My first gaming of 2022 was with Diego this morning.

The session started off so well with home made cheese cake and espresso coffee (for once hot! – Diego’s words not mine). I hadn’t expected the cheese cake but it was a most pleasant surprise. Despite only a couple of days earlier having teased Diego that he had made cake for another friend they had had round for coffee, but never me.

After a most enjoyable (ok it was amazing but need to under play it) slice of cheese cake the rest of the morning went down hill from there.

Our first game of the morning was a two player game of Vampire the Masquerade Rivals.

Once again it was a precon match up. We will get round to building our own decks. Honest.

Although I did manage to get all of my coterie out, I only drew one Alchemy card. Which was a pain.

However I did take out three citizens from the street. But I wasn’t taking them out fast enough to get the win.

I was undone by that ol’ Tremere blood magic. With Diego playing Grigori as his leader he was soon replacing the blood on my 1 blood potency vampires and then sending them to torpor when he paid for stuff with that blood.

Maybe I should have been more aggressive and attacked Grigori.

The final score of our game, confirming Diego’s victory.

Our next game was one I’d been wanting to get to the table for a while, Funkoverse.

I played Boom, Slash, Splash or T-Rex, Raptor and Jaws with Ghost companion. Whilst Diego chose The Black Widow, Arya with Needle, and Doc Brown.

Although I own a few of the Funkoverse sets, and therefore have a few maps. Having never played the game before I had no idea which maps were good for a first time play. So I chose the map on top of the stack of “smaller” map boards. Which just happened to be the map from the DC101 set. Diego chose which scenario we played for the map.

I’m not sure what advantage Jaws gets being submerged. I know whilst submerged it can’t do assist, challenge, or interact actions. It’s very thematic that’s for sure. But tactically I’m confused why you would want Jaws to be submerged.

We had done one big rules misplay. Once we interacted with a points marker we didn’t put the marker on the cool down track. We kept having a nagging feeling that we were missing something during the game. What was stopping you from camping next to a marker and interacting with it for both of your actions? If we had played it correctly I think there would have been different decisions and tactics used by us both.

I have to say Funkoverse looks lovely on the table. You are either a fan of the big headed character design or you are not! I obviously am a fan.

Game play wise, it might not be the most complicated skirmish game. But I like how it’s so quick to learn/pick up. It makes it very accessible I think.

Despite the fact I had already put together my team, I love how quick and easy team selection can be. It can be as simple as “I like that character, that character and that character”. Or you can look for synergies and make it a more complicated, in-depth affair.

Having double sided maps and four scenarios per set means you get a little variety in game play per set. However I think there is little or no variety in scenarios between sets. But I need to check that they are indeed similar/same.

This particular map did feel crowded with two three character teams. But that might have been to its advantage if we hadn’t done the misplay.

The final scores sadly show another Diego victory.

I look forward to getting Funkoverse back to the table, maybe with one of the bigger maps, different scenario, even with more players. Plus with the Thanos expansion it introduces ultimate mode, a one verses many game play. Which would be interesting to try.

After our gaming I had to pop into my place of employment to pick up a couple of things that I hadn’t been able to get elsewhere the day before. But thanks to Diego my purchases increased by a couple of items.