A two player evening

dice masters, Dice Masters Cube, Dicemasters, game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game night

Last night I met up with Marcin to play some games. Which meant this was a third night this week that I’d done some gaming. Something that hasn’t happened in a long long time.

We started off with a game of 51st State. A game I haven’t played in a few years. I think the last time I played this was at a UKGE with my friend Scott.

We were playing Marcin’s copy of the game that is the Ultimate edition. Which is a pretty cool edition that replaces the Master edition. It has all the expansions, “upgraded” components, insert, etc. I was almost envious and regretting I hadn’t got this edition myself. But at the time it was announced and added to GameFound or whatever it used to be called I couldn’t justify the expense.

After a brief refresh on the rules we were ready to play.

I was off to a slower start than Marcin unable to get anything going resource wise until it was too late to stop or catch up.

By the time the game ended I had only gained 3 victory points to Marcin’s 25!

Next I introduced Marcin to the dark draft format for Dice Masters using my pauper cube.

The teams we ended up drafting were the following:

My Team

  • Gambit: Ace in the Hole
  • Green Goblin: Goblin Lord
  • Mystique: Ageless
  • Hawkeye: Longbow
  • Psylocke: Betsy Braddock
  • Wolverine: Wildboy
  • Professor X: Recruiting Young Mutants
  • Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme

Basic Actions

  • Rally!
  • Gearing Up

Marcin’s Team

  • Black Widow: Natural
  • Falcon: Samuel Wilson
  • Iron Man: Upright
  • Punisher: McRook
  • Loki: Trickster
  • Sabretooth: Something to Prove
  • Pyro: Saint-John Allerdyce
  • Doctor Doom: Reed Richards‘ Rival

Basic Actions

  • Smash!
  • Ambush

Game one saw Marcin use the Punisher to great effect. It kept chipping away at my health whilst I failed to really get a solution in place to deal with its threat.

Game two saw me do much better. A mixed attack of two Green Goblins, a couple of sidekicks, and a Gambit swung in to grab me a victory.

Our third and final game was over very quickly. This was the Green Goblin and sidekicks showcase. Which saw me swinging in with an unopposed 18 attack made up of five sidekicks, a Green Goblin, and a Gambit iirc.

The two games I won Marcin did get a Punisher out. But it was used less effectively. For some reason Marcin preferred Falcon over Black Widow.

In all the games I was using the crap out of Professor X’s global to move sidekicks into the prep area. In the first game I needed to do that to buff up Mystique. With the side benefit of it allowing me to ramp into a Professor X or Doctor Strange.

Marcin enjoyed the dark draft format. Which means the two people I’ve played it with it’s been a hit. Marcin also liked the cards in the cube more than the modern cube. They were less complicated. Easier for a new player to understand.

So a great evening of gaming.

Icarus I can see your…

game night

Tuesday I got to do some overtime during the afternoon. But I was finished in time to be able to play some Vampire the Masquerade Rivals with Diego.

I had none of my Rivals stuff with me. So was reliant on Diego providing everything. For this session we used the Justice & Mercy expansion that Diego had for the game.

This expansion has the Banu Haqim and Salubri clans. Our first game had Diego playing Banu Haqim, and myself Salubri.

Salubri is an interesting clan to play out of the box. For starters you get an agenda point at the start of each turn. So already the game starts with a 13 turn timer. Add in an attachment that allows you to tap your vampire for an agenda point that timer gets shorter.

Next interesting thing and probably more so than the first, is the fact Salubri can only have one vamp out at a time! When that vamp gets taken out you don’t loose the game, you get a chance to play one from hand first.

It’s actually a fun clan to play. I could see myself building a deck around this clan.

After Diego narrowly won we swapped decks.

Banu Haqim is a rituals deck with diablerie thrown in. Sadly for me, unlike Diego in the first game, I didn’t draw the ritual that allowed me to steal agenda points.

