Category Archives: game night

game night

In a social club far far away…

game night

The well-being day came and went. I did get to play some of the games I took with me in the afternoon.

Deep Sea Adventure was a hit with my friend Sam. I think she might be getting a copy once she is back from her holiday. In the meantime I showed Sam the Oink games app on her phone with the game (I think) free.

Love Letter along with Cat in the Box, and Sushi Go Party also hit the table that afternoon.

It was a great afternoon gaming with friends and colleagues who I don’t usually get a chance to play with. I hope that I get a chance to do this again.

Sadly Scythe Expeditions didn’t arrive by Friday evening. I knew it was a long shot. The update from Stonemaier was UK/Europe would be shipping this week. I was hoping that there might be a small chance it’d make an appearance but it was really wishful thinking.

I know Spiral Galaxy has started shipping however I’d love to know how many champions are in the UK with Expeditions orders. I’m not totally convinced they are shipping champions first. Or are there that many champions in the UK that ordered it?

Anyway last night was a chance to play a game or two with Gavin. It’s been a while since we last had an opportunity to play some games. With the stars aligning Diego was also able to join us, plus Julie and her son.

We started off playing Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

I really like this game. Obviously the theme is right up my alley. I am a Star Wars fan.

The components are great. The models of the villains and the Jedi are really good. Plus the robot figures that are used instead of disease cubes are not only detailed but have a variety of different poses.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars uses the pandemic engine. And I really like the changes they made to it.

The most obvious is the completion of missions and defeating the villian instead of curing diseases. Another is there are no outbreaks. Instead a block aid ship gets placed that needs taking out first.

Setup is much quicker with the missions. There is no shuffling cards into decks.

Talking of cards you don’t draw cards at the end of your turn. Instead drawing a card is one of the four actions you can take. Giving you much more control over your hand of cards, or allowing you to go hunting for a card.

Naturally the game beat us. Sorry Ventress defeated us. It had looked like Ventress was going to beat us royally. We had only completed one mission, the threat level was going up far to fast. But then we had a spurt of completing the remaining three missions and having a chance to defeat Ventress. However we ran out of time before we got that chance.

I think Nathan is going to enjoy playing this.

My final game with everyone was Vaalbara which Diego totally rocked. I left them playing Perudo.

A great evening gaming, and a long overdue catch up with Gavin.

It’s been emotional

game night, life, the universe, and everything

It’s been a long week.

One that’s been very emotional as well.

At the start of the week I finally had the offer from college to become a full time lecturer. Which I accepted.

However it hit me hard that the one person I really wanted to share the news with I couldn’t. I miss Nan so much.

And the working week ended that way to.

It’s not only the end of term but the academic year and my leaving class of level three students gave me a card and box of Maltesers. An unexpected and very nice thought.

But when I opened the card back in the room where I was doing my final marking of the year, my eyes nearly leaked as I read it.

The card means so much. It’s hard to express how. But it’s nice to know that all the hard work has been appreciated by the students.

After thanking the students again I just wanted to share the card with Nan. And once again the eyes threatened to leak. If it was hard to articulate how I felt about the card. There is no way I’m getting close to getting across how much I miss Nan.

Last night I got to play War of the Ring the card game with Diego. For once the free people of middle-earth (me) won. Plus it was a points win ending the game early by creating a ten point difference

But the glow of victory didn’t last long as Diego thrashed me at Star Wars the deckbuilding game as the Empire.

It was a cool evening gaming with Diego. I’m glad our life events are enabling us to play more games together. Now if only they would sync a bit more so we could game with Jonathan more.

The spice did flow

Fenland Gamers, game night

After the failed attempt to have a club night last week. Which would have been the first post UKGE we got back on track by having one this week.

I took along my now pimped out copy of Dune Imperium in it’s new home of the Deluxe Upgrade box. Along with After Us, War of the Ring the card game (with the four promo cards I purchased at this years UKGE), and Cat in the Box. Plus the limited edition, super rare black edition of the club tee. There are only three of these and all spoken for.

