Not many board games played as previous months. But like the good old days of when I was playing MtG I got in a few games of Star Wars Unlimited.
Right here is the pretty 3×3 of the games I got to play this month.
Here is the rather shorter than usual stats behind the 3×3 image above.
It’s Saturday morning. I’ve been awake from bloody early a.m. on my day off.
The status update of my McDonald’s breakfast seems stuck on “picking up my order”.
I’m just too knackered after my seven day tour of duty at work.
I’ve come out of it feeling battered emotionally. I won’t go into details but the frustration levels have been through the roof.
So I feel I’ve earnt this lazy start to my day off.
Yesterday Mini Rails arrived from Zatu without any problems. Which has been my experience with them every time I’ve ordered from them. That will shock some. But for me my experiences have been positive.
Also through the letter box came the new Zelda game The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Where I think for the first time you can actually play as Princess Zelda. Another entry in my long to play list.
Last night was a “get it to the table” night for Fenland Gamers. Which saw Marcin, Anthony, and myself play Marcin’s copy of Coimbra. Which frankly I’m shocked he owns based on its theme alone! It’s not exactly post apocalyptic.
However it’s a fun game that has dice drafting, and then using those dice to do something, with the value of the die being used determining the cost of what you purchase. Plus the colour of the die comes into play in a later stage of the round.
Each round player order changes based on number crowns each player has accumulated that round.
You have a bit of engine building going on with the cards you purchase. Add in also trying to move a pawn round a map to collect bonus tiles, and racing up four influence tracks to try to have the most in each. This a lot to try and do with the three dice you draft.
It’s also only four rounds and plays very quickly.
It is a fun game.
History will record Marcin won on a technicality.
Along with Mini Rails the final cards of my two new decks arrived.
Those two incomplete decks got an outing on Tuesday just gone when Marcin and I play Star Wars Unlimited (SWU) using our Twin Suns decks. I suppose you could say that this was the SWU equivalent of the popular MtG singleton (one one copy of a card) format Highlander.
The two incomplete decks worked well. Or I should say as intended. So I have three Twin Suns decks. Marcin has two. Which means if we have a fourth player join us we can lend them a deck if they have no deck of their own.
I now need to write up these decks.
Despite me starting this epic seven days of work without a break (currently on day 4 as I write this post) I’ve managed to get some gaming in.
It was club night Friday evening with only five people able to make it along. Is this the new normal? Why has attendance slipped?
The only five player game we had was Tribes of the Wind. So I was glad to be able to get this latest addition to the collection to the table.
This is a nice game. It even played well at five players, despite one of those players being well known to suffer from analysis paralysis (ap). Even with an ap inflicted player we played the game in about an hour and three quarters.
Although on the table space we had five players was rather cramped.
Production is great, and I really like the art by Vincent Dutrait. He has also done the art for After Us, the Amun-Re 20th Anniversary Edition, Broom Service, plus many more. The three mentioned I also own, and love the art.
I love how you need to take into account the cards your neighbours are holding. It means that whilst you can plan your next turn while waiting for others to take theirs. That plan might go out the window because the cards held by a neighbour have change meaning you can’t play that card you wanted to.
It’s cool that when you build a village you get to choose a village card that is duel use. You can either use it for an immediate benefit, or for its end game scoring bonus.
Each player board is unique. Well in which conditions you need to complete to be able to select one of the four unique guide cards each player has. You get up to two of these cards. They act like ongoing special abilities throughout the rest of the game.
They are also unique in the distribution of pollution on your player board.
The uniqueness is continued with the starting tiles that give differing starting resources.
The iconography is easy to pick up, as is the learning curve. As I pointed out in just under two hours we learnt and played the game.
Yeah I liked this game a lot. Sadly I didn’t win, the ap inflicted player did.
Afterwards I had to pack away and get home rather quickly. My curfew was way earlier than Cinderella’s. With work and the start of the seven days the next morning I needed to be in bed and sleeping by 9:30pm.
Sunday saw me round Ben’s as soon as work had finished. Diego and Charlene would be joining us.
I had suspected Charlene might be. So I had put Stamp Swap in the car.
After punching the cardboard Ben and I set up Stamp Swap. By which time Charlene had arrived. Not long after followed by Diego.
After going through the rules we started stamp collecting.
This is a fast game. The three rounds flew by.
