Game night!

On April 11th I hosted my (more or less) biweekly game night and we had 10 players that played a total of 5 games. I had forgotten (or was too lazy, you decide) to do an update on what we played, so you will only get a barebones update!



Nicole, Bryan, Simon and I played Power Grid, on the French map. In an intensely close game, particularly surprising when you realise that Bryan and Nicole played for the first time and this was Simon's first game., Nicole won. I was disheartened...



David, Anthony, Lachlan and Tim played Primordial Soup with David, the only one with experience in the game pulling off a win.



Colin and Michelle played Ingenious twice, with Colin winning one and Michelle winning the other. Michelle and Colin are both new to the game group, with this being her first visit and his second.

David, Lachlann, Simon and Tim all left early so we finished with a game of Chrononauts. Everyone but Nicole and I were new to the game, and even then our "experience" (I had played once before) didn't help as Bryan won the turn before I could.

Gaming last week

I played some games this week at Woody's on Wednesday and Jay's on Thursday of last week.


Woody, Norm and I played some three player Race for the Galaxy, with Norm winning the first game and Woody the second. Neither game seemed really close, as the winners in both games won by a fairly large margin.

We then switched to Dominion and I was crushed again, the less said about this night the better. Woody's daughter played as well, and she enjoyed it too.

I also loaned Woody my copy of Runebound so he could try it with his kids, his email response was that it was a really big hit.

I was over at Jay's Thursday night and Cory and his son came over to play and we went right back to Dominion. Cory's son proved to be the expert in a game he had never seen before and tied for first in both his first two plays of the game. He was bored after crushing everyone so he wandered off to play video games and we played some three player Dominion and then we switched to a game that I feel has had a poor reputation mainly because of it's colour scheme.

Our last game of the night was Nexus Ops, a light wargame that encourages aggression because you only get victory points by attacking. Jay commented about two turns into the game that "this is a better game then I expected". He won...

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!

The end of the world!

And the power to do it...

Last night was my second games night of 2009, and it was a small but dedicated group. We had six players and we played two games.

The first was a six player game of Power Grid. We played the United States map, with the Northwest (purple area) out of play. Chris set up shop in the Southwest part of the map, Brenda along the Southeastern part of the US, Krista went into the Eastern seaboard, Brian was in the central north with Cory directly below him and I was in the Southern US. The game ended at 15 cities, rather then 14 because three players were able to build to 15. I beat Brenda by 8 Elektros (22-14) Cory finished third with 15 cities and no Elektros. It was a close tense game that lasted about 2 hours, which was surprising for a game with 2 new players, 1 player that had played once, one player with three plays and Brenda and I.

Cory had to leave to pick up someone from the airport, so we finished up with a 5 player game of Nuclear War. I have Nuclear Proliferation, Nuclear Escalation and the booster packs so the deck of cards is pretty big. The game played the way it usually does, with both Brian and I losing our first turns due to secrets played by Brenda. We traded propaganda until Krista dropped a Scud on Chris, she did no damage but the war was on! I had started the game with only 21 million people and Brian had taken 10 million from me in the propagaganda round, so I responded the best way, by using a Stealth Bomber to kill 16 million! He was surprised...
Chris played Super Vinny and he was the most dangerous of all, he whittled everyone down (except Chris who had a Super Serum) and he eventually wiped out Krista, Brenda, Brian and myself. Our final retaliations weakened Chris so Brian wiped him out as he lay dying from the plague. Once again, Nuke War shows no one is a winner when it comes to this.

I had a great time, and I think the others did too. The next game night should be in 2 weeks.

Grab your crash helmet and your racing silks

Game night went racing!

January 10th I ran my first game night of 2009, I ran it with a racing theme. I had a pretty good turnout, with 11 players and we played 4 different games.

The first game of the night was Formula D. Chris had brought along his copy, so I got him to teach it to everyone else. There are some subtle differences between it and Formula De, the largest ones being cosmetic, but it does allow you the option of Street Racing as well. Chris won that game, a turn ahead of everyone else.

While people were showing up I played Formula Motor Racing with 2 other players. We played a 3 race series, with me winning 2 outright and winning the overall series 24-17-11.

The Really Nasty Horseracing Game was next on the list, I taught it to 5 other players, who seemed to grasp the game far better than I... Rick won by betting 55,000 pounds in a 12:1 longshot in the final race, beating Shawn by 15,000 pounds. Shawn also bet on the horse, but only bet 50,000... I wound up broke and having to sell my stable of nags... One of the highlights was Shawn's number 6 horse galloping home to win the 4th race at 50:1 odds, too bad no one bet on him.

While we were trashing each other's horse on the track, the other 5 players played Grand Prix: Detroit Cleveland. Lenora won this one.

The previous game was faster, so they wound up the night with a game of Formula Motor Racing. Brenda won this one.

I have been considering a Formula De constructor series of games. Here is a link to a condensed copy of the rules.

