Category Archives: netrunner

netrunner

Street Magic in Chatteris

chatteris warlords, game night, netrunner

Last night was the now weekly journey from the frontier town that is Wisbech to further into the depths of the fens and the outpost town of Chatteris. The things we do to play games!

My first game of the evening saw Noise returning to the table to run against the Jinteki Personal Evolution. It felt good to have him back running. I really am an anarch at heart. My opening hand had Street Magic and Same Old Thing, plus a Hivemind and Streetpeddler. I decided to keep my cards.

The Corp scum took an early lead, after establishing a scoring server protected by three pieces of ice. I had none of my ice breakers (ok that's basically Faust and David, with a little help from Parasite and Datasucker) out. I did get Datasucker out early and an incubator.
The Corp did score an early Chronos Project taking out about five cards. The second one they scored took a larger chunk of cards out. Apparently this deck had been designed to cater for my Noise. Isn't that sweet?
My problem this game was econ, and not getting my ice breakers out. Aesops didn't appear to near the end, and the same for Faust.
I did score a couple of agendas, one from Archives and the other from R&D. And I could have won if I had the credits to score the agenda.
Looking back I think I should have done a mulligan on the starting hand. But I didn't want to lose that Street Magic.
I also got to play Star Fluxx. As usual this game is beautifully chaotic. Just when I thought I was going to win, but my plan was thwarted. Allowing the player after me to grab the win.
My final game of the evening was introducing Ben and some others to Love Letter The Hobbit Battle of the Five Armies. That's a bit of a mouthful so I just call it Love Letter Hobbit.
I do like this version of Love Letter, but not the gem tokens. So I replaced them with small blue cubes. I love the touches like the one ring having a zero value all during the round until the end when it gets a value of seven. Or Legolas and Tauriel having different win conditions.
Batman Love Letter is still my favourite but this is damn close. Still neither Ben or I won.
Yes there was some Bolt Action last night. Over in another corner was a group doing a draft cube of Magic.

It did seem quieter than usual last night. But then there are going to be nights like this.

There was also a club committee meeting last night. Basically it was blah blah blah to me, well I'm not a committee member, but Ben is, and it was held during our Netrunner game! So while that was on hold I was at a lose end. Which eventually saw me passing the time playing Star Fluxx.

I was called into the meeting to confirm I was volunteered (thanks Ben) to help out on the clubs Facebook page.

But as usual another fun evening of gaming in the depths of the fens.

It’s drafty

chatteris warlords, game night, netrunner

At the weekly Chatteris Warlords meetup last night there was a Netrunner Draft going on, whilst some X-Wing and historical ship miniatures games were being played, amongst other stuff.

I've done two or three drafts before, a D&D Dicemasters one at last years UK Games Expo, and a couple of Epic drafts (one with Nath and one at this weekly meetup).

I'm still kind of undecided how I really feel about drafts. I like them, nay enjoy them even. Do I love them?

Netrunner is a LCG where you pre-construct decks to play with. Everyone has the same pool of cards to build from. There are no blind boosters. So Netrunner doesn't lend itself to being able to do drafting like you can with say Magic the Gathering or Dicemasters.

So FFG came up with a solution to this that allows Netrunner players to draft.

Basically FFG sell you three decks that go together. The first deck is a base one that contains a draft runner id, a draft corp id, and a few core cards. Everyone gets the same cards in this base deck. The other two decks are made up of one for the corp and one for the runner.

Each of these two decks are made up of forty random cards chosen from a card pool of two hundred odd cards I believe. They are randomly chosen at time of printing at the FFG card printing shop they own in the US (they use this for the small run stuff like these draft decks, promo cards etc).

Starting with the corp deck you split the four cards into “packs” of ten by dealing from the top of the deck without looking at them or shuffling before hand. You then follow normal drafting rules using the four packs. You then repeat this for the runner deck.

After drafting you go off to your private spot to build a corp and runner deck from the cards you drafted. Having built your decks you pair up and duke it out as per normal in Netrunner, except you play to six agenda points instead of seven.

