Another Season of The Football Game

Another boardgame night last night with Ara, Jack, Liam, Mike and Nic giving The Football Game another run. I think the game works better now with having learnt to have a diverse colour (ideally two of each) and positional (again at least two, though your midfielders can cover shortfalls) squad with plenty in reserve (2-3 players). When its your turn also thinking about a B squad playing to ensure your star players don't get injured (that last lesson I didn't learn as last time we played injuries were almost non-existent).

I think there's a still a high degree of luck so you can’t take it too seriously (Liam nearly won when he took over Nic's team half way through the night so maybe that’s not true). Well done Jack on holding him off and winning the season.

We were discussing how this game could be made into a fun wargame, and by having it set in Nazi-occupied Europe with each player recruiting / managing a cell of resistance fighters competing against each other to fight ze Germans. A bit like ‘Allo ‘Allo. Trading fighters amongst cells and drawing missions with a set colour combinations (instead of the dice) would add some randomness. This would also eliminate the double black dice twice in a row situation that we had in last night's game. Event and injury cards effect the person who’s turn it is.

In addition I also worked out the probability on the dice as it was annoying me that I knew each combination wasn't equally possible. The first die is yellow, yellow, red, red, blue, black and the second die is yellow, red, blue, blue, black, black (I'm not 100% sure on the pairings here, but the spread is right).

While getting a certain colour on at least one of the dice (44.44%) and a double (5.56%) is the same for all four colours, it’s the pairs of colours that aren’t the same. And getting any same colour pair (e.g. black and black) is higher than I thought at 22.22%.

If you’re looking for yellow AND red (or blue AND black) there’s a 11.11% probability, but looking for a pair that aren’t dominate on the same die (e.g. yellow AND blue) gives 13.89% odds. Very slight advantage but with 20 rolls in a 5 player game it could make the difference.

Still love the subtlety in this game and the stress of not peaking too early, but not peaking too late in case you have injuries!

Practice Game of Brittania

A quiet night with Ara, Mike P, Nic and myself for boardgaming. Nic was keen to introduce to us the Avalon Hill "classic" Brittania (this version by PSC Games):

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/280106/britannia-classic-and-duel-edition

Britannia broadly depicts the millennia-long struggle for control of England, Scotland, and Wales. The game started with the Nic's Romans invading in 43 A.D., continues through the struggles between Angles, Saxons, Picts, Norsemen, Scots, Irish, and other tribes, and would end with the Norman invasion of 1066.

We played about 1/3 of the way through (to when the lands are invaded by raiders from the sea) to get a feel for the game. It is interesting as through the time period shifts (that are subtle) over 16 turns, each player gets the role of major invader. As the blue player I would've had the Normans - Nic (purple) had the Romans - and he still ended up acting as a landlord (as in Lords of Waterdeep) with his forts that slowly expanded northwards.

First Game of Lords of Waterdeep

Or as Jack called it - "Monopoly for nerds".

Monday night board gaming with Ara, Jack, Mike P and Nic with a game not many of us had played - Lords of Waterdeep. Essentially a Dungeons & Dragons eurogame . This was a game Ara was keen to introduce us to.

I was given the City Guard (with no in game abilities, but for flavour) with Piergeiron the Paladinson as my Lord (gaining bonus for each Piety and Warfare Quest I completed). Again my inability to quickly learning which tasks I should be multitasking on saw me fall behind in scoring points, while Nic the Landlord was slowly buying up the real estate and the others completed more lucrative Quests.

I still had fun though, and like Scythe I didn't feel you were left out while other players had their turn. I definitely should look up some hints and tricks before playing these games to make sure i focus on the right things (at the right time).

Scythe and Kris Kringle Part 2

Played Scythe for the first time last night.

I didn't read the rules or watch any online gameplay videos, instead  letting the others (Ara, Jack and Liam) explain the gameplay to me... more than once as I learnt what the symbols meant.

Everyone's player mats change each game and your faction bestows different abilities. It took a little while for me to determine the strengths and weaknesses of my particular combination. But the steep learning curve was worth it - and like everyone else I agree it is a beautiful game.

