Longer than a John Bonham drum solo

Game day, game night, Twilight Imperium 4

As planned our four player game of Twilight Imperium 4 (TI4) with the Prophecy of Kings (PoK) expansion took place yesterday.

Which meant Dave, Diego, Jeff, and myself gathered indoors round two tables pushed together on a hot July afternoon.

The previous evening I had confirmed that there was no booking of the community centre. It was important to know before hand if we had any time constraints (other than the place closing up for the night) before starting so we could make adjustments.

As per usual I arrived early to start setting up and merge the PoK expansion with the core game. I punctuated this with a triple quarter pounder cheese burger. Hey a galactic empire marches on its stomach.

When the others arrived there was still a little setup left to do, plus choose our factions.

Dave and Diego went with factions from the core game, whilst Jeff and I went with one of the new factions from the expansion.

The factions chosen were as follows:

  • The Nomad – me
  • The Universities of Jol-Nar – Dave
  • The Argent Flight – Jeff
  • The Mentak Coalition – Diego

By the time we finished setup (including choosing factions) nearly an hour had passed! So a 1:15pm start was really 2:15pm before our first expansionist actions were being taken.

For me TI4 (or earlier editions) is the board gaming version of epic stories like Lord of the Rings, or the Foundation series.

To be fair it might be quicker to read either than play TI4.

TI4 is an epic game. Not just because of the scale of it (it’s a massive table hog) but the inter-galactic warring factions fighting for supremacy has this epic grandeur feel.

The first few rounds were void of any conflict, and were mainly factions racing to grab planets to get the resources needed to build up their fleets for defensive and aggressive purposes.

Our first space battle was between Jeff and Diego over Mecatol Rex. Even after that skirmish combat was a rarity until the later stages.

I did quiet well developing my technology. It helped my Commander (part of PoK) enabled me to produce my command ship for free. This enabled me to develop War Sun technology and take Jeff on and rebuild very quickly after any losses.

We had two epic battles in the middle of the galaxy.

I liked what PoK bought to the core game. The leaders, mechs, factions. And it didn’t bring any real extra overhead to the game.

As a four player game we got to choose two strategy tiles each. Which was nice having two to activate. Although the second tile may not have always been one you had wanted.

We actually finished playing around 9:40pm. Yes I can see you doing the math. That’s about seven and a half hours of playtime.

A little longer than I had calculated. I’d estimated about five hours. But now you know why earlier I had checked about any bookings.

The thing is whilst you are playing you are so engrossed in the game that you have no idea what the time is. Before you know it seven hours plus have passed.

Ok you do get a hint during play when you miss phone calls asking where you are. But hey is it my fault I forgot to warn mum the game was likely to run a long time? Heck she got a McDonalds delivered out of it.

Anyway after the space dust had settled Dave’s turtling empire ended up victorious.

This was truly an epic afternoon and evening with great friends. The way a Summer Saturday truly should be spent.

In a social club far far away…

game night

The well-being day came and went. I did get to play some of the games I took with me in the afternoon.

Deep Sea Adventure was a hit with my friend Sam. I think she might be getting a copy once she is back from her holiday. In the meantime I showed Sam the Oink games app on her phone with the game (I think) free.

Love Letter along with Cat in the Box, and Sushi Go Party also hit the table that afternoon.

It was a great afternoon gaming with friends and colleagues who I don’t usually get a chance to play with. I hope that I get a chance to do this again.

Sadly Scythe Expeditions didn’t arrive by Friday evening. I knew it was a long shot. The update from Stonemaier was UK/Europe would be shipping this week. I was hoping that there might be a small chance it’d make an appearance but it was really wishful thinking.

I know Spiral Galaxy has started shipping however I’d love to know how many champions are in the UK with Expeditions orders. I’m not totally convinced they are shipping champions first. Or are there that many champions in the UK that ordered it?

Anyway last night was a chance to play a game or two with Gavin. It’s been a while since we last had an opportunity to play some games. With the stars aligning Diego was also able to join us, plus Julie and her son.

We started off playing Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

I really like this game. Obviously the theme is right up my alley. I am a Star Wars fan.

The components are great. The models of the villains and the Jedi are really good. Plus the robot figures that are used instead of disease cubes are not only detailed but have a variety of different poses.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars uses the pandemic engine. And I really like the changes they made to it.

