I’m Batman

Arkham Trilogy, Batman, nintendo, switch, video games

Well the title of this blog post had to be this really considering the subject matter.

Before I get on with the actual content of this post I should give you a brief peak behind the curtains on the process I used writing this post.

Although you are reading this post in December. I actually started writing it back in mid August a couple of days after Amazon informed me that I would be getting Batman The Arkham Trilogy slightly earlier than expected.

Initially when I preordered the Batman game collection the estimated arrival of the game was after Christmas, early January iirc. But a couple of days ago as I write this part of the post I had an email from Amazon to say that I would be getting the game mid October. Which has now fallen to back to early December!

What a pleasant surprise. And oh does it put so much pressure on me in the meantime to make progress on Tears of the Kingdom (and many of the other games I have on the Switch).

So the plan is I write my relationship and history with Batman now in August, and then when I finally get my grubby mitts on the game give my initial impression.

Batman and Me

Back in the seventies when I was just a young innocent little boy playing soldiers with my younger brother, and dreaming one day of following dads footsteps into the army and the parachute regiment (a dream that died in my teenage years as I discovered I was a nerd/geek and not para material). The 60’s Batman tv show starring Adam West as Batman was my first exposure to the hero and his rogues gallery of colourful villains. Boy did I have a crush on Catwoman.

I did have the Batman action figure which I played with along with my Action Men. But my main object of desire was the Corgi die cast Batmobile. I remember a friend had one. I was very envious.

Luckily during my childhood episodes of Batman were regularly shown on tv. I love the show. It’s camp, lighthearted, comedic tones did influence the comic. And it appealed to a lot of people.

I was lucky enough to see the 1966 movie on the big screen at the local cinema. Obviously I didn’t see it back when it was released. That would have been impossible without a time machine. It came out two years before I was born. But back then in the late seventies and early eighties cinemas used to show films like the Batman movie, or theatre versions of popular tv shows like On the Buses, Morecambe and Wise, the Spider-Man tv show, or Battlestar Galactica.

I do remember the Batman cartoon from around the time but not getting to see that many episodes. I think this was The New Adventures Of Batman as it had the tv series cast doing the voices and it had Batmite!

My next run in with Batman was during the home computer boom of the eighties and the 8 bit computer games that came out then, such as Ocean’s 1986 isometric classic Batman on the Spectrum. Followed by their 1988 release Batman: The Caped Crusader.

But it was the events later in 1988 that would give me a really strong bond with the character.

On the morning of 10th September 1988 my dad took his own life. I did try to revive him to no avail. Even now decades later I can’t forget the taste of his breathe from my attempts to resuscitate him.

After the funeral I returned to Brighton to finish my second and final year of my HND in Computer Studies (Software Engineering).

It was a very rough year for me to say the least.

However I got into comics in a big way whilst I was going through all the emotional turmoil trying to deal with the loss of my dad.

It was at this point in time that I came across Batman in the comic books. The Death in the Family four part story line had just started. I was hooked. But it was the issues of the various Batman comics after the events of Death in the Family that resonated so much with me. As Batman dealt with the loss of Jason Todd I too was going through similar. Obviously I wasn’t taking out my grief on the criminal elements of the UK. However I was in a bad place and was taking out my grief on myself.

As a now die-hard Batman fan this late eighties, early nineties for me was a golden age of the comic.

Obviously we had the Tim Burton movie, that had Sam Hamm (he wrote the script for the movie) write some issues of the comic. There were some amazing Batman graphic novels that became classics.

Like all good things my time with Batman in comic book form had to come to an end. I had to ween myself off my comic book addiction during the early nineties. My comic habit was unsustainable.

It didn’t help that Michelle Pfeiffer was an incredible Catwoman in Tim Burtons Batman Returns, along side a very dark portrayal of the Penguin by Danny Devito. Plus I was catching odd episodes of the Batman Animated series that captured Burtons Batman and Gotham so well. Plus it introduced the world to Harley Quinn!

Obviously I had to endure the very painful to watch Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. The movies that killed Batman in the cinema until Nolan did Batman Begins.

I love The Dark Knight and you know I will say the predictable thing of I just love Heath Ledger as the Joker. My favourite Joker of all time.

In the intervening years I have enjoyed the more recent cinematic portrayals of Batman. I love that the last Batman movie took the character back to his worlds greatest detective roots. The DC animated movies have been out of this world. And in my opinion easily out shone anything that has been put on the big screen.