Which meant I wasn’t able to slow that 13 turn timer, or take out enough Salubri. So Diego got a second win.

I think this is the first Rivals expansion where both clans have been fun to play. I’ll have to get this expansion.

Wednesday saw me round Ben’s to play Apiary with him and Charlene.

Once again I lost. But my score was improved. I even got to the end of the Queen’s Favour track.

I still had a blast playing the game. I love that whilst playing you feel like you are doing cool stuff.

Ben’s amazing final flight

Our second game of the evening was First in Flight. A game about the early days of powered flight.

This has a cool mixture of mechanics. There is deck building and push your luck, a rondel with turn order. The later working similar to Tokaido or Glen More.

I love games that have asymmetrical variable player powers. And I played into mine of getting to look at extra cards whilst looking at cards from your deck to great affect.

In our game I was allowed to get several trick cards that allowed me to look at the top of my card and manipulate card order. Which allowed me on my final flight to get a winning distance of 48.

That final flight was funny because Ben had been getting all these powerful cards to improve his distance, had a more powerful descent card, and had mentioned this more than once during the game.

Sadly as you can see in the gallery above his final flight was very disappointing and very very funny.

I enjoyed First in Flight.

So Wednesday was a great evening of gaming.

The post title?

Back in my teenage years Iron Maiden released a single Flight of Icarus.

I was reading the heavy metal magazine Kerrang! at the time. Naturally they reviewed the single and there was one line that has stuck with me all these years later.

Which I thought would be appropriate for a post where I talked about playing a board game about man’s early attempts at powered flight.

Plans for my week off

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

After such a gruelling couple of months work wise I have a week of R&R.

Sadly it’s between paydays so I don’t have the funds to visit Nathan. Which I need to sort out as a priority.

In the meantime I do have some gaming arranged.

The plans start off with the weekly lcg/ccg/tcg game night. Not sure what we’ll play yet. That’ll be numbers dependent.

Then Wednesday sees me visiting Ben to play Apiary. Plus time allowing we might fit in a game of Terraforming Mars the Dice Game.

Thursday is going to be mystery game night. Marcin has arranged a gaming session. But what we are playing who knows. It hasn’t been decided yet.

So glad I have some gaming going on this week. Plus it looks like my shift pattern for next few weeks might allow me to get to club nights too.

Catch you in the next post.

Hive Mind

Fenland Gamers, first look, game night

After what can only be described as a disappointing month for gaming (I played a grand total of four games). I’m hoping November improves.

However this new month has got off to a good start with me able to attend my first club night for two months.

Sadly it wasn’t a well attended club night with only four of us making it. However that was the perfect number for a first play of my latest addition to the collection, Apiary from Stonemaier Games.

So not only were we playing the latest hotness (or one of them) but it was also a chance to play a game with Jonathan. Something we haven’t done for a long time.

Does it really need to be said about the production values of the game? I think by now it should be taken for granted that Stonemaier Games have produced yet another high quality game. For me considering the hive tiles and other tiles are cardboard a more durable solution to the hive mat and frames would have been nice. They seem too flimsy. I can see why they are this thin. And frankly I can’t think of a solution that’d work as well.

I love that included in the box is a new addition to a Stonemaier Games game a teach the game sheet. If I count the Swift pack included in Wingspan this is the second time such a thing has been included in the box. Granted they work differently. With the Swift pack taking players through their first few turns, and the teach sheet aimed at helping a player teach the game to new players. But it’s nice to see this sort of thing in the box.

The player aids are really useful as well, and hit the sweet spot with the amount of information on them.

We played using randomly chosen hive mats, and randomly chosen hive tiles from the marked starter hive tiles.

I love this game.

Apiary plays very fast. We learnt the game, and played the game in just short of two hours. A turn is amazingly fast.

The bump mechanic is great. I love how it increases the strength of the bumped bee.

You have a small bit of area majority going on with the hibernation mechanic and section of the board for end game scoring.

