Author: MrTimewalk

Gamer, Programmer, All around Bad Guy

Rex Thur – Being a Drax Report

sarlacc

House Atreides, House Harkoonen, House Corrino, chances are you know the names well and can pronounce Kwisatz Haderach without any difficulty or a throat full of phlegm.  It’s unfortunate that Fantasy Flight didn’t get the rights or didn’t want them or I don’t know why but they didn’t republish the original game DUNE as DUNE they rebooted the game as Rex – Final days of an empire.  

Now if they HAD rebooted it as DUNE then it would have been near perfect, definitely in my top ten.  Not that I have a top ten but I’d start one if, well you get the idea.  

dune

As it stands Rex is not a bad game at all and after last Thur it went up in my estimation. Rex Final Days of an Empire is a game we’ve spoken of before. Indeed what is this WE business pale face, well this blog is fed by a lot of things not just my ramblings but the ramblings of other gamers so it will always be the royal we.  Rex is a remake of the 1976 game DUNE (which was actually made in 1979, I looked it up and my guess was off, but there you go).  Rather than the aforementioned houses we have six factions from the Twilight Emperium universe which are all fine and dandy and a bit Disney.  Turtle and Tiger people, very original, top marks FF.

The game itself is good BUT it does need the full six players to make it work IMHO and it does take a bit of playing to get the most out of it.  You need to invest a few games in this before you get into it.  It was only through playing a Study in Emerald a number of times that I realised that this game is better than it had seemed in the past.  I’m sorry to admit that I had come this close to trading it away as it wasn’t proving that popular.

photo 2

There are a few bits in the game that are very similar to a Study in Emerald and ASIE is a cracker of a game so by extension we could really be at the races with this game if we invest more time in it. The setting is interesting.  A besieged future city, under constant bombardment from orbit is ruled by six factions all vying for power by capturing and holding key points. So all in all dung beetles fighting over a big pile of …. burnt out city.

What makes the game different is all of the races play in a different way.  One faction is very sneaky and all about spies and backstabbing (yes I like them), another are peacekeepers (boo hiss), some are weapons dealers and so on.  There’s a nice bit of variety in there and the game is different for each player when they replay.  Now not as different as a Study in Emerald but it’s fun to play a different faction each time as they all have their own strengths and weaknesses.

After a random draw I wound up with the tiger men guys (not the actual name) whom are effectively arms dealers and gain influence (let’s just call it gold) when anyone buys troops.  So I reckon I was on the pigs back from the off (please note there are no actual pig people in the game so get that image out of your head).  There are five key points on the map which if captured and held win the game for the holders.  If it’s a one player win they need to hold three points an alliance of two players they need to hold four points and a shower (the correct multiple term) of three players they need to capture and hold all five points between them.

I like the way the alliances work.  Normally an event card with pick the next spot for a bombardment to happen however a few lull in bombardment cards allow players to quickly make alliances with others and gain some of the traits of the players they’ve allied with.  More interestingly an alliance formed during a lull in bombardments HAS to be kept until the next lull, no if buts or maybes.  The first lull brought about two unusual occurrences.  Three players teamed up together and in desperation I allied with Drax.  Yes that’s right you read it right I co-operated with the devil for which there must always be a price.  In this case the loss of the game.  BUT I had fun and this game has gone up a couple more notches in my likey meter.  This will hit the table again soon

photo 1

After that is was … Modern Art

I may not know much about art but I know what I like, in this case Karl Gitter.  Modern Art is an old enough game by Reiner Knizia.  It’s been reprinted a few times and I have the …. (Looks up boardgamegeek) …. the 1996 version.  It doesn’t matter I think they’re all the same.  The game involves buying and selling paintings by a number of artists in the hope of upping their value and reaping the rewards of ownership.  It’s a strange game.  I’m damned if I can come up with a strategy to win but then again I can’t get my head around certain games like Power Grid either so don’t be put off.

It’s a fairly quick game, say an hour plus and it is good fun.  It’s Reiner Knizia but don’t let that put you off :), this time it’s theme does match it’s mechanics and I’ve yet to play a bad game of it.  In the same was as Catan is a solid enough game so is this. If you’ve played it a few times you’ll want to rest it before playing again but it will hit the table again and again.

I lost btw.  I told you I’m damned if I can get the hang of this game

photo 4

More soon

Huzzah!

Vic

Oh and we played HEY! That’s my fish and wrung €13 of value out of it

photo 3

2

Wee Gamers in the House!

