Easter Thursday Night Games Night

game night, star realms, tabletop

Last night saw another Thursday Night Games Night at a new venue.

The evening started off meeting at the old location to go in convoy to the new location. But due to the length of the journey the convoy had to stop at Morrisons for supplies. They are cunning people at Morrisons placing “better than half price” (their words not mine) Jaffa Cakes right next to the entrance of the store as the first thing you hit before having to walk through that evil guilt inducing fruit and veg isle. Mind you it's rare that I feel guilty that I should eat more fruit and veg. Now cake I do feel guilty I'm not eating enough of.

It was a major display of will power on my part not to just buy a shit load of Jaffa Cakes. Sadly I was strong and didn't crumble and only bought two packets. Oh and a trifle for a quid to use as a dip for them! Hey what can I say I'm a creative genius.

Now stocked up with supplies to finish the long trek to the new venue we headed off across the border into the wildes of Norfolk, for about thirty seconds before crossing back into the civilised lands of Cambridgeshire. That was the most dangerous part of our trek over with. We had survived unscathed the badlands of Norfolk.

The convoy arrived at the new venue. We hadn't had to touch the supplies after all, oh well they will do for the game night.

The new venue was none other than the secret headquarters of the infamous pirate podcast Lolocaust Tubeblockers. We even had a guided tour of the actual recording studio used to create these acts against humanity and good taste. I will apologise because this would of been the perfect time to strike back for mankind and deliver a blow for freedom against this tyranny. However Bouncy had more security than a Bond villian round his recording studio. Yep that's right it was blocked off with “Police Line Do Not Cross” tape. Security does not get harder to crack than that. It's uncrackable. An opportunistic chance to strike back for freedom and democracy had been foiled by impenetrable security.

Our first game of the evening once there collective had decided to make a decision was King of New York. Yep the game I got only the other day, hadn't been opened and none of us knew how to play. So while I was getting the components ready to play with, Gav read the rules. I think I was the only one listening as Gav read the rules out. The others decided who needs to know the rules, what we need is banter! Was this a tactical decision that was part of some new cunning planning at winning a game you'd never played before? After a slow start as we got used to the rules and what dice symbol did what etc. we started to play. We even had Bouncy live streaming a bit of the game at the start. The game lived up to my expectations. It manages to capture the japanese monster movie trope of giant monsters fighting in the middle of a metropolis trashing buildings, fighting each other and the army really well. I enjoy the japanese monster movie which most will of experienced in the form of the Godzilla series. I wouldn't call myself a fan, unlike Bouncy who is. But still I enjoyed the movies a lot as I watched them as a teenager late at night on one of the four terrestrial TV channels we had at the time. I want to say it was Channel 4 but my fading memory could be wrong on this. I even enjoyed the 1998 Hollywood attempt at doing a Godzilla movie. Which may be an unpopular opinion. But hey I haven't said it was a great movie, just an enjoyable one. Ok the Godzilla reboot by Hollywood last year was much much better, and Pacific Rim also was a good Hollywood monster vs giant robots movie. Which I believe at some point we may see a crossover between Godzilla and Pacific Rim, which could be very very cool. But if you love these types of movie you are going to love this game. In the end the game was won by Gav, who was accused of shenanigans because he had the rule book!
The next game was another game we hadn't played and was one of mine that had been bought recently and unplayed! The game being Batman Love Letter.
The above photo shows us reading the rules!

A word of advice if Bouncy does his bum note joke and you have your back to him. Do not turn round and look. I stumbled across this useful hint last night, I was busy playing my go at the time, Bouncy had come down with just a Guitar Hero/Rock Band guitar covering his lower naked half. That image alone was disturbing enough. Then he turns round to leave the room and does the bum note joke. The rest of the group now for ever more have the image of Bouncy's bare bum etched in their memory. I dodged a bullet here. It's a bit like Rick waking up in hospital at the start of The Walking Dead, everyone else is dead or a zombie, he survived whatever “event” happened to turn the world upside down. And here I escaped what can only be assumed a horrific image that even horror porn can not even come close to matching. Then it dawned on all of us “OMG that guitar has touched his junk, never ever play Guitar Hero with Bouncy and use his guitar”.

