Sunday, December 19, 2010

Treachery and Betrayal makes this a Black Christmas

"That's not natural" my nephew was once heard to declare after seeing promos for the holiday horror flick Black Christmas. Ever since then Beth and I have referred to any holiday mishaps as contributing to a Black Christmas. Border Board Games' last game night of 2010 also marked the holiday extravaganza of treachery and betrayal.

As I arrived at the hall I was pleased to see a new/old face in Bill Parker. Bill had made the trip up from Bethel to join us on an evening of misery and dismay. Bill, Carlo, Josh (OJ), Homer and Beth were involved in a game of Cockroach Poker as Shannon and I arrived. While I'm still a little fuzzy on the details, the game appears to involve considerable amounts of dishonesty as players pass around vermin and insects making spurious claims as to their actual nature. "It's a bat" "It's a rat" "It's a bat" "It's a rat" and back and forth until someone finally calls the bluff and gets stuck with whatever wicked beasty is printed on the card. As Beth explained it the game plays until one player no longer can pass out cards or acquires a verminous four of a kind and therefore becomes the game's lone loser.

Hoping to get in on a game later Shannon and I broke out Race for the Galaxy. Though the two player experienced rules were available, this being Shannon's first game we stuck to the standard rule set and also tactfully ignored the Rebel vs. Imperium takeover rules. For his first game Shannon managed quite well quickly getting his economic engine rolling. Indeed, I don't think i have ever seen anyone produce as often as he did and to good result. he made efficient use of the Consume: Trade and Consume: 2x VP powers to get off to an early lead. meanwhile I chugged along exploring a lot trying to get some of my alien planets and tech into play. Eventually that patience won out as my alien tech 6 point development card pushed me over the top. I had pitifully few chips on my side, owing to a lacklustre production scheme) but most of my points ended up on the board.

As we finished up RftG the others started a game of Citadels. Though not a new game by any means, Homer's latest pick-up has proven popular as a fill-in game. It plays quickly enough that it can bridge a group between turns but has sufficient strategy and backstabbing potential to keep gamers interested in the outcome. It would actually prove to be the first of two rounds of Citadels we would play that night. What I have found is that, in a 6 or 7 player game, there does appear to be one player who simply never gets off the ground. In each game we played there was always one person who lagged so far behind that random deathblows from the Assassin were almost assured. I don't know how that came to pass as I haven't bothered to study if player start position has any influence in the matter or not but it might be something worth keeping an eye on.

We also laid down the law with a 7-player shoot-out game of Bang with the Dodge City expansion. Sheriff Josh and his trusty deputy Homer efficiently gunned down the outlaws (with help from one other outlaw at least) even though Deputy Beth was the second to bow out of the game. I held on as best I could as the Renegade but the Sheriff was surrounded by so many cards and the Deputy healed like a troll and I simply could never take out the lawmen. Sadly the dynamite, though appearing twice in the game, only moved along once before being Cat Ballou-ed into the dustbin of history.

Next up we embarked on a quest to save Camelot from itself. King Homer and his brave knights tackled many of the grim problems besetting Camelot and, while some quests quickly went south, we succeeded at enough of them to eventually prevail despite Shannon's devious machinations. At first we had questioned his attempt at Lancelot's Armor when he declared himself unable to finish the quest despite having spent two turns playing Special White cards while on the quest. I had written it off as his inexperience with the game and only later came to suspect him as the traitor. Evidently I was the last one to do so in spite of having held the Fate card since the opening round of the game. The Picts and Saxons stormed ashore, Lancelot's Armor was lost in the mists of time but we managed to defeat the Saxons once while Heroism was in play (the only good move my Sir Kay was apparently able to manufacture), recovered the Grail (with alarming ease) and plucked Excalibur from the depths as well as kill some catapults along the way.

One thing that emerged was the acknowledgement that Sir Kay is perhaps the least competent of the Knights of the Round Table. Based upon how his power reads, his ability to lay an additional White Card ONLY applies to quests where Black Cards are revealed, hence he really is only good at the two solo quests (the jousting lists and Lancelot's Armor) as well as the Dragon fight. It's a pretty weak power considering how many other quests there are. The knights can only hope that Sir Kay is the traitor in their midst for his wrath would be a pitiful thing to behold.

Monday, November 29, 2010

December Game Days

For the month of December, here are the following dates for game nights:

December 3rd - D&D 3.5. It seems with Thanksgiving and Christmas that our regular D&D nights have to be shifted around. In addition, the regular D&D night for January will have to be scheduled for another night other than the 4th Saturday since Richard and I won't be home to host it.

December 11th - Carlo will be running a one time Trail of Cthulhu game. So far, we have 4 players and could fit a 5th so if you wish to join us, send a message.

December 18th - Border Board Games regular board game night continues. There was debate of making the game night a time to celebrate 'Black Christmas' with dark themed games but I think it would be best to just bring along whatever games strikes out fancy. Take a look at our list of games on our website and send us a message if there are any games you wish to play.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Something to be thankful for

Saturday, November 20 marked the latest Border Board games game day at the Derby line Village hall. Featuring a theme based around colonization and exploration as well as hauntings, demons and other unassociated things, was held to mark the upcoming holiday.

We had two new faces to the Border Board Games community though neither was especially new per se. Welcome to J-Roc and Carlo and thanks to the Burlington crew for swinging by. Alex, Rachel and Tyler made the trip from parts west to join in the fun and mayhem. My apologies for the lack of squeak in the cheese curd but the large poutine lived up to the hype (I hope!).

We had games, games and more games as the crowd swelled to 16 (plus the wee ones as well) allowing us to run many games simultaneously. The night started off with a game of Age of Empires III. Original Josh's unusual strategy allowed him to sneak off for the win by a significant margin. He never earned much money, had lots of mismatched trade goods, owned few capital buildings but consistently scored well in the colonization rounds. The battle for Canada was fierce as Ken flooded the northlands with tons of British settlers in an attempt to crowd out Shannon's Spanish presence.

Next up we tackled a game of Stone Age. This time Homer came over and worked up a big point tool strategy. He never had much in the way of huts and earned only a few points here and there during the regular rounds but his eight-times tool multiplier catapulted him from the back and into second place. Only my plantings and technologies (7 of 8) allowed me to sneak ahead by a handful of points.

Elsewhere Rob, Ken and Josh ventured into the depths of Castle Ravenloft followed by a game of Cyclades. The Burlington crew and Carlo played Incan Gold before moving on to Battlestar Galactica when Beth came in with Shannon. The game featured a partial introduction of the rules from the Pegasus expansion. Carlo chose to be the Cylon commander John Cavil to add some spice. Rachel (Starbuck) turned out to be the Cylon saboteur. As it turned out the brave crew was unable to defeat the insidious Cylon threat before disaster claimed the fleet.

Later on the group broke out Betrayal at House on the Hill joined this time by Angela. The traitor turned out to be a pre-pubescent boy played by Carlo. Luckily the heroes ended up destroying their voodoo dolls in time to thwart the evil but not before two of them had perished in that grim domicile. At another table Homer, Kim, Zeke and Alexis burned and salted their way through a game of A La Carte as well as played through a game of Puerto Rico earlier in the evening.

A late start coupled with my failing memory of a single play five months earlier derailed an ill-advised foray into Dungeon Lords. We played long enough to get a feel for the game but not long enough to withstand an onslaught of heroic invaders.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

An Unexpected Game Day

Border Board Games took the show on the road as we combined forces with the Goodrich Memorial Library in downtown Newport. The celebration of National Game Day on November 13 was, in my opinion, a success for both our game group as well as the library. My expectation was that the members of our group would converge and have an extra session of gaming. While I had hoped for a few people to show up, we actually attracted a lot of new faces.

The library brought out a fairly substantial selection of traditional board games as well as a Nintendo Wii system on which to run a Mario Kart tournament. In the spirit of the day the tournament was largely self-governing with various children taking turns or combining for four-player races. We brought along a Big Frakkin' Bag of goodness including a few of our newest acquisitions.

Hoping to attract game enthusiasts who might not be terribly familiar withEuro games, we started off easy with a game of Settlers of Catan. One fellow said that the game was something he had tried on a virtual platform and enjoyed quite a bit. Having a chance to play face to face with a physical game board sounded like fun. And he was right. The game also proved immensely popular with a pair of brothers, one of whom caught the tail-end of our inaugural game. Having watched us for a few rounds, he quickly picked up on the concept and decided he wanted to try it out for himself. Though he played it in 2-player mode (I should have told him it is based on a 3-player minimum), the boys liked it quite a lot and had so much fun they played two games in a row.

