I just love the above bit from the rules/flavour sheet included with the latest data pack Blood Money from the Flsshpoint cycle.
It appeals to my anarch soul.
The Android world is so rich. FFG do such a great job bringing it to life with Netrunner, using amazing art (which has Easter eggs hidden in it sometimes), flavour text, and mechanics.
Just love it.
That's what I'm naming Tom's run of eleven back to back wins at Ashes against me.
Oh let me back up a little so you have a clue to what I'm talking about.
Last Thursday Tom and I met up at The Angel to play some pre-tournament Ashes. While Tom played a couple of decks, I played mainly a Dimona deck I had built and then “tweaked” between our games.
I like to at least play a couple of games with a deck I've built to get a feel for what works and what doesn't before making changes. It's how I roll in Netrunner. And I don't see a reason to change that with Ashes or even Epic (if I was constructing a deck in that also).
I got my butt handed to me that evening. My attempt at creating big creatures to swing in and do lots of damage didn't really work.
I have to admit my relative inexperience at the game does come through. I haven't nearly played enough games or know the cards well enough. Luckily this is an easier task to achieve than it is in Netrunner. But now I have a regular playing partner this will improve. Sadly, spoiler alert for the rest of the post, not quick enough for the tournament.
Tom and I both had friends that had planned to come to today's Ashes tournament. But due to illness and such were not going to be able to make it. That left just Tom and myself playing in the tournament. A replay of Thursday evening then, at least we were guaranteed one of the prizes!
So I was playing Brennen. I'd created two deck lists before hand. Both around the same idea but with different implementations. I had created these lists on the official PlaidHat Ashes deckbuilder. Which was a pleasant experience. I liked that once you have built your deck it will suggest the dice to use with it. Tom had said he found that it wasn't perfect and for him just off. Which very well may be the case, but it makes a starting point to work from.
I started off with the following deck:
Ready Spells
x2 Chant of Revenge
x3 Chant of the Dead
x2 Hypnotize
x2 Summon Blood Puppet
Blood Puppet
x1 Summon Butterfly Monk
Butterfly Monk
Other Spells
x2 Final Cry
x2 Hidden Power
x2 Poison
x2 Redirect
Allies
x3 Blackcloud Ninja
x2 Blood Archer
x1 Crimson Bomber
x2 Fire Archer
x1 Hammer Knight
x2 Leech Warrior
Dice
x6 Ceremonial
x2 Charm
x1 Illusion
x1 Natural
I found the Hypnotise wasn't used, and was swapped out. Can't remember what with. Yes this was a very casual tournament. Just an extension of last Thursday's match up really.
After four loses I declared Tom the worthy winner of our “tournament” and let him choose between the prizes. As the photo above shows, he chose the beautiful looking playmat. A wise choice. So my second place prize was the alt art Phoenixborn cards for Brennen and Rin. Then we split the alt art mist spirits between the two of us.
My other Brennen deck I played with for the remainder of the event was the following:
Ready Spells
x2 Chant of Revenge
x1 Chant of the Dead
x1 Hypnotize
x1 Summon Butterfly Monk
Butterfly Monk
x1 Summon Gilder
Gilder
x1 Summon Mist Spirit
Mist Spirit
Other Spells
x2 Deep Freeze
x2 Final Cry
x2 Hidden Power
x3 Ice Trap
x2 Massive Growth
x2 Molten Gold
x1 Sympathy Pain
Allies
x1 Anchornaut
x2 Blackcloud Ninja
x1 Crimson Bomber
x2 Fire Archer
x2 Leech Warrior
Dice
x4 Ceremonial
x1 Charm
x1 Illusion
x4 Natural
Oh boy did we laugh when I went to play the Hidden Power card and I realised there was only one charm die! Which was fine playing the summon gilder card. But useless for Hidden Power. How could the Ashes deck builder suggest only one die, when two were needed? Oops think there is a bug there. It was so funny it bought tears to my eyes. Obviously the first tweak between games was to replace the Hidden Power card. Can't remember what I went with instead.
