Warlords Running Tuesday!

chatteris warlords, game night, netrunner

Last night I was back over to Chatteris for the Tuesday night meet up of the Chatteris Warlords. This being my second visit meant I had to fork out moolah and join the working men's club that the meet is held in (£10.50 yearly membership fee once two brave souls nominated/seconded me as a member, then £1 for joining the Gaming group for the year, and finally £1 for attending the meet).

My evening started off putting the current iteration of my Noise deck together. Then testing it against if I remember correctly an NBN deck.

I hit the corp running, using a few of the tricks I had in hand like DDOS, and Streetpeddler. The deck was working as I had intended, except in the area of economy, which needs a little tinkering.

The game came down to one run, if I didn't get past the two ice and steal the agenda, then the corp would score it on their go and get the win. If I steal it I'm victorious. My only ice breaker is Faust. I break through the first ice, the second ice is rezed and I can't use Faust with it! Foiled at the last hurdle. Well we know how this story ends. I should have run on that server earlier in the game, I had solutions, particularly the anarch favourite Parasite.

We swapped alliagiances and I played my NBN Making News deck against the Shaper Kate. My NBN deck needs a lot of work. It's an initial idea. I haven't even looked into if any of the Data and Destiny Deluxe Expanasion with its new NBN cards would make an improvement.

Somehow I managed to get a win. I think if my opponent had been a bit more aggressive on running we may have been looking at a different outcome.

It's great to see a meta taking root. There is even talk of getting a store kit for a tournament! That would be cool.

Other games going on last night were X-Wing (with some of the new Force Awakens ships), and a game of X-Com.

X-Com is one of those games that has the app as an integral part of the game. Meaning it can't be played without it. Which as I have stated before is why I won't personally buy the game. I'd like to have a play of the game though. Apparently in a discussion about the game and its reliance on the app, it appears there may be rules on line from the publisher that allow the game to be played without the app. So yes I'd like to try the game without the app also. This could be the compromise that sees me buying the game (assuming the results of both plays are favourable).

If you are wondering still why go read the Golem Arcana Final Expansion post HERE. I've never played the game so I'm not aware just how integral to the game the app is. Can it be played still with out the app? The next release of Android or iOS could completely nerf the app. It has been known for an OS update to do that to apps until the have been rebuilt with the new libraries.

I'd love to hear Ignacy's response/view to this.

But I've digressed, time to look at my NBN deck.

 

Pandemic Legacy February

pandemic legacy season 1

Ok so here is the warning if the above image isn't enough of a clue for you, this post may or may not contain spoilers for the rather excellent boardgame Pandemic Legacy. So if you want to avoid spoilers I'll see you in the next post.

Last night saw the bruised from defeat team of Matt, Jonathan, Debbie and myself once more take on Pandemic Legacy for the month of February.

For those following our journey through the game, the game beat us twice for the month of January. If you lose the first attempt, you try again and then that's it.

We were starting the month of February with the full compliment of eight funded events in the players deck, plus the three unfunded events.

Once again for the month of February our objective was to find cures for the three viruses that could be cured. The scenario for February saw COdA-403b take a turn for the worst, it had gotten stronger and now couldn't be treated or cured!

Luckily we could now quarantine cities, and also had a new member of the team to select if we wanted to. We decided that we were comfortable with our current roles and would stick with them.

During setup we allowed to define relationships between our characters, which meant we would need to name our characters. I named mine the token sexy scientist! While Matts dispatcher was named Zardoz (after the Sean Connery movie he had gotten recently), Debbie named her researcher B after her nickname. Finally Jonathan named his medic Hawkeye after the character from that long running hit black comedy series set in the Korean War M.A.S.H.

I can't remember all the relationships, they will be revealed at the end when I put up all the characters we played during the game. My Token Sexy Scientist was rivals with Hawkeye, and co-workers with Zardoz.

The relationships were important because they bestowed extra abilities on the player if they were in the same city together, like getting an extra action.

After doing the initial infection and placing one quarantine marker on a city, we decided to start at the Atlanta research station. We stood good chance of getting an early win on finding a cure for C-Thatcam Major, and eradicating it. Which we did.

The game was very tense but we were able to manipulate our use of event cards so that the rivalry between myself and Hawkeye worked in our favour, so that we were able to get multiple uses out of some of the event cards.

