Bcon Warmup – Email Werewolf IV !

As a warm up to Bcon Lite on the 27th, email Werewolf is starting again next Thur 18th !

Top marks to those who got the pun on IV….. anyhoe

Dread Pirate Joe the greatest werewolf GM ever is going to be running it again. If you’re already on the werewolf mailing list and don’t want to be jump off now, if you want to join in and you’re names not down, contact me now. What’s going to make this real fun is the game will only have half progressed by the 27th so a lot of the players you suspect or don’t will be AT B*stardcon lite 🙂

(I’m still convinced I lost the last one because I met one of the other players in Tesco and he read it on my face)

OH and just so we’re clear…. I’m NOT a werewolf !

Vic

April 15, 2013 1

Venue Approved

Myself and Dec visited the venue for Bcon at lunch time. Looks bang on. Staff couldn’t have been more helpful. There’s room for around 30 so should be a great day

Venue Approved

April 12, 2013 0

Bcon Warm up Thur – Being a Drax Report

I’m still a big fan of Spartacus, it’s great value on Amazon at the moment, so we had a bit of that

Instantly Drax and myself were at each other throats for no good reason (there doesn’t need to be a good reason)

I wound up with Batiatus again who’s always short of money and my betting was woeful for the whole game. Drax on the other hand was pulling money out of the nether left right and centre, I thought for a while he had the pieces from the second copy the game under the table.

The trident made an appearance early on (which had been devastating in the last session) but appeared to be made of foam rubber this time as the wielder died in every battle. QUITE a bit of backstabbing went on, in fact there were no alliances and nothing was freely done the whole game, just the way it should be.

No decent gladiators appeared and then suddenly Borys was off like a rat out of an aqueduct and he slipped into the lead that couldn’t be stopped despite the best efforts of everyone.

Next up was the long titled DC COMICS DECK-BUILDING GAME

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/125678/dc-comics-deck-building-game

It’s not bad, a bit Ascension a bit Dominion but a bit simpler. the primary resource seems to be arse kicking or Power as they politically correctly put it. If you’ve played either of those two games you’ll pick it up in under a minute. Art work is nice, game play is not bad. I’m not a huge fan of this type of game I freely admit although I know some in the group would have whole nights of them if they could.

I find them too solitary, I much prefer being able to stick it to someone and shout HA! in their face, but I digress.

Just like Dominion you start with a small amount of power cards, buy more and better ones and try and defeat villains to gain score. There’s a set of super villains that you need to defeat (buy with kick assing) and once they’re all defeated it’s count your few points time. unlike dominion there doesn’t seem to be the same variety of possible game types by changing the setup decks. It does have the half eaten biscuit sensation of wanting a bit more so I’m going to reserve judgement until I’ve played it again.

Aquaman is in there and of course no-one picked him for the whole game

Last up of the night was the classic

Settlers of Catan

Since finding them we’ve been playing the welfare rules variant

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/150443/the-famous-welfare-variant

I highly recommend it as it makes for a less random game.

Some Awesome start spots and some absolutely terrible ones so an interesting game all in all.

I got a near monopoly on stone however the game will still very close from start to finish. It was Drax that got over the finish line but everyone else had 9 points pretty much and were DEFINITELY going to win next turn 🙂

Some good chat about upcoming Bcon and a look at what we’ll be taking with us to play

Spartacus is a defo

So more of that next thur

Huzzah!

April 12, 2013 6

B*stardcon Lite

Thanks to MrSaturday (one of the organisers) for his awesome artwork above.

27th April, mark it down in your diary.

Looking like we should have a good crowd for the day, more the merrier!

Huzzah!