The most obvious is the completion of missions and defeating the villian instead of curing diseases. Another is there are no outbreaks. Instead a block aid ship gets placed that needs taking out first.

Setup is much quicker with the missions. There is no shuffling cards into decks.

Talking of cards you don’t draw cards at the end of your turn. Instead drawing a card is one of the four actions you can take. Giving you much more control over your hand of cards, or allowing you to go hunting for a card.

Naturally the game beat us. Sorry Ventress defeated us. It had looked like Ventress was going to beat us royally. We had only completed one mission, the threat level was going up far to fast. But then we had a spurt of completing the remaining three missions and having a chance to defeat Ventress. However we ran out of time before we got that chance.

I think Nathan is going to enjoy playing this.

My final game with everyone was Vaalbara which Diego totally rocked. I left them playing Perudo.

A great evening gaming, and a long overdue catch up with Gavin.

Plans for tomorrows Well Being Day

gaming at work

It’s the end of the academic year for colleges around the country.

Staff conferences are taking place, staff are getting training, end of year post mortems are happening.

In the middle of this the college I’m at has a well being day. They have all these activities planned such as golf, baseball, etc.

I didn’t sign up for anything because at the time places had to be booked I wasn’t sure I’d be here.

Now I am here full time, I thought I’d bring in some games to play with my colleagues.

  • Love Letter (second edition as it plays up to 6)
  • For Sale
  • Deep Sea Adventure
  • Cat in the Box
  • Vaalbara
  • Star Wars: Clone Wars
  • Sushi Go Party!
  • Long Shot: The Dice Game
  • Plus some MtG decks

I’ve deliberately not chosen anything too heavy, keeping to the lighter, entry level end of the gaming spectrum.

Hopefully one or two of my colleagues will join me and have a good time.

Back to the Imperium

Prophecy of Kings, TI, Twilight Imperium 4

So plans are afoot to play Twilight Imperium 4 with the Prophecy of Kings expansion next Saturday.

So far with the exception of my first game of TI4 being two player I’ve only played TI4 at four to six players.

My plan is to try and get more three and four player games in. Hopefully these will be quicker than ones with higher player counts. They will still take a while to play. I’m just hoping they will not last longer than five hours!

So this coming Saturday four of us will gather and test out this theory.

In the meantime I have the living rules references being printed (along with the latest Marvel Champions one), the TI4 Achievements sheet (think video game achievements but for TI4!). These should arrive the day before we play. With a fair wind that is.

I’ve also got to finish sleeving the expansion before next weekend. A job I started about a month ago. But now I have motivation to complete it.

If this is successful I’ll be getting TI4 to the table much more often. Something I’m really looking forward to. Those future games will also involve using the content FFG put up digitally in the three Twilight Imperium Codexes.

TotK I’m playing a platformer!

nintendo, switch, Tears of the Kingdom, video games, Zelda

Oh yeah SPOILER ALERT!

As I was bouncing and gliding from one flying ship to the other, ascending so that I was above the storm clouds. It occurred to me this part is a bloody platformer! Why hadn’t that fact clicked earlier?

Since accepting the mission to catch up with Tulin I have been playing a massive platform game. It only really becomes that once you catch up with Tulin and then start ascending towards the mountain top and then onto the storm cloud. Gliding from one chunk of sky island to the other.

Unlike a regular platformer falling off the platform doesn’t mean you are dead. Well as long as you remember to use your paraglider just before you hit the ground you aren’t (I love that you can free fall and at the last moment pop your paraglider and land safely without a scratch. The sound effect used as you pull off this maneuver is so Batman, it instantly made me think of Batman). It’s just a major bloody inconvenience. Or not so major if you activated the shrines on your way up that you passed.

I know I should have taken the time out and completed the shrines. But I wanted to move on. I can always come back to the shrines to do them. Which I plan to do. Sooner than later. I want those extra heart containers.

I jump off the flying ship dropping into the eye of the storm clouds descending like Mary Poppins with my paraglider towards the rather large boat in the middle of the storm.

Does Mary Poppins have a stamina timer when she uses her umbrella to fly? I think not. She’s Mary bloomin Poppins!

However I do as Link. So I have to use it sparingly to get me safely onto the decking of this large flying ship.