So having been through all of the above I played Ben. Our first game was my corp against his runner. Which ended in a victory for Ben. However I had an early Sundew and pad campaign giving me lots of credits, plus some ice out. Ben hit my snare in R&D. Unluckily he scored agendas that were in my HQ to get the win.

Our second game the roles were reversed. Ben had a scoring server iced up, had iced up his HQ and left R&D wide open. Ben had a card on his scoring server that he was advancing big time. It was either an ambush that was going to hurt me big time when I ran into it, or an agenda that gained extra points the more advancement tokens on it. It turned out to be the later, a Project Beale scored as four agenda points. I soon caught up scoring from the unprotected R&D. I was hitting R&D at least once a turn for free!

Ben installed a new card on his scoring server and advanced it once and iced up his R&D. Too little too late, I ran on his R&D, I couldn't break the ice or its subroutines, but there was no end of run, so I was through and scored the winning agenda.

So the evening ended a draw between myself and Ben.

It certainly was interesting drafting in Netrunner. Not having to worry about influence, or number of copies of cards whilst building your deck, certainly make for some interesting decisions and combinations.

For instance I drafted Wyldside, which gave me card draw, but also costs me a click. I ended up with Rachel Beckman (seemed to be a card no one wanted, I think due to cost, eight credit cost to install is expensive). With no pancakes to get the click back, Rachel Beckman is a costly but effective alternative in this limited card pool. You get one extra click to spend each turn, plus she gets discarded when you take a tag. So a little tag protection. The synergy didn't occur to me while drafting, but when deck building from my drafted cards.

Drafting I think makes a fun break from the regular deck building. I think it might be more popular if Esdevium/FFG didn't price the latest draft set so expensively. At the moment for those that want to draft the only way people can play it cost effectively is to buy the older sets.

Another great evening running.

Meat Damage

expansions, Fenland Gamers, game night, netrunner, painting

Easter Monday, a bank holiday in the UK, and the last day in a four day weekend that started on Good Friday. For some it's a religious holiday celebrating the death and resurrection of Christ, for others it's just a long weekend and an excuse to pig out of chocolate. On the chocolate front I pig out after Easter when the shops reduce the price of their Easter eggs, more sugar high for your money.

My Easter Monday afternoon was spent at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole at Chatteris.

I was there for an informal painting workshop that was being run. I was given a Warhammer tyranid that had already got a base coat on so was ready for painting to practice with. After doing a poor job painting the main areas, I got to try dry brushing. A technique I have wanted to get a grasp of. Yes I knew the theory of doing it. But needed the confidence to do it. Having the practice miniature and guidance was enough to help give confidence I needed.

Naturally I hadn't gone to the store empty handed. I had a small bag of games and decks with me also.

I had leant my copy of Get Bit! I'd taken along to a family there to play with. It was the least I could do having won a game of Fluxx with them. After the painting I got roped into playing a two player game of Get Bit! In the two player variant both players play two robots. The game was enjoyable, not earth shattering. It won't be leaving my collection soon, but only because I have very few games that youngsters can play.

Chris and I played our first game of Netrunner. It was my Shaper deck against his Jinteki Corp deck. Chris won this easily scoring agendas. He'd built up a nice scoring server that was well protected. I was getting cards in place, but economy was an issue this time for me this time. Not having funds to make runs because you can't pump your ice breakers isn't good.

Our second game saw his Kate deck against my NBN Corp deck. Turn one I set a trap for the runner in a single remote server, iced up R&D and HQ, on the runners turn they played a couple of cards, did a run on my trap and took a tag. “How many cards are in your hand?” I enquired not casually enough. I think the runner knew what was coming. Scorched Earth, BAM! Turn two kill!

Quickest win of my short time playing Netrunner. Wow that was like shockingly amazing.

We reset and played again. This time the game played out more like a typical game. Once again early on I had the cards to do the kill in hand. But the runner was more careful in avoiding tags this time.

My little “tricks” we're playing out. I let the runner score some one point agendas and getting Franchise City scored in response. The runner scored 15 Minutes, that went back into R&D on my turn. I was allowed to keep two Pad Campaigns in play, even with three agendas in hand and a Scorched Earth, I was still able to create lots of new servers. The bottom of R&D was getting loaded up with agendas thanks to Daily Business Show. The runner had even taken News Team as a minus one agenda point to avoid taking a tag.