At best I think Tom found these decks annoying, and delayed the inevitable. In the first deck the blood puppets were being used to try and keep his battlefield clogged up, which can be irksome. That worked to some extent. It was cool when I got a combo to work such as when an ally died and triggered two or three things, or/and allowed me to play Final Cry. I love Brennen's ability but his three slot Spellboard was a bit of a handicap. I'd love it to be five. But then that might make him a bit overpowered.
So that's eleven and oh for Tom at the moment. I think that sort of record in a CCG/LCG game deserves to be given the same awe and respect as The Undertakers winning streak at Wrestlemania. So hence why I'm just calling it The Streak.
It's great to have found someone localish to play against. I'm learning a lot from playing against Tom. It really shows that this is his main CCG/LCG, while this is my secondary one. But it's about having fun for me. When the game stops being fun then I'm out. So yes Tom currently has his Streak, which I'm sure I will break sooner than later (I hope). I just hope in the meantime Tom doesn't get bored with winning.
We also need to grow our local meta, ie find/attract more players. I thought having a tournament might do that. However I can honestly say that failed this time. I promoted the event on the major online Ashes communities (Facebook,Reddit, and BGG), plus the event was listed on the PlaidHat events system. Before I crack open the second OP kit I have for a tournament, I need to have grown the local Ashes community first. I'm open to ideas. I have plenty of the promo Dimona and Lulu Phoenixborn to give away to new players! Maybe I should use these as part of some sort of “learn Ashes” event.
Finally unrelated to Ashes, Chris has finished assembling, painting and adding decals (something I don't have the skill set to do) my tanks in the base set of Tanks.
Chris has done an amazing job on the models.
I'm looking forward to getting some games in now.
Or why I'm not going to back CMoN on Kickstarter ever ever ever again.
So the other day CMoN sent out an update for The Others, which gave the news that the EU shipments would be hitting the shores of Germany one lot on the 13th September and the other on the 22nd September.
Add in time to clear customs, and then getting to the distributor, by the time that second shipment lands the first one might actually be in the process of being sent out. So we might start seeing copies arriving at the start of October.
That's a two month delay from when the US and Australia started getting theirs!
The thing is CMoN have given bs reasons for the delay. Ours in the EU had to be delayed because
“For the European packages, we ran into an issue with the August holidays, which means our distribution center would be closed if the packages arrived in August as expected. Unfortunately that means we are going to have to delay the European shipment a little bit, so that the distribution hub can send them out in September. We are sorry for the inconvenience.”
This statement smelt so bad even I could smell it was rotten, and I have no sense of smell. a distribution centre closed for a month as implied by their statement! I call shenanigans, “liar, liar, pants on fire”.
But CMoN buried their heads in the sand and ignored the furore that this announcement caused this side of the pond.
One poster on the comments section of the Kickstarter page suggested an interesting conspiracy theory that maybe the original shipment for the EU was directed to the US so that CMoN could sell the game at GenCon. The timings certainly fit.
Looking at the timings of the arrivals that CMoN gave in the latest update, I suspect that possibly the EU shipment may have been delayed deliberately to save them shipping costs so they have product to sell at a certain large event in October in Essen.
The initial delays for the game from its original March delivery were down to production delays and the Chinese New Year. Basically bad project management. They new they had production problems with the Zombicide:Black Plague stuff, and that there had been long delays from that having a knock on affect.
Ok I was disappointed with that, but could live with it. What I can't take is the lying to cover up what I think is a combination of my theory and the GenCon conspiracy theory.
What really grates is that CMoN seem to have got a corporate shill to sing their praises on line to say what nice, salt of the earth guys they are. Apparently they will move the earth to help you, nothing is too much for them. That maybe so if you are part of the most popular Boardgaming YouTube network with a reach of tens of thousands. But further down the food chain, they are more than happy to screw you over.
Now some posters on the comments section of the Kickstarter page point out the CMoN small print:
“Please note that while we do our best to get you your rewards in a timely manner, you may not necessarily receive your rewards before the product makes it into distribution in your own country or before it's made available in conventions and special promotion opportunities. We hope that the special price and exclusive items you will get during the Kickstarter will make up for any such possible lag. However, if this is something that is not acceptable to you, please do not back this project, and instead wait for the retail release. Thank you for your understanding.”