Welcome to the temple…

We’ve got fun and games. (A very bad G ‘N R misquote)

Yes this flying hulk of a ship is my first temple in the game.

I think temples are the new dungeons. Or more specifically the return of dungeons to the Zelda series with a twist. The temples seem more task orientated than puzzle. Although some of the tasks seem a bit puzzle like, or the obstacles in the way do. Often requiring the use of one of Links cyborg powers! The tasks can be attempted in any order. Or it appears that way in my first temple. I like this non-linear approach.

I swear my first instinct is not to jump off of a perfectly good, safe, solid place like this wind temple.

But that’s what I’m having to do.

As I write this I’ve not finished the first temple. Board gaming and a car repair has taken priority the last couple of days on my free time. But as soon as I’ve finished this post I’m back in Hyrule and the Wind Temple.

TotK – Into the clouds

nintendo, switch, Tears of the Kingdom, video games, Zelda

SPOILER ALERT! I think I should start adding these. During these posts I will be talking about where I am in the game and my experience as I play it. Some of that might just spoil the game for you if you are planning on playing it.

Back in the early days of the video game industry we never had these fancy players guides, official and non-official, to turn to when we got stuck in a game.

We couldn’t just go online to look for a solution from the many websites carrying walk throughs of the game.

No we had to struggle and try and find a solution for ourselves. If we were lucky a friend or class mate might be playing the same game and know of a solution.

Otherwise our only hope was in the pages of the monthly video game magazines and their help pages. If luck was on your side some-one had already written in and had a solution published. Other wise it would mean putting pen to paper, and sending in your question, hoping you would get selected for publication. Or sometimes the magazine would publish a map for the game that you could use.

You had to be a lot more resilient back then. I’m not saying I was. As memory tells me I didn’t finish many games at the time.

The official Tears of the Kingdom players guide did indeed arrive Wednesday. Nearly a week earlier than Amazon had planned to deliver my pre-order. A fact I am still baffled by.

Wow what a weighty tome the player guide is.

I went for the soft cover version. I dread to think how heavy the hard back version is. This is 500 (498 if you don’t count the covers) glossy pages.

I do like the use of screen shots and art through out the book. The book although packed with a lot of information still manages to look amazing in side.

Player Guide Quick Start providing a summary of whats in the guide.

For me this players guide has the right level of detail. It’s not a micro guide talking you through every step as some of the online walk throughs do.

Apparently I am going after the Wind Sage on my current path through the game. The player guide has spoiled the fact there are four of them and I am apparently going for the right choice as the first one to go for. That’s pure luck.

I don’t remember anything in the story line that I’ve come across so far that mentions these sages.

Oh wait I have. They will be the anomalies I have to investigate round Hyrule.

I have made a new friend in the game called Tulin from the Rito Village. Tulin is really cool as he is able to generate gusts of wind that can carry you over longer distances using the paraglider.

I’m sure that after I have defeated or freed the Wind Sage I’ll get a similar ability. Or I hope so. As I think having Tulin shadow me everywhere is going to get annoying.

But this bit of the game where I am jumping/gliding from one sky island to another ascending to this boat hidden in the storm clouds above has triggered that feeling I get when when heights are involved in the game. I did talk briefly about this in my initial thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom.

It’s weird.

I’ve done Crib Goch in Snowdonia, walking along it’s knife edge ridge with drops either side. I’ve done a via ferrata in the French Pyrenees starting at the bottom of a gorge, climbed up the side of the gorge under a bridge, death slid across the gorge 300ft above the ground into a net the other side. And neither of those times did I ever feel like this game or others have made me feel while playing them.

I don’t like heights. They make me very nervous. Doing the above was possible as I was able to block out the drops, and just focus on what is directly in front of me. Having tinnitus does make it easier to do things like this. I practice the skill daily.

But come video games I get so immersed in the game when I get to a level like the sky islands with sheer drops in Tears of the Kingdom I get triggered and an irrational fear kicks in.

I know it’s not real. I know I can fall and nothing will happen to me. But those butterflies in the stomach still kick in.

It’s only a game.

Still my mind and body are fooled into thinking it’s not.

How much do games like Tears of the Kingdom or Doom fool my mind and body. Watch me playing an FPS like Doom or Half Life and as I look round corners etc my body moves too!