Despite only five people actually responding to the event on the clubs discord server. We actually had twelve turn up.

This meant we split up into three gaming tables of four players on each.

Luckily there were three others willing to play Dune Imperium.

The Dune Imperium Deluxe Upgrade kit (finally arrived earlier in the week)

One of them was new to the game so I limited our game to just the core and Rise of Ix expansion. Having Immortality in the mix as well would have been too much.

Who had which leader?

  • Viscount Hundro Moritani – me
  • Prince Rhombur Vernius – Julie
  • Princess Yuna Moritani – Dave
  • The Beast Glossu Rabban – new player

I bet me not playing Yuna surprised you. It surprised me too. But then Dave had already chosen her. So I had very little choice in the matter.

I liked Hundro a lot. Especially his starting bonus of getting an Intrigue card.

For most of the game I was just behind the leaders on the victory points. I was in the mix and just needed a good round to leap frog into the lead. Ideally timed to trigger the end game.

Early on I picked up an end game scoring intrigue card that rewarded me for being having three or more influence on the faction tracks. Followed by taking one off Julie that gave me a point for having more than ten solari. Almost straight away after taking that card off her I drew another with the same condition on it.

I had potentially four victory points in those three intrigue cards at the end of the game.

Our game went the full ten rounds.

I didn’t win a single combat. Most of them I didn’t even participate in.

In the later rounds I made sure I couldn’t lose the two alliances I had. In this game losing one to another player is a massive point swing.

In the last round I was able to pick up a Spice Must Flow card to gain a much needed victory point. It helped that the cost was reduced by three with a card I had.

After the dust had settled and points from tech tiles and intrigue cards added I won with twelve points.

I really love the deluxe upgrade kit. The models look awesome on the board.

The metal first player token is amazing. It feels really nice and has a great weight to it.

The insert I like. It just about fits everything in sleeved. There is no room for any thing else. So I hope there are no plans for a third expansion.

I think the only way the kit could be improved is if they had replaced the remaining cardboard with acrylic tokens.

I had a great time playing Dune Imperium. A great evenings gaming.

Good to be back!

Fenland Gamers, game night, life, the universe, and everything

It’s felt like an age since I last did any board gaming.

With the car woes not yet resolved I was glad I was able to arrange for a lift home from the community centre. It meant I could hop off the college bus on the way home, walk to the community centre, and play some games.

The gaming drought was about to be over.

Jonathan had bought along Letters from Whitechapel. A Game I last played with Jonathan back in 2016. Back then it was a three player game with me taking on the role of the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper. In that game Jack managed to avoid capture, carry out his crimes, and disappear into the night, never to be caught. In other words I won, Jonathan and Debbie lost.

Last night Dave was to be Jack the Ripper whilst Diego, Jonathan, Charlene, and myself would be the boys in blue trying to stop Jack.

The first game was over during the first night with Jack running out of time to get back to his hideout.

It was a learning game, and refresher. So can we really count it as Dave was learning how to play, and be Jack at the same time?

Our second game went to the third night with Jack being arrested by me. But he had already claimed four victims by this point.

Charlene’s crime board had worked, but sadly it had not been effective enough to save more lives.

But our collective deduction skills had been more mighty than Dave’s tricksy skills.

These were two really fun games.

Good grief I look so old in this photo. When did that happen?
Photo copyright Jonathan Warren

A big thank you to Jonathan for the lift home. Without it I wouldn’t have been able to go.

A brief car woes update. I have wheels again.

Green Flag got the car started again, and found the fault to be the battery. So once at the garage I passed on the info. It was lucky it was the that. I was prepared for something more expensive like an alternator (whatever one of them is).

A big thank you to Jonathan for picking me up and dropping me off at the garage. Without him getting the car woes sorted would have been a lot more eventful, and longer. Mainly because of a flaw in my plan that didn’t foresee not getting a loan car while the work was being done.

