Category Archives: star realms

star realms

Heinz 57 Post

lego minifigs, Munchkin, pixel tactics, star realms, tabletop

About Last Night

Last night Sam (a friend) messaged me via that NSA friendly site Facebook inviting me along to the Kings Head and to bring along Munchkin. The pub was a little busier than was expected, but Sam, Duncan and myself sat down to play a game of Munchkin.
As the photo above shows my Munchkin character was an Elven Thief dressed in leather armour. That's one of the things I love about the game the crazy race and class combos that paint such vivid pictures (greatly enabled by the great art work on the cards) that become more vivid when you start adding on the accessories like armour and weapons.
The game started slowly mainly due to work (Sam having to serve customers) and very few monsters turning up in the Door pile of cards to fight. Once we started fighting monsters and levelling up, it becomes the case of stockpiling cards to stop your nearest rival from stepping over the winning line.
That arms race finally happened in our game between Sam and myself. I used my salvo of cards to stop Sam crossing over the line, depleting my arsenal. Then it was Sam's turn to use up her arsenal to stop me crossing the winning line. Which she successfully did. But then all sides are wondering did the other person have anything left to stop them when their turn comes around again. Back to Sam's turn and she draws a curse. Then it's my turn I too draw a curse, but protected from its effects by some magic footwear. Back to Sam and still no monster for her to fight. Which was lucky for me, I had nothing to stop her with in my hand. My turn. A level one monster (I forget which one) I very easily had more than enough to defeat the monster. Phew Sam was in the same situation as myself nothing left to stop me winning. We had both used everything we had in our previous exchange of blows. I crawled across the finish line to win.

When Worlds Collide

In the world of Minecraft skeletons are a minor irritation. They don't have it easy especially when they are on the surface, as soon as it turns daylight they burn up. Well one skeleton had had enough of the status quo. He reached out for some help. A pan-dimensional portal opened up and four Stormtroopers turned up to help even the odds up for the skeleton.

Luckily for Steve two other figures followed the Stormtroopers through the pan-dimensional portal, Jedi Luke and Stormtrooper Han.
So I have a nice little minifig Stormtrooper army building up.

Competition My Arse

The Pixel Tactics playmat from Level 99 arrived today but only after I had to pick it up from its kidnappers the Royal Mail. They had taken it hostage and were demanding a ransom before they would release it.
The ransom exchange took place at the nearest sorting office. Not exactly neutral territory but when a gun is being held at your head you have to go along with the demands of the man with the gun in their hand.
The thing about this kidnapper is that they are meant to be working in a competitive market place (except the last mile where they have a monopoly) for delivery of mail. But I call shenanigans on that. There is no competition in reality. If there was competition then the ransom fee I had to pay today would be a lot lower than it was.
I don't mind paying the tax on the goods I bought from outside of the UK. That is fair. What I do object to paying is the ripoff fee that the Royal Mail charge. The “handling” fee is total bs. It's like the extortionate fees banks charge. There is no way that the costs to the Royal Mail is that much.
However the “competition” only match or go higher on the costs they charge. A competitive market should see these costs dropping not remain stagnant and at a profiteering price.
I'm really resentful of this exploitation of a situation that the Royal Mail use to unfairly profit at my expense.

The playmat itself from Level 99 is lovely. Similar material to all my other playmats, but thinner. The thinness did strike me at first, but it doesn't detract from what a nice playmat it is.

Some Light Reading

I really did enjoy the movie Snowpiercer starring Chris Evans. It's one of those films that snuck out last year and didn't get the exposure the movie really deserved. Just go rent the movie you won't regret it.

The film was based on a French graphic novel. So I finally caved and ordered the source material to read. The second volume is in the postal system somewhere.

Star Realms An Easter Miracle Happens

A couple of days back I decided to check what if any my ranking was in the Star Realms Leaderboards. Bloody hell how did I get that high? Surely something was wrong with their leaderboard? Ok it dropped down after a couple of loses, but even then it was way higher than I was expecting.
Another loss and a further drop. But I tell you I won't see this again me higher up in the rankings than TheCutter.

