Category Archives: netrunner

netrunner

Bank holiday gaming

lords of waterdeep, netrunner
This afternoon Alison, Jamie and myself became shadowy figures pulling the invisible strings of power as we took on the roles of the Lords of Waterdeep.
Above photo courtesy of Jamie
Our game of Lords of Waterdeep this afternoon also used the Scoundrels of Skullport (SoS) expansion. Which was a first for me. Well this was only my second time playing the physical game, so it was bound to be.
The SoS expansion isn't a single expansion but in reality two expansions for the price of one. Between the two expansions they add three small boards to sit alongside the original playing board. Two of the boards add new actions for you to select from with your minions out doing your bidding. While the third is a corruption board that homes the corruption tokens that players get for doing some of the new actions, and tracking how many negative victory points those corruption tokens will be worth at the end of the game. Yes corruption tokens are negative victory points if you have them sitting in your tavern at the end of the game.
As I pursued a tactic of playing intrigue cards, getting lucky to have an intrigue card that protected me from intrigue attack cards and intrigue compulsory quests early on, I was able to secure a victory of 143 points I think it was in the end. I think I built one building in the end, that allowed as its action the ability to remove two corruption tokens from your tavern. Which once I had got rid of the four corruption counters I had accrued using this building and an intrigue card that also removed up to three corruption counters, using an intrigue card I had I was able to remove the building and replace it with another one for free. This stopped Jamie and Alison from getting rid of their corruption tokens.
I did play a shed load of intrigue cards. Which also gave me lots more actions than Jamie and Alison. On the last three rounds I also started amassing lots of coins, I ended the game with thirty five coins worth seventeen victory points, and twelve cubes, only five victory points from building, four completed scoring quests that got me six points per one, and three none scoring completed quests.
I was surprised how effective this tactic was. It felt like an aggressive tactic.
I really did enjoy playing Lords of Waterdeep with the SoS expansion. This will definitely be going on the wish list on bgg, and be high up on my priority list. In the meantime I will get the expansions for the iOS app, although they are two separate purchases.
Afterwards it was a “quick” game of Netrunner (yes I took my decks with me on the off chance, I had tweaked them – details on tweaks to follow in another post).
The first game was Noise up against Jamie's Jinteki. I lost this match up due to net damage wiping me out. I had three servers to choose from, I went with the middle one that was a trap. If I had gone either side I would have scored an agenda.
Second game was NBN taking on Kate. I won this when Jamie did two runs on R&D hitting two snares! On the trot and wiping himself out with net damage. The first time he hit the snare! I only had three credits so couldn't pull the trigger. But second time the pop up window guarding R&D gave me that fourth credit I needed to do the net damage and the win.
Thanks Jamie and Alison for a great afternoon gaming.

A Visit to The Hobbit Hole

Midday saw my first visit to The Hobbit Hole in Chatteris. When I arrived at Chatteris I thought I may have to google the shops location, but it was easier to find than I thought, because I drove right past it on my way into the centre looking for it.

I have to say I liked the friendly helpful owner, who welcomed me to the shop, let me browse and was helpful and gave me info on local gaming groups in the area.

The small band of I'm assuming regulars who were playing the Warhammer Conquest LCG were also friendly and helpful.

I enjoyed my first experience at the shop. I can see myself going back to the shop on a regular basis. Chatteris is roughly a thirty minute drive for me, free parking when I get there. So a lot more convenient for me than Peterborough.

The range of games on sale isn't as comprehensive as other lgs. But that will improve I'm sure.

Yes I may have parted with hard currency while there so let's look at my guilty purchases.

I blame the contents of the photo below on my mate Duncan and his “nagging” to paint my miniatures. Yes I admit I set it as an aim for the year to learn how to paint figures. So ok, you can argue that Duncan was only helping me to meet an aim of mine.