Meanwhile Beth guided a couple of other young fellows in a game of Power Grid. Personally I found it interesting that a couple of teens would have taken interest in a game based on operating an electric utility, even more so considering the lack-lustre box art. Seriously, does a dude in a lab coat looking at dials and buttons scream "play me some more." Heck, though disingenuous, even Atari made Super Breakout look fun by putting astronauts on the cover. Beth remarked that the boys had fun playing and certainly began to appreciate the levels of strategy and management necessary to win the game.

Our friend Rob came by with his kids and Homer, Alexis and Josh also stopped in for gaming mayhem. We introduced Rob's friend to Race for the Galaxy and Ave Caesar and then dived headlong into an eight-player Bang! showdown (with our Carnage acquired Dodge City expansion). We were so caught up in the moment that I almost forgot to check in with some of the folks to see how their games of Magic: The Gathering went as well as get some general feedback on National Game Day in general. Before we knew it the library was closing down around us and we had to get going.

It turns out that half a day of gaming wasn't going to be enough. So we retired to The Lair (Beth always wanted a Lair) for a continuation of the day's festivities. Homer, Alexis, Josh and new Josh came by that evening for a game of Cyclades and several rounds of Bang! Having two Joshes in the group is proving slightly confusing. Especially when someone declares "I'm shooting Josh." We've tossed around some thoughts on how to qualify the two: Original Josh or OJ or Josh 2, Jay-2, J-Roc or some derivative to distinguish between them. I'm sure if we apply ourselves to the task we can reach an alternative that makes everyone happy.

It also appears that we may have picked up one or two new players for our mponthly D&D game. Jeff is interested in joining the crew and DM Rob ex[pressed a willingness to add a new face to the mix. Jeff's daughter may also be joining in the fun. I guess we'll need to consider putting in both leaves for the table on the 27th.....

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Gaming in November

November is a busy month for gaming!

The first weekend of November from 5th to the 7th, is Vermont's only gaming convention, Carnage. Carnage takes place in Fairlee, VT at the Inn on Lake Morey and is an awesome gaming event. If you cannot make it for the whole weekend, we highly recommend going for at least one day. We are heading down on the 5th and and are coming back at about noon on the th. We have one spot available in the car for a passenger so if you are looking to hitch a ride, let us know.

Then, on November 13th, we will be at the Goodrich Library in Newport, VT (or visit them on Facebook)to participate in National Game Day. We will bring along some board games, Magic the Gathering cards and some roleplaying books. We hope we can introduce some people to some new games.

On November 20th, we will have our regular Border Board Games game night. To honor Thanksgiving, we will bring along board games with a exploration and colonization theme. So we'll have Settlers of Catan, Castle Ravenloft, Battlestar Gallactica, Age of Empires III, and Race for the Galaxy. If you have any gaming requests, please let us know.

And, to end of November, on the 27th, we will plan to have our regular D&D session.

Monday, October 25, 2010

The best laid plans....

Our D&D 3.5 group gathered for the October installment on saturday night. The gang assembled minus Ken (where are you dude?) and discovered that its latest task was the most hazardous yet. Despite the hazards, Splinter somehow managed to avoid getting clobbered. Instead it fell to "Soak" Amra the barbarian to absorb the misfortune that rained down on us.

The task was fairly clear from the start. A hobgoblin champion was attempting to infiltrate the wizard tower and alter the course of history. The whole was complicated by an apparent temporal shift. Just as the gang had gotten used to fighting in the future, we were suddenly transported back into the ethereal past as a result of our meddlings in the Wizard's Tower. Our band of mercenraies, assisted by a cadre of inexperienced troopers and war mages, was tasked with stopping the champion in his tracks.

In truth we had only to steal the hobgoblin's amulet and return it to our wizard contact. The hobgoblin was not in an especially cooperative mood however, forcing us to take it from his dead, lifeless hands. Sort of. DM Rob actually managed the complexity of a mass melee in a format that was both logical and less tedious. The mobs of troopers squared off against mobs of enemy warriors leaving the individual combat to the PCs and a select few enemy combatants. This enabled us to experience the fear and uncertain of large scale combat without hundreds of tedious die rolls between the NPC forces.

Our plan fell apart almost from the begining. We had initially decided to purloin some uniforms from the enemy dead. Doing so on an open plain with magical might arrayed on both sides was not helping things. Homer, aka Splinter, was acually able to acquire a uniform with little fanfare. Josh, aka Amra, was not so lucky. Dordo's plan to pretend Amra was an enemy combatant by shooting at him failed. the barbarian failed to understand the plan and simply exposed both he and Amra to withering arrow fire from both sides of the battlefield.

Splinter managed to return to the town sporting his new enemy uniform. This was in itself a problem as the guards promptly assumed he was a spy. "At least we know it works," Homer declared. he managed to talk his way out of imprisonment but the remainder of the party was not so lucky. We had a good night's sleep in the maximum security stockade before we managed to escape and formulate a new plan. Since sneaking into the enemy camp and assassinating the hobgoblin was no longer an option, we had to take the direct route.

The enemy forces advanced en masse and our little band was tasked to identify and take down the champion. The wizard cadre accepted the direction of our resident Sorceress, played by Angela, and used their magic to help divine the location of our foe. having spotted him and his legions, we moved to intercept. Dordo's unparalelled longbowmanship harried the advancing hordes. Angela managed a well-timed volley of magic missiles that disperesed the enemy's peasant levies as Beth, aka Noname, and Amra moved forward to bolster the front rank of swordsmen. Our elation proved short lived. The hobgoblin's crack troops surged forward to engage our troopers.

Amra was a beast on the battlefield swinging his axe to terrible effect. Enemy soldiers died by the dozens as Dordoand the sorceress provided covering fire. The invisible Splinter slithered forward with the goal of stealing the amulet. Noname also moved forward to engage the champion hoping that her flanking would help her and Splinter eliminate the champion once and for all. Splinter, however, had a different plan in mind. With a well-executed snatch, he pulled the amulet away from the hobgoblin even as Noname struck.

Soon enemy soldiers rushed to their commander's aid, surrounding Noname on all sides. In a rare moment of bravado, Splinter struck and delivered an awesome blow to the champion. Coupled with the wounds the hobgoblin suffered from a final magic missile assault, Dordo's continuious rain of fire (in spite of using the doomed eight-sided d4) and Noname's attack, the champion fell. Splinter sent up the signal flare and the elven cavalry surged forward to scatter the demoralized enemy troops.

Having emerged victorious on the battlefield, we returned the amulet to our contact only to find the boundaries of time shift once more. As the gaming session wound to a close the party found itself transported into a desert valley. Our journey into the dreaded Canyon of the Yellow Sun was only begining....

Sunday, October 17, 2010

October D&D Session

The next D&D 3.5 session will be on Saturday, October 23rd starting at about 7:30 PM at Richard's and Bethany's house.

Reflections on death and undeath

Border Board games hosted its monthly gamefest on Saturday, October 16. With All Hallows Eve only a few short weeks away it seemed the perfect time to break out some of our favorite monster themed games. Hitting the table on Saturday were Arkham Horror, two sessions of Last Night on Earth, Ghost Stories, Bang! and a game of chess that, oddly enough, never seemed to get started.

First to hit the table was a rousing game of Arkham Horror. Though the new characters were introduced from the Dunwich expansion, the game was otherwise a standard AH scenario with Azathoth as the primary horror. Josh, Homer, Ken, Beth and I tackled the growing horror with a surprisingly effective group of characters. I chose Mandy Thompson the researcher. I generally prefer characters with fairly balanced stamina and sanity and her re-roll power proved very important throughout the game. Homer picked up Sister Mary , Ken chose the archaeologist Monterey Jack, Beth played newspaperman Darrell Simmons while Josh ruled the world with Ashcan Pete.

Ashcan Pete turned out to be almost godlike in his foraging. His ability to rummage through the trash earned him a slew of useful items as well as a retainer to write a book for "Ole Misk," the title of which is probably something like Living on the Edge of Sanity and Society. Whatever it's name it afforded Pete the only source of income he ever derived in the game. Likewise Monterey Jack was a monster killing machine. In spite of his low sanity, nothing seemed to disturb Jack as he slashed and shot his way through ten monsters over the course of the game.

Speaking of money, Mandy had absolutely no qualms about some shading dealings that netted her a cool $8. After falling a dollar short of buying two potent weapons (the magical Lamp of Alhazred and a rifle) she decided the risk of jail was minor compared to the gains. While the good Sister never seemed to get any money she enjoyed sufficient success that she still managed to travel to distant, terrible planets and emerge intact or largely intact at least.

