Gunfight at the Derby Line Village Hall

Border Board games was pleased to see the return of the Mikes and Dennis to the monthly board game night on December 17th.  With the addition of Homer, Kim and Alexis to the mix, we boasted eight players on the evening.

First to hit the table was a favorite of St. Jay Mike and Dennis: Power Grid.  Some savvy moves and the establishment of a reliable nuclear network enabled St. Jay Mike was able to overcome his rivals for control of the French power market.  It was a closely contested game until the very end.

It is highly likely that either of Agricola or Le Havre will hit the tables next month.  If we can again draw eight or more participants, that likelihood increases exponentially.

Next up were several rounds of the wild west themed Bang!  It was the first time for several of the players but, given the inherent nature of the game, was quickly embraced by all players.  In the first game Sheriff Homer came to a bad end as the outlaws efficiently eliminated his deputies and marched to victory.  In the second game Sheriff Dennis fared little better.  His deputies struggled to acquire the gear necessary to defend him while the renegades and outlaws launched savage attacks on he and his allies.  Though close to a renegade win, the outlaws again triumphed on the evening.

The next Border Board Games game night is scheduled for January 21st at 6 p.m.  The week prior a Border Board Games contingent will trek south to Winter Weirdness in Barre for a day filled with gaming mayhem.

The Profits of Disaster

When last we looked in on House Drake the prospects appeared dim.  Lady Ella barely survived an assassination attempt, Torrhen was taken captive by the petulant Buckwells, the Drake army was defeated on the field and the Drake Household faced the onerous task of hosting a tourney commemorating the first official visit by Oberyn Martell.

the biggest challenges lay in completing the marriage pact with thedric and House Cafferen, freeing Torrhen from bondage and somehow gathering the resources to not only host the Martell tourney but, also to strengthen Drake's own forces.  Fortunately Garth's plundering of the Buckwell baggage train alleviated some of the financial pressure facing the Drake household.  Determined not to lose face, Lady Ella vowed to fulfill her obligations and restore the family honor.

Given her precarious state of health, the burden of managing the house during Ella's convalescence fell on Maester Gyles, the Drake house poisoner (though he denies his studies in that area with uncharacteristic vehemence).  As expected, the house fortunes flagged despite the opening on the new marketplace.  This was due in no small part to Gyles' insistence on continuing treatment of Ella leaving the running of the house to others during the mid-summer months.

Meanwhile, Torrhen began his captivity on a tour of the ravaged Buckwell lands.  Though the Buckwells triumphed at Pembroke, it did not come at little cost.  Indeed, Torrhen saw the untilled fields and the unharvested foods caused by excessive call on the region's peasant levies.  Sensing a weakness, Torrhen began a series of subtle jabs at the worthiness of a Buckwell suitor to a Selmy bride.  Though unskilled in the area of diplomacy, Torrhen's honorable behavior earned him the respect of his captors among the Boors and Selmy households.  At the same time Buckwell continued to rant and rave, exposing the flaws in his character that prevented him from earning his knighthood.

Garth, meanwhile, decided to employ some of the tactics that made his guerrilla soldiers infamous.  he encouraged banditry, working alongside some of the larger bands of brigands, hoping to further undermine Buckwell influence in the region.  he continued to shadow the party holding his half-brother hostage, inciting rebellion at every turn.  despite his best efforts, however, he found himself unable to make off with the ransom paid to Buckwell.  Though the source of the ransom remained unclear, suspicions point toward the involvement of Highgarden.

In spite of some philandering and a mysterious death of his newly betrothed, the youngest of the Selmy ladies, Torrhen managed to not only extricate himself from his captors but also land numerous marriage proposals in so doing.  Buckwell betrayed his base nature by becoming implicit in the death of Lady Selmy earning him a trial by combat against Torrhen.  Torrhen's skill at arms outclassed his foe and the last of the Buckwell heirs was duly slain in the name of justice.  he thereby earned his freedom on the eve of the Martell tourney.

Back at Castle Drake (colloquially referred to as castle Greyskull), Ella recovered and attended the marriage of her half-brother thedric.  At the same time she won a considerable victory against Lady Buckwell earning her the respect of the illustrious guests at the wedding celebration.  She was likewise popular among the visiting nobles of Dorne who attended the tournament held to celebrate Oberyn's assumption of his place on King Joffrey's small council.  Torrhen's victory in the lists likewise earned House Drake no small measure of influence from among the visiting noble families.

Having gone from the brink of disaster to the darlings of Sunspear, House Drake appears poised once more as a force to be reckoned with.  Lady Ella's dalliance with the Viper only enhanced her standing as a desirable match.  Garth managed to cement a friendship with the Martell spymaster Otho providing new avenues of revenue for his growing smuggling network.  With a stronger network of alliances brewing, House Drake continues to plot against their Buckwell rivals with their eyes set on taking Summerhall for their own.

The shit storm hits Shitville

The fortunes of House Drake were on the line as the forces Lady Ella Drake brought to Pembroke aligned on the hills west of town.  Arrayed against them were the combined forces of Houses Buckwell, Selmy and Hightower as well as a mercenary force of pikemen.

Not only did Drake's enemies possess superior numbers, they sought to stave off the conflict by first sending an assassin against Ella Drake.  Though Ella was able to fight off her attacker, she sustained grievous injuries in the process.  Sensing that the fortunes of the Drake household were at stake, Maester Gyles intervened, offering Ella a gruesome ticket to freedom if she should so choose.  Already things looked bad for the newfound house.

With Ella removed from the equation, Torrhen represented the house in a parlay with the attacking forces.  Though both sides had come prepared for a prisoner exchange, Torrhen's implacable attitude and the confidence of their foemen precluded an amicable cessation of hostilities.  The battle lines were drawn.

Drakes forces took the high ground but their lack of footmen would prove their undoing on this day.  The enemy launched a wild assault against the wooded hill with the scum from Hightower's jails pitted against the newly formed foot of House Fitzdrake.  The thin line broke and, despite terrible losses from the Drake archers, Torrhen's cavalry was forced to commit much earlier than anticipated.

Even as the cavalry routed the last of the convict brigade, they became enmeshed in vicious hand to hand with the mercenary pikemen.  Torrhen roused his battered troopers and took a Selmy commander prisoner shortly before his own horse was forced to disengage.

Garth and his irregulars held the long, low slope to the north and broke the peasant levies thrown against them but not before their own forces were broken in the melee.  As the ebnemy cavalry rode on Pembroke to take Ella and the unguarded Drake train, the Drake archers were forced to yield and the Drake cavalry broke to engage the new threat.

It was all down hill from there.  The enemy forces were badly abused in the attack but the lack of field commanders hindered the Drakes' ability to rally their men.  The irregulars disengaged and made for the woodlands where their superior stalking skills would have caused the enemy to pay dearly.  The handful of battered troopers remaining in the Drake cavalry were soon outnumbered and disarmed, unable to prevent the enemy from seizing the undercroft where Ella convalesced.

Seeing only death and dishonor, Torrhen surrendered his person in exchange for the freedom of Lady Ella Drake.  meanwhile, the irregulars circled back to sack the allied train, seizing the ransom which, hopefully, might help buy back Torrhen's freedom.  Even as the guerrillas returned to castle Greyskull with their booty, Garth set off to follow the enemy and his captured half brother.

Though free and, much to her surprise, still in charge of an intact army, Ella headed back home to try and salvage the house's fortunes.  With word having come that a retinue from House Martell was making a tour of the borderlands, Ella had to consider how best to position her house to restore its soiled honor.  She not only vowed to go ahead with the marriage of Thedric to Lydia Cafferen but also to work to free Torrhen from her enemies.

It will take skill, courage and more than a little luck to prevent the house from falling into ruin.  It would also take additional allies but would any house remain willing to hitch its fortunes to Drake's wobbling chariot?

Discovering exotic new lands and stealing all of the gold before anyone notices.....

Saturday (Nov. 19) was the annual Exploration and Colonization edition of Border Board Games.  We were pleased to have ten attendees to the event including several newcomers, some returning guests and core gamers.  Dennis and Mike traveled up from the Lower Kingdom while Orleans Mike made his second trip north.  Also attending were Rob and Travis (nice to see you again Travis), Kim and Homer and, of course, Beth and myself.

Having so many players available, we divided up into two tables.  Beth, Kim, Homer, St. Jay Mike and Travis sat down for an opening game of Age of Empires III.  Though Kim was unable to get her traditional spam Monk combo going, she was able to pull out the victory for the Portugese.  Like her nation of record, Kim's victory is largely attributable to an abundance of trade goods.

At the second table I guided Dennis, Shannon, Orleans Mike and Rob through one of our newest acquisitions: Merchants and Marauders.  The guys got the hang of the trading and raiding game fairly quickly despite only Dennis having managed to play the game once before.  Mike experienced some hard times as a merchant ship holed his sloop sending the S.S. Bassboat to the seabed.  Shannon was the first to upgrade snagging a nifty galleon after a few successful demand good runs.  Dennis likewise sported a pimped out flute boasting most of the available upgrades on what, by any definition, is not a very sexy sailing ship.  Though Rob was the last to venture into big boat territory, his galleon came very close to preventing Shannon's eventual win. 

Mauled after a scrape with a French warship and barely avoiding Dennis' galleon, Shannon hightailed it for the safety and rumored wedding of Nassau's governor's daughter.  Rob's galleon lumbered out of the port to engage Shannon.  despite a slight superiority of ship, Rob's superior seamanship enabled him to rake the Golden Hind-End from stem to stern.  Only at the last minute was Shannon able to win the sailing contest and escape into port.  Even then he required a desperate stab at a rumor to finalize the win.  It all came up skulls and crossbones and Shannon walked away with the Pirate Cup.