Batman Love Letter is a great fun game. It helps to stay focused while playing (see the above Bouncy story), which Luke seemed to have a hard time doing. But Luke ended up winning. So that's a tactic I'm going to try next time I play the game. This game was really a hoot. It helps that if you play the Robin card when someone selects you to reveal your card to not reveal your card and then remember you didn't have to because you were exempt. Hands up I did this a couple of times. The last time I did this I basically gave Luke the win on a plate.

Gav wanted to have a game of Star Realms, so while we played that. The others went off to play Smash Up! I really want to give this game a try sometime, maybe another game night. The Star Realms game Gav and I played worked out with me getting some combos, not massive ones but enough to win. But that wasn't the point of the game. It was to teach the basics, and give Gav a taste of playing. Gav enjoyed the game and will be getting it electronically I think/ possibly physically as well. As a first game Gav did well. It helped that he had played Marvel Legendary before so was used to the mechanics.

It was hitting midnight and being the little Cinderella that I am I had to rush back home, hoping that the mutants roving the wastelands of Norfolk didnt waylay me as I crossed into their lands briefly.

This morning also found out that the guys also had a game of Spyfall too after I left. Another game I want to try, I think this could be a student favourite.

I had a great evening, many laughs, avoid something that could never be unseen, and as always great company.

Can't wait for the Marvel Games Night planned for the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron. That will be a Marvel Legendary night.

 

 

Second of April

dice masters, lego minifigs, tabletop

Two new minifigs out of five isn't too bad.

As I'm always saying though doubles in minifigs isn't a problem when you also make custom minifigs. It helps build up a library of spare parts to use in your own figures.
I have some others on the way, a boxer, some storm troopers, Obi Wan,Emperor, and Jedi Luke. Well you know now that when they arrive I'll share pictures of them with you.
Talking of stuff on its way, how much did I enjoy the Harbour game yesterday? I enjoyed it so much that I have a copy on its way to me. Who knows I may just have a second copy coming to give as a prize for a competition. I've not done one of those in a long long time.
This little beauty arrived today. Normally I binge open all the packets. But I've decided to take my time and savour the experience. So just five packets today, then some more tomorrow. As long as I'm ready to play Freddy over the weekend.

 

I Am The Harbour Master

netrunner, star realms, tabletop
Yes the above photo is the photographic evidence that I am truly the Harbour Master! But we will get to that part of the story later.
As I blogged yesterday the planned day of playing tabletops had to be rearranged for today. The plan was to be round Jamie's for around 10:30. I was hoping nah praying that the postman would arrive before I left with the First Contact data pack. I needed one card from this data pack for my planned Anarch deck to play against Jamie.
The courier arrived not long after 8am with one delivery consisting of King of New York and Perudo. As I was about to drive off with the car loaded up my Netrunner cards, Star Realms, Tiny Epic Kingdoms, and Age of War the postman walked past my car. In his hands were a couple of small Amazon packages. “By any chance are those two Amazon packages for number 4?” I enquired hopefully of the postman. The postman responded in the positive and handed over my deliveries. The postal gods had been kind to me and had delivered the data pack to me just in time. I had the card I needed (if I had identified the correct data pack it was in that is).