Naturally on the monthly and lifetime leaderboard I don't even make a dent. That was more like it. The natural order of things is at least restored on those two leaderboards.

 

Easter Thursday Night Games Night

game night, star realms, tabletop

Last night saw another Thursday Night Games Night at a new venue.

The evening started off meeting at the old location to go in convoy to the new location. But due to the length of the journey the convoy had to stop at Morrisons for supplies. They are cunning people at Morrisons placing “better than half price” (their words not mine) Jaffa Cakes right next to the entrance of the store as the first thing you hit before having to walk through that evil guilt inducing fruit and veg isle. Mind you it's rare that I feel guilty that I should eat more fruit and veg. Now cake I do feel guilty I'm not eating enough of.

It was a major display of will power on my part not to just buy a shit load of Jaffa Cakes. Sadly I was strong and didn't crumble and only bought two packets. Oh and a trifle for a quid to use as a dip for them! Hey what can I say I'm a creative genius.

Now stocked up with supplies to finish the long trek to the new venue we headed off across the border into the wildes of Norfolk, for about thirty seconds before crossing back into the civilised lands of Cambridgeshire. That was the most dangerous part of our trek over with. We had survived unscathed the badlands of Norfolk.

The convoy arrived at the new venue. We hadn't had to touch the supplies after all, oh well they will do for the game night.

The new venue was none other than the secret headquarters of the infamous pirate podcast Lolocaust Tubeblockers. We even had a guided tour of the actual recording studio used to create these acts against humanity and good taste. I will apologise because this would of been the perfect time to strike back for mankind and deliver a blow for freedom against this tyranny. However Bouncy had more security than a Bond villian round his recording studio. Yep that's right it was blocked off with “Police Line Do Not Cross” tape. Security does not get harder to crack than that. It's uncrackable. An opportunistic chance to strike back for freedom and democracy had been foiled by impenetrable security.

Our first game of the evening once there collective had decided to make a decision was King of New York. Yep the game I got only the other day, hadn't been opened and none of us knew how to play. So while I was getting the components ready to play with, Gav read the rules. I think I was the only one listening as Gav read the rules out. The others decided who needs to know the rules, what we need is banter! Was this a tactical decision that was part of some new cunning planning at winning a game you'd never played before? After a slow start as we got used to the rules and what dice symbol did what etc. we started to play. We even had Bouncy live streaming a bit of the game at the start. The game lived up to my expectations. It manages to capture the japanese monster movie trope of giant monsters fighting in the middle of a metropolis trashing buildings, fighting each other and the army really well. I enjoy the japanese monster movie which most will of experienced in the form of the Godzilla series. I wouldn't call myself a fan, unlike Bouncy who is. But still I enjoyed the movies a lot as I watched them as a teenager late at night on one of the four terrestrial TV channels we had at the time. I want to say it was Channel 4 but my fading memory could be wrong on this. I even enjoyed the 1998 Hollywood attempt at doing a Godzilla movie. Which may be an unpopular opinion. But hey I haven't said it was a great movie, just an enjoyable one. Ok the Godzilla reboot by Hollywood last year was much much better, and Pacific Rim also was a good Hollywood monster vs giant robots movie. Which I believe at some point we may see a crossover between Godzilla and Pacific Rim, which could be very very cool. But if you love these types of movie you are going to love this game. In the end the game was won by Gav, who was accused of shenanigans because he had the rule book!
The next game was another game we hadn't played and was one of mine that had been bought recently and unplayed! The game being Batman Love Letter.
The above photo shows us reading the rules!

A word of advice if Bouncy does his bum note joke and you have your back to him. Do not turn round and look. I stumbled across this useful hint last night, I was busy playing my go at the time, Bouncy had come down with just a Guitar Hero/Rock Band guitar covering his lower naked half. That image alone was disturbing enough. Then he turns round to leave the room and does the bum note joke. The rest of the group now for ever more have the image of Bouncy's bare bum etched in their memory. I dodged a bullet here. It's a bit like Rick waking up in hospital at the start of The Walking Dead, everyone else is dead or a zombie, he survived whatever “event” happened to turn the world upside down. And here I escaped what can only be assumed a horrific image that even horror porn can not even come close to matching. Then it dawned on all of us “OMG that guitar has touched his junk, never ever play Guitar Hero with Bouncy and use his guitar”.

