Been away on a union rep training course last couple of days. Which has been fun and informative.
Even been put up for a couple of nights in a Premier Inn.
I’m not sure the price difference between this chain and Travelodge is warranted. I see hardly any difference in the quality of the rooms.
I will grade the breakfast here as a 6 out of 10. Let down massively by the lack of fried bread and having hash browns.
But being in the hotel reminded me I do need to book a hotel for UKGE. The Travelodge we normally frequent is not its usual £35 a night at the moment. But double that. Have they cottoned on to the fact that UKGE is on and they can exploit us poor boardgamers?
Although there has been no gaming since Friday. At least there are plans for playing games this Friday in place.
Right catch you laters now I’ve let you all know I’m ok.
It’s been a quiet week on the gaming front so far.
This weeks planned lcg/ccg/tcg game night on Tuesday fell through.
We were due to be playing Commander however the one flaw we didn’t foresee was the community centre would not be open!
Unbeknownst to any of us, having missed the change to the opening hours sign the community centre would be closed on not only a Monday but also Tuesdays now (except for the third Tuesday of the month for the open mike evening).
It’s not surprising as the business had been pretty slow on a Tuesday with them closing early. Which we were fine with.
Now we need to find either another night that works for everyone, or another Tuesday night venue.
At the moment current thinking might be every other Friday evening.
I have pre-ordered the new Dune Imperium Uprising. Which hopefully will be hitting stores this weekend. So maybe with me by the middle of next week. I’m excited to play this and see how the changes work.
The Two Towers expansion for LotR lcg was posted this morning along with the Deadpool and X-23 hero packs for Marvel Champions.
Obviously the Two Towers and Fellowship are something I want to play with Nathan. But I want to bring not only LotR but Marvel Champions to a lcg/ccg/tcg evening. I know FFG did these special scenario decks for LotR for cons like GenCon. Which were made available to the public. Sadly these are out of print and going for the usual stupid money. I know there are fan run cons for Marvel Champions where they have custom villian scenarios. These of these would be ideal for a game night but alas cost or lack of info means currently they are not an option.
Tomorrow is club night so looking forward to that. It’s looking like another low attended one. Numbers have dropped recently. I’ll be taking Apiary, Terraforming Mars the dice game, and Grail Cup.
I’ve had a stinking cold that has really taken it out of me. It’s been a real struggle going to work. I’ve definitely not been 100%, maybe 50% at best. Which has really drained me by the end of the shift. I’ve spent so much time sleeping and coughing.
The last thing I was feeling able to do was a brief play of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Luigi’s Mansion 3 before the cold kicked in.
I’m hoping the cold clears up in the next day or two.
Something board gaming related did happen this week. as predicted Apiary did arrive, along with the latest wave of Rolling Realms promo packs. Now I have the problem of how to fit those promo realms in the Rolling Realms box. It’s currently bursting at the seams with no room to spare.
No actual gaming took place due to my taking on an extra shift at work last Tuesday. We were short staffed on a shift and I said I’d go in to help out.
But next week I’m not going to miss the Tuesday lcg/ccg/tcg session. Then I just need to survive the week before having a week’s holiday. Much needed rest and hopefully some gaming.
It’s been a day or two since my last post. As usual for these silences not much gaming wise has happened. Work is still dominating life at the moment.
Board game wise Apiary is due to start be posted out to Stonemaier Champions next week. So excited about that. It’s been a bit unusual for Stonemaier to have such a delay between the pre-order going live and the games being sent out. But as Jamey explained in this weeks Facebook Live broadcast it was tied in with Essen and having units on sale there. I think that’s sums up the thinking.
I did get the latest (as in came out in September) Marvel Champions campaign box NeXt Evolution and the two wave 7 character packs Angel and Psylocke. Plus I have the XL GameGenics playmat for the game now too.
Don’t know if I mentioned it previously but I did get in the Fellowship of the Ring Saga for Lord of the Rings lcg. That’s to play with Nathan, and potentially the lcg/ccg/tcg group at Fenland Gamers. I should see if there is a playmat for this too that is similar the Marvel Champions I just got.
I have two new video games for the Switch that just arrived. Well earlier in the week Luigi’s Mansion 3 arrived. Then yesterday Super Mario Bros. Wonder came out. So expect initial posts on those games soon.
Then finally somehow during all the work I need to get on with reorganising my home. It’s an ongoing project.
A dice tower I had ordered via Amazon turned up but broken. It wasn’t damaged in the post. It had to have been done when created. So wasn’t chuffed with that. But it got worse as the dice tower also wasn’t the clear plastic that I wanted but frosted. Naturally I asked and received a refund.
