Here be dragons!

Game day

At last I got to play some games. It seems so long since I last played anything. But in reality it’s only been since Tuesday.

I did open Wyrmspan yesterday. And although I’m excited to play the game. I can’t help feeling a little disappointed with the box and lack of insert. Two nice sized game trays for tokens and eggs. That’s it. Nothing to organise the cards etc.

I would also add that if you bought the deluxe upgrade kit like I did that replaces the cardboard resource tokens and metallic cardboard coins with wooden resource tokens and metal coins. The game trays don’t hold the wooden tokens. I used them for the metal coins and eggs.

To organise the cards and to stop them getting damaged in the box I used some old MtG cardboard deck boxes.

But that aside I did get Wyrmspan to the table today.

This afternoon Charlene, her daughter, and Colin joined me to play Wyrmspan.

I love the theme of Wyrmspan. Why wouldn’t I? How Connie Vogelmann came up with 175 wyrms aka dragons I don’t know. Even more impressive is the imagination and art of Clementine Campardou.

I really love the art in Wyrmspan. Yes it’s subjective, and there are those out there that don’t like the art. Which is cool. We are allowed to have a difference of opinion.

The changes made to Wyrmspan from Wingspan really work for me. They make the game more thinky, and more gamer oriented.

Although Wingspan had the awesome table presence with the bird feeder dice tower. I don’t miss it or the dice for resources. I love being able to chose which of the four resources I need. Although getting resources or eggs is a bit more challenging.

I love being able to squeeze out more actions on a turn by gaining more coins or even carrying coins over to the next round.

The guilds are a lovely touch. Something you can’t ignore because moving round the guild track gets you much needed resources.

But there are other touches that are quality of life improvements such as the built in player aid on the player boards. Or the larger end of round bonus tiles, easier to read.

One of these wyrms you would not want to be caught miss pronouncing!

Also a major change is the limitation on the number of times you can run your “engine” on each of the cave complexes. And that the cost to rerun them gets more expensive. It stops that Wingspan last round where all you did was run the grass lands and just laying eggs every turn.

That’s not all of the changes to Wyrmspan. There are some great content creators out there that cover this stuff way better than I could. For me the sum of these changes elevate the game to another level that would appeal to more hardcore/experienced gamers.

For the record Charlene thought she liked Wyrmspan more than Wingspan. In fact it was posing her a difficult question. Did she keep Wingspan and all of its expansions? Why would she need to keep Wingspan?

I can see where Charlene is coming from. I think I too prefer Wyrmspan over Wingspan. Although I think there is space for both (just) in my collection. Hear me out. I think the theme is more attractive to none gamers. Plus it’s a bit more accessible as well.

Don’t get either of us wrong. We still like Wingspan and would happily play it. It’s just we like Wyrmspan more.

History will record I won my first game of Wyrmspan with a score of 106.

We followed Wyrmspan with a game of Parks.

Up until this afternoon my only other plays of Parks was as a two player with Diego. Which it works as really well. And will be one of the many games I will take with me next time I visit Nathan.

But wow!

I really liked Parks at the higher player count. That added competition for spaces and the harder decision of when to use your camp fire was exactly as I thought it’d be.

Apparently the history books show Charlene won this game by 2 points.

A big thank you to Charlene, her daughter, and Colin for taking the time out to play these games with me.

Survive

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

It’s my penultimate shift at my current store today before transferring over on Sunday. But what a penultimate shift it will be. It’s going to be an eleven hour shift instead of nine.

There will most definitely be a knock on effect for the final shift tomorrow. I’m going to be knackered to say the least.

But the thought of playing some games on Sunday is helping me get through these final two shifts.

Especially since my copy of Wyrmspan and the deluxe components upgrade arrived yesterday.

Earlier in the week two new games also arrived, Tournament At Avalon, and Senso Battle for Japan. Both games where trick taking is the core mechanic.

These ended up in the collection due to me mistakingly watching a couple of YouTube videos, and seeing they were not too expensive on Amazon.

My get to the table list (image above) has been updated to reflect their arrival and addition to the collection. Whilst doing this I realised I didn’t have Fuji Flush on the list. So it’s been added to.

