Category Archives: game night

game night

Wait I told you that!

Expeditions, game night

Last night saw Expeditions hit the table for the third time since it arrived.

I’m really enjoying the game. It’s fastly becoming a favourite of mine.

The game last night saw Julie, Dave, and myself exploring the frozen tundra.

The bgstat app randomly chose Dave as the first player. Which meant I got to choose first based on seating order.

This is how our chosen champions and mechs matched up after our choices:

  • Olga & Changa with Highlander – me
  • Anna & Wojtek with Odin’s Wrath – Julie
  • Vesna & Voltan with Tatanka – Dave

I really need to try another champion next time I play. But it’s hard. Olga is the champion of the Rusviet faction in Scythe. And we all know how I feel about that faction.

Whilst setting up the tiles, I particularly thought how cool that the two tiles that gave workers were on opposite sides of the board, with all the card draw clustered in the middle. This was going to force a splitting of the mechs depending on the plans of the players. No grouping, congestion here.

It was another game where I only refreshed once and that was early on in the game. And if my memory isn’t failing me Julie and Dave refreshed about three times each. The rest of the time it was the tile or card ability that was used.

We also saw less use of the sweep action to reset the face up cards. Which meant we saw less of the deck. That meant less of the cards I like to get came out.

Supplies for exploring

One thing I noticed at the end as I was boasting about my fourth and final glory star was how few cards I had left in hand. Not counting the two starting cards of the champion and their companion. I had two! The rest were either quests that I solved or items that had been to upgrade my mech.

The glory that I was able to boast about!
My end mech state

My victory was pretty comprehensive. I was particularly happy with the ruthless way I triggered the end of the game. My last turn saw me block off the second boast tile stopping Dave and Julie from getting a third glory token out.

Now I did help/advise both work out their best last turn to maximise points gained.

Final scores

It was at the end whilst packing up that Julie and Dave said that next time they knew to look for combos/synergies more.

Wait I told you that at the start. I pointed out during my early turns what I was looking for in a card! That I liked cards that gave me one of the main actions, such as move when I played it. It was particularly galling that Julie had said it as I told her, nah pointed to the cards that were out that fed into her mech ability of being able to use/get maps. Sadly I wasn’t able to do the same for Dave.

I ended up taking one of the cards seeing as Julie refused to act on my advice and go her own path.

I’ve played at different player counts now for each game, and I think it scales pretty well. Except when you have players inflicted with ap.

Turns are normally pretty quick, so little down time.

Although I think I’d max out the player count at four. I like that at the higher player count there is more blocking. Whether it’s intentional or not.

It was a fun evening and I loved that I got to share one of my favourite games to new players.

Wait did I just say it’s a favourite game?

Friday Night Encounters

Fenland Gamers, game night, Stonemaier Games

Last night was once again a Fenland Gamers club night.

Last night numbers were slightly down. But we had enough for a couple of tables. One table played The Warriors board game. Which if you are under a certain age have no idea it’s based on a 1970s movie. Mind you Jonathan had no idea it was a movie either. I think the only person playing it familiar with the source material was Dave. I’d be interested in giving it a try. I do like the movie.

Our table got to play the latest hotness, the sequel to Stonemaier Games second biggest selling game (it was the top until Wingspan came out) Scythe, Expeditions.

Every copy of Expeditions has an achievements sheet included. One side are the achievements to record names against. The other side is an extract from a captains journal (see below).

It turns out thanks to a really observant individual on the games Facebook group that there are different versions of this journal page. In less than 24 hours the group has managed to identify at least 17 different ones (it may be all of them now).

It’s suspected there are 20 different journal pages. Jamey did say there was a hint to the number in the photo. Which I have zoomed in on below. Which seems to confirm the number 20.

What’s even cooler is that Jamey signed 20 of these sheets and they were randomly placed in copies of the game!

My copy of Expeditions was the iron clad edition, with the add-on metal coins. The difference between the iron clad edition and the standard are the amazing metal mechs instead of plastic ones.

The production of the game is up to the usual gold standard set by Stonemaier Games. The setup of the game is made super easy by the games insert. With a great storage tray that holds the coins, worker meeples, and map tokens. Thus can be taken straight out of the box and used on the table.

The art is just out of this world. Jakub Rozalski is just amazing. I love the whole world he has built with it. That 1920’s alternative history with the mechs. Love it.

Story wise Expeditions takes place after the events in Scythe and the Rise of Fenris expansion. We shift from Europa to “…Siberia, where a massive meteorite crashed near the Tunguska River, awakening ancient corruption.” It’s our job to venture North to investigate this meteorite crash.

There is a darker tone to the plot line and art. I’m trying to think of a way to best describe the theme/tone. I think Scythe meets Cthulhu might best describe it.

