I think it’s time to rectify the glaring omission of mine that I pointed out in my post on the new official Stonemaier Games scoring app.
All of us at Whitespider1066 Towers (basically me, and the two attack chihuahuas Nico and Loki) would like to wish Jamey and all those that work for and with Stonemaier Games a happy tenth anniversary.
It’s no secret that I’m a Stonemaier Games fanboy.
There is banter about me being so at our club game nights from time to time.
Now I don’t own every game by Stonemaier Games. That might come as a big shock to one or two of you out there. Which means I haven’t played them all.
An even bigger shock for everyone (unless you have been reading this blog for a long long time) is I actually don’t like one of their games! But it would count as two because if I didn’t like the original then I wouldn’t like the themed version of it either (which I haven’t played).
Have you guessed which game it is?
Yep Between Two Cities. Back when we played Jonathan’s copy it just didn’t jell with us. So if I didn’t like that game then sadly when Stonemaier released Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig there wasn’t much chance of it finding its way into my collection.
But enough of the negative vibe this is meant to be a celebration of Stonemaier Games.
The seven games I do own I absolutely love.
Do I really need to state once again that Scythe is my all time favourite game? I absolutely love the game. I think the only thing I need to add to the game at some point in the future (when finances allow) is the metal mechs.
I’m not sure how a new top 100 games would shake out using paired comparisons but I’d be surprised if a quarter of my top twenty weren’t made up of Stonemaier games.
But what is it that attracts me to Stonemaier games?
Firstly and I don’t think anyone would dispute this, is the production values. For a few years now I would argue Stonemaier have been setting the standards others try to achieve. From the components to art, and even the rule books. They are of such a high standard.
Then game play. The games are so accessible, usually easy to pick up, but offer depth as well. Plus they usually have an interesting twist on the core game mechanic.
Considering the high production standards of the games, the rrp is amazing, and surprisingly cheaper than expected. Often before release I’ve tried estimating what the game will cost and always I’m way over.
Then there is the support of the games via expansions, accessories, and easily accessible promos. Let alone the actually very good customer service.
I’m looking forward to the next ten years and the fond memories it will bring playing my current Stonemaier games, and future ones to come.
Nathan has been in the US of A on a family holiday with his biological family the last couple of weeks.
Before he left I had asked if he ended up in a Target, if by some fluke they had one in stock, could he get me a copy of the new D&D Starter Set Dragons of Stormwreck Isle.
Until I think October, this has been a Target exclusive.
Nath got home early last week, and when we finally managed to speak yesterday he said he’d managed to get it. He’d got the stores last copy. Which was a miracle really. I’d seen elsewhere that people were going to Target only to find it had sold out.
Yeah I know not much of a getting it early. Especially by the time I get to visit him. But still.
Nath and Josh (one of his older brothers) did buy some Pokémon cards over there. Much to the chagrin of other biological members of the family. I don’t get that attitude. But I’m glad they didn’t let it put them off buying something that brings them joy. There was a bit of education for Nath from his brother as he discovered how much some Pokémon cards can be worth. Do they play the game? No. I think they just enjoy the collecting side! Which is cool.
Nath nearly bought Alien Fate of the Nostromo from Target that also came with an Ash mini. When he finds out that in the base game Ash is just a standee not a mini he’s going to regret being talked out of it.
But at least I know what to get him for his birthday now. And I look forward to playing this with him.
Whilst we were chatting on the phone I was telling him about new games that I’d got. Sadly we won’t be playing Twilight Inscription together unless I take a folding table with me. His circular table just isn’t large enough. So it joins a growing list of games we can’t play on our visits.
However I do have new arrivals that we can play like Brazil Imperium. With its modular board the two player setup will fit easily.
Nath did request I bring Wingspan with me on my next visit as he really likes the game. That really does make me happy.
I love that we can share a love of board games.
Obviously we have more than that in common. We are both geeks. We like the same sort of movies and tv shows. We love video games. You get the idea.
However it’s when we play board games together that I feel we are getting some deeper more meaningful quality time together.