I loved the drafting of the stamps in the first phase. Especially with some of the stamps being facedown unknown to anyone. The I split, you choose of the second phase. Great fun and just as tactical as the drafting. Followed by the puzzle bit of fitting the stamps in your play area. I really enjoyed how these three mechanics had been melded together.
That last phase is heavily influenced by the four goals and the final scoring goal. At the end of each round you select one of the four available goals and score it. Once selected you can’t select it in further rounds. Plus you only get to choose three out of the four.
Each player may has a unique end of round scoring card, also directing your focus of stamps to draft.
Yeah for me this is another Stonemaier hit. Who knew stamp collecting could be so much fun.
Having been robbed of a joint victory by a bs tie breaker we followed up with a game of Mini Rails.
I hadn’t played Mini Rails before. But I liked this share based game.
Each round you get to do two actions once. Build a track, take a share. Which share or track you buy/build determines your turn order for your actions next round.
It’s not a heavy game or a massive high scoring game. But it gets very tactical because the share/track you want might not get you where you want in the turn order next round. Plus the trying to manipulate the share price.
How much did I like it? Well a copy is now on its way to me. Zatu have it for under £20. A big discount. Might be due to a new version due to hit kickstarter soon (fancy meeples, and new cuter art, same game). But I’ll take the cheap option.
Our final game of the afternoon was Nokosu Dice. Love this trick taking game that utilises cards and dice. Which apparently is hard to get hold off, and if you can it’s for silly money.
Charlene just smashed this one breaking Diego’s run of wins for the afternoon.
It was a great afternoon of gaming, with great friends.
I didn’t think I’d be writing anything about next years UKGE so soon. In my mind the next post was months away in early 2025.
But here I am with another brief post.
I had been thinking that for the camping experience next year I’d use my tarp configured as a “tarp tent” using a poncho as a vestibule. The inspiration for this was the YouTube video below.
However I made the mistake of looking on the Alpkit website and seeing they had a sale on!
I had liked the look of the Tarpstar pyramid range of tents they did. I nearly pulled the trigger on the two person Tarpstar 2. However I ended up going for the single person Tarpstar 1.
They both have the identical outer. It’s the inner where they differ. In the two person Tarpstar 2 the inner takes up all the space. However this means getting in and out of the Tarpstar opens the inside to the elements, such as rain. Which is equally true when it comes to cooking in bad weather too.
Whereas on the Tarpstar 1 the inner only takes up half of the inside, leaving you with a pretty large vestibule to stash gear, cook in bad weather etc.
So as a single person you have to decide what’s more important that inner with the larger living space or having that vestibule.
For me it’s that vestibule. Being able to stash the camp chair away during the day, cool box, etc was more important.
So that’s why I pulled the trigger on the Tarpstar 1.
I’ve “chosen” a campsite to book. Sadly not able to book the UKGE dates yet.
Two weeks ago was our first game of Star Wars Unlimited using the Twin Suns multiplayer rules and decks we built.
As my little announcement video below shows I was playing my Sabine Wren and Jyn Erso deck (you can see the deck list here).
I was up against two decks by Marcin. They were
Dave and Marcin took turns playing the decks.
None of the three games we played this first time went beyond the seventh round. So very short games. Expensive cards to play were resources. There would be no chance to play them.
I won the first game, with my deck seemingly working to plan.
Marcin won the remaining two games.
Reflecting back I think although my base Jedha City with its ability while very handy to nullify a threat or reduce the impact. With its health being 25 instead of 30, I felt left me feeling a little more vulnerable.
Although I’m happy with the cost curve it felt I was lacking answers to the threats Marcin and Dave were posing in the two games Marcin won.
This week we once again played Twin Suns games. Dave had his own decks this time (I forgot to make a note of his leaders).
The two games we played this time were longer games. I got the Krayt Dragon out! It won me the first game. I was surprised I got to play the card.
But I had no right winning that game. I was no able to keep a presence on any of the battlefields. It was mainly Dave and Marcin duking it out trying to position themselves for the win. I was just a bystander. Both couldn’t finish off the game by killing me because the other player would win. So they had to concentrate on getting slightly ahead on damaging the other players base.
Dave won game two with some great tactical play especially utilising his leaders to deliver a winning blow by knocking out Marcin. I had sat on cards that dealt with upgrades from my initial hand because of Marcin’s Mando deck.
I am really enjoying our games of Twin Suns.
I think now after five games I might look at what ramp I can possibly introduce to the deck.
As an exercise I might try and classify the cards in the deck by use, such as removal, etc. That might help me identify better areas I’m weak in.
