My New Grail Game

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I’ve been giving the following decision a lot of thought over the last couple of days. More so in fact than handing in my notice. That was a no brainer.

I’ve decided to elevate Glen More from just a game on my wish list, and one I really enjoy playing, to the hallowed title of “Grail game”.

It was a tough decision. Over the last few days I read a bgg forum debate where the designer of Glen More let it “slip” that sometime in the future the game should be easier to get due to a reprint.

I’d be dancing in the street if this is true. Watch the mad rush to offload the game at the current arm and a leg prices when the reprint is officially announced. Hoping that they catch an innocent punter and part them from their money before they find out if they wait they can get the game brand new for a reasonable price.

We saw this behaviour with the game Fury of Dracula. It was sickening to see them hunting for fresh prey. 

Anyway while I’m waiting for this official announcement (I’m not holding my breathe, call me a cynic if you must) I thought this game surely deserves the title “Grail game” on my wish list.

If you somehow get a chance to buy Glen More or even just play it, do it. You won’t regret it.

Oh and I’m naturally talking about the English version of this game,not the easily found German version. 

Epic Wednesday!

epic

Got my chance to play Epic finally today. Four of us split into pairs to play the basic thirty card deck game.

Each of us dealt thirty cards from the one hundred and twenty card deck that comes in the box, plus the Kickstarter cards shuffled in.

In my first game I got my butt royally handed to me. Hardly doing any damage to my opponent and taking lots in return. I was unable to block my opponents champions because they were airborne and I had no airborne champions to block with.

The two winners then went on to play against each other to decide the victor, while myself and the other loser played for not coming last.

I did much much better in this second game. I won. It was close but I was able to make a massive swing to get the win.

So what did I make of my first plays of Epic? It was enjoyable. I'd like to play the game using some of the other formats. Being able to play straight away just by dealing two decks of thirty cards is great for learning the game and terminology. But I think the game will jump to another level playing the other game formats like some of the drafting modes or even the preconstructed decks.

I just need to expand the LCG/CCG/deckbuilder contingent of the fenland gamers to more than myself.

 

Companion Apps

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What apps do you use to assist in your gaming?

I have two apps that select randomly set ups for Marvel Legendary. 

A general score keeping app, along with one aimed at Epic.

Two apps that can be used to track tournaments if I ran one.

A deck building app for Android:Netrunner.

I’m tracking my game plays with an app (more in that at the end of the month).

Naturally I also have companion apps for games I own that provide timers, atmospheric sound effects, or read out event cards.

So what apps do you have to aid your gaming?

Quick to the table

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Thought I’d set myself a little challenge for the quarter. Kind of a mini resolution. I’m not one for these yearly resolutions, but this I think I can get behind and do.

So here is the deal… 

I have what many would consider is a collection of games. Some I’ve played, some I haven’t. 

Well I’d like to change that ratio of unplayed to played, plus there are some games I’d like to get back to the table.

To help with that I thought I’d come up with a list of five games each quarter that I would try to get to the table either for a first time or renewing of a friendship.

So here is the very first of my lists of games I want to get to the table:

  • Five Tribes
  • Magic the Gathering Arena of the Planeswalker
  • Discoveries
  • T.I.M.E. Stories
  • Ashes 

One or two will be easier than others, but that is part of the challenge.

The Prestige

Fenland Gamers, game night

During the seventies as a kid Saturday mornings were always Swap Shop with Noel Edmunds and Posh Paws or Tiswas with the attractive Sally James in her thigh length boots and tight tops, a male ensemble of co-hosts and Spit the Dog. Cartoons were interrupted by interviews, skits, outside broadcasts. Although not a red blooded male minded being interrupted by Sally James.

Fast forward a few decades, I still have a Saturday morning tv routine. Sadly no Sally James involved. It does involve coffee (with the aid of my aeropress I make the best in Wisbech – FACT), a bowl of seriously cinnamon cereal, and the previous nights to that was broadcast in the US of A, or new content on channels I follow on YouTube, while cuddled up in blankets on the sofa.

What's the point of this trip down memory lane? Well I was happily enjoying this weekend ritual, having a relaxed morning. Mum had been shopping, bought me a couple of burgers to cook for my lunch (yeah I know the cheek, you would have thought she would have cooked them for me too). Lunchtime came, I cooked my own lunch (the fore mentioned burgers, which I seasoned both sides of with salt, pepper, and crushed chillies, before placing on a griddle to cook). Lunch was then consumed while watching Precinct Ninety-Nine on Netflix.

I was in a happy place. Quarter to one I decided to get dressed, ready to leave for the afternoons gaming at two. Hey if I wasn't gaming that afternoon, I wouldn't have been dressed.