This complexity starts off with a slow pace, that gets noticeably faster about mid-game. It makes you realise you didn’t plan at all. And gets you to compare all the strategies everyone was working on (Ara was speeding through the tunnels to pick all the Encounter Cards and avoiding combat).

As the Rusviet Union (Soviet) and a new player, my strategy was very basic - create workers, then work towards building mechs, then expanding out. A better strategy is to be working on several goals concurrently - and leveraging the synergies off that.

With all that our final placings was relatively closely grouped together - but Liam still managed to win again (the third times the others had played, and the third time he'd won). I would play Scythe again - but it's definitely not a game for a group that doesn't play a lot of board games.

Nic dropped in to see a little of the game and exchange Kris Krigle presents. Ara got a Necromunda fighter from Liam (the photo doesn't do justice of the detailed camo Liam painted on the pants), Ara painted some wild west gunslingers for Jack, who in turn painted the Salute 2019 (Mother Eureka) miniature for Nic (I didn't get a photo), Nic got me a hilarious-looking German game (translates as "which butt is where?") and an updated 28mm deer that will go well with my Scots Montrose project. Jack also gifted my some zombies from Mantic's The Walking Dead: All Out War game - almost all being sculpts I didn't have.

This year definitely ended better than I thought - Merry Christmas to you and your family, may 2021 be bigger and better!

The Football Game

Board game night at Eureka had Nic, Ara, Jack, Liam and myself try out 'The Football Game' by London Board Games:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Football-Game-Board-London-Games/dp/B074FZXTJR

The game is a little chaotic, as you deal with the random allocation of players (some great, some not so) and the rounds dice (deciding which players perform well and those that are injured).

I had the 'Crowd Pleaser', that scored each round as his colour was neutral - but that didn't force me to more aggressively upgrade my players earlier in the game. When I did, I didn't leave enough players for when knocks and injuries sidelined some of my newly purchased star players.

The joint winners of the night were Nic and Liam, who clearly knew what they were doing. 

Next time I have a more sound strategy of taking calculated risks to rise to the top tier leagues.

Cthulhu: Death May Die Board Game Round Two

With restrictions lifted to allow us to go to other people's homes again, both Mark and I were keen to play something and another scenario from Cthulhu: Death May Die seemed perfect, following on from our gaming session in June (has it been that long?!).

We played season 1, episode 6: "Unspeakable Hour" with the one himself, Cthulhu. I played Borden and Alex, while Mark played Sister Beth and Scarlett Hayes.

After last time of multiple long range weapons, we went for females that didn't mind getting their hands dirty with monsters.

Playing it safe, but more fearful of last time that were weren't going to complete the mission in time, we managed to win without losing anyone. That's a double win.

It feels good to be gaming again. Really good.

Cthulhu: Death May Die Board Game

Apart from the PBEM River Plate WWII naval game, I haven't wargamed or painted since working from home due to Covid-19 in March.

This would change when Mark R invited some of us over for a game of CMON's Cthulhu: Death May Die, a cooperative board game for 1 to 5 players where you take on the creatures of the Cthulhu mythos. The basic premise is that cultists are summoning one of the Elder Ones and it is up to a ragtag group of investigators to disrupt the ritual long enough to make the Elder One vulnerable allowing it to be killed.

Mark had painted the miniatures over the Christmas break and was keen to show off the game. For the first game we played the 'Tomes of Madness' episode with Hastur as the Elder One that needed to be sent back into the shadows. The Episode provides the map layout, the ritual you are trying to disrupt (and how to disrupt it), as well as the abilities of the monsters in the game. Each Elder One provides the big boss to be defeated, with its own challenges, along with its special minions.

Unfortunately David T and Jono T didn't make it (and I haven't heard from them since...) as David wasn't feeling well.

This meant only Ernest Hemingway (Mark) and Ariele Venturi (myself) were able to stop the cultists and disciples in the catacombs. Below is my character sheet that tracks my character's sanity, stress, health and skills (your skills increase as your insanity increases). During the game you turn over Mythos cards providing new challenges (and acting as tracker for the progression of the ritual) and Discovery cards (providing followers and equipment). Like many games in recent times, these details make a good game great (there's also a QRS on the left hand side).