Epic Game Night!

Game day, game night

Friday I had an awesome, nay EPIC afternoon and evening gaming.

Ben was hosting at his home in Kings Lynn. Which meant I had an excuse to pop in to see my friends and ex-colleagues at the Tesco Express I used to work at.

I miss working with them so much.

Charlene was at Ben’s when I got there.

We played a two player edition of Blokus whilst Ben set up Nidavellir.

I hadn’t played Blokus before and it had been on my list of games to try.

As a quick two player game I liked it a lot. We rattled out two games whilst Ben was setting up. Both of which I won.

Plus we played a family game called Blockness with Charlene’s daughter, and Ben’s daughter. I’d never heard of it, and it wasn’t listed on bgg!

Think a child friendly version of Tokyo Highway but without the dexterity element themed around the Loch Ness monster!

Ben’s daughter won whilst also smack talking her aunty.

Then it was on to a 3 player game of Nidavellir.

This was an interesting game I’d never played before. The main mechanics being set collection and bidding.

The game sees you bidding on each of three lots of cards to see who chooses first from that lot. You are also trying to upgrade the coins you are using for the bids to higher values as they obviously give you a better chance of picking first. But also are worth more points at the end as you add up the total of your coins to add to your score.

I quite enjoyed the game. Would definitely play again. Not sure about the long setup time.

We finished off the afternoons gaming with a 4 player game of Cat in the Box.

Another fun new to me trick taking game, which I sadly lost on the tiebreaker.

The main event of Fridays gaming was a four player (Ben, Marcin, Diego, and myself) all in epic variant of Dune Imperium.

Which basically means Dune Imperium with both expansions (Rise of Ix and Immortality) plus the epic variant rules (playing to 12 victory points, starting with an intrigue card, no conflict 1 card, 5 troops in the garrison). The epic variant rules setup can be found in the Rise of Ix expansion rule book.

Who played which leader

Yeah I played “Princess” Yuna Moritani once again. I guess I like her ability a lot. I should branch out and try a new leader next time.

For much of the game Ben was in the lead on the victory track.

He did like buying the Spice Must Flow cards to get a victory point for doing so. He got three that way. An interesting strategy.

To be fair Ben was doing amazing considering he had one less agent than the rest of us.

I even bought 3 tech tiles. I think this was the most I’ve bought in a game. Plus I bought both dreadnoughts. Another first.

Only one of us didn’t use their family atomics to reset the trade row. I did it to try and get a card that would help with the one I had that allowed me to graft a card from the trade row to it, then trash it afterwards. I was looking for solutions, which I luckily found.

This game went the full 10 rounds. Which had Ben leading for most of it, hitting the game end trigger of 12 points, and then getting a thirteenth.

However I managed to get a point off him, that was short lived for me as Marcin took a point off me. A point that helped Marcin grab the victory.

As you can see from the final scores below this was a pretty close game. It’s one of the things I love about the game.

This was also a very cut throat, competitive game. I’d expect no less from four hardened gamers.

I still don’t get why Marcin hates, that’s probably too strong a word, dislikes the intrigue cards that give a couple of victory points during the end game scoring. I agree that’s a massive amount of points in a game like Dune Imperium where the scores are so close. But I see that as a form of end game tension and a way to grab victory from defeat.

A great Fridays game with great friends.

Father Son Gaming Easter Holidays Edition #2

father son gaming, Game day, game night

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.

Father Son Gaming Easter Holidays Edition

father son gaming, Game day, game night

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.

Alice is Missing

game night, RPG

Last night Jeff, Diego, Charlene, and myself gathered together to play the ttrpg Alice is Missing.

Alice is Missing has become this mythical like experience that if you enjoy RPG’s you have to try. I think a combination of reviews and word of mouth have contributed to it achieving this.

A lot of this buzz is based around its unique mechanic of being a silent RPG played solely through text messages, plus the emotional experience the theme and collaborative storytelling give.