Ran into the lads from Wee Gamers at the weekend who were running a stand at Invasion Dublin

photo 1photo 2

 

The guys were demoing X-Wing Miniature game and Star Wars Edge of the Empire RPG.  Looking forward to having them at the next Knavecon

Great bunch of lads 🙂

https://www.facebook.com/weegamers

 

 

 

 

0

Twiligh Thur – Being a Drax Report

roids

Do you suffer from Roids? A surprising amount of Pilots, both Imperial and Rebel Scum do.  I was certainly suffering badly from them last Thur when I drove not one but two of my Tie Fighters through a few choice asteroids all clearly labelled as such.  The real enemy Star Wars X-Wing miniatures (just like life) are not the other players it’s often yourself…. /Allows time for reader to nod sagely

I’m pot committed with x-wing.  Myself and a gaming buddy (please note: buddy is a misnomer, there are no gaming Buddies as such, just opponents or people if you play it right, whom help you until it’s high time to stiletto them.  Just before they we’re planning on vaping you.  It’s the nature of things) but in the loosest sense of the word a gaming buddy (see earlier) and I have a fine collection of x-wing models which since it’s a mare to separate we’re married in a humanist ceremony some time back and are often seen out together having fun.  It was high time to crack open the boxes they reside in and breath some life into them with the appropriate rules and phew phews.

X-wing is not a million miles (or a long long time ago) from Wings of Glory a WWI Flying Ace combat game .  It’s a relatively new game from Fantasy Flight and as you would expect it has high production values and it’s not half bad.  Ok let’s be honest the game has EXPLODED.  It has very keen models which very importantly come pre-painted.  You can jump right into it with just the started box (which comes with an x-wing and two Tie fighters) and it’s gloriously collectable.

photo 1

There are over a dozen ships that can be bought to add to the basic game,  A-Wings, B-Wings, Tie Advanced, to name but a few, and thankfully all from the original series.  Fantasy Flight have done a sterling job (at least for them) in drip releasing new ships every so often and some of them (A-Wings for example) sell like hotcakes.  Some of the bigger and seriously expensive ships are due to hove into sight soon which will really put the transports amongst the pigeons

A couple of things I like about X-wing.  It’s Star Wars.  The greatest trilogy of all (yes it is)(don’t argue) time, it’s the original trilogy, the models are really really nice. Everything you need to play a decent game comes in the original box.  Also it’s Star Wars.

There’s a fantastic feel to the whole thing, It’s pretty easy to play, the games are fast (depending on size), there’s a lot of variety and it’s edge of your seat stuff start to finish.

If I had to fault the game I’d say it’s a PIG to store.  The models although gorgeous are awkward and like a lot of tabletop stuff easily broken, although, touch plastic, none have for me so far.  (Hi faith, Victor here). You can spend a bit of money and get a decent storage system but it can be pricey.  A few cheaper options are presenting themselves and a bit of imagination can help with your storage woes. Dragging out a lot of models and setting them up for a big battle can be a chore but no more than any other tabletop game and it’s your own fault if you set-up a huge battle.

photo 3

The game can be played as either a points versus battle or as a scenario based game.  Either is good although my understanding is in a points battle some combos are killer and some are weak beer.  That said Fantasy Flight and the greater gaming community recognise this as an excellent game and adjust it accordingly with new releases.

I like this game, I had better really since I’m a few models in and want more, because I do and that’s reason enough.

The game on Thur was a 50 points 2v2 which is really a 1v1 with two people on either side if that makes sense.  We split into two groups each of which had semi-experienced players and me and another player.

My team took Imperials while my erstwhile buddy took rebel scum.

We had Five Tie fighters (one of which was Vader flying the Tie Advanced) and we squared up against two X-Wings, an A-Wing and a Y-Wing in a straight out fire fight in an asteroid field.  (Be careful with them there asteroids, there’s a reason Tie Fighter pilots tend to avoid them)

Our Tie fighters were a mix of academy pilots and veterans and it was straight in zero kissing first turn, plenty of phew phew and initially anyway a nice mix of hits on the rebel shields.  The Rebel Y-wing a real workhorse took a sustained hammering from the swarm of ties expertly directed by Vader, who indeed “has you now”.  Return fire was minimal and all things were looking good

photo 5

The next turns became a bit of a scrum with ships knocking up against each other and worse still against some asteroids and a hard fight en-sewed with very little finesse, just lots of guns and hope.  There was NO flying casual.