Our mission was to find tokens (on the bodies of dead cultists) and match pairs up to find a tome. Initially Ernest and Ariele split up, but when the Cthonian passed me, I decided there was safety in numbers.

The whole time I was conscious of my 'Recurring Trauma' that would potentially be triggered as my sanity eroded away. But this was not time for weakness, Ernest was dealing with cultists, disciples and ghouls by himself. Defeating all with some ease, but all the time your balancing your Stress and Health levels - it got close at times.

It was inevitable that Hastur would join us. The tracker means that he jumps around the board. By this time Mark and I were working together and using our skills and equipment to would Hastur as much as possible. The grenades Ernest had helped too.

It's worth pointing out again how nice those miniatures are - absolutely gorgeous. This is however the moment I lost control of my Sanity management and Ariele went insane. Ernest would therefore have to take on Hastur alone in the last stage of the game.

It seemed easy though, and the grenade finished off the room he was in with an absolute plethora of followers.

We that was fun - so we had another game. The episode would be 'Danse Macabre' with The Goat of the Black Woods be the one the cultists were attempting to bring into this world. Following on from the skills I had with Ariele, I decided to take a character that had a slight variation (no Stealth, but Arcane Knowledge) to test what difference this would make - Walter was also a hunter that preferred to attack at range. Mark took Albert Einstein. Yes, that Albert - who apparently loved hunting the evils of the unknown.

Along with the cultists, the Black Goat would be accompanied by Dark Youngs, Hunting Horrors and Deep Ones. From the very beginning we were assaulted by the monsters, and Albert being a lot more skilled in both flipping over the ball goer tokens to find the four Cthulhu worshippers in the crowd and then prodding them to the wharf. Eventually (with the help of picking up the Stealth skill) Walter got into the action.

We picked up a lot of animal companions (Walter got a gorilla with three extra wounds and the apt description of "RAWR" on the card! Albert had a peacock... as you do). We also dealt with the monster and cultists that streamed from upstairs - this assisted in managing them and our Stress and Health.

This time team work was a lot smoother and we defeated the Black Goat, both alive and both sane.

I love this game - it looks beautiful, plays well and is a lot of fun. Definitely one to play again.

Core Space Introduction Game

...or a game that was 'The Orville' meets 'Farscape' meets 'Cleopatra 2525'.

I should've known Jack and I were in trouble when we took on the characters of Renton and Beck respectively when David T invited us to take part in an introductory game of Battle Systems' Core Space boardgame.

I had heard almost nothing of the game, but David was keen to show how it worked. Firstly, the miniatures and the terrain are beautiful and Battle Systems have done an excellent job through the Kickstarter to get this out. Jonathan T (he's been playing this with his father at home) took the role of Jace, our boss and captain of the Black Maria.

We were a team of traders, our sole objective to survive in a dangerous galaxy! Jack and I found it would be Jace that would be a large part of this danger.

To win the rules recommend we follow the trader credo: salvage, trade, adapt and survive... we managed none of these. But I'm jumping ahead.

The game starts with Renton and Beck on the Black Maria. Things apparently didn't go too well in the last game and Jace had to be rescued by the crew of David's characters, the crew of the Ion Hope: Arianna, Roykirk and Gak (Gak is an alien Quell and is Arianne's gun man with a quick mind and dry sense of humour).

So our captain started the game on another ship. Jonathan (consciously or not) played Jace as a cross between Chris Pratt's Star-Lord (Guardians of the Galaxy), Nathan Fillion's Mal (Firefly) and Seth MacFarlane's Captain Ed Mercer (The Orville).

It was hilarious. But not. As we all died.

After getting on the ship, we raced to see which NPC had the information we were after (I was hazy on the details of the mission).

Things started off peacefully enough, as can be seen with Gak strolling the corridors:

But the game (that can be played solo) has a threat tracker (like Mantic Games' The Walking Dead), and so I had to deal with some Harvesters. Luckily I found a rifle that blasted one away (that was all the luck I would have in the game):

The other one survived several shots and so I ran... towards the shooting and grenade explosions.

I should've known it was because of Jace. He claimed that he didn't start shooting first. Apparently it was warning shot to Arianna and her crew, as they were getting too close to the NPCs. He then admitted a warning shot to the face wasn't really a warning shot.