Soon with not only curing the black virus but eradicating it, we were looking hopefully at trying to cure the yellow one to get a win.

But COdA-403b was proving a headache, we had team members permantly camped in the region moving and quarantining cities to prevent outbreaks when an infection happened.

While we were trying to get the dispatcher to a research station with enough yellow cards to find the cure, we were fire fighting COdA-403b trying to block a pandemic because that would lose us the game with only four red cubes left in the supply, and watching the player deck getting dangerously low, things were getting nail biting nervous.

We were on a knives edge, victory on one side, another defeat the other. It could easily have gone either way. But we did it, we WON! Matt's dispatcher got to a research lab and found a cure!!!!

The black virus was named Sithite from now on.

For our end of game bonuses we chose to turn our third research lab into a third possible starting lab, and for C-Thatcam Major we no longer need to be in a research station to make a cure for it.

There are also two new funded event cards to choose from, plus for the March game our funding drops to six because we did such a good job in February.

As a bonus we also get to place an extra quarantine marker at the start of March. However memories of our failures for January came back to haunt us as we had to tear up the mystery bonus for winning January, which we will never know what it was.

Onto March…

 

While I was sleeping…

news

You go away for a weekend, spend quality time with your son and everyone sees that as an opportunity to make announcements about up and coming expansions or eagerly awaited games.

First up is Pandemic Reign of Cthulhu.

This came straight out of nowhere. I mean why? Ok Pandemic was probably one of the handful of remaining game franchises that didn't have a Cthulhu version. And from what I've seen comment wise about this came it has already been described as Eldrich Horror Lite! How accurate that will be we really won't know until the game hits the shelves of the local FLGS, which will be just after GenCon 2016 where it is being launched hopefully.

The game is based on Pandemic with input from Matt Leacock, but the credit for designer of this version of Pandemic goes to Chuck D. Yager (not sure what he's done before off the top of my head, and I can't be bothered to use my ninja Google skills).

I always think that when an existing IP is given a Cthulhu make over that the company has run out of ideas, and are just trying to milk the cash cow. I bit like doing a Zombie/Munchkin version.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I think the word I'd chose at the moment is indifferent. We briefly discussed this last night before our play of February in Pandemic Legacy. I know Matt and Jonathan were more excited about this than I am. However they were right that I would still be buying it!

Next up is news that the first expansion for Dead of Winter (which I still haven't got to the table to my deep shame) Long Night will be released by Plaid Hat Games at Origins 2016. Yes I will get this when it comes out, and I hope to have played the game once or twice before then!

Plaid Hat also announced that the very anticipated legacy style game Seafall will see release at GenCon. There is a lot of buzz about this game, and based on how much I'm enjoying a Pandemic Legacy will most definitely be getting this game.

One thing to look out for both of these games is pre-ordering them from Plaid Hat directly, it maybe slightly cheaper, or who knows have an exclusive promo. Plaid Hat like playing that game. Give them their dues, they do eventually make the promos available on their website to buy. So if you get your copy from your local FLGS but want the promo, don't pay the silly ebay scalper prices, wait. Yes they are not the fastest at putting these promos up for sale as the slowness to put the Ashes promo Phoenixborn up shows. But… Eventually they will.

Finally White Wizard Games are starting to promote the first expansion for Epic called Tyrants. The first teaser we get is of the card Draka, Dragon Tyrant. For card games this sort of teaser is typical. Give players a sneak peak of some of the new cards, build up anticipation and demand.

Based on no other fact that from previous experience of White Wizard releases, I'm expecting this expansion to be in a similar price point as the Star Realms Crisis expansions of around a fiver in real money.

I'd like to thank bgg for the excellent work of breaking these stories, and getting the images above (except the Epic one which I got from the Epic Facebook page). I'm not taking any credit for their hard work. I'm just taking credit for my editorial comment.

 

Gaming Stats for Jan 2016

gaming stats

Since just before the New Year kicked in I came across an app for tracking the plays of boardgames. What was extra cool with this app was that it links with the bgg website and updates your play sessions on there also. Hence the embedded last game played widget on the right of the blog.

With me recording all my game plays on this app, it gives me some nice stats. Those stats I have put below. Remember that the anon player is used by me to record one off game plays against people I usually play against, and most likely won't for a long time.

