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.
Monday, November 29, 2010
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.
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.....
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.....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)