Plus the main reason I made this trip to The Hobbit Hole was to see what painting stuff they had in stock. I have to say the owner and the shops resident painting expert (sorry can't remember his name) were really helpful in advising me in what I needed brush wise as a starter, and initial paints for painting storm troopers and zombies.
The above photo is proof I am a weak willed fool, who has no self control. I swore to myself I was going to skip the Age of Ultron set of Dicemasters, because of the insane release schedule Wizkids have. But heck if I didn't crumble and buy five boosters for this set.
Which now means I'm going to have to buy the starter set, and then the inevitable gravity feed!
The nice thing is that The Hobbit Hole has just got in some of the OP kits, so will be hosting some Dicemasters OP soon. The owner did say that he is easy to beat, that the one or two of his regulars who play have the likes of Gobby.
Easiest way to combat this and even up the playing field is make the OP events draft only. Having played draft at the Games Expo earlier in the year, this is a fun format to play. Ok so you pay a tenner to enter but you are getting ten boosters worth of cards of the latest set.

Out This Week

A once in a random time section to a post that I thought I'd run. It won't be everything coming out but stuff I've been waiting for.

First up according to the Esdevium (Probably the main distributor of games in the UK) weekly coming out newsletter is Machi Koro Millionaires Row. This is the second expansion for the popular card game of city building. The question is how big will the box be?

Valley of the Kings Afterlife is also out this week. A standalone game and can also be used with the original Valley of the Kings game. No new mechanics to learn for players of the original.

Tides of Time have to admit I was confused by this one unless it's a restock because I thought it had come out earlier in August.

 

Last Nights Runs

netrunner

 

So last night Windy and Tag You Are It got to go up against decks from Jamie again.

First up was Windy taking on Jamie's Jinteki deck. My first five cards drew “I've Had Worse” and Trope, but no Aesops or Hive Mind or Virus Breeding Ground, not even a whiff of Djinn. I was really undecided about whether I should mulligan to try and get the Aesops. Although Trope was a card I wanted early also so I could start building up those power tokens to allow me to shuffle back in more cards from the heap back into the stack.

I thought bugger it I'll play this hand and use the “I've Had Worse” to draw three cards in hope of drawing at least an Aesops. But nope that wasn't to be. And my card draw didn't get any better after that either. I did score an agenda from Archives, but I had shuffled my deck too well and everything I really needed just wasn't coming up.

This was a really easy win for Jamie.

Game two was the same match up again. This time I got Aesops early, my economy was working better, the milling was going. I score a one point agenda, Jamie score some agendas. I finally run on Archives with the milled R&D cards sitting there so tempting, waiting for my grubby runner hands to reveal their secrets. I use up all my credits to get through the ice to steal Archives secrets.

OMG jackpot three agendas! I score one, another single agenda point. The other two are three pointers. Bugger both require a Psi Game. No cash. Jamie asks me to how much credits I have. I reply none. Feck Feck Feck. If only I had two credits left. No way I was going to win these two Psi Games.

But I knew what had to be done. It was now a race between me and Jamie. Jamie advanced, advanced a server. I built up credits to enable me to run Archives again the next go, and have some left for the Psi Games.

Advance, rez… Game over. So close!

Third game Tag Your Are It against Jamie's Kate deck. I know where I lost this game. It was the moment I decided to hide an agenda in an unprotected Archives, thinking Jamie wouldn't run it, because who would be so stupid as to hide an agenda in an unprotected server? Obviously the answer is me.

Why did I hide it in Archives? Well I didn't want it sitting in HQ, Jamie had been making runs on there, and I didn't have a protected server for it to be installed on.

So guess which server Jamie ran on and get a cheap, no free agenda? Yep Archives.

This NBN deck has potential I think. As I said in yesterday's post I need to revisit the ice. Maybe look at the economy side also.

 

NBN Tag You Are It Deck

netrunner

Following on from yesterday's post about my “tweaked” Noise deck that I have given the name Windy, here is my first attempt at an evil corp deck.

Please remember when thinking “why hasn't he used/included such and such a card?” I have all the data packs up to the latest one from The SanSan Cycle Old Hollywood. The only Deluxe expansion I have is Order and Chaos. So if the card is from one of the Deluxe expansions I don't have then you know why. If the card is one I have then please let me know in the comments below how I can improve my evil corp deck, along with which card you think it should be replacing.

The identity I am using is the NBN Making News identity.

Making news gives me a minimum deck size of forty five cards and an influence of fifteen to use on out of faction cards. It also gives me two re-occurring credits to use on traces. Which basically means whenever I initiate a trace on a runner it automatically is two stronger before I add anything additional to it.