Batman Love Letter is a great fun game. It helps to stay focused while playing (see the above Bouncy story), which Luke seemed to have a hard time doing. But Luke ended up winning. So that's a tactic I'm going to try next time I play the game. This game was really a hoot. It helps that if you play the Robin card when someone selects you to reveal your card to not reveal your card and then remember you didn't have to because you were exempt. Hands up I did this a couple of times. The last time I did this I basically gave Luke the win on a plate.

Gav wanted to have a game of Star Realms, so while we played that. The others went off to play Smash Up! I really want to give this game a try sometime, maybe another game night. The Star Realms game Gav and I played worked out with me getting some combos, not massive ones but enough to win. But that wasn't the point of the game. It was to teach the basics, and give Gav a taste of playing. Gav enjoyed the game and will be getting it electronically I think/ possibly physically as well. As a first game Gav did well. It helped that he had played Marvel Legendary before so was used to the mechanics.

It was hitting midnight and being the little Cinderella that I am I had to rush back home, hoping that the mutants roving the wastelands of Norfolk didnt waylay me as I crossed into their lands briefly.

This morning also found out that the guys also had a game of Spyfall too after I left. Another game I want to try, I think this could be a student favourite.

I had a great evening, many laughs, avoid something that could never be unseen, and as always great company.

Can't wait for the Marvel Games Night planned for the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron. That will be a Marvel Legendary night.

 

 

I Am The Harbour Master

netrunner, star realms, tabletop
Yes the above photo is the photographic evidence that I am truly the Harbour Master! But we will get to that part of the story later.
As I blogged yesterday the planned day of playing tabletops had to be rearranged for today. The plan was to be round Jamie's for around 10:30. I was hoping nah praying that the postman would arrive before I left with the First Contact data pack. I needed one card from this data pack for my planned Anarch deck to play against Jamie.
The courier arrived not long after 8am with one delivery consisting of King of New York and Perudo. As I was about to drive off with the car loaded up my Netrunner cards, Star Realms, Tiny Epic Kingdoms, and Age of War the postman walked past my car. In his hands were a couple of small Amazon packages. “By any chance are those two Amazon packages for number 4?” I enquired hopefully of the postman. The postman responded in the positive and handed over my deliveries. The postal gods had been kind to me and had delivered the data pack to me just in time. I had the card I needed (if I had identified the correct data pack it was in that is).