The various tiles you can add to your hive do allow some combos to kick off when you go to various spots on the board. For instance every time I did the grow action I got a free bee back from the pool (if I had any there) and a free frame.

I know there will be the usual criticism of this latest entry in the Stonemaier catalog of its “not balanced” blah blah blah. And to be fair to some of those making that comment depending on the game have a valid point. However Stonemaier Games actually listen and make adjustments based on player feedback, such as in Tapestry and the civilisation adjustments, or not allowing certain faction and mat combos in Scythe.

I’m not sure anyone can make that comment about Apiary at the moment because you’d have played a lot of games to see if that is the case. But I’m sure there will be a broken combo between the hive mats and faction tiles.

The handicap system used for getting over first player advantage is not bad with players getting a higher start on the score track.

The multi use seed cards are fun. Either being able to be discarded first one of the basic resources, played for the ability on it, or finally planted for an end of game scoring bonus.

Ok I didn’t do well on my final score coming in last. However I did do cool stuff (see my comment about tile combos above).

This is a fun game. Everyone enjoyed it. And that’s two players who coming into it had reservations about an aspect or two of the game.

I had a blast playing the game. It was a great game to share with Jonathan again. Oh and Marcin won.

It was a dark dark draft of a night

dice masters, Dice Masters Cube, Dicemasters, game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game night

After missing last weeks lcg/ccg/tcg game night (I think it didn’t happen in the end) due to me doing some overtime at work. I was glad to be getting some gaming in again.

This week it was going to be just Dave and myself. So I arranged to play test the dark draft format in Dice Masters with him. Commander would have to wait for another evening with more players.

When I play Epic the card game (usually the app version of the game, did I say the app is free? You only pay for online competitions or cosmetic stuff) I only play dark draft. It’s my favourite two player format of the game. Especially for a draft experience.

I love that decision space you have with the initial hand of cards. You can only have one but which? Which do you really not want your opponent to have? Which one do you really want or need? Which of the two decisions is the stronger? Is it more important that your opponent doesn’t have that card? Or do you really really need that card more?

Add on top the incomplete information of what your opponent has drafted it really does add up to some very difficult decisions.

We drafted using the Marvel Pauper Cube I created (you can get the list of cards I used here).

Draft 1

My First Drafted Team

  • Black Widow: Natural
  • Gambit: Ace in the Hole
  • Green Goblin: Goblin Lord
  • Punisher: McRook
  • Psylocke: Betsy Braddock
  • Wolverine: Wildboy
  • Rogue: Anna Raven
  • Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme

Basic Actions

  • Rally!
  • Transfer Power

Dave’s First Drafted Team

  • Captain America: Special Ops
  • Falcon: Samuel Wilson
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Chief
  • Vision: Density Control
  • Spider-Man: Hero for Hire
  • Mr. Fantastic: Brilliant Scientist
  • Professor X: Recruiting Young Mutants
  • Nick Fury: Mr. Anger

Basic Actions

  • Teamwork
  • Focus Power

I was happy with the curve I had. The only character I never bought was Rogue in the two games we played.

Doctor Strange was a really cool dice to have out. Getting free basic action die was super helpful. But it seemed like I could never roll them when I had sidekicks they could affect in the used area.

But my team worked a bit better than Dave’s to get me two wins.

Draft 2

My Second Drafted Team

  • Black Widow: Natural
  • Punisher: McRook
  • Rogue: Anna Raven
  • Deadpool: Assassin
  • Hawkeye: Longbow
  • Namor: The Sub Mariner
  • Wolverine: Wildboy
  • Marvel Girl: Telekinetic

Basic Actions

  • Rally!
  • Invulnerability

Dave’s Second Drafted Team

  • Toad: Tongue Lashing
  • Pyro: Saint-John Allerdyce
  • Green Goblin: Goblin Lord
  • Mystique: Ageless
  • Professor X: Recruiting Young Mutants
  • Colossus: Unstoppable
  • Gambit: Ace in the Hole
  • Magik: Illyana Rasputina

Basic Actions

  • Gearing Up
  • Transfer Power

It was a clean sweep on the victory front. Although game one of the second draft I thought Dave had me. He got me down to seven health before I was able to stabilise and make a dramatic comeback to snatch victory. The basic action dice for Invulnerability was the secret source for my victory here. Being able to swing in with everything and still have characters left on the field was a life saver. Especially against a heavily buffed Mystique.