Firstly as others point out, these aren't rewards, we are buying a product. If it was a reward that means it's a gift and should be marked as so when shipped. However CMoN won't do that.
CMoN like others use Kickstarter as a pre-order system to fund their up and coming games. The money raised pays for the production, it's a risk free route for CMoN. They don't have to put their own cash up to make a game that might not sell. The risk is all on the backers.
So CMoN should be doing everything to make sure that game is in the hands of backers before anyone else. Without them there would be no game. TMG have delayed the release of Thiefs Market by a couple of weeks to the mass market so that backers can get their copies first.
As for the exclusive content being compensation for any possible lag! That exclusive content, that is the reward for backing the project. Not the game itself. I think Kickstarter exclusive content is wrong. If it was timed exclusive, fine I'm down with that. But only able to get it if you back the project is wrong. It means that last line of you have to wait until it hits the shops if you don't like it, is basically saying “take it or lump it”. I'd happily wait for the shop release if they also made the exclusives also available at a later date. But CMoN do like to prop up the eBay scalpers.
Until people start to not back the CMoN kickstarters (which will never happen in significant enough numbers to make a noticeable difference) CMoN will continue to treat their backers like an inconvience, and like dirt.
As you can see this whole CMoN Kickstarter experience hasn't been a pleasant one. Their disregard for EU backers, and I would argue backers in general is leaving a rather unpleasant taste in the mouth. Personally if I was Eric Lang I'd be wondering if I had partnered with the right company. They are tarnishing the image of his game and name.
Wow that was a long rant, and it might even be coherent too in places. But as you may have detected I'm a tad upset about this. I think my tag line for them is so true, “CMoN cool games, crap company”. They won't respond to this, they don't respond to the comments on the Kickstarter page. But at least I feel better having vented.
Oh wait it's just clicked if you say CMoN it sounds almost like you are saying … That explains a lot.
Last night Jonathan and I meetup to do some good old fashioned whaling, when his latest addition to his game collection New Bedford hit the table.
New Bedford as you may have guessed deals with the highly emotive and controversial subject of whaling.
But does it glorify whaling? I don't think it does. In fact I would say that although its a major source of scoring points. The majority of the game is all about worker placement, building up the town of New Bedford, and gathering resources. With the whaling itself an end product, an ends to a means. In fact and I'd love to test this theory, you could almost remove the whaling phase and not miss it from the game. I certainly don't feel that the game glorifies whaling in anyway. Especially when it is set in the mid 1800s.
Overall this is a nice game as worker placement games go. There are some nice things about the game. The components themselves are lovely. I love the Meeple whale used to track the rounds. The Meeple ships look nice, although the publisher could have used easier colours to distinguish between for the base of the boats. The large ships wheel as the first player marker is lovely.
It's just a shame that from what Jonathan described Dice Hate Me didn't put as much effort into quality control on the expansion, oh and missing out a tile from the main game for solo play!
Having played New Bedford I can now see what Dice Hate Me were trying to do with the game Nantucket. New Bedford feels like a game, is a pleasurable experience. Whilst Nantucket isn't. I particularly think that this is evident in the whaling phases of the two games. Within New Bedford, it comes across as thematic, part of the game. Pulling cardboard chits out of a bag, felt like you were whaling (minus harpoon). If you drew out a sea tile, it felt like your nets were coming up empty. Whilst the cardboard coin tossing of Nantucket just felt horrid.
A bit like Harbour if you use another players building on their side of town. Then you have to pay them a dollar to use it. In out game that wasn't a bad exchange for the gain five dollars tile that Jonathan had. Pay one, get four back. However I did manage to build up a nice engine that allowed me to send out ships using half the resources needed. So to go the max distance out that usually would require six food, I only needed three. Plus I had a powerful tile that allowed me to land three right whales for free.
I think for replayability this game will need the expansion with the extra tiles. Plus the rule book could be clearer in some parts.
This isn't a great worker placement game, but an average one. You'll have a nice time playing it. I'd definitely play again if someone said “hey lets play…”. Would I go out of my way and ask to? Nope.