I’ve had the Alice is Missing rpg in physical and digital forms for nearly two years. I just never got a chance to play it.

Well that was until last night.

Plans were made, interest noted. Eventually after the usual song and dance to negotiate a date, we had all could make.

As the day got closer I watched and rewatched videos of the rules on YouTube.

The excitement and trepidation was building up.

Game day and I’m reading the rulebook.

“Oh bugger I need to print stuff off.”

Then my next thought was “have I got enough ink?”

Luckily this was not a last minute realisation and I had time to find out I barely had enough ink in the printer. I got the blank character sheets printed along with the game sheets and five of the posters before there was not enough ink.

I was spared a dash to Tescos. I had enough to go with.

On the drive over to Charlene’s humble abode my mind started to ponder things about our game that evening.

Was I in a good enough emotional place to handle the sort of subjects that could crop up during the session?

I’m still a bit fragile from the passing of Nan. Talking about her can be quite hard at times.

Just the previous day a friend told me they had cancer and was starting a course of radiotherapy. During our time together I couldn’t help noticing that I thought they looked a bit frail. It was certain moments. Not all the time. Maybe I was reading too much into what I thought I saw. I have to admit I was hit hard by the news. Obviously memories of my friend Ben came back to me.

Back when I did the first aid course for Tesco and we did the resuscitation bit of the training it really hit me hard. Memories of trying to resuscitate Dad and Nan came flooding back. I couldn’t fight back the tears. I had to leave the room.

I’d never for the life of me would have thought I’d react like that.

So knowing the sort of things Alice is Missing could go into, would I have a similar reaction?

I didn’t feel I was in the strongest emotional state for this game.

Sitting in the Asda car park near to Charlene’s I ordered Dominos pizza for us all as I waited for our agreed time to arrive. I’d said I’d provide snacks and pizza as Charlene was hosting.

That snack bit had seen me making a last minute dash round one of the stores I used to work in before it closed.

After a warm welcome from Charlene’s two dogs and the others arriving we setup.

I really like the setup process. The rulebook talks through the whole process for the facilitator, highlighting which bits need to be read out aloud etc.

We covered the important X cards, lines and veil’s safety tools. In a game like this they are a must.

The pizza arrived just before we recorded our messages for Alice.

After having our fill of pizza we finished off the setup and started playing in silence.

Wow!

The 90 minutes flew by.

It was such a compelling experience.

With the only sound being the official soundtrack that the timer plays it felt so weird initially playing in silence. The only communication via WhatsApp chat.

The silence added to the impact of a certain event.

I was surprised that I didn’t seem to have had the same emotional experience as others had had.

Maybe that was due to our personal histories or we didn’t go into graphic detail on what could be described as the more triggering subjects. Or the cards that we drew for the key moments. Or all of the above.

I was expecting a Twin Peaks or 13 Reasons vibe to the session. They start off with the death. Which isn’t how this plays out.

Whatever the reason we had a good time. We really enjoyed ourselves.

I’m glad it was Jeff, Diego and Charlene who were the ones I experienced Alice is Missing with, and it was not at the community centre. The place where you play it and with whom is key I think. There needs to be that element of trust and safety because of the games themes.

Anyway I’ll definitely play again, and glad I backed the expansion on kickstarter.

A magical Friday evening

Commander, game night, MtG

I’ve not talked about or played MtG for a long time now. Which should worry WotC. Some-one who loves the game, loves playing it. Not playing it,buying product, or talking about it.

But that changed Friday evening when I taught Dave and Clack how to play.

On the way home I had popped in to my FLGS to try and pick up a copy of the game night kit free for all kit (a box of five standard decks that can be opened up and played by a group of friends). Sadly they did not have one.

They had also sold out of jump start decks.

I needed something I could use with new players. That was new player friendly.

So I ended up with a Starter Kit, plus a Pioneer Challenger deck (I already had two others I could use).