The second game of draft two was just not kind to Dave. The dice were just not rolling kindly for him. He kept getting energy. So much energy.

For the record I never bought Rogue in these two games either!

So how was it?

Wow! This worked so well.

Dave said he preferred it for two players. This is now my preferred two player draft format too.

It delivered everything I enjoyed about the format in Epic the Card Game. And worked so well using the cube.

I highly recommend that if you are playing a two player draft then this is the only way to go about it.

Busting ghosts the Nintendo way

Luigi’s Mansion, nintendo, switch, video games

Late to the party (by about three years or so) but I did finally cave and purchase Luigi’s Mansion 3 for the Switch around the middle of the month.

I’d been wanting to get it since the Super Mario Bros. movie came out earlier in the year. I’d come out of the cinema in Basingstoke having seen it wanting to buy a Mario game. Job done on that front for Nintendo. But the game stores there put me off buying any Mario game with their inflated prices and my tight budget at the time. I was hoping a second hand copy would have been within range. But sadly that was not the case.

I didn’t complete Luigi’s Mansion 2 on the 3DS, and I never played the first on the GameCube (or 3DS). The first one would have come out during the married, step parent phase of my life.

I did enjoy my brief time playing Luigi’s Mansion 2. This action adventure game I describe as Nintendo does Ghostbusters. It kinda had that vibe for me. Obviously there are official Ghostbusters video games (which will one day have a post or two of their own).

However this is a Nintendo Luigi-fied take on Ghostbusters. Very family friendly. It doesn’t have Slimer but Luigi does have a pet ghost dog called Polterpup in Luigi’s Mansion 3.

There are other similarities between the two. Such as Luigi’s Poltergust being the equivalent of the Ghostbusters proton pack and trap combined! Or the rooms throughout the hotel you are exploring being populated with various ghosts doing their thing. Very Ghostbusters-esq.

The boring bit about how I’m experiencing the game

For the record and those coming across one of these types of posts for the first time. I’m playing the game on a Switch Lite. No surprise there.

When I’m playing the game at home I will be using the inbuilt speakers of the Switch Lite to listen to the audio. However any game play away from home will use my usual setup of VANKYO C750 Bluetooth active noise cancelling headphones. Which are over ear, Hi-Fi Stereo, and apparently deep bass.

This is the memory card version of the game that I purchased that when first played downloaded and installed the 1.3.0 update for the game.

Obviously I won’t be experiencing the multiplayer side of the game, but playing it through its single player story mode.

Like all the other Switch games I’m playing at the moment I’m not spending hours at a time playing the game. But grabbing “moments” when I can. And if you have read my recent life, the universe post you’ll know playing anything has been a real struggle.

Potential Movie/Ride Threat to Disney!

I really enjoyed the cut scenes I’ve seen so far they set up the story, the current level or introduce ghosts etc really well. With no words just sounds that convey the meaning in place of words. These cut scenes felt like they could easily be from a Mario/Luigi movie. They have that cartoon quality to them.

Twice now Disney have done a Haunted House movie trying to capitalise on the popularity of the ride/experience with the same name in their parks. More importantly trying to replicate the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Both movies haven’t been a massive box office hit. I don’t think the latest one even broke even at the box office.

I think Disney have to be fearful of Nintendo and Luigi’s Mansion.

I can easily see this game series becoming an animated movie like Super Mario Bros. did. An awful lot of children were introduced to Mario and Luigi this year via the movie.