The Dominion of Morse

We went to Morse, Saskatchewan for New Years this year, and is as typical of many get togethers with my friends, we played several different games, but the true champion of the week was Dominion. Once it was taught, everyone wanted to play it again, and again, and again... Dominion was played about 25 times in 4 days.

We did play other games as well, Formula De twice, on the USA Track Pack 2. I actually got lucky in the second game and won it on the last corner.

I finally got a chance to play Brass as well, and I do get why it is rated so highly. It is a tough game to get your brain around, but man it is good!

I taught Rob how to play Twilight Struggle, but this was an issue of the game beating Rob up, and me knowing the game better, so he never stood a chance. It is tough to be taught the game by someone that has played it several times, mainly because of the knowledge gap. I know when I play against players that are more experienced then me, I experience the same sort of beatdown.

The last game I played for 2008 was Cutthroat Caverns, which I did not win. I finished second...

Tune in, as next week I will also publish a rundown of the game night last night.

Recent Games

In August (or September)I subscribed to the latest three games from Treefrog Games and in the last couple of days I received both Steel Driver and After the Flood.

My first impression of Steel Driver is that it is very similar to Wabash Cannonball but prevents the issue of the runaway leader that I have experienced in 2 of my games of Wabash. The similarities are there because both games come from the same lineage. Wabash is a cleaned up Prairie Railroads and Steel Driver is a cleaned up version of that. I have read the rules only and while it lacks the sudden ending of Wabash it does look good. I hope to play this over New Years.

After the Flood could be a more difficult game to play, it is 3 players for 3 hours. I have not cracked the plastic yet to read the rules so I am unsure of it.

Descent again!

The second game session in my ongoing Descent Campaign was last night and it was a tough one for the players. They had two of the three levels of Starfall Forest to complete and they had a rough go.

The second level was two named Hellhounds, Frost and Blaze. I did a real number on them with Frost getting multiple kills in and the party losing a lot of heart before finally defeating the breathy bunch.

The last dungeon was with a Beastman and the Pools. They defeated the Beastman and the others with a lot of difficulty and ended up getting a copper treasure (their first!) and making out with only one more death. They drew two cursed items but elected to keep them, just for the firepower and protection.

They chose the third week to stay in Tamalir and train.

After three weeks it was Party 23 XP and Overlord 20.

John's Christmas Gift Guide for Casual Gamers 2008 edition

I always think that purchasing games for gamers is tough, so I always focus on those that will play them once in awhile, or view them as party activities.

Last year I posted a gift guide focusing on players that don't play games, so this year I will change to my favourite games for those that are casual game players.

I think the top of my list will always be Ingenious, easy to play and easy to teach. My game group has sold 10-15 copies directly due to this game, and if the vendors at last years Calgary Entertainment Expo would have had copies in stock, I would have sold a few more! It has been called "advanced dominoes" but I think there is a larger strategy as you are trying to score points while stopping (or slowing) your opponents scoring.

The game that is second on my list is also by Reiner Knizia and it is Formula Motor Racing. It has a slight feel of auto racing but the theme is tied well into the game play. It also contains some "take that" in the game as well, and only takes a about thirty minutes to play 3 or 4 races.

The new darling on Boardgamegeek is a game called Dominion. This game came out of nowhere to be one of the top ranked games on the site. It will draw players that like Magic: the Gathering and other collectible card games. I taught three new players last night and all three enjoyed it, one asked the name of it because she "likes to track the games she wants to purchase". It has a deck building structure but everyone pulls from the same piles, allowing you to customise your deck.

What the heck, another Knizia game? Yes, here is another, Winner's Circle, a fast playing betting game for up to 6 players. The horse movement is kind of odd, but there is some strategy in the game and can be a riot.

This is a list for casual gamers so I am going to include a game I don't really care for, but revolutionised the boardgaming industry. Settlers of Catan in many ways has done exactly that. It has made a game accessible for those that have primarily played roll and move style games an dgiven them a little more to chew on with trading and the suspense of getting the dice rolls they need. I don't like this game because I find that if you don't get the dice rolls the game is less enjoyable. It does play fast (45 minutes or so) and has some player interaction, so it should be a good casual game.

Ticket to Ride is always going to make this list as well, it is easy to teach, fun to play and you can always talk while playing the game. This game bridges the social activity barrier and allows people to play a game and interact.

The last game on my list is Pandemic. This cooperative game encourages table talk and helping each other out. You either win together or lose together, but you should have a great time doing it. My only complaint is that sometimes you can get a dominant player that gets everyone to do what they want and it may be less of you playing the game as it is them playing it. This is a minor quibble because as you get more experience you can slowly understand the game better.

OK, that is it for this year, have fun and happy gaming!

My Descent campaign

I have had an itch for awhile to start a Descent: Journeys in the Dark campaign using the Road to Legend system and a couple of weeks ago it finally started.

