Last Thur we gamed

Well the weather was starting to look all boardgamey so it seemed only appropriate to not fight with it. I’ll come back to the main game of the night later but for now I have to mention the wind down game we played or more accurately survived

Panic Lab!

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/121073/panic-lab

is a kids game. Seeing a trend here? Which is very simple but with the addition of a few rules makes it’s an adult game and a complete head wrecker. In one of the circles of Hell they’re playing Panic Lab right now with pitch forks and electric shocks. If you wanted to break and enemy agent or find out where treasure is buried, force them to play Panic Lab, they’ll crack sooner rather than later.

I reckon (a scientific measure) that as a kids game, someone that masters this game should be locked up away from the rest of society. It’s like mirrors, it’s not natural.

The game of course is simple. You spread the cards in a circle and they consist (depending on how hard you want to make it and how much you hate your brain)

Start Points
Creatures
Transformers (optional)
Vents (optional)

You then roll the four dice and it dictates

The colour creature you’re looking for (red/blue), Spots or Stripes, Travel Clockwise or Anti-Clockwise and whether it’s a ghost or a slug type creature. First one to spot it sticks a finger on it and claims a point, get it wrong they loose a point. Simple so far….

Here’s where it all goes wrong. Along the way you have Transformers (not those ones)

And these little honeys swap around what you’re looking for. So now you’re looking for a striped creature and now you’re looking for a blue one.

Let’s not stop there, along the way are vents, go onto one and you teleport to the next vent and continue from there. It’s quite possible to wind up (in your mind) doing a few revolutions of the circle before you find the little fella you want. Do this before everyone else does it, ignore the foam on players mouths. Mind Blown.

Seems very simple but try it and you’ll find a new level of profanity issuing from your lips as you get it wrong again and lose a point

The game is cheap as chips. About a €10 or so. It is very intense so you couldn’t play more than a few games but while you’re in that masochistic zone it’s a very “interesting” experience. It’s great with kids, start them off without the transformers and vents.

I’m certainly going to pick up a copy of it but I’m not sure if that says more about me than the game

It’ll be a Knavecon

Huzzah!

Vic

August 25, 2014 0

There are Four Lights! – Thur part 1

I should have known better, WE should have known better than to get involved in a game picked by Krystian from The Boardgame Guys. His last head wrecker was Dobble and I’d only just recovered from that. Krystian subjected us to Cockroach Salad.

http://www.boardgameguys.ie/productdisplay/cockroach-salad

Cockroach salad just like Dobble is a simple game which consists of a stack of cards which are either Tomatoes, Peppers, Lettuce or Cauliflower (or cockroaches). Now it took me a bit to get my head around the rules, mostly because my mind was going “Is that it?”. This is a weird game, it shouldn’t work but it does. The deck of maybe a 100 cards is split amongst all the players and your goal is to get rid of your hand as quickly as possible. Now the fun starts. Here’s the rules if you don’t understand them give me a ring and I’ll try to explain them as best I can 🙂

You lay a card and call out what it is so Pepper, Tomato, Cauliflower, Lettuce or cockroach. Easy so far..

Now if the card you are laying on has the same type as the previous one you have to call out a different veg e.g. you play a tomato and there’s one already below it directly you call out say Pepper or one of the other four vegetables (yes I know tomatoes are not vegetables). Still with me?

Now if a cock-a-roche appears it has a vegetable with a cross through it so you can’t call that one out for a bit at all. Losing you?

On top of this you only have 3 seconds to call out your veg and it’s a recipe for a lot of effin’ and blindin’

Screw up and call the wrong one and you take the stack of cards that’s built up.

I liked it. It’s Not a game you could keep playing, it messes with your head in the same way as “yes, no and yeah” does, I reckon a few too many games of this and your synapses would be rewired irrevocably and you’d have to communicate purely by mime and clicks.

Great kids game. Once again we have a polish game that’s great for kids and adults (brain damage accepted). It’s going to be at Knavecon and I reckon I’ll be getting a copy. As one of the guys said last night (and I’m paraphrasing), “in hell there’s people playing this game as punishment.”

Huzzah!