Yeah I get totally immersed.

I could do with scanning some amiibo cards to top up my swords. But I’ll do that once I reach my final destination in the clouds.

I think that my favourite ability for Link’s cybernetic limb is the ascend ability. I just love the cool animation showing him move through the solid object, and then half emerging on the surface.

In the meantime it’s onwards and upwards.

If you are interested you can catch up with my other posts about Tears of the Kingdom HERE.

How I’m Playing TotK (if it wasn’t obvious already)

nintendo, switch, Tears of the Kingdom, video games, Zelda

“Oooh you are so big… So absolutely huge.” Monty Python The Meaning of Life

That quote came to mind when thinking about Zelda Tears of the Kingdom (TotK) when I started playing it again on Sunday evening.

Hyrule is massive. It just feels massive as you wander round exploring and following which ever plot line or side quest takes your fancy.

But I’m sure I’ll talk more about that in a later post.

I know I do this every time I write about video games on here, but I think it helps for anyone who stumbles on these posts and none of the others to know what my setup is for playing the game.

Obviously I’m using a Nintendo Switch but it is the Switch Lite I use and not an original Switch or the newer OLED model (although I’d love one of these).

I’m currently not using any headphones with the Switch Lite. So all sound is from the built in speakers of the Switch Lite. Although I am tempted to sync it with a small Bluetooth speaker I have.

Taking the advice of the hosts of the The Remaster podcast I did purchase for a very reasonable sum of money from Amazon 38 NFT Zelda amiibo cards. They arrived at the weekend and I was taken aback how small they were.

All of them except the 8 bit Zelda art one worked with TotK. I’m expecting or hoping that one works with the Links Awakening remake. It almost felt like a chore scanning in that many amiibo cards. But I was thankful I wasn’t having to use the actual amiibo figures.

The great advantage of these is they are so portable. These can easily be carried around with the Switch. Unlike their official bigger counter parts. Plus for the asking price of less than an amiibo much much cheaper as well. With some of the amiibos being rather hard to get hold of. Those that are for sale normally have a high price attached to them as well.

I am pretty glad I got these amiibo cards. I love the unlocks they give. Such as horses! Yep two of the cards unlock horses. I’ll never be without one now. You also get food/ingredients, rare rocks and gems, swords, shields, clothing. All useful stuff.

It was funny when I first used them because I am currently in a very cold, snow covered area called the Hebra Mountains. As soon meat or fish appeared they froze! All I can do with them is eat them frozen, they are not usable as an ingredient.

In May I preordered the official players guide that came out yesterday. However the day before it’s release Amazon updated my expected delivery date until next Monday. Yet if I bought the players guide on day of release (yesterday) I could have it the next day! How does that work? Surely it should be delivered to me on the day of release? So I cancelled my preorder and ordered a copy which is due to be delivered today (as I write this).

I know I can just google a solution/walkthrough if I get stuck. But I’m old school and I love the physicality of the players guide. And I’m sure once I have it in my grubby mitts I will let you know what I think of it.

My life style doesn’t give me many (if any) gaming sessions where I can play for hours on end. These days I grab an hour or two here and there when I can. Especially on a week night when I am absolutely shattered once I get home.

Which does present it’s own set of challenges when it comes to playing the game. Such as remembering the controls of the game and how to perform certain moves etc. That was really an issue when I returned back to the game after the “break”. That first hour or so of playing again is trying to remember what does what when you need to do it.

So you now know how I’ll be playing TotK from now on as I write further posts about my experience of the game.

A New Campaign A New Beginning

Charterstone, Game day, Stonemaier Games

Literally five years to the day since I last played Charterstone we started a new campaign.

There had been a failed attempt to play the game during the pandemic using the digital version. It’s embarrassing how quickly that fell apart.

This new campaign was with Ben’s copy of the game. The other difference being instead of a four player game we were going to be playing at the full player count of six players.

Sadly life put a scupper on that so it was for this session anyway down to five players.

I really enjoyed returning to the world of Charterstone. My only regret about my previous adventures there are that we didn’t finish the journey. Which has got me thinking I wonder if Jonathan would be interested in returning to finish what we started? I’m pretty sure Diego and Jeff would be up for it.

We managed to get the first two games of the campaign played. And yes games are that quick.