As I have previously said and as the name I have given this deck suggests, this deck is all about tagging the runner. But it's no good tagging the runner if I am not going to do anything with those tags. This is why I've included operations like Closed Accounts (screws with their economy) or Shoot The Moon (I get to Rez ice for free). Snare! just gives me another way to tag the runner, and trash cards in their grip.

I believe Jackson Howard is a “standard” in corp decks, and gives me some extra card draw, and a way to move some cards from archives (discard pile) back into R&D (deck). Marked Accounts and PAD Campaign (another “standard”) are all about my economy and giving me funds to install and advance stuff.

Primary Transmission Dish is another economy card but this time acting as another mega boost for the traces. Get this out with my identities ability that is plus five to all my traces! Adonis Campaign or Sexy Bot as it is referred to in the TeamWorkCast game commentries pure money in the bank! Breaker Bay Grid is there to help reduce the cost of rezzing ice and assets etc.

We are now coming onto the section of my deck I'm the least confident about. And very very likely needs the most work. It's the ice I'm going to be using to protect my servers.

I think if I was going to spend the remaining influence points that I have it would most likely be to add ice from other factions I think.

Finally we are onto the twenty agenda points I have to have for having a forty eight card deck. Even if I was at the minimum card count of forty five I would still be required to have twenty agenda points.

I have reached the twenty point total with eleven agenda cards. Which means 22.9% of my deck is agendas. Is this too high a ratio?

If the runner leaves the tags on and I score Private Security Force, it could be game over for them. Or if they are tagged when I score Market Research it gets an extra agenda point! So instead of scoring as two it becomes three. That could be a game winning condition.

So forty eight cards, twenty agenda points, and four of my available influence points spent.

Now to play these decks in anger against another player. Which is happening this evening ^_^

 

 

Windy My Current Noise Deck

netrunner

In this post I thought I would cover the cards in the latest interation of my Noise deck. For the record I have all the data packs up to the latest one from The SanSan Cycle Old Hollywood (see yesterday's post). The only Deluxe expansion I have is Order and Chaos. I still need to get Creation and Control plus Honor and Profit. In fact I need to make that a priority I think.

So my Noise deck is forty six cards. Uses nine of the possible fifteen influence points. But I know, what have I used to make this deck?

So I have the following in my deck:

So the plan is to mill a lot by installing viruses, cashing them in with Aesop to get some economy. Hopefully get the Hades Shard installed early to allow me to access the corps archives to steal some juicy agendas. It's always a game of chicken with this, just how long do you let that archives pile up before pulling the trigger? Djinn will allow me (as long as I remember it does this) fetch viruses from the stack, while Deja Vu and Trope allow me to get cards out of the heap back into my grip or the stack to go through the cycle once more of install and pawn.

I also have some nice cards there that allow me to beef up the virus cards with virus tokens very quickly. Plus one or two that allow me to install more than my memory allocation will allow. Plus I have card to give me card draw and counter meat and net damage.

Because milling is the main tactic of the deck, I'm calling this deck Windy after Windy Miller from Trumpton ^__^

Top of My Livng Room Cupboards

Well games need storing somewhere, and I'm running out of space!

 

Old Hollywood

netrunner

Old Hollywood the latest data pack from the SanSan cycle has hit the shelves of the stores. I'll give a warning now for those that don't want to know the contents because part of getting a new data pack is the surprise of discovering new cards as they go through the pack, SPOILER ALERT STOP READING NOW!

In a new departure for me I thought I'd do a more indepth look at the contents that make up the data pack. I will give this disclaimer. I'm no expert, I don't know the cards well enough to be an expert.

One of the things I love about Android:Netrunner is the Cyberpunk theme. Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) does such a good job on this. Each data pack comes with a sheet that helps add flavour to the overall theme of that data pack. I love these flavour sheets.

The one that comes with Old Hollywood does not disappoint. Done in the style of “tabloid” celebrity news coverage it sets the tone perfectly.

So let's look at the cards in Old Hollywood for my beloved Runners.

Runners

First up the runner faction that is me, Anarch. Anarch gets two new cards in this data pack, a theme we will see for all the runner factions except the factionless cards.