Vic

August 15, 2014 4

Last thur a DJ saved my life*

*Not actually true

But we did play Skull and Roses.

Skull and Roses is the simplest game outside of alternative kicks until one person passes out. I’ve never done it but I would love to grab a stack of beer mats and make the game with a pen in a pub and have it played with noobs. Probably work better if I knew a number of noobs, I went to pubs and I owned a pen but there you go

Since we had a noob last thur and we had over the six player mark two copies of skull and roses fitted the bill. It’s a great warm up game and a great game to introduce non gamers to gaming (not that our new guy was a stranger to gaming). S+Rs is the very essence of poker. There’s elements of prisoners dilemma, bluff, beer mats, you name it, it has it all (insofar as those three mentioned just now). Could you play it for money? yes you could. Would I? absolutely not. Gambling and gaming are two very different things.

There’s something special about skull and roses that brings me back to it time and again. It’s probably the simplest gateway game for people. I tend to play it in two phases with new players. Play with only one card in front of you and the first player calls a challenge. Give people a few rounds of this then introduce the concept of stacking more cards OR calling the challenge. Play a few more rounds of that then take it away and have people wanting more. I’ve found this game a great filler at poker nights too, especially if you want to recruit new players. Watch their little faces and see how they react when you explain about bluffing.

I once hosted a game of Diplomacy at a con in UL many years ago with a buddy of mine and seven complete newbies sat down and as I explained the rules I said “obviously none of the agreements are binding”… I spotted two good gamers straight off the ones with the slight grins. I spotted one Really good gamer, the one who didn’t react but completed screwed over everyone else very quietly and succinctly

Selling someone a deal or bluffing is grist for the mill when it comes to gaming. I think it’s one of the key skills you need to learn in life. Doubly so if you plan on being and evil overlord and let’s be honest… whom doesn’t dream of that!

Huzzah!

Vic

August 13, 2014 0

More from last thur and How to be a Good Evil Overlord

Since the village up the road has been suffering biblical floods (probably for sinning) it seemed appropriate to play lords of waterdeep. That plus I didn’t give that much thought about this preamble

Lords of Waterdeep was the darling of Knavecon 1 and 2 and it’s still a crackin game. Truth be told it had been a while since it hit table and i’d forgotten how good it it. It’s very good. Event without the expansion the base game if wonderful. With the expansion it’s a bit longer but it’s sublime.

I’ve ranted about this game before. I probably mentioned that for a pretty simple worker placement game it punches way above its weight. There’s something special about LOWD i have played it a few dozen times and I’m always more than happy to play it again.

Oh and the fact that I left everyone IN THE DUST from the get go helps a lot. Usually when i play this game someone who shall remain Drax goes out of his way to rain on my parade. The gaming gods were in a good mood and from early on i stole a march on the other players. I landed two 25 point missions in quick succession and the others were hard pressed to catch up. At one stage a player was heard to say “this game is over were fighting for second”.

Much as you might think this is a wonderful position to be in.. It’s not. It’s too public. If you’re going to become an accomplished evil overlord the trick is not to do it visibly. Being and Evil overlord is all a out snatching away victory from someone at the last moment. You’re never going to break a spirit if they know it’s coming. Your opponent has to believe they’re winning or at least that victory is in their grasp before you AT THE VERY LAST MOMENT take it away by the smallest or if you prefer largest margin.

Winning a game early is just no good you take your opponents hope and that’s a tragedy. If your going to excel at being an evil bastick pace yourself, don’t expect instant results, be content to be a BIT evil and be comforted by the knowledge that one day you will rule the word (evilly)

Huzzah!

Vic

August 11, 2014 0

on an X-Wing and a prayer (just an X-Wing really)

Ok I’m hooked. X-wing fever has caught hold. A sure sign is how my browser (on a number of PCs) seems to think I want squad builder when I press any letter on the keyboard.

