Category Archives: game night

game night

Firehouse Baby

flash point, game night, lego minifigs, new arrivals, tabletop

“Get the firehouse

'Cause she sets my soul afire

Get the firehouse

And the flames keep gettin' higher”

KISS – Firehouse

As part of my expanding lego minifig collection four lego minifig firemen arrived. Luckily these can be picked up relatively cheaply on eBay. So why have I got firemen? The photo above kind of gives it away really. It's mainly to use in playing the game Flash Point instead of the little plastic figures that come with the game (the blue figure in the photos is one of them). And also for when I do posts about the game I'll use them for a little photo shoot to illustrate the post.
I'm not claiming using lego minifigs as replacement game counters as my original idea. I had been thinking about it since getting Imperial Assault ( and ruled out because Star Wars minifigs aren't as cheap as firefighters). However over Christmas I did see a post on the UK Imperial Assault Facebook page where some-one had done exactly that and used Star Wars lego minifigs instead of the provided miniatures. It looked pretty cool.
In fact I'm half tempted to use the scientists I have in Pandemic games also. One thing I'll have to do is get a female minifig head or two to convert one or two of the firefighters into female ones. Why? Well it's the right thing to do, plus there are female characters in the game already. So to be true to the game I think some of the player counters should also be female.
I kind of like the idea of using lego minifigs as game counters. For me it adds an additional fun element to the game. It means I can create personalised minifigs that represent the person playing the game. So it can add that personal touch and be used as a cool memento of the evening (although that could get expensive – unless they bring the minifig back with them for subsequent games). Before I start doing this for my gaming evenings I must find a cheaper supply of minifig parts and accessories. eBay and the sites I use online aren't suitable for this as a long term project. Nice thing is if I can source a cheap supply of parts for my own projects, I can use them also with students in induction weeks (I mentioned this idea in a previous post).
Who would of thought I'd find a cross over between lego minifigs and boardgames. It was pretty dam obvious really.

 

A Game Night With Friends

game night, tabletop

Last night I held a gaming night at my home. Before everyone arrived I relocated the two canine criminals next door with Nan. They may look all cute and innocent in the photo below. But those innocent faces hide two of the most jealous attention seeking individuals you will come across.

Those two won’t let me speak to anyone even on the phone without getting jealous and demanding my attention be given to them instead. So for the good of the evening the wolf pack spent some quality time with Nan.
We started the evening playing Zombicide. Sam, James and myself controlled two characters each to take on M02 Food! from the game night scenarios. Our mission was to get into the fast food diner, and eat there. But before we could do that we had to collect the objective tokens in the other two buildings. However there was just the small matter of the zombie horde between us and our objectives.
The game kit comes with 6 Kyoko characters, the zombivor version of Kyoko, plus the ID card for Kyoko. There are also 6 experience trackers, six green Zombicide dice, and the campaign book. Sam played with the Kyoko character during the game. I used one of each of the items to form the basis of a little gaming night goody bag. The rest of the goody bag was made up with a Lego Wood Elf minifig, and a comic based on the rebooted Gauntlet video game. Well the game kit is meant to be used as “prizes” and I can only play with one Kyoko, so no point holding onto them all, and I like to share.
Back to the game, the spawn cards were mostly kind to us, our characters did get wounded especially after one or two extra activations. The game came down to a couple of key turns. We were surrounded by two fatties, runners and walkers stopping us getting into the diner.
If the dice went against us we would be wiped out. It was close but the dice were kind to us and we managed to clear away the zombies to buy us enough time to eat in the diner and escape. We got real lucky that an abomination wasn’t drawn. If it had been we would of been stuffed because we had nothing to kill it with. By that I mean weapon powerful enough.
Having successfully survived the zombie horde we moved on to Munchkin (playing the Deluxe version). Gary arrived just at the right moment to join us.
As the above photo shows I ended up with a character that was half dwarf and half halfling, or as I declared the love child of Thorin and Bilbo. I know, I’m not going to let biology get in the way of a joke, and what an image to plant in people’s minds.
As per usual for Munchkin our game consisted of backstabbing, revenge backstabbing, monsters getting power ups, curses, running from monsters, getting loot, killing monsters, making deals and lots of laughs. Sam ended up winning the game.
I hadn’t played Cards Against Humanity before, I was aware of it and its reputation. We played the original cards and one of the expansions. Sam gave everyone a blank card to write an answer on that would then get added to the deck of official answers. I have to say it was a very funny game, and it is definitely a game you need to have the right people to play with. I know Nath and his friends would really enjoy playing this.
The final game of the evening was Zombie Dice. We played two games. I narrowly missed winning the first game that was stolen from me by James. Who then went on to win the second game too. I like Zombie Dice, it’s a nice light game, friendly banter, a great game to end the evening on.
I really enjoyed the evening, great company, great games. Thank you Sam, James and Gary.