The full order was the Android:Netrunner First Contact data pack, Roll For It and a set of extra dice for Star Wars Imperial Assault.
In total Jamie and I played four games of Netrunner, and I didn't win a single one of them. The first two games I played as the heroic Anarch runner Noise fighting against the man. I did manage to steal some agendas, and the deck I came up with worked roughly how I thought it would. The first game I attacked Jamie's R&D a lot, and some of the remote servers. Second game I switched tactics, avoided R&D for runs. Jamie had put more ice in front of HQ and R&D leaving his Archives less guarded. I kept trashing R&D by installing viruses, did a run on Archives and installed a Hades Shard? That would allow me to access the whole of Archives at a time of my choosing irrespective of how much ice Jamie installed. I got two agendas out of this tactic when I pulled the trigger. So I was very pleased that this worked. The final two games I played as the corporate scum Weyland. I wasn't expecting much from this deck as it was made up on the spot. I do need to look more into what I want the corp deck to do, and I need to put my hate for the man to one side and get better at being the corp. but I do find playing the runner a lot easier. I'll put up the two decks I played in another post for ripping apart.
But even though I lost I had a blast playing. I'm just going to get better the more I play. I'm lucky Jamie is patient with me as we play. Sometimes I wasn't able to ask Jamie a question as it would of given away what I was going to do, so I had to quickly look up an answer in the rule book.
After Android:Netrunner we played Star Realms. It was just a single game that I was able to get multiple outposts out and allowed me to sit behind a Great Wall of bases and outposts, that stopped Jamie doing any serious damage to me. I was racking up authority, getting combos, it was really hard and I know from having been on the other end of this tactic just a little frustrating. What made it worse for Jamie was that none of the big hitters came out, or the base destroyers. That really did make the Jamie's job of getting through the Great Wall a lot harder. But he did well getting combos together to knock down the wall, but it would be back up next go, and fully built within a couple of turns. Still the inevitable with this strategy happened I won!
Sometimes I do think that maybe Star Realms might be a little bit biased towards a bases strategy.
After Star Realms we moved on to a game I've got but not played Takenoko. Cute hungry pandas, grumpy gardeners growing bamboo, and another game that I bought after seeing it on Tabletop. Now I'm not saying this because I won, but this is a fun game.
What turned out to be the penultimate game was Jamie and I learning to play Roll for It. It literally takes a minute to read the rules to learn to play. This was a fun little game to play. It's rolling dice, what isn't there to enjoy about doing that? What I like about this game is you have to manage your dice, it's possible to steal cards from other players by completing them first. It really is a great little filler game. Plus I won this game.
The last game we played was Harbour By Tasty Minstrel Games. When Jamie bought the game out it hadn't rung any bells. But once I saw market card and the player cards it clicked I had seen these before in a recent video YouTube. I think it was the Crits Happen Top 5 mini games or something like that. No wait it was a Watch It Played video.

Harbour is a worker placement game with a dynamic marketplace and a hint of set collection. The dynamic marketplace is a nice mechanic which basically means after a player buys a property the values you get for each of the four resource types changes. Which means you could just be about to buy a property based on the values currently on the marketplace, another player jumps in before you, buys a property and the values change, all of a sudden you can't get enough for your goods to buy a property. I love that. It's a touch of genius.

For most of the game Jamie had the lead and was always a property ahead of me, well he was the first to two buildings. Always buying a building a move before me. But I thought I was about to pull of a stunning win by buying two properties. I went to execute the coup de grace, but fell on my face, I had misread the building cards. I had misread the cards point value as the cards cost! I couldn't buy both buildings in one go. But I could buy one and in a couple of turns be able to buy the second. All the time I was expecting Jamie to movie to his building to buy his final building to win. But he didn't I was able to complete the two turns and buy the final required building. Even with a final turn Jamie wasn't able to buy a final building. It was time to add up our points. Just as a final act of dumbassery (is that even a word?) I miss read the cost for points and ended up with a score less than Jamie's! Once the points were correctly added up I had won. Now it was photo time. There is a card with the game that the game creators suggest you take a selfie with to allow you to boast about your victory. Hence the photo at the start of this blog post and the title of this post. They also suggest that if you tweet the picture to include them in the tweet. Which I have done as I shared with the world that I am THE HARBOUR MASTER!

I've had a totally awesome day playing games with Jamie. Thank you to Allie for being such an amazing hostess and the really delish chocolate brownie.

 

Second Round Knock Out

star realms
Well the second hurdle just proved to be too high for this ageing old nag to clear. I think the idea is to clear the hurdle and move onto the next one, not try and barge through them head first like Juggernaut breaking through a banks wall.
Unfortunately as the final scores show I didn't give a good showing for myself. I got mauled.

The second game I spent too many turns buying bases, trying to build an impenetrable wall to hide behind, ready to then hit back as my opponents attacks floundered on the walls of my Helms Deep. In reality my plan proved as effective as the straw house was for the three little pigs.

Had the heady heights of being in the second round gotten to me? Well in my casual games I've been making progress again, winning more than I lose. So on that front it looks like I'm climbing slowly out of my slump.

I think hand on heart the only answer is I posed no challenge at all, and rightly got my butt kicked.