I expect next month Pandmic Legacy will be my most played game of the month.

 

In the majority

online play

If I manage to keep the majority of this mega structure in my current game with bowchicka then I'm going to be in a pretty good position to push on for the rare win.

I love playing Carcassonne. The app is amazing, and I've been playing bowchicka for a few years now. The win ratio is definitely very skewed towards bowchicka. Sometimes she takes pity on me and let's me win a game.

But back to the original point of this post, I feel this one massive building is the deciding factor for this game. Who manages to walk away with the points for it will go on to win. I'm going to be so sick if I lose the majority. I've done a good job so far cutting bowchicka out.

If you fancy a game of Carcassonne my ID is whitespider1066.

 

More Father Son Gaming

father son gaming

Yesterday after providing what can only be described as a token gesture of help (I wish it could have been more but I had already made a more important commitment which is the subject matter of the rest of this post) I made my way South to see Nath for the weekend.

For those that know me on other social media outlets would have seen the messy little piglet Nath can be a lot of the time.

After nagging him about this, we popped off to the nearby Sainsburys following up a lead from earlier in the day from my Scottish doppelgänger about reduced Lego. When we got there the evidence left (empty space on the shelf and the red reduced sticker) did indeed that there had been some cheap Lego to purchase. Sadly I was not one of those benefactors of Sainsburys generosity. Although I did snag four Star Wars The Force Awakens stackable mugs for four gold coins of the realm.

After some father son time watching Amazon Prime (the last Wolverine movie and the first episode of the new US police procedural show Lucifer) I set up Formula D ready for some gaming in the morning. I shared a photo that Celtic doppelgänger pointed out was a spoiler for the new Star Wars movie! Oops, that was unintentional.

This morning once Nath had resurrected himself saw us racing at speed round a race track. I gave Nath pole position, which I would come to regret. We played the beginner rules for this game. I love this game despite Nath taking an early lead that I was unable to close. I thought I had going into the final corners. But Nath just shifted up a gear and zoomed off across the finish line while I was going round the final bend.

Nath enjoyed playing Formula D, thought it was very thematic, and captured the gear changes etc with the dice really well.

Our second game of the morning was a learning game of Seasons.

Because this was our first game ever, so instead of drafting our nine cards for the game we used the suggested preconstructed nine card lists in the rules.

It really did help with this game having seen some YouTube videos before hand. I was able to set up without referring to the rules, and explain most of the game to Nath.

Like Bomb Squad Academy when we thought it wishful thinking to use the 100 point tokens, when we looked at the scoreboard and saw a 200 point marker, we were sure we wouldn't achieve those heady heights of scoring.

This game looks amazing. It's bright and vibrant. Wow. Game play wise, the turn order is so easy to learn, but hides the tactical depth. It starts with which dice to pick, to which spell to cast, to managing your reserves and the max number of active spells you can have in play. Plus we hadn't even touched the drafting and deciding which cards go in which pile. Then you have to decide whether you take a point hit at the end to get the use of one of the four abilities you can choose from. Add in card effects on played spells, and a turn can get very tactical.

Nath and both enjoyed the game a lot. It worked very well as a two player game. Now I'd like to play it with the drafting and more players.

Oh and Nath narrowly beat me by four points.

As always my time with Nath was way too short.

 

End of Jan 2016 arrivals

Uncategorized

So we start off this posts look at what’s arrived looking at Lego!

  
A trip to the local Tesco found a couple of packets of the latest minifig collection falling into my shopping basket, along with a Battle on Takodana set. 

My weekend reading material was also in the basket at the time.

  
Which included the first issue of a new collect the parts series about drawing the Marvel way. I got it out of curiosity to see how much it differs from the book. Is the style different, more modern? 

   
Some custom minifig bits arrived. Allowing me to create a munchkin inspired minifig and the astronaut from the latest minifig set. There were also a couple of props, a selfie stick and parcel.

The wrestler minifig with its mullet instantly had me thinking of a friend who will soon be immortalised as a minifig.

 
Next up my journey further down the rabbit hole known as Magic the Gathering continues with a cool playmat, a Fatpack for Oath of the Gatekeeper and a booster box.

   
 
  
The game Seasons arrived. 