There are some Easter eggs within the game. It wouldn’t be a Stonemaier game without them. There are two cards named after other titles in the Stonemaier catalogue (Charterstone and Scythe). Plus Jamey’s two cats feature on a card (see below).

We started off as a five player game, however three quarters of the way through our fifth player had to leave.

This first game took three and a half hours. But at full player count (for the majority of the game), and two players that suffer from analysis paralysis is it any surprise?

Once setup Expeditions is a table hog, and was a very tight fit with five of us round the table.

However the game has a table presence that is made with the large metal mechs.

The base snaps didn’t fit perfectly on one or two of the metal mechs. But I think that might improve over time.

For those thinking this is going to be like Scythe, it is not. There are a couple of similar mechanics, such as not being able to repeat an action twice, the victory track and glory tokens, and there are mechs! This plays completely differently. There is no confrontation/interaction between players apart from blocking another player getting to a space by occupying it yourself.

I love how the card titles help tell the story of the game. But having multi use cards that you have to decide when to stop using them for their ability and turn them into say an upgrade for the mech, a solved mission or meld a piece of meteorite is a cool.

There is also having to know when to do a refresh action to move cards from your activated area back to your hand. It’s a tough decision. It’s all you do on a turn. But the payoff is getting a powerful next turn. Although I did find it more useful doing the refresh action on a tile instead once one was revealed.

Being able to utilise not only your Commander and their animal companions abilities, but also your mechs is really important. I played Olga with Changa, naturally. I also had the highlander mech which meant I could put gained cards straight into my hand.

If Marcin hadn’t triggered the end of the game I would have on my next turn. Marcin also went on to win as well. But the point difference between us was from him having vanquished more corruption than me.

I had a blast playing Expeditions and can’t wait to play it again. I think this will be finding a place in my top 10 games.

Longer than a John Bonham drum solo

Game day, game night, Twilight Imperium 4

As planned our four player game of Twilight Imperium 4 (TI4) with the Prophecy of Kings (PoK) expansion took place yesterday.

Which meant Dave, Diego, Jeff, and myself gathered indoors round two tables pushed together on a hot July afternoon.

The previous evening I had confirmed that there was no booking of the community centre. It was important to know before hand if we had any time constraints (other than the place closing up for the night) before starting so we could make adjustments.

As per usual I arrived early to start setting up and merge the PoK expansion with the core game. I punctuated this with a triple quarter pounder cheese burger. Hey a galactic empire marches on its stomach.

When the others arrived there was still a little setup left to do, plus choose our factions.

Dave and Diego went with factions from the core game, whilst Jeff and I went with one of the new factions from the expansion.

The factions chosen were as follows:

  • The Nomad – me
  • The Universities of Jol-Nar – Dave
  • The Argent Flight – Jeff
  • The Mentak Coalition – Diego

By the time we finished setup (including choosing factions) nearly an hour had passed! So a 1:15pm start was really 2:15pm before our first expansionist actions were being taken.

For me TI4 (or earlier editions) is the board gaming version of epic stories like Lord of the Rings, or the Foundation series.

To be fair it might be quicker to read either than play TI4.

TI4 is an epic game. Not just because of the scale of it (it’s a massive table hog) but the inter-galactic warring factions fighting for supremacy has this epic grandeur feel.

The first few rounds were void of any conflict, and were mainly factions racing to grab planets to get the resources needed to build up their fleets for defensive and aggressive purposes.

Our first space battle was between Jeff and Diego over Mecatol Rex. Even after that skirmish combat was a rarity until the later stages.

I did quiet well developing my technology. It helped my Commander (part of PoK) enabled me to produce my command ship for free. This enabled me to develop War Sun technology and take Jeff on and rebuild very quickly after any losses.

We had two epic battles in the middle of the galaxy.

I liked what PoK bought to the core game. The leaders, mechs, factions. And it didn’t bring any real extra overhead to the game.

As a four player game we got to choose two strategy tiles each. Which was nice having two to activate. Although the second tile may not have always been one you had wanted.

We actually finished playing around 9:40pm. Yes I can see you doing the math. That’s about seven and a half hours of playtime.

A little longer than I had calculated. I’d estimated about five hours. But now you know why earlier I had checked about any bookings.

The thing is whilst you are playing you are so engrossed in the game that you have no idea what the time is. Before you know it seven hours plus have passed.

Ok you do get a hint during play when you miss phone calls asking where you are. But hey is it my fault I forgot to warn mum the game was likely to run a long time? Heck she got a McDonalds delivered out of it.

Anyway after the space dust had settled Dave’s turtling empire ended up victorious.

This was truly an epic afternoon and evening with great friends. The way a Summer Saturday truly should be spent.

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.