I did come to the Batman Arkham series pretty late and have only played a bit of Arkham Asylum on my PS3 back in 2010 or 2011. The memory is pretty fuzzy on precisely when. But it was a GOTY edition I got cheap. I couldn’t even tell you exactly why I stopped playing it. It was most likely due to a move back to my home town. But I do remember enjoying it. Naturally I was nowhere close to completing it.

I think it was around 2014 time when I had a spell of getting some copies of classic GameBoy games I wanted for the collection and the Batman: The Video Game was one of those titles I picked up. I played it briefly to make sure the cart was working.

Latest additions

Obviously I have a small Lego Batman minifig collection. With my pride and joy of it being the Heather Ledger Joker figure (that is worth a bit of money).

I even currently have a dvd project that I am doing on a Saturday morning of trying to capture that Saturday morning magic of my childhood. By watching cartoons (not necessarily the ones from the time) such as the Dungeon and Dragons cartoon, Thundercats, and the Batman Animated series with my morning coffee and pan au chocolate. Come pay day I’ll be adding more series that I grew up with including the The New Adventures Of Batman, the 1960s Batman series, and Hong Kong Phooey. Maybe I should do a post about this project (which by the time this sees the light of day will have happened).

So all the above established I am a Batman fan of many years. Which means at least we know where I am coming from when I start talking about the Arkham video games below.

I wouldn’t say I’m a hardcore fanboy. But I am a fanboy with a connection to the character that I don’t think I will ever break.

For such a big Batman fan I surprisingly don’t have that many Batman themed board games. I have the out of print Love Letter Batman. Which is my favourite version of the Love Letter family of games. I have the Batman the animated series dice game that is loosely based on the zombie dice game. Plus I think I have the Batman story cubes.

You’d have thought I would own a copy of the Batman game that was based on the Conan board game. But that was a Kickstarter thing that at the time was something I couldn’t afford or justify. The miniatures were amazing for it. Sadly I heard once people got their hands on it that it was not as good as the original Conan. So dodged a bullet there.

I did own the Batman version of Fluxx. But that was donated to the game box of the Gaywood store I was working at.

I’m just gobsmacked at the lack of Batman games I own or have played. Think we should move on and talk about the latest video game.

The Arkham Trilogy on the Switch

I don’t know if it has shown but I have been trying to improve my writing especially when it comes to talking about video games. Like the section above I’ve been including more personal bits to show where I am coming from when I talk about the game. So that folks can see my biases and experience into account when they read my words and opinions on the game I am playing.

A big influence on shaping those posts is the book Introduction to game analysis by Fernández (details at the end of the post).

I’ll talk about how I am playing the game, such as the platform and any additional hardware, if I am using a players guide etc. I think this is useful information for whoever is reading so they know how I am experiencing the game and if they think that is relevant to the information that I provide.

I still have a long way to go before I am happy with the posts I write about games. But at the moment they seem to me more a diary of my experience as I play than any academic article or review.

In the past I have said I don’t like to review a game (video or board), and that when I talk about a game I like to talk about what works for me and what doesn’t.

There are folks out there that review games far better than I could ever do. So I kind of like the approach I take of play experience diary. It’s different.

And that’s the way I plan to cover the Arkham Trilogy as well.

So let’s get started and cover the hardware etc that I am using to play Batman Arkham Trilogy.

How I’m Experiencing the Batman Arkham Trilogy

For those that have read my previous words on video games the following will be familiar.

I’ll be playing the trilogy on my Switch Lite. Which makes sense since this is the Switch version of the games I am playing.

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.

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. I also have too many games I want to play. The knock on affect is I don’t focus on one but flick between them. I think currently I have four games on the go. If you have read my recent life, the universe post you’ll know playing anything has been a real struggle.

This is the physical version of Batman Arkham Trilogy that I’m playing.

Batman Arkham Trilogy has the following three games included Batman Arkham Asylum, Batman Arkham City, and Batman Arkham Knight.

Both City and Knight need to be downloaded first before playing. They are not on the cartridge. Now this is a pet peeve of mine. There are other physical released titles like Resident Evil that include supposedly have three games on them. When in fact like Arkham Trilogy there is one and the remaining titles need to be downloaded. I bought the physical version for a reason. I wanted a physical version and not having to rely on an eshop.

My play through of this trilogy will be in the following order Batman Arkham Asylum, Batman Arkham City, and Batman Arkham Knight (which is their release order I believe).

For all three games if given a language choice I will be playing the games in English. I will also be playing the games on a normal difficulty level. I may live to regret this decision. But somehow my young mind thinks my gaming skills should be still sharp enough to play the game.

Paratexts I’ve Used

Para what?

I’m going to get you to read a couple of quotes that explain way way better than I ever could what a paratext is, and how they can apply to video games.