A Quick Question

What are the cards you like to buy on you first turn? The picture above shows my ideal starting trade row if I'm going first, 3 trade to spend, Cutter and Federation Shuttle ready to buy. Call me tactically nieve but I can't resist the Cutter, and the Federation Shuttle is good second buy I think in this situation. Plus in the other combinations of one or two trade to spend then either card depending of course on amount to spend.
If I'm going second then the amount of trade is going to be between three and five. At the lower amount ideally I'd like a situation as above. However I'm always hoping for a Cutter early on. Although if I can get a Starmarket then that is a nice alternative to have if no Cutter is available. I also like an Embassy Yacht in this situation too.
So what are your ideal cards to buy first?

 

An Inconvenient Customer

dice masters, imperial assault, tabletop

Today was going to be such an awesome day. The plan was pop on over to Peterborough get the Imperial Assault expansions, hopefully also get an Android:Netrunner data pack I wanted (if they had it in stock). Then pick up a power cable from a friend, followed by shooting off to another part of Peterborough to play Android:Netrunner with Jamie and possibly some Star Realms.

But hey on the drive over (I'll try not to over share here too much) I ended up getting sick on me in several spots! That kind of put a dampener on the plans, I couldn't really spend the rest of day smelling of sick. So I rearranged the gaming for tomorrow.

Smelling of sick I picked up the power cable and ended up at the LGS. I managed to find all the expansions that had been released but no sign of the extra dice you can buy. I asked the young lad looking after the shop if they had them but he had no clue. He was equally clueless when asked if there was any Netrunner data packs.
I was becoming a bit frustrated with this shop assistant. He seemed more interested in wanting to get back to his magic deck building with his friend than help the only customer in the shop. There was no “I can't see any on the shelves, let me check out back for you.” There wasn't either a “we don't have it in, but would you like us to order it for you?” Nothing you would consider good customer service.
It puzzles me why stores employ people like this. This sort of person is representing a small business that relies on regular customers, and trying to compete with online retailers. To me this is the small business equivalent of the owner shooting themselves in the foot.
I really did resent spending my money today. I don't like being made to feel like an inconvience, and when the thing that is meant to distinguish your brick and mortar business from those that operate on line is that personal touch, along with instant gratification and ability to browse. You soon think why should I bother?
Maybe I should of just walked out not buying anything. I could of got everything online and with me tomorrow.
I like to support local when I can. But this relationship is a two way street. And today it didn't feel that way.
As you can see from the pictures above I walked away with a copy of the Batman Love Letter. So counting the original Love Letter this will be my third copy of the game, and come the Summer there will be a fourth in the form of The Hobbit Love Letter. I know there are tweaks to the game for each of the IP they represent, but Love Letter has nailed the rebranding the original game to all these other franchises. Althought Munchkin is fastly catching them up on this front (and ironically they are one of the IP with Love Letter). So how many times can I buy at its heart the same game with different branding? When will enough be enough? Obviously the answer is at least once more. But seriously I think they have nearly flogged this horse to death. Mind you it's not stopped all the rebranding of Monopoly.
Just to tie me over until the gravity feed arrives I also got five packs of D&D Dicemasters. The photo below shows the cards I pulled from the five packs.
 

 

Zombicide Season 3 Arrives

tabletop, zombicide

Dear Future Darren,

I hope you liked the late Christmas/early Easter/early Birthday present that arrived for you yesterday. When I saw it I just couldn't help myself I knew you would love it. We've had some great solo games, and also some great group games in the past. So this seemed a no brainer.

I also got a couple of extra items for you, but this is what you got in the box (it was easier to give you the image from the kickstarter).
I know what a big fan of John Kovalic the artist behind the Munchkin art work, so I got you the Special Guest pack of characters designed by him. Plus thought you would like some extra murder of crows.
It is so nice to buy gifts for some-one with such impecible taste, enjoy playing with this new stuff next time you see Nathan.
Past Darren
 

 

Star Realms or Pixel Tactics?

pixel tactics, star realms, tabletop

Yesterday I noticed on the blog stats that some-one had come here looking to answer the age old question “Star Realms or Pixel Tactics?” Well I can't help but feel that whoever that person was that they didn't get an answer to the question that they were looking for. Heck I still haven't found what I'm looking for… Ok I'll stop with the inappropriate U2 reference.

