Crushed Eggs!

apps, Fenland Gamers, game night, nintendo, online play, switch, virtual game night

Last night there was another virtual game night for Fenland Gamers.

Sadly it was just Jonathan and myself that were able to virtually meet up to play games. So mirroring one or two of the real life meet ups of yester year.

At Jonathan’s suggestion we played a game of Wingspan. It’s not as if I’m going to say no. We both love the game. So I started a three player game with an AI player taking the third spot.

I should screen shot my opening cards and discuss my decisions about what to keep, etc. I’ll do that for the next game. In the meantime all I can remember about this games starting cards is that I had a bonus card that synergised with the final rounds end of round bonus. That I had two cards in hand that not only counted (if played) towards my bonus card (and by implication the final round bonus) but also allowed the setting up of a tuck engine on the grasslands.

The Wingspan scores and final board state for me

I think I only took the initial draw cards wetland action once, and that was my first action if I remember correctly to grab a bird needed for the engine. After that all my card draw was coming from doing an egg run.

During play I had guessed Jonathan was struggling. He was taking a lot of draw cards actions. Jonathan was hunting for something. Later during the game my suspicions were confirmed when Jonathan posted a message on Discord (and I’m paraphrasing here) that the cards in this game indeed hated him and were conspiring against him.

The final scores did surprise me. Especially Jonathan’s. His claim that this was his worst scoring game ever, was probably right. I don’t remember him doing so poorly.

But that’s the nature of the beast. You see it in every game. Sometimes the stars don’t a line, and everything seems to be working against you. In these situations I think it helps to be the optimist and write the game off as one of those things that just happen, and next time will be different. It’s not fun as it’s happening, and can be frustrating. But you have to play to the last turn on the last round. Things might turn around.

It’s like the game of Epic the Card Game I had last week (lucky for the world the app doesn’t allow you to replay the whole game to record it). Early on in the game I went down to 2 health. Whilst my opponent was gaining life also. It wasn’t looking good.

Life savers!

But drawing into the two cards above I was able to stabilise by removing big threats from attacking, and basically neutralise tokens. This bought me enough time to draw into hopefully solutions to whatever the current threat on the board was.

There has even been games of Star Realms like this. I’ve been on one authority with my opponent in the 60s, and still hung in there and won! That game might actually also be on YouTube. There have been numerous games of MtG like this. Plus just as many that didn’t pan out.

When there is a turn around like the above they become epic gaming moments that you retell time and time again. The boardgaming version of “this one time in band camp…”

I’m digressing from the fact I crushed Jonathan, and had to settle for the fact the only banter was by sharing the above screen shots showing the emphatic victory on social media.

Afterwards we agreed to start up another game of chess via discord. This time it’s Jonathan’s turn to be white.

Marathon Wingspan Game Finishes

apps, Fenland Gamers, online play

21 or more days after starting our 4 player game of Wingspan we have finally finished playing today!

Yes that is a long time to take to play a game of Wingspan.

However considering we were all basically only taking one turn a day (I think there was a day when we got to play a second turn). Taking over 21 days to play the game was to be expected.

I’ve mentioned in the past this game was going to take a lot longer than our regular games where we play in real time (with or without discord) so that one of our friends could participate.

So how did the game end? I won comfortably. Which was a bit of a relief after all the round one hype of me playing a raven.

Final scores and my end board state

After you get and play the raven early there is the pressure that you are going to run away with the game. However without cards that combo well with it, it’s not a big advantage.

In this game I got some that worked ok with it. I did have to set up a card draw engine and round 2 was basically me drawing cards looking for cards to work with the raven. So I had a massive number of cards in hand to use through the remaining rounds.

How did I think it went playing a game that went on for so long? It was ok. Not something I’d want to do regularly. The long delay between turns was frustrating. But the fact it allowed a friend who otherwise would not be able to play to join in counts for a lot.

Right now to organise the next virtual game night.

Green level pledge arrived

Paranoia, RPG

Just under a week ago the Project Infinite Hole Kickstarter for the Paranoia RPG dropped through my letterbox.

It was a very pleasant surprise as I was not expecting it so soon after fulfillment had started. It was the very next day. At I best I thought it’d be about a week before I’d receive it. But that quick! Mind blown.

However after opening up the package and checking the contents, I spotted one issue. I had two Thriftylist decks and was missing the Disaster deck. A quick email exchange with Mongoose Publishing and a “replacement” Disaster deck was going to be put in the post (it turned up this morning).

Contents of the Green level pledge

Basically this Paranoia Kickstarter goes into depth on the R&D department. Introducing new equipment, NPC’s, locations and ways to combine items.

Obviously there are new missions, with four iirc making up a campaign! Yep a Paranoia campaign. Apparently this is a first.

As we ease into meeting up in real life I’m hoping I can get enough interest to run one or two Paranoia sessions once they can be safely done. I’m also hoping I can get one or two of the other RPGs to the table too.

Unnamed blog post

Last Days, miniatures, miniatures painting, new arrivals, painting, RPG

And we’re back. This post is going to be all over the place (when aren’t they?) But we are starting off with a look at the progress I’m making with the Alien miniatures to use with Last Days (and the RPG).