In many ways this was as atypical a session of AH as I have ever played. The investigators seemed largely able to gather what they needed, some of the Mythos cards actually proved beneficial and the trips through the outer realms went pretty smoothly without the usual "A Monster Appears!" actions being drawn. We also managed to draw a disproportionate number of cultist, zombie and ghoul tiles as well as a fistful of Byakhee, Mi-Go and the odd Elder Thing. The one Cthonian that appeared was destroyed by Mandy's Dread Curse of Azathoth and the twin Hounds of Tindalos were nullified by virtue of closing the last gate right after they appeared.

After saving Arkham and post Great War New England we decided to switch things up a bit. By this time Rob and Angela had arrived and struggled through a game of Ghost Stories. The game lived up to its billing as one tough mutha co-op game. I think they were good and ready for a Wild West shoot out. Though only Beth, Homer and I had played Bang! before, it is a delightfully easy game to teach.

Josh had the misfortune of pissing off Deputy Homer, his seatmate to the right and the Renegade was the first to fall in a hail of bullets. The constant attacks by Indians and the rattle of Gatling guns only seemed to weaken the outlaws. Sheriff Rob was never put in much danger as the game progressed. Deputies Homer and Ken seemed willing to antagonize the outlaws and, admittedly, I probably focused too much attention on Ken. It's hard to forgive a guy who hands you a stick of dynamite.

Outlaw Beth, the only known outlaw as she took the only shot at the sheriff, was gunned down by Indians after enduring repeated attacks from Outlaw Angela. I didn't fare much better finally getting plugged by the lawmen after a game-long blood feud with Ken. In the end Outlaw Angela was outgunned and out manned. Both deputies and the sheriff took pot shots, occasionally wasting bullets on her empty whiskey barrel, but ultimately emerging triumphant.

In the last gaming session of the night we pulled out two copies of Last Night on Earth and had two four-player throw-downs with the Escape in the Truck scenario. Shannon and Ken were the zombies squared off against heroes Rob and Josh at one table while Angela and I ushered forth our legion of undeath against heroes Beth and Homer. At both tables the heroes struggled to gain ground in a pretty unforgiving scenario.

That is the one problem with LNoE. Some of the search scenarios appear to be heavily skewed in the zombies' favor. Certainly there are multiple copies of useful cards buried in the hero deck but the right combo of zombie cards can effectively shut off the heroes from the very items they need. Our zombies overran Sally, who had found the keys, in the gym. Automatically one set of keys was lost to the heroes. It was further compounded when we played a zombie card that then removed the keys from the game!

The same sort of misfortunes were happening at the other table, based on the gloating of the zombies and the sullen expressions worn by the heroes. In the end, despite finding the gasoline, Beth and Homer were unable to get back to the truck before the scenario timer ran out. A search through the hero deck revealed that the keys were so deeply buried that it likely would have required an extra ten to twelve turns of searching to uncover them. Even the helpful "Just What I Needed!" card was at least eight to ten cards down.

I guess it was appropriate that since the forces of good triumphed in Arkham and the Good Guys won the Wild West the zombies would triumph in the end as the night wound down into the witching hour. "All it takes for evil to triumph is for heroes to find lighters but no dynamite."

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Next Border Board Games date

We will resume our regular game night on October 16th at 6 PM at the Derby Line Village Hall. In honor of October and Halloween, we will bring along what horror-themed games we have. That means, Last Night on Earth, Fury of Dracula, and http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15987/arkham-horror. I'm sure Castle Ravenloft will make an appearance as will some other games. As always, if you have a gaming request, please let us know.

And that's why you don't see shark wrestlers

I think it is probably safe to say that we have hit the high-water mark for fun. Saturday night's gaming session was one of the most wholeheartedly entertaining sessions I think I have ever had playing table top D&D. At least based on everybody's complicity in the ensuing hijinks, it didn't appear that anyone felt left out or that the game bogged down because of it. Indeed, a little levity now and again is a good reminder of why it is we play the games we play.

The evening started off with an early round of Castle Ravenloft. Homer, Josh and Ken came by early to give the big box a whirl. It was also Beth's first time playing the modular dungeon which was officially unveiled the weekend before at fall-loha in Lyndonville. Having a couple plays under my belt it was easier setting up and getting everyone situated for the dungeon delve. I passed out the character sheets for folks to pick over while I prepared the dungeon containing Klak the kobold sorcerer.

Almost immediately after starting it became apparent just how challenging the game could be. As the only experienced player I kicked things off with the Ranger. I exposed a tile with a white arrow which, fortunately, didn't trigger an encounter. The rat swarm I drew, however, could only feast on my flesh and it did. Five minutes into the game and I was down HP. It was all down hill from there. "Give her something," someone said. "I don't have anything to give," Homer replied. "All I can give her is the finger."

Looks like I goofed on a couple of things. I didn't fully read the special rules for Klak and therefore didn't use the white arrow/black arrow abilities. On the whole I suspect it probably hurt the heroes more than Klak. While we did cancel a few encounter cards, gaining new powers for each white arrow tile drawn would have certainly boosted our offensive prowess particularly as things fell apart.

Then there was the crushing walls and fire trap incident. Turns out only ONE trap should be active at a time. Somehow we managed to neutralize both traps and kill the swarms of monsters that joined us there. The traps would prove to be a continual bane to our existence as were cards which affected "every hero on the active hero's tile" which always seemed to include the hapless Ranger. To my accounting the Ranger died no less than three times. That is particularly frightening in light of the fact we only had two healing surges.

Luckily Homer's wizard drew a healing potion in the start treasure and Beth was able to Healing Strike a wolf to revive me on two of those sad occasions. I also drew a Blessing card that granted +1 HP to every hero who successfully struck a monster that turn. On the whole the game always teetered between black disaster and euphoric success, based on a lucky combination of treasures or fortuitous timing of player abilities.

The final battle with Klak proved almost anticlimactic as it turned out. Even as characters fell in rapid succession in other parts of the dungeon, we finally started rolling poorly for the monsters. Homer unleashed a lightning bolt that zapped Klak and his Infernal Artifact while the brave Ranger leaped in with a Bounding Attack that slapped down Klak for three points of damage. Meanwhile the scattered remnants of the party surged forward. Beth barely was able to reach Ken in time to revive the Rogue as Josh ran in to try to take the pressure off the battered Wizard and near death Ranger.

In the end the Ranger was able to shoot off two arrows with her Many Shot power and slay a rat swarm and Klak in the same round. As a treasure from the swarm she drew an action surge that enabled her to make one final attack on the artifact to destroy it and win the game for the heroes. And to think that was only the first hour and a half of the night's activity!

Rob and Angela arrived as Ravenloft entered its dying throes...when the heroes were the ones doing most of the dying as it turned out. After packing up and setting up the battle map, we jumped back into D&D. The party had enjoyed some success outwitting the dragon and creating the artifact that sheltered the town from the dragon's predations. And yet, there were still some things left undone. We hadn't managed to fully plumb the depths of the abandoned wizard's tower.

So off we went using the knowledge that Angela's sorceress gained from reading a weighty tome. Turns out we hadn't noticed a water elevator that would carry us deeper into the tower. Probably because it was rune locked and looked like a ceiling drip from an otherwise decrepit tower. The antechamber it led to was less than inviting looking like a D&D underwater prom theme complete with mermaids and sharks.

Initially we thought jumping the sharks might be a fun, if useless, diversion. sensing the menace they offered Yama the monk decided to try and grapple one of the predators as Amra the barbarian grappled the mermaid. "Sharks are helpless if you flip them on their backs," Yama exclaimed. While Yama rolled a natural 20 on his attack, we had forgotten that without Improved Grapple, the mere attempt provoked an AoO. So naturally the shark succeeded the AoO and disrupted what might have been the coolest move of the night. "And that's why you don't see shark wrestlers," (Homer)Splinter the rogue said.

In a whirling mass of fiendish octopus tentacles and celestial porpoise slams the cleric and sorceress summoned sea creatures to assist in the shark battle. Yama was certainly the meat of choice but the summoned creatures helped draw some attention away even as the remainder of the party alternated between pleading and menacing the mermaid into letting the party pass. Even as the shark battle wound down, the heroes discovered that their ability to survive underwater was rapidly diminishing.

In an effort to save at least one party member's life Dordo the cleric shouted to Amra to make use of the mermaids water breathing ability. "Suck her gills!" he shouted. It was a phrase that would persist throughout the evening eventually leading Josh to admit "Everything is funny after 'suck her gills.'" Somehow the party managed to move along ending up in the academy portion of the tower. Not surprisingly everything was abandoned and in some disrepair.

Until we found the arcane metaphysics class presided over by an animated brain in a jar. "Where's the rest of you?" Splinter asked to which the brain replied "How would I know? I'm just a brain in a jar?" Meanwhile Amra and Yama found and fought a boar topiary, or, rather, the boar gored Yama and sent Amra into a berserker rage. "I'm running and I'm not going to stop until I find Mayor Wolverine!" Yama proclaimed.