Whittle by whittle (see what I did there?) both fleets started to be whittled down until it was just Vader and his youngfella Luke Skywalker and his shit of a droid R2-D2 (who btw knew all long who his Da really was but never mentioned it once.  not once).  Finally Vader vanquished skywalker and after a short robotic cry it was all over.

Not bad.  We need to play this more.  That said we need to play lots of games more and we will

Joined by another gamer we jumped into the very long titled

DC Comics Deck-Building Game

This game is very similar to Dominion, a game I liked initially and now doesn’t beep my jeep at all.  It has some nice pics of superheroes but that doesn’t save it from being an OK game.  My problem with this and Dominion (and a few others) is it’s primarily a solo game, there isn’t a whole lot of interaction with the other players, there’s a bit, but it doesn’t have the whole  “HA! Take take” style of play.  It’s more about getting the best deck together you can before anyone else and it just doesn’t work for me.

decbuild

There’s nothing particularly wrong with the game, The card quality and art work is very good, the game is fairly fast it’s just…. it’s Dominion clone and not a very good one either.  Each game is the same, you don’t even get to vary the cards  like Dominion.  I’m sure there’s a stack of expansions in production but I just can’t be bothered with it.  It’s a dull game.  I’ll play it but I refuse to be excited.

acq

Funny enough I played Aquaman whom is not as bad as all that.

So in summary X-wing good, DC Comics Deck building game bad if you’re not a dominion fan.

Expect a few more mini reviews of X-wing.  It’s just too good not to play again and again

More of that soon

Huzzah!

Vic

 

 

 

 

 

 

2

ACTUALLY it’s my fish

20140426-001755.jpg

Hey! That’s my fish is a very simple (and equally importantly cheap) game from Fantasy Flight. It’s a good one for kids (I’ve play tested it with my 6yr old and 2yr old and it’s passed with flying colors) and it’s equally good for adults. Now it’s not quite up there with ribbit but it IS very nice

Do you remember “dots” when you were a kid? A game a step up from x and o where you took it in turn to join lines between a grid of dots and try and complete squares and claim as many of these as possible. No? That’s a pity because it’s a bit like that

Each player starts with a number of penguins (more with less players) standing on an ice flow that’s made up of 50 or so hexes all stuck together which have either one two or three fishes on them.

Each turn a player can move one of their penguins in a straight line (just like the queen in chess). They cannot jump over other penguins or jump any gaps in the flow.

Now here’s the sizzle. When you move you lift the hex from the spot you just moved out of and put it on your stack of collected fish. So you can use your penguins to carve up the ice and isolate other penguins on smaller chunks of the flow with as you guessed fewer fish.

The game continues until all of the fish that can be collected are. Add up your score and the highest is the winner

It’s simple it’s fun. It’s good enough. At €13 it’s good value. Setting up the board is a bit of a pain and removing the hexes from the middle of the flow is awkward but all in all worth a visit. I’ll try it on thur with some slightly more mature players and see how it goes down

Huzzah!

Vic

20140426-105043.jpg

4

Sunny Thur – Being a Drax Report

I won a game! I actually won a game…. this is no big deal and should not be considered a rare occurrence,  It happens regularly.  I’m just saying.

Blue-Moon-and-Wolf

We had a large group so despite the safety labels we retrofitted Netrunner Infiltration to be seven players with the use of a Descent model an iPhone and some techniques I’m not allowed to speak of and off we went.

photo 2

Infiltration has proven to be a great game, the alarm has proven to be a pain the hoop but the game is great.  We set the proximity alarm at -1 to get a longer game and for once we rolled a whole lot of 1s at the end of the turn.  All was going great…. and yes you guessed it it all kicked off and the alarm jumped like crazy and it was keystone cops to the exit.  While all this was going on I decided to (borrowing a buddies expression), “bide my time and strike while the iron was hot” 🙂

I stayed near the exit.  I stole everything I could and let the rest tear off onto the wondrous second floor of the complex.   In fairness as noted, it’s a pretty crappy high security complex if we can waltz into it every week and it only gets easier each time.  A few bright sparks hung back like someone trying to steal home and unusually three as opposed to zero or one of the experienced professional cyber criminals actually made it out alive.  Well done team

I was one of the lucky once and will not speak of the terrible faith that befell the ones caught, but will point and laugh loudly at the drop of a hat.