By This time the gang at table one had shifted over to Puerto Rico.  Though details are thin, apparently Mike was able to pull out the win, largely on the strength of capturing two major purple buildings.  The Age of Empires III game then swung onto our table.  The quick summary of events is that there was more bloodshed in the colonies than ever before (at least in games I've played in).  The Dutch-allied Indians in Virginia (my Indian Allies) seemed content to massacre Shannon's Englishmen at Roanoke while Rob's French troops happily picked off Dutchmen in Brazil.  In the end, the powerful Dutch economic engine was able to outpace the last minute exploration scramble and pull out the win.

The exact theme for the December game day is still somewhat up in the air though mention of Carson City and Betrayal at House on the Hill have both been mentioned as posibilities.  Dennis also mentioned interest in breaking out the venerable Pax Britannica at some future date.  Given the almost Diplomacy like length of PB, it may be better to schedule it on a separate, mutually agreed upon day.

A little blood between friends

When last we checked in with House Drake, the heir apparent and her bevy of half brothers boldly fought off an incursion by the covetous forces of House Buckwell.  having firmly established the town as the base for a new frontier, the Drake family headed south to learn what had become of their relief force.  rather than encountering Uncle Anders and the Drake Company archers, they found a deserted road and odd, over-sized footprints.  Lady Ella said upon seeing the tracks "This has a bad Hodor about it."

Returning to Castle Drake, the band found the bailey littered with idle armsmen not of their house.  Indeed, among the banners present were those of House Hayford, House Highgarden and the hated Buckwells.  Maester Gyles flew into a righteous rage, demanding that Celia present herself to the new lady of House Drake.  A war of words ensued as Celia insinuated something shady-nasty had gone on during the heroes' absence.  She had the lawful will of the departed Ondrew Drake whereas the unsealed letter borne by Gyles must be a fake.

Celia's guests stood shocked and dumbfounded as the Maester tore a strip off her hide (and pride) before berating the harpy back into the lair.  Ella reiterated that she was named heir even as Celia advanced her own son Torrhen as the new lord of the Drake Household.  In a fit of rage and sensing that his honor was about to be compromised, Torrhen snatched Celia's forged will and tossed it into the fire.  This act of defiance outraged his Uncle Anders and the two exchanged words.  Foolishly the exchange came to blows and Anders swung at his nephew, apparently disregarding the fact that the young knight was still clad for battle.

Torrhen easily turned aside the strike and returned one of his own.  Having sheathed his sword in Anders' gut (which caused an alarmingly loud belch a la Phil Collins), Torrhen turned angrily on his mother.  Her interference had nearly sold the house to its enemies and Ella into a marriage contract with Highgarden.  "The Silent Sisters are always looking for people," Torrhen declared.  Ella spurned the Highgarden offer knowing that marrying into a Westerosi family would mean surrendering her Dornish birthright and her ability to lead the house.

Having upset Celia's plans, the heroes seized the Hayfords and Buckwells as hostages.  Having already dealt the Buckwell's a serious blow, holding their heir hostage was a modest coup for the Drake family.  Maester Gyles dispatched ravens to the Buckwells offering to exchange their heir for a year's tithes.  The Buckwells agreed and offered to meed at Pembroke.  At roughly the same time news came from Pembroke from Ser Uther Frey of the Night's Watch.  Ser Frey claimed he was besieged in the village smithy, accused of foul murder.

Though the coincidence in locale was odd, the Drake's vowed to uphold the house honor and lend aid to the Night's Watch.  Knowing that the Buckwell's and their allies were also heading to Pembroke with treachery in mind, the Drake's drew forth their armies and summoned the forces of the newly founded House Fitzdrake to assist.  If the Buckwells thought the prisoner exchange could be warped into an ambush and slaughter, they were going to be terribly surprised.

Ella countered the Buckwell aggression by proposing a marriage pact with House cafferen, an ally of the Buckwells.  In exchange for remaining out of the fight, Ella promised cafferen a quarter of the Buckwell lands.  if they should actively support House Drake, they would gain a third of the Buckwell lands as well as join the two houses together by the marriage of her younger brother Thedric to the Cafferen's eldest daughter.  In theory, the cafferens agreed.  How the situation would play out in Pembroke is yet to be seen.

House Drake has outmanuevered treachery from within and aggression from without.  Will this last minute alliance with cafferen turn the tide of battle and destroy the Buckwells once and for all?  Has House Drake overstepped its place engaging in this most dangerous game of politics?  Have Maester Gyles' clever manipulations totally hodored House Drake?

Epic dice fail and other things that go bump in the night

Border Board Games' Monstrous Hallowe'en Monster Game Extravaganza took place on Saturday, October 15.  This month's crowd included visitors Bob and Christine (?), Carlo and Kristin, Rob, Beth and I and newcomer and hopeful returnee Mike.

Earlier in the day gaming at the Lair saw Carlo lose not one but TWO games of King of Tokyo as Beth pulled victory out of thin air.  In each case Beth waited until the last throw of the dice to send his beloved Krakken back into the watery Abyss while her Donkey Kong reigned supreme.  Added with Carlo's failure to murder "wretches" in Letters from Whitechapel before being apprehended by Beth and Kristin, his gaming got off to a slow start.

Having moved to the village hall at the appointed time, we set up for what would be many of our's first exposure to the newest Lovecraftian themed game Elder Sign.  The game follows the model of the Fantasy Flight series featuring familiar heroes from Arkham Horror and Mansions of Madness.  Unlike the other two titles, Elder Sign is a much quicker game to both set up and play.

In many ways this is a great introduction to the worlds of Lovecraft and horror gaming.  It's relatively light and, as a co-op game, engages all players in the successes, or failures, of their peers.  In our first journey into the realms of terror and madness our adversary was Nyarlathotep, who was sometimes confused with the goatee-wearing evil version of Beth, Ynahteb.

It is hard to say if we were just lucky with our dice or lucky with our adventure locations, but we seemed to breeze through Nyarly with amazing speed.  Indeed, not a single investigator went screaming into hell that I can recall.  not so on our second attempt.  The second time round Shub Niggurath was our adversary and, despite having more doom tokens prior to awakening, our luck fell apart early on.

While in our first game we seemed to succeed on our first try probably 80 percent of the time, it often took three tries to resolve a single adventure with Shubby.  This slowed down our collective rate of equipment gathering (basically, item cards and spells provided bonus dice or "hold" spots to help accomplish tasks) and accelerated our loss of sanity and stamina.

Mike endured a particularly gruesome sequence of deaths staggering around battered and bleeding from one disaster to the next.  It goes to show that volunteering to take the sanity hit to start the game doesn't always make you a hero - sometimes you just become a victim.  In the first game Mike's character Jenny Barnes (the purple chick) could do no wrong.  In round two, no matter what he had, he could do no right.

In time, after many agonizing attempts and failures, Shubby awoke and promptly devoured Mike for the last time.  As we had accomplished so few tasks and his battle condition required sacrificing trophies, our ranks were quickly thinned until only four of the seven remained.  Beth's magician Dexter Drake and then Kate Winthrop did a little damage before he disappeared and Kristin's character the Fuller brush vendor Bob Jenkins, who bravely tried to stop the worst of the bleeding among the company, also spiralled into the Abyss.

It came down to Ashcan Pete (Bob) and Harvey Walters (me) facing a wounded but still ferocious elder thing.  Bob rolled well but, ultimately, his lack of trophies saw him devoured moments after Kate threw herself into the maws of evil.  Harvey Walters, the professor from Miskatonic University, stood alone as the guardian at the door.  Weirdly enough, he had gathered plenty of trophies and, despite not having many bonus dice to rely on, rolled well.  His power to convert terror (tentacles) into scrolls (knowledge) proved crucial as he banished the elder thing with only a single trophy remaining.

The final game of the night was a round of Last Night on Earth which pitted Mike, Rob, Beth and Bob against Carlo the zombie master.  Just as Carlo's dice went quiet earlier in the day, so too did his zombie dice once he had rolled for his starting zombie horde.  Perhaps his plan to sacrifice half their number to make them invulnerable in the first round wasn't the best choice after all.  With the objected being "Burn 'em Out", the heroes had to gather explosives and destroy three of the four zombie spawning pits.

The characters were Jake the Drifter (Bob), Father McFeely (Beth), Sheriff Mr. Anderson (Rob) and Johnny Popular (Mike).  In what can only be termed an incredible string of luck, the humans would quickly find a trove of explosives in the school.  While the gasoline wouldn't seem such a stretch, the twin packs of dynamite struck people as a little odd.  The humans enjoyed a lot of success fighting off the zombie attackers.  With pistols, baseball bats, fire extinguishers and fire axes, they blew through the seething mobs, quickly destroying half of Carlo's spawning pits.  Father McFeely eliminated a Taken Over marker that protected one of the spawning pits and promptly ran out to deal with it.

The lone high point for the zombie master came when Jake stood defiantly outside the Plant as Father Grabass went into the light less building.  His dynamite having already been used, Jake went down howling as the zombies overcame him.  Though he would emerge as a zombie hero, the Father's task was already done as Sally emerged inexplicably from the barn just in time to see the final spawning pit blow.

While the zombie action was resolving itself, Christine and Kristin had a rematch of King of Tokyo.  The results of that contest were not immediately known at press time.

What could possibly go wrong with that plan?

The Battle of Amreth was a display of what a few ignorant people can accomplish when they have no idea what might happen.  As we left off last time, Torrhen rode boldly into an archer ambush leading the most skittish band of horsemen in Westeros.  Despite losing half of his troopers in the opneing salvo, the heavily armored knight crashed the lines of the archers/bandits, trampling them mercilessly and driving the rest to flight.