In the end Dordo's spells were thoroughly exhausted and the group still the worse for wear. Holing up in one of the student cubicles, the party decided to wait a while before venturing deeper into the tower.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Sunday, August 29, 2010

September's Game Day

For September, Border Board Games will change from its regular venue and join Green Mountain Gamers down in Lyndonville on September 18th for an all day game fest called Fall-oha. The game day will be held at the Grange hall on York St. and will run from 10 AM to 10 PM.

There will be all sorts of open board gaming the entire day. In addition, try your skill at the Small World tournament. If you are victorious, you will go home with the Cursed expansion. For all those mini players out there, there will be an introductory game of Flames of War.

Keep visiting the Green Mountain Gamers website to check for updates on the game day.

Border Board Games will return to its normal venue of the Derby Line Village Hall on October 16th.

Death avoids me most of the time

The brave heroes gathered to consider what steps they should next take. The ravages of the red dragon, let's call him Bumface for now, has put Mayor Wolverine on edge. However the heroes have acquired part of a magical relic that, supposedly, will keep the winged evil at bay. The fact that the kobold shaman and his hench reptilians thought so was enough for us to go on. Besides, we had no idea how to proceed in the wizard's tower anyway.

Our first mistake was believing that having Yama and Dingus (aka Gorebelly) drive the ox cart would be a good idea. Npcs are supposed to be good at tending to the draft animals while the heroes perform heroic deeds, right? Not these two. The ox bolted after getting plunked with an arrow from somewhere beyond the ford. Our sorceress (Sorry Angela, neither Beth nor I can remember your character's name ATM) toppled off the wagon into the stream whiole Yama nimbly avoided disaster by leaping into the bushes. Gorebelly, for reason unknown, jumped atop the ox rather than maintain control of the reins. We hoped he would die. He didn't.

Meanwhile Amra and Splinter were busy flushing kobold hunters from the under brush, largely by having them insert arrows in Amra's chest. Dordo the elf and Noname raced forward hoping to support the attack even as the wagon rumbled by in a tangle of maddened bovine and maddened dwarf. Dordo promptly startled a kobold and received a devastating wound as a result. Having left the city only hours before a series of grievous wounds so early in the day did not bode well for our continued survival.

Soon enough the kobolds were felled and we stumbled over to where Gorebelly and our ruined wagon lay. The dolt had slaughtered the oxen and received a horn in the side as a result. Sadly he still refused to die. later on Splinter found one of the kobold's giant deer traps. sadly he found it by remembering where it should be and springing it upon himself. A squad of kobold hunters promptly charged forward and skewered him with their spears after he taunted them with possession of their sacred stick.

Luckily the trap was built with giant deer proportions in mind and we were able to come to Splinter's rescue. In quick order we cut down the kobolds, ridding them of their accursed dragon shaped pewter necklaces. Well, everyone got one except for Dordo who claimed the items were tainted with evil. Soon after we were alarmed by the smoke and heat surrounding our little neck of the woods. Not content to raze parts of the town Bumface also felt it necessary to burn part of the forest while he was at it.

Once again we left Dingus to his own devices as he clubbed a giant hart with the ox horn he retireved from his chest wound. We fled hoping to distance ourselves from his alcohol-fueled insanity. The dragon caught up to us and threatened to kill us slowly unless we could prove ourselves in the field. Since we were headed to the kobold village anyway seeking to reunite the stone with the stick and the crystal skull, it wasn't such a hard deal to accept under the circumstances.

Our plan soured almost immediately. Animated statues provided extra assistance to the kobold guardians atop the wall. That Noname was forced to use her sling from an exposed position also hurt our chances of succeeding at a bold, brilliant and utterly doomed plan to have Amra and Splinter infiltrate the village covertly while the rest of us provided covering fire and a distraction. The statues detected the thief and barbarian's advances even as Dordo rained death upon the kobold ranks.

Noname hatched what could have been a brilliant plan, had it worked. Which it did not. She drew from her store of fire bullets determined to set either the guards or the pallisade alight. She mistimed her throw and instead incinerated her own sling effectively leaving the covering fire entirely up to Dordo. By this time Splinter had managed to get himself captured by the golem even as Amra scaled the wall only to discovered massed ranks of the foul creatures gathering beyond.

Luckily, though pinioned, Splinter remained invisible thanks to the sorceresses continued concentration on the crystal skull of invisibility. the same could not be said of Amra. Enemies soon piled onto the wall and rushed his position. Dordo felled several more kobolds before his accuracy took a devastating hit. Luckily the dragon chose that moment to reappear and marvel at how well we had done, in spite of our general failure.

Dordo wasn't paying attention but somehow Splinter ended up at death's door yet again, Sweet Club not withstanding. Noname, Dingus and Amra rushed toward the kobold temple and Noname was actually able to secure the sacred stone before the dragon could prise the roof off of the building. The sorceress moved in to support the recovery effort and prepared to surround the group in a fresh globe on invisibility even as Dingus and Bumface engaged in some futile pissing contest behind us.

In time we made it back to the town having reconnected the sacred stick, skull and stone that would effectively protect the city from the dragon's aerial predations. Mayor Wolverine was grateful, or, rather, as grateful as he ever was with a measly word of thanks. Fortunately the elder families showed greater respect for our prowess and bestowed upon us some treasured family heirlooms. Dordo certainly looks forward to plying his enchanted bow against whatever evils the gang will next encounter.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Fall-oha Game Day

For September's Border Board Game session, we will move further south of the border and join forces with Green Mountain Gamers game day, Fall-oha, in Lyndonville, VT on Sept 18th. The game day is goes from 10 am to 10 pm at the Grange Hall. It's an all out game day fest full of open gaming and a Small World tournament. For more information, please visit the Green Mountain Gamers website.

Next D&D session

The next D&D session is planned for August 28th at our (Richard and Bethany's) house. We should start as soon as Rob the DM arrives, which has been usually around 7:30 to 8:00.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

All A-Board Game!

As is often the case, sometimes what you plan to play turns sideways and other stuff happens first. Rob did bring Axis and Allies and, one of these days, it will get played. Unfortunately its extended playing time coupled with some other gaming favorites persuaded us that next time would be sometime in the future.

We had a new player turn out this week - Chris. Chris is a fan of rail games and brought along his copy of the Avalon Hill Classic Rail Baron. We started the night with a gateway game of Ticket to Ride. My pronouncement that Chris ought to be wary of the little blond girl proved prophetic as Chris' early lead (with some mighty long routes) evaporated as Alexis unveiled her coast to coast masterpiece. Despite losing 21 points for being locked out of Washington she still posted an impressive 165 point end game to beat Chris by a handful of points.

After TTR we split into two groups. Chris and Beth played Rail Baron, which Beth likened to a kinder, gentler Empire Builder styled train game. The addition of extra players would affect the dynamics of the game immensely as players find themselves increasingly forced to ride their opponents' rail lines, she said.

Rob, Angela, Homer, Alexis and I indulged in a game of Last Night on Earth. Not surprisingly it gave rise to Evil Homer the Zombie Master. We randomly selected a scenario, discarded it (because we had the town set up and were not about to undo it for the mansion set up) and chose the Rescue the Townsfolk scenario. The early signs were inauspicious as Evil Homer slapped down zombie cards that forced the heroes to discard the top card of the hero deck. Within four rounds two of the six townsfolk were in the rubbish bin and the best we could manage was a single rescue of the Principal. Interestingly enough he was located in the high school.

Our stash of weapons was equally unimpressive. Father McFeely found a flare gun which he put to good effect as he dashed pellmell across the town to the barn realizing he had inconveniently forgotten something there. Otherwise we were left with the Father's baseball bat, a pair of fire extinguihsers and the revolver that Sally found in the high school. Though the heroes managed to slay half of the 11 zombies that originally spawned (interestingly enough Evil Homer never managed to spawn more), the pairing of the dirty drifter who had a peculiar love-hate relationship with student Sally (two Last Night on Earth zombie cards with a Bickering card sandwiched between them) caused the heroes to lose half of their actions on three consecutive turns.

In the end the zombies won out by trapping and slaying Jake and Sally as the two consummated whatever perverse and complicated relationship they experienced in the trashed remains of Zombie Town High. That scenario seems to be one of the scenarios that gives a decided advantage to the zombie player. There are only six townspeople available and "Just What I Needed" cards aside, losing a third of them in the early goings was a blow from which our heroes could never recover. Granted, Evil Homer did play the right cards at the right time, even orchestrating the fact that Jake needed to spend a round with a female character to rid himself of a curse card setting the pair up for three lost turns.