Best quote for the game: "Regret is a tomorrow problem."

I tried to assist him and Renton by shooting Roykirk in the back. Unfortunately my gun jammed and Roykirk took me swiftly down.

So at least I missed out on some larger Devastators causing headaches to the others. Renton joined me in taking a nap mid game.

What’s the minimum size for a crew? One. The captain.

We called it a game, and realised that the way to win was to sometimes cooperate with other crews to take on the Purge robots.

The rules are fast, easy to remember and a lot of fun.

Next month we're going to have another game, but we all get a crew. Mark R will join us, as he too witnessed the train wreck that is (was?) Captain Jace and the crew of the Black Maria.

Jenga! I mean Tumbling Tower!

Barbecue at friends' place. Best brisket ever.

Last Game I Played - Zombies!!!

It's always great when you play a boardgame with people who are new to it. We had friends over that were keen to try a game. I gave them an option between 'Zombies!!!' or 'Carcassonne'... they chose 'Zombies!!!'.

While everyone was a little timid in being nice with moving zombies out of the way and not using the special play cards, about halfway through our something snapped and it was on with the game descending into chaos with backstabbing and people dying (and re-spawning). Mark made it to the chopper first through an horde of zombies, the rest of us were left wondering how he managed to carefully plan his escape.

A good evening, and looking forward to playing more boardgames in 2020.

Conquest of Paradise with Crumble

Conquest of Paradise again, this time with Nic, Jack and Ruby. And again I experienced a completely different game (don’t worry Ara, you’re still the potato master). This was probably due to new players or players trying out different tactics (including myself when I was presented with a lucky opportunity).

Nic (red playing pieces) was Tonga, Jack (yellow) Samoa, Ruby (green) Hiva (the Marquesas islands),  and I (white) Raiatea (the West Society Islands) as our home islands.

We all explored away from our opponents, and a few turns in I had discovered Aotearoa (New Zealand). I had kept the other two islands (Hawaiki and Tuamotu) hidden away from prying eyes (call me Doctor No). Ruby kept picking open ocean chits, and so was surely eyeing my islands.

Ara (who couldn't make it) asked if there much conflict this time or if passengers hoyed out of the transport wakas and left to fend for themselves in shark-infested waters. There were only two battles, both between Nic “The Hammer” and “Money Bags” Jack. This occurred just before Jack was set up to take on the Mosquito Islands (the western part of the map), but Nic put stop to that. Though unfortunately Nic brought a canoe to a stick fight. And an amazing shaman. The battles were largely inconclusive (though they did drag Jack back from his lead).

Some of us tried (unsuccessfully) to get to South America and find the kumaras (sweet potatos) while Charlie deftly navigated the board. Ruby created a fleet of canoes (easy to bluff your opponents with a what appears to be a huge forces when canoes only cost 1 Build Point). Near the end of the game she was too nice and decided not to place the Typhoon event card in our midst. Big mistake, as her canoes were over a heap of atolls and she was close to winning (in the end I won as I held a small region of high yield islands, including Aotearoa far away from the others). I had also gained the Wood Carving card that was worth 2 Victory Points as I also held a Mythical Island (Hawaiki), giving me 24 (of the 22) Victory Points needed.

What was sweeter though was Nic's delicious apple and pear crumble with walnuts and almonds. I'm sure to be playing this game again.

Last Game I Played - Junta

Nigel invited people over for a board game day. What's the game seven friends play when they want to play Diplomacy but know that once was enough? Junta!

If you don't know Junta, it's in my top 10 (but then again, I don't play many board games). But it's been around since 1978, so it must be good:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/242/junta

I ended up as president early on, which I'm not a fan of, but then I managed to get myself a massive voting block:

Along with one other player who was also lucky enough to be dealt a good hand we were able to create a super voting block. Combined we were however incompetent (we were role-playing the personalities of the Republica de los Bananas, honest!). Coup after coup, after coup. After coup, followed.

I eventually lost the peasant and my ally was shot after a coup (I was sunning myself on a beach in Mexico somewhere).

Needless to say I didn't win, being too honest (the game encourages you to lie). Great fun though.