Meanwhile, back in the village, Ella set asbout inspiring the villagers with kind words and fierce invective.  She pledged to protect the village, rebuild its defenses and bring prosperity and order to the land.  It all started with a couple of hangings and a slow clap.  Fortunately the villagers have learned to expect little from their lords and ladies and the news that Ondrew had died and Ella was now lady of the house did little to discourage them.  Luckily she did such an admirable job of rousing their peasantly ardor that many of the men vowed to stand alongside the handful of House Drake armsmen and battle the legion of battle-hardened infantrymen Buckwell had sent their way.

Garth, meanwhile, had found the missing Drake offspring Warrick hiding in the ruins of the town tower.  Warrick immediately proved his legacy by displaying the Valyrian bloodline traits and the propensity for ill-considered actions that have become the hallmark of the bloodline.  Some villagers suspected that Maester Gyles may have had a hand in Warrick's fall from the tower but neither Garth nor his irregulars have stated such either publicly or privately.

The bandits broken, the peasants rabble-roused and the irregulars sent off to harry the approaching Buckwell soldiers, all that remained was to await the arrival of reinforcements from Castle Drake.  Much to the heroes' dismay, Uncle Clusterfuck, errr, Anders, had decided to make the deployment as slow and painfully protracted as possible.  By the time the heroes learned of this, they realized they would be forced to stand and fight with what they had or turn tail and flee, knowing that the village would be razed, its meager wealth plundered and Ella's credibility forever left in tatters.

Had there actually been somewhere to flee toward, knowing that Anders held the castle and would unlikely let us in despite the rampaging horde at their backs, perhaps flight would have been an option.  The Drake children decided instead to stand and fight.  If their forces were routed, the hope remained that sufficient horses would survive to allow the Drake family to flee the battlefield.

The peasants set to work building fortifications.  these were not fortifications that would have daunted most armies and probably only discouraged an army of peasant rabble disinterested in whatever cause it was they took up arms for in the first place.  Under the direction of the Drakes the villagers contructed some wicker pallisades and barriers coupled with a shallow ditch and slight earthen mound.  The idea was not to shatter the Buckwell ranks on these walls, for, realistically, a single torch could have burned them down but, rather, to direct the attacking soldiers by splitting their ranks to allow Torrhen's cavalry to mow them down.  If the Buckwells were at all allowed to form square, our few cavalry would have proven utterly ineffective.

The key was to engage the soldiers and cause them to chase down the fleeing peasants while the irregulars tried to hamper them and therefore allow the cavalry to run them down.  What was entirely unexpected was the amount of damage the irregulars caused during their day of harrying attacks.  By the time the Buckwells emerged from the logging road, fully a third of their numbers had been eliminated.  A further piece of luck followed as Garth led the missile barrage from the peasant levies.  Sticks, stones, arrows and other miscellany rained down death on the Buckwell ranks.  Little Jordel was a figurehead among the peasants, launching rabbit sticks with deadly accuracy and effect.

The Buckwell ranks were seriously depleted following several volleys but, alas, all good things must come to an end.  Soon the Buckwells swarmed the barricades, cutting down the villagers armed only with trowels and bar stools.  Their losses were terrific.  Soon they broke and ran, a long line of soldeirs spreading out behind them.  That was the time when Torrhen struck, wiping out the stragglers with a brutal thurst.  Even as the cavalry swept in from behind, Ella again emerged to rally the dispirited villagers, turning their terror into a weapon.  In the slaughter that ensued, Maester Gyles was credited with some of the most inspired attrocities, the viciousness of which was doubtless inspired by General Torrhen's own capacity for cruelty.

In the end the Drake clan stood tall and emerged trimuphant, capturing dozens of prisoners and, more importantly, forging the core of an army that would be raised to strike back at the treacherous Hayfords and the hated Buckwells.  Maester Gyles stood before the crowds at the conclusion of the battle and spoke rousingly of the Drakes' successes on theday.  he ended his speech with a phrase that may supplant all others in the Drake lexicon: "We totally hodored the Buckwells, right?"

p.s. The events involving Maester Gyles may or may not have been based on actual events.  Such is the danger of relying on minstrels and scribes to report on history after the fact.

October gaming

First of all, many thanks to Matt Taylor of the Westford board gaming group for coming over on Sept 17th to play some board games. Without him, it would have been just Richard and myself. It seems that this September the stars and moon were aligned as such that our local members couldn't make it. With Matt attending, we were able to play Cyclades and Civilization.

Our next board game night will be held October 15th at 6 PM at the Derby Line Village Hall. To honor Halloween, we will make it our special Halloween edition of Border Board Games. That means we will bring along our horror/monster themed games like Betrayal at House on the Hill, Fury of Dracula, Last Night on Earth and whatever else in our collection fits the theme. I'm sure that there will also be some Halloween goodies available to eat as well.

If board gaming isn't your thing and you'd rather play RPGs, then consider joining our RPG group. We typically meet every 4th Saturday in Derby Line for our mega RPG day. We get together right after noontime and play for about 8 hours. For half the time we play D&D 3.5 and the other half we play the Song of Ice and Fire. If you are interested in only playing one RPG, that can be arranged. Our next RPG date is Sept 24th and, for October we will aim for Oct 22nd.

Mail, Civilizations and Monsters

It was a small group that convened for Border Board games on Saturday night. We drew the usual crowd of Beth, myself, Homer, and Shannon and were glad that Rob could stop by as well. The night started with our second ever playing of Thurn & Taxis. T&T is a game I've been eying for a while so when the board game yard sale came to pass, Beth and I decided to bid on it. To our delight, we won it and picked it up at the Green Mountain gamers Game 'n Grill in Norwich.

We made some mistakes on our first play-through, mistakes we noted and vowed to not repeat. Luckily we managed to avoid the problems this time. Everyone earned the carriages in the right order and we negated points for having leftover bird houses errr, post offices. Beth seemed to have a pretty solid system in place from the get-go. Her houses popped up throughout the region in no time and her routes quickly earned her reams of bonus points. Homer went to big-route way and amassed a tidy sum of bonus chits himself.

Being his first time through, Shannon seemed a little lost leading to the dissolution of a promising 4 city route early in the game. While it didn't help his fortunes, it seemed to be the turning point at which he began to understand the subtle nuances of the game. I plugged away trying to fill up the big honking grey area and actually managed to trigger end game with my #7 carriage. Homer and I tied at 23 points apiece while Shannon had a dismal showing at only 4 points. The leftovers really damaged his score on his first time through. Beth won the game with an impressive score of 26, even without the #7 carriage in her possession.

Our next game involved breaking out 7 Wonders. The appeal is the game's ability to support a large number of players coupled with a relatively quick game play assuming everyone has played it before. This turned out to be a fairly tight match despite four wildly different strategies. Homer presented a surprisingly balanced point spread ranking 1st or 2nd in every category to score a 54 point win. Beth followed close behind mainly on the strength of her blue bonus points to finish with 47 points. Shannon and I ended up tied at 44 points each as Shannon went heavily on the military and I went the science route due to having Babylon B as my city.

Our last game of the night was a venture into Wrath of Ashardalon. While game play is similar to Castle Ravenloft, the monsters, challenges and some features are unique. Luckily the differences were so easily grasped that Rob and I being the only ones to have played both systems, still didn't need to explain much of anything. I believe Shannon may have been the only newcomer to the Wizards of the Coast D&D based game series.

With a full crew, we ventured into the subterranean lair of some evil Kobold dude (whose name I clearly cannot recall). As is often the case, we had barely stepped into the dungeon when things began to fall apart. Homer the Paladin and Beth the Fighter quickly went one way battling hordes while my Wizard, Shannon's Cleric and Rob's Rogue went the other. Before too long a cave in had reduced travel to a crawl on the north end of the dungeon while monsters streamed out in poison dealing masses to afflict Homer with curses and poison. The Blood-Raging Cleric continued to take damage owing to his inability to actually reach any monsters in time.

The environment cards are the biggest advantage the game has over the players (beyond always getting to attack first). As soon as the lava walls appeared, the Wizard was doomed. A curse would cause him to take damage for every tile he moved through while standing by a wall caused a single point. Standing still triggered yet another encounter that caused something to explode and the Wizard to tumble into a heap. Meanwhile the blood rage started to drain the Cleric of vitality, in spite of his starting with a Tome of Experience.

Over on the other side of the map, a giant boulder slammed into the Paladin and Fighter who, between them, seemed to be in a perpetual state of cursed, dazed and/or poisoned. When we finally came back together on the south side of the map, things continued to sour. The Legion Devils made their first (and second) appearance while Duergar and Kobold sentries opened more tiles and brought in more monsters. Oddly enough, we had only TWO tiles remaining when the trigger tile was finally pulled. This is a testament to the tile summoning monsters drawing everything from the bottom.

It was an error we caught late but we realized that we had not been activating like-named monsters as often as we should have. Given the difficulties we'd experienced to that point, it was probably for the best even though it did somewhat tarnish the end game. Knowing that he wasn't long for this world, the Paladin rushed ahead hoping to bring out the final encounter. It worked though it brought along a host of new monsters to go with it. Then with the Paladin down we used our last Healing Surge.

With hordes surrounding him and three of five party members in the eastern end of the dungeon, we had to orchestrate a complex and somewhat insane plan to somehow kill the Kobold Dude before the Paladin's turn came about again (for he had been swamped and died once more). As the Rogue and Wizard rushed to help the Paladin, the Fighter and Cleric orchestrated a careful fighting withdrawal from the Devil infested eastern caverns.

The Rogue and Fighter delivered some punishment to the Kobold Dude even as he slashed his way through our ranks leaving him down to 2 HPs with only the Wizard standing in the way of victory. Wielding an impressive arsenal of magic weapons (which, quite frankly could have better served someone else), the Wizard hypnotized the Orc Archer into attacking his commander allowing the coup de grace to be delivered via Flaming Sphere. The Kobold Dude fell to the ground as the Wizard's flaming balls tea-bagged him to death. Huzzah!