“If we consider games texts, we can also understand them better by analyzing what Gérard Genette calls paratexts—texts that surround the main text being analyzed, which transform and condition how the audience interprets that main text.” (Fernández,2019)

“In videogame terms, paratexts would include the box of the game, the instruction manual, the game’s commercial website, reviews, and interviews with the developers, as well as other media, from other games to commercials or films that may have been inspired by the game or spawned by it. Extending Genette’s concept to videogames allows us to understand how they become complex media artifacts in the light of these paratexts, since they provide further layers of interpretation.” (Fernández,2019)

So with the above in mind after a gap of over thirty years I’ve reread the Grant Morrison penned, and Dave McKean drawn 1989 Batman classic graphic novel Arkham Asylum. Which according to Wikipedia was an influence/inspiration on the developers Rocksteady whilst developing the videogame. It wasn’t the only influence, the darker, grittier Frank Miller was also one, as was the work of Neal Adams.

Although Arkham Origins (which I’ve never played) isn’t part of this release there was an animated movie called Batman: Assault on Arkham that sits between Origins and Arkham Asylum. It’s meant to act as a way to bridge the gap between the two games. So I’ve watched this for the first time.

Obviously my comic book collection, the movies, tv series, previous video games also fall into the paratext camp. They shape my interpretation of Batman, and to some extent my enjoyment of the games. On a mechanics level the game maybe fun. But if the portrayal of Batman in the game doesn’t align with how I see the character. Or even one that I can accept then will I actually enjoy the game?

I’m not sure what direction these posts will take as I progress through the game. Or even when the next post will be. But we’ll see where the wind takes me on this.

This post has been rather long, and I haven’t even started looking at the game itself yet! So I better call this post to an end and see you in the next one (whenever that happens).

Fernández-Vara, C. (2019) Introduction to game analysis. Second edition. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

The reorganisation continues

Friday Night tv, Holiday tv, life, the universe, and everything, Middle week tv, still alive

I have the flooring to do. But I have the shelves in the living room up.

Yes not the expensive IKEA Kallax that are very very popular in the board gaming community. But budgets define the options and choices we can make. These were within my budget.

After starting to fill these two units it was apparent they wouldn’t be enough. I would need more.

The problem is and has been space to put them up.

To get these in my two seater settee had to go.

I had a suitable spot for two more to go in the dining room once the table there went.

However before I cleared that and put the plan into action there was something big happening to the house.

My landlord was having a new front door and windows put in. The “old” ones were most likely the original ones (making them about 100 years old!)

Existing units in living room
New units in back room

All that window stuff happened whilst I was off on the union rep training last week.

So Saturday saw me getting the table cleared. I then put the two new units together configured so the lowest shelf was above Loki cocking leg height!

I’m now starting to fill the new space.

It’s going to be very close to whether this will be enough additional space to hold the rest of my game collection.

In the meantime I have a new dvd project to watch at some point that has just popped through the door in the last week.

New dvd project

Yes I’m a fan of Planet of the Apes franchise. I can even find nice stuff to say about the Tim Burton remake! But before I go off about all this and what they mean to me I’ll stop. All that sort of stuff needs saving for when I do a post about this viewing project.

Despite having a space issue for storing board games. It doesn’t stop the odd new arrival or pre-ordering stuff. In this case I’m expecting Dune Imperium Uprising at some point soon. It’s out now in the States I believe, and pre-orders from Dire Wolf have been sent out. I’m just waiting for it to arrival with retailers in the UK so my pre-order can be sent.

I’m waiting for Amazon to send me the latest book by Scott Rogers. This one is on board game design. Can’t wait to read it. Plus I have a book on cheating in video games on the way. For reason both won’t be here until next week. Very unusually slow for Amazon.

Catch you in the next post.

UPDATE: I did get some fantastic news late last night from the eldest of my sons (well I still look on them as that, even though there may not be a biological link). It nearly bought me to tears.

Long time readers of my ramblings will remember one of my big regrets in life is my relationship or lack of it with the eldest two boys.

So it meant a lot to me that he shared the news with me. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he hadn’t and I’d found out via Nathan. It would have hurt. But I wouldn’t have held any ill feelings.

I’m not going to say exactly what the news is because I’m not sure it’s my place to do so.

I’m so happy for the eldest.

Bottom Action!

game night, Scythe

Friday evening saw me get my favourite game of all time Scythe to the table with two good friends. What more could you want of an evening?

Whilst I was setting up Colin arrived. So I gave him the tough decision of which of the three Triumph tracks to use. Yes I had forgotten the fourth option of the random set up. But it was probably for the best. The other three are a lot easier to explain. You can see which way Colin went in the setup section below.