Being silly season, we were only four last Thur and when deciding on what to play nearly everyone said “X-wing!” And so it was

No 100 point battles for us. 200pts a side? PAH! It was a full on, leaded, tackle out, no holds barred, stomp a man when he’s down 300pts a side! A real mans game and we were real men

Now X-wing is great. Lovely fantastic super but it DOES take time to setup. I reckon we were well over half an hour just setting the whole thing up powered by multiple coffees , co-operation (still getting over that) and good cheer (Drax didn’t make it), Well worth the set-up entrance fee

The Imperials (not me) took

2 x FireSprays
1 x Tie advanced
1 x Lamda class shuttle
3 x Tie interceptors (maybe it was 4)
1 x Tie Defender
1 x Tie Phantom

All top class ships none of your tie fighter muck here. All kitted out with CD players, air con and cruise control. In other words we have the models let’s throw them out there and see what happens.

On the rebel scum side (me)

6 x X-wings. Count them
The falcon
1 x Y Wing
1 x A wing

The rebels had gone heavy missile so it was going to be noisy and fast.

Our team in the grand tradition had ignored each other during squad design and just picked our ships as the mood took us

The plan from the rebel side was to hang back and let rip with all the missiles so it was slow movement across the board whereas the imperials were straight in with the absolute bare minimum of kissing.

Initial fire from the rebels was sketchy scoring very little damage while the imperials were de-shielding left and right. I immediately took the smart route of blaming my team mate for his obvious lack of commitment and our current misfortune.

Funny enough this seemed to pay dividends and Vader in his tie advance took a nasty paddling from his young fella and his equally nasty smuggler bud.

Having seen Vader cause a lot of trouble in earlier games I was determined to fix his wagon. Another round saw him wink out and the falcon started a slow steady tour of the battlefield with Luke side by side

At this point everyone was close up and it quickly degenerated to shillelagh law and their were wigs on the green. The tie interceptors menaced while the two firesprays lumbered around surrounded by a pride of x-wings. The x-wings harried the Firesprays like a pack of rabid dogs and eventually brought both of them down with very little damage to themselves. The A-wing cashed in its chips pretty quick. Doing what it always seems to do. Zoom around looking flashy but quickly getting smacked down like the dog in foghorn leg horn.

The phantom was a nasty contender combined with someone who knew how to use it (i.e. Not me). It started to take a toll but couldn’t hope to compete with the massed forces of all those x-wings.

Meanwhile the falcon was knocking out ships for sport. The 360 degree turret fire on it was devastating along with the re-rolls. The lamda shuttle overshot and proved hard to get back into the fight. It’s a sluggish beast and we half expected to hear beep beep beep sounds as it turned and manoeuvred.

By the time it had got back in the fight the falcon had hovered up the opposition. Once the phantom cashed in its chips it was all over bar the shouting.

The shuttle proved small beer and Luke doggedly pursued and smacked it down

At the end we had three serviceable x-wings and a perfectly fine falcon, the imperials were nowhere to be seen. (so we couldn’t’ actually see them)

The killers of the night had been Luke and the Falcon. The phantom and tie defender had been nasty but again that’s the beauty of this game. The same combo up against a different (for fun lets say better) opponent would prove a different prospect.

Make no mistake this is a fantastic game. Id go as far as to say this is the future shape of table top. Yes yes that’s heresy but I’m seeing a trend where players are for one reason or another (kids) becoming less connected with full on games like Warhammer and are drifting to fast tabletop fixes like x-wing. But Hey! That’s gaming, it’s a cauldron that’s constantly stirred by new innovations and it’s great to see x-wing doing so well. If fantasy flight continue to deliver expansions as good as the ones to date this game will be around for a very long time to come and I for one am more than happy with that

Huzzah!

Vic

August 4, 2014 0

Never tell me the odds!

I’ve spoken before about X-Wing miniatures game. It’s a cracker. Fantasy Flight have really nailed it with this. It’s Skylanders for grown ups.

When I say they’ve nailed it they’ve gotten everything right.

Gorgeous pre painted scale models of the ships – CHECK!
Great game play – CHECK!
Captures the feel of Star Wars – CHECK!
it doesn’t stray near episodes 1-3 – CHECK!
It’s relatively inexpensive – CHECK!

The more I play this game the more I like it and to be honest I had better, I’m pot committed on it having been swayed by the beauty of the models. Between myself and my x-wing buddy (there are no buddies in gaming) we’ve amassed a good collection of models and last Friday night was a chance to get in a few games.