Ambush!

The dealings of the besieged House Drake continued as the band moved into the hinterlands, hoping to turn aside the Buckwell incursion at Amrath. With Ella taking a leading role, in part to keep her away from treachery at Castle Drake, but, more importantly to show face along the troubled border, the band made its way north. Garth leading his irregulars and Torrhen the untested cavalry, the band was not long in coming into trouble.

Amonmg the rugged hills of the northlands, the band encountered a suspect deadfall. Suspecting the blockage might be an ambush, Garth's scouts forged ahead to secure the area while Torrhen's troopers worked to remove the tree. Though no ambush proved forthcoming, evidence gathered at the scene pointed to a deliberate effort to stall the House Drake forces in their drive northward.

Not far off Torrhen's forces encountered a band of House Hayford knights as well as a group of poachers. The bold knight led his men into a savage charge that quickly obliterated the Hayford troops. Their presence, so deep in Drake territory, boded ill. After seizing a prisoner, slaying another, and securing the goods from the Hayford troops, the band headed north once again.

The most troubling part of the episode was that Hayford, the house to whom Celia and Anders are blood relatives, should suddenly appear at a time when Anders' and Celia's loyalties remain in doubt. Their possession of a sizable cache of gold also hints at treachery in the offing. Not only is Buckwell threatening the lands, but, evidently, Hayford may also have a hand in this business. Fortunately some of the crack irregulars were able to take down messenger ravens further revealing the role of Hayford in the debacle.

Sensing that the road ahead would be either patrolled or prepared in ambush, Maester Gyles proposed cutting cross country to reach Amrath from the east instead of along the northern road. With Gyles uncanny sense of direction, aided at times by Garth's woodlore, the band managed to circumvent trouble and arrive in town in a steady, pouring rain. Seeking the town's holdfast, the band entered only to learn that marauders had been plaguing the town for some time. the news troubled Ella as no word of repeated incursions had ever reached her ears, despite serving as acting head of the household.

The suspicious guard Jervis was found strung up in the village, the lone survivor of the latest raid against the town. His survival did not last long, however, as the villagers hung him for his bold treason. His presence, however, coupled with the close ties the young man bore to Anders, only confirmed that something ill was afoot. While Torrhen angered the villagers by seizing Jervis' horse, a fine specimen taken from Drake's own stables, Garth placated the townspeople by granting them the wolf pelts recovered from the Hayford poachers.

As Ella and Maester Gyles continued to probe the villagers for more information, Torrhen led the bulk of his cavalry south along the main road, hoping to catch the ambushers from behind. At the same time Garth and some of his irregulars finally located the missing Drake kinsman, the bastard Warrick, hiding in the ruins of the town's lone guard tower. As the day wound to a close, Torrhen's troops suddenly found themselves under attack....

From the depths

The heroes have continued their investigations into the disappearance of House Lyrandar's Siren's Song. With the loss of the airship, one destined to resupply an archaeological expedition on the northeast coast of Xendrik, Lyrandar's officials are concerned about what manner of forces could take down one of their prized airships.

Following leads cultivated from the destruction of the Wharf Rats waterfront gang, the party proceed north along the coast to the fishing hamlet of Gull Rock. After securing transportation from a riverside vendor, not the least of which was a prized riding ratite Xerxes, the group headed out along the tidal causeway to the remote village. Once there they assumed the guise of messengers of the late, but unlamented, henrich and learned that the treasures from the Siren's Song came from a group of sahuagin marauders located among the channel islands.

Their attempts to meet with the sahuagin leader Zilzbek resulted in a battle along the waterfront that left Zilzbek's two lieutenants dead and Zizlbek begging for mercy. Only after providing the band with the information they sought was the sahuagin leader permitted to flee back into the watery depths. Armed with this new information, the party returned to the Bad Penny, there to meet their contact the gnome scoundrel Rumley. Rumley promised the band that he could secure passage to the islands on behalf of his employers. deciding that they would be likelier to encounter the marauders aboard a merchantman, they opted to follow that route instead of securing a smaller, faster, packet ship.

As the session wound down, the band prepared for an oceanic voyage, hoping to discover the mysterious giantish device Zilzbek asserted was behind the downing of the airship.

Leadership and Talismans

It was a small group that got together on July 16 for the monthly Border Board games gathering. We welcomed Carlo back into the fold after a few absences and he brought along some new games and nearly new games to try. We started with King of Tokyo, a game Beth and I first tried at the Game'n Grill in Norwich last month. I followed a more aggressive tact this time around with my giant alien thingy. Rather than back away at the first hit, I stuck it out for several rounds quickly building up my fame points (or whatever the stars represent). The carnage was hot and heavy as Beth's Cyberbunny went down alarmingly fast (breaking a string of Cyberbunny victories as Carlo told it) and then Carlo's Kraken followed soon after. It came down to Shannon and I (Shannon having taken the ubiquitous giant lizard) and a timely card purchase claimed the victory in the last portion of my turn.

Next up came a try at the Seven Wonder expansion leaders. The Leaders not only provided us with extra coins to start the game (doubling starting money to 6 coins) but an interesting complimentary twist. As it played out, the King Midas leader card proved the decisive one for me. I managed to squeak out the win with 64 points, owing in part to the six bonus points derived from having Midas' gold for VPs power. Not all of the Leaders are of equal value as many of the cards that formed my starting hand ended up in the rubbish pile after being passed around the table. But there are enough interesting twists that, if your homecity actually manages to match their powers, can provide a solid edge.

Lastly we ventured into the world of Talisman. Since having seen it played at Games 'Til You Puke in May, I'd had a hankering for a down and dirty dungeon romp. It has elements of strategy coupled with a heaping helping of luck. Given that the players are all vying for final victory on their own, it lacks the cooperative mayhem of Arkham Horror with an equally random set of circumstances. Our misunderstanding of the Ogre Chieftain's power may have given Homer the victory but a victory it was as the Alchemist, Cleric (and Valkyrie before), Wizard and Assassin all withered before the Ogre's Crown of Might.

It's a relatively simple system but one where bad things happening lead to even more bad things happening. Shannon's (and later my own) decision to enter The Dungeon proved disastrous. Not only were the critters harder than in the Highlands, the loot rewards seemed fewer and further between. While Homer and carlo romped merrily through the Highlands acquiring relics and loot galore, Shannon and I slogged painfully through the Dungeon trying to find a way out that wasn't infested by vampires and slimes. Character selection goes a long way in talisman. A Craft dedicated character would fare well in the Dungeon while Strength based ones do better in the Highlands. The final ring approaching the Crown certainly does appear to favor an all or nothing approach. Balanced stats appear to become a liability unless other characters are busy attacking you there.

I think it's a game that I would like to play again, when I have many hours to spare, but one I might be more inclined to carefully choose a character to use rather than going on impulse alone.

A Song of Fear and Loathing

We kicked off the start of A Song of Ice and Fire campaign on June 19 with Jason and Adam joining the regular RPG crew of Beth, Homer and myself. While most of us are familiar with the novels/setting, Jason and Adam were the only ones familiar with the mechanics of the system. Luckily, the first step for our campaign was the creation of our house.

House creation, it turns out, is a fabulous introduction to the setting. While we had tossed around some ideas in our heads, not knowing the what and where made latching on to character ideas more difficult. The only thing we seemed set on was establishing a presence somewhere in Dorne. With that kernel to build on, we set about creating House Drake.

The mechanics of house creation are at once delightful and frustrating. The element of randomness ensures that the peculiar circumstances of your House will very likely be quite different even if you should try to replicate that same house in that same Kingdom. The variables attributed to the different kingdoms add local flavor without necessarily predetermining your fate. How much difference could some tosses of a few d6s make? Quite a lot as it turned out.

House Drake, by choice, is set in the borderlands between the Reach and the Stormlands. This location provided the crux of external conflict that we sought. Our rolls also granted us a small castle, a reasonably fair sized standing army, mines, a mercantile town at a crossroads and plenty of under developed land that has fallen into lawlessness. Our house house was also relatively newly founded and already in a state of decay.

Knowing these facts, we designed our characters. Beth's character Ella is the heir to the House Drake line by our Lord Ondrew Drake's first marriage. Homer's character Torrhen is next in succession being the first born of Ondrew's second wife. My character Garth is a bastard-born child of a camp follower from Ondrew's years as a mercenary campaigner. Though older than the others, Garth's lineage predates Ondrew's possession of Castle Drake and he seems content to lead his father's Irregulars. Last to the group is our young Maester Gyles, played by Adam. Apparently this is Adam's first non-warrior character so the change of scenery will provide some interesting dynamics as he explores the social combat system of SoIaF.

Jason, our GM, set the stage. Lord Ondrew's health is failing and he knows that his time is short. He calls together all of his children hoping to perhaps bequeath upon them some final morsels of wisdom coupled with his wishes for the succession of his House. It turns out that his two legitimate children are joined by not one but two bastards. Whether the other, Warick, is baseborn as was Garth is something we have yet to discover.

Our newly arrived Maester determines that Lord Ondrew's ill-health has less to do with a lifetime spent on the battlefield and is more likely attributable to a conscious attempt to kill him. Gyles suspects that poison is at work and devises an herbal remedy that he hopes will restore the Lord Drake to health. What remains unclear is who precisely has made the attempt and how.

The grasping second wife, Celia Hayford (Torrhen's mother) seems anxious to be rid of her risen-from-the-ranks soldier of a husband. Would she truly slay Lord Drake knowing that Ella is being groomed to assume his mantle? What then of Ella's safety? Adding to the mystery is the recent recalling of Torrhen from his fostering with House Martell. He left a mere child but returns now with fancy armor (the purchase of which has strained the Drake household finances) and spurs. Is he complicit in his mothers schemes or simply an unwitting beneficiary?

