This selling stuff is too much like hard work! No wonder I only do it near to the UKGE. Pick up only at the expo is how I like to do it. I can’t be doing with all the hassle of wrapping and posting stuff.
It was after a lot of heart searching I decided to sell my Android Netrunner collection. If it doesn’t sell then I won’t be too upset. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if it sells.
I’m curious as to how much I raise.
Here is my initial list of games I’m selling with pick up at UKGE.
Listed today promo Phoenixborn for Ashes, an Ashes OP kit, Bottom of the 9th, and Cthulhu Realms.
More going up tomorrow
The page is HERE
At the start of the week I had set myself the goal of reaching the 50% mark on the number of pairwise comparisons I have to do to rank my game collection.
When I ran my stats program this afternoon it gave me the following information:
You have done 11514 of a total 23005.0 – that is 50.04998913279722%
That’s a lot of pairwise comparisons. And the same number still to do. The aim is that by the middle of June I will be able to say that I have my definitive list of ranked games that I own.
I thought this would be a good point to look at my current Top Ten games in my collection. So here is my current Top Ten games in my collection:
1 Scythe
2 T.I.M.E Stories
3 Star Wars: Destiny
4 Viticulture Essential Edition
5 Star Realms
6 Kemet
7 Istanbul
8 Santorini
9 Lords of Waterdeep
10 7 Wonders Duel
I know this is kind of a spoiler for any top 100 list I will do. But who cares?
Right on wards and up awards to 75%…
We are now a week away from the UKGE. Naturally after the events at the start of the week the shows organizers have informed those attending that there will be increased security at the show.
We have just set a meeting spot for the Fenland Gamers meet up at the show. On the Saturday at 1pm our play group will meet up out front of the Dice Tower stall.
I have one person to meet up with at the moment. With potentially another two. These two potentials are with friends who want to play particular games. So I’m going to have to tie them down to a time and place before hand. I don’t want to be taking games along I am not going to play. But then again I’m pretty sure I could find folks to play Scythe with, or even Onitama and Santorini.
I want to catch the Dice Tower guys. Mainly to buy some of the promos. But also to talk to them about their top 100 games and how they choose the positions. I’m determined to get to the bottom of this.
Hopefully I can pre-order the new expansion for 51st State. Which I believe I should be able to do. But if I can buy it and walk away with it I’ll be even happier.
I’m hoping to sell some games, and need to get those booked in. Which I think after the Gaming Breakfast tomorrow is my weekend task.
If you are at the show and see a man who has seen better years, looking lost and bewildered, and wearing this t-shirt, that’s me. Stop me and say hi. Or even take pity and invite me to play a game.
There was a post this morning on one of the Facebook board gaming chat pages where the question was asked what are folks Grail games.
A Grail game is one that is hard to find or get. Usually they are out of print for some reason.
But the question got me thinking, do I currently have any Grail games? I didn’t think that I did. But then I got thinking not games, but expansions. I have Grail expansions. So my response was the following:
None of them will be reprinted. All of them stupid money when they go up for sale. Stupid money I’m not prepared to pay.
What are your Grail games and expansions?
We were going to be playing Battlestar Galactica. But once again life, the universe and any other unseen force decided to conspire against us and throw a spanner in the works.
Instead it was going to be just Diego and myself turning up. So after a brief messenger exchange Diego and I settled on playing new boy on the block (to my collection anyway) Star Wars Rebellion.
Which meant I needed to punch some cardboard quickly before Diego and I were due to be playing it.
Wow when set up this game is huge.
We were working our way through the learn to play booklet. Which takes you step by step through your first game. This means your first game is 85-90% of the full rule set. It takes out certain cards, gives the starting setup of both sides forces, ignores the abilities of the recruit cards.
As a learning game there were some misplays. These things happen and weren’t too big an impact on our game.
Rebellion is a long game. I knew that going into this. But with setup, going through the rules, slow initial rounds as we got to grips with things. We hit five hours! But that took me by surprise. I’d been so engaged and engrossed with the struggle between the two opposing forces, I’d lost track of the time. That’s the mark of a good game.
We were at least two turns from the end of the game, when Diego had to return back to the real world. So the decision was to call it a draw. Either side could have won.