Jonathan ended up winning our first play of the game. But only by three points. Which was basically the extra points he earnt from a couple of bonus tiles that he had on his side of the town.
We finished off our evenings gaming with me teaching Jonathan 7 Wonders Duel. Jonathan had wanted to try the game. I guess after reading me harping on about it so much since getting it.
We used the wonders as suggested by the rule book for a first time playing the game. It seemed the right thing to do considering this was Jonathan's first game.
While I was going for the science win, Jonathan was going for the military. Neither one of us was able to complete our chosen path to victory so it ended up going to a points victory. But who would win that? Luckily for me, it was me!
But still for a first game Jonathan did get a respectable fifty points.
Overall I think Johathan was pleasantly surprised he enjoyed the game. Especially considering he's not. Fan of 7 Wonders.
After some gaming related chatter, we said our farewells.
Last night at the Chatteris Warlords weekly meet up Bob bought along his recently acquired copy of Starcraft the boardgame. A copy that was in amazing condition, and purchased at an unbelievably cheap price. Go google the game, and see how much this game goes for normally. I can tell you Bob didn't pay anything near to those prices.
My water damaged box, and the odd damaged card (due to a previous owner storing the cards by holding them together with elastic bands, the elastic had attached itself to the odd card), copy of Starcraft the boardgame has been sitting on my pile of shame ever since I got it. And yes I paid more for this copy than Bob did his, and I thought I was getting a bargain at the time!
I did have the odd game with me, such as Thiefs Market, The Manhattan Project: Chain Reaction. But they had been left in the car because earlier in the day on the Chatteris Warlords club page on Facebook, Bob had posted he was bringing along the game, and wanted to know who was up for playing it.
Five players were soon gathered together to play Starcraft. None of us had played the game before. So this was a learn as we play game.
Ben had already pushed two tables together for gaming when he arrived. But as we went through the setup process of the game, it soon became clear this was not big enough. We needed a third table. So pulling apart the two tables and slotting a third in the middle, we just about had enough space to play. Wow this is a big game!
No sooner had we finished setting up, than the last member of the clubs committee turned up, so the regular committee meeting was held. This meant we had to pause so Ben and Bob (who hold positions of power on the committee) could take part in the meeting. Usually these meetings are a wham, bam, thank you mam, type affair. But this time it decided to drag itself out. I have to admit it's interruption to game play as the meeting dragged on was starting to get to me. If the meeting had dragged on for ten minutes longer than it had I would have dropped out of the game.
We started playing again. Working our way through the stages of a turn. The player on my right was getting on my tits. He wasn't giving the game it's full attention, instead more bothered about his feckin Pokemon Go stuff. For fecks sake play the game or feck off I thought. He was slowing the game down.
This was a learning game. I thought I had only one resource, compared to the others. Which meant I wasn't going to be able to build anything on my turn until I conquered another planet to get them. So this meant I issued a move order to attack Ben's forces. Something I wouldn't have done when it turned out minutes later that we had a default pool of resources we could call upon. So with altered plans I built a new transport ship or whatever they are called, and moved to another unoccupied planet.
It was handy that Ben and I had a fight over a planet, because it meant we learnt the rules for battles. Which aren't really that complicated. Well that's how they seemed last night.
It was obvious that we were not going to finish the game. This is another one of those games that will take hours to play, not something for a club night. This game needs a Saturday session like the one I organised recently for A Game of Thrones the boardgame to do it justice.
We completed a second round of the game. I think on the banked victory points I had won with eight. The others were in the three,four point region. But I'm sure that if we had played longer I wouldn't have held onto that lead. I have to admit I was getting very frustrated with the player on my right during this second round. Him and his bloody phone and Pokemon Go. then his friend came over and chatted to him, distracting him further. He saw my Instagram likes popping up on my screen. Oh I was getting more likes than him for my picture, what's my ID on Instagram? Oh feck off I wanted to say, but begrudgedly through gritted teeth I gave my ID.