After the zombies destroyed the world Kim joined us for a game of Shadows Over Camelot. For whatever reason it seems impossible for me to not be the traitor. It seems to happen most often as I select King Arthur but, on this night, Sir tristan led the knights astray. Once again I found myself in the unenviable position of being the traitor and yet, based on my cards in hand, I was as equally hard pressed to betray as to aid. There really is only so much a fistful of 1 and 2 fight cards can do for a fellow.

My hand was so bad I could only go and toss them away on the Excalibur quest knoing that their loss didn't hurt the knights much but, by securing the sacred sword, I might be able to deny the heroes an advantage later on. Sadly I continued to draw mediocre cards even as King Arthur (Alexis) won Lancelots armor while Sir Gawain, Sir Percival and Sir Galahad tackled and won the Holy Grail. With such victories under their belts and in light of Sir Palamedes staunch defence of the castle from the enemy catapults, the treacherous Sir Tristan never had a chance.

It was actually one of the few games of Shadows where the knights succeeded with far greater frequency than they failed. The Black Knight quest ran its course twice over but the Knights of the Round Table defeated all three of the artifact quests as well as repelling a single threatening Saxon invasion. It isn't unusual for the courtyard to be overrun with catapults, the Picts and/or Saxons standing one draw away from invasion and either the Grail or Excalibur quest belching out catapults like Gotterdamerung except on this night when Sir Tristan's little sabotages could hardly outshine the glorious deeds of his brethren.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

August 21st

For the next session of Border Board games on August 21st, we will be bringing along Axis and Allies, Ticket to Ride, Puerto Rico and whatever other games will fit in our bag. If you have any requests, please let us know.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Next game night

The next D&D session had to be cancelled due to a sick DM but the next Border Board Games will proceed as scheduled on August 21st at the Village Hall at 6 PM. During our last game night, there was interest in playing Last Night on Earth at the next night. Last Night on Earth is known as the zombie game in our group. It's a game that mimics the B-rated zombie movie. It has characters such as the high school jock, the town sheriff, the drifter, or the high school sweetheart. Just like in the movies, with Last Night on Earth, it's humans vs. zombies and the humans have to beat the zombies before dawn arrives. It's a fun, interactive game that's easy to learn. Besides the Zombies, we're not sure what else we're bringing along. As always, if you have any requests, please let us know.

Sat. July 17th Session Report Part 2

Before the Spanish Civil war began, a couple groups decided to get in a quick game. One group made up of Kim, Homer and Alexis, played a game of Dominion. I'm uncertain as to the outcome of this game.

The other group, consisting of myself, Richard, and Josh played a game of Race for the Galaxy. This was Josh's first time playing this game. Race for the Galaxy is a card game where the winner is the one with the most victory points at the end of the game. It's a quick playing and very fun and possibly a bit addicting game. It seems difficult on the surface but once you get playing, the game will click into place. While playing, Amos dropped by.

After those two games wrapped up, part of the group split off and joined Ken with his Spanish Civil war minis scenario while myself, Kim, Alexis, and Amos began a game of Time's Up!

Time's Up! is a party game that Amos described as being probably the best party game. You play in teams (for us I paired up with Amos and Kim and Alexis paired up) and are dealt a certain number of cards. On these cards are names of fictional and non-fictional 'celebrities' such as Paul Simon, Rocky Balboa, Winnie the Pooh or Ross Perot. Each person chooses 10 cards to keep and all cards are pooled together, read aloud, and then shuffled.

The game then proceeds in 3 rounds where each team tries to get their partner to guess the celebrity named on the card. When the cards are passed to a team, the clue giver only has, I think, 30 seconds to get his partner to guess as many cards as possible. After the time is up, the remaining cards in the deck is passed along to the other team and they then proceed with their 30 seconds and so on until all cards in the deck have been guessed.

In round 1, the clue giver can use as many words as possible to get his teammate to guess the card. You cannot pass the card and the guesser can guess as many times as he'd like.

In round 2, the clue giver can only give one word for a clue and may pass a card.

In round 3, the clue giver cannot say any words, may pass a card and the guesser only gets one guess.

For each correct card guessed, the team gets a point and the team with the most points at the end of round 3 wins.

Shortly after we began playing, Rob and Angela showed up and Angela joined Kim and Alexis. This was a rather fun party game and was a hoot to play. It gets interesting when you can only use one word or no words to desribe the celebrity on the card. I recommend this for a fun, casual play where you are looking for some laughs.

After finishing Time's Up!, we broke out Bohnanza. Bohnanza is a card game where you are a bean farmer. Yes, I said bean farmer. You are dealt a hand of 5 cards which you may not reorder. You have to keep the cards in the order they were dealt. On your turn, you have to plant the first card in your hand and then you may plant the second card in your hand. Since you are only allowed 2 'bean fields' in front of you, you need to try to trade and/or donate cards with the other players so you can harvest your fields for the most profit. Once you are done planting, two cards are drawn face up and then the bargaining begins. These two cards must be planted so bargaining can get intersting. During the bargaining stage, the active player can also trade and/or donate cards with the other players. It can get intersting game to overhear as you may hear something like, "I'll give you two stinks for that blue bean!" The game ends when the supply deck is exhausted for a 3rd time and the person with the most coins at the end of the game wins. Angela was the most successful bean farmer.

After Bohnanza, we broke out Carcasonne:Hunters and Gatherers. H&G is a stand alone game, not an expansion to regular Carcasonne. As Angela described it, it's like regular Carcasonne but not. The Carcasonne games are a tile laying game. There is a stash of tiles where each player draws one and plays it on the board. As each tile is drawn, the board gets bigger. After you play a tile, you may place one of your meeples (wooden 'person' that represents you) on that tile. The meeple can be a hunter (in a field), gatherer (in a forest), fisherman (on a river), or you can place your hut on a river system. Your meeple scores when a forest or field or river is completed and your hunter and huts are scored at the end of the game. The person with the most points, wins. It's a very easy and quick to learn game. Carcasonne is a great intro game to EuroGames. I don't recall who emerged victorious in our game.

Two Steps Forward...

The latest Border Board Games game night on July 17th premiered a new, possibly recurring, feature. Ken brought along a collection of Spanish Civil war historical miniatures. Using the Disposable heroes rule set, ken initiated Homer, Josh, Rob and I into the system. While the four of us would represent the Heroic Fascist forces, he would defend with the Glorious Communist/Anarchist block of the 15th International Brigade.

A curious side note: The Spanish Civil War doesn't really have very many sides to cheer on. With a choice between the forces that would subject Europe to six years of horror and those who would subjugate half of Europe and a goodly chunk of Central Asia for the next 50 years, its hard to find actual heroes in this situation.

The Fascists obliged their foes by lining up at the far end of the field, the mishmash of Spanish troops mingling with Italians and assorted ne'er-do-wells as the prepare to advance on the entrenched International brigade. Our troops surged forward utilizing what cover we could find. Sadly for Homer's flamethrower corps, the cover ran out rather quickly exposing his troops to artillery fire. With one flamethrower out of action and the remainder of that unit fleeing for cover, his advance ground to a halt. Things hardly improved when Josh's armored car peeked around a copse of trees only to be sighted by the same artillery. One shot later the armored car was holed and its ammunition stores ignited. The Fascists were clearly not going to have an easy time of it.

My Spanish units had the benefit of cover from the copse though it complicated the maneuvering of my Panzer I. While my infantry calmly marched into the weeds, the tank was forced to cut across the pock-marked ground more cautiously, and also within sight of the International forces arrayed across the wire. For his part Rob cautiously advanced the gallant Italian volunteers. Knowing well that their morale could break at the slightest provocation, he wisely routed his forces around the plateau while remaining within cover of the trees on that side of the field. Our forces continued to take grievous losses with Josh's heavy machine gun platoon wiped out even as it sheltered in the ruins of the church amidst the panicked survivors of Homer's flamethrower unit.

The tide of battle started to turn in our favor after enduring yet more heartbreaking losses. My light machine gun unit lost its corporal while trying to provide covering fire. Meanwhile my Panzer crept within range and opened up on the westernmost of the artillery emplacements. I scored a lucky hit and knocked out a member of the gun crew. Unfortunately, the crew was still sufficiently numerous to continue firing. Under a withering hail of bullets from shell and rifle fire, Josh's mangled rifle platoon surged forward. The unit, cut down to 60% strength, appeared to have gained divine protection as bullets passed them by. The results were not so great for his other rifle platoon. Merely being subjected to heavy machine gun fire caused the unit to break and seek cover in the trees. The unit was quickly followed by one of my own Spanish units. With two of our units out of the fight without taking any casualties, it was difficult to capitalize on Homer's advances on the eastern end of the field.

