The post title says it all really.
I think it’s the tenth anniversary as well of this annual rpg event. Which I’ve been doing for four years now. Not always at the time the event was running because I missed it running.
Naturally I’ll be participating in this years celebration of all things rpg when it kicks off at the start of August.
Yesterday I had to cancel the planned D&D session so I could look after mum. Friday night whilst I was at game night mum fell over and banged her head on the sideboard. I wanted her to rest, and make sure there was no concussion.
So yesterday evening I messaged Ben to see if he was free to play Expeditions this afternoon depending on mum and how she was feeling.
This morning after a gentle start to the day I checked on mum to make sure she was ok. Her head was still a little sore. Which was expected. But otherwise seemed ok
I’m still blown by just how quick the game is to setup.
Luckily no teaching the game was required as Ben had already watched the Watch it played video a couple of times.
So this is how our champions and mechs matched up.
I’ll do the tl;dr first I enjoyed Expeditions as a two player game.
Obviously it felt a little different to the game Friday. Mainly because the board was less congested with mechs there was no blocking of spaces. Which on the odd occasion is done deliberately, but most likely by accident.
It was funny because Ben and myself didn’t have to do a refresh action until right before the end of the game was triggered. In fact the more powerful all three actions turn after the refresh was our final turn. As my three actions allowed me to get enough corruption tokens, and claim my fourth and final glory token.
How did we play so long before having to do the refresh? Tile and card abilities. They allowed me and Ben to stay out cycling our activated cards back to our hands more or less as regularly as we wanted without skipping a turn. Granted we don’t get that more powerful turn. But being able to get an action plus a recycle was more useful.
Once I triggered the end of the game and the final scores calculated I snuck in a victory.
We followed up our game of Expeditions with a game of Lakshadweep. This Indian boardgame had an interesting eco inspired theme. However it is pretty paper thin.
The art is very functional and children bookish. Which sums up the level it’s aimed at I think.
The game itself is very Carcassonne inspired with its tile drafting and placing on a combined area.
It felt very Carcassonne light.
The game wasn’t unpleasant but I’d rather play Carcassonne.
I had a great afternoon with a good friend. Who kindly listened to me unload about the mornings family missives. You don’t want to know.
With my aunt and uncle back in the country and staying locally in the run up to Nans memorial next Thursday. They have been able to help Mum and me get on with sorting out Nans belongings.
It’s been a hard thing to do. Not just physically but emotionally as well. However it has been that emotional side that has been the main stumbling block over the past nearly two years preventing Mum and I making much progress with Nans stuff.
Even with my aunt and uncle here helping. It’s not been easier on that front. But it’s helped to have some-one else to share the burden with. We made some real headway over the last two days.
Whilst sorting out what stuff goes to the dump, charity, or to keep we came across a box that quite clearly was mine.
Inside this cardboard time vault were treasures that took me back to my teenage years and the early days of the British Home Computer boom.
If you remember when I wrote about playing the latest MtG set, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth I shared about my history with Tolkien and when I first came across Middle-Earth.
Well colour me pleasantly surprised (whatever that colour is) when I opened up the box and inside were my copies of The Hobbit (Oric-1 version) and Lord of the Rings Game One (C64 version). Minus the respective paperback books.
Also inside this treasure trove of memories were the following three items pictured in the gallery below.
The Simon’s Basic was a cartridge for the C64 that allowed you to use a more powerful version of Basic on the machine.
It was this version of Basic that I wrote a game to teach the Green Cross Code for my O-Level computing project in.
It’s the project I also rewrote completely the night before it was due to be handed in. I did an all nighter. I was young. Didn’t know better.
I hadn’t realised what an impact I’d made with the game or my coding skills until decades later when my school friend Jon Ward returned to the UK for a visit. When we met up he remembered all this, bringing up the game and how good I was in the computing lessons. It was very flattering.
Author probably has the honour of being the first ever word processor I ever owned and used!
Finally the official Commodore modem for the C64. Mum and Dad got me that for Christmas. A decision they would later regret. Later being three months later when that quarters phone bill came in.
You see Mum and Dad had no idea what a modem was or that it used the phone line.
Try and imagine one morning waking up. That days post dropping through the letterbox before 8am. Yeah that’s how far back we’ve gone to a functioning, reliable (well compared todays offering) postal service. Opening up the post and seeing a bill from BT for over three pounds.
Yeah I’d hit the phone pretty hard. I’d developed a serious Compunet habit downloading demoes etc.
Well Mum and especially Dad were more than a little pissed off. Getting Dad angry was the quickest way to lowering your life expectancy.