The game came down to one final play, if the runner failed on the run I'd won, because I could score out the agenda. The first ice they hit was a Wraparound, which got +7 strength, breaking that with Crypsis emptied the runners pockets of credits. Next up Turnpike, the runner gets a tag – finally! Then he final piece of ice an Enigma that the runner was able to break. Bugger they were through and got the win. Next turn I could have played the two Scorched Earth to kill them, or scored the agenda.

What a fantastic game. Who cares that I lost, it was a blast.

After a flurry of text messages from Jonathan, our Pandemic Legacy evening was moved to Wednesday, and transformed in to a three player gaming evening.

Our first game of the evening was naturally Five Tribes, since in the text exchange Jonathan had said he wanted to play the game again. How much did Jonathan like the game? Well in a virtual shopping basket in a virtual store, in a virtual world, is a virtual copy waiting to be turned into a real physical item in meat space once a virtual button has been pressed, and digits representing money are moved from one virtual place to another. Or without all that waffle, it's sitting in his Amazon basket.

Once again Jonathan's tactic of buying items, ignoring the djinns or clearing tiles paid off and gave him the win. Obviously I'm really bad at this game and came in last by a point to Debbie. A single point!

We then switched things up by playing Five Tribes again but this time with the expansion The Artisans of Naqala. Wow this is a great expansion. It doesn't add tonnes of stuff, but boy oh boy. With the mountains and chasm more thought has to be given to routes, because these obstacles have to be gone round. The sixth tribe adds a new scoring avenue and power ups, the tent wooden token, adds a scoring booster. It's a very nice expansion that doesn't overload you with new rules to learn, it just fits very naturally with the base game.

Jonathan and Debbie's scoring just went ballistic this game, Jonathan burst through the two hundred points barrier. Debbie hit 179 points, while I managed to beat my previous score but was way way way behind the other two on scoring. So yes I lost again and Jonathan won.

We finished off the evening playing a couple of games of Batman Fluxx. I won the first game, while Debbie took the win for the second game. Like Love Letter with Fluxx you choose the theme you like and play that. Some slight changes to rules, the way things play, but you expect that. In Batman Fluxx keepers have abilities/rules that can be used. For example I think it was the Batmobile I could discard to gain another turn straight away at the end of mine. Or the Batcave increases the number of cards you can draw, hand limit, play by one.

I enjoy Fluxx, I like the changing rules and goals. It's not everyone's taste, I think the theme for tonight was right, and the others enjoyed playing it.

So a great bank holiday playing games, doesn't get better than that.

 

A Quiet Week

netrunner, new arrivals

Business First th second data pack in the Mumbad Cycle arrived. Well that was a given really.

Plus the replacement card I needed for Lost Legacy arrived. If you remember I bought Lost Legacy off of the Facebook Trading and Selling page. Now I knew it didn't come with the nice little bags, which AEG kindly sent me for free. However I did discover a card that had a tear on the back of it. Which meant the card is useless unless I bought sleeves to use with the game that are opaque. This was a fault the seller hadn't declared and I was not happy with.

But once more AEG stepped up to the mark and sent me a replacement card.

How flipping cool are they. This is how customer support should be. The Fun Forge support is sooo slow and bad compared to AEG. AEG respond quickly (within 24 hours), and have the call resolved and replacements sent out within that time also. The replacement figure from Fun Forge is being shipped from China and won't be with me until sometime in April!!!! That's nearly two months to resolve.

Next week there is one item for sure, I might be lucky with Tiny Epic Kingdoms Second Edition and Heroes expansion arriving. Disappointingly The Others is being delayed until July, who knows I may see the expansions for Thunderbirds soon. It's nice to see some of the kickstarters coming to completion. But I can't help feeling disappointment with Cool Mini Or Not, because I feel that their delivery estimate was deliberately optimistic at best and misleading at worst. There is a big debate on the Kickstarter page on this at the moment.

 

Epic Evening

chatteris warlords, epic, game night, netrunner

Yesterday was Tuesday, and that means only one thing. Yep Tuesday night gaming at the Chatteris Warlords.

