Alien 2 Humans 0

Game day

Yesterday saw the start of a nine day break from work.

I should say a much needed break as well.

However I started my holiday off in style with a seven player game of The Thing boardgame.

There was some gamers remorse as I walked from the car to the community centre when I thought “wait I should have suggested playing Scythe”.

However that soon faded away as I was setting up for a six player game. Now I hear you all saying “but Darren didn’t you say you had a seven player game?” Indeed I did say that.

But when I got to setting up I set the game up for six players. That is how many I thought were coming. It wasn’t until I decided I’d start the bgstat play record before the others arrived that I realised there were seven playing. So I had to quickly adjust the setup for the correct player count.

This was the second time that The Thing has hit the table. And I have to say with the higher player count it was really great fun.

I thought the game played really well at the higher player count. I think it was just short of three hours play time. Which is pretty good for this type of game.

In the end the aliens managed to win by getting on the rescue helicopter first. It turns out only Diego and myself were the remaining humans in the base.

One word of advice. Don’t demonstrate that players need to shuffle their role cards and not check you put the correct one back. It does create a comedic moment for sure when you go to reveal at the end of the game you were a human all the time, you flip the card and it says you are an alien. Much laughter followed!

Everyone had a blast playing the game. And a great way to kick off my nine days of R&R.

UKGE2023 plans taking shape

UKGE

Just over a week ago I booked off the week that the UK Games Expo is happening.

So already my mind was turning to plans for attending the third or fourth (depending on when you look at the attendance figures) boardgaming expo/show in the world. It’s definitely the largest in the UK.

I was on course for my usual last minute, left it too late to find cheap accommodation plan.

That was until Jonathan posted on the Fenland Gamers discord server that he had booked his accommodation, and which days he was attending.

Which prompted me to get my act together and also book my accommodation for the three days I’ll be attending.

I’ve booked the same establishment as Jonathan so hopefully we will be able to get some gaming in whilst there.

This will be for me nearly normal attendance resumed for UKGE. It will be all three days. However it won’t be me going up on the Thursday and having that extra nights stay, and a relaxed start to the Friday. Instead it will be a damn early start on the Friday instead.

Anyway I’m sure I’ll write more nearer and at the time. Laters…

#dungeon23 Week 1 Roundup

#dungeon23, D&D, megadungeon, RPG

Ok so I’ve started and a week in on this year long challenge.

I’ve managed to post daily updates over on Instagram that pushes them out onto other social media platforms. Well almost daily I didn’t share the two empty rooms at the end. I didn’t think there was much point.

But those updates until the last one are in pencil. I took the decision to only ink the dungeon map at the end of the week. This allows me to make changes if need be as ideas develop throughout the week.

I kinda like how the map looks. It’s not nearly as good as some out there. But it is good for me.

I do have a folder with copies of the DMG Appendix A, dungeon symbols, list of trinkets, and a few other useful bits. I like not having to carry multiple books around, or have lots open at a time. At the end of this hashtag not only will I have a megadungeon, but also a folder I can use for dungeon creation.

Somehow this first week has used up four pages. It’s smoothing that may continue. Two pages for tables, etc, then the actual dungeon itself.

This first week has been about mapping out the first rooms of the long abandoned dwarven kingdom Khul Garom.

I’ve tried to capture in seven rooms(!) that the main entrance to Khul Garom was part stronghold able to repel any outside forces, but also some sort of grand gesture that once showed the wealth, artistry, and might of the dwarves of Khul Garom.

By using bandits, thugs, and cultists to populate some of the rooms I’m trying to start telling the main story of this dungeon of that awakening evil, and it slowly increasing its grip on the surrounding area.

Whilst any items found in these rooms are not of any value. But more the sort of stuff historians at a dig find that hint at the sort of society that was there long ago. In these rooms all the good stuff so to speak was looted long ago.