From the play through we had. And it was a learning game. So I can forgive Jamie on my left for needing to ask multiple times the same question. That doesn't slow the game down too much, and is great for banter at his expense. Although I don't think Bob will forgive Jamie for breaking one of the miniatures off its stand. I won't forgive the ignorant player on my right. However I disgress. From this limited play, I can tell I like this game, and definitely want to get a session going to play the game all the way to the end. Now all I need to do is try and find a time and place to get that game in.
Back in April on the Roleplaying and Board Game Chat group on Facebook there was a post about having a weekly top five games list based on a theme such as Dungeon Crawls. Obviously I thought this was a great idea for this blog too. I'm not sure if it took off because I don't seem to remember any top five lists on that Facebook group.
Now I'd filed a screen shot of that post away on my iPad for later use. A break open in case of lack of content sort of thing.
I have to admit I've always looked at this sort of content as lazy, and click bait. But I've never denied I'm not a big hypocrite. But what can I bring to this obvious attempt at grabbing views that will make it different and fresh?
So here we are with my first top five. The theme I've chosen for this list is two player games.
So how did I compile my top five? Firstly I downloaded my list of games owned from the bgg website.
Using Numbers on my iPhone I filtered the data on max number of players. I then decided that I would not include any CCG/LCG. I'll use them for the theme of another list sometime. I also discounted any game that plays more players but plays really well as a two player game also. Once again I think that would make a great theme for another list. I better start making a note of these themes to use at a later date. I also discounted games from the list that were still languishing on my pile of shame. I then went through the bg stats apps records of games played to make sure I hadn't missed any that I've played since I started recording game plays at the end of last year that belonged to someone else.
Now with that pruned list of candidates, it was time to whittle it down to a top five. But would I be able to actually rate the games in any sort of order of preference? No. So in no particular order because I can't be decisive, hate making decisions, and it was like trying to choose a favourite child, here is my top five two player games.
There has been a reason why I've pointed out when Nath loves a game. Nath as regular readers are aware is my son. My 22 year old son, who plays video games all the time (just like his father). So if a boardgame can get him excited and asking to play it, then that game has to be really special. So I use that as an extra measurement for how good a game is. With the games above that I haven't mentioned Nath, it's not because he doesn't like them, it's because I haven't played them with him yet.
If this was a top ten these four games would definitely be added to the list and would easily have made the list six months ago if I had done it then before some of the games had been added to the collection.
I had to do this, I can't warn people about this enough.
So there that was my first click bait top five list. Was it different enough from other lists? Are there any recommendations for others for me to play?
Once more we are scrambling for the crumbs as they fall from the Esdevium plate. So what morsels will we be devouring gratefully in the coming week?
First up is the two player game Tides of Madness. Portal Games follow up to the Tides of Time with the now obligatory Cthuhlu theming and having to take into account madness now also! The original Tides of Time was a beautiful looking game, with a nice twist on the draft mechanic.
We also have a chance to get our teeth sunk into the first expansion for Dice City. Dice City doesn’t get as much love as it should, especially considering how much better it is than the over rated Quadropolis.
Clocking in on the expensive side are the first three Imperial Assault skirmish map playmats. Ideal for quick play, no digging out tiles for starters. However they are more expensive than I think they should be. The sweet spot would have been the seventeen coins of the realm each. Which would have been an instant buy. But at the price of £24 each it’s not so attractive.
The Walking Dead continues its spread throughout the board gaming world. This time as a themed expansion for Zombie Munchkin. I’m surprised it has taken them so long to do. If I had the Zombie Munchkin this next one would be an instant buy.
Kennerspiel des Jahres nominee Time Stories is getting restocked. A timely reminder I still need to get this game to the table. Think on this purchase as being similar to buying a console with a game. You are buying the core game system with a module. Then you can buy more modules as they get released (currently three I think so far).
Finally two new armies for Neuroshima Hex 3.0. I love this game. And the addition of more armies is always welcome. I’d love a roll up play map of the board to make the game truly portable and something I could carry around to play. A great game, with a great app implementing it. The Dancer army is in the app, however the other isn’t. This is definitely the one thing next week I’m most excited about.
Well that’s it. The other crumbs that fell off the plate looked a bit off. So I had little interest in them.