The full order was the Android:Netrunner First Contact data pack, Roll For It and a set of extra dice for Star Wars Imperial Assault.
In total Jamie and I played four games of Netrunner, and I didn't win a single one of them. The first two games I played as the heroic Anarch runner Noise fighting against the man. I did manage to steal some agendas, and the deck I came up with worked roughly how I thought it would. The first game I attacked Jamie's R&D a lot, and some of the remote servers. Second game I switched tactics, avoided R&D for runs. Jamie had put more ice in front of HQ and R&D leaving his Archives less guarded. I kept trashing R&D by installing viruses, did a run on Archives and installed a Hades Shard? That would allow me to access the whole of Archives at a time of my choosing irrespective of how much ice Jamie installed. I got two agendas out of this tactic when I pulled the trigger. So I was very pleased that this worked. The final two games I played as the corporate scum Weyland. I wasn't expecting much from this deck as it was made up on the spot. I do need to look more into what I want the corp deck to do, and I need to put my hate for the man to one side and get better at being the corp. but I do find playing the runner a lot easier. I'll put up the two decks I played in another post for ripping apart.
But even though I lost I had a blast playing. I'm just going to get better the more I play. I'm lucky Jamie is patient with me as we play. Sometimes I wasn't able to ask Jamie a question as it would of given away what I was going to do, so I had to quickly look up an answer in the rule book.
After Android:Netrunner we played Star Realms. It was just a single game that I was able to get multiple outposts out and allowed me to sit behind a Great Wall of bases and outposts, that stopped Jamie doing any serious damage to me. I was racking up authority, getting combos, it was really hard and I know from having been on the other end of this tactic just a little frustrating. What made it worse for Jamie was that none of the big hitters came out, or the base destroyers. That really did make the Jamie's job of getting through the Great Wall a lot harder. But he did well getting combos together to knock down the wall, but it would be back up next go, and fully built within a couple of turns. Still the inevitable with this strategy happened I won!
Sometimes I do think that maybe Star Realms might be a little bit biased towards a bases strategy.
After Star Realms we moved on to a game I've got but not played Takenoko. Cute hungry pandas, grumpy gardeners growing bamboo, and another game that I bought after seeing it on Tabletop. Now I'm not saying this because I won, but this is a fun game.
What turned out to be the penultimate game was Jamie and I learning to play Roll for It. It literally takes a minute to read the rules to learn to play. This was a fun little game to play. It's rolling dice, what isn't there to enjoy about doing that? What I like about this game is you have to manage your dice, it's possible to steal cards from other players by completing them first. It really is a great little filler game. Plus I won this game.
The last game we played was Harbour By Tasty Minstrel Games. When Jamie bought the game out it hadn't rung any bells. But once I saw market card and the player cards it clicked I had seen these before in a recent video YouTube. I think it was the Crits Happen Top 5 mini games or something like that. No wait it was a Watch It Played video.

Harbour is a worker placement game with a dynamic marketplace and a hint of set collection. The dynamic marketplace is a nice mechanic which basically means after a player buys a property the values you get for each of the four resource types changes. Which means you could just be about to buy a property based on the values currently on the marketplace, another player jumps in before you, buys a property and the values change, all of a sudden you can't get enough for your goods to buy a property. I love that. It's a touch of genius.

For most of the game Jamie had the lead and was always a property ahead of me, well he was the first to two buildings. Always buying a building a move before me. But I thought I was about to pull of a stunning win by buying two properties. I went to execute the coup de grace, but fell on my face, I had misread the building cards. I had misread the cards point value as the cards cost! I couldn't buy both buildings in one go. But I could buy one and in a couple of turns be able to buy the second. All the time I was expecting Jamie to movie to his building to buy his final building to win. But he didn't I was able to complete the two turns and buy the final required building. Even with a final turn Jamie wasn't able to buy a final building. It was time to add up our points. Just as a final act of dumbassery (is that even a word?) I miss read the cost for points and ended up with a score less than Jamie's! Once the points were correctly added up I had won. Now it was photo time. There is a card with the game that the game creators suggest you take a selfie with to allow you to boast about your victory. Hence the photo at the start of this blog post and the title of this post. They also suggest that if you tweet the picture to include them in the tweet. Which I have done as I shared with the world that I am THE HARBOUR MASTER!

I've had a totally awesome day playing games with Jamie. Thank you to Allie for being such an amazing hostess and the really delish chocolate brownie.

 

Second Round Knock Out

star realms
Well the second hurdle just proved to be too high for this ageing old nag to clear. I think the idea is to clear the hurdle and move onto the next one, not try and barge through them head first like Juggernaut breaking through a banks wall.
Unfortunately as the final scores show I didn't give a good showing for myself. I got mauled.

The second game I spent too many turns buying bases, trying to build an impenetrable wall to hide behind, ready to then hit back as my opponents attacks floundered on the walls of my Helms Deep. In reality my plan proved as effective as the straw house was for the three little pigs.

Had the heady heights of being in the second round gotten to me? Well in my casual games I've been making progress again, winning more than I lose. So on that front it looks like I'm climbing slowly out of my slump.

I think hand on heart the only answer is I posed no challenge at all, and rightly got my butt kicked.