A mad dash back home in record time (all the traffic lights en route were in my favour) to pick up what I needed for the evening. Saw me arrive 10 minutes later than we had arranged.

I started off teaching MtG using the Starter Kit decks for Dave and Clack, whilst I used an old Card Kingdom battle deck I had.

This was a fun first game. They both attacked me a lot declaring me as the main threat because I knew how to play the game!

I managed to stabilise at 4 health before being able to hit back and grab a victory.

Next I gave out a random 2021 D&D Commander deck (not the current set) and went over the brief changes to the format.

Our commanders

I need to look into the themes of these decks. Mine was obviously a dragon deck and all about getting them out. Clack’s deck was possibly a voltron style deck. Dave’s was the confusing one, and seemed all about venturing through dungeons and getting those benefits and graveyard shenanigans?

This game Clack got mana screwed. It happens. As a MtG player you just accept it happens, and hope you live long enough to try and mount some sort of comeback once the lands start showing up.

In a game of Commander being mana screwed might be an advantage early on as other players don’t see you as a threat, and leave you alone as they beat up on each other.

I was ramping up nicely in this game, got my commander out. Was the monarch (a great mechanic for Commander) spamming out tokens. Life was good for the dragons.

Unchecked I was just able to swing in and single shot both Dave and Clack for the victory.

Our second game it was my turn to get mana screwed. It happens. See previous comments above about it.

Eventually I was able to start playing cards and building up a presence on the battlefield.

Clack’s voltron deck was firing off, and some rather threatening creatures were being equipped and made nastier. Dave and I were at risk of dying from Commander damage by Clack.

Dave made it hard for Clack and I to block his attacks, as we were for large chunks of the game only able to block with legendary creatures.

He was also venturing through those dungeons a lot and pulling creatures back from the graveyard.

Our decks were doing stuff.

I think this game felt more commandery than our previous one. There was more politic stuff going on. More “don’t attack me I’m not a threat, look at that big creature they have. Now that’s a threat!”

Despite that distinct lack of mana for what felt like an eternity I managed to hold on in their and win.

It was a fun evening of MtG.

Not only did I get to introduce new players to the game. But I was reminded what I like so much about the game.

Plus the Starter Kit and Pioneer decks I can play with Nath when I visit him next week.

Win, win.

Big game weekend

Fenland Gamers, Game day, game night

This weekend I played only three games.

They were not short games.

It started off with an all in game of Dune Imperium.

Thanks to a bit of AP from a player this game took a lot longer than it should.

The game went to the full ten rounds with Dave managing to push his final score to a whooping 14 victory points. Very impressive for a first play.

We finally left the WSM Community Centre just before 11pm!

Still I really love Dune Imperium with both expansions. I must get the deluxe expansion. But the thing putting me off is the upgraded dreadnoughts are not available outside the US.

Saturday saw the regular D&D session happening. But the post mortem post will go into that. So I’ll spare you the pain here of me waffling on about it.

Sunday afternoon was a six player all in game of Scythe.

I foolishly forgot to make notes of who played what faction with which player board.

  • Republic of Polania (White) – Archie
  • Saxony Empire (Black) – Marcin
  • Nordic Kingdoms (Dark Blue) – Claire
  • Rusviet Union (Red) – Me (I had the agriculture board)
  • Vesna (Light Blue) – Rise of Fenris – Dave
  • Fenris (Orange) – Rise of Fenris – Charlene

For this game I used the War objective track, along with the modular board. The resolution tile for this game was Mission Possible. The two wind gambit cards thus game were Reap and War Correspondent.

I could have made the game more aggressive with the rivals module but decided that that, and the mech and tech modules were a module too far for the two noobs, and two partial noob players.

I had two great objectives for this aggression biased game. Sadly I completed neither.

The game was a blast.

I love just how much variability this game has meaning no two games are the same.

At six players we were in danger of running out of time before the community centre closed.

But still that was to be expected.

Not many games played over the weekend. But three great big games were.