It’s just a shame his biological family don’t want to share in that sort of time with him. I think they’d all benefit from it. I know Kate sometimes tries. She even owns Wingspan (but hasn’t got to grips with it yet).
Anyway I’m hoping to get to see Nathan real soon. Assuming my rota for next couple of weeks doesn’t change.
The drawback of my new role is that my days off each week move around. So it’s not guaranteed I am off at the weekend or even our fortnightly club meet-ups.
What this means is I am more reliant on ad-hoc gaming sessions and peoples availability mid-week than ever to get any gaming it.
Luckily Thursday evening Marcin, Charlene, and Julie were free to play a game of Brazil Imperium.
Who played who in Brazil Imperium
Once again I went with some synergy with my era cards. Once again it was paintings that was the linking factor.
Whilst the others went after resources or built as their first actions I went after a painting. Particularly as the one I grabbed allowed me to use gold cards as science tokens, followed a couple of turns later by grabbing a painting that allowed me to use wool as gold.
So for much of the early game I felt I was playing catch up to the others as I kind of started setting up a paintings engine in my early turns that would give me early access to science, and worked towards my objectives.
It felt very explosive once I did start building and expanding my empire.
Marcin was the first to complete the first era and the second. However I wasn’t far behind completing my first two era objectives.
However my early investment in the painting engine paid off and I was in a great position to complete my third era objective and trigger the end of the game.
After all the tallying was done Marcin’s more aggressive building snagged him a comprehensive victory.
Having chosen a four player map that was in the middle for the chance of conflict between players, there was no conflict. The opportunities were there. Particularly against my empire as it was fairly late compared to the others that I had my monarch out, or built up my forces for my final era objective.
Final Brazil Imperium scores
It had seemed a good idea to game Thursday evening. But as I woke up Friday morning at ten past four the next morning to get ready for work it seemed less so.
The plus point for my tired body was my shift was only five hours.
However my other brilliant idea a couple of days earlier was to arrange a session to play Twilight Imperium if it arrived in time that evening.
Luckily my optimism was well placed and Twilight Imperium did arrive whilst I was at work. So the gaming session could go ahead.
I spent a therapeutic half hour sleeving the cards in Twilight Inscription. Luckily I had just enough. But it was close. Damn close.
The rest of the afternoon before the session was spent watching YouTube rules videos for the game, reading the rules, and dozing off. Yep I was apparently tired!
For some reason I had got it in my head that Twilight Inscription played between one and four players.
But it does not.
Twilight Inscription actually plays up to eight players!
Who played which faction
Which kinda makes sense considering the game it’s meant to be based on also plays that many.
However! I don’t think I’ll ever play with more than four players just on a practical level.
This game is a space hog.
My mind boggles at the size table you’d need for that player count. There is no way everyone would see the Mecatol board and the four objective cards. However I can see this working as a remote play game if everyone playing has a copy.
On the 6ft by 2.5ft table we were on it would have been snug with a fourth player but possible.
Twilight Inscription is both a flip and write AND a roll and write. It makes great use of both. You work through the event deck that gives you resources in an expansion event or triggers a warfare or political event. Plus during the expansion event you also roll the dice to get further resources to use. I quite like this combo, it works really well here.
Let’s address the elephant in the room about Twilight Inscription. This is not a cut down version of Twilight Imperium. It really is it’s own thing set in the Twilight Imperium universe.
It does have a 4X feel, after all each of the four player boards is one of those X’s. However the only real player interaction comes in the form of the voting and warfare.
Component wise it knocks it out of the park. The dice are large chunky affairs that feel really nice to roll. But you do need big hands to roll all six at once. The chalk pens I like. You do need a cloth to clean the boards with at the end. It is a pain to use the erasers on the ends of the supplied pens. But the chalk pens don’t smudge once dry on the board. Which is really important in the game as you play the game moving between the various player boards.
Political cards we voted on
Compared to other roll and writes Twilight Imperium takes a lot of setup. You are constructing the event deck, shuffling the artifact deck, randomly selecting objectives and political cards, choosing a faction to play.