   
My new qwertee tee arrived based. Plus two games bought second hand off the Facebook group.

 
So that’s it for the new stuff this week.

Hitting the shelves the start of Feb 2016

news, tabletop

First up the first data pack of the Mumbad Cycle for Netrunner comes out. I'm super happy with this, and will be parting with credits for it.

Trickerion is out next week, plus an expansion for it. I wonder if Mat has this expansion? Plus a game I like the look of, and if it's not on my wish list, it should be.

And if you are a Heroes of Normandy fan there are some expansions out that might interest you.

 

You got to fight for your right to PARTY!

news

So I'm wondering just how I missed the following news, and has to stumble upon an entry on bgg for the game whilst looking for something else!

At my first UK Games Expo last year I think my find of the show was the card drafting, set collecting game Sushi Go!

It's a delightful, very thematic, little game. The card drafting captures the experience of a sushi bar so well. Select your dish (card) and pass the rest of the cards in your hand to the next person, and repeat. It simulates the conveyor belt plates of food in these sushi bars so well.

So when I saw the name Sushi Go Party! on bgg I had to investigate this further. Here is the publishers description of the new game taken from the bgg page.

“Description from the publisher:

Sushi Go Party!, an expanded version of the best-selling card game Sushi Go!, is a party platter of mega maki, super sashimi, and endless edamame. You still earn points by picking winning sushi combos, but now you can customize each game by choosing à la carte from a menu of more than twenty delectable dishes. What's more, up to eight players can join in on the sushi-feast. Let the good times roll!“

Sushi Go Party! Is coming out later in the year. But wow, more players, and the customising of the cards you use! I'm totally in on this one. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

 

Brains! Bang! Bang!

tabletop

Yesterday I got a chance to play Bang the Dice Game The Walking Dead edition with some of my students.

I've talked about Bang the Dice Game before on this blog. It's a great game especially if you have a largish gaming group (5-8) players and want a game that everyone can play. There are very few that handle that large a group. It's what makes this game also great to use with students, three copies will easily handle a class of twenty four students, and it's not mega expensive to buy.

So what are the differences between Bang the Dice Game and Bang the Dice Game The Walking Dead edition?

Firstly theme. The original Bang the Dice Game (and I am going to get so bored typing that each time, probably as bored as you will be reading it) has a western theme. While The Walking Dead edition is as its name suggests based on the comic/graphic novel of the same name, and not the the tv series. That's important because the art work used for the game is from or similar to the comic and not from the tv series. And for those that are not familiar with The Walking Dead, the theme is zombies, and survival against the odds.

Secondly, and for me this is a massive difference, the quality of the components used. For me The Walking Dead components, dice and counters are a lesser quality than the same components in Bang the Dice Game. The cardboard used for the wound splatters (life counters) is thinner and glossier and not that nice in the hand. While the dice are not as high quality. The images on the dice will I'm sure start to rub off with a lot of use.

My first game with these students there was just three of us playing the game. I hadn't played the game before with three players, and it had been a thing I'd wanted to do. Just to experience it, and see how it felt.

Playing with three players the rules are slightly different. You have one survivor, one saviour and a hilltop survivor. And these are face up so everyone knows who has which role. Off the top of my head I can't remember who has to shot who. But for example and this is most likely wrong, the survivor has to kill the saviour player, the hilltop survivor has to kill the survivor, you get the picture. After that the game plays as normal until a winner emerges.

It was interesting playing like this, is it as much fun as the hidden role mode of the regular game? Not really, but it is still a fun experience.

While we were playing this three player game, another student got curious about the game and wanted to join in. So our second play was the regular rules with four players.

The students did enjoy playing, because after the game we played another two games at their request before time ran out. They loved the interaction, and sometimes forgot who they were meant to be going after based on their faction, and repaid wounds inflicted on them by one of their classmates irrelivant of the other players likely faction.

At one point, one student managed to kill himself with a self inflicted zombie horde! Which was a source of banter after we finished playing.

I think the requests to play again show the strength of the under lying game. The students didn't comment on the component quality, however this group hadn't played the original version so had nothing to compare with.

A fun version of the game, just a shame about the quality. Have I made that clear enough in this post that I don't like the quality of the components?

Anyway choose the theme you like, buy, and have fun!!!