I’d picked up a few new models from the second and third waves over the last few months and they’d sat gathering dust on my gaming shelf. Time to crack them open!

Coming to the party were the B-Wing and the New Imperial Phantom. I’d played a few small games of it at Brocon and had a thirst for more. The games at Brocon were straight out of the starter kit, One X-Wing versus Two Tie Fighters.

If X-wing were a Massive Multiplayer Game then the B-Wing would be a Tanker. A slow slugger than can take one for the team. It’s dog slow and gets stressed very easily. You can equip it with a range of missiles and it can really pack a punch.

In hindsight showing my hind was a mistake

Now the phantom is a fighter in MMO parlance. It’s nimble. It can deal out a paddling like it was making butter but it can’t take too much abuse. It’s also got a natty cloaking device which is new and despite what you might have in your head about how that should work from watching too much Star Trek it’s more a big move boost than a cloak in the traditional sense

Now I’m no expert on x-wing so were still at the learning as we go stage as far as what’s a good squad build. In gaming I find this the sweet spot, where the game is new enough that you’re not sick of it or stuck in a rutt but you know the rules well enough that you don’t make basic mistakes.

For the first few games I took a tie fighter (backstabber)(who’d have thought) and the phantom whilst my opponent took a B wing and an A wing

Just like him I love the A wing. I’ve never seen it do anything outside of running around excitedly like a my little pony but it does look real purdy. I’ve two of them now so they can run together all giggly and no doubt fall down a bit.

The combo of tie and phantom was fantastic. In retrospect my higher pilot value for both ships was what did it. The four attack dice on the phantom coupled with a high pilot value was devastating. In the three games we played I was able to deploy last then zoom in with both and take out the A wing then dance around the B wing like it was a fat mall cop

In fairness I was fantastically lucky with dice rolling. At one stage I rolled a crit on my first shot at the A wing and scored two hits directly on the hull taking it out effectively with one dice

The same went for evades. I was having a great few games up until the last where cockiness showed me what a B wing can do up close and personal

After that it was a few A wing v Tie fighter battles. All good

X-Wing is impressing the hell of me. It’s been a slow grow since I haven’t gotten to play it that much. It is essentially a two player game and that doesn’t fit well on thur nights.

My next port of call with this adventure will be X-Wing on VASSAL

If you haven’t looked at VASSAL you need to have a google. I’ll be doing a full report on it soon

For now Huzzah and happy gaming

Vic

July 29, 2014 2

DiceMeister

There is only one collectible card game I ever fell for and I fell hard. I will never love again or more accurately spend vast sums of money on one gaming system. Oh don’t worry I got out of Magic at the right time and even made a tidy profit on my cards but by then I’d had my fill of CCGs.

I played Magic the Gathering back when Unlimited was the current set and the Virgin Megastore was the only place in the country you could pick it up. That changed quickly. I have no problem these days with living card games but for me anyhoe random collectables just don’t beep my jeep. Although….. Marvel Dice Master DOES look interesting

It’s also new, fairly shiny and selling like hotcakes so if you are getting in on it, now’s a good time. NOW NOW NOW!

So far I have played the sum total of ONE game of it. I plan to do a bit more at Brocon. I have fellow gamers who reckon THIS is the next big thing. It’s not overly expensive (although ultra rare cards are), it’s got a fairly straightforward mechanic and it feels a bit like magic, if you played a lot of jungle decks. The quality of the components are OK. They weren’t bad but they weren’t as good as I would have liked. The cards I found a bit flimsy compared to other CCGs but they don’t get moved around a lot, it’s the dice that do the work and they’re fine, plain but fine.

The game itself is a mixture of dice and cards. Each character in your team comes with a custom dice and a little like dominion you’re constantly trading up dice to get more power (in the case of dominion gold) to buy every more powerful characters so you can send them off to biff up your opponent or keep them at home to avoid a paddling. This is a very simple overview of how it works and when I play it a bit more I’ll do a more detailed review.

It definitely has a certain something and you can put together a good deck/stack (is there a collectable term for a group of dice?) for around €20

I’ll report back when I know more

Huzzah!