I can see both of these cards finding a home in my Noise deck. Trope would be a useful card for getting cards from my heap (discard pile for none players) back into the stack (deck). Ideally the card would need to be drawn early so that the power counters can build up.
Spoilers would be useful on the mill side of things, in helping speed that up. But once again needs to be out early to be of any real use.
Now onto Criminal, like Anarch they get two new cards. Both thematically fitting really well with the criminal theme. I don't play Criminal so can't say if they would be good enough for making it into a criminal deck, but for me I can't see myself spending scarce influence points on them to use with Noise.
The last runner faction and once again one I've not played so I'm giving the same get out clause as I did with Criminal. I will have to do some research because although thematic I'm a bit confused about how useful these two cards are. What use is a zero value agenda? Or why would you not want to score an agenda straight away? Are these cards a way of protecting agendas from the corps?
The final runner card is factionless and is a resource. It's an interesting card, take a tag prevent all meat damage. Is this meant to replace Plascrete Carapace when we hit the first card rotation?

Now let's look at those evil corps…

Corp

First to get some Old Hollywood lovin is HB.

Next up is Jinteki and I love the classic line references as the card titles. I can see It's A Trap! getting a bit of play in decks. Don't think I'd like to face a deck with this and Snare! in it. Mind you I think Offer might prove popular too for a cheap score of an agenda point.

We then come to NBN the corp faction I have decided to go with. I like the look of the new corp identity. It appeals to me limiting a runner to only being able to steal a single agenda per turn. That's a good card to help protect the central servers.

I like the two new agendas, they are bitter sweet when stolen. You lose the agenda, but get something back in return.

The other cards I like to. Casting call fits in nicely with the “tag you are it” deck I'm trying to build. Which is basically all about tagging the runner and screwing with them.

The final corp faction is Weyland. Two good cards I think for Weyland, particularly like Back Channels.

Then wrapping up we have a single none faction agenda. Don't know if I'd ever use this agenda. But I love it. The Wizard of Oz reference I think is what makes it for me.

I really enjoy this data pack, the theme is amazing, especially for a TV/film buff/fan like me. Oh wait that is probably why I also like NBN. But there are definitely some cards I want to work into decks.

 

Sleeve that survivor

netrunner, new arrivals, zombicide

The theme of Android:Netrunner is incredibly awesome, the game is amazing, and boy oh boy is the art on the cards out of this world.

Now to sleeve all of the cards in Netrunner would be a tad on the expensive side. Especially if I was to use the official sleeves. A pack of sleeves is usually made up of fifty sleeves and costs between a fiver and eight quid. With a card count that must easily be over two thousand by now if you have everything, you can quickly do the maths, and have a minor heart attack from the shock.

There is a cheaper solution. Just sleeve the cards that make up your current decks for corporate and runner. For my Noise deck I have been using the beautiful looking Snare sleeves from FFG (below right).

Doesn't the art work for Snare look amazing? I love the whole venus flytrap look of it. It captures the theme of the card perfectly. This card is the Android:Netrunner version of a venus flytrap, it sits there waiting for the runner to “fly” into its cunning trap looking for those oh oh so sweet agendas. But just as the runner realises something is wrong it snaps shut.

However this morning I had two more packs of official FFG sleeves arrive. The amazing looking pop up (above middle) and the equally amazing looking Posted Bounty.
What really impresses me is that there are some really abstract ideas within the game, and some how the artists manage to capture that theme/idea in such a beautiful way. Pop up window and Snare manage to do this so so well.
The pop up window sleeves I'll be using with my NBN corp deck that I am building. If I build a third deck I'll use the Posted Bounty for that.
The exciting thing is I think from what I have seen of Ashes Rise of the Pheonix Born that the art in that game may surpass the art of Netrunner!!!!

The dudes a survivor

Finally the Gary character for Zombicide also arrived today.

As you can see the Gary Zombicide character bares a remarkable resemblance to a certain Jeff Lebowski character played by Jeff Bridges from the cult/hip/classic (think that covers all the bases) movie The Big Lebowski.

I got this character for one friend (the same one I did the hipster minifig for) only to play with. He's a big fan of the movie (although I debate that because he hasn't seen the porn parody version) and when we next play Zombicide (we are long over due for a game or two) I'm sure this will be the only character he will want to play with.

