It’s a dangerous thing this internet. Especially that YouTube thingy bob. I’m innocently watching these Magic the Gathering deck tech videos and suddenly “oh that card would be good in …[insert name of a deck I’m building at the moment here]” pops into my tiny easily influenced mind.
That’s why Soul Warden and Kor Firewalker (above) are on their way to me. Kor Firewalker is a sideboard card for the death and taxes deck I’m building, and it’s there just for a students burn deck. Soul Warden might make it into the deck but could see use in the planned angel deck. I’m looking forward to completing the death and taxes deck and seeing how it fairs against my students decks. Which reminds me I need to put up the revised Dino deck list.
Last night was the last Friday Meetup of the year. Before others arrived John and met up to squeeze in a play of The Pillars of the Earth.
I had never played the game before. So I wanted to see what all the fuss was. Why was it demanding so much money when it was out of print?
Yes since the game originally came out mechanics have evolved, there are some really great worker placement games that have come out during that time also.
Building the cathedral is a nice piece of theatre. It has that wow factor when completed at the end. Pulling out the master builders from a bag to determine action selection order, with the added factor of if you come out early it costs you money to take advantage of the fact, a nice touch.
It’s a good game. I enjoyed playing it (yep I won). But having played it I’d not have payed the stupid money it was going for when it was out of print. I’d happily play it again. Will I go out of my way to buy a copy for the collection? No. Having it in Jonathan’s collection is good enough for me.
We also got the latest (Kickstarter only I believe) expansion for Flash Point, Tragic Events to the table. I liked what these cards bought to the game. But need to play the game in expert mode a couple more times to make a more informed conversation about them. This was after all the first time the game had hit the table in over 2 years. And that last time we played was the novice game not the expert.
Our final,game of the evening was the classic gateway game Ticket to Ride. I rocked the game this time. I completed my initial two tickets, and just went unopposed taking the 6 carriage routes on the map. Racking up 15 points each time I did one. Naturally I triggered the end game, plus was able to get my last two carriages out for a final 2 points. This was a surprisingly easy victory.
Yesterday an amazing deal appeared on Amazon for the 2 player starter set for Star Wars: Destiny. It was being sold for half price! So I alerted Dale, bought the 2 copies I wanted (so I had a playset) , then alerted a couple of friends on Facebook a bargain Christmas gift was to be grabbed. As a couple of store owners pointed out on a UK Destiny page, this price was cheaper than they could get it for! One store owner had bought 10 copies to sell in his shop.
Naturally today it’s back to full price. But I have my 2 copies sitting on my stairs.
Our game group has been discussing on and off starting a rpg of some sort. I have Paranoia sitting upstairs, Edmund has recently got the D & D 5th Edition beginners box set. But no decision has been made to what system to use, let alone setting, and who is playing etc. Which brings me nicely to the just released Genesys system from FFG. Which is meant to be a generic system that can be used with any theme/setting. They give examples/ideas of five example themes/genres in the core book, like sci-fi or modern. Although I don’t play Netrunner any more the world of Android still interests me. I’d love to play a rpg set in it. My only fear about spending time building up the world for a campaign is that FFG release a module for this that is Android. I know with the art books for the last four or so sets of Magic the Gathering and the pdfs you can download from the Wizards site you can run a D & D campaign set in the Magic universe. But with those two sources it shouldn’t be hard to set a campaign using the Genesys system there either. Although I’d like to “play” in that universe, and the differing settings, I’m not sure the others in the play group would be that keen. I’m also thinking about the Star Wars rpg (a reprint of the original one is due out by the end of January – I have that pre-ordered) and the Middle Earth rpg. But first we need to start playing!
Yesterday Jonathan messaged me about going to the first Tabletop Gaming Live expo/show next September. I’d thought about it when the show was first announced a couple of moths or so back. And had been put off really by the fact it was in London. I was convinced accommodation would be expensive and hard to get, after all its London. I’d even thought of investigating the cost of air bnb. But still it’s in London! I hate London. I always have. So I try and keep my visits to the place to a minimum.
Before our lunch yesterday Dale and I did some “team building” or as it may have appeared to anyone looking in, playing Magic the Gathering. We started off with playing a couple of games using the Mind vs Might duel decks. I like duel decks, for us casual players they are great. However sadly Wotc don’t seem to like them, and have decided that with the new one coming out next April, that it will be the last of that product range. They are instead bringing out Challenger decks (a name some have linked with the tragic shuttle disaster) aimed more at players needing a “competitive” deck for playing at Friday Night Magic. I’m guessing that the Wotc logic goes if you are a casual player that just wants to grab a couple of decks to play a game of Magic with a friend with you can grab the Planeswalker decks and use them. I suppose you could grab the Challenger decks, but two of those will set you back $60 ($30 each). Not exactly a casual priced solution. My recommendation that is actually cheaper, and fun, is get two battledecks from CardKingdom, or build the $5 pauper decks that Strickly Better MTG built to play with (something I plan on doing).
Yesterday Justin and I had an initial look at Gloomhaven. After punching out all of the cardboard, we went through the first scenario to learn the game. Justin died turn two of the scenario which with the clock running out for the day, was a convenient point to call it a day. I think we achieved the main aim of the session to get familiar with the basic rules. We now need to find some fool hardy adventurers who are able to commit to a regular gaming session. Which we will probably do early in the new year.
Today was the last day of college for our students. So for those that were due in I ran a Magic the Gathering tournament. I put up four Ixalan boosters as prize support for the top three, then a couple of land packs from bundles as prizes for like the saltiest player, or the friendliest player.
Yep an afternoon of playing MtG.
But if I hadn’t had my fill of MtG on Saturday I get even more of it with Commander Sunday!