Objectives we could claim
For me I did feel I was empire building, exploring the stars and battling my neighbours. So I think the theme came through.
If you don’t ever play eight players then selecting player boards randomly, and using the unique side of each board, with one of the 24 factions. Then there is an incredible amount of variety each game. With no two games being the same from a player setup side of things.
The political and objective decks are very small, and would have been nice to have more cards for these. I can see these feeling very tired very quickly. The event deck could have done with having more cards too.
I don’t really think I can give advice on how to play this after a single game and how badly I did.
I got my arsed kicked royally in this first game as the scores below show. But I still had a blast playing the game.
Final Twilight Inscription Scores
My run of “great” decisions continues today with an afternoon of D&D before doing a seven hour shift!
As part of the tenth anniversary celebrations for Stonemaier Games (which strangely for a fanboy I haven’t written about yet!) have just announced and released a free official Stonemaier Games Scoring app.
The app will initially act as a digital score pad for Wingspan, and record high scores. Other Stonemaier games will follow over time.
So how will this effect the unofficial, nothing to do with Stonemaier Games, Wingspan scoring app Wingmate?
Although technically they do the same job in other ways they differ.
Firstly Wingmate will cost you money. To score a game (other than the free to try single player scoring), use the automata, use either/both the expansions for scoring, you have to fork out hard digital cash.
As mentioned earlier in the post the Stonemaier app is completely free.
Wingmate is designed to be used during play.
At the start of a game you set up the end of round objectives either using the app to select them or draw them randomly physically and let the app know which ones you are using.
Then during the game at the end of each round you record each players score for that objective.
The official app is designed to be used at the end of the game.
It’s here that I noticed a difference in the nectar scoring.
Wingmate calculates the end game scoring on the rules where points awarded are based on majority in each habitat. Whilst the official app gives a point for each nectar collected!
When did this change? Shouldn’t the official app use the rules or give the option to chose between the two?
I don’t play using the Automata so I haven’t used that option in Wingmate. And I’m not paying £1.79 to see what it does! I’m not that dedicated.
The official app keeps a high score table, which Stonemaier plan to have so that you can see how you rank against other users of the app.
It also allows you to record scores for three other Stonemaier games (no score pad functionality) for their own respective high score tables. With the same future plans.
Currently Wingmate does not have this functionality. Will they add it? I’m not sure.
I’m not sure what the future of Wingmate is. I think the official app will meet the majority of players needs. Despite the change in nectar scoring. Whether that takes away enough in-app purchases income to justify stopping the further development of Wingmate I don’t know. Maybe it forces Wingmate to drop the in-app purchases and go completely free also. It’s going to be interesting to see what the developer decides.
I do like the end of round scoring functionality of Wingmate. I’d definitely add this to my wish list of features for the official app after sorting out the nectar scoring. Which for me is the top priority.
As a first release the official app is pretty cool.
Although I only cover iOS apps this will as soon as the Google app approval process allows be out on that other platform too.
Before I go into the rest of the post a little peak behind the curtain of running this blog.
About seven weeks ago the jetpack plugin for WordPress (the software used to run this blog) stopped working.
I had no clue why.
At the time I didn’t have the time to investigate why, so I just deactivated it.
Which meant I wasn’t getting any stats for the blog, no social media sharing etc. Basically I had no idea if anyone was reading my ramblings. Wait let me correct that. I had no idea how few people were reading my poorly put together thoughts.
About three weeks ago I finally got round to trying to sort out the issue.
It’s been a tiring bouncing between initially WordPress support, then the jetpack support and my hosting provider bluehost.
The jetpack support also involved the development team, who would ask for something to be checked, or changed on the server. That would then require me to contact the bluehost support.
There were a couple of permission issues. But finally yesterday a bluehost support person ran a repair on the WordPress database and all of a sudden the jetpack plugin was alive once more.
So long story short, something technically wasn’t working, now it is!