I have 13 aliens assembled which includes the Queen. Which means I have 12 more left to do. However I decided to paint the assembled ones before putting the remaining ones together.

That meant I needed to decide how I was going to paint them. So it was off to the internet to look for some painting tutorials. Luckily with the older now out of print AvP game and the new Alien game there are one or two posts and videos about painting the aliens. And you guessed it they all had different colour schemes! Which means choose the finished look you like the most and follow that. And that’s what I did.

Here is the tutorial I decided to follow.

So far I have primed the figures with a black primer. Then dry brushed the models with Runefang Steel (which I just realised is the wrong paint! It should have been Leadbelcher! But I actually like the way it’s turned out.) Finally after the dry brushing I applied a wash of Nuln Oil. Now I just have to wait for that all to dry now before proceeding with more dry brushing. But that’s tomorrow’s job.

Painting progress of the Alien miniatures

You’ll also see above that I have some more supplies in to start painting the Big Bang Theory figures with. The important one was the orange brown for Raj. The others were just getting more in off paints I already had.

Not board game related but I do talk video games from time to time on here. And let’s face it I have been playing them since the dawn of the entertainment media that it is.

A couple of years back the Royal Mail issued commemorative stamps celebrating the rich history and achievements of the British video game industry.

Back then I didn’t have the resources to get a set of the stamps. But I did now. So when I saw that I could still buy them whilst pre-ordering the upcoming commemorative stamps celebrating British sci-fi. Well I snapped them up.

Royal Mail commemorative stamps celebrating the British video game industry.

I’m not a stamp collector. But these like the Asterix stamps that I have are just pretty cool to own.

The stamps bring back some find memories of simpler, more care free times. There was a sense of pioneering, pushing boundaries with the games back then.

The only drawback I see with these stamps is that Llamasoft and Jeff Minter are not represented. I love Llamasoft games. They have a unique feel, almost purity to them. Minter has been a gaming hero of mine since the early 80’s. He’s a coding god in my eyes.

Alice is Missing arrives

Finally I’ve been able to get a physical copy of the silent RPG Alice is Missing (I have a digital copy).

I just now need to organise a game or two using the discord server I have access to. Oh and learn how to assign roles, etc in discord. But that’s an apathy thing to overcome.

BBT Squad Prep and Aliens

Alien, Last Days, miniatures, miniatures painting, painting

It’s been a couple of days since I last graced this blog with my shallow thoughts and poorly formed opinions. But isn’t that just the way things are during this global event?

Although gaming has not been taking place in meat space, we did have another virtual game night last Wednesday. And our four player game of Wingspan has reached just over the mid point of round three! But that is all hardly worth writing about (unless I get really desperate for something to say, and that includes a massive misplay by Jonathan in our game of Love Letter).

I did dig out the Zombicide figures for the Big Bang Theory characters and primed them ready for painting.

The Raj figure presented me with a problem painting that I hadn’t come across before. That problem being skin tone. Luckily Duncan was able to point me to some great resources online, such as this CMoN post and this one. I now have a Vallejo Orange Brown on its way.

Looking back at the post where I spec’d them out as a Last Days squad to use I felt a bit embarrassed by what I did. So I will be revisiting this squad and “fixing” it.

I did spend some time this morning cutting and gluing some of the Alien miniatures that Gale Force Nine sell and that have ended up in my possession. The plan is to try and do some of these each day. Or every other day. Or the mood takes me! Look apathy is a real thing ok?

At the moment I have 20 more warrior aliens left to put together. Plus the Heroes of Hadley’s Hope which is 13 figures. And at some point hopefully in the near future the assets and hazards model pack will also drop through the letter box, and that also gets added to the model building queue.

Now you can see why I came up with the above plan to tackle the number of models that need building.

After all that building I then have to paint them! Although I think I might be able to get away with not painting the aliens!! Plus finish off the outstanding bits I need to do rules wise.

All this to add Aliens to Last Days and to use if I get to run the RPG. But I think it’s going to be worth it. Last Days has the potential to be the best Alien based game going!

Twilight Imperium the RPG

genesys, news, RPG

[said in the voice of The Rock] Finally! Genesys gets a new source book!

Announced yesterday by FFG and Edge Studios on pages 4 and 5 of the Twilight Codex issue 2 that they released was the news that the next source book for the Genesys RPG system will be a TI4 setting.

Pages 4 and 5 from Twilight Codex issue 2

The Twilight Codex is a web-based publication (basically a pdf you can download) that highlights rules updates and showcases new content for Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition and its Prophecy of Kings expansion.

So it’s the natural place for FFG and Edge Studios (who are now the guardians of the RPGs that belonged to FFG) to announce a sourcebook set in the Twilight Imperium Universe.

We can get a hint of things to come by looking at Chapter 6: Space Opera of the core rulebook. This chapter looks at the setting Space Opera and uses Twilight Imperium as its example. I am looking for psionics to be expanded much in the same way netrunning rules were in Shadow of the Beanstalk.