A Quick Question

What are the cards you like to buy on you first turn? The picture above shows my ideal starting trade row if I'm going first, 3 trade to spend, Cutter and Federation Shuttle ready to buy. Call me tactically nieve but I can't resist the Cutter, and the Federation Shuttle is good second buy I think in this situation. Plus in the other combinations of one or two trade to spend then either card depending of course on amount to spend.
If I'm going second then the amount of trade is going to be between three and five. At the lower amount ideally I'd like a situation as above. However I'm always hoping for a Cutter early on. Although if I can get a Starmarket then that is a nice alternative to have if no Cutter is available. I also like an Embassy Yacht in this situation too.
So what are your ideal cards to buy first?

 

Star Realms or Pixel Tactics?

pixel tactics, star realms, tabletop

Yesterday I noticed on the blog stats that some-one had come here looking to answer the age old question “Star Realms or Pixel Tactics?” Well I can't help but feel that whoever that person was that they didn't get an answer to the question that they were looking for. Heck I still haven't found what I'm looking for… Ok I'll stop with the inappropriate U2 reference.

Sure I've talked in a post very briefly about my first couple of games of playing Pixel Tactics. And rereading the post I do come to the conclusion that it won't replace Star Realms for me. However I did really enjoy the game, and two games isn't much compared to the number I've played of Star Realms to give a fair comparison between the two. But then Star Realms has an amazing app that allows me to play online against others, and Pixel Tactics doesn't have an app. So it is a lot easier for me to get a game of Star Realms.

Having said that it is possible to play Pixel Tactics online using a webcam and Google Hangouts. Which is a great bonus.

Both games are cheap. Both are two players and come with everything you need to play in the box. Both games can easily be played multiple times with games being different each time. Although both are card games, Star Realms is deck building from a common pool, while Pixel Tactics is preconstructed decks, both players have the same cards in their decks.

Both have expansions out for them Pixel Tactics has 2 and 3 out that can either be played as separate games or mixed in with the first game. Star realms has the Crisis expansions out, and the Gambit expansion about to hit stores. Also both games have further expansions coming out this year.

Accessory wise, Star Realms is better off with playmats, card sleeves, storage box, despite availability being an issue in the UK. Whilst Pixel Tactics only has a playmat only available from Level99. I'd like to see official sleeves and a storage box.

It's no secret how I feel about Star Realms, and what a cracking time I'm having playing it (win or lose). But for me Pixel Tactics is also a good game. So which to choose?

Personally I'd say get both, which is a bit of a cop out. But I don't think anyone who does will regret the decision. But if you only have money for one this month which one to get first?

If you want to play something that is more tactical go with Pixel Tactics. If you prefer deck building then go with Star Realms or want something that can be picked up very quickly and taught quickly.

Pixel Tactics has a few more rules and I think a little bit more complicated than Star Realms to learn, and to teach.

Go with Star Realms if you want to also play on your phone/tablet/PC/Mac. The app is awesome for Star Realms and great value. Plus it has a great enthusiastic online community.

You will eventually end up with both. I have and I don't regret it.

 

A Hot Place Is Very Cold At The Moment

star realms

Last night saw the kickoff of the fourth Star Realms Casual Tournament on the Facebook fan page. These tournaments are now fastly becoming a regular Sunday thing. Mid week the event invite goes out to the pages members, and those interested in playing throw their hat into the ring by joining the event.

Sunday evening then becomes filled with anticipation (despite my appalling track record to date) waiting for the draw to see who I have been paired with for the first round.

This week for the first round I was paired with Galaxion. A lot of people enter these casual events so it's not unreasonable that I had not played them before or recognise the name. Although slowly I am starting to recognise the odd name from playing them in tournaments and in casual play.

But I did notice that Freddy wasn't on the list of players. Freddy has had a better track record than me in these tournaments, and he loves playing the game too. So it struck me as most odd and surprising. So I messaged him on Facebook. Freddy replied with a tale of woe that basically equated to he accidently deleted the Star Realms app over the weekend while out on a bender with friends. (FOR THE RECORD I'm joking about the bender reference and I'm saying it here for comedic value. It's funny though as I had to explain to Freddy what a bender is, because apparently it's not used like this in the US. Which I did kind of. I gave Freddy the meaning that matched with the context I had used it. I omitted the other meaning. Well it would of just muddied the water and wasn't relevant. Now I know Freddy will read this post and I have this image of him getting very curious about the other use of the word now, and quickly opening up a browser window and googling the word bender. Note to Freddy rewatch an episode of Futurama now knowing the use of the word in England.)