I’ve kept the games I played with Diego Tuesday evening on the list because I want to play them with a higher player count. They were fun at two player but sometimes at the higher player counts the experience will be different, more cut throat, frustrating (as more chances of others blocking what you want to do).

The plan on Sunday is (and I’m hoping Charlene is cool with it) to play Wyrmspan. Followed by, time allowing, one of the two new trick taking games.

In the meantime I just need to survive these last two shifts.

Wait I played some games!

game night

So last night I got to play some games with Diego. Ben wasn’t able to make it, so no Dune Imperium Uprising. But I have started a cunning plan to get the game to the table. Which is basically creating an event to play the game on the clubs discord server at the start of March. Why then? Part 2 of the Denis Villeneuve take on the Dune books comes out at the cinema that weekend. We’ll see if there are any takers.

Our first game of the evening saw the return of the push your luck dice game Zombie Dice. Which we played with Diego’s daughter. It’s been a long long time since I last got the game to the table. According to the bgstat app 6 years and 11 months.

We followed up with one of his daughter’s favourite games about dragons and jewels. I didn’t record this game in the bgstat app. But I won. Making up for Diego’s two Zombie Dice victories.

Once Diego’s daughter had gone to bed we played Parks with the first expansion Nightfall.

Nightfall adds “…new Park Cards featuring new rewards and all new artwork from the Fifty-Nine Parks Print Series, including the 17 parks not represented in the base game. … new Year Cards and Bonus Scoring opportunities, and … new Camping mechanic.”

What I like about the expansion is more parks (more cards is always cool) and new mechanics that don’t add to the overhead of playing the game. But do add to the choices you have to make.

In this game the camera was a much more fought over item, swapping possession several times.

The new year cards with the end game scoring were a big improvement. My initial card gave me 2 points for every 3 resources I had at the end of the game. These worked so much better than the core games year cards.

Loved the camp sites. Some great abilities that I really wanted to activate. Particularly the ones that gave me lots of resources.

In the end after our year of hiking I managed to get the victory by a point.

Our final game of the evening was Sea Salt and Paper.

When this game first arrived I was taken aback by the diminutive size of the box. It is so tiny. It is pocket size. No chance of sleeving these cards unless you rehome them.

The cards in this game look beautiful.

Plus once you get used to the iconography you can start to really enjoy the simplicity of the game play. It really is an enjoyable card game.

As the photo below shows Diego won this game. I do like it when a game has a social media winners card.

Decisions, decisions

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

With a planned gaming session imminent (tomorrow night) and one next Sunday the hard decision arises of what to play.

So I carried out a brief exercise in the bgstat app of tagging some games that I’d like to get to the table.

It’s a combination of new additions to the collection (which will hit the unplayed challenge when played) and one or two games I’ve played recently that need to get played again.

Dune Imperium Uprising is the plan for tomorrow evening. Time allowing one or two of the smaller quicker games on the list might also get played.

There is the obvious elephant in the room can’t get played yet, as it hasn’t arrived, Wyrmspan.

Then Sunday because at the moment it’s just Charlene and myself it might be a chance to get the roll and writes on the list to the table.

I’d like to complete Welcome to the Moon and its story based campaign. Yes it’s not on the list. But still it’d be nice to get it to the table.

Enough of the blue sky thinking. Let’s see how well this plan holds up when it gets put into action.

Wyrmspan delay gets me all political

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

As I write this latest “hey I’m still alive, sorry to disappoint” post I’ve not long woke up after a late shift and enjoyed my morning coffee.

We are ten days into February and I’ve played one board game.

There is some gaming planned for Tuesday evening with Diego. I think Ben is coming along as well. I’m really looking forward to that. Plus a week Sunday there should be some gaming taking place as well.

Neither of these two planned sessions will see Wyrmspan hitting the table. The UK and EU won’t start seeing their copies dropping through letterboxes for at least another week. Jamey on his latest live stream explained that this delay was due to “current events” in the Red Sea area. That’s the polite way of not getting political about the whole genocide and war crimes being committed by Israel in Gaza at the moment. Which despite the pathetic attempts by the UK’s most corrupt Government to justify their involvement in attacks on a sovereign nation Yemen, is linked to why there are any delays in shipping via the Red Sea.