I won on points, one point, but that’s all it took.

photo 1

A quick round of Dalmuti and… there are some people out there that have never played the great Dalmuti.  Honestly.  they don’t know some of the nick names for some of the card combos.  Which I cannot repeat for libel reasons here.  One of them was at games last night.  Not sure how he slipped through the net.  It’s on the standard 200 question form that gets filled out by all gamers who apply to play on thur nights.  If you haven’t I’ll run through it with you if not just jump onto the P200 section.

 

greater_peon1

Dalmuti is a game by Richard Garfield, he of Magic the Gathering, Roborally etc.  It’s a fairly simple game with a couple of nice twists and it’s best played with a group of six plus.

The game is not a million miles from gang of four which is not a million miles from Tichu which is the worlds greatest card game. no doubt.

The Dalmuti deck consists of a descending set of cards  12 cards of value 12,  11 or value 11, 10 of 10, right down to 1, 1 card.  So in case I didn’t explain that, there are Six cards with a six facing on them and so on.  There’s also two jokers.  More of them later.

The lower the value of the card the better and as you guessed the rarer.

A first player puts down a set of cards, say 3 twelves, the person to their left can either player THREE cards of lower value say three eights or whatever or pass.  Once everyone has passed the person whom played the last lowest set gets to start out the next round.  It can be any number of the same cards to start, even just a single card.  The idea is to get out as quick as possible.  the first person out gets to be the Dalmuti (the head honcho) and gets a couple of the best cards from the last player whom got out  (the lesser pion)  There’s also a lesser dalmuti that gets one card from the greater pion and the round repeats, forever in some cases or you can score the game.  On top of that after a win, all the players have to reoriante themselves musical chairs style in order of their exit position from the last game.  The Greater Dalmuti remains where they are, the lesser beside them and so on down to the cock-a-roach at the end that is the lesser pion.  Some people have house rules that the lesser pion shuffles.  Some that they don’t get a seat.  We have a hat 🙂 a jesters hat from a shop I will not speak of.  We photograph you when you wear the hat and sent it to your employer.  It’s a house rule.  or maybe not

The two jokers are wild cards or 13 on their own and if you start with both you can claim the Dalmuti’s lofty job straight off.

Great game, great warm up warm down, well worth having in your collection.  Get it now

P200:

photo 3

After some debate we decided to split up and one group went away with Nations (a great great game) and we had a lash of the often overlooked but much loved Canal Mania.

Canal Mania is a lovely game, it’s basically a railway game with canals. it’s NOT and this had to be repeated, it’s NOT ticket to ride but it does share a couple of it’s traits.  I think it’s a far superior game.  It has a couple of mechanics going on.  Building canals just like you’d build rails in ticket to ride.  Picking ‘track’ sections from a communal pile. Check.  Completing missions from one location to another.  Check.  Cockblockery.  Check.  But is also sports a very nice shipping goods mechanic, a set of engineers that change how you play your hand.  The ability to steal the first player spot and a couple of other nice bits.  I think it’s a far far better game but then again…. I’m not a fan of ticket to ride.  I find it as boring as all hell.

This game reminds me of a very old GW game I can’t remember that you drew lines with markers on the map.  It’s a little long but it’s worth the effort.  I didn’t win, but I didn’t care I was still glowing from Infiltration.

More of that next Thur

huzzah!

Vic

photo 4

2

Trees Down Thur – Being a Drax Report v1.1

aeropress-hero-260

Coffee Coffee and more Coffee was the order of the evening, at least for me.  I have a coffee problem, actually I don’t I have any issues with coffee, more correct to say I have a STOP coffee problem.  In my quest for awesome coffee my radar has pinged several times to the shape of the Aerobie Aeropress coffee maker.  I finally bought one and tried it out.  It’s very impressive.

http://aerobie.com/products/aeropress.htm

If you squint at the picture you’ll see it’s effectively a large syringe that forces air and boiling water through the grinds up against a paper filter and out into your cup.  It makes damn fine coffee, way better than drip filter, it’s cheap, easy to use, easy to clean and unexpectedly it’s not a gimmick.  It does use more coffee than normal but I found I was making a pot of coffee with the machine and not drinking all of it so it balances out.  If I had a larger group of gamers I’d go back to the pot but for a few or just one this is just perfect.  so now.

Truth be told I can’t remember the actual name of the Thur, I just tend to differentiate them as best I can.  It was Thur and after a long week of travel it was time to game, we we’re not found wanting.