As soon as I saw my pairing I sent a challenge via the app to Galaxion. So now it was just a wait for the challenge to be accepted. I sent a message via Facebook (I hate typing that, I hate using it even more and feel soooo dirty) to let Galaxion I had sent the challenge and why, and then promptly went to sleep.

Then this morning just after 5am with the challenge accepted Galaxion and I went to toe to toe for our first round match up.

Then in a very hot place the temperature started to drop rapidly, it was close but I took the first game. Wait what just happened? I won a tournament match! It wasn't a comfortable victory, or a big knock out punch. The game could of gone the other way very easily. It was more like a scramble across the finish line.

The challenge for game two went and was accepted. Seconds out round two. We traded blows, I was in a reasonable position authority wise and had my opponent where I wanted them, under twenty authority. Then back on script that healthy position crumbled while I struggled to get the attack together to do that final damage needed to win. Luckily sometimes I can ad lib and deviate from the script. That's the colourful way of saying I won again! Yep I scraped together enough damage to grab the win while barely clinging on to my own authority.

OMG I had WON!! My duck had ended, hell had frozen over completely. I was in shock and elated. Somehow I'd cleared the first hurdle at last. After three failed attempts it was fourth time lucky!

Two close games, which could easily of gone the other way and been loses.

I'm now into undiscovered country round two!

 

What Just Happened?

star realms

So the game is poised at 46 to 45 authority, not many turns had been taken. The usual tit for tat exchanges of low value attacks have taken place. The cards are lined up for your next go to do a reasonable amount of damage, well take out a base and allow a couple of points of direct damage. You leave the game to await your opponents next go.

Your daily routine in the meat world goes on while the pause of anticipation of your next move builds up.

Finally the message pops up that your opponent has taken their turn and you have been defeated!

You go back in to Star Realms, replay the last turn. Watching in disbelieve that this has just happened. Silently you mouth WTF? You rewatch the last turn again still stunned.
Then you just sit back in awe at the skill that has just been shown. Wow. Well played.
However I do wish folks on the Star Realms fan page would stop sharing experiences like this. They seem like precognition. They have a spooky way of happening to me not long after they have been shared.
Have you noticed I spend a lot of time writing about my loses and hardly ever about my victories? I think that this is the mark of a great game. That even in defeat the tales you tell of the game are exciting. Besides it would be boring if all I talked about was glorious wins, or how I grabbed victory against the odds. Plus I think just talking about wins seems a bit crass and just gloating. Or it can come across that way.
 

 

I need an intervention

lego minifigs, netrunner, star realms, tabletop

Just thinking aloud but I seem to be stuck at the bottom of level 5 at the moment, well as you know I had a bad run of games recently. And I have made mention in passing that I win a couple of games then lose a couple, and don't seem to be making any progress in getting out of level 5.

So I thought I'd do a quick adding up of the number of games I am currently in the middle of at the moment in the app. I was shocked to discover I have 23 games on the go. Some players I have multiple games going on. So in reality it may be about 7 or 8 players. No wonder I'm not making much head way. Or if this is a weak excuse, I suppose I will just have to face the reality that I'm not good at the game. But if that is the case I'm having a blast playing and losing.

I wonder how many games others are playing at one go. Is this the sign of addiction? Do I need an intervention? Even at the height of my Words with Friends playing I never had close to that many games on the go.

Thing is I just LOVE playing this game (just in case you hadn't gathered that reading my posts). And I'd happily play even more games if people challenged me.

New Custom Minifig!

I decided my hacktivist needed company! I know hacking is meant to be a lonely activity, but hacktivists work together to bring down the “man”. So made another hacktivist.

Organising My Netrunner cards

Since buying my Android:Netrunner cards I've not managed to play a game! I did make a start organising them, but didn't finish that. And I definitely haven't got round to building my first deck.