Knowing this is the reason why I’m not playing or about to play Wyrmspan helps. It’s an inconvenience. Which doesn’t even register when you think of the horrors and suffering going on by those in Gaza at the moment. I’d gladly put up with even longer delays if it meant that this genocide stopped. And you know what? I feel so bad even mentioning this inconvenience in the same sentence as the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

I suppose whilst I’m going all political one of the surprising things about the most documented genocide and war crimes of the last one hundred years is the silence of so many in the boardgaming space. Many spoke up (rightly) on such issues as BLM, trans rights etc. But now with genocide, war crimes, and apartheid going on right in front of their eyes. All of a sudden they have lost their voices.

Their silence makes them complicit in those acts as far as I’m concerned. And most definitely hypocrites.

After the Second World War and the horrors of the holocaust came to light many over the following decades asked questions such as “how could the German people let this happen?”, or “what would I do if this was going on?”

It breaks my heart that we are now in the situation that every single one of us can now answer those questions.

For so many its remain silent, justify the atrocities, attack and try to silence those speaking out. All actions that enable those deplorable acts to be carried out.

At least with those supporting the genocide you know what horrible examples of humanity they are, and I know who to avoid.

It’s the silence I don’t get. I can only assume that it’s out of self interest they aren’t saying anything. That they think that if they speak out against it they will lose work, free games, etc. from those that support it, and vice versa.

Hypocrites.

I’m getting off my high horse now and my simplified views on this emotive subject.

Regular content to resume soon.

Another Dice Masters What If Response Post!

dice masters, Dicemasters

It’s Monday (or it was when I started writing this post) and the latest fortnightly episode of A Double Double ‘n Dice podcast has dropped.

Continuing on with their blue sky think pieces around Dice Masters, Jocelyn and Kim ask in their second What If? Episode

But before you read my contribution to the discussion I’ll give you the chance to listen to Jocelyn and Kim in the embedded YouTube video below.

In my previous post I touched briefly on the very subject of the latest A Double Double ‘n Dice podcast.

If no more product is released does that make Dice Masters a complete game? It certainly makes the game a solvable (eventually) game where the best teams that always win will be found.

Obviously in this scenario of no more new product on a commercial level the game is no more.

However that doesn’t mean people will stop playing it. It will mainly be kitchen table play amongst friends using their collections (I’ve looked at different ways to play in previous posts), and an even more niche game.

Now in the podcast Jocelyn and Kim mention that the Star Wars Destiny scene started developing fan made content. I wasn’t aware of this and not surprised. To me it follows on from the example the Android Netrunner community set when they too took over the running of the game after FFG stopped.

As pointed out in the podcast we have already talented creative fans of the game creating cards for the game. This just needs better organisation, a governing body to become like the Destiny and Netrunner communities.

With a governing body apart from new cards, there will also be a competitive scene amongst those hard core players still playing the game and getting the new fan made content. Some of this maybe in person events. But with Dice Masters being very well suited to online play using webcams I see the majority of the competitive stuff being held this way.

Sadly unlike Ashes I don’t see Dice Masters being picked up by its original publisher (after they left the parent company) and partnering with a retailer/third party to keep the game alive with new content and a second edition.

I did get a mention in this episode (the new normal has been restored). In an older post I do cover what a cube is. This is how I mainly play Dice Masters with my friends (who don’t have any Dice Masters cards/dice themselves). It’s fun drafting this way. Whether it’s a regular draft or the two player dark draft.

I am enjoying this What If? Series. It makes you ponder the current state of play and what could be.

What’s new pussy cat?

bgstat, by the numbers, Fenland Gamers, gaming stats, life, the universe, and everything, stats, still alive

January was a slightly better month for me gaming wise than the previous two months. But still the numbers weren’t great.

However I should be grateful that I got to play some games. Especially that some of those games were with Nathan.

