For our first play I thought we’d leave the mini weather expansion in the box.
Three Sisters
This is a really nice roll and write. There is so much to like about it.
For starters it’s use of a rondel for selecting actions. You choose the die you want to draft and get the action underneath it. The die you choose selects the garden you are going to plant or water. However this also means the die you draft can deny the other players of getting that action. So you could hate draft. It’s genius.
This game really combos off. Early on Jonathan was comboing off whilst I looked on in awe and jealousy, thinking I’d made the wrong choices. You really do need to be paying attention to what you trigger.
I like how everyone gets to do one common rondel action based the position of the lowest valued die left. The highest value die left is used by the weather expansion to determine the weather for the following round. Tie this in with the end of round game effect.
The rondel board with its thick cardboard puts many boardgames to shame. For a roll and write the component quality is very good.
As you can see from the scores below the early combo stuff paid dividends for Jonathan nabbing him the win.
Three Sisters final scores
Our game of Three Sisters counted towards the following ongoing challenges in the bgstat app.
Our next game was one of Jonathan’s called Gingerbread House.
I liked this “light gateway” game a lot. Despite the designer having created the not a game Barenpark.
This game has a definite Kingdomino vibe to it.
The personal tile supply is a cool twist. As is collecting resources to capture character cards from for want of a better description, trade row.
I like how completing a level on your board gets you a bonus card.
Gingerbread House
As you can see from the scores below I managed to squeak out a victory.
Gingerbread House scores
Playing Gingerbread House only counted towards one challenge.
Our final game of the afternoon was Tussie Mussie.
I nearly played this whilst I was with Nathan. However I’d left the rules at home so was unable to.
This is a really really nice“I split, you choose” card game.
A simple mechanic. But choosing which card to have face up and which to have face down to offer to your opponent can be a very hard decision to make. Then flip that decision from the opposite side, it’s just as hard a choice.
Tussie Mussie
Once round three had finished and the scores tallied I came out the winner.
Tussie Mussie punched well above its weight and counted towards three challenges.
I had a great afternoon gaming with Jonathan. We played some great games. Now to get them back to the table sooner than later.
And yes I will indeed be closing the post with the photographic talents of Jonathan.