April 10, 2013 0

10,000,000

10000000 (ten million), is a deceptively simple little game for the iphone. You awake (in a very nice bed) in a dungeon and have to earn 10m to escape. the 10m btw is your BEST score from a run not your total, just so you know (took me a while to figure that out) it’s a bit like puzzle gem or whatever it’s called where you try and get 3 in a row, 4 is better, 5 even better for something to happen, a BIT like tetris and a bit like gnome stones. up the top your character runs across the screen and encounters either locked doors/chests or enemies of different strengths which get tougher the further you progress Whilst this is going on in the corner of your eye you have to

match swords – deal damage to enemies
wands – deal damage to enemies
Keys – unlock locks Shields – protect yourself
Wood + Stone – Repair your castle
Chests – unlock stuff like keys and one off damage items

when enemies hit you they knock you back or if you get stuck behind a chest/door you slowly drift back, fall off the edge of the screen and it’s back to bed and your run is over and you count up how much you’ve made for your run. Stone and Rock is used to unlock ‘shops’ where you can buy bigger and better stuff so all in all it’s kill enemy, get loot, buy bigger sword, meet bigger enemy, rinse repeat. all standard stuff What’s fun about this game is it’s quick, you can play a run in a few minutes and there’s a great sense of progression as you level up and acquire more stuff, plus there’s a great one more go about the whole thing

Conclusion

This is a great little game, quick, cheap with a real one more go feel to it, once you complete it however you’re not going to play it again

April 8, 2013 0

B*stardcon Lite

No games last thur but the big news is, B*stardcon Lite is green lit for the 27th of April in the Southcourt Hotel in Limerick. this is going to be fun!

Plan is have not just boardgames but a lash of Dreadfleet and X-Wing as well

Don’t miss it!

April 8, 2013 1

JUPITER’S COCK! It’s a Drax Report

We got to play Spartacus the boardgame last night. It’s a cracker! NOTHING to do with the fact that I beat Drax repeatedly and went onto win. It’s just a very nice game. I feel it incumbent on me to make a joke about the above card so here goes, “There is nothing more reassuring than having jupiter’s cock in your hand”. So that dealt with onto the report

The Game

Spartacus is a game of bloody combat, behind the scenes manipulation and all around cock blockery. You hire gladiators and slaves, organise games and try and gain prestige from your actions while keeping others down. Balance the books by betting on matches (you can’t bet against yourself btw), hiring slaves and playing intrigue cards. Gain new equipment, slaves and fighters in the markets. take opponents down a peg or five with intrigue and reaction cards. Fight epic matches and become the people champion. All good Thursday night stuff.

The Good

The setting is excellent, it really captures the feel of the TV series (I’m told), it’s not a set of mechanics with a theme bolted on

The Gameplay is fast and direct, none of your solo play rubbish here, it’s direct and nasty, lot of options for cock blockery (pardon the pun)

The pieces are nice and solid (not up to the standard of fantasy flight but more than acceptable), plus there’s some nice pics of the slave girls

Gameplay is fast and straightforward, it’s great fun getting into the arena, just as much fun watching and betting and downright awesome watching an opponents gladiators being crushed.

Lot of routes to win

The Bad

It really needs the full four to play in a balanced way. It’s possible for one person to get ahead with a wrecking ball of a gladiator and dominate the games HOWEVER that may have been down to our lack of imagination when it came to screwing up other players

Would have liked to see a bit higher quality printing, it’s all fine but could have been better

Session

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128671/spartacus-a-game-of-blood-treachery

It started easy enough with a few starter gladiators and early on I won a bid for a trident (weapon) which proved devastating throughout since I could attack from a bit of range and dance away from counter attacks. Drax went for a javelin which unfortunately for him did very little. Mid-game I had a decent hero who was causing mayhem with his trident and Armour and beating all others in combat. Then as is the way the others turned on me and started to hit me where it hurt my purse. With no slaves I had to release a few of my fighters from their contracts and only some lucky betting kept my house ticking over. Drax on the other hand with his large stock of slaves and nice abilities was coining it. Boris slipped the clutch late game and only my jupiters cock (think humiliation card from lunch money) stopped him from winning along with SHOCK co-operation from Drax who’s normal rule of the enemy of my enemy is my friend unless it’s Vic was relaxed for a round.

All came down to a final match where I picked up a javelin and Drax and my champion entered the arena. Early on drax landed a few choice blows and my guy was reeling. It was looking like I would be leaving feet first when a chance throw from my Javelin wounded his hero and turned the tide a little. After that I did better and managed to beat him to a standstill winning the game

Make no mistake this is a GREAT GAME. it’s simple and fun, I’d rate it up there with Pirates cove or above, simple, fun and very enjoyable

An expansion is due out soon which will make it even better

I can’t wait

Huzzah!