Now I am hoping now that Nathan is driving, and has a new car. That Nathan will be able to navigate the British roads to find his way up to mine. Enabling us to play some of the bigger games that are not an option at his due to the clash between game foot print and the size of his table. Or in simpler terms his table isn’t big enough. To be able to at last share my favourite game of all time Scythe with him will be amazing.

My top 9 games for January 2024

What I do find incredible from last months stats is that I played 10 (not 11 as Knock Out Whist aka Trumps was not a new to me game) new to me games. That’s two thirds of the games I played in January.

I have ordered twenty new custom d6 dice for Fenland Gamers members to have. It’s a new design for the six face, that has the club name and year.

Like the previous design (which I still have some left) I’ll be giving them out to regular club members for free.

I even have a design ready to go for UKGE this year to give to club members that make it to the show and the annual club picture that gets taken there.

Plus I want to do a club poker chip. But I have to buy them in quantities of fifty to get them at a reasonable price. They are also a bit more expensive. So they will have to wait until later in the year.

There is only so much I can finance out of my own pocket for this sort of stuff. I’m not on some CEO banker salary.

I like being able to do stuff like this for members.

Whilst I’m talking about Fenland Gamers and this ties in with the last life, the universe, and coffee post, I am testing the waters on the viability of Sunday sessions. At the moment I have created one club event to gauge interest. I’ll write more on that in future I’m sure.

Payday was Friday. Which was just at the right time to enable me to order the latest offering from Stonemaier Games, Wyrmspan, along with the optional deluxe component kit. I’ll leave the neoprene playmats until the next payday, along with the Rolling Realms promo packs.

Interesting enough this release of Wyrmspan has an initial print run of 100,000 copies. That’s a crazy number. Usually (I think I’m remembering this correctly) publishers print twenty to thirty thousand copies of a game initially. Then if the game does well do a second print run.

We know Wingspan sold an insane number of copies (well over 1.5 million by now I would think). But does that incredible success translate to Wyrmspan?

I can’t wait to see the next state of the nation post/email from Stonemaier Games where they give the total number of copies sold for each of their games.

Until Wingspan, Scythe was the bestseller. I’m just curious to see if Apiary and/or Wyrmspan have it in them to challenge Scythe for that number two spot. I am expecting them both to do well.

When I was sharing with a friend at work Friday morning that I had ordered Wyrmspan she said my face lit up. I guess I’m pretty excited about getting the game.

Once more with feeling

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

It’s another one of those posts where I let you know I’m still alive.

Obviously writing one of these posts means I’ve done no gaming at all in over a week now.

My free day yesterday was an opportunity to play a game or two. But alas no one even responded to my post on the clubs discord server.

It’s probably for the best.

Not sure how good an opponent I’d be.

At the moment I’m feeling very bruised emotionally.

Thinking about it I’ve been this way for three months or so now.

I can’t wait until I swap stores which should help on that front. The three weeks can’t go fast enough.

The little bits of gaming during this time have been but brief rest-bite from it all.

I don’t think my new shift pattern will enable much gaming. Not unless I can fix the Tuesday evening gaming location or hope folks are free Sunday afternoon.

Will have to see how it works out on that front.

So I’m still here. Just a bit battered.

A Dice Masters What If… Response

dice masters, Dicemasters

The latest A Double Double ‘n Dice podcast has dropped. Which shockingly never mentioned me! That’s two shows in a row now. Maybe for Jocelyn and Kim the novelty of my responses has got old. Or I’m not writing anything interesting. Which is the more likely.

Anyway that’s not the point of this post. This is a response post which they may or may not read. The later being the more likely.

But what am I responding to?

Well the latest episode of their most excellent Dice Masters podcast started a new series called What If…?

I’m assuming by the logo, inspired by the Marvel tv series. But we all know it was a comic book first.

First listen to the podcast below first before going on to read the rest of my words.

Ok here is my response or thoughts on…

Dice Masters is a competitive game. It’s one player verses another player. You take turns until there is an eventual winner.

But that’s not the competitive Jocelyn and Kim mean.

They mean more organised play like store events such as Friday Night Magic (FNM), regionals, and world events.

I think that without a competitive side to Dice Masters the game would not have lasted as long as it has. Maybe!