I was playing the rebels so the Death Star was a constant threat right from the start. When the Empire built a second it was like “omg! How can I win?” The Death Star has no health and rolls four red dice when attacking. Indestructible and deadly. Luckily you eventually draw a mission card that allows you to destroy a Death Star. When that happens it’s so satisfying. At that moment I didn’t care if I won the war, I’d destroyed a frickin’ Death Star.
The combat was good. Not brilliant. But did give manage to capture being epic and that your forces were trading blows. Although if I had to criticise it, I’d say that the combat should be simultaneous and damage being done at the same time. At the moment it’s possible if attacking to keep your forces intake by destroying the enemy completely before they get a chance to respond (especially if they have no block damage cards).
I liked the hand management side of the mission cards. You always have something you can do with the four starting cards, and then having to decide what to keep if you have more than ten cards.
The missions themselves very thematic, and having the ability to attempt to stop them by allocating one of your own leaders. Brilliant. But then choosing which mission to send a leader on, and which leader is a hard choice sometimes. Especially when you want that leader available to block an opposing mission. But if you send that leader on the mission you get a bonus. Tough choices. It was rather cool when Luke went off looking for Yoda on Dagobah and became Jedi Luke. What wasn’t cool was when he got captured right away!
This really is an epic game in scale, setting and play. I love it. Diego and I have already set up a future date for this to hit the table again. That’s how much we enjoyed the game.
A fantastic learning session for a great game. Thanks Diego.
This morning got to finally open the Spirit of Rebellion booster box that Dale and I bought together.
It arrived Saturday but I couldn’t open it. It wouldn’t be fair. So it was torture seeing the box sitting there all weekend but unable to open it.
As soon as Dale arrived at work, we opened the booster box and then took turns taking a booster pack from the box.
Once we had emptied the box of its 36 packets (18 each), then opened our packs.
I got the following legendary cards in mine:
These are the rares I got:
Now Dale and I have enough to start building decks to play against each other. Which we will be doing for this Thursday.
Dale looked up how much Palpatine was. If I sold it there are some out there that will pay over £40 for it! I don’t get these high prices. It’s not as if there is a lot of prize money at stake like at a Magic Pro tournament. At best it’s some alt art cards, and plastic tokens. Not exactly enough to get you your money back on your investment.
This afternoon I introduced my students to Sheriff of Nottingham in the enrichment session. Long story short, they loved it. Oh and I won!
I’ve been working my way through the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child on Audible. Currently I’m on Never Go Back (which was made into the second Jack Reacher movie starring Tom Cruise).
However in A Wanted Man the previous Reacher novel there was what has to be my favourite quote from all the books so far. That quote inspired the following picture.
I’m half tempted to get this made up as a tee.
It would appear that Dale and I were the only ones taking what should be a national holiday seriously.
We had our Star Wars tees on, and played a couple of games of Star Wars Destiny.
We are awaiting the arrival of our booster box of the Spirit of Rebellion set. It’s in the post at the moment. So it was starter sets only.
Our first game was won by me. I got upgrades out, so had more dice to roll and utilise. Whilst Dale was struggling to draw upgrades to install. Oh I was playing Rey/Finn (but two dice on Finn – had to borrow the extra one from Dale). While Dale was Kylo and First Order Stormtrooper.
The second game we flipped sides. This was a far closer game. Which saw Dale facing defeat by having a single card left in his hand. While I was holding on just with the Stormtrooper who had a life point left. I was undone with some great rolling of the dice for Reys staff that saw three melee damage hitting me far too often.
I can’t wait until we are able to deck build once we have some boosters.
When I got home there was a great birthday present from my brother waiting for me. Aptly thematic for the day.
Yep my birthday weekend celebrations are over. It’s back to work, and the business end of the academic year is kicking in as we work to get students through to completion of their course.
But in the midst of all that the UK Games Expo is fastly approaching.
I’m all set for the three days.
The Expo is a low key event for me! I don’t wonder round stalls self promoting. I never mention the blog. I’m not there trying to get free stuff. I’m there to enjoy myself.
I am planning to have a lucky dip of the spare promos I have. So if people spot me they can grab a random promo.
I’ll talk more about the Expo over the coming days.
Have a great rest of the day.