Memoir ’44 at Darren’s

Last night was the first night of what I hope will be a long running series of Commands and Colors games at Darren’s.

We played Memoir ’44, and since I was the only one of the four that had played it we played the first couple of scenarios. I am not sure who won the games on the other table as I was not paying attention to them other then to help with rules questions.

Darren and I were first to set up and played through the first three. Darren won Pegasus Bridge by a score of 6-5 in a close game. He won as the Germans 4-1 and then lost as the Allies 4-2. While we were finishing up the second half of the battle, Bruce and Steve arrived and set up Pegasus Bridge as well. They had finished their first battle by the time Darren and I set up and started the second battle, Sainte-Mere Eglise (I pointed out John Wayne on the board). I do think Bruce won both sides as I know he won as the Allies in Pegasus Bridge.

Sainte-Mere Eglise was a much closer battle. Darren won as the Germans 4-2 and I won as the Germans 4-2 resulting in a tie between the two of us 6-6. Darren still had the lead as he won the first scenario. Steve did comment that he had the best cards he had all night in the second scenario and if I recall correctly he won that session.

We set up the Sword Beach, the invasion by sea. I was extremely fortunate and managed to play three Assault Center cards which allowed me to advance a large portion of my force up and off the beach. All of Darren’s forces (three) on his left flank were destroyed which allowed a breakthrough for me. This netted me three medals and destroying a unit on his right flank got me my 4th. All that was left was for me to send tanks to the town for my fifth and final medal and I won 5-2. We switched sides and Darren did not have the same luck as me, getting his centre bogged down and only getting Probe cards for the centre. I ended up destroying his tanks (3 medals) as well as two infantry to win the side 5-2 again. This meant I won the scenario 10-4.

Next week, Commands and Colors: Ancients!

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Last games night until fall

I had 7 people show up and we played 6 games. The first people showed up at 7:30 and we set up for a game of Dominion, but by the time the explanation was done, the rest had shown up so I moved over to teach San Juan and Tim played Dominion with Lenora, Robert and Brenda. Brenda won a long game that took about an hour, with no one getting the revenue to buy the provinces.

Meanwhile, I taught San Juan to Brennan and Scott. San Juan being one of my favourite games. I took my time and explained it well and they caught on, with Scott finishing the game with 12 buildings about 25 minutes later. The final scores were John 30, Scott 24 and Brennan 21.

While we waited for the slow pokes, Brennan and I taught Ingenious to Scott. Ingenious is one of the best gateway games, it is simple to teach, easy to score and quick playing. I won in a very close game with Scott and Brennan blocking the yellow from scoring with that as their lowest colour. Final scores were John 11, Brennan 6 and Scott 5.

We switched tables around and Brenda, Lenora Robert and I played Poison with the others playing Ticket to Ride. I was leading Poison with 6 points until the (disastrous) last turn when I scored 16 to finish last, Lenora won with 11, Robert was second with 12 and Brenda finished third with 16.

I not not know the scores in Ticket to Ride but I do know that Brennan won.

Brennan had to leave by then (something about work) and we switched to a game of Bang! Scott was the sheriff, with Tim as the renegade, Lenora as the deputy and Robert and I as the outlaws. Robert and I managed to remove the deputy and the renegade which left us mano a mano with the sheriff, who mowed us down in quick order…

For our final game of the night we played Ca$h n Gun$ and the less said about that the better… Scott won again, and I died in the third round from lead poisoning.

The Gate to the North

We finally got back to Descent after a month's hiatus and it really showed on the party. The group is heading up to the secret pass near frostgate and they took a little trip through the dungeon called The Gate to the North, another slay fest in three acts.

The first dungeon they had was Dargon's Lair, featuring a red dragon which I finally got to use after Tim's paint job and although he did not kill many, he did weaken the party for later adventures. Lord Hawthorne, played by Jay did not die but he did eat three burn tokens, causing him to lose three health every round until he finally extinguished them on the second level. I did kill both Red Scorpion and Laurel of Bloodmoon before they got me, allowing me to take an 8-5 lead in the Conquest tokens department.

The second battle was the King Janius (Bag of Bones), a master skeleton without Undying but he does get up after being killed. He also allows undead archers a bonus to their pierce. Once again the party triumphed but again after suffering a pair of deaths. While everyone was standing around admiring their handiwork I used Dark Shadows on Laurel of Bloodmoon and caused her to attack a weakened Hawthorne. Hawthorne lost his final burn token by falling over dead... I was now up 22-10! Heh heh heh, in the best Harvey Ronald style...

The third and final act was the Arena, led by the mighty Ogre. He had conveniently placed skeletons on as many high ledges as he could, allowing a wicked crossfire from them. Until the party killed them... When Hawthorne came forward and challenged the Ogre to a battle, mano a ogre, I summoned a party of beastmen and the commander of the beastmen charged forward (to give his command bonus) and whacked Laurel of Bloodmoon, causing a whopping 12 points of damage! conveniently killing her at the same time. The ogre stepped forward and swept both Red Scorpion and Hawthorne off their feet, killing her and grievously wounding him. Hawthorne retreated away from the action, allowing me to charge forward and attack both Red Scorpion and the Runewitch, I dealt 9 damage to both of them and used the knockback feature to knock them onto the ledge, knowing full well that they would take damage when they jumped off. My plan backfired as I could not completely get the Ogre away and the two of them teamed up to cover him with a layer of death magic... They did get distracted and decided to kill all the creatures in the dungeon, giving them no extra conquest but allowing me to get two more. I finished the night with 32 CT and they finished with 17.

I was now leading the CT race for the first time in the game, and they were in Frostgate now, after a brief sidetrip in an outdoor encounter to purchase potions, they were now behind in CT in the game, 101-110. It is now a Silver level campaign!

There is a series of dungeons that allow the players to catch up to the Overlord if they are behind in CT, and the silver level one is a short trip away. This dungeon allows them to get a skill, additional dice and the like if they complete it. So they are headed there for their next adventure, probably next week.

Calgary Entertainment Expo

For the second year in a row, I taught games at the Calgary Entertainment Expo, this year was different though, Brent, who normally organises these, moved to Texas. This meant I was the one doing the organising. I shanghaied recruited Tim and Thushy to help me as well.

There was one other difference too, instead of FallCon getting the room to ourselves, they had a gaming organiser. This also meant we shared the room with a Games Workshop Outrider, Cal-Con and Strategem. Bryan, the organiser, also ran some games, particularly Space Hulk and Pandemic.

For Demos we typically focus on easy to teach, fast strategic games. So once again, we taught Settlers of Catan, Ingenious and Dominion. I would guess we taught Settlers to 20 people, Ingenious to about 15 and Dominion to about half a dozen. I would guess that we talked to 100-150 people and several expressed interest in FallCon. One even rhapsodized about a convention where all you did was play games (which is what FallCon is).

Sunday afternoon Thushy also ran a teaching session for Age of Steam which went over pretty well as well.