Then just gone one…

PING!

“Are you joining us today?”

– it was a text from Jonathan. I thought he was confirming I was going.

PING!

“Or have you forgotten your phone?”

– ok that was a bit weird, but I had previously forgotten my phone, so maybe not that weird. Then the penny started to click I better confirm the time we were meeting up to play.

“Yes 2pm isn't it?”

PING!

“It's 1pm”

“Oh rats give me 15”

PING!

“No problem”

Luckily as I had already pointed out I had not long got dressed. Quickly I deposited the wolf pack with Nan, jumped in the car, weighed up whether I had enough petrol to get me there without having to fill up in the way, or if it could wait until the return journey.

Fifteen minutes later I was there ready for playing our first game…

Trickerion

My late arrival had meant I had missed the pre-game warm up show by the biggest name in magic history…

In a previous post I discussed how thematic the whole look and feel of Trickerion was. It still holds true, this game just oozes the turn of the twentieth century theatre and magic shows of the time. Watch the mini series Houdini on Netflix or The Prestige with Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman if you aren't sure what I'm talking about.

Trickerion is a worker placement game, where you are building magic tricks using your magician, engineers and assistants, and then performing those tricks to earn fame points. The person with the most fame points wins.

This was a first time playing so Jonathan and I were bound to be asking lots of questions about rules and what various things did.

There are three different levels of tricks your magician can do, however the more difficult ones can't be done until you have the required number of fame points. I can see why this is so, but based on our play through of the game, I don't see how you get to the more difficult tricks. We didn't start hitting the required number of points until the final scoring!

Which brings me to my next point. We got to the last turn very quickly, and barely had time to get an engine going, perform many tricks, earn fame to be able to do more complicated tricks. There was a feeling at the end that maybe we had missed something out.

I love that each magician is different, specialising in a particular style of magic. That when you choose an engineer you get the choice between a male and female version, that also the female version has different abilities to the male. And this is true to the other help you can recruit also.

Trickerion was very enjoyable and thematic. I'd definitely play this again. But I'd love to know how you are meant to get to the better tricks. The score board goes up to a hundred, and we struggled to reach thirty.

Somehow in our game, going into the final turn I had a narrow lead, with Jonathan bringing in last place. Going into the final scoring I still had the lead, but somehow totalling up the extra scoring opportunities Jonathan sailed past Mat and then snatched the lead to win the game.

It was now time to manage a vineyard in …

Viticulture

It helps when you play a game you don't forget about scoring and the win condition, and get lost in other game mechanisms.

In the first round I was able to get a recurring credit each turn without completing a contract that I was able to push up to three, still without actually having had to produce anything. I never really struggled with money, and it took a little while for Mat and Jonathan to catch me up on the recurring money front.

Because of my financial advantage, I had the majority of the structures built in my vineyard early on.

But as I said it wasn't until Jonathan was within striking distance of triggering the end condition that I remembered I need to be collecting points. But by then it was too late, despite a desperate attempt to catch up and claw my way to victory, my struggle was in vein.

Jonathan's run of victories continued with winning our game of Viticulture.

Our final game of the afternoon was…

Glen More

The English version of this game I think has become my latest Grail game. However apparently there is an update on the way (but who knows when this will surface?)

Because there were three of us playing a dice was used to simulate a fourth player. The dice would be rolled, and moved that many places on the rondel, the tile at its landing place removed from the game. Plus the one value is covered with a coin for each of the resources in the warehouse. So instantly the resources in the warehouse were more expensive, but simulates this ghost fourth player buying them. I liked this as a way to add a fourth player to the three player game.

Once again I won the game with a big margin, breaking Jonathan's winning streak for this gaming session.

We now have a date set for the start of our Pandemic Legacy campaign. Our team of heroes has been assembled, a date set, the world just needs to pray that we are successful in saving it!

Despite being late, I had a great afternoon gaming with Mat and Jonathan. We played some great games, had fun, made plans. A fantastic afternoon.

 

Valentine’s Day Gaming Suggestions

tabletop

At this months Fenland Gamers meet up as we were saying our farewells I was asked about love themed games to play for the impending commercial celebration of relationships (does that sound cynical and jaded?) apart from the obvious Love Letter.

Nothing sprang to mind, I guess love isn't a popular theme! Then last night my wandering mind got to thinking is it a love themed game you want to play on Valentine's Day or a game that couples can play? I've come down on the later.

Love Letter has already been suggested, I love the game, but it's not a strong two player game. The great thing about this game is at least you can pick a theme that your partner loves.

I haven't played this next suggestion but it looks interesting, and that is “and then we held hands”, a two player only co-operative game about saving a relationship I believe.