I have to say that I think they have captured the character really really well in the sculpt.

Now I just need to track down the Ross survivor which is the John Goodman character from the movie.

 

Tag You Are It

netrunner, tabletop

Today saw me head on over to darkest deepest Peterborough to play some Netrunner with Jamie at an undisclosed location. The location had to remain secret we didn't want the dirty corps crashing in and ruining our runs!

Netrunner

We played two games of Netrunner. The first time was my Noise deck (changed that morning) taking on Jamie's Jenteki deck. Jamie was playing the Jenteki corp id that requires me to do a run on a central server before I can do a run on a remote server. I had a good start, had installed a Hades Shard on turn one on archives, milled a couple of cards, done a run and next turn or maybe it was the first I scored a three point agenda.
My milling was working, I pulled the trigger on the Hades Shard and scored nothing. Jamie was scoring agendas at will. I wasn't doing any runs, so not really applying any pressure on Jamie's servers. I needed my Parasite or Crypsis but was not drawing either. Too late I remember the ability of the Djinn I had installed that allowed me to search the stack for viruses! Bugger that may have cost me the game, or been a contributing factor. Needless to say it was a comfortable win for Jamie.
The next game I played a core set NBN deck against Jamie's Kate deck. I'm still trying to find the corp faction that is me, so until I find that corp, I'm playing the core set decks.
Jamie got an early victory of a couple of agendas that were sitting in my HQ, while I was waiting to get the funds together to protect and advance the one I had in a remote server.
After that I was able to start tagging Jamie, setting a couple of ambushes that Jamie fell into, and start scoring agendas in my scoring remote. I started scoring agendas and eventually got the win.
I really enjoyed playing NBN. I like the theme of NBN, they are the media corp. I can pretend to be bigger then Murdock! So I think I've found my corp. plus in the next big box expansion NBN will be getting some card love too.

Thunderstone Advance: Numenera

Next up was a new game to me, and one that Jamie had only played solo, the deckbuilding game Thunderstone Advance: Numenera.

There was a few times when Jamie seemed to be walking away with the win because he was managing to kill more monsters than me, especially as I was struggling to get enough attack together to take out the monsters. Often falling short by one or two points, and having to settle with making a purchase in the village. After two and a half hours I was narrowly defeated (four points in it).

For me the game lacked immediacy. In the Legendary system (Marvel and Encounters) there is a constant pressure as the villains move through the city and you have to stop them escaping, otherwise something bad happens, plus you have the master strikes and scheme twists, that add to the pressure. Which is a shame because Jamie said this is present in the solo variant of the game, using a similar mechanic as Legendary.

Plus you can only do one thing each turn attack or buy a card, which slows the game down.

Overall I wasn't bowled over with Thunderstone, very meh I think.

Welcome to the Dungeon

Time for a micro game so Jamie introduced me to the bluffing game Welcome to the Dungeon. As Jamie suspected this game isn't really suited for two players and that it is better (I would imagine) with more players. I won the game we played, but would like to play this with the larger number of players (I think max is four) before making a final decision on this game. If I was only going to be able to play this as a two player game I'd avoid this, there are better two player micro experiences out there.

Coin Age

Our final game was another micro game, this time Coin Age. Now I won both games we played. It's a very simple game, a very quick and light experience.

I liked the game, I'd certainly play it again, but I don't think it will make my collection.

So another great day of gaming. I found my corp scum faction! Tried some new games.

 

My Awesome Weekend

imperial assault, netrunner, new arrivals, tabletop
Saturday saw me driving up North to the shadow of Kinder Scout to visit friends. As the photo below shows I took the odd game with me. I had ordered some new games that I was hoping would make it before I set off. Unusual for the Royal Mail they actually attempted to deliver my parcels, and they did it at half eight. Which meant I got them on time for once.
But I still had no idea what time DPD would be arriving with the one game I actually did want to take with me specifically for the weekend. Then a text message arrived letting me know they would be delivering the game Castle Panic before ten fifteen. Score I'd have everything before my planned leave time. For once the stars aligned for me.