With the Super Mario Bros. movie Nintendo showed they can produce an animated movie that stays true to the source, appeal to gamers, and a wider audience. My friend Diego was familiar with Mario, hadn’t played many if any of the games. His 5 year old daughter certainly had no idea who Mario was. She loved the movie, and Diego enjoyed it also.

Obviously that’s an antidotal point I make there. But considering the amount of money the movie made world wide at the box office I suspect that experience was not a one off.

Plus in the Nintendo parks that are starting to appear around the world you have the perfect source material to produce a Nintendo version of the Haunted Mansion themed around Luigi’s Mansion.

I love the cartoon Ghostbusters-esq look and feel of the game. It really does feel like you are playing a cartoon. Probably more so than any other Marioverse (has that been used before by others?) game I’ve experienced.

And on that note I’ll end this first look at Luigi’s Mansion 3.

Obviously like all my other game plays at the moment these posts will be sporadic (see reasons above). Plus who knows where they will go?

A burning Dice Masters question!

dice masters, Dicemasters

Back in 2015 when Dice Masters first came out much of the early meta was defined by Green Goblin “Gobby” and Black Widow Tsarina.

From my limited observations the current meta for Dice Masters has the Master Mold Endless Sentinels and Dark Phoenix Destructive Force as their defining cards.

Whilst driving to work the other day my mind decided to pose the question would the Gobby Tsarina combo still be able to hold their own against the current meta darlings of Master Mold and Dark Phoenix?

Obviously the supporting cards will also play a big part in this as well. Maybe a good start would be to have worlds team lists from 2015 and 2023 go up against each other.

Then I thought once that round of the “experiment” was done maybe open it up to building the teams using the golden age format.

But these are tests that I have neither the cards and dice, nor the time and money to try. Hopefully some-one with the resources or knowledge will be able to answer the question.

Then last night I thought the DM North crew had been reading my mind when they posted the latest video in their Two Team Takedown competition (embedded below). Which saw a solo Gobby take on Master Mold and Dark Phoenix. So not quite the meta defining match up I had thought about. But it does go some way to answering the question.

Another life update so soon?

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

Wow what a last few days.

I’ve had a stinking cold that has really taken it out of me. It’s been a real struggle going to work. I’ve definitely not been 100%, maybe 50% at best. Which has really drained me by the end of the shift. I’ve spent so much time sleeping and coughing.

The last thing I was feeling able to do was a brief play of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Luigi’s Mansion 3 before the cold kicked in.

I’m hoping the cold clears up in the next day or two.

Something board gaming related did happen this week. as predicted Apiary did arrive, along with the latest wave of Rolling Realms promo packs. Now I have the problem of how to fit those promo realms in the Rolling Realms box. It’s currently bursting at the seams with no room to spare.

No actual gaming took place due to my taking on an extra shift at work last Tuesday. We were short staffed on a shift and I said I’d go in to help out.

But next week I’m not going to miss the Tuesday lcg/ccg/tcg session. Then I just need to survive the week before having a week’s holiday. Much needed rest and hopefully some gaming.

Size of an elephant!

first look, Mario, nintendo, switch, video games

Super Mario Bros Wonder is the latest entry in the Mario franchise to hit the Switch.

I’m going to briefly summarise how I’m experiencing the game so that any first time readers will know where I’m coming from. Long time gluttons for punishment of this blog can skip this part as you will be very familiar with it by now.

How I’m Experiencing Super Mario Bros Wonder

I’m a Switch Lite owner so will naturally be playing the game on that.

When I’m playing the game at home I will be using the inbuilt speakers of the Switch Lite to listen to the audio. However any game play away from home will use my usual setup of VANKYO C750 Bluetooth active noise cancelling headphones. Which are over ear, Hi-Fi Stereo, and apparently deep bass.

I bought the physical version of the game, and there were no day one updates.