I now have two decks nearly built. I’m just waiting for a handful of cards to arrive. Whilst the third deck that I was inspired to build is 60% complete.
I’ve been so knackered this past six days. Work has been especially tiring.
So tired in fact I’ve been napping in the afternoon after getting home.
I suppose that’s the drawback of getting older.
Being so tired has meant I haven’t finished writing my thoughts on the Twin Suns deck I built. But being on two days of rest now I should get that post done now.
There have been one or two new arrivals that I’m eager to get to the table such as the new Stonemaier release Stamp Swap, the expansion for Apiary, plus the Rolling Realms expansions. Also Tribes of the Wind arrived. Hopefully I’ll get one of those to the table Friday at club night.
Once these two days of r&r are over it’s into a seven day tour of duty. What makes this worse is that there is no two day break at the end. I get just a single day to recover.
As I type this little update I ordered a McDelivery of a McD breakfast using up some of my loyalty points to get most of the order free. It’s a lazy way to start the two days but I feel I’ve earned it.
Catch you later.
Whilst I gather my thoughts about Tuesday’s games of Star Wars Unlimited using the Twin Suns multiplayer rules. I thought I’d share the photo I was messaged this morning.
A few weeks ago I messaged an artist I follow on Twitter/X. I really liked her art style and her previous art she’d shared. I asked her for a quote to turn the photo of Strider I took on Holkham beach at dawn way back in 2010 (iirc) into a painting.
Strider and I had spent the night sleeping on Holkham beach sand dunes on a hot balmy Summer’s night. We’d done about three quarters of a nine mile circular walk the previous afternoon, stopping on the dunes for the evening.
It was so warm I didn’t even bother setting up a shelter of any kind. I wasn’t expecting any rain.
Strider and I just chilled out in the dying embers of the evening as the sun set.
We woke early to the most amazing dawn I’ve ever witnessed. It truly was a magical scene that photos I took barely capture or do justice to.
After a brief discussion about what could be done and obviously trying to capture the photo on a different aspect ratio to my original stitched together image. I was quoted a price and gave the go ahead.
This morning the artist shared with me a photo of the finished water colour.
I’m speechless. I think she has done an amazing job capturing Strider, and that moment.
My eyes can’t stop leaking every time I look at this photo of the painting. I miss not only Strider but the other two members of my wolf pack Bud and Barney.
If you had asked me if a piece of art could move me so much before this I’d have said no.
I’ve looked at the original photo so many times and not had such a strong emotional reaction.
But today the waterworks have not stopped flowing.
I’m going to need a lot of snuggles from the two little monsters today.
I’ve given permission for the artist to sell prints of this if anyone is interested. You can contact them here on Twitter/X if interested in getting a copy. For the record I will get nothing from the sales. I want the artist to get all the proceeds. I have (or will have) the original and I’m happy with that. You can also visit the artists Etsy store here.
PS I am now planning to get paintings of Bud and Barney also done. I have an idea for the one of Bud. But not decided on Barney picture to use.
Yesterday morning the latest YouTube video by Chef Corso on his outdoors eats channel dropped. It was about a subject very close to my heart and I take very seriously. Coffee.
I’ve been on a very long coffee journey.
I grew up drinking instant coffee, Camp coffee. I even remember vaguely that my folks had a coffee percolator. They were a thing at one time in the seventies.
But let’s jump forward a few decades to the noughties, and married life. That’s when I started to take coffee seriously. I made a pretty mean latte.
When I was able to get out I tried lots of different solutions for coffee whilst out on the trail. Instant, liquid coffee, coffee grinds in a MSR Mugmate coffee filter (which is still an option).
In the years since moving back to my home town, caring duties, my coffee knowledge widened. I really like getting my coffee from small coffee roasters. Beans are described liked fine wines. Being single source and a higher grade they taste amazing usually. I find that these better quality beans I can also drink black.
I love my Aeropress. But now days my preferred method of making a coffee is using a Hario V60 pour over. It produces great consistent cups of coffee. I also make my own cold brew. Which I tend to make during the Summer. It’s so refreshing on a hot day.
Now the options for a really amazing coffee whilst out are numerous. Below is a brief summary of the ones I currently have and used.
Obviously no matter what way you decide to make your coffee you need to start with a quality bean. You will taste the difference. So splash out and treat yourself.
I prefer taking beans (less messy if the bag bursts) and grinding the beans myself. For this task I have a Hario Mini Mill Plus.