I love the two player card game Lost Cities. I've played this a lot (using the marvellous app). The great thing is this should easily be available as it has recently been reprinted.

Codenames has a two player variant described in the games rule book. I've not played two players with this game, so I can't comment how well this plays but maybe worth a try.

I think the classic Carcassonne plays well with two players, and is an ideal game for an evening of romance. I'd also look at Tokaido (although this does simulate a third player) and Takenoko. Both beautiful games, both great games. Just decide if you want to bath in hot springs with monkeys and have the best experience possible on your journey, or grow bamboo, move around a cute panda and frustrated gardener.

If you want really competitive take that type games which is soooo romantic! Why not look at Star Realms or even buying a pack of Magic the Gathering duel decks? The nice thing these two suggestions have everything you need straight out of the box to play. No having to pre-construct decks on the Magic side, open shuffle and play.

That's my suggestions for that commercial day of romance from a jaded cynic. I've tried to stay away from two player skirmish type games, or ones that require tonnes of setup. Heck you want to spend time playing and enjoying each other's company, not hours setting up a game.

Let me know what you would suggest couples could play Valentine's Day in the comments below.

 

New Arrivals Mid Jan 2016

expansions, new arrivals
This weeks new arrivals top and tailed the week.
Monday saw the arrival of the first Magic the Gathering Arena of the Planeswalker expansion Battle for Zendikar. When I ordered this just before Christmas I hadn't seen it on sale in the UK, so I was “forced” (ok I could have waited, it's not as if I've played the game yet) to get the expansion from the US of A.

The week closed with the arrival of promos for two games I have from the bgg store. First up is the nine tile Medena expansion/promo for Alhambra. This is the second expansion/promo I've added to the tile pool for the game. Interestingly this one adds the possibility of negative points in the scoring phases!

The other game to get the promo pimping out this week is Kingdom Builder. The first expansion/promo is an island. Which adds another area to the board to use. I need to read the rule booklet for any other changes.

The other promo is the Capital which replaces a castle under specific circumstances, and another way to score.

Still in the postal ether is a couple of promos from Portal Games.

 

Stuff to buy next week 18th Jan 2016

news

Yep it's that time of week where next weeks new releases are revealed by Esdevium. So here are the ones that caught my eye, or I've been waiting for.

Munchkin is a marmite game, I'm a marmite fan! I've not played the Legends themed version. But for fans of the deluxe editions this is a must buy because it should have a playing board for tracking players levels, nice little play figures to use. Well assuming they match the Munchkin Deluxe version that has been previously released.

But for me the little Hipster expansion is the one I'll be going for. Already I'm using this being available as the basis for cheap laughs at a friends hipster expense.

Then the big one for games shops, their bread and butter product, has a new release. Yep Magic the Gathering hits the stores with Oath of the Gatewatch.

Finally the single player game Hostage Negotiator gets restocked, along with the four Abductor Pack expansions for it.

 

Epic Counter App Now on iOS

apps, epic, news
White Wizard Games finally see the release of their Epic Counter app hit the iOS App Store today.
Getting an app approved and onto the App Store does seem like some dark arcane magic ritual, which means that developers normally can't give an exact date for its release on to the App Store. Or even guarantee that the app will be approved.
However after jumping through hoops, sacrificing first born on the first blue moon of the year, dressing up in an Elvis style jumpsuit, taking a selfie and posting it on social media. White Wizard Games have negotiated the rapids of the iOS app approval process and delivered to us mortals an app for tracking life while playing Epic.

Although this app is graphically styled, and aimed at players of Epic. There is no reason why it couldn't be used for playing other games *cough*Magic*cough* to keep track of life in them.

Have to admit not used the app in anger yet. But it does look rather good graphically.

Driving Miss Daisy

Fenland Gamers, game night, star realms, tabletop

Last night saw the monthly meet up of the Fenland Gamers. After a quick discussion about why I had handed in my notice at work, we had to decide on a game to play. I suggested that we played…

Formula D

I've wanted to play Formula D for a while, I even picked up a second hand copy off the Facebook trading and selling page late last year. Sadly I hadn't got my copy to the table. Over the previous weekend Gavin and I discussed what games we would be bringing along to the evening. Gavin mentioned he had got Formula D for Christmas, so being the lazy person I am (hey these games aren't light to carry you know), I encouraged Gavin to bring along his copy for us to play.

Before the race started we rolled for our starting positions on the grid. I was at the back of the grid in the fifth spot. The omens weren't looking good, my first dice roll, and I was rolling low.

I was going to have to drive aggressively if I was to make up for my poor starting position. I was determined to fight my way to the front and make a historic win.