I currently have three players, Brenda (playing Runewitch Astarra), Jay (playing Lord Hawthorne) and JC (playing Laurel of Bloodwood) and the fourth character they are going to swap amongst themselves is the Red Scorpion.

I drew Obsidian Shackles as my plotline and the Demon Prince as my Avatar on the world.

I will update this more as we play, as we get more into the game.

FallCon 21! A ripe time to review

Forgive me, for I have been a slacker in my updating.

I went to FallCon (my 5th year) but this year I also helped out as an organiser for the event so it was a significantly different (but still great) experience for me.

I only played 2 games, the first being Micro Mutants: Evolution, which is, at it's core, tiddly winks... the last one being Race for the Galaxy, a variation on San Juan. I think Race may be a better game, but it is more difficult to teach.

I also moderated the Battlelore tournament, but I had a significant drop in registrants, with only 8 this year compared to the 14 I had as players last year. Since the player group was so small, it was a less stressful time for me. The winner of the tourney was a return player, which was nice.

Lastly was the auction, I purchased only 2 items, both Mythos box sets as both Brenda and I like the game, but have been unable to get more for the game in a long time. I bid on many more items, but only got those two.

My brother in law and his kids came up this year as well, so, since I was working at FallCon I made his kids (both in their twenties) do work as well... The response I got back from both of them was that since they met the organisers of FallCon and they were around there, they had a better time than they would have just as players. It was a perspective I did not expect.

OK, that is enough for now, I have three other updates rattling around in my head currently that I will try to get to soon.

Battlelore to Fantasy Flight?

Days of Wonder finally admitted what seemed to be increasingly obvious to their fans, they are not capable of supporting 3 big franchises. They have sold their fantasy battle game, Battlelore, to Fantasy Flight Games.

Here are some of my quick (and probably wrong) thoughts...

This is a good thing, Battlelore and Memoir '44 both suffered for additional resources. Battlelore, after an initial flurry of expansions seems to have leveled off and both Memoir '44 and Commands & Colors:Ancients getting more posted plays on BGG.

A little over a year ago I gave my thoughts on Battlelore and how it could cause issues with Memoir '44.

The reason why this is a good deal is that it will allow DoW to further develop the Memoir '44 line, their previous two releases being the Air Pack and the Bag (neither of which I purchased) and the lone announced release for Battlelore (the troll with the paper map) which I did not really want either.

Fantasy Flight will have to really start to flog this game to start recapturing it's glory, they need the Heroes expansion to come out this year (just before Christmas would be smart) and they need to start promoting the game again.


Why it may be bad is for another reason, Days of Wonder has created a Battlelore Adventures editor (link to the right) that I am hopeful but not positive that they will port over all the information.

This also makes me wonder if DoW will be around in two years, have the owners gotten bored and will they sell off their other products? Time will tell.

Another day, another Descent...

I got a couple of people together Friday to play Descent: Journeys in the Dark on Friday night and it did not go well for them at all...

The adventure chosen was "Spoiled Brat", the fourth in the book, and in hindsight, may have been too tough for a group of three with 2 new players. They did ok getting out of the entrance, and they cleaned out the hallway before encountering the red rune locked door, so they turned around and headed back up to the top of the map. This is where things went bad, real bad...

Everything in that room was undying, and undying they were. I was hot with the dice and kept one poor sorceror around for 8 straight kill shots. This hosed them as it took 3 or 4 rounds to get out of that room. It was four rounds I used to summon a variety of creatures including the kobolds from the expansion. It worked out that I was paying 3 less for all my traps (one less/ master kobold and one less for being trapmaster).

The group did use some interesting tactics, heading to town to use the portals to avoid the clusters of monsters, but the sheer number of creatures I had on the board weakened them enough so that they could not survive the dragon.

I'm not dead yet!

I just have not had much to say. I am currently working on 2 things; first, my report on gaming at Waskesiu and lastly, playing Descent last night.

Gaming lately

June was a slow month for me gaming with only 3 total games played, and one of them was played twice.

I previously discussed Descent so I won't get into it again, and the only other game I played last month was Combat Commander: Europe, a WWII Card Driven Wargame.

I still don't have my head completely around it so I won't talk about it, instead I will talk about the games I played this month. I have played 5 games this month and some of them are real beauties! First off, I got in two plays of Arkham Horror, with the group winning once against Shub-Niggurath, and losing once against Ithaqua. I really like Arkham Horror and I would love to get it on the table more often, maybe I will have to organise a FFG Games night, where we play some of their longer titles like AH, or Descent.

Another game we played was Wabash Cannonball, an economic train game. We played a three player game in about 75 minutes, including teaching rules. I like this game, I am just not sure if I will ever win it.

The last two I played this month were The End of the Triumvirate, a three player game set in the Roman era. It is a good solid game, I just am unsure if it is a great game, and Metropolys, a game of building towers, it was ok, but I found the board colours unsettling.