The evening started off with Ben beating me at Android Netrunner when my first ever shaper deck Jesminder Sareen went up against his Jinteki Personal Evolution deck.

I could make excuses like I don't play shaper, it's an unfamiliar deck, and they would all be valid in this case. However this deck needs a few more plays for its full short comings are known, and I start tweaking. Although for starters I don't think I'm making enough of her ability of avoiding the first tag each turn.

We followed that defeat up with a game of Epic using the demigod cards from the Kickstarter year one promos to construct a deck. On the back of the demigod id there are suggested deck lists. I played Tarken, the wise, while Ben played Valentia, Justice Bringer.

Unlike Friday I did some damage to Ben before the inevitable crushing defeat happened.

With the Kickstarter exclusive playmats the play area for Epic is nothing but an explosion of colour.

Next up Ben recruited four more players interested in playing Epic. So two packs of Epic got shuffled together and did a pack draft. Which is basically each player getting three piles of ten cards in front of them acting as the packs. Then each player selects one as a pack, and the drafting begins, and continues until each player has thirty cards in front of them, which is their deck to play with.

We then split up into pairs to face off across the battle field letting our champions knock seven shades of a brown smelly substance out of each other.

My first game was an easy victory, and a steep learning curve for my opponent. It certainly helps having a knowledge of Magic when learning to play. It's then a matter of mapping the relevant terminology from Epic to Magic. The one page reference sheet that White Wizard provide on the website is a great aid for learning to play, and also while playing to remind yourself what words like tribute, blitz, loyalty 2 mean.

Although there is this learning curve of the terminology I do find that it is easier to get and learn that the iconography of Cthulhu Realms.

Turn one of our second game my opponent drew and fielded an Elder Greatwurm.

If there was no deploying then this would be a turn one win card. Luckily there is, but this beast of a card had me worried. It just needed to get through once to end me. I needed to make sure I had a sacrificial champion to block it with at the end of each turn.

While I was worrying about the Elder Greatwurm, my opponent was chipping away my health with direct damage, and adding wolf tokens to their playing field.

I used an event to deal five damage to all attacking champions. It helped clear the field. Then a solution to the Elder Greatwurm arrived in my hand. Although the solution had one attack and no defense, as long as it landed a hit, it allowed you to banish the other champion.

While navigating the Elder Greatwurm I was landing damage on my opponent, until eventually I was able to deliver a killing blow to get the victory.

Why can't I play like this against Ben?

We have a growing Android Netrunner meta, and now Epic is starting to take root. At the end of May we will be having our first store tournament for Netrunner. Hopefully we will get the Tyrants expansion for Epic and also the store kits being done.

I just need to introduce folks to Ashes now…

 

Friday night loses

epic, game night, netrunner

Friday I missed my now regular post highlighting the following weeks new releases from Esdevium (who I portray as being part of a Borg collective that is represented by Asmodee) that interest me. There was a legitimate reason for this, I was pretending to have a social life by being out gaming!

There is a gaming group in Wisbech that meets up on a Friday from 5pm until 9pm I believe. They used to be in a scout hut or something by the hospital, if I'm remembering this correctly. I hadn't been before because the timings were wrong.

However things change, and now for the immediate future the timings work out for me.

Then while at the Chatteris Warlords the other day I found out they had moved location. The gaming group (can't remember the name for the life of me) was now being held at the Conservative Club on Alexandre Road.

When I arrived at the gaming group (slightly late, because I got caught up chin wagging with my friend Nathan) Ben (from Warlords) and Jamie (who I have played Dicemasters with) were locked in a skirmish playing Attack Wing.

Despite having similar mechanics to X-Wing (well Wizkids did licence them from FFG) I've never been a fan of Attack Wing. It didn't appeal to me. From poorer quality models, a skirmish game designed for small ships which I didn't think suited the larger ships of Star Trek (FFG did it right with Armada), the fact I'm a much bigger Star Wars fan than Trek, and Wizkids usual insane expansion release cycle, I just wasn't in on this one.