Curse that amazing game Star Realms for side tracking me. Anyway Easter is coming up and I really want to get some games in. It's the only way I'm going to get better at the game and learn to play. Yes I know the very very basics, but still I need to learn more. Ideally I want to get up to a level that I can teach some-one to play. Well when I say some-one I mean Nath. I definitely think this is a father/son game we can both enjoy.

But with my immediate target of playing over Easter (Which I need to arrange with Jamie when he is free, hopefully next Tuesday when I'm hopefully getting the Imperial Assualt expansions and in Peterborough). I got my thumb out of my rear and finished off organising my cards. At the moment they are organised into runner and corp. Then each side is further broken down into programs/ice, hardware, agendas etc. With the neutral cards for each side also being broken down like this.

This is an initial organisation, once I get some index cards I want to break each section down even further in to the cards “alliance”. So all the anarch programs together, then the criminal programs etc. it should then make finding cards easier, and hence deck building.

My first deck that I plan to build will be an anarch runner deck. We will look into my deck building adventures in another post, and why I chose anarch as my first runner deck.

In the meantime “hack the planet”!

 

Third Time Lucky

online play, star realms

All week I've been treading water. I'll win a couple of games then lose a couple of games, not making any progress breaking out of level 5. This was me bouncing along the bottom of the ocean not even coming to a final resting place. Darren the perpetual bouncing player at the bottom of the levels.

They say third time lucky. Which is a handy saying to believe in as a faint glimmer of hope for this weeks Casual Star Realms Tournament. Which as fortune and maybe a good omen (if you believe in that sort of thing) just happened to be the third tournament I've entered for Star Realms.

The first round draw was made and the pairings posted on the tournaments event page. My first round opponent in this weeks Casual Tournament was Flannelmann.

We traded the usual first two round blows knocking off the 2 authority and buying our initial ships. Then it's the throw a punch, then duck, repeat. With the odd rest bite for both as the cards throw up all coins.

At 22 authority for Flannelmann and 16 authority for myself with a camped War World outpost I'd effectively had a total 20 authority. “Come on cards fall right for me for once when I need them” I said to myself. As if appealing to the digits that make up the code of the app, hoping the ones and zeroes would take pity and be favourable to me.

The final hand played by Flannelmann. The Card Gods smiled on Flannelmann he gets the cards, combos, and draw more cards needed to deliver a knock out blow of epic proportions. 34 Attack points came hurtling my way.
If this had been a boxing match this would of been an upper cut blow, connecting squarely on my chin, lifting me clean off the floor, sending me flying into a crumpled unconscious mess on the ring floor.
So at the end of game one, the score is 1-0 to Flannelmann. Can I get my act together and stage a come pack and win the second game?
Once again we squared up, toe to toe. Jab, jab, punch. Federation ships repairing any cuts with their healing authority. Jab,jab, punch. Jab, jab, punch. Our authority drains away with each blow.
Flannelmann is down to 11 authority, I'm on 21 authority and I have an outpost out that can take 6 damage. So effectively 27 authority for me. I like this position. But I've been in this position soooo many times. Can I seal the deal and draw level?
Oh wait I'm in a good position, not the best cards for my next turn but they could of been a lot worse. However once more another great combo from Flannelmann and I'm out for the count, and out of the tournament.
What the heck? Hasn't Flannelmann read the script? They can't ad lib like this. I'm the people's hero (look in Darren world I am, which basically means my three dogs look at me that way). It clearly says on the label, “third time lucky”, and this was my third time! Good grief always the bridesmaid never the bride.
Final score 2-0 to Flannelmann. And a score line that is starting to become synonymous with my name. Well done Flannelmann, well played. All the best in the next round and beyond. May the draw be favourable to you, and the cards kind to you.
So true to form once more I run head first into the first fence, instead of clearing it into the next round.
During the last two weeks someone on the fan page posted a similar picture to the one below.
So as you may of guessed I've seen it now in a game. I was a bit miffed as I only had one credit and couldn't buy any. Luckily for me my opponent only drew three credits, so could only buy one. Which meant I was able to buy up the remaining two Cutters. But what an amazing first five cards for the trade row.