These days I’m not a spend hours in a single session playing a video game person. It’s more casual. Along the lines of pick up play for 30 minutes to an hour. Depending on how tired I am, and how much free time I have.

As the image below shows I’ll be playing a single player game as Mario.

I’m playing as Mario, naturally!

Mario and I go way way back…

Welcome back longtime sufferers…

I do get excited when new Mario games come out or are announced.

The maths might not be exact. But for approximately four fifths of my long lifetime I’ve been playing Mario games of one kind or another over the years. Starting with his supporting role as Jumpman in the game that started it all Donkey Kong.

That makes it sound like I’ve played a lot of Mario games. But in reality it’s more like I’ve dipped in and out of them. I think it’s best described as old friends that keep bumping into each other over the years. My main Mario gaming being his handheld outings. That was my Nintendo console of choice especially during my married years. Most of my gaming was handheld based on my daily commute on the train. I was aware of Mario’s transformation to 3D on the GameCube as my sons played the various releases and I saw them playing them.

However parental duties and any free time left after that gladly spent with my ex-wife meant I missed so many GameCube classics that also included Mario’s outings on the platform.

This was repeated for the Wii also.

I have played some of Mario’s outings on the Switch. Sadly they should be best described as brief visits. Although I did get pretty far in the Rabbids game.

But now I’m back with Super Mario Bros. Wonder on the Switch.

The devils in the details

Super Mario Bros Wonder is a 2D scrolling platform game. From my limited play so far it has all the things you’d expect in a Mario 2D platformer plus new twists. I love the mix of the familiar and the new.

Whilst playing a Mario game you can’t help but have a big wide grin on your face. It’s the little things that Nintendo put in to each level that are a delight and a pleasant surprise.

And Nintendo hit the ground running on that front. Whether it’s from changing Mario into elephant Mario so early on in the first level (amazing decision btw), to the musical blocks that play notes as you run across them, to the green pipes moving along like caterpillars. I adored the singing and walking Piranha Plants on the second level. Such Willy Wonka vibes. I didn’t want to leave the level.

I’m not sure what direction these posts about the game will take. They aren’t reviews, more this is my experience playing the game and past experiences that playing takes me back to. Like all my video game posts are. There are lots of great reviews out there for the game. I most definitely have nothing new to add to that space. Besides do you need a review to know if you are going to get the game? You already know if you are a Mario fan and enjoy 2D platformers. If that is the case you already have the game.

Finally did you get the reference in the posts title? It’s something Bez ,the Beast from the Arabian Knights cartoon (shown during the Banana Splits Show) said before changing into an elephant. Which I thought was apt for this new Mario game where he can become an elephant.

Super busy but surviving

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

It’s been a day or two since my last post. As usual for these silences not much gaming wise has happened. Work is still dominating life at the moment.

Board game wise Apiary is due to start be posted out to Stonemaier Champions next week. So excited about that. It’s been a bit unusual for Stonemaier to have such a delay between the pre-order going live and the games being sent out. But as Jamey explained in this weeks Facebook Live broadcast it was tied in with Essen and having units on sale there. I think that’s sums up the thinking.

I did get the latest (as in came out in September) Marvel Champions campaign box NeXt Evolution and the two wave 7 character packs Angel and Psylocke. Plus I have the XL GameGenics playmat for the game now too.

Don’t know if I mentioned it previously but I did get in the Fellowship of the Ring Saga for Lord of the Rings lcg. That’s to play with Nathan, and potentially the lcg/ccg/tcg group at Fenland Gamers. I should see if there is a playmat for this too that is similar the Marvel Champions I just got.

I have two new video games for the Switch that just arrived. Well earlier in the week Luigi’s Mansion 3 arrived. Then yesterday Super Mario Bros. Wonder came out. So expect initial posts on those games soon.

Then finally somehow during all the work I need to get on with reorganising my home. It’s an ongoing project.

So that’s where life is at the moment.