As our forces bunched up before the wire in the center, Homer had maneuvered his flame tank and rallied his flamethrower units in the trees guarding the eastern flank of the works. With cat-like speed his tank shattered the wire and opened a way for the Fascist forces. Sadly, the collapse of our central charge coupled with the demise of my lieutenant, effectively halted the Spanish Fascist central assault. Already cut to pieces Josh's forces were likewise poorly positioned to take advantage of the gap. Rob had meanwhile also advanced up the western flank but he too had difficulty gaining support from the central assault.

As the game moved toward its fourth hour of play the generals proved as exhausted as their soldiers and the battle was called off. It is hard to say whether the Fascists would have prevailed or if the International brigade would be the force to go down in defeat. Certainly morale problems plagued the Fascists but the communist response to breaking units, a shot to the back of the head, ensured that communist forces would suffer even as their morale fell. We had managed to knock out a few Non-Coms and some of the communist machine guns but never did manage to take out a single canon.

Considering the entrenched nature of our foe, Ken said we'd actually scored some pretty serious casualties on our enemy. Looking at the battlefield littered with Fascist dead and the flaming wreckage of our armored car, it was hard to consider it much of a victory. The tide of battle was poised to change. If Homer's flamethrowers could reach the trenches, bathing them in naphtha-light, the communist forces would be caught between flames and a bad place. The steady advance of the most beleaguered Fascist units, though reduced in strength, would likewise add pressure to the International Brigade's desperate defense. At the same time, a few well placed shells knocking out the three remaining armored forces, or the demise of any more field commanders could have spiralled the fascist morale into an Abyss from which the Non-Coms could never hope to rally.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Minis on the 17th!

This weekend, Ken will be running a Spanish Civil War wargame using miniatures. The rule set is ”Disposable Heroes/ Coffin for Seven Brothers” and is a easy set of rules for beginners. The action will simulate the end phase of the Ebro Campaign in the Fall of 1938 when the Nationalist Forces (Fascist) drove back and almost destroyed the Republican (Communist) offensive in this area. It will involve trench warfare and armored vehicles such as the ”fearsome” German Panzer 1, an armored tractor with two machine guns.

As far as boardgames, I haven’t thought about what I’ll be bringing along. We now have all the expansions for Race for the Galaxy so I imagine those will be thrown into the Big Frakkin’ bag. If you’d like us to bring along something, please let me know.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

D&D Session Three: Sweet!

Though he died heroically Jakob appears to have been little better remembred than his snake Trip. memory of the druid is reduced to blank stares and a vague recollection of something to do with dingleberries. Nonetheless, the brave elven cleric Dordo will soon warm his way into the players' hearts.

As the party meandered through town extorting merchants and seeking out poison, Dordo emerghed from the woodlands with game for the villagers. He spent time detailing his adventures to mayor Wolverine. In the meantime the witch Stripe (she's a witch 'cause she's kinda wicked) and the rogue Splinter, refreshed from his most recent death, decided they weren't quite done with the Fortress of Forbodding. While Amra the barbarian and Dordo went out hunting, that duo decided to locate and tackle the elusive top floor of the tower.

The pair found a hatch and the stubs of a staple-ladder. Undeterred, Splinter parkoured his way up the hole using up what appeared to be his last good roll of the night. Using his flaming ring to provide light, he spotted and enraged a guardian skeleton. The giant creature promptly pounded him back down the hole like a half-elven whack-a-mole. After some time the sorceress and the thief managed to fell the creature liberating it of its treasure and the legendary Sweet Club.

Apart from being a lighter version of its gigantic self, the mysteries of the Sweet Club have yet to be fully explored. This has not prevented Splinter from breaking it out whenever and whereever he can.

Meanwhile Amra and Dordo have so far failed to locate any giant deer. Dordo calls upon his god's favor (whomever the god of summoners and elves might be - perhaps Le Freak?) and send a celestial monkey up one of the big trees to scout out thye lay of the land. the monkey reports some creature thrashing away to the north before returning to the celestial carousel around which he pursues fiendish dire weasels. The thrashing, as it turns out, is that of a giant badger trapped in a deer leg trap.

Dordo proposes slaying the thing and dragging its meat back to the town. Amra refuses proclaiming that badger meat is no appropriate thing for a warrior to consume. And yet neither man can bear to see the creature suffer though neither wishes to go near enough to slay it. Finally Le Freak sends his elestial weasel forth once again to do Dordo's bidding. Fortunately the monkey was summoned and not a familiar or companion lest his dismembering by the badger might have left the cleric with lasting scars upon his soul.

Misadventures aside, the band unites and prepares to venture into the abandoned elven tower of sorcery. It takes some time for the group to find its way into the crystalline structure but, eventually, Stripe's magical prowess serves as a key. A fell being and its zombie servants are spotted within, continuing a chant that serves to animate the dead. Dordo calls upon Le Freak and sends two of the zombies fleeing for their un-lives while the others proceed to pummel the monk Yama. Just as the battle begins to turn in the party's favor, more foes arrive.

The kobold shaman the party neglected to slay in episode one has returned along with his kobold bully-boys. He insists that Splinter return to him the sacred wand of dragon warding. Splinter politely refuses by lurking in a dark corner. Amra, incensed by the demands charges forward in classic barbarian style, rushing right past the shaman and down the driveway, apparently in order to get some air, exercise or simply to clear his mind of any thought what so ever.

Dordo calls forth a fiendish dire rat, a creature who might not take offense at being forced to bit kobolds and begins to do battle with the kobold archers. Longspear and buckler in hand, the elf takes the battle to the kobolds as Splinter and Stripe begin to trade spells with the shaman. The battle might have seemed weighted in the heroes favor if not for the fact that Splinter's contribution amount to much waving and frenzied gesturing of the sacred wand. Fortunately Stripe's command of spellcraft was more than adequate to distract the creature until Amra finally found the coordination necessary to strike the kobold in the back.

Meanwhile Gorebelly the dwarf wrestled with a zombie while Noname and Yama did battle with the remaining creatures in the tower. Yama singlehandedly fought two of the monsters to a standstill but took a series of grievous wounds in the process. Fortunately Noname was able to come to his aid and together they downed the last of the walking dead. No one paid much attention to whatever it was Gorebelly was doing.

having vanquished the chanting undead and earned revenge over the shaman, the party has not yet finished its tasks. The wand, claimed the shaman before his death, was the sole thing capable of keeping the dragon away from his village. As it turns out the wand and a mysterious crystal skull appear to be only parts of a greater mechanism of warding. Whether sensing the presence of wand and skull in town or merely the arrival of the shaman and his cohorts, the dragon paid its first visit to the town, razing a few buildings and carrying off some NPCs whose names we never bothered to learn.

Gone and mostly forgotten as they might be, their deaths will be avenged. Sweetly.

Friday, June 18, 2010

July Border Board Games

Border Board Games will continue it's regular schedule in July and have the board game evening on the 3rd Saturday of July 17th at 6 PM. If you have any board game requests, send us a message.

Next D&D session

Because I am participating in the Relay for Life on June 26th, our regularly scheduled D&D session will have to be rescheduled. We are currently looking at the weekend of July 3rd. It's not certain at this point but for now, the evening of July 3rd may be the best option. We'll keep you updated.

June 12th Session Report

On this evening of Border Board Games, Richard, I and my friend Celeste opened up the hall. Shortly after setting up, Eric and Jessica arrived after enjoying some delicous poutine from across the border. We had brought along a few new games, including Mystery Express, Fury or Dracula, and Race for the Galaxy. We decided to give Mystery Express a try.

Mystery Express is like Clue on steroids. There are a set number of turns in which you have to try to figure out a motive, a suspect, a weapon, and a time. Unlike Clue, by the end of the game, the player with the most correct guesses wins.

We plotted through the journey on the Mystery Express and in the end, Eric won in a tiebreaker against Richard.

While playing, Homer and Alexis and Rob and Angela showed up and once we finished the game of Mystery Express, Celeste left for the evening. We then broke into two groups, one group played Fury of Dracula and the other played Race for the Galaxy.

I taught Rob and Angela the card game of Race for the Galaxy. It reminds me of a card version of Puerto Rico. It took me a few times reading through the rule book to eventually figure out the game. It's one of those games that seems difficult on the surface but it's really not. Once you get playing, it becomes quite easy although strategy is complex. Rob and Angela caught on very quickly and in the end, Rob beat me out by I think 5 points.

After chatting a bit with Rob and Angela before they left for the night, I sat down to see how Fury of Dracula was moving along. I've never played before so I wasnt' quite sure what was happening. It seemed that Eric, Jessica, Homer and Alexis had almost cornered Dracula Richard when a card in favor of Dracula was drawn and Dracula was able to flee to anywhere on the board, leaving the investigators left to try and find him all over again. After several turns and no luck finding Dracula, it became apparent that Dracula was going to be victorious.