We were playing the beginners rules.

I managed to claw my way into contention for first place with Jonathan and Gavin, by using some great rolls of the dice (oh yes I was rolling high when I needed to be low, truly the dice hated me), managing my damage, and when I'd take it on corners to catch up and put myself in the running.

Katie managed to join the battle for first on the last two or three corners. However Gavin stole first place, with a close second going to me. I think Jonathan was third with Katie coming in fourth and a distant last Debbie.

In fact it was Debbie and her distance behind the pack that inspired the title of this blog post. Yes it seemed like Debbie was driving Miss Daisy in her little plastic formula one car round the race track.

In an old episode of the Simpsons where if my fading memory is not playing tricks on me the Simpson family are racing round a kart track, Marge says “slow and steady wins the race”. This indeed did seem to be Debbie's game plan for Formula D.

Now as you may have guessed there was some “gentle” banter at the table about Debbie in last place. And while Jonathan was plotting to take any shine off a historic win (if I had gone on to win it), Debbie too was plotting her revenge for the next game.

Wow I enjoyed playing Formula 6 a lot. It's more than a simple just roll and move game. There are some tactics to employ. The game cleverly uses different sided dice to represent the different gears of the formula one car you are racing in. These dice have different number ranges on them. For example in fourth gear you will roll the green dice that only has values in the range seven to twelve.

You have to stop a predetermined number of times on each corner. One corner may be once, while another might be three times. So you have to plan which gear you need to be in so that you are rolling numbers that allow you to stop the required number of times.

Then you have damage to your car, end up adjacent to another players car, and you both roll to see if you take damage. Fail to stop the correct number of times on a corner, take damage. Take too much damage and your car engine blows up. So managing your damage is an important factor. In the advanced version of the game, this damage is applied to more specific areas of the car.

The game does a fantastic job of simulating the “thrills” of racing round a track. I'm not a formula one fan, I find watching it boring. But I still enjoyed playing Formula D.

Hopefully Jonathan's idea of having a Formula D league can see the light of day for our group. It certainly would be fun.

The next game of the evening to hit the table was…

Ticket to Ride: Europe (TTR:E) aka Debbie's Revenge! Her part in my downfall

I've played TTR:E only within the rather excellent app version of the boardgame. And only then a couple of times at most.

Naturally the map for TTR:E is a map of Europe instead of the U.S. Of A. for the original game. We didn't play with the stations, a decision Gavin, Jonathan and myself would later on come to regret. However we were using the other additions of tunnels, ferries and long routes.

I really wasn't focusing during the initial stages of the game. I had not a clue what I was doing, what carriages I should have been collecting, the optimal routine I should be having to complete etc etc.

Did this lackadaisical approach at the start of the game cost me the game? Well it didn't help.

There was a lot of routes being built in Northern Europe by everyone. It was becoming very clogged, and gave Debbie her first chance to get her revenge by building a route I needed. It happened again later on, forcing me to try another way to complete my longest route. I needed two links to complete my long route and get twenty one points after being blocked by Debbie, and forced to find another way to complete my card.

I had one pink in hand, was planning to take the multi coloured engine my next go ready to complete my long route. When BANG! Katie played her last four trains to complete her card and end the game!

I had finished an eight point route only, got totally shut out by Katie and Debbie from completing my twelve point route, and now had failed to complete my long twenty one point route by two pink trains.

So during the end scoring while everyone else was happily adding on lots of points for completing cards, I went backwards. If Katie had scored nine more points she would have lapped me on the score board. I think this was my lowest scoring game of TTR ever!

The final game of the evening was the new crowd pleaser…

Codenames

So that the teams were even I sat this one out.

After taking a call from Kate, I had a bit of good news about a potential opportunity. Which was followed by a call from Nath. Who I thought was calling to gloat about ARSEnal being three two up against my beloved Liverpool. But no, he was telling me to take my go because he was going to win on his next go on Star Realms.

I took my go, which did some damage to him, but more importantly parked an outpost on the board and increased my authority. Which meant Nath was not able to get the win he was predicting. Although to be fair I only delayed the inevitable by about four turns.

But back to me being a bad Dad and disappointing my sons plans for victory at that moment in time. After Nath had taken his turn I got a text that was one word “lucky”. About five minutes later when Liverpool had scored a last minute equaliser in extra time I got another text “lucky lucky lucky”.

Back at the gaming table the game of Codenames was progressing. Now both teams ended up winning a game each. However I have to say I enjoyed spectating this game, and trying to work out which word(s) were meant by the clue.

This was another blooming brilliant evening of gaming, with great company. Thanks folks.