It’s been eight days since I last played a game.

But that’s the drawback of having shifting days off that may or may not coincide with the weekends or when others are free.

However this Friday sees what will be a two week gaming drought come to an end with a club night.

I’m hoping to get my two new arrivals (see below) to the table that evening.

Naturally both games have been added to the bgstat app, and to the unplayed games challenge. I am looking forward to playing both.

I also have a couple of new D&D related purchases (one still in transit) but they will be talked about in a relevant post later.

Twilight Inscription, the Twilight Imperium themed/inspired roll and write has been preordered. So that will be turning up sometime next month.

Over on Instagram I shared the following piccy showing my current roll/flip and write collection.

Which I’m quiet happy with. Some great examples of the genre here that cover a wide difficulty spectrum.

By the end of the year it will have grown. You already know about Twilight Inscription. But the third in the trilogy and follow up to Three Sisters and Fleet the dice game, Motor City should be (touching wood, crossing fingers) be with backers before the end of the year. That will also come with a third pad for Three Sisters, adding a rock garden!

And who knows I might even get Hadrian’s Wall. But there is a second Dune Imperium expansion out this Q4. Which will be a must buy.

What are looking forward to getting? Have you any new games?

Thought I’d give you a little breather from the yearly hash tag shenanigans on here with a little update on the collection.

Last week I finally got my hands on a copy of the Portal boardgame.

I bought this off a friend. There was only one way I could address the envelope with the agreed sum within (see below).

The plan is to finish off my posts on the video game (I’ve not forgotten, just not had the time), then write about playing the boardgame.

I did order a copy of Santorini New York via Amazon.com. Which should arrive by next week.

I had to order it from the US of A because this rethemed version of the two player classic never got a release on these shores. Copies have found their way here. But never in any quantity.

GenCon has been and gone (just, it finished yesterday). The FFG in-flight stuff was very uninspiring. Their big surprise/teaser at the end was a Star Wars deck builder. But obviously no more details on that at the moment.

However finding out Twilight Inscription was a roll and write set in the Twilight Imperium universe got me interested in this when it releases next month.

From what I can gather after the in-flight chat about the game, and watching a GameBoy Geek video on the game, it most definitely falls on the heavier side of the roll and write spectrum.

Heck each player gets four player boards to manage! Which are double sided. One side is identical for everyone. The other unique. So you get to decide how everyone plays the game, whether every starts off the same, or with slightly different boards.

So I’m totally sold on this.

I just needed the Genesys Twilight Imperium source book to be released. It’s nearly a year late at the moment!

It’s been a long and crazy nine days of work.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I have two days off after today.

Two days of gaming.

I’m so excited about it.

Friday is the Fenland Gamers fortnightly gaming night.

At the start of the week the boardgame Bloody Inn arrived and I’m hoping that I get it to the table as a learning game tomorrow.

Saturday sees Battlestar Galactica the boardgame hit the table with the Pegasus expansion. We’ll be playing a seven player game! Which means one person will be playing the cylon leader from the start.

In the meantime I am sleeving up all the cards in the game. Got to protect this classic out of print, never to be printed again, going for stupid money game. With that in mind I also have a three feet by three feet neoprene playmat coming. Which I’m hoping will arrive before we play Saturday.

Other arrivals this week sees the latest Vampire the Masquerade Rivals expansion Heart of Europe drop through the letterbox. This expansion consists mainly of a new City deck, one or two updated errata’d cards, and some new cards to expand the card pool a little bit more.

Also the second Alien novel Alien Inferno’s Fall arrived. The physical version has an exclusive mini adventure in it for the Alien rpg.
That’s about it for now. More over the weekend as I play some games.

With having my weekend at the start of the week whilst everyone else is at work. Followed by four days of working evenings. Obviously there has been very little gaming this week, none in fact. This weekend I had to cancel the planned D&D session due to the fact I’d be working.

If I also tell you I’ve been finishing at midnight each day so far. Plus one of those days saw me starting at 9:30am (for a bloody long day). You’d be right in thinking I’m feeling a tad tired.

But I’m taking any opportunity at the moment to do overtime. Well overtime that fits in with my scheduled shifts.