Sure I've talked in a post very briefly about my first couple of games of playing Pixel Tactics. And rereading the post I do come to the conclusion that it won't replace Star Realms for me. However I did really enjoy the game, and two games isn't much compared to the number I've played of Star Realms to give a fair comparison between the two. But then Star Realms has an amazing app that allows me to play online against others, and Pixel Tactics doesn't have an app. So it is a lot easier for me to get a game of Star Realms.

Having said that it is possible to play Pixel Tactics online using a webcam and Google Hangouts. Which is a great bonus.

Both games are cheap. Both are two players and come with everything you need to play in the box. Both games can easily be played multiple times with games being different each time. Although both are card games, Star Realms is deck building from a common pool, while Pixel Tactics is preconstructed decks, both players have the same cards in their decks.

Both have expansions out for them Pixel Tactics has 2 and 3 out that can either be played as separate games or mixed in with the first game. Star realms has the Crisis expansions out, and the Gambit expansion about to hit stores. Also both games have further expansions coming out this year.

Accessory wise, Star Realms is better off with playmats, card sleeves, storage box, despite availability being an issue in the UK. Whilst Pixel Tactics only has a playmat only available from Level99. I'd like to see official sleeves and a storage box.

It's no secret how I feel about Star Realms, and what a cracking time I'm having playing it (win or lose). But for me Pixel Tactics is also a good game. So which to choose?

Personally I'd say get both, which is a bit of a cop out. But I don't think anyone who does will regret the decision. But if you only have money for one this month which one to get first?

If you want to play something that is more tactical go with Pixel Tactics. If you prefer deck building then go with Star Realms or want something that can be picked up very quickly and taught quickly.

Pixel Tactics has a few more rules and I think a little bit more complicated than Star Realms to learn, and to teach.

Go with Star Realms if you want to also play on your phone/tablet/PC/Mac. The app is awesome for Star Realms and great value. Plus it has a great enthusiastic online community.

You will eventually end up with both. I have and I don't regret it.

 

A Hot Place Is Very Cold At The Moment

star realms

Last night saw the kickoff of the fourth Star Realms Casual Tournament on the Facebook fan page. These tournaments are now fastly becoming a regular Sunday thing. Mid week the event invite goes out to the pages members, and those interested in playing throw their hat into the ring by joining the event.

Sunday evening then becomes filled with anticipation (despite my appalling track record to date) waiting for the draw to see who I have been paired with for the first round.

This week for the first round I was paired with Galaxion. A lot of people enter these casual events so it's not unreasonable that I had not played them before or recognise the name. Although slowly I am starting to recognise the odd name from playing them in tournaments and in casual play.

But I did notice that Freddy wasn't on the list of players. Freddy has had a better track record than me in these tournaments, and he loves playing the game too. So it struck me as most odd and surprising. So I messaged him on Facebook. Freddy replied with a tale of woe that basically equated to he accidently deleted the Star Realms app over the weekend while out on a bender with friends. (FOR THE RECORD I'm joking about the bender reference and I'm saying it here for comedic value. It's funny though as I had to explain to Freddy what a bender is, because apparently it's not used like this in the US. Which I did kind of. I gave Freddy the meaning that matched with the context I had used it. I omitted the other meaning. Well it would of just muddied the water and wasn't relevant. Now I know Freddy will read this post and I have this image of him getting very curious about the other use of the word now, and quickly opening up a browser window and googling the word bender. Note to Freddy rewatch an episode of Futurama now knowing the use of the word in England.)

As soon as I saw my pairing I sent a challenge via the app to Galaxion. So now it was just a wait for the challenge to be accepted. I sent a message via Facebook (I hate typing that, I hate using it even more and feel soooo dirty) to let Galaxion I had sent the challenge and why, and then promptly went to sleep.

Then this morning just after 5am with the challenge accepted Galaxion and I went to toe to toe for our first round match up.

Then in a very hot place the temperature started to drop rapidly, it was close but I took the first game. Wait what just happened? I won a tournament match! It wasn't a comfortable victory, or a big knock out punch. The game could of gone the other way very easily. It was more like a scramble across the finish line.