As a camping option for making large quantities of coffee I have a Hellery Camping Coffee Percolator Pot. It makes a reasonable coffee. I get that nostalgic glow when using it.
I also have a mocha pot for possible camp use. They are fine. There is definitely an art to getting a great cup of coffee out of them.
You can take your Aeropress (if you have one). It makes great coffee and is easy to clean.
Along similar lines you could take a cafetiere. Or like I have for the Jetboil (and a rival) the coffee press accessory. It makes fine coffee as long as you use the correct grind and seep it correctly. Pain to clean.
My preference at the moment is the MERMOO YILAN Collapsible Pour Over Coffee Dripper Cone. It comes with a storage bag that you can fit some filters in to. There are other brands that do their version of a pour over cone. You could even use a V60.
You can make cold brew coffee whilst camping or on the trail. I have a 32oz wide neck Nalgene water bottle for this and cold brew filter bags that hold the coffee grinds.
At a push and in a hurry I’ll use coffee bags. They are better than instant.
If you take your coffee seriously one of the above options that I have briefly mentioned should get you a great coffee fix away from civilisation and out in nature.
Upon his return from doing some uncle duties first thing. Nath and I spent our last morning together playing a couple of games of you guessed it Star Wars Unlimited.
The first game went the same way as the previous evening. With me getting a comfortable win.
But our second game saw me in a position where if Nath had no answer I was going to win on turn seven. I had enough units in either battleground to deliver the winning blow.
Nath tapped all eight of his resources and defeated all my units! I had no cards in hand. I never recovered from this board wipe. Two turns later Nath just picked me off unable to defend myself to get the win.
Afterwards I started packing ready for the journey home.
The time always goes fast when I’m visiting Nath. Parting is always so hard. Even with Nath being an adult and towering over me, he’s still my little boy.
But part we must. At least I will be back in November and updating our decks or building new ones.
Waiting for me when I got home were the final two cards needed for my twin suns deck. That’s ready now for Tuesday.
Plus the board game Tribes of the Wind, which has a very Naussica Valley of the Wind vibe just from the box art alone. Can’t wait to try it.
Apparently Nath and the two attack chihuahuas Nico and Loki have one thing in common. That’s that they don’t like going out in the rain.
With the heavens pouring down Nath was adamant he would not be going for a walk in the rain. Despite me pointing out we have coats, and I have a tarp/poncho that could be used to keep us dry during the coffee stop. Nath remained unconvinced.
Instead we went into town.
Yes it was raining.
No Nath didn’t take a rain coat with him.
Yes after we had lunch at Burger King and made our way to the game shop he “borrowed” my umbrella.
Somehow at the game shop another booster box for Star Wars Unlimited Shadow of the Galaxy ended up in my possession.
After checking another couple of possible stores that on the off chance sold singles we headed home to crack open some packs.
We got some good pulls that went to building my Luke/Hera Twin Suns deck (details soon).
However as we were cracking open packs and sharing the cool cards we’d pulled (like foils, full art etc) I thought how cool it would be to do a mandalorian themed deck for Twin Suns. I think this would qualify as a tribal deck as we’d call it in MtG. Just the thought of the possibility was getting me excited.
Next thing I know I’m sorting out all of the mandalorian cards we’d pulled. And I’m sure I’ll bore you with a post about it in the near future too.
Earlier in the day (before we went to town) I taught Nath Dice Masters using the X-Men Forever campaign box. These campaign boxes are aimed at two players, and meant to give them everything they need to play.
Using the suggested cut down setup recommended in the included rules book I taught Nath how to play. I should say it’s impossible without the aid of a phone camera to work out what the setup is. The image is just too small and unreadable.
Nath won this first learning game.
I then separated the character cards into two piles. Villians in one, and X-Men in the other. Nath was then given the choice of which he’d like to play. He went bad guys.
We then built our 8 character teams, got the appropriate dice (another fault with this campaign box they got away with the bare minimum they could get away with).
After a very tactical game I managed to get to the position of being able to deliver a winning blow.
Later before tea (a roast dinner) and just chilling watching The Retirement Plan. Nath and I played a couple more games of Star Wars Unlimited.
These were comfortable games for me with Nath not really able to mount any real defence to hold in and get back in the game. It wasn’t one sided my base took damage. It’s just I was able to smash face before Nath found any answers.
Despite the disappointment of not going for a walk. We had a great day.