Continuing the refunds I had a refund for the issue 250 of Retro Gamer I had ordered direct from the publisher. That was a real saga. Allegedly the issue had been posted. But it was never delivered. So they sent a replacement which did turn up. However that was the wrong issue! They then once again allegedly sent another replacement. Which you guessed it never arrived. After a brief email exchange from a now unhelpful support I requested a refund via PayPal. Which I got. I’ve sworn never to buy Retro Gamer again after this awful experience.
I was really keen for issue 250 because of the mini magazine looking back at the legendary 8 bit power house software developer Rare/Ultimate.
Back in the day Ultimate as the majority of the UK knew them were creating amazing games that were pushing what the hardware could do.
Cookie, Jetpac, and Trans Am on the ZX Spectrum were my first encounters with Ultimate’s catalog.
There was definitely a distinctive art style to those games. They had great game play. Jetpac became one of my all time favourite games of all time. A game that I did get up to level 99 on.
Attic Atac was also a great game that influenced my all time favourite video game creator Jeff Minter on his C64 classic Ancipital.
I could go on title by title of their catalog. But it was their game Knight Lore, third title in the Sabre Man series that had everyone go wow! It was isometric. It looked amazing. Reviewers and players were like how is this even possible on a Spectrum? It was ground breaking and was copied by others. I don’t think it is unfair or incorrect to say it was genre defining.
Seeing the Ultimate name on the box was seen as a guarantee of quality back then.
That’s why I wanted this particular issue of Retro Gamer. I wanted to see if there were any new insights into this legendary British powerhouse. And maybe step through memory lane once more. Looking back on the good times I had playing those games.
I know it’s been a day or two since the last post.
But that’s the drawback of working 7 days a week and having currently 2 jobs. I just got to survive until the start of November. Then I’m down to one job and hopefully (shift dependent) more gaming.
I am going to be late or behind on posting.
Thankfully I know you will be understanding and supporting. So I feel less guilty on that front.
So how bad has the current normal hit my gaming?
Well as the 3×3 image and the underlying stats show pretty badly.
Long gone are the golden days of yester year when I was clocking up crazy gaming numbers each month.
But even taking into account the more subdued gaming stats of this year. Septembers numbers are very poor. Almost looking like my stats when the pandemic was finally taken seriously by the UK Government and we entered lockdown.
I’m not sure I’m going to beat these numbers in October. But whatever gaming I do get to do I will treasure and savour even more because I know it’s a rarity for the time being.
It’s been amazing being back to the old job. Didn’t realise how much I missed the work or the people.
Obviously I’m not gaming much for the foreseeable future. But…
I did get some gaming in during the week. It was our clubs hopefully weekly lcg/ccg/tcg game night.
This session saw a three player game of VtM: Rivals.
It’s been a while since we have got the game to the table. So we were a little rusty on the rules.
I wasn’t expecting to win. But thanks to Marcin throwing himself on his own sword to give me a points victory to deny his rival Diego getting the victory. I did. If Marcin hadn’t died then, I would have on my turn with four antagonists delivering the fatal blow. Which would have given Diego the points victory.
Hopefully like Dice Masters this evening will allow us to get the game to the table more regularly.
The next lcg/ccg/tcg night will see MtG getting a turn at the table. I’m looking forward to that.
The game collection is growing again!
Thanks to Ben I got Hadrians Wall, and Trekking the World from Marcin. Which was a very generous thank you for giving him the Star Wars Carcassonne I had (and never played).
The Lord of the Rings lcg The Fellowship of the Ring Saga is on its way. I’m looking forward to getting it to the table next time I visit Nathan. Who knows I might even get it to the table on a lcg/ccg/tcg night.
Fuji Flush and Grail Cup are also winging their way to me.
And that’s it until the start of October but there will be more about the addition in a separate post at the time of ordering. But I’m sure you can guess what it will be.
The dvd walk down memory lane is getting a new addition in the form of the complete Transformers cartoon and its movie from the 80s. Although that Saturday morning chill of watching the cartoons is on hold.
Catch you in the next post now you know I’m still alive.
September really does hurt the soul and show the scares on the heart are still there.
With the passing of Ebony inbetween the two anniversaries this year I don’t think my heart can take much more this month.
The hard part of these anniversaries is when they fall on a work day and you have to turn up and act as if nothing is up.
It’s only once you get home and close that front door that you are alone with your grief and memories. When the emotions that you have bottled up all day can come out. The tears flow.
I had an interview this morning at my previous place of employment. It went well because I left with a job offer. Though a two month notice period did put that at risk.
But an offer to start immediately by working weekends helped swing things back in my favour.
Which basically means until my notice period is up I’m working two jobs!
The implication gaming wise means during the next two months I’m not going to be able to make club nights or weekend gaming sessions. A necessary sacrifice.
However it does make tomorrow nights gaming session extra special.