With the new overtime system at work, plus the number of hours the store has available being cut. I’m not guaranteed the minimum number of hours I need a week to meet my bills.

So when overtime shifts come up that I’m able to do, I do them. Even if it means a longer working day. I need to have that cushion in case I have a week (or dread the thought weeks) I can’t hit my hours target in a month.

I hate that uncertainty that has been introduced. I’m not the only one.

Each month you are now wondering if you will have earnt enough to pay the bills, get to work (my petrol costs have doubled), eat!

You have to love deliberate corporate inflicted FUD.

On a positive note I know I am definitely free for the next Fenland Gamers club night, and also the planned Battlestar Galactica session.

What state I’ll be in is another story, as I’d have been working nine days solid at that point.

Anyway thought I’d give you a little life update in lieu of any gaming update. I’ve been too tired this week to finish my fourth post in the Portal series. It will be done. But sleep and stuff!

I’ll leave you with the inspiring words used by Stevie Gerrard (way back in 2014) and also the title of this post, “we go again”.

I should be trying to get to sleep. After all I’ve been working all night.

It was during my break at work that I found out my friend Ben had died.

I took the news pretty badly. My eyes did leak.

Ben was a good friend. Some-one that understood and relate to my personal situation in the last few years. It’s a connection we had and he’d lend a sympathetic ear during our conversations. Not many understand what it’s like to be a carer. Ben did having done it for so many years for his mother.

Ben and I had been battling it out in Star Realms for a few years now. As you can see he’d won one or two more of the games than me.

Sometimes we’d have three or four games on the go. After a particular good run of wins there would usually be a victory phone call to gloat. Often Ben would answer the call with some humorous comment such as “Star Realms helpline”. He indeed was my Nemesis at the game.

I felt in recent games I’d been getting the upper hand and a comeback was on the cards. Now we’ll never know.

Ben will also be credited forever with renaming Takenoko as Bastard Panda. Which he rocked at playing. I believe he had played quite a few games of it.

Ben had health issues. And had recently completed a course of chemo. There had been issues afterwards. Which as you know meant Ben couldn’t make some of our Scythe Rise of Fenris episodes.

We had been planning to get his Kickstarter edition of The Great Wall to the table. Something he’d been wanting to do. Maybe I can find some one with a copy and play it in his memory.

I think all that knew Ben are still trying to come to terms with the loss.

He will be missed at the gaming table and as a friend.

Rest in peace my friend.

There is only one thing to wish you on this most geeky of days…

So how many Star Wars games have I played or own?

I own 7, have played 6.

Which the image below covers.

I no longer own Star Wars Destiny. It was a great ccg. I have great memories of playing it with my friend Dale. Sadly it was let down by FFG who massively underestimated initial demand, it was so hard to get hold of for months. Then it didn’t get much better on the supply side after that. Sets started to crash into each other. Not as bad as Dice Masters but still enough to put you off.

The two I haven’t played in the above are the Star Wars versions of Carcassonne and Risk. Everything else has seen the table at least once.

Do I have a favourite? It’s a close call between Rebellion (the Star Wars movies in a box) and Outer Rim. I know Nathan loves Outer Rim. So because of that I’ll give it the edge, and make it my favourite.

I also have the 30th Anniversary edition of the West End Games Star Wars RPG.

Like the majority of my RPG collection it hasn’t been played. Which isn’t surprising.

Anyway May the 4th be with you, and have a great day.

Just over a month ago on a Facebook group I belong to (can’t remember which one or find the post) some-one posted asking for game recommendations to take on a trip/holiday with them that would play large groups. They were deboxing the games and putting them in a card quiver like box.

It got me thinking about doing something similar but to take with me to game nights or when I visit Nathan.

I already had a quiver that I store my Vampire the Masquerade Rivals cards in. So would need a new one for this project. I went with a square-ish one this time.

So what games are in side the case?

1. D-Day Dice Pocket
2. Coup with the Reformation expansion
3. Cribbage board + deck of playing cards
4. Hive
5. Citadels
6. No Thanks
7. Red 7
8. Yahtzee
9. Don’t Mess With Cthuhlu Deluxe
10. Heckmeck plus expansions
11. Tussie Mussie
12. For Sale
13. Love Letter 2nd Edition
14. Batman Love Letter
15. Star Wars Jabba’s Palace
16. Startups
17. The Cousin’s War 1st Edition

Plus some poker dice.