Once at my destination for the weekend it was Netrunner time with my guru Todd. Todd was using his newly constructed HB Cybernetics Division deck against my Noise deck. Two games, two loses. But I did score some agendas so it wasn't a white wash. Then we swapped I played Todd's HB corp deck, while he played my Noise deck. I think this was maybe my third time playing corp. I haven't really looked at trying to construct a corp deck yet. I'm not really sure which corp is me yet.

I won this role reversal game, and then had feedback from Todd on where he thought my short comings were for my deck. I basically need to look at my economy (there wasn't really enough being generated), while there was also not much synergy going on in my deck either.

After a break, Todd constructed a runner deck that he wanted to test. So I played his corp deck again (well I don't currently have one) it was a tense game. But in the end Todd ended up winning.

While we were playing the last game it was getting near to the bedtime for his boys, and they wanted to play a game with me. So before they went to bed we had a couple of quick games of Batman Love Letter.

Tea for us grown ups had been an awesome homemade chilli made by Todd. It was just right, not over hot, but not bland like the chilli at work. There was a really nice heat to it. Perfect.

Sunday morning after breakfast was a quick game of Batman Love Letter with the boys. Then with the table in the middle of the room it was time for a game of Zombies! a favourite of the boys.

I hadn't played Zombies! before, so this was a new experience for me. My initial impression of the game was it was a lot of fun. Building the map as you go along was a nice mechanic. The game has a lot of opportunities for player interaction, well a take that interaction. It was very easy to screw over another player, forcing them to skip a go, stop them moving, surround them with zombies etc. One of the boys was really getting into this side of the game. That did add to the enjoyment of the game.

Run,Fight or Die! Fails

I tried to teach the youngest age seven Run,Fight or Die! However it didn't really grab his attention, especially with Cartoon Network on the TV.

How unfit I am?

After lunch we all went for a walk. The weather was hot, and the route took us over a hill to a conviently placed pub that used to be a mill. The hill was hard work, I'm so out of shape. Well more than usual. Luckily the return journey didn't have as much up, which was welcomed. The boys were amazing, not a single word of complaint, they really enjoyed themselves. It warms my heart to see kids enjoying the outdoors.

But boy was I knackered and sore afterwards. I really must get back into shape for the outdoors.

With the car packed it was time to say my good byes. I'd had a really great weekend. Great hosts, a great time. 'Nuff said.

Chris Shaner GenCon Star Realms Champion

Well the subheading says it all. A really big congratulations to Chris on becoming the champ. I don't think I'd be wrong in saying this competition is the nearest the Star Realms has at the moment to a world championship.
For an amazingly long time Chris was the top Star Realms player online however due to his alterism (he is no longer actively trying to push up his ranking since hitting level 40) he has been over taken and currently sits at number 4 on the all time league table. So really when you are that good at the game is it a surprise that Chris did so well in the GenCon competition?
Chris regularly thrashes me at Star Realms online. Sometimes I even make him work hard for his victory. Even more rare is the below photo, a victory for me. It just happened I managed to score this ultra rare win yesterday on the day I find out about Chris's well deserved title win.

Imperial Assault Wave 4 Announced

At GenCon this years big Imperial Assault announcement from Fantasy Flight Games was details of the wave four expansions. Wave four will have another big expansion which will return us fanboys back to Hoth.

Above photo taken from The Dice Tower stream from GenCon iirc ^_^

My favourite GenCon coverage from the week has been from Team Covenent and their unboxing and looks at the Wave Two expansions for Imperial Assault and the next big expansion for Android:Netrunner Data and Destiny. The videos give a great look with initial thoughts on the expansions, the enthusiasm for the contents, and the games really does come across in the videos. It's infectious and makes the videos a delight to watch.

The other coverage I have enjoyed is the MeepleWorship Instagram feed. This has been a great personal view of the show. Some great photos from the show floor, including loads of selfies with industry figures, celebs from the bloggersphere and of purchases.

New Arrival To The Pile Of Shame

The Recon expansion for Arctic Scavengers arrived this morning. It comes in a pretty big box. But there is a reason for that. The box is designed to hold not just the Recon expansion but also the base game and the HQ expansion (the right half of the photo above shows this). Apart from adding 140 new cards for the game, it also comes with the rules for using the Recon expansion, plus an updated rule book for the base game and HQ expansion. Now to just get the game to the table! Which is easier said than done.