Anyway when I got there Jamie was just finishing off destroying Ben's ship for the win. While I was waiting there was a table taken up with a couple of people sorting a gravity feed of the latest D&D Dicemasters set that they had just opened. Fools.

Anyway after the tears of defeat had been wiped away, some minor post game analysis, the three of us played a game of Epic the card game.

The deck of 120 cards that make up the deck were split into the four alignments that make up the game. We then randomly selected which deck we had and started playing a three player game of Epic.

Ben went first and was able to delivery twelve points of damage straight away to Jamie. I was next and tried to kick Jamie while he was down so speak, but he managed to avoid that attack!

Then Jamie hit me, followed by Ben, followed by Jamie, followed by Ben. I was out leaving Jamie and Ben to duke it out. Although Jamie was able to delay the inevitable, Ben went on to be the last one standing and basking in the glory of victory.

Our second game was a three player game of 7 Wonders using my pimped out copy of the game (sleeved cards, playmat and metal coins). Being the owner of the game I graciously let the other two beat me into last place. Once more Ben was victorious.

Apparently there was a Warhammer Conquest store competition at The Hobbit Hole on the Saturday, and Jamie needed to get a bit of practice in. So while Ben beat Jamie at Conquest I was deck building a new Shaper deck based around the new runner from the Kala Ghoda data pack Jesminder Sareen.

I've not played Shaper, I'm an Anarch through and through. But Jesminders ability intrigued me.

I liked the thought of being able to avoid a tag. Especially when the next card in that data pack Maya is taken into account.

The other card I love from that data pack is a Street Magic. I've got to try and get this into my Noise deck, and I definitely want this in my Jasminder deck. Street Magic in play can potentially stop so much nastiness happening when making a run.

I just need to work out what are the best econ cards, and ice breakers for Shaper now.

After Ben had shown Jamie the weaknesses in his Conquest deck, we had a four player game of 7 Wonders. Ben won this game also, and the only thing that stopped me coming last was there was a noob to the game also playing. But I did score better this time than the first play this evening.

Despite not winning a game, I still had a pleasant evening. I'll definitely be going back, just not next week because there is a Ticket to Ride “marathon” going on.

13Mar16 through the letter box

expansions, netrunner, new arrivals

Not much landed through the letter box this week.

The latest expansion for Tokaido, Matsuri arrived. This adds even more depth to the game, this time festivals that happen when the travellers arrive at the inns. Plus there are even more characters to choose from.

The annoying thing about the expansion adding more travellers to chose from is having just gotten the deluxe upgrade kit that has models for all the travellers in the base game and Crossroads, not having figures for these new characters is annoying.

One thing I think may come across when I talk about Netrunner is how much I love the theme of the game. The whole cyberpunk setting, hackers verses the evil corporations. The world of Android that Netrunner is set in, is dark and seedy, and bought to life brilliantly by the art work and flavour text on the cards.

Now FFG have released Worlds of Android. A beautiful book with so much background into the android universe, and some stunning artwork. With the deluxe version you get a playmat, four prints, and the book itself.

I think you will agree that the prints and the playmat look stunning.

Finally the Alliance Smuggler for Imperial Assault arrived, and a second track (not counting the base set one) to be used in the Fenland Gamers Formula D league that will be kicking off at the end of April.

 

14Mar16 Esdevium Gifts

elder sign, expansions, Munchkin, netrunner, news

Slightly delayed due to my playing games last night (more on that in the next post) I bring you my highlights of our weekly gifts that the Asmodee Borg Collective member Esdevium deem fit to shower on us.

The biggest one for me this coming week is the second data pack in the Mumbad Cycle of the Android Netrunner universe, Business First.

Munchkin is like the marmite of the hobby gaming world. You either love it or hate it. I fall on the love it side of things. So for some the next item will have their flesh crawling, while for others they will be excited.

Fluxx the card game that is like playing a game on quicksand. The rules are constantly changing, as is how to win. This randomness can be a turn off for some. I love it. My go to version of the game is Star Fluxx the scifi themed one. Although big tip here for those that have a python fan in the family, get them the Monty Python version of the game. Anyway I'm excited about this next version coming out. I love Firefly (although I don't have any of the boardgames based on it). So this has put a big smile on my face, and an instant addition to my wishlist.