The challenge for game two went and was accepted. Seconds out round two. We traded blows, I was in a reasonable position authority wise and had my opponent where I wanted them, under twenty authority. Then back on script that healthy position crumbled while I struggled to get the attack together to do that final damage needed to win. Luckily sometimes I can ad lib and deviate from the script. That's the colourful way of saying I won again! Yep I scraped together enough damage to grab the win while barely clinging on to my own authority.

OMG I had WON!! My duck had ended, hell had frozen over completely. I was in shock and elated. Somehow I'd cleared the first hurdle at last. After three failed attempts it was fourth time lucky!

Two close games, which could easily of gone the other way and been loses.

I'm now into undiscovered country round two!

 

A Rant About Official Playmats

tabletop

For some games like Android:Netrunner, Machi Koro, Splendor, Star Realms and Pixel Tactics to name a few the playing experience of the games is improved by using a playmat. The playmat isn't needed to enjoy the game. However especially when they have play areas marked out they help the noob to the game, and aid the experience player who is returning to the game.

I love a good playmat. The combination of rubber and material give a great playing surface, usually have colourful art work based on the theme of the game. Which as I have said enhances the playing experience.

Magic the Gathering has a ready supply of easily available playmats with some great art work in keeping with the fantasy theme of the game. Dicemasters too has a couple of playmats that are currently easy to obtain.

Which brings me to my main gripe. Why aren't playmats easily available to purchase for the games I listed?

I know they have special playmats as prizes in the Android:Netrunner organised play, but that shouldn't stop them selling playmats to the public.

Star Realms has an official playmat, but getting hold of one is a challenge in the UK. Pixel Tactics also has an official playmat to replace the paper one that comes with the game. But guess what? only place I found selling it was Level 99 in the US. Machi Koro the distributor GTS did a limited edition US only mat that is rarer than a Tory with a social conscience. While there will be an ultra rare playmat for Splendor only available to stores for organised play. That's not going to make it expensive at all on eBay!

The game Marvel Legendary comes with a game board but the paper joints are weak and prone to breaking. They did do an official playmat as a replacement but no longer available. But at least they corrected things in the Legendary Encounters:Alien game by providing a playmat with it.

I know why playmats are easily available for Magic. It's a very large market to sell into. But the games I've mentioned above have sold well and it's not as if they haven't got the designs done. Or if they have them to sell, why they are not doing a better job getting them out into stores for people to buy. Why does getting an official playmat have to be such an ordeal?

Of course a solution is to use one of the sites that allow the printing of custom playmats. Then it comes down to designing a playmat, uploading the file to the site and paying. Or if your artistic/design skills are limited like mine, then finding a high quality design by some-one else online is the route to go. Luckily on BBG the community has some very talented folks out there who put up playmat designs for people to use.

I currently have an Android:Netrunner custom playmat on order from a place in the US. But I have a Splendor playmat design downloaded that I will get printed, which will be me trying a UK based company. At the same time I'm going to get them to print out a playmat for Marvel Legendary too.

I'd love to buy official products but if the companies insist on making that harder than climbing K2, then they have only themselves to blame when fans of their games end up having to find alternative avenues.

A Saturday Morning Realisation

tabletop
This morning I spent a bit of time organising my growing Android:Netrunner cards. Adding in the new Order and Chaos cards into their respective sections, then finally adding in the second core set. But as I sat there at my “gaming” table it suddenly hit me how much pleasure I get out of just organising my games. It was fun organising the storage/filing of the Marvel Legendary base set and its expansions. I also enjoyed the organising of the Legendary Encounters:Alien game also. Why does this activity bring me so much joy? I know I have certain tendencies that would place me on the autistic spectrum. But does this explain why I like the organising? Those that know me would scoff at the organising as something I enjoy. My desk at work looks like a landfill, and my filing system can best be described as the pile method. Yet it works for me. I know what stuff is in which pile. But does that not seem at odds with the organising of the contents of my games? In a way I don't think so. It's just a different form of organising. Less chaotic than my pile system that annoys people. Maybe it's while I'm organising the components of a game I'm focused and in a zone, I won't go as far as saying its flow, but not far off. Could it be a distraction for my mind, helping to process other thoughts? Maybe I'm over thinking this and just accept that this is something I enjoy and leave it at that.