 

Gaming Day

game night, love letter, netrunner, new arrivals

We had an induction event at work today for students starting in September. I had been put down to “entertain” a group of them for a couple of hours in the morning.

Recently it has come to light that I have a little bit of a Love Letter addiction and own eight copies of the game in various editions.

My plan was simple, I would utilise my Love Letter problem and hold a little Love Letter tournament with the students.

This was this first time the students had played the game. Plus for this group the first time that they had played a game that would not be considered “mainstream”. Sadly none of the group play tabletops, and most would say their last experience was playing the likes of Monopoly or Frustration.

The way I organised the tournament was that the winners from each table would be playing against each other in the next round. And then mix the other tables up based on how many tokens each remaining player had scored that round. To have consistent scoring between the versions we used the Batman Love Letter scoring, which meant that the guard card or equivalent when played and the player guesses correctly they get a token. Which is in addition to a token for winning the round.

This proved a great way of getting the students to mix, because this was the first time they had met.

Next time I run a Love Letter tournament (which will most likely be September) I’m hoping to get some prizes in place for the students to win. The only reason there wasn’t anything this time is because I had very little notice that I would be doing this today, let alone time to think about how I would fill the time slot.

The students had a good time playing the game. Which is the important thing.

At the end of the session I ended up showing one group an example of a “modern” boardgame by taking my copy of Run Fight or Die! out (I just happened to have a copy in my bag!) and quickly setting it up and explaining how the game is played.

What do I look for in a game to use with me students?

It has to be quick to teach, ideally in five to ten minutes. Lessons are one hour twenty (a two hour session like today is a rarity), so playtime for the game should be under an hour. Ideally the game should support four to six players, and not be expensive to buy (funnily enough I don’t have a budget for this sort of thing).

So what games do I currently use with the students:

  • Love Letter
  • Resistance
  • Fluxx
  • Munchkin
  • Zombie Dice

 

And here is a list of games I’m looking to try/introduce:

  • Coup
  • Sushi Go!
  • One Night Resistance (or I think it’s changed to Rebellion)
  • Age of War

Tuesday Night Netrunner

Well I was at the Kings Head at 7pm. Sadly a grand total of zero people turned up. I hung around for forty odd minutes. But I must have looked pretty sad nursing my orange and lemonade (with ice) while reading the rules to Hive. Then again I was the only customer there.

I will get this off the ground. So here is looking to next Tuesday and hopefully a bigger turnout.

New Arrivals

Well after last night and my complaint with Amazon where I cancelled the order and got a refund, that Imperial Settlers was delivered today was rather surprising. I wasn’t expecting that at all, especially when the Royal Mail told the Amazon support person the earliest they could attempt to redeliver was Wednesday! So my logic went I’ll cancel the order, get refund, reorder the game. While I’m doing that Amazon tell the Royal Mail to return the package. And life and the universe are at peace with one another once more.

The day had gone as planned, the manager from the local Royal Mail didn’t call me as promised. Royal Mail customer support is so shitty. I’m too drained to follow this up. Apparently Royal Mail managers finish at 2pm so I can’t even pop round after work to catch them.

I wonder why the Royal Mail is losing business to competition?

Finally Boss Monster 2 arrived, this is the kickstarter Collectors Editon that I went for which is made up of the limited edition game and a special lunchbox to store the cards of the game, plus stretch goals. I’ll get the special lunchbox later in the year. So excited about that. If you are remotely interested you can get the full list of the rewards I’ll be getting here on the this page.

The second hand copy of Hive Pocket is in good condition, I’m looking forward to learning this game. It’s potentially a game for trips.

Finally Nations the Dice Game also arrived. I really want to get this and Roll for the Galaxy to the table very very soon.

 

 

 

 

Netrunner this Tuesday anyone?

netrunner

 

For those in the Wisbech/Fenland area that play Android:Netrunner and looking for a game of two, I'm a noob at the game and same here. So thought why not try and organise something. So here I am trying to organise something. I'll be at the Kings Head, Wisbech this Tuesday from 7pm with my core set (for playing with those that only have a core set) and a Noise Anarch deck that I have built and want to play test.

I'm hoping if enough people show an interest this can become a regular thing. Tuesday night Netrunner with refreshing beverages.