The scheming is not confined to Celia alone, however. Her brother Anders Hayworth commands the castle garrison. While the garrison is trained, its loyalties to the House seem divided between their commander and the heir apparent. Suspicious parcels and the commissioning of House troops to move supplies along our roads strikes Ella as being quite peculiar.

And then word reaches the castle that the Buckwells have moved to retake a border town lost in earlier clashes between House Drake and House Buckwell soon after the ascension of King Robert Baratheon to the throne. Fearing that the Buckwells grow bold by the news of Lord Ondrew's poor health, we devised a plan to present a show of force to dissuade the Buckwells by intimidation or steel as the case warrants. Knowing that the garrisons loyalties might be compromised, Garth insists of bringing along a few squads of his skirmishers (the uneducated might call them guerrillas) as well as House Drakes' compliment of undisciplined cavalry under Torrhen's command.

Torrhen agrees to the plan knowing that the cavalry, a new feature among the archers and skirmishers that formed the basis of Drake's Company, could use some seasoning. better to test their mettle in a skirmish than to watch them crumple in the heat of battle. Hopefully his training with the Martell's will help him retain command of the horsemen. Bolstered by the irregulars, we hope to present a sufficient show of arms to send the Buckwells scurrying back into their clapboard halls. By boldly riding out along the frontier, we also hope to showcase Ella before the smallfolk as the true and rightful heir to House Drake.

July Game Dates

July's schedule goes back to our normal gaming times. We will play board games at the Derby Line Village Hall at 6PM on July 16th.

We now play two roleplaying games: D&D 3.5 AND A Song of Ice and Fire. We are doing a mega RPG day where we will play one in the afternoon and the other in the evening. The next date for that is July 23rd.

We got a few new board games so be sure to check out our list of games to see what we have. As always, let us know if you wish us to bring any particular board games to the board game night.

Border Board Games June 11th

Border Board Games met on a new night in June, June 11th, so as not to conflict with the Green Mountain gamers Game'n Grill event on the following weekend. BBG welcomed a new face to the group as Jeff popped by to enjoy some games with us.

We started the night with a light and easy game of Ave Caesar. Homer remained almost completely baffled throughout the two races as he was always caught in corners and trapped in bottle necks. Following a couple of circuits of the chariot racing game we then moved on to a few rounds of 7 Wonders.

Though it has become a favorite among the group for its easy to grasp mechanics, quick game play and minimal downtime, it was actuality Shannon and Jeff's first time playing. While guild points boosted me (Richard) into a solid first place finish, Jeff finished strong in his own right taking second place on the strength of a balanced Military, Wonders and VP card system.

Shannon brought along a new game for the group to try. The theme and name of the game was Werewolf (forgive me if I muffed the name S.) The game involves minimal equipment as it simply involves passing out role cards and assigning a mayor or moderator. It is basically a variation of Russian Sledge whereby during the day the villagers (and the hidden werewolves) vote to eliminate the person they believe to be plaguing their town. The game then proceeds to a night phase whereby players close their eyes and the Seer awakens to peek at any other players card. That completed, the Werewolves then awaken and choose their victim. In order for the victim to die the vote must be unanimous.

The game progresses until only villagers (including special villagers like the Hunter or the Witch) or werewolves are left standing. What we learned was that while leery of claims the game could accommodate 8 to 18 people, it probably does play better with a larger group. This would create more tension on part of the werewolves and the villagers as each tries to seek the others out.

Following Werewolf we then tried a co-op game Pandemic. It's one of those games that we haven't busted out in a while so it was a chance to refresh ourselves with the game and introduce Jeff to Euro co-op games. It was a hit or miss affair with the team managing to cure the diseases before the world dissolved into chaos and death. Things certainly started out poorly with the Swine Flu sweeping through Asia until Homer the gallant Medic charged in to clean up the mess. Meanwhile Beth the research station builder guy (can't recall the actual name) and Shannon the dispatcher helped move Jeff the scientist and Homer to the latest hot spots to execute cures and construct critical new research facilities outside of Atlanta.

It was one of those peculiar games where some areas continued to be hammered mercilessly but others occurred with such infrequency as to present little challenge at all. Certainly the Swine Flu hit most areas in Asia prior to its control but the dengue fever in Africa and South America did little more than trouble Lagos, Miami and Mexico City. The Black Plague made an appearance in the Middle East and SARS swept through the northern latitudes to create more tension later on. With the deck perilously close to expiring, the team executed the final cure for the win.

The Bad Penny

The party was led into the backroom of the Bad Penny, a small taproom in the mid-level towers of Sharn. The front room was filled with the usual assortment of middling merchants and tradesmen while the backroom held in unlikely triumvirate of people. Three figures were seated around a large table, eyeing the group like butchers appraising livestock.

The half-elf in the middle had the looks of one knowing her business. The House Lyrandar tattoo gracing the side of her cheek and neck only proved it. To her right sat a dour looking dwarf and to her left a fidgety gnome. As the party would soon learn, they were in the presence of representatives from three of the Dragonmarked Houses. Mervin d'Kundarak, the dwarf, represented the city's and his family's banking interests. Elsa d'Lyrandar was the chief factor of Lyrandar's shipping operations in the city. The last figure, the gnome Romeo Goldpurse, represented House Sivis as one of its chief scribes and investigators.

Without much in the way of introduction, Elsa slid a piece of parchment across the table, asking if the party was familiar with House script. Acknowledging that they were, she then asked if they noticed anything peculiar about the script in front of them. Waylander suspected it may have been a forgery, a conclusion the others agreed to after some discussion. If only it were so easy.

The script was actually part of a cargo that vanished along with the Siren's Song. The ship, under contract to House Lyrandar, was transporting supplies and funds to a Margrave University expedition on the northwest coast of Xendrik. It never arrived. And yet, script issued by House Kundarak, secured and authenticated by House Sivis, transported by House Lyrandar appears suddenly in the Cliffside neighborhood in the grubby mitts of a known thief Heinrich Yost.

The party was tasked with finding Yost and learning how the script came to be in his possession. Despite representing three Dragonmarked Houses, the trio agreed it would be best to seek out independent contractors to solve this riddle. Suspicions were aroused that the loss of a Lyrandar airship was no chance disaster. Somewhere within their organizations, someone was leaking sensitive information. Better to have outsiders, persons with no ties to these great Houses, search out the truth.

Thanks to Elis' offering of medical advice among the downtrodden of Cliffside, the group was able to identify one of Yost's hangouts within a couple of hours. The Golden Goose, despite its name, had very little of its golden lustre remaining. A shabby structure held up by inertia and fastened together by despair and filth, it looked the part of a pirate hangout. Some spreading around of gold, a cup of fresh-squeezed crab juice later ("Who drinks crab juice?" Elis asked. "They were out of shark," Bris replied.) and the location of Yost's hangout was uncovered. Apparently he ran with the Wharf Rats gang.

As it turned out, the name was more than appropriate. In dire rat form the Wharf rats would swim out to vessels approaching the harbor. Then, under cover of darkness, they would plunder the choicest loot before the land-based thieves could do so. The party spent time gambling with the unlikely named Elis the thief and Waylander actually came out ahead in the endeavor. Around midnight they spotted their quarry.

Yost was trundling back in with a large sea chest, aided by one of his fellows, and headed for the upper level of the Wharf Rats undercity lair. Bold as brass the adventurers followed him up, encountering his companion in the process of examining the stolen loot. While Elis had the man-rat nearly convinced of the group's legitimacy, it all fell apart soon after Waylander tried to muscle his way through a locked door. Luckily the battlemage was just as quick to unleash magical darts of death that struck down the wererat before he could alert his fellows.

They found the key to the door on the dead thief and proceed into a back room. It, in turn, lead to a ladder and hatch in the ceiling. Boldly going where no man ought to go head first, Waylander found himself on the receiving end of a sahuagin's poisoned spear. It appeared that he had barged in on negotiations between Yost and his sahuagin chieftain ally Zilzbek. Clinging to the ladder, Waylander tried to fight off the attackers but succeeded mainly in preventing the ascension of his compatriots. Fortunately Bris was able to fire a deadly bolt up the hatch and strike Zizlbek a near mortal blow. This afforded Waylander the chance to dash into the room. Unfortunately, it also enabled the wererat captain and sahuagin chief to attack him mercilessly.

This too proved fortuitous as then Elis and Bris entered the fray, free from assault as they climbed up. In short order the sahuagin was dispatched and, despite regenerating from some of his wounds, Yost was also compelled to surrender. In questioning the wererat captain, the party learned that Yost had purchased the script from Zilzbek. The sahuagin, he said, were working with a group of wreckers near Gull Rock, a small fishing community across the Dagger River and to the west.

Yost proclaimed that he knew nothing about the origin of the script, knowing only that it had great value if it could be cashed in. If the party sought more answers, they would need to head to Gull Rock to find out more. Though Waylander wanted to simply kill Yost then and there, Elis suggested they might be able to get a bounty from their sponsors if they kept him alive. Likewise, using Yost as a hostage might also enable them to get out of the Wharf Rats lair unhindered.

Honor among thieves is a sentiment that holds as much water as a net, the party discovered. Elis concocted a plan to attach two bottles of Alchemist's Ice around Yost's neck. the clinking bottles would force the man to be slow and careful, preventing a dash for freedom, he explained. In theory it was a good plan. In practice, Waylander might as well have killed Yost upstairs. Elis' hands were not as steady as they could have been, setting off the delicate ice bombs with himself and Yost's head at ground zero.