See you in the next post.
Here is a short time lapse of my first time playing A Game of Thrones the boardgame with Jeff, Ben and Jonathan.
In all I think we played our four player game in little over two hours. Surprisingly quicker than I thought it would be.
In the end Jeff won taking the required seven castles, whilst I had been knocked back into last place. Yes I was in the lead early on before the others ganged up on me.
I was surprised how little conflict went on in our game. I seemed to be the main aggressor. Something I paid for in the long run.
I enjoyed this first play a lot, this will definitely be coming back to the table.
My only complaint about this game and the up and coming Iron Throne game (based on Cosmic Encounter) is the minimum number of players is three. So unless I can find a third volunteer when I visit Nath, neither would see the table. And I know that Nath would enjoy this game.
If you are able to get the players together this is a nice game to bring to the table.
Last night saw the weekly FEG@TA back on track after last weeks was cancelled.
The FEG@TA last night was only attended by Jonathan and myself. So what resulted was a pleasant evening of two player gaming, whilst the loud music and alcholic fuelled buffoonery raged around us.
Our first game of the evening was the two player worker placement game with a whaling theme Nantucket. Jonathan had got this for $3 as an add on to the game New Bedford (also about whaling) on Kickstarter.
For those that are already thinking tl;dr here’s the spoiler on what I thought of this game, it’s a pile of shit. It’s a stinker. It really is.
The rules could be written better. Some bits were unclear. A player aid with the scoring for the whaling coin toss phase of the game would have been a great and much needed addition.
And now I mention it the coin toss mechanic used for the whaling phase, I hated. With cardboard chits for the coins this just doesn’t work. It feels so unsatisfying.
Oh those cardboard coins! Whose bright idea was it to give the head side of the coin the image of a whales tale? Then two silver coins add up to one copper coin! Since when has copper been worth more than silver.
This is barely a game. I can’t think of one thing about the game I like. Maybe Jonathan and I are missing something. But this was not a pleasant experience for either of us. At $3 I think Jonathan was over charged. Oh Jonathan won this game.
Our second game had to be good to pick us up after such a start to the evening. So out came our current darling game The Manhattan Project Chain Reaction. I romped home with an easy win against Jonathan. It nearly was a whitewash and would have been if he hadn’t managed to finally score a bomb card just as I loaded up a bomb to take me to the game ending ten points. The cards just hadn’t been with Jonathan in this game. In one go I played 13 cards! Now that’s combotastic.
We followed this up with another crowd pleaser The Great Heartland Hauling Co. which we played using the expansion that comes with the game. The expansion basically gave you the chance to get upgrades/abilities. I grabbed two of the three that were on offer. One allowed me to move diagonally, the other allowed me to stay put by paying a dollar. Jonathan managed to nab the one that added an extra move space to a fuel card if you wanted to. But only after I had taken the other two.
I went on to use the staying put ability to great use irking Jonathan by tieing up one or two high value tiles. If I’d started doing that earlier and haf a bit of luck on the card draw to get the necessary cards I think that tactic of frustration could have won me the game.
In the end I was left with a lorry load of goods that flattered the victory Jonathan had.
I liked the addition of this expansion. It added a new element to the game that changed things up a little, while not taking away from the main game play.
Our last game of the evening was Valley of the Kings. Jonathan doesn’t do deck builders normally. But there was enough in this game that he enjoyed the experience. And that was despite me romping home to a comfortable win.
So despite Nantucket we had a fun evening playing games, with the spoils of victory split evenly between us.
So stop the bloody clock. I get home from visiting Nath this afternoon and there is a surprise package waiting for me.
It’s from China. Wait could it possibly be? Noo.
Wait it is, it’s here finally. At long last the replacement figure for the broken one in the Tokaido Collectors Accessory box I bought has arrived!
As you can see from the initial post this has been dragging on since the 25th February. Over five months it has taken Fun Forge to sort this out. Five blooming months! That’s rediculous
Fun Forge do have the worst customer support I’ve come across.
But I’m just glad that this saga is now at a close.
Posted by me using my iPad and the Blogsy app