Finally, another game night update

On March 21st I hosted only my third game night of the year. I missed most of Feb due to a trip to Mexico. We had ten total players and we played 6 different games.

First off, as new people were arriving, I set up Carcassonne: The Discovery for 5 players, Emily won by 15 points over a close packed bunch. As the game was finishing up, we had more players arrive so we broke into multiple groups.

David needed to refresh his memory of Arkham Horror so he roped 5 others in to play this along with the Dunwich Horror expansion, we had a 6 player, 4.5 hour game which culminated in Machine Gun McGlen killing Ithaqua with a sword. We were exhausted by the end, but also exhilarated.

Emily convinced Lenora, Brenda and Colin to play her latest addiction, Dominion. They managed to get two plays in, with Emily winning the first player game and Lenora winning Big Money.

Emily had to leave, and we were still on the track of Ithaqua so the three of them played Poison, the game of witches brews. Brenda won, but I am not sure of the scores.

The next game they played was Ingenious, still my favourite Knizia and Colin took home his first victory of the night.

Lastly, they played Formula Motor Racing (another Knizia, hmmm) and Colin started slow and won by the whole shebang by the end of the third race.

Next is my perspective of Cal-Con, the convention I was at over the weekend.

Gaming at Woody's, Parts I and II

The last two Wednesdays I have been playing games at a friend of mine, Woody. The main games we have been playing are Race for the Galaxy and Dominion. Yesterday we added in a third game, Nexus Ops, just to add a little variety.
The first Wednesday we played RtfG twice, I was lucky in the first game to get a military strategy rolling and ended up with three 6 value developments, and easily won the first game. Game two was a slightly different matter as both Woody and Norm had better games. I used the "drown em in planets" strategy and had 2 alien planets by the end of the game, I barely eked out a win that time with both Woody and Norm scoring close to me.
The second game we played that night was Dominion. Woody and Norm had never played Dominion so we played using the first time deck and predictably enough, I won. The advantage I had was similar to the advantage a veteran player of any game has, they know and understand the roots to victory.

The next wednesday night Norm and Woody were playing Race again as I told them I would be late. Norm got his economic engine humming smoothly in the last three turns to score 40 points and Woody used the military to score 36.
We switched to Dominion (now there is a shock!) and played the Big Money deck. The deck may have been big money but the scores were not, Woody won by 2 points over me, with Norm trailing me by 3 and scoring 27 points total. Next up was the Interactive deck, where I used the thief to little effect but still managed to score a slight victory over the two contenders.

We finished the night with Nexus Ops, a light science fiction wargame, that is quick playing and is simple to teach and learn. Nexus Ops uses a board made of hexes and revenue mines are placed on them to use for purchase of troops. A turn begins with the player buying troops, playing any start of turn cards and then doing movement (1 space), fighting (one d6 roll per figure), collecting revenue and picking up secret mission cards (hidden victory points you can play).
The game is a fast game, and with my vast experience (two plays) and teaching Woody and Norm, we still managed to get a game played in 75 minutes from setup to teardown. Woody won by killing my dragon and taking the citadel on the same turn, generating 5 VP and reaching the required 12 before me. I had 10 at games end and Norm had 4.

This weekend, Cal-Con!

Wednesday night gaming

Brenda and I headed over to Jay's place Wednesday night for some nosh and gaming. Jay fed us some Hungarian food and then Brenda fed us some losses...

First up was Dominion, we played with the first deck with the Witch & Thief in it. I tried a new experiment and went minimal cash and tons of Gardens and other purchases. There was no Moat so the game was low scoring. Brenda got her first victory of the night beating me by one point 18-17 with Jay pulling up the rear at -5.

I demanded a rematch and we went onto the next deck (Town Square?) and this game had no Witch or Thief so the scores were much higher. I got my engine rolling and managed to squeak out a victory with 52 points, Brenda finished second at 45 and Jay was third with 27.

We finished the night with Race for the Galaxy, a game very similar to San Juan, but certainly more complex. Jay commented at the end of the game "You need a full game just to understand the game, the symbols and turns, I never got it until the last turn." Needless to say, Jay played the perfect host, finishing 3rd with 18 points, a respectable total for a first time player, while Brenda laid down 15 points on the last hand to win 35-28 over me, I was crushed.

I have no gaming plans (currently) for the weekend, but I do have my Descent campaign for next Monday and Jay and I are going to try to get together again next week. Next weekend is my game night, with Cal-Con the week after that!

Descent again

Last Monday Jay, Brenda and JC were back to finish what they had started the previous week. So they started on the third level, which was populated by some undead and a few other nasty dudes... I managed to get a kill in before they totally wiped out the dungeon and the game ended with the party at 17 CT and me at 20. The plan was for the group to head to Tamalir, do their business and then head off to intercept Sir Alric Farrow (which they did), but not before he got his first roll to trash the town (he failed). We ended up in an outdoor battle with heavy snow, so no one was allowed to move faster then their speed. They battled all of his minions, destoying them and then managed to kill Farrow as he tried to flee the board, hampered by the heavy snow he was unable to get away.