 

Fallen At The First Hurdle Again

online play, star realms

This week I took part in the “March Madness SR Tournament” that was organised on the Star Realms Fan Created Community Page and run by Ben Jochum and helped by Nathan Jochum.

Apparently March Madness is something to do with the sport basketball in the US. Not exactly a very big sport in the UK. And we definitely don't have college teams for the sport like they do in the US. This of course is where some-one in the UK will comment “oh contrear Darren, we do have college basketball over here, and it is very popular”. Which would basically mean it has a middle of the night spot on one of Rupert Murdochs pay to view sports channels (also popularly known as Sky Sports) straight after a Monday Night RAW rerun.

I find this whole college sports thing the U.S. has fasinating. We naturally in the UK play football (the real football that actually involves teams from around the world in its World Cup, not that big commercial break that is broken up with minor moments of people slamming into each other like sumo wrestlers in body armour that is called football in the US). Football is our passion here. We follow our clubs whether they be Premier League goliaths, or non league minnows like Wisbech Town Football Club. This is what we get passionate about, followed by cricket and rugby. But even so there is none of this college sports phenonum here in the UK. And to me it seems odd, the nearest I can come to understanding it, is to equate it to supporting your local non league football team from which ever town you happen to live in.

Anyway the rules of this tournament were simple, sign up saying which college basketball team you were representing, your current level in the app. Umm college basketball team? As I've pointed out they don't exist over here (probably, if they do they are more elusive than the Lock Ness Monster, or a Tory Cabinet Minister without their hands in the pockets of bankers and big business). I did point this out and asked if I could represent my football team (Liverpool for the record) instead. This was politely rejected. However (and I do apologise I can't remember their name) it was pointed out that there was Liverpool in the US and that their local basketball team was Syracuse. So I went with that suggestion as the team I would represent.

The rules for the actual games were single game, single elimination, “for fun”, and Gambit expansion optional.

The tournament was being limited to 68 players, and the winner of this “for fun” tournament would have their team's logo displayed for the cover photo for the site for about a week.

The draw for the first round was made on Tuesday, it was Syracuse vs Ohio State. JoeC was representing Ohio State in this tournament. JoeC and I started with a our opening moves first thing Wednesday morning (UK time). However the majority of the games turns took place between 3:30am (GMT) and 7:30am (GMT) this morning. So yes you read that right I was playing this match at stupid o clock, and have little naps between plays!

I was pretty happy with the way the game was going. I was whittling down JoeC's authority, getting a good mix of ships and bases that were working. I felt I was in a good position. As the screen capture shows above. JoeC was down to 8 authority, I had a healthy 26 authority and an outpost camped to remove the sting from JoeC's next attack. Adding up the attack on my drawn cards I had 14 points to attack with on my next go. Enough to remove an outpost if one was played and the final 8 authority. Surely I was looking at my first tournament win here?

I left the app and awaited for the alert to say it was my go. I had a little snooze, woke up and checked the app. I'd lost! WTF how? It hadn't sunk in, I had left the game in a good position. What had gone wrong?

Feeling sick as a parrot I went into the app and pressed the replay last turn button. JoeC Hit me for 28 points of damage, but not before using the Blob Destroyer he played to knock out my outpost. That enabled the full 28 points to be delivered in one massive knock out blow. That Blob Destroyer allowed JoeC to snatch the win. Without it I'd have been left with 2 authority and the win.

Once more like an also ran horse at the Grand National I had fallen at the first hurdle. But JoeC played really well, and deserved that win. Star Realms is just full of these sort of moments. The “I was stearing defeat in the eyes, and managed to steal the win, against the odds stories”. You have to love a game that just gives you consistently those sort of moments.
To the victor JoeC I wish you all the best in the next rounds, and hope to see your team win. And a big thanks to Ben and Nathan for organising this tournament. My short lived stay in the tournament was a hoot. Roll on this weeks casual tournament, hopefully I will do better and get through the first round.