Just dropped through the letterbox is the latest Alien RPG cinematic expansion Heart of Darkness. The third and final part of a three part series called the Draconis Strain Saga (Chariot of the Gods, and Destroyer of Worlds being the other two parts). Although it can also be played as a stand alone cinematic adventure.
You do need either the core rulebook or the starter set rules to play.
I haven’t had a chance to play the RPG, but I’m hoping to rectify that soon. In the meantime I might just look at the three expansions as a whole and give my impression of the adventures, contents, etc.
Imminent arrivals
Finally nearly a year later Renegade will any day now be sending out the promised “We’re sorry” promo packs for the missing promo card that was meant to be sent out with orders last September or October last year.
Also due anytime now is the replacement dice for The One Ring second edition plus the hard copy of The Ruins of the Lost Realm.
Then by the end of this week the preorder of Twilight Inscription should arrive. I’m looking forward to playing this roll and write.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign/session. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
The players have finished the haunted house adventure. At the end of I let them level up. So since the last session they have been busy working out what new abilities etc their characters will have.
I’ve given the players some “homework” before this coming Saturdays session. Basically I’m advancing the in-game calendar by a week, and the players have been asked to come up with what their characters did in that week to gain all these new skills/abilities they have gained going from level 2 to level 3.
Before the party entered the haunted house a guard of the Silver Talons did drop the following adventure hook to them.
“The back walls of one of the villas collapsed into a series of chambers appearing to have once been a temple to a dark bestial god. The family owning the villa has gone missing and the Silver Talons seek discreet investigators to enter the temple and find any survivors from the collapse.” Page 14, City of Arches by Mike Shea
However the party has taken at least a day to work their way through the haunted house. They have took two long rests and a short one.
So my plan in the next session is to have the streets a buzz with the story of how a different group of adventurers are being proclaimed heroes for rescuing the missing family.
I have some homework too!
I need to go through and work out with the Ghosts of Saltmarsh adventure just what the party have found.
Which give some great opportunities for adventure hooks.
I’ve had some great NPC cards by Monte Cook Games arrive.
As you can see they have some great art, and system neutral info about the NPC on the reverse.
I like these sort of things. I have some Pathfinder ones also. They are great for bringing NPCs to life for the players. But also for inspiration to while preparing a session.
I do feel this next session needs to see Adel’s rival being introduced and making an offer to the party for the artifact they have.
Adel will be a bit miffed the party took too long getting back to her with the artifact.
Not sure how both will play out.
I like the idea of the party having to enter into a “mega dungeon” to get the next artifact. But that will be a single possible hook for them to follow up.
If the party decide to activate the watch and go through the rift/portal I need to chose or create a realm of dread.
Another hook will be a Harengon looking for adventurers to rescue their family or maybe protect their “warren”.
All I know about this upcoming session is it’s going to be very by the seats of the pants, reacting to what’s happening on the day.
Not our usual (post lockdowns) numbers with only seven attending.
But then again with her majesty the Queen passing away the previous day and the new King, King Charles III making his first official broadcast to the nation at 6pm.
Was it any real surprise? Even the numbers in the bar area were down (considerably) and no food as they decided to close for the night as a sign of respect.
The positive side of all this was I got to play some games with Jonathan.
We started off playing a quick game of Riverside. I’m still really liking this roll and write.
Our second game of the evening was a three player game of Santorini New York.
Chris our third player hadn’t played the game before so we started off with the recommended role cards for new players to the game (see below).
Recommended role cards for new players
Our first game saw Jonathan eliminated from the game with all his workers removed from the board. I won that game. It felt like a double win with Jonathan being knocked out like that.
The next game saw a determined Jonathan wanting to redeem himself. Which he did by winning.
Our third and final game I decided to shake things up a little and select new role cards for the game (see below).
Role cards used in our final game
I chose roles that looked interesting and fun to play.
Which they were.
Chris won this last game.
I really do like Santorini New York as that multiplayer version of the original game. However the rulebook does leave a lot to be desired especially on clarifying what is classified as an unoccupied space.
Santorini New York
Our final game of the evening was Sushi Go Party!
We went with the “Party Sampler” menu.