Our first game saw Ben hording assistants and getting ridiculous bonuses when he did stuff. So it wasn’t surprising that Ben won that game. However I did managed to achieve two of the round objectives, plus hit my goal of hitting the thirty point mark. That was important because that meant I could fill in three stars towards getting a reward. You get to fill in one star for each ten points you have. The stars are also worth ten points each at the end of the game. This first game also saw me not build a single building. Although I did open a crate.

Game two saw us carry over everything from game one. So Ben was starting with a massive assistant advantage.

However that didn’t translate into a win this time. That honour went to Jeff. As Charlene and Jeff unlocked minions the rest of us were starting to feel left out. Luckily the crate I opened in game two also gave me a golem minion. Once again I managed to hit the thirty point marker. Plus build three buildings. We all had started developing our charters.

Game three is going to be very interesting. Ben won’t have his big assistant advantage. All of us bar Jeff can carry over an extra item of our choosing (I chose an extra resource). Plus we have more powerful buildings out in our charters. Oh and I nearly forgot peril tokens were unlocked by Charlene.

We finished off the session with a game of Vaalbara.

A very nice card game which I’ll talk about another day. It’s hot and I need to cool down

Despite the heat, it was another great afternoon gaming with great friends. I look forward to our next game (or two) in the campaign.

TotK excuses excuses

nintendo, switch, Tears of the Kingdom, video games, Zelda

It’s been hard over the last month or so to get any time on the Switch and Tears of the Kingdom.

Work has been super busy during the day with marking and getting students across the finish line before the end of term. Which has left me really drained in the evenings and at weekends. I’ve just not had the energy to pick up the switch.

It sounds like I’m making excuses for having not played the game. And it’s true I am.

There is a bit of I think trying to convince myself that’s the reason why to ease my sense of guilt.

Earlier in the week I was listening to the latest The Remaster podcast where they discuss Tears of the Kingdom. I like how the hosts talk about video games. It’s some of the most intelligent discussion online. And I was waiting for this episode to hear what they had to say. Sadly Shadid wasn’t taking part in this episode. I assume because he hasn’t had a chance to play the game yet.

One interesting suggestion by the hosts Myke and Federico in this episode for Tears of the Kingdom is to get hold of some amiibo cards to use with the game. These are not official products. However they are much much cheaper than trying to purchase the official amiibos. So can be very expensive. These amiibo cards when scanned act exactly like the official thing and will unlock bonus items etc in game. I have a set on the way now.

But go click the link above and listen to probably the most interesting discussion on Tears of the Kingdom on the Internet. It’ll certainly put any words I throw together to shame.

We are days away from the official players guide landing through letter boxes, and in particular mine. I should try and get the Breathe of the Wild one. So I’m looking forward to that arriving.

I am avoiding the many many YouTube videos out there of all the amazing and clever devices and vehicles players have been building in the game.

I’m feeling guilty as it is not playing Tears of the Kingdom. No need to add feeling inadequate as well.

In the meantime I need to think about my future coverage of the game for this blog.

It’s been emotional

game night, life, the universe, and everything

It’s been a long week.

One that’s been very emotional as well.

At the start of the week I finally had the offer from college to become a full time lecturer. Which I accepted.

However it hit me hard that the one person I really wanted to share the news with I couldn’t. I miss Nan so much.

And the working week ended that way to.

It’s not only the end of term but the academic year and my leaving class of level three students gave me a card and box of Maltesers. An unexpected and very nice thought.

But when I opened the card back in the room where I was doing my final marking of the year, my eyes nearly leaked as I read it.

The card means so much. It’s hard to express how. But it’s nice to know that all the hard work has been appreciated by the students.

After thanking the students again I just wanted to share the card with Nan. And once again the eyes threatened to leak. If it was hard to articulate how I felt about the card. There is no way I’m getting close to getting across how much I miss Nan.

Last night I got to play War of the Ring the card game with Diego. For once the free people of middle-earth (me) won. Plus it was a points win ending the game early by creating a ten point difference

But the glow of victory didn’t last long as Diego thrashed me at Star Wars the deckbuilding game as the Empire.

It was a cool evening gaming with Diego. I’m glad our life events are enabling us to play more games together. Now if only they would sync a bit more so we could game with Jonathan more.