Obviously my online activities were seriously curtailed from that point on.
But it was Nan that really saved my bacon (as she has always done). She let Mum and Dad have the money to help with the phone bill I’d rung up with the modem.
There were other gems in the box too. But I’ll save them for another day.
Last night was once again a Fenland Gamers club night.
Last night numbers were slightly down. But we had enough for a couple of tables. One table played The Warriors board game. Which if you are under a certain age have no idea it’s based on a 1970s movie. Mind you Jonathan had no idea it was a movie either. I think the only person playing it familiar with the source material was Dave. I’d be interested in giving it a try. I do like the movie.
Our table got to play the latest hotness, the sequel to Stonemaier Games second biggest selling game (it was the top until Wingspan came out) Scythe, Expeditions.
Every copy of Expeditions has an achievements sheet included. One side are the achievements to record names against. The other side is an extract from a captains journal (see below).
It turns out thanks to a really observant individual on the games Facebook group that there are different versions of this journal page. In less than 24 hours the group has managed to identify at least 17 different ones (it may be all of them now).
It’s suspected there are 20 different journal pages. Jamey did say there was a hint to the number in the photo. Which I have zoomed in on below. Which seems to confirm the number 20.
What’s even cooler is that Jamey signed 20 of these sheets and they were randomly placed in copies of the game!
My copy of Expeditions was the iron clad edition, with the add-on metal coins. The difference between the iron clad edition and the standard are the amazing metal mechs instead of plastic ones.
The production of the game is up to the usual gold standard set by Stonemaier Games. The setup of the game is made super easy by the games insert. With a great storage tray that holds the coins, worker meeples, and map tokens. Thus can be taken straight out of the box and used on the table.
The art is just out of this world. Jakub Rozalski is just amazing. I love the whole world he has built with it. That 1920’s alternative history with the mechs. Love it.
Story wise Expeditions takes place after the events in Scythe and the Rise of Fenris expansion. We shift from Europa to “…Siberia, where a massive meteorite crashed near the Tunguska River, awakening ancient corruption.” It’s our job to venture North to investigate this meteorite crash.
There is a darker tone to the plot line and art. I’m trying to think of a way to best describe the theme/tone. I think Scythe meets Cthulhu might best describe it.
There are some Easter eggs within the game. It wouldn’t be a Stonemaier game without them. There are two cards named after other titles in the Stonemaier catalogue (Charterstone and Scythe). Plus Jamey’s two cats feature on a card (see below).
We started off as a five player game, however three quarters of the way through our fifth player had to leave.
This first game took three and a half hours. But at full player count (for the majority of the game), and two players that suffer from analysis paralysis is it any surprise?
Once setup Expeditions is a table hog, and was a very tight fit with five of us round the table.
However the game has a table presence that is made with the large metal mechs.
The base snaps didn’t fit perfectly on one or two of the metal mechs. But I think that might improve over time.
For those thinking this is going to be like Scythe, it is not. There are a couple of similar mechanics, such as not being able to repeat an action twice, the victory track and glory tokens, and there are mechs! This plays completely differently. There is no confrontation/interaction between players apart from blocking another player getting to a space by occupying it yourself.
I love how the card titles help tell the story of the game. But having multi use cards that you have to decide when to stop using them for their ability and turn them into say an upgrade for the mech, a solved mission or meld a piece of meteorite is a cool.
There is also having to know when to do a refresh action to move cards from your activated area back to your hand. It’s a tough decision. It’s all you do on a turn. But the payoff is getting a powerful next turn. Although I did find it more useful doing the refresh action on a tile instead once one was revealed.
Being able to utilise not only your Commander and their animal companions abilities, but also your mechs is really important. I played Olga with Changa, naturally. I also had the highlander mech which meant I could put gained cards straight into my hand.
If Marcin hadn’t triggered the end of the game I would have on my next turn. Marcin also went on to win as well. But the point difference between us was from him having vanquished more corruption than me.
I had a blast playing Expeditions and can’t wait to play it again. I think this will be finding a place in my top 10 games.
It’s been one of those weeks where nothing much gaming wise has happened. Hence the blog silence.
Preparations for Nans memorial next week are in full swing. As you can imagine things are a getting a bit emotional for me.
My iron clad edition of Scythe Expeditions arrived yesterday. The production quality is amazing, as usual for a Stonemaier game. And OMG those large metal mechs are gorgeous.
Luckily I don’t have too long to wait before it hits the table with tonight being club night.
So look for initial thoughts on the game over the weekend.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.