First up for me was a quick game of Netrunner.  It’s surprising how after nearly a dozen games I’m still not 100% there with rules.  Okay maybe it’s not.. it’s probably a good thing I’m not involved in law enforcement.

fantasy-flight-games-android-netrunner-core-set

 

I found myself still referring to the rules for a couple of questions.  But I’m getting there and I still prefer being the evil corporation than the runner.  surprise.

After that we had on offer some very nice new games but opted to play once again A Study in Emerald.  This game hasn’t worked for everyone, it can be over very quickly indeed if you’re not careful and some people don’t like the whole card drafting mechanic.  I think it’s awesome and the fact that it’s getting a lot of playtime speaks of it’s quality.

aSiE is a game you need to play a few times to get your head around, it’s also a game that changes every time you play it.  Thur’s game had a LOT of agents on the board, the most I’ve ever seen.  We also figured out a couple of rules we hadn’t come across before, again no surprises there.  As we become more familiar with the game we’ve started to become a lot more devious in our play, specifically in how we hide our secret faction.  I was in the dark with a couple of players as to whom they worked for up until the very end.  I was also on the losing end from the start to the finish.  I can’t imagine why but a lot of people we’re picking on me 🙂

photo (24)

 

BUT I still enjoyed the game from start to finish.  It’s a great game from a great bunch of people and I wholeheartedly recommend it.  I’m also excited about it’s longevity, there’s a pile of mechanics like vampires and zombies that haven’t appeared or played any major part in the game YET.  Looking forward to seeing those in the future and I’m confident just like Imperial 2030 this is a game that will be hitting the table often and long into the future

 

Next up was Android Infiltration

The biggest enemy in this game is not the NPC, not the traps, but the timer. AGAIN we all, well most of us bar one sneaky player, got caught by the timer and very very quickly.  I’m not sure we’ve ever gotten to the second floor and I really am starting to think we are not cut out to be cyber thieves.

We got into FOUR rooms of a possible sixteen +, four, just four and the game ended but not before one keen player nipped out the elevator shaft and triggered more alarms and got us all arrested.  well played that cyber thief.

Android Infiltration is a nice little (and short) game.  I’m going to revisit the rules on the alarm, we keep getting hit by it, I’m sure we’re (against all odds) getting the rules wrong, we have to be.  I’d blame certain players in the group but they’re weren’t even there so I can’t.  But I will.  Great game, surprising more fun than it thought it would be.  This one is going to appear again and again I reckon

After that is was the normal warm down of Turtles, discussions on what’s going to happen at the next Knavecon and what games we want to play next

More of that sort of thing soon

Huzzah!

Vic

 

0

MrSaturday Turns 40 Part 2

Image

It’s actually today, so it seems appropriate 

This is part two of my report on the gaming events from last weekend’s epic gaming sessions

Next up was

Ca$h and Gun$ live

Image

If ever there was a stupid ass game this is it.  Each turn the GM counts out an amount of cards equal to the standing players on the back of which is a monitory amount  5k – 20k and hidden on the front is either a

  • Knife
  • Kevlar
  • Grenade
  • Handgun
  • Double Handgun
  • Shotgun

Each of the players get to move around and when the GM blows the whistle they all Stop and point their guns at another player, by THEIR guns I mean they pretend they have certain guns, which may or may not match their actual weapon cards.

At this point people get a chance to chicken out (quite intimidating to have half a dozen guns pointed at you)

Then in order the weapons are resolved

Knife wielders can reach out and stab someone

Grenades turn around on the spot and anyone they touch gets hit by the grenade

Single guns go next injuring those they’re pointed at

then double guns

then shouguns that do double damage

Kevlar stops all bullets bar shotguns

Image

Each shot cancels the person who got hit from firing with their weapons next. so for example if one player was shot with a single gun the target wouldn’t get to fire their shotgun later on.

Players who get injured are sent to the hospital for a round and these along with they who wimped out don’t get a share of the cash.  Rinse and repeat for six rounds.  

It’s actually great fun, at one stage a veritable conga line formed as people pretended they all had grenades.

now as the GM I got the rules fairly wrong it must be said, but it didn’t matter we all had fun and it worked well.  The game should have had teams and the exact order in which things happened should have been different but so what.  Come Knavecon 4 this will definitely be on the cards.  It’s a goodie

Huzzah!

Vic

0

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