At the end of the night, it was revealed that Eric and Jessica woudl be moving to NH. Eric had been trying to find a job up here in the NEK but wasn't having luck and got a job offer in NH. Needless to say, he accepted the job and he and Jessica will be moving very soon. We will miss them and hope to run into them at some gaming events around New England. We wish them the best! Until next time.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Mr. G's Funtastic GTYP

Gary the Game Hound's second Games 'til You Puke event was a rip-roaring success. Everyone seemed to have a good time and no one puked - always a plus for any event. We were glad to have some new faces and revisit with gamers from Cons past on Saturday. A good melange of games was had with everyone contributing a pile o'games to the festivities, not to mention a veritable mountain of comestibles.

The game day kicked off in earnest when Amos popped over and taught Beth and I the basics of Tigris and Euphrates. Just as we started our first trial game Rob and his daughter Willow arrived and we quickly worked Rob into the game. It turned out to be a big mistake as he systematically tore first mine and then Amos' kingdoms apart to win by a commanding margin.

Shortly thereafter the Barre contingents poured in with the Bob, Ericka, Kristin (sp?), Kaye, Vaughan and the Joes. Bob broke out Fury of Dracula which kicked into high gear as soon as Kim, Homer and Zeke showed up. Homer having a penchant for evil monster games was no doubt disappointed he couldn't be the Count right off the bat.

Other games that hit the table included Arkham Horror which, while enjoyable in its own rights, does seem to drag with more players. It certainly helps to keep evil fromswamping the town quickly but the amount of downtime between turns does cause the experience to suffer somewhat. Willow finally got a chance to play the hardcopy version of Ticket To Ride and did quite well considering her less than awe-inspiring selection of starting tickets. Later on Amos' copy of Ticket to Ride Marklin also came out.

I'm not sure what exactly was happening over at the coffee table but it had something to do with wind-up zombies, All Wound Up, and seemed to have captivated our younger gamers' interest. Kaye and Vaughan had a quick game of Uptown before migrating to other events. The night closed to a draw with a session of Kill Dr. Lucky in the dining room and a six-man Dominion throw-down in the den. For whatever reason the distraction of the tune played by an ice cream truck remains one of the highlights of my Kill Dr. Lucky experience. Thanks for that memory, Zeke!

Despite getting short-shrifted on dollar cheeseburger tribute, the likelihood that Gary the Game Hound would permit his humans to have another game day in the future seems bright. For now, however, he just needs to find a comfy chair to curl up in and catch up on some much needed sleep. It ain't easy being the host with the most - fur that is.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Next Board Game Day

The next evening of board gaming will be June 12th, not June 18th. We are veering from our regularly scheduled 3rd Saturday so people can attend the Green Mountain Gamers, Game 'n Grill in Essex, VT.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Of Heroic Inadequacies

Last night, May 22, marked the second adventure for the Border Board games RPG group. Our party was pleased to introduce two new characters played by Josh and Ken. In the wake of the mysterious overgrowth of the surrounding forest, the mayor had asked us to investigate both the cause and some probable solutions to the town's dilemma. Without access to the vital trade routes connecting the outpost to the rest of the empire starvation would rear its ugly head.

Little does he understand the depths of that danger as we soon discovered. Not only do hostile kobold tribes infest the great woods, the animals within have grown preternaturally large and, of more import, not at all timid of humanoids. Likewise the coinciding disappearance of the elven wizards from their tower and the vanishing of the knight warders has left the town all but defenseless. That's where our party fits in.

If only the mayor had better options available to him. Jakob the druid, Nonname the half-elf rangeress, Splinter the half-elf rogue, Stripe the sorcereress, Yama the monk and Amra the barbarian are the last hope of the colony. Gods help them all.

While our intentions were good, our abilities were somewhat lacking on the evening. A festival of critical fumbles ensued leading to a calamitous number of deaths for the party, most of which were endured by Splinter, our resident trap springer. It started out as badly as could be imagined. Though the door to the knight's keep was ajar, we should have turned around right then and fled to the tender mercies of the woods.

While investigating some corpses found within we noticed that two of the bodies were dessicated by great age and another, fresher, appeared to have been mauled about the face and neck. Meanwhile Splinter and Noname were busy activating flame-gout traps as we approached the door leading deeper into the keep. We managed to clamber into the stairwell leading to the second floor only to discover a rolling log trap. Noname ducked the log, Amra jumped it while Splinter and Jakob bravely tried to stop the log with our bodies. Splinter died and narrowly avoid irreversible death when the log was eventually prevented from impaling us on spikes along the opposite wall.

The second floor proved no boon either. As a newly revived Splinter went forward to check on the skeletal remains inhabiting the former dining hall, he apparently inspired them to rise and engage in one last act of murder. Still weak from his misadventure with the log he quickly went down again. Luckily Yama took pity on him and hustled his bleeding body out of the dining room of horror and to the relative safety of the lower level.

As always seems to be the case in combats with skeletons, it took far longer than it should. An endless series of whiffs and ineffective rolls severely impaired our ability to down the foes with anything approaching efficacy. With Yama hauling Splinter to safety, Noname remained the only adventurer in the room at all equipped to deal with skeletons. Stripe and Jakob bravely plugged away while Trip the Snake bravely attempted to poison creatures with minimal anatomical systems. Fortunately, despite grievous wounds, Noname and Amra managed to kill the fell creatures. Jakob did what he could for the wounded and the party barricaded itself in the room to rest.

Following the rest period the disaster resumed in earnest. Exploring the next floor revealed zombies stitched up with alchemical compounds designed to explode. What manner of twisted fiend creates zombie-bombs anyway? As Amra stood in front of Splinter, ostensibly to shield the thief while he worked on a locked and trapped door, Splinter again succumbed, this time to a toxic needle trap. Jakob charged forward to help while Amtra battered his way into the room. Once inside a body was dismembered and a bed set on fire. The exact details escape me at the moment.

In the meantime the fire-pellets continued to shoot down the hall, lighting the zombie-bomb on fire. using a combination of trusty woolen blanket and Ray of Frost Noname and Stripe extinguished the burning undead while Yama hauled the fell thing away. Newly revived for the third time, some ingenuity on part of Splinter and Amra managed to stop a fire-pellet trap by shoving a dismembered zombie head into the hole.

Eventually we managed to escape the level with a bejeweled sword, a shiny ring and a crown and the tatters of our dignity. The final level of the keep proved no better for our party than any of those previous. Some manner of devilish thing cackled and tormented us as his sluggish zombie guardians moved to attack. The creature, an imp we would later discover, proved frustratingly adept at evading harm while inflicting misery on our company.

Jakob cast the first stone, a magic stone, and struck the foul beast solidly. It was pretty much all downhill from there. The archers studded the zombies with arrows to little effect while the Imp disappeared. Over the course of the battle Noname fell and then Jakob. In spite of flanking bonuses granted by Trip, the imp seemed to easily avoid the wild swings and ineffectual jabs of our heroes. Stripe expended her cache of spells wounding the Imp but not felling it. The Imp in turn beat her within an inch, or HP, of her life. In a daring move, which ultimately proved the better judgement, Splinter's Choice was to administer a healing potion to Noname to get her back into the fight. Jakob was too far gone to be certain that the potion would do more than stabilize him. The group needed swords, not malingerers.

It came down to the raging barbarian whose mighty axe swings battered the wicked creature. As the imp dropped into the pit, did I mention the gaping pit to the Abyss in the middle of the room?, a ragged cheer went up. Efforts by Yama and Stripe to stabilize the dying druid failed and Jakob went on to a better place - the Seventh Pit of Hell for example.

While the knight's tower may have been ridded of its pestilential evil for the time being, the heroes will proceed sans their lone divine caster. Fortunately I have another character idea in mind. Just need to find a sharp pencil....

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Next D&D Session

We will continue with our D&D campaign on May 22nd at our house. Contact if you are interested in joining this campaign.

May 15th Session Report

It was a fantastic night for gaming in Derby Line on Saturday. The damp and dismal weather outside did nothing to diminish the carnival of fun in the village hall.

We will start off by sending our greetings to the three newest folk to join us for Border Board games Josh, Ken and Shannon. Glad to have you aboard and we hope y'all return for future events.

We'd also like to thank our recurring guests, Eric and Jessica and Kim and Homer. We missed having Rob and Angela especially since we may have found some new bold adventurers for next weekend's D&D 3.5 session!

The night started with a couple of split sessions of Dominion. Beth, Kim and Homer sat at the veterans table while I introduced Ken, Josh and Shannon to the game at another. In a strange twist of fate, in spite of combining the base set and Intrigue, NONE of the 20 cards selected by the randomizing program selected ANY attack cards.