With the former captain now dead, the Wharf rats set about plundering their former chief's possessions. This enabled the party to escape, clutching Yost's frozen and severed head. They returned to the Bad Penny only to discover that the three patrons were gone, a function perhaps of it being in the middle of the night. their gnome guide Rumley, however, was still there. He encouraged the group to rest in the rooms the patrons had secured and to meet with them in the morning if they had anything to report. Elis decided it might be safer to stay at the temple of Dol, Dorn but vowed to return in the morning. Believing in the good nature of their patrons and likely lacking the options a cleric of Dol Dorn could avail himself of, Bris and Waylander headed to their rooms to rest and recover from their ordeal.

June's Game Nights

June is going to be a screwy month and our game nights will not follow our usual pattern. The board game night will be June 11th at 6 PM at the Derby Line Village Hall. This was changed so anyone from Border Board Games could attend our regular game night as well as attend the Green Mountain Gamers, Game 'n Grill on June 18th in Norwich, VT.

Our new D&D 3.5 campaign was scheduled for the 4th Saturday but one of the players will be gone that weekend so we are in the process of rescheduling that date. The new date will be posted on the website once it has been settled.

We are also starting a discussion to begin A Song of Ice and Fire RPG. If joining Ice and Fire and/or D&D interest you, please let us know. We have room for new players.

Ghosts of failures past

Border Board Games welcomed its newest guest Jason on Saturday night. It was a small group of seven but it afforded us sufficient players to engage in a couple of seven player games before dividing up for two tables to end the evening.

Seven Wonders was first to hit the table. It was the first time for both Jason and Shannon but the game play is fairly intuitive and easy to pick up.Zeke's military might and a good collection of non-scientific cards enabled him to build a strong foundation in spite of the lack of paper. Shannon's military might also peaked enabling him to score consistent victories against both Homer and Jason. In the end Shannon claimed victory by a single point outscoring Zeke 51-50.

We next moved on to Citadels. As is often the case, I floundered ineffectually watching as thieves made off with my hard earned butterscotch (or is that supposed to be gold or buttons?)and my thieves routinely returned empty handed. Jason made good use of the warlord early to build up his stockpile of butterscotch but cleverly avoided choosing the role in the late game thereby avoiding assault from both the Assassin and Thief. He quickly rushed ahead and completed his eight districts. Though I, as Warlord, could have destroyed one of his districts, it simply would have prolonged the game without giving me any real advantage. Jason's advantage in districts and bonus points enabled him to handily win the game.

To finish off the evening we split into two tables for games of Ghost Stories and Cargo Noir. Beth, Jason, Homer and Shannon tackled the world of seedy dealings on the docks. Though unable to watch much of the game save for the last round, one glance at Shannon's tableau to spy the Cronies told me all I needed to know. In our, albeit limited experience, the Cronies seems to end up in the winning players hand every time. His collection of goods in the final rounds further allowed him to purchase the militia and guide him to a convincing victory.

Rob brought along Ghost Stories and, for whatever reason, I was feeling masochistic that night. I've never won at Ghost Stories before and had never actually lived long enough to see Wu-Feng either. Despite being uncommonly difficult it is one of those peculiar games that makes you want to play one more time to see if things might turn out differently. We played the three-player option with Zeke using Yellow, Rob was red and I was blue. The fourth player was green which gave us special tokens allowing us to use green's curse die denial or bonus fourth fight die. It would prove to be pivotal.

We managed quite well at first despite the blue board filling up with alarming speed. I lost a few Qi but I was able to recover somewhat by defeating Qi/Yin-Yang token ghosts later on. To start the game Zeke and Rob moved to battle the surprisingly weak ghosts that first emerged. Meanwhile i sat in the Buddha shrine dropping Buddha bombs from the corner of Yellow and Green. Some quick steps over to the move player/move ghost village square helped send some of the nastiest ghosts screaming into hell without triggering their defeat conditions (though forgoing the spoils as well).

The stack of dead ghosts that accumulated off board was reminiscent of the results from Pac Man's stomach pumping. An impressive collection of ghost meat attested to our fighting prowess (though luck probably played a major role as well) though we burned through tokens at an alarming rate. Suddenly haunter ghosts started coming out in rapid succession. The fact that they followed ghost-calling cards didn't help our situation. We suddenly went from reasonably clear boards to overflowing and taking damage.

With the Buddha bombs no longer a viable tactic (there were no empty spaces to place them), it came down to hard grinds and picking off ghosts that threatened the next Taoist in line. Just as the Wu-Feng card appeared it looked like we had things well in hand. Zeke's special token knocked Wu-Feng down a peg and our Zen color token was black. Rob had two black tokens already in hand so it looked like all he needed was to roll a single black to secure the win. Suddenly a haunter wiped out the Zen token (and our second village square). Rob needed to roll three black for the win. Using his Green power token he added the fourth die. If he failed, he would die on his next turn. If he failed, neither Zeke nor I stood a chance as I did have my Green power token, and neither of us had any fight tokens or our Yin-Yang tokens to fall back on. Zeke would have needed to roll four black to win and I would have needed to roll four black on only three dice.

Rob did it and we won. It was Rob's second ever victory and the first for Zeke and I. As Rob said during the post victory lull, it was a cinematic victory of the highest order. One last, desperate battle before the forces of evil destroyed the village. There is a certain satisfaction that comes from finally winning at a game you've never ever been able to even see victory in before.

May's Game Nights

Our D&D 3.5 game will begin anew with a new campaign. We will be playing in Eberron and if you are interested in joining the new campaign, contact us. The date hasn't been finalized yet but tentatively, we will begin on May 13th or May 14th. Keep checking the website for the final date.

Our next board game night will be on May 21st. Nothing has been planned as of yet but if there are any games you wish to play, please let us know. We'll stuff the Big Frakkin' Bag full of whatever we can.

April Game Nights

March's D&D got cancelled so there is no session report. The next scheduled game nights are:

Regular board game night: April 16th at 6 PM at the Derby Line Village Hall. For April, we are planning on playing nothing but card games. That means we will have Dominion, Race for the Galaxy, Bohnanza, Bang!, plus we're getting four more card games through a game sale. And, as always, bring along your favorites too!

Dungeons and Dragons: April 23rd at 6:30 at Richard and Bethany's house in Derby Line. Come at 6 PM to play a board game or two before DM Rob arrives.

I fought the law, and the law won

Saturday, March 19th, brought us another edition of Border Board Games. The night started off quietly and while waiting for anyone to show up, Richard and I played Race for the Galaxy. For those who haven't played Race for the Galaxy, it is a card game where you try to play cards in your tableau to try to maximize the cards to yield you the most victory points at the end. Once you get used to the game, it is easy and quick. You'd think we'd have had our fill of RFTG wince we've been playing on our computers, but I guess not. BTW, I think the computers cheat in the computer version. I ended up winning against Richard but I don't recall what the exact scores were.

Near the end of our game, Homer and Alexis showed up. We decided to break out Homer's copy of Agricola. Agricola is definitely not a game to introduce a new gamer to. It's a worker placement game on steroids and can be overwhelming. We've all played a few times before so play was quite quick and smooth. I just couldn't get the synergy of placing my 'people' and my board was very weak. Homer and Richard on the other hand managed to pull ahead of Alexis and myself in the end. I had thought Alexis was going to give Homer a run for his money since she was filling up her board quite nicely but she didn't manage to diversify enough and fell into third place.

Near the end of Agricola, Shannon showed up and then while we were picking up Agricola, Amos and Ivy stopped by. We broke out Betrayal at House on the Hill so we could try out our new non-warped tiles. Betrayal is a very simple game to learn and is all about what players put into it. It's definitely more fun if players give their own spooky edge. Exploring the house was moving along quite nicely until I opened up a room in the basement and triggered the haunt. I ended up getting caught in the massive spider web and having spider eggs laid inside of my character and Homer, playing the big brute who just happened to have the spear, was the traitor. We should have known things would go badly while Homer went off into the kitchen of the hall to read his part of the scenario, we heard him cackle evilly.

I spent the remainder of the game trying to break free from the web while Homer went around with his brute and started killing everyone, starting with the little children first (isn't he a loving dad?). Amos decided to stay on the ground floor while the brute stayed in the basement with the spider. Shannon made a valiant effort and managed to heal my character of the spider eggs but between dynamite and the brute's spear, all characters except Amos' ended up dead. This scenario seemed to have a piece missing. We had to heal the spider eggs from the haunt revealer and then free the haunt revealer from the web and then if at least one character exited the house, we won. For the traitor, if he managed to kill all remaining characters, he wins. The thing was, the traitor was stuck in the basement as no way out had been found yet. We realized that Homer could have explored the basement until he found the way out and then head up and take care of Amos' character but this felt weird and would drag on. It just seemed odd that you'd think that Amos' character could have tried to leave anyway because why would you stay in a house if all your friends ended up brutalized by the brute? I dunno, we figured we'd just end as evil prevailed.In the meantime, Rob arrived to join the games.

We then moved onto Blokus. Amos had two copies so we broke off into two groups. Blokus is a great, fun, quick game and very easy to learn and explain. On one board was Alexis, Rob, Homer and Shannon and on the other board was myself, Richard, Ivy and Amos. I'm not sure how many games the other board got in. I do know that Alexis won one game and Shannon another. The board I was playing at played two games. Ivy won the first and Amos won the second.

At the end of the night, we decided to play some 8-player Bang!. Bang! is another card game that we have been enjoying a lot of lately. For 8 players, you have your Sheriff (Homer), 2 deputies, 2 renegades, and 3 outlaws. Homer was not able to figure who was who and ended up with a fistful of cards for the whole game and no idea who to target. I was an outlaw and got some bad cards (no way to defend myself) and after Alexis beat me down and then Rob played an Indians card, I was dead. Alexis made the blunder of exclaiming, 'I knew you weren't on my side!' after I kicked the bucket and revealed myself as an outlaw. The outlaws just couldn't get it together though and eventually, they ended up getting offed too (that would be Amos and Ivy). Then Shannon the renegade and Alexis the deputy got picked off and it was down to Sheriff Homer, Rob and Richard. The thing was, who was the renegade and who was the deputy? Richard and Rob picked away at each other while Homer sat with his fistful of cards. Richard prevailed and picked off Rob who then revealed himself as the last renegade. The law won!