Sushi Go Party! Menu played
Obviously we played over the standard three rounds.
I fell behind the other two during the first round trying to play the long game with the green tea ice cream. Hoping to make up any short fall in the final scoring with them.
Alas that was not the case, the gap was too much. Chris ran away with the victory.
Who Won What Game
Yes it wasn’t an evening of heavier games. But they were fun games that we played. And just important we had a good time.
Decided it was about time I shared the latest version of my Blue deck in Rivals.
Yes I know the others in my play group will now know what the agenda is. And yes Diego will be going “I knew it. I was right” along with “he went with my suggestion”.
But I need to record the deck before I possibly go on and tinker with it.
Agenda – Disheveled Shelves
Haven – Eternal Life Mortuary
Leader – Annika (Hecata)
Vampire Deck
Kwame (Hecata)
Lorenzo Murik (Tremere)
Anjali the Samedi (Hecata)
Zahara (Hecata)
Sophia Giovanni (Hecata)
Scott (Hecata)
Library
Diminish (Ritual) x 1
Sleep of the Damned (Ritual) x 2
The Shakedown (Action) x 3
Clairvoyance (Action) x 3
Bind the Spirit (Ritual) x 2
Summon Spirit (Ritual) x 3
Mental Block (Unhosted Action Ongoing) x 3
Tenebrous Avatar (Reaction) x 3
Fortify the Inner Facade (Reaction) x 3
Defense of the Sacred Haven (Ritual) x 2
Grave Robbing (Action) x 3
Early Grave (Action) x 2
Fourth Tradition: The Accounting (Action) x 2
Flesh of Marble (Reaction Special) x 2
Spirit’s Touch (Action) x 2
The Mighty Fall (Attack/Reaction) x 2
Slap in the Face (Reaction) x 2
Thoughts
So I did the pivot from Rituals to Wraiths. Which I am happier about. Although I still have Rituals in the deck. But these are mainly defensive or aiding in getting the wraiths.
I’m not convinced the lovely Annika is the right leader now. But not sure who’d be better. Her advantage is her bp and this deck needs a hard to kill vampire in the haven. I technically don’t need to splash any other clan in this deck. But Lorenzo does have that handy heal ability.
Still think this deck can be tweaked further. But need to spend some time thinking about it. Who knows there may be some must add cards in the next expansion The Dragon & The Rogue. I’m hoping for at least a good reaction card I can splash!
I’ve been logging my plays of boardgames with the bgstat app since 29th December 2015.
To date that means I have played 374 games (not all mine!)
My all time stats to date
My 16 most played games to date
But why did I start recording my game plays?
Back in 2015 things were not brilliant at work.
I was being bullied and it made me ill.
I was off work with depression. I was not in a good place.
My line manager was doing nothing about it apart from enabling it.
Luckily I was referred for cognitive behaviour therapy (cbt) and didn’t have to wait months to get my first appointment. Something I’m not so sure would be the case now.
During the treatment I decided I needed a way to try and have an early warning sign that I was becoming ill again.
So I started logging my game plays with the bgstat app.
The logic being if I started to become depressed again then I’d be playing less games (pandemics not accounted for). I’d start to withdraw. My monthly stats were my canary down the mine for my mental health.
My journey to becoming well involved leaving that toxic environment (I quit my job and did a short stint doing supply teaching), as well as doing things I enjoyed (or used to).
Since then logging my game plays has become an addiction. The app itself has grown considerably since those early days. In some ways unrecognisable.
But I love the insights it gives me. Not just in what I’ve played, but into me.
The challenges I’ve started using aren’t just gaming challenges, but also another way to encourage me to do something I enjoy.
And to be totally honest September was never a great month for me with it being the anniversary of Dad’s death. But with the first anniversary of my Nan passing away so close to Dad’s. This year it’s a pretty rough month emotionally.
It’s going to take some Herculean effort to get through this month. And any little trick I can use to get through it like the bgstat app and forcing myself to play games will help.
I don’t know how to end this post. So I’m just going to stop and see you in the next one.