The final result was 26 CT for me and 21 for the party, pretty close, but I finally had more CT then the party. I purchased a Treachery upgrade and a Traps upgrade in those two weeks and the total CT for the two groups is 156. I have 6 CT unspent.

Thursday night gaming

Jay came over Thursday and we played some games and had a beer (or two). Jay has not played many of the two player games outside the Commands & Colors line so we played a couple of new (to him) games.

First up was Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game, a game for 2-6 players that we played 2 player. Jay took the zombies and I took the humans. We played the first scenario, with me drawing the Drifter, the Nurse, The Sheriff and Billy, his son. All of them started in their respective starting positions except the drifter, who started in the centre of the board. Jay placed his zombies and awaaaay went shambled!
He used the shamble card immediately and attacked the nurse, causing a wound, and forcing her to flee for the protection of the drifter and the sheriff. All the rest of the humans searched and came away with a gun and a first aid kit. Jay milled around the board with his zombies...

Long story short (since I didn't enjoy the game) Jay jammed his zombie into the hospital and the church, and waited me out. I lost the game, and it is now up for trade...

The second game we played was Dominion, a game that you build your deck in, much like the pregame part of Magic: The Gathering or other CCgs. Since this was Jay's first game, we played a 2 player version of the first game. Since Jay was new, and I had played several/many times I won quite handily, but he did grasp the strategy of what was going on. So we played again.... This time we played the Big Money game and Jay lost but by a much narrower score, I beat him by only 8 so points. Jay had one beer left, so the obvious thing was to play another game of Dominion... We finished off the night with the interactive deck. Jame jumped out buying the first thief which made me decide to go with all + action and + gold coin cards. I never purchased another gold coin. Jay used his thief to trash one of my coppers dropping me to 6 copper coins. He ended up beating me 52-48 in a very close game.

We are planning on doing this more often, and quite possibly switching it to Wednesday nights so Brenda is not off playing WoW.

Descent Night

We finally got on track again with the Road to Legend campaign for Descent last night. The party spent a week learnin' some a skill (Shadowsoul) and getting a shiny silver die. While they were getting all learned up, I spent 30 Conquest Tokens (CT) and upgraded all my creatures to Silver. They ventured off into the wilds of Terrinoth. They slipped by the first encounter in the wild of some beastmen, and headed off to the dungeon with their health intact.

Their first encounter in the dungeon was #2 The Alchemist's Lab. The players were cocky from their previous adventures, or maybe they forgot, but Red Scorpion went a little too far out in front and she was doubleteamed by the (now silver!) manticores. She died... The players did some quick thinking and decided that this was bad, so Laurel of Bloodwood and Runewitch Astarra teamed up and killed a manticore. Lord Hawthorne rushed forward to slay the other and promptly fell in a pit. The manticore took some pot shots at him, and then backed off, forcing the players to chase him, while Hawthorne climbed out of a pit. The manticore and his beastman sidekick died but Carolus lived on! Astarra and Laurel each battled him and both missed once, so he lived, with only one HP left, so he sauntered over to Laurel and laid the smack down, killing her. I was now at 9 CT and the players were at 3! Carolus died, giving them an additional three and they sauntered off to the next level, #31 Puppet Master.

Puppet Master is a neat level, with two red creatures but one is dependant on the other to live (not that the party knew this). I had only limited areas to set up and so the space was filled with Debilus, another Master Sorcerer, a red Beastman with two white sidekicks and Gragnath. On my first turn I summoned some kobolds and laid down the trapmaster card, making all my traps 3 cheaper. Hawthorne knew more spiky pits were coming... The group sauntered in, killing the white beastmen but not suffering any damage from all the X I rolled when attacking. When Hawthorne moved his shadowsoul into the area and switched places the next turn, I dropped a block on his head., forcing him back to his original starting spot. He managed to wound Gragnath with his battle, and no other creatures were killed in that round. On my turn I played Dark Charm on Astarra, who turned and unloaded her best attack on Laurel, which missed (sigh). I spent a couple of attacks on Red Scorpion, killing her again and running my total to 12 CT. The group finally managed to kill all the creatures on that level and we called it a night there. I left the party bent and bleeding, with Hawthorne and Laurel down on HP, and about to enter the third and final level. We will be wrapping up this dungeon this week and the party plans on heading back to Tamalir to buy walls upgrades and possibly attack Sir Alric Farrow, as they think they are at their peak of skills and if they wait too long it will be a silver level campaign, doubling his health and increasing his armour by 2. The current count for CT is Overlord 12 and the players 10.

Remember Cal-Con is on at the end of the month, be there or be a turkey!