It's kind of funny that Homer goes from being the traitor to the sheriff.

That concludes the March session of Border Board Games. Our next board game night is scheduled for April 16th, same time, same place. We think that perhaps April will be the game day where we will play nothing but card games. Hope to see you there!

March Game Nights

For March, we will meet for our regularly scheduled board game night at the Derby Line Village Hall at 6 PM on March 19th. Not sure what we plan to bring for games yet but we'll have our usual bagfull.

Our next D&D night will be on March 26th starting whenever DM Rob arrives. We play at Beth and Richard's house in Derby Line. We could us a new player or two and if you are interested, please contact us at trashvacuum@hotmail.com. The first people to actually commit to showing up, will make the group.

Oh the insanity!

Last Saturday, Carlo brought his coveted game of Mansions of Madness down across the border to run a session with Homer and me. Mansions of Madness reminded me of a combination of Betrayal at House on the Hill and Arkham Horror except Mansions has the difference in that it has a GM or Keeper running the game.

Homer and I decided to each run two investigators. The rules of the game are quite simple so we found it not difficult to control to characters at the same time. I chose the Tommy Gun wielding brute, Michael and the brain, Kate. Homer chose his favorite Arkham character, the nun, and well balanced Jenny.

Like in Arkham, each character has stamina (health) and sanity as well as skill points. The skill points are similar to Arkham Horror's clue tokens where you can use them to help your die rolls. Although, unlike the clue tokens, the skill points are only for trying to help your die roll. In Mansions, you roll a d8. Low is good, high is bad.

The scenario Carlo chose was one involving the monastary. Our characters had received a letter from a friend, Marie, asking for help and that is what led us inside the monastary. I suppose we should have found something fishy when in the chapel there was a big hole in the floor with a ladder leading down into it. Big holes in chapel floors with ladders can never be good.

The objective of the game is unknown to the players until after some investigating, it is revealed. On each character's turn, s/he can move 2 spaces and do an action. Actions include: exploring a room, picking up an item, running (move one more space), using a special ability etc... Each turn, characters can go in any order they decide so the player order can change from turn to turn. Once the characters have made their moves and actions, the Keeper releases what evil he wishes.

Carlo as the Keeper was focusing on Michael the brute and tried successfully to make him insane. Michael seems to be able to go insane at the sight of himself in a mirror. His tommy gun proved to be useful only once. After that one initial success on causing damage to Roger the Shoggoth, Carlo played numerous cards on Michael that made him drop the gun, made the ammo low, and at some point, made Michael blind. We did eventually take down Roger the Shoggoth although he was followed by his friend the 2nd Shoggoth (he wasn't named as the first).

Luckily, or maybe not so much, it was Kate the brain who ended up finding all the of the clues that lead to revealing the objective. Kate's special ability is to make a luck roll once per game to try to get the objective revealed. Her luck is only two but she gets to add +2 to her roll for each clue that she has. Since she had 3 clues in possession, I only needed to roll an 8 or less to succeed. I rolled a 10 :/

Homer and I were chugging right along even with an insane Michael. We managed to figure all of the puzzles revealed to us and even opened some whoop ass on some dog like creature and Roger. Kate ended up finding the final clue which revealed that our objective was to carry a collapsed Marie out of the monastary. Kate was still doing quite well in stamina and sanity so it seemed entirely possible except the objective condition involved that all characters had to remain alive. It seemed our nun was going to be the thorn in our sides since she was down to one hit point left (and almost died earlier when Carlo played a broken leg card on her which said the next time she moved, she'd take a hit point of damage. Luckily Homer had a sedative that negated any trauma card played). But it wasn't the nun who was our ruin, it was that damn, insane Michael. Because he was insane, Carlo could play trauma cards on him at anytime and once the objective was revealed, Carlo played a card on Michael that made Michael die immeditately. And, so, evil triumphed over the monastary on that day. But next time, Carlo better watch out!

The Lame leading the Lame

More temporal shifts appeared to have beset the heroes. With a pair of elven wizards as their guides, the party found itself once again transported to unfamiliar surroundings. A great plain stretched before them with the haze of battle lingering in the distance. Knowing only that the Temple of Night lay toward the fighting, the band made its way forward.

Very quickly the party encountered an orc patrol. Fortunately, the predominantly elven group was able to convince the soldiers that they posed no threat to the forces of Chaos. The party was escorted into the camp only to grasp the dismal nature of the battle. Human forces had erected a pallisade on their side of the battlefield, proving that the humans were organized and solidly entrenched. In an effort to bypass these defenses the orc commander appointed one of his soldiers to escort the group. Kresh, or Captain Crunch as he became known, proved himself a capable warrior.

Using magic and overhwleming force, the party managed to bypass the forward sentries. In spite of Gorebelly's insistance on a direct frontal assault, the party elected to support Splinter's plan. the thief would scale the wall, eliminate the wall guard and secure a route over the wall for the rest of the group. Though Dordo proposed a massed volley to knock the nearest guard from his perch, the missile ability of the party proved poor to inept. Splinter also had the misfortune of finding his position given away and was forced to try and talk his way over the wall.

His efforts to convince the guard that he was simply returning from plundering the dead failed. "Why didn't you use the gate?" the guard inquired. Doing so would expose his nefarious intent, Splinter replied. "I wouldn't use the gate if I was stealing stuff."

Outraged at the deteriorating plan, Gorebelly charged the gate with Captain Crunch at his side. Stripe blasted the guard with a volley of magical darts while Dordo and Noname tried to knock him out with a decisive volley. Somewhere, a goodly distance behind the pallisade wall, their missiles certainly slew some free range chickens or an unattended bedroll. Faced with certain injury if he stayed, Splinter leapt from the wall just as Crunch and Gorebelly managed to smash it open. What followed was a comedy of errors and chaos as the party ran through the camp attempting to evade capture.

The group had picked its way through the vast human camp only to encounter a group of imprisoned orcs. Unable to leave his compatriots behind, Crunch insisted on freeing his fellows. realizing that their aid as fighters or as a distraction might aid their cause, the party agreed. Unlike the battle at the gate, the guards were more quickly subdued even as celestial badgers dug to undermine the stockade wall. The freed orcs were equipped with what arms could be salvaged from the human guards and the group made off once more.

Just as the party passed through the camp of the army's camp followers, Gorebelly materialized with a squad of guards hot on his heels. Though flight seemed a preferable option, the orcs wanted revenge and turned to fight despite Splinter's insistence to "knock it off you dufus" in their native tongue. the fight heavily favored the party for the first time ever. Though the group struggled to land decisive blows, the human soldiers proved equally inept. By the time the sparring session ended nine of the soldiers lay dead and the last fled the field gravely wounded.

Knowing that a search party would doubtless form, the party resumed their flight toward the Temple of Night. With only days in which to reach the temple and secure the sacred stone, time was of the essence. Following Amra's death, Yama's desertion and the treachery of that obnoxious human warrior, Captain Crunch's presence was a welcome addition to the party. It remains to be seen whether or not the group will maintain the good fortune that carried them thus far. Without luck, their prospects seem grim indeed.

Winter is Coming

Last night marked the February gathering of the gamers at Border Board Games. It was our usual crew with eight players this week. We immediately split up to start a few four player games. On one side of the hall Beth introduced Carlo to Race for the Galaxy along with Homer and Shannon. While they had many of the fancy bits from the expansions, they opted to keep it simple for Carlo's first go-around. In the end Carlo emerged triumphant with his Alien technology strategy scoring an impressive 37 points in his inaugural game.

Meanwhile, Kim, Alexis, Zeke and I first tackled Forbidden Island. The memory of our first venture there at GtYP haunted three of us while, blessedly, Zeke could harbor no ill-feelings given that this was his first exposure to the game. Though Zeke wanted to start on Elite level, he was talked down from that cliff accepting the pedestrian Normal (though not Novice) level. The Island quickly expressed its displeasure at our arrival with two of the center squares disappearing before we had completed a full round of play. Luckily Zeke's Diver was able to navigate the missing bits.

The Water's Rise cards had an alarming tendency to appear enmasse. The edges of the map quickly peeled away though, somehow, we managed to avoid losing any of the treasure tiles until later in the game. With only one treasure in hand, we managed to amass the necessary treasure cards to recover the last three treasures. While Zeke kept shoring up Fool's Landing, the rest of us scrambled to gather the treasures before the whole thing went to pieces. Alexis' Pilot managed to extricate the weird stone thing literally one turn before the second of the treasure tiles vanished forever beneath the waves. My Engineer gathered the sphinx statue and Kim recovered the holy cup as the tiles between us and Fool's landing submerged. Thanks to a last minute pick-up of an extra helicopter card, we were able to fly Kim's Navigator back to Fool's Landing in the moments before Forbidden Island disappeared forever beneath the waves.

Following our adventures on FI, we then turned to Palazzo. It's a very simple and straightforward palace building game, similar to but considerably less mentally taxing to learn and play than Alhambra. Zeke was again the lone newcomer to the game, everyone else having played it prior. We were all taxed for money throughout with a series of extraordinarily crappy tiles cluttering up the quarries. It's amazing how many single window/door tiles there are and even more so to see them gathered together in a big steaming pile.

In the end Kim's efforts were ultimately doomed by an ill-advised placement of a single story marble structure. While Zeke had the basis of a strong design, his inability to land the upper stories of his brick and sandstone palaces ultimately doomed his efforts. It came down to Alexis and myself. I was able to edge her by a mere three points for the win courtesy of managing to land a fifth story on my marble palace to go with my three story brick endeavour compared to her two four-storey buildings.