Once Marcin arrived we went straight into randomly choosing a player mat, followed by choosing our faction.

Whilst making our choices we enforced the banned combo rule for player and faction mats.

So this is how after randomly selecting a player board and then choosing a faction things ended up:

  • Saxony/Patriotic (Colin)
  • Rusviet/Innovative (Marcin)
  • Fenris/Industrial (Me)

I’m sure Marcin hate drafted my beloved Rusviets to spite me. There was a cheeky grin from him when I bought the subject up. It looked like I had no choice but go to my other favourite faction, Fenris.

One day I should branch out and play some of the others. But haven’t I already by choosing Fenris?

The rest of our set up…

We used the Modular board that once the home base tiles had been randomly placed had two tiles removed. Giving us a much more enclosed map encouraging interaction. No turtling here.

Obviously we used Airships. Plus any additional tiles or cards that the expansions added, along with all the promo cards.

Triumph Track: War

Resolution Tile: Factory Explosion

Airship Tiles: Hero/Bounty

Structure Bonus: Number of structures not adjacent to other buildings (your buildings or opponents’ buildings).

Poorly written summary of the game

I got off to a blinding start. Which was helped greatly by having an encounter token so close to my home base. Turn two I had my first mech out giving me leap. A handy ability to have as I was able to avoid the first conflict and blockade by Marcin.

I had all my mechs out so early. I was moping up encounter tokens to fuel my engine.

Sadly Marcin beat me to the factory and held it for a good time. I wasn’t in a position to challenge him.

I was using my factions tokens to pen Marcin in. I didn’t think it was fair to pick on Colin so early on in the game.

Eventually my engine just ran out of juice and I wasn’t able to stop Marcin stealing what little resources I had or amassing forces on and around the factory tile.

Without the resources I wasn’t able to use my factory card that I’d finally got. Even my plan to get the final encounter token and also use a resource on that tile controlled by Colin. Failed. Colin spent the resource before I got there, and also nabbed the token.

I did trigger the end of the game. But the first of my final two turns was a none turn as I couldn’t do anything. But I did end up with a couple of battles to try and cut down on the territory Marcin controlled. I was fifty percent successful on that front.

Final scores

It was a fantastic evening of gaming.

Oh why the blog post title? Well as Marcin was explaining/helping Colin throughout the game he kept saying “bottom action”. Which had my childish, mind in the gutter side in stitches.

Hotel Life

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

Still here with yet another life update post.

Been away on a union rep training course last couple of days. Which has been fun and informative.

Even been put up for a couple of nights in a Premier Inn.

I’m not sure the price difference between this chain and Travelodge is warranted. I see hardly any difference in the quality of the rooms.

I will grade the breakfast here as a 6 out of 10. Let down massively by the lack of fried bread and having hash browns.

But being in the hotel reminded me I do need to book a hotel for UKGE. The Travelodge we normally frequent is not its usual £35 a night at the moment. But double that. Have they cottoned on to the fact that UKGE is on and they can exploit us poor boardgamers?

Although there has been no gaming since Friday. At least there are plans for playing games this Friday in place.

Right catch you laters now I’ve let you all know I’m ok.

Brief club night report

Fenland Gamers, game night

I made a second club night last night.

It looked like there was going to be seven of us for the evening. However two turned up who hadn’t indicated they were coming. It also didn’t help that they came in and went out without saying a word! Turns out they went to get something to eat first. Would have been nice to know.

Whilst that was going on Marcin, Diego, and myself played Apiary.

The following is how the faction and hive mats went.

  • Sime & The Warre (Me)
  • Jemit & The Poppleton (Diego)
  • Iber & The Skep (Marcin)

I had a blinder of a game. I wasn’t sure if I’d done enough to overcome the early lead on the score track that Diego had taken.

But once again getting a lot of seed cards, playing combos, getting three planted, plus three honey comb tiles meant I had enough end game scoring going on. Plus I barely explored once again.

As the final scores show I did really well. Even improving on my previous 100+ score.

Diego’s score was better than my first time playing.

Our next and final game Vaalbara was played with now two well fed members. Diego rocked this one and easily won the game.

Whilst we got two games in, the other table managed to play one four player game of Amun-Ra.

It was a great evening.

Failed plans

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

It’s been a quiet week on the gaming front so far.

This weeks planned lcg/ccg/tcg game night on Tuesday fell through.

We were due to be playing Commander however the one flaw we didn’t foresee was the community centre would not be open!

Unbeknownst to any of us, having missed the change to the opening hours sign the community centre would be closed on not only a Monday but also Tuesdays now (except for the third Tuesday of the month for the open mike evening).