Let’s look at MtG. It has both a competitive side and a casual side. The competitive side, and I’m going to focus on the FNM and store events here have a very important role to play in a games popularity.

Firstly they help build community. They give a regular time and place (your FLGS) where like minded players can gather and play the game. Friendships are made, cards traded, rivalries made. And dare I suggest casual games take place between rounds or alongside the competitive side of things (often there are games of Commander running alongside FNM).

Secondly a community means the FLGS gets stock in to sell. Which makes it easier for players to get hold of the game. Sales means Wizkids make more sets. You get the idea.

Now casual also has an important role to play in the health of a game. The most popular format for MtG is Commander. Which is a casual format. It wasn’t created by WotC. Although they sure jumped on the bandwagon in the products they release, and cards in new sets.

But it was at competitive events it initially became popular with players between rounds/events.

I would argue there are more casual players than competitive for any of the ccg/lcg/tcg games out there.

But seeing the game played at an FLGS or a regular event being held means that you can easily find some-one to play with. Which means you are more likely to buy in to the game. And the popularity grows as does the community.

The problem with a game just being casual is that of building a community. Finding like minded folks to play with. Especially if none of your friends are interested in playing.

Jocelyn and Kim ask what if there is no competitive Dice Masters going forward?

I think fans of the game would step in to fill the void. Well on a national level. Like they did at UKGE last year running an event. Although my point below on product would heavily influence the long term viability of this.

We’ve been living in a non-FNM Dice Masters world now for years. I would argue that the Dice Masters has gone from being a local thing to a global one. Although the overall numbers are not nearly as large.

But it’s product that we need to keep both player bases going. Without product eventually the game will die. Look at Funkoverse, no competitive side, after an initial flurry no new product. The game has died. Ashes had poor competitive support, and lack of product, and died. The reboot of Ashes has failed to reach critical numbers to take off.

With the silence over the next Dice Masters set are we looking at the end game?

Does the game have enough of a fan base to go the Android Netrunner route after that was no longer a product, with fan created content?

There you go a poorly argued response that makes f all sense.

Two new games and a second play

game night

After a week of no gaming and adjusting to the work routine again (it’s amazing how having a week off throws you out) Diego and myself met up on Friday to play some games.

There were others invited but they had life going on to prevent them from joining us.

We started off with a learning game of Parks.

Parks had not even been on my radar of games to buy. But over Christmas an opportunity came up to buy a copy so I did.

I have to say production value wise Parks knocks it out of the park! This is Stonemaier level of production quality. A great insert, trays you take out to hold the resources. Wooden pieces. And the cutest animal tokens ever. Each a different animal.

Parks

I love the art on the cards. The game looks beautiful on the table.

During setup and our dramatic reading of the rules I was thinking how are we ever going to buy park cards or do anything in the four rounds, or seasons as they are called in the game? The action track or whatever it was called seemed too short. But it does grow by one space at the start of the subsequent rounds.

One of my tactical mistakes of the game was letting Diego keep the camera for a large part of the game. It was basically giving him free points.

We both got a lot more done in the game than I thought we would. It was very quick to learn, and play. We both really liked the game. And yes sooner than later the expansions will be popping through my letter box.

Oh Diego won.

Our second game was a new push your luck dice game called Can’t Stop that I got.

Can’t Stop

What a fun dice game. It worked at our player count. And I can’t wait to play at the higher player counts. I’ll write a bit more in my research post for my cyberpunk game project, because this game was bought for that.

But the history books will reflect that I won the game.

Our final game of the evening was Terraforming Mars the dice game.

I thought this worked well as a two player game.

It did initially feel like a learning game as I’d only played the game once before.

Terraforming Mars the Dice Game

We soon picked up the iconography on the cards.

It felt like an awful long time in the game from the initial production that I did a production run. I’m not sure if that was a good or bad thing. I’m also undecided if it’s a good thing to do frequent/regular production runs in the game. More plays will help with this tactical decision.

Like Can’t Stop I’ll be talking about Terraforming Mars the dice game in the research post.

Sadly it’s no longer John Carter of Mars, but Diego of Mars as he won.

It was great to be sharing these games with Diego. I had a fun evening.