Over at the veterans table Homer emerged victorious in spite of being denied his favorite Intrigue card - the swindler. The lack of attack cards apparently didn't hurt as he won by a double digit margin. At the newcomer's table strategies quickly developed and went into play. The Chapel languished unused as it lost functionality in the Curse-less deck. Ken came into some serious good fortune drawing four coppers and a Coppersmith and converting the lot into a province on no less than three occasions. Though the rest of us struggled to catch up with combinations of Harems, Great Halls and Barons, Ken's early lead carried him to ultimate victory with an impressive score of 58.

The arrival of Eric and Jessica spurred a new round of gaming. Homer, Josh, Kim, Shannon and I launched into a game of Age of Empires III. Kim, Homer and I were familiar with the board game but it was an entirely new experience for both Josh and Shannon. Several strategies emerged in the early going with Homer working the exploration angle, Kim advancing with colonization and myself pursuing a Big Money strategy. Unfortunately my gamble failed, owing in large part to sorrowful neglect of first age colonization scoring. Kim pulled away with the combination of Monastery and Cathedral as her protestant Dutch swamped the New World.

Beth led the second table through three rounds of entry-level Pandemic. That table featured Eric, Jessica, Ken and Beth struggling to end SARS, AIDS, Swine-Flu and whatever that disease is that kids bring home from school. The world came to a sad end in the first two attempts. Infector cards arrived with alarming frequency quickly rendering the bold CDC team impotent. In the final game the team triumphed against the cooties. Teamwork between Jessica the Scientist and Ken the Researcher enabled the team to develop vaccines to wipe out the Blue Plague and the Yellow Scourge.

Given that Pandemic plays more quickly than AoE III the four moved on to a game of Trans America. In spite of a shaky start that saw her train slip well down the track early in the game, Jessica emerged triumphant in the game. Eric certainly suffered from hard-luck drawing cities as geographically diverse as the game permits. Indeed, no sooner had I voiced the dismay I have experienced at combining Duluth, Jacksonville and Seattle than those three very same cards erupted in his hand. His pandemic heroics aside, Ken's train was the first to slide off the rails to land unceremoniously into the Pacific Ocean.

Which begs the question, what wonders shall we break out on the next Border board games game day, June 12th? There has been interest expressed in returning to Galactic exploration with Space Alert as well as utility management in Power Grid. Ticket to Ride with the 1910 expansion as well as Last Night On Earth are also tentatively on the gaming menu. Would anyone be up for a little monsters, madness and mayhem in Arkham Horror, it being one of the longer games in our collection? Drop us a line if there is something you want to play whether it's from our collection or yours.

Friday, May 14, 2010

May 15 Border Board Games

On the heels of last month's game day it seems appropriate to break out some favorites and some slightly dusty (haven't been played in a while) games.

Our growing fondness for Dominion, coupled with the fact we can accomodate eight people between two sets, makes this one a no-brainer. Base set and Intrigue.

Looking to get medieval on someone's ass? Try the mostly cooperative Shadows Over Camelot. The Knights of the Round Table are defending a kingdom in peril from marauding dragons, hordes of Picts and Saxons and, can it be? A traitor in their midst?

If anyone is interested I'd love to break out Age of Empires III once again.

A nice, quick introduction to the genre of train games is Trans America. Gather five city cards and lay track to connect your cities. It's really that simple!

Another classic "gateway game" is Settlers of Catan. Pandemic, though difficult to beat, is a madcap race to stem the tide of global pestilence. Will your team of doctors, scientists, engineers and radio operators have what it takes to prevent the spread of this year's flu-du-jour?

Something on the list you'd like to play? Drop us a line or bring along some of your favs.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Next Border Board Games

The next evening of board gaming fun will be May 15th at 6PM at the Derby Line Village Hall. Please email us if you have any gaming requests.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

D&D 3.5 Adventure Begins!

The very first tabletop D&D adventure is scheduled to begin on April 24th at about 7:30/8:00 PM-ish at Richard and Bethany's house. This will be our first session ever so it's not too late to create a character and join the game. Rob is going to be our DM. So far, the party consists of first level sorcerer, rogue, druid, and ranger.

April 17th Session Report

April 17th turned out to be the game night for Border Board Games. We had two new local people, Eric and Jessica, show up ready to game and we had a Tyler, Alex, and Sarah make the trek over from Burlington to join us. In addition, we had the usual suspects of Beth and Richard, Kim and Homer, and Rob and Angela.

Kim and Homer and Rob and Angela showed up later so to pass the time until they arrived, we broke out Dominion and Dominion Intrigue. Tyler taught Eric and Jessica how to play with the base game of Dominion and Richard, Beth, Alex, and Sarah played using both the original set and Intrigue.

Tyler used the recommended setup for first time play. Eric won their game by one point! I think it made a great impression on Eric since I heard him say that Dominion is now a game on the 'must get' list.

For the second table of Dominion, the cards were Saboteur, Village, Woodcutter, Workshop, Spy, Harem, Garden, Wishing Well, Masquerade, and Tribute. Tribute was a favorite card for many of the players and the points were very close in the end. Richard ended up winning by one point!

Once both Dominions finished, we split into two tables once again (Kim, Homer, Rob, and Angela had arrived). At one table, we had Richard, Eric, Sarah, Alex, Homer, and Kim playing Power Grid with the France board. And at the other table, we had Bethany, Angela, Jessica, Tyler, and Rob playing Space Alert.

In Power Grid, Homer spread across southern France like a rash and quickly started earning some mega cash. Alex was content to sit on his nuclear plants only to realize his network wasn't growing as quickly as it needed to. Kim and Richard were marginalized with our cities located in the southeast corner and eastern territories, respectively. High connection costs prevented them from spreading their electric empire. In the end, Homer was victorious with a late surge in cities that Eric was unable to prevent. Both Eric and Homer tied with the number of cities they could power, but Homer had the largest network. Props to Eric for coming in second. He had never played this game before and everyone else at the table had.

Space Alert is a cooperative game where the first phase of the game is played in real time. Players are volunteers on a Sitting Duck class spaceship whose job is to protect the ship while the ship's computer maps a sector of space. During this 10 minutes of mapping, hostile aliens, cosmic forces, and crappy machinery conspire to complicate the lives of the crew.

This game was completely new to everyone at the table, including Bethany, who stumbled through the teaching of the game. The game is setup with tutorials to help players learn through play. Since no one had actually played this game before, we started from tutorial number one, Test Run #1. This game uses a CD soundtrack that is to be used during the first phase (Player actions). During this phase, players use their cards to determine whether their crew member moves or pushes a button to fire a cannon or put up shields for each of his turns. The player action phase lasts 10 minutes in real time. The CD track acts as a timer as well as announcing alien threats or other actions such as each player receiving another action card. And, not to forget, the CD track also creates an ambiance that adds to the game (As Jessica put it, 'This is so cool!').

The crew failed the first test run and our ship got destroyed. So, we tried again, with test run #2, and passed! We decided to move on to a simulated mission which added some more components to the game such as being able to fire the rockets, add damage to sections of the ship, and adding serious threats in addition to the common threats. The simulated mission went surprising well and we managed to squeak by at the end and be victorious.

There are more training mission to Space Alert that add more complexity but, alas, we only got as far as the first simulated mission.

Another nice aspect of the evening is that a lady from the church next door popped in and spoke with Richard and Bethany. The church had thought of having a game night and saw that we had organized something first and asked if we would be willing to combine our efforts. We thought it was a great idea and hopefully for the next Border Board Games we will be able to attract some more local people (and maybe some from afar too!). In addition, Richard will be writing a story about Border Board Games in the Barton Chronicle. This should hopefully help spread the word.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Now Playing! (April 17th)

With Border Board games a little over 48 hours away I fugred it might be time to throw out some gaming options for the weekend's gametastic evening.

On the menu board with flashing red lights and warning klaxxons is: Space Alert

Also liable to appear in a cloud of acrid smoke accompanied by the odor of treachery: Dominion and its companion set Dominion Intrigue

Do you have what it takes to run the most successful plantation in Puerto Rico?

Hoist your sails, run out the cannons and avoid Blackbeard and the Royal Navy by escaping back to Pirates Cove.

Nothing there catch your fancy? Other games coming along and begging to be played include: Settlers of Catan, Age of Empires III, Powergrid (Italy and France to boot!) and whatever else will fit in the Big Frakkin' Bag.

Monday, April 12, 2010

New Games

We've added two new games to our collection - Dominion Intrigue and Space Alert. To see our full list of games, you can view them here. Please feel free to make any game requests for the next game day.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

April Border Board Games

This month's Border Board Game session is scheduled for April 17th at 6PM at the Derby Line Village Hall. If you have any game requests, please let us know.

Hope to see you there!