Seeing as how no new people had dropped in, we decided to relocate to The Lair to complete our night of gaming. We split off into uneven groups as Kim, Alexis and Beth decided to investigate the nefarious doings aboard the Mystery Express. In the end the game boiled down to a tie between Kim and Alexis so the deciding factor lay in the clues submitted via telegraph earlier in the game. Kim managed more correct early guesses to capture the win. Beth never did say how she did....

At the other table the five guys gathered for a Game of Thrones throw-down. While we all had varying levels of experience with the game, it was clear that we were out of practice. A few rules issues had to be cleared up during play but, on the whole, things went pretty well. Carlo drew first and took Baratheon while Shannon had Stark, Zeke Lannister, Homer Greyjoy and I accepted the mantle of Tyrell. The queer thing about GoT is that there really is no single best starting position even though Baratheon and Stark have perhaps a slightly easier time of it.

Generalizations about GoT are difficult to make. Given that the decisions of your neighbors and opponents will ultimately affect your own decisions, the randomization provided by the cards makes deep planning a hit or miss proposition at best. Carlo early on grabbed King's Landing and, had fortune favored me then, I might have been able to make a play to oust him. Unfortunately, the Muster card arrived too soon and Tyrell was unable to mount an effective offense. Coupled with a lack of muster points and dearth of power points, Tyrell's game was sluggish at best and strangely efficient at other times. Having had my troops cut off from retreat in Stormreach ultimately proved decisive in Baratheon's victory.

Shannon had a pretty clear run in the north as Greyjoy landed in the west forcing Lannister to hold close to home and rarely threaten Baratheon's westward expansion. It was only in the last quarter of the game that Greyjoy mounted a serious threat to Stark landing troops behind Winterfell. Greyjoy, did prove the king maker after a sort. By forcing Tyrell and Lannister to play close to home, as Lannister's loss of Lannisport proved later on, Baratheon was able to consolidate power and reap the benefit of an obscene power token generating engine. Since Stark never rounded the Eyrie, Baratheon had merely to sit and wait with an impressive support network protecting his front ranks.

That power token generation effort also proved critical as Stark and Baratheon negotiated terms for the final disposition of the roles with two rounds left to play. Sadly, Baratheon alone had as many power tokens as Greyjoy, Lannister and Tyrell combined making an attempt to usurp power futile and frustrating. Throw in Stark's collection of 13 tokens in addition to Baratheon's 17 tokens and the western factions were clearly at a disadvantage holding five tokens, six tokens and six tokens respectively.

Seagard proved the single most fought over locale on the map. It was alternately held by Lannister, Greyjoy and Stark. While casualties in the conflict were few, large numbers of troops ended up destroyed when they were unable to flee to a safe location. Seagard also enabled Greyjoy to lure Stark south long enough for a strong raiding party from Greywater Watch to sneak into Winterfell from behind. That same sneakiness would cost Greyjoy dearly as Tyrell, fresh from the capture of Sunspear, mounted a daring commando raid from Highgarden to capture Flint's Finger.

And so ends this report of Border Board Games' February edition. Coming up on Saturday the 26th is the monthly 3.5 edition D&D campaign.

Next Game Nights

The next regular board game night will be Feb. 19th at the Derby Line Village Hall starting at 6 PM.

The next D&D 3.5 night will be on Feb 26th at Richard and Bethany's hosue and will begin when DM Rob and Angela show up (sometime after 6 PM). If you are interested in joining this campaign, please contact Richard or Bethany at trashvacuum@hotmail.com.

A Night of Ghosts and Gallactica

Jan 15th's Border Board Games was a quiet one with Bethany, Richard, Rob, Angela, and Carlo attending. Carlo arrived just as the game, Ghost Stories, was getting started. Richard and Bethany had played Ghost Stories before and had wanted to try again. Rob and Angela brought their copy and provided the opportunity to try this difficult game.

Ghost Stories is a cooperative 4-player game where you each control a monk (or what I call a ninja since each player token looks like a ninja) where you try to keep a village from becoming haunted and making all the inhabitants run away in fear. There are nine tiles you can move your ninja to and each tile allows your ninja to do a special action. Each ninja also has his own special power than can be used on his own turn.

When it is your turn, you draw a ghost card and place it on the board. Some ghosts are difficult to defeat, some not so difficult, and some add 'haunters' to the board. If a haunter reaches the board's edge, a tile is turned over and becomes inactive. If there tiles are turned over, the village has become haunted and the players lose. I'm not sure of other losing conditions.

On your turn, you can move one space and then take an action, either using the tile's action or fighting a ghost. Since a lot of ghosts come out, it seems ninjas spend most of the time fighting ghosts and not using the tiles' powers.

We were able to fend of ghosts pretty well but in the end, three tiles had been turned over and we ended up losing the game before even seeing the big bad ghost to even try to defeat him.

After Ghost Stories, we broke out Battlestar Gallactica complete with all the expansions. Everyone except Angela had played before. Bethany accused Rob of being a cylon even before loyalty cards were dealt. Bethany played Tory as president, Richard played Felix, Rob played Helo as Admiral, Angela played Apollo, and Carlo was Galen. It was tough determining who the trader or traders were although, as the game got near the end, it was suspected that Rob was a cylon. Carlo suggested that Rob/Helo be put in the airlock and Bethany/Tory felt that was an excellent idea. The skill check didn't pass and Rob/Helo remained alive. It was curious that there were about half the cards in favor of airlocking Rob and about half that weren't which made me (Bethany) suspect there was another trader but not sure who.

Rob/Helo then revealed himself as a cylon (see! Bethany was right!)and he tried to work his evil powers to bring the Gallactica down. And then shortly after, at Rob's urging, Angela revealed herself as a cylon too! But it was too late and Gallactica managed to jump to Kobol.

This game of Gallactica seemed a bit unusual in that Gallactica's resources didn't drain as quickly as they normally seem to, therefore, the game was in favor of the humans. We didn't play for 11 hours although I'm sure Carlo would have been happy if we did.

Lest old acquaintance be forgot....

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Our monthly D&D game was advanced owing to scheduling conflicts at month's end and it turned out to be the final night for two more of our companions. With Ken's departure in December, we also ran out of Joshes. Both original Josh and J-Roc were counted out though OJ did attend to see his character go out in a blaze of glory.

The heroes have actually adventured twice since the last report. In the interim the group had found itself transported into a bleak and desolate future. The lands were barren and rife with all manner of gigantic, fell vermin. The place was also crawling with barbarous inhabitants, disguised as human beings. The men were clad in the finest mithral gear, certainly such a wealth of it that our party was near blinded by the stuff. We encountered a young, arrogant guardsman who, while we had hoped would serve as our guide in this strange place, would instead prove a foil to all our efforts.

After narrowly escaping the confines of the wretched human city, a city we later learned as poisoned by perfect Order, we made our ways to the haunted mines, there to seek the precious Gem of Night which would help us defeat the dark lord Baleron. Our monk Yama made off after an encountered with enormous ants and our guide/prisoner would later prove as treacherous as the landscape.

We had barely bested a huge spider when we encountered what remained of this region's elves. It had appeared that we have traveled through time once again, into a future where baleron had isolated Order from Chaos. It was this dissection that created the extremes of terrain and climate that so troubled those of us with a bent for nature. From these subterranean elves we learned that Baleron's efforts had spawned not one but FOUR Tarrasques. The dread creatures were wending their way back to the wicked mage seeking to do battle with him. sadly, though these titanic forces might well destroy one another, their battle would also very likely kill everyone and everything else as well.

sadly the elves who had managed to draw one of Baleron's Order stones back into the caverns also brought with them a troop of the perverse humans. They quickly freed their kinsmen and set in motion a dire chase through the darkness. At last, just as the remainder of the party stepped into portals to flee the attack, Amra the barbarian spotted the human traitor. Flying into one of his trademark rages, he smote the vicious creature only to be felled by the arrows of the man's kinsmen.

Our numbers much reduced, those of us remaining have pledged to carry on and seek the gem and bring an end to Baleron's tyranny before his machinations spell the ruin of us all....

Games 'til You Puke at Last

There has been considerable delay in posting a report of the fun and mayhem at GtYP, a hopefully annual gaming event at The Lair. It was certainly a smaller crowd than attended the memorial Day GtYP event but that did nothing to diminish the fun. Carlo headed down from places north while Homer and the Crew and Josh ventured out of Newport.

It was an opportunity for the Creasers to break out some of their newly acquired games. All of the new games hit one table or the other at some point during the day. Despite being her own concave/convex copy, Beth did not fare well as the treacherous two headed snake in Betrayal at House on the Hill. The heroes, consisting of Josh, Homer and Carlo, were able to stop her reptilian rampage.

Meanwhile, Alexis, Zeke and I engaged in a few crazy hands of Cockroach Poker. For anyone not familiar with this card game, it is a simple game of lying and passing the bug. I'm sure that it likely plays differently with more than three people but, with three, the level of interaction is frequent and high keeping everyone engaged.

Also hitting the table was my new copy of Carson City. I had foolishly thought I had built up my gunfighting skills sufficient to run away with the game. Homer, having scored all of one point in the previous three rounds, won a pair of crucial duels leading up to the final 5 for 1 point payday and crept by me winning 39-38 for the win. For their first game Kim, Alexis and Zeke held their own. It is definitely a game that requires a few plays in order to develop a sense of what strategies exist and how to coordinate character role selection with the strategy of choice.

Alexis, Kim, Homer and I also played a few rounds of Forbidden Island. Our first foray was an unmitigated disaster. Among the six tile cards immediately drawn were both of the Sphinx treasure tiles as well as Fool's Landing. Though we had helicopter lifts and sandbags, there was simply too much to do in so short a time. Play started with Alexis and made it through Kim and then to Homer when the first "Waters Rise!" card appeared. By the time my turn came