As you can see the rules, game board, score pads etc fit inside the lid of the case. Not shown is a card listing the games and their player counts.

I’ve not played Port Royal yet but that is a likely candidate for trying to fit into this game case. But that might mean something has to go to make space for it.

But at the moment I think there is a nice mix of games for various player counts. None of the games are “heavy” games, but easily fall into the filler category.

It’s dead handy to just grab this on the way out. So glad I did this.

Before we get on with the main post a little life update considering I have been sharing on that side more than usual lately.

Yesterday I tested negative for the second consecutive day using a Government/NHS sanctioned/approved lateral flow kit.

Which under the current guidelines means I am allowed to rejoin and once again become a productive member of society. It also means I’m all go for the gaming sessions at the end of the week.
Rest assured I’m still going to be testing daily (while it’s still free to do so). 

My big game challenge only has nine games in it. And what I’m thinking is now a ridiculously short time scale, with a deadline of the end of this year to play them all.

As you can see I’ve only played two of the games on the list.

I am not confident this challenge will be completed by then.

I am hoping that Star Wars Rebellion, Scythe and Xia: Legends of a Drift System will be ones I get to play with Nathan. Only Rebellion is a true two player game. Which will be perfect for us. However although both of the other two games are better with more players. I think Xia most definitely with it’s npc ships controlled by players will be just as much fun for him.

Looking at my stats I have played Scythe as a two player game. Both times with Jeff. Plus it looks like they were early games. If not learning games. However these two plays would have been on the full game board. Since then the modular game board has come out that makes the map much tighter at lower player counts. I think promising a different experience.

I think meeting the challenge with the remaining games will be easier with our new hosts for our gaming sessions the Wisbech St Mary Sports and Social Club. I don’t think getting players for the games will be an issue either. The main issue will be co-ordinating schedules for players to meet up and play.

Plus I’d want to get the games already played back to the table. And that’s the age old problem for gamers, too many games, not enough time to play them. So often we have great games just sitting in our collections feeling unloved and unplayed. It’s why I’ve set up challenges like this one to help get some of those games back to the table, getting some of that love back.

With the imminent pre-order date creeping up on us for the Stonemaier Games remake/reprint of Libertalia called Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest.

A game I’m pretty excited about. The design diaries and review videos (Watched It Played, and GameBoy Geek mainly) sold me on it. I hadn’t played the original. But boy does this look like a great game.

I thought it was time to look at how many games I actually own from Stonemaier Games.

Amongst my gaming friends I do have a reputation as being a bit of a fanboy. Some of our friendly banter might include them using this snippet of information to good effect. Why Jamey did you have to say you like Barenpark? Why?

I’m also a Stonemaier Champion (which one or two of those banter loving friends have made use of in the past) which has one or two benefits, with the addition of supporting Jamey’s YouTube channel.

So here is the current list of games that I own by Stonemaier Games. It doesn’t include expansions naturally. But just assume if there is an expansion for the game that I have it!

Now how many guessed I had just 6 Stonemaier games?

Shall I rank them in order?

1. Scythe – still my favourite game of all time. I think the only things I don’t have for this are the realistic resources (not a fan of them) and the metallic mechs (one day when I can afford them). And can you believe I still haven’t introduced my son to this game?!
2. Wingspan – very close call between this and Tapestry. Depending on the day I think about it they can easily swap places. Must remember never play as a 5 player game it’s too long.
3. Tapestry – a marmite game for many. But I love it as do those in my gaming group that have played it (even Jonathan liked it).
4. Viticulture – one of my favourite worker placement games, especially with the Tuscany expansion.
5. Rolling Realms – a really nice roll and write. One of my current favourites (see previous post).
6. Charterstone – we never got to finish this legacy worker placement game, which is a shame. I did enjoy it. Must get the reload pack and start a new game.

Which is your favourite Stonemaier game? I know the answer from Jonathan.

UPDATE 21/02/2022: I was playing with the insights feature of the bgstats app and realised I could produce the following insight to this post showing the all time stats for just these Stonemaier games.