Hopefully we will also get adversary cards to go along with source book.

I would say this announcement has been long over due by Edge Studios. Whose silence over upcoming Genesys related stuff has been infuriating and given the impression that the system may be deceased.

The new Genesys setting was not the only announcement within the pages of the Codex. There were also details of two novels set in the Twilight Imperium universe.

Twilight Codex page with book details.

It would appear that FFG are giving Twilight Imperium the Android treatment. It’s a shame Android isn’t getting some more love. But I’ll take the Twilight Imperium stuff gladly.

Triffid Apocalypse Imminent

Last Days, miniatures, miniatures painting

I’ve been quite the last couple of days. The creative bug came over me and I painted the triffid minis!

After doing a test mini, I streamlined the process by having a gradient from just three colours. Which speeded up the painting production line.

So that’s the triffids are “table ready” for using in Last Days.

Now all I need to do is work out is what the collective name for a group of triffids is!

Last Days: A Triffid Apocalypse! Another Update!!

Last Days, miniatures, Skirmish

After the first update to the stats I got some further feedback. Which raised some good points. So I’ve included once more the feedback from Facebook below, but not the feedback/comments from the first update (you can view them easily enough if you click on the link).

Please also remember that my inspiration source is the 1981 BBC tv series adaptation of the book. Although where there are gaps that need filling I use the resources linked to in the original post. The aim has also been to try and keep things rule light as possible while getting the triffid theme over.

I need to think about the spawning rules, and if they need changing from the core rules, and see how things feel. I do like the points raised. So once I can play test these with my friend there may well be a future update covering this.

The fire weapon doing double damage, see what you mean when I reread the Head Shot trait. Hopefully fixed that.

I have added stats for a triffid gun now. The disclaimer below really does apply to this.

On the first aid front, yep not thought that out enough. I think for this to work medical supplies needs to be something that can be equipped from the start, and used in game with the interact action. If used this way it’s gone and can not be used again. One and gone so to speak. I’m thinking a cost of 2 scavenger points to add medical supplies to a character.

Please note: These stats have not been play tested. I repeat have not been play tested. They are my initial thoughts, and a work in progress (this is the third interation). They are likely to change once I get a chance to play test them.

To Do (still):

▪ Play test this!

▪ Come up with campaign additions to cover a character becoming blind if they survived an attack and got hit on bare skin.

The source I used to help with the Triffid Gun stats is this link.

1 Triffid Down…

Last Days, miniatures, miniatures painting, painting

I know I should be finishing the stat update for the triffids. But hear me out. I started painting the triffids instead.

Basically what follows are notes for me so I don’t forget what I did. All paints used are Army Painter.

Despite painting the base coat of all the triffids, I decided to do just one to completion to iron out any kinks in the process.

The base coat for the stem of the triffid is deep yellow and white mixed together (equal parts). I think this when dry works very well, and gives me the colour I wanted on the stem in the middle.

I then used Pure Red, Lava Orange and Phoenix Flames for the layering/gradient. I didn’t go straight from one to the other when painting. I would mix equal parts of the previous colour with the new colour first and do a layer of that, before moving onto the new colour. I’m not too happy with how the “flower” front came out. It’s too solid one the red, and needs a bit more orange coming through.

The base of the triffid is Wet Mud, with the bit around the prongs Wet Mud mixed with equal parts white. And the prongs are ash grey.

A diluted Green Tone wash is applied. I like the green tinge the stem takes on. And I think it has really worked wonders on the lower half.

Once dry I super glued the triffid to a base. The I flocked the base. For once a little glue sticking flock to the triffid bottom works in my favour and makes the whole thing look better!

1 triffid down, 20 more to do!

FN-2187

Last Days, lego minifigs, miniatures, miniatures painting, painting

At the weekend for some reason I got it in my head I wanted a Finn Lego minifig with the now infamous First Order helmet with the bloodied hand print on it.

Naturally that isn’t something Disney or Lego are likely to sell.

So I did a quick Google to see if anyone was selling a custom figure. Instead I found a post/video showing how to do it myself using a toothpick and red paint.

I just needed Finn as a First Order trooper. Ok technically any First Order trooper would have done. But not for me. So eBay helped out by allowing me to purchase Finn in his First Order uniform. Which arrived this morning.

I then dug out a First Order trooper and removed its helmet. Then using a toothpick, and the Army Painter Zombicide Glistening Blood paint that I had, I painted on the infamous bloodied hand print on the helmet.

Which I think has come out looking quite good.

Yesterday I did finish off removing the supports from the final 6 triffids that Duncan printed for me.

I’ve now primed all 21 triffids ready to be painted.

After doing some research in how to paint the triffids. Which was mainly looking at triffid pictures from the 1981 BBC tv adaptation. I have a colour scheme that I will be using (just waiting for the Army Painter Wet Mud paint to arrive). At the moment I’m looking at tutorials on layering/blending because that’s the main technique I will need to painting the triffids.

Lastly the Alien miniatures arrived from Thirsty Meeple this morning. I just need the alien egg/face hugger pack to arrive.