Right now onto week 2…

Flashback to December 2016

bgstat, Blast from the past, by the numbers, flashback, stats

Before I bore you with the December 2022 stats post it’s time to bore you with yet another post looking back to 2016.

As per usual for this post we start off with the top 9 games played that month.

My Top 9 games played December 2016

Love Letter Batman, sadly no longer available for folks to buy. But it is my favourite version of Love Letter still. I love the theme, and the extra point for guessing what another player has in their hand when playing a Batman card, a nice rule change. Probably my favourite introduced by any version.

Ah yes Pandemic Iberia. The game ZMan was a limited printing. Yet somehow gets reprinted! It’s not a bad version of Pandemic. Don’t think I’ve played it since. However it is the version I’ve kept in the collection.

Braggart was a fun card game. But not one that held up to repeated plays over a short period of time. I gave this away in the end iirc.

We all know how I feel about Scythe. Nuff said.

Viticulture and Alien Frontiers both great worker placement games. Which I’m looking forward to getting back to the table as part of one of this year’s challenges.

I do need to get The Others (a great one vs many game, which soured how I feel about CMoN and will never back a project of theirs again), and Cry Havoc back to the table. I do really like both these games and they deserve more love.

Robinson Crusoe possibly the most brutal co-op game on the market. Also probably the most fiddly to setup also. Still a fun game with the right people.

Ok let’s wrap this post up with the raw stats for December 2016.

My bgstats for December 2016

Naturally the next post in these look backs will move into 2017. See you then.

2023 A New Year, New Challenges!

bgstat, game challenges

It’s that time of year where folks make resolutions to improve themselves. I don’t do that. Let’s face it I’m a deeply flawed person who is so long in the tooth now that I’m comfortable with that flawed entity I have become.

But what I have started doing in the last year or so is using the challenge functionality of the bgstat app to set gaming challenges.

Out of the four challenges I had running last year I only completed one of them. That being the Play 40 New-to-me Games challenge.

One of the four challenges carried over into 2023 (see further down) so technically is ongoing.

2022 Challenges (minus the one that carried over)

I don’t see not completing the remaining two a failure. Both had over 50% completion. They encouraged me to get certain games to the table. And that’s the point. The challenges are there to get me to play games that are just sitting there on the shelf.

So to get over half of my big games to the table was a great achievement. As was playing so many of the purchases I made during the pandemic.

Ok with the rolling over 2022 challenge of trying to play as many of my unplayed games I’m only doing one other challenge in 2023.

Hopefully it will allow me to focus on getting those unplayed games played. I still have a lot to get to the table. Plus play those games that have one of my favourite game mechanics.

Well that’s it for my 2023 challenges. See you in my next post.

Happy New Year 2023 Edition!

#dungeon23

I’d just like to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

Obviously over the next week there will be the usual stats posts for the previous month and the seasonal bonus post of yearly stats. Throw in a post about the new years gaming challenges and the year won’t have started off that well for readers of this blog.

Also this starts today…

I’ve already bored you with the prologue posts in the past couple of weeks.

But today we start to take that boredom to new depths.

So along with all the stuff I’ve already threatened you now also have regular posts on here to look forward to about #dungeon23, along with daily Instagram photos (if you follow me there) to suffer.

Have a great day recovering from the nights excesses see you in the next post.

Oops forgot the title!

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night was the first and only session of the Christmas gaming program for Fenland Gamers that I could attend this year.

Traditionally there are three gaming sessions organised. However work rotas meant I had shifts during two of them. It was just luck that I was on an early yesterday and thus able to attend.

It was really great to be seeing friends again and playing games with them.

After some catching up, Katie, Jeff, and myself played Dune Imperium ALL IN!

By that I mean not only was it the core game and the first expansion Rise of Ix. But also the second and latest expansion Immortality.

Wow is this a table hog now.

For me Dune Imperium is like Istanbul. A great core game, that gets better with the expansions.

Granted when teaching to new players things might look daunting. But after a couple of turns, or just the first round, everything clicks into place.