Want to build a really really cool tree house? Well want no longer, build away in Best Treehouse Ever. And nice to see this Kickstarter hit the shops.

Elder Sign a Cthluhu co-op dice game set it the same FFG gothic universe as Arkham Horror, and Eldritch Horror sees its third expansion released next week, Omens of Ice.

There are also a X-Wing wave released next week, some Pokemon cards, and Force of Will bits released if they float your boat.

And that's next week goodies coming out to part you from your hard earned pennies.

 

Runners and Wonders

chatteris warlords, game night, netrunner

Last night was the weekly Chatteris Warlords meet up.

As usual there was some Bolt Action action going on along with some Early Napoleononic war gaming.

But for me I had some business to do. Firstly I had a Colt Express Time Machine promo to deliver. Followed by picking up some stuff. If you stork me on Instagram you will know what one of the items was, otherwise you'll have to wait until Saturday's post. Oh what a tease I am.

Tuesday's are now my Weekly Netrunner fix. This week I was playing Ben again. Our first game was my Noise against his Corp (I think PE). I took an early four point lead with two agendas hitting an unguarded R&D and Archives, which Ben replied to by scoring an agenda back, and icing up R&D.

The unguarded Archives allowed me to build up Datasucker, and Incubator, while running the odd Retrieval Run. Trying to slow my plans down, Ben would occasionally purge virus counters.

I got Medium out I had five virus counters sitting on Incubator. I had enough credits to install and trash DDOS, and DDOS was sitting in my grip. There were also four virus counters on Datasucker. Sitting between me and hitting R&D for a nice five card draw, was a single unrezed piece of ice. I was crossing my fingers Ben wasn't going to purge virus counters. If he did that was going to ruin my next turn.

Ben's turn happened, I still had my virus counters in place. Time to execute my plan. I trashed Incubator putting the virus counters on Medium. Installed DDOS and trashed it. Then ran on R&D. The Corp was unable to stop me. First card drawn an agenda worth three points and giving me the win.

Our second game my NEH was up against Ben's Noise.

Ben scored an early two point agenda from my HQ, to which I replied scoring my only single point agenda 15 minutes. Which I was hoping he would score so I could pull it back into R&D.

I landed a couple of tags, which with Ben hitting a snare and me hitting him with a traffic accident, reduce Ben to zero cards in his grip.

Sadly I wasn't able to finish the job off and murder him. But it did slow Ben's plans down. Ben quickly removed the tags.

We sparred away, trying to gain momentum for our plans. I drew two scorched earths. I just needed to land a tag. Oh and have enough credits to play them both. I had enough to play one, but it would be two turns before I could land the second. There was a good chance Ben would not have rebuilt his grip enough for me to murder him with the second scorched earth.

Ben ran on R&D gaining a tag. BOOM! First scorched earth landed. Oh wait Ben had only three cards in his grip! I'd killed him. Woot! Two for two tonight.

My final game of the evening was taking part in a seven player game of 7 Wonders.

It was interesting playing the game with this many players. Not sure if I like it more than a four player game.

To cut a potentially long story short, I came second from last.

Another enjoyable evening gaming. Followed by the monthly Fenland Gamer meetup tonight ^__^

 

New Releases For Next Week 29/2/16

netrunner, news

So it's that time of week again when the local branch of the Asmodee collective Esdevium come down from upon high and tell us what we are being allowed to buy next week from them.

First up is a game Tom Vassel of Dice Tower fame is singing the praises of…

Next up is a reprint of the game I haven't got to the table yet Dead of Winter.

Remember last week they released a Super Mario Playmat? Well this week we are getting Super Mario deck boxes. They look bloody amazing.

Finally the biggy of next week for me is…

Some Netrunner fans have this already because they paid the excessive postage wanted by FFG to ship it. Now it is the time for those of us who were prepared to wait for it to arrive in the UK to get our copies.

I think from one or two posts I've seen the supply is limited, and some shops aren't getting their full orders. So I think I'm going to be one lucky person when I get my pre-order.

So I'm looking forward to next week…