Vic

July 18, 2014 0

This ship is very small, THIS ship is far away

Constonopolos is the grown up cousin of Puerto Rico. Bohemian and edgy, what Puerto Rico wishes it could be

If you’ve played Puerto Rico you’ll be in familiar territory. It’s worker placementy but with a different cock blockery. If you haven’t played Puerto Rico you’ve missed out on a classic game and should get thee to a game shop and try it.

Constantinopolis is a five player game that in theory can be played in 90 minutes, by a silent order of monks on speed who have spent the last several years learning the rules. Our group didn’t tick any of those boxes. I refuse to be drawn on how long it took to play out and I ask the jury to disregard any evidence they may have heard

The game plays out over ten turns in which a number of sub steps happen. The first is like Puerto Rico where you pick a role however in this case roles are bid on so it’s very possible to force others into overpaying

Buildings are bought which come in a variety of forms and functions. Resource producing, ones you cash in resources for money and fame (the games score), ones that give you a few extra swapping abilities or cost reduction. Ones that score you bonus points at the end

Key to the game as well are contracts which are drawn in various quantities and take the form of supply this or that resource or transport this person. In what you wonder. In ships of various sizes I say which you previously purchased.

Each turn ships are loaded and launched with contract goods and previously launched ships move closer to harbor and payment in fame and money

There are half a dozen ways of scoring fame and money and no foolproof strategy to secure victory. It’s fast (ha) and scoring is close from start to finish which I really like.

I got to play this game a few months back and was instantly hooked. I acquired a copy of it soon after as a swapse. My copy was in German but it’s multilingual and all icon driven. We as per tradition got a few rules wrong but not enough to effect our evenings entertainment.

I prefer this game to Puerto Rico and I’m a big fan of Puerto Rico so I highly recommend it. If you only buy one worker placement Puerto Rico type game this year make sure it’s Constantinopolis

I’ll be wheeling it out at brocon if you want to take it for a test drive

Huzzah!

Vic

July 12, 2014 0

At Brocon I will Mostly Be Playing…

Planning to bring the following to Brocon for people to try out.

Roll through the ages
El grande
Ribbit
Lotr confrontation
Constonopolis
Fury of Dracula
Lords of waterdeep
Twilight struggle
Netrunner
Hey that’s my fish
Robo rally
Zombicide
King of toyko
Modern art
Skull and roses
Werewolf
Eight minute empire
Cards against humanity
Hive
Connections
Zombie dice
Study in emerald

Will throw in a few others if they take my fancy between now and then

Huzzah!

Vic

July 12, 2014 4

Coup the Gras Thur (Part 2)

In the same way as there’s something about Mary, there’s something about Augustus. It intrigues me and I was lucky enough to pick it up as a swapsee with one of the guys from the gaming group who shall remain nameless and Polish.

Augustus is a game I’ve spoken about before and had a neat pictures of Augustus Gloop to lead it in, Unfortunately apart from that there’s feck all other puns on the name so we’ll have to run without one.

Augustus is a card game with similarities to Stone Age, 7 Wonders and Iliad. It’s 6 players which is nice and it plays through in a relatively short time, say half an hour plus (or an hour maybe), so it’s at the upper end of filler games. There’s a bit to it. In essence it’s a grab what you can can before the other guy does with a little bit of push your luck. There’s a bit of offensive play it in where you can upset other players plans but it’s more about getting the best score you can before the others do.

OK It’s a BIT like bingo if I’m being honest (rare) without the smoking and blue rinses but there is a lot less luck involved although luck does play a part in it. It’s a good bit like bingo when the other players in the group shout BINGO! when they fulfil a card. Honestly, the gaming evenings just fly by

For your buck you get a very good quality game, that’s very well priced. It’s a fine game for filling in and I definitely see myself playing it again every so often

I didn’t win. I didn’t win by ONE point. Just barely losing is way worse than being hammered, having a little hope and seeing it crushed is a terrible thing when you’re on the receiving end.

It’s a good thing I don’t bare grudges…

Huzzah!

Vic

July 6, 2014 0