I love what Immortality brings to the game. More decisions to make, more options.

In our game it was looking like Jeff might trigger the end of the game on the ninth round. I had decided not to go for one of my intrigue cards end game scoring conditions as I just didn’t think I would get a chance to complete it.

I had decided instead to try and get as close as I could to ten points and hope that my end game intrigue cards would be enough to snatch victory away from Jeff.

In the end after some beautiful minding it, I managed to grab three victory points to trigger the end of the game, and get two more from end game intrigue cards.

But that moment was all down to stealing an alliance token from Katie, and grabbing a couple of others by winning the combat, and doing research that enabled me to progress up faction alliance tracks.

It was not an outcome I had planned on that turn. But as I got closer to triggering the end of the game, one false move and we’d have gone to another round. Which would have given Jeff a window of opportunity to grab the victory instead. Everything had to be done in the correct order. Luckily I didn’t slip up.

There is still plenty to explore with the Immortality expansion before I talk more about it. But so far after this initial game I love it.

It was great to be gaming again. Tomorrow I’ve spending New Years Eve with Nathan so there will be a game or two there (even though it’s a whistle stop visit).

Now to start putting dates up for the next regular Friday evening gaming sessions.

My GOTY 2022

bgstat, by the numbers, gaming stats, GoTY, stats, Year In Review

It’s that time of year once again when content creators of all types throw top 10 lists of this and that at you.

I’m not one to avoid jumping on a bandwagon.

This post is all about me choosing my game of the year for 2022 from the 54 new to me games that I played.

Now the caveat is that this is new to me. Which means that the games may or may not have been published in 2022. In fact one of them is approximately 40 years old! But until this year I had not played them.

But first here are some stats from that really great app, bgstats.

First my top 9 new to me games based on the number of game plays.

My 2022 top 9 new to me games based on number times played

Next up the bgstats insights for those 54 new to me games.

The 54 new to me games I played in 2022

Roll & Writes

I’ve played a few roll and writes this year. That side of the collection has grown considerably also. So I think it’s safe to say it’s a genre I enjoy playing.

There is one shown above, it’s not only my least favourite roll and write, but probably my turkey of the year also. That game is Super-skill Pinball: 4 Cade. The least said about this game the better.

Out of the remaining 8 roll and writes if I had to choose one to be the roll and write for 2022 it’d have to be…

the combotastic Three Sisters.

I really like all the others. They are great, fun roll and writes. But wow Three Sisters just blows the mind, especially when the combos kick off. The use of the rondel and die selection introduce a bit of decision making whether to take a die to deny an opponent that die and action, or go for one you really need.

A great roll and write that really does stand out.

Expansion of 2022

My expansion of the year is the Rise of Fenris expansion for Scythe.

I had a blast playing the 8 game campaign. Which can be reset and played again. However you can also add it as modules to the main game. Adding more options, variability, replay ability to the game.

But that first play through. The twists and turns. The big reveals. Epic.

Also this was the last game I played with my friend Ben before he left us. Ben will be missed. But it’s the fond gaming memories that remain behind. Rise of Fenris will be one of those memories.

Honourable mentions: Dune Imperium: Rise of Ix (I won’t play without this expansion), Tapestry: Arts and Architecture

Ok onto the main event.

54 games to choose from.

Some incredible games played.

A very very hard choice. However I did come to a decision.

My GOTY 2022 is…

Drawn to the game by comparisons to Scythe, but apart from a mechanic or two it’s not really like Scythe.

I loved this game. From the variable board setup, to the era cards, power ups via paintings, variable leader powers and player boards, being able to tailor the maps to encourage or discourage combat.

It’s a really great game.

Honourable Mentions: Survive Escape from Atlantis, Libertalia Winds of Galecrest, Portal: the uncooperative cake acquisition game, The Thing boardgame.

Obviously I’ll be returning at the start of 2023 with the monthly round up plus the stats for for 2022.