It’s not surprising as the business had been pretty slow on a Tuesday with them closing early. Which we were fine with.

Now we need to find either another night that works for everyone, or another Tuesday night venue.

At the moment current thinking might be every other Friday evening.

I have pre-ordered the new Dune Imperium Uprising. Which hopefully will be hitting stores this weekend. So maybe with me by the middle of next week. I’m excited to play this and see how the changes work.

The Two Towers expansion for LotR lcg was posted this morning along with the Deadpool and X-23 hero packs for Marvel Champions.

Obviously the Two Towers and Fellowship are something I want to play with Nathan. But I want to bring not only LotR but Marvel Champions to a lcg/ccg/tcg evening. I know FFG did these special scenario decks for LotR for cons like GenCon. Which were made available to the public. Sadly these are out of print and going for the usual stupid money. I know there are fan run cons for Marvel Champions where they have custom villian scenarios. These of these would be ideal for a game night but alas cost or lack of info means currently they are not an option.

Tomorrow is club night so looking forward to that. It’s looking like another low attended one. Numbers have dropped recently. I’ll be taking Apiary, Terraforming Mars the dice game, and Grail Cup.

So that’s the none eventful week so far.

Laters.

How I play Marvel Champions (and LoTR lcg)

LCG, Marvel Champions

After plans to get Marvel Champions to the table fell through earlier in the day. I spent the afternoon instead organising the collection instead.

For starters I had four character packs to “file away” along with The Hood Scenario pack. Plus the latest campaign box Next Evolution.

Whilst organising the new cards my mind wondered and made me think how I’m currently (the couple of times I’ve played it) and plan to use the game. It’s a bit like how I also use the Lord of the Rings lcg too.

A lot of the content creators out there on the various media platforms out there build their own character decks. They get a lot of enjoyment out of doing that. And to be fair I would too. After all it’s a side of MtG, Dice Masters, and Vampire the Masquerade Rivals.

However there is only so much spare time in my life. Unfortunately I don’t have any spare to dedicate to this side of playing these two lcgs.

Also I only get to play both games with other players who do not own a copy of the game, and are not into building their own decks.

So using the pre-constructed hero decks as you buy them allows me to play with others who enjoy the game but haven’t committed to it financially.

During setup I can say “which hero is your favourite?” or ‘who do you fancy playing?” Grab the decks and away we go.

Obviously before hand I can decide on the villian we are going to go up against and which modular scenarios (if not using the recommended) we are using. However I can also repeat the hero selection for the villian to and let the other player chose their favourite.

I like this grab and go, no thought needed approach too.

How do I thematically justify it?

Well Marvel used to print two comics that would cover this mix and match approach.

The first was Marvel Team-up. This would see two heroes come together to defeat a common villian. Usually these two heroes would be polar opposites.

The other comic they did and also ended up as an animated series on Disney+ is What if…? Which explores major moments in the Marvel universe and what would happen if they happened differently.

Both could explain why the heroes were together and why they were facing off against a villian they had never gone up against before.

Another factor in the not deck building is I only want to play the games with others. I don’t play solo, or only play solo. If I was playing solo I’d be more tempted to build my own decks. I don’t get much enjoyment out of playing games solo. It’s the social side I enjoy.

Anyway sorry to have bored you with that thought!

Third time lucky

Game day

The original plan for today was to play a four player game of Memoir 44. But for reasons (I say reasons because we have no idea why the fourth player never turned up) we only had three players.

Luckily I had decided to grab a back up plan for such a situation. Which we decided to go with.

So instead of Memoir we set up to play Apiary.

Below are the faction and hive mats that each of us used.

  • Utel – The Log (Jeff)
  • Iber – The Warre (John)
  • Carpa – The Langstroth (me)

I actually planted seed cards! The first game I’ve managed to plant any and I do four.

I completed my hive mat, and a frame. Plus upgraded my faction tile.

I think I explored twice during the game, and did one retrieval. After I got a tile that allowed me to retrieve a worker and activate a farm every time I did a research action I was researching a lot. It was getting me a seed card and victory points.

There was a moment early on when I did hate buy a tile to stop Jeff having it. If he’d been allowed to get it, along with his faction ability he’d have gotten two basic resources of his choice every explore action on top of everything else.

I triggered the end of the game, and below is how the scores stood after all the smoke had cleared.

Final scores

I have to say if Jeff or John had those scores in my previous two games they would have won. And Jeff did so much better than I did in my first play.

I’m just taken aback by how high my score was. Especially considering my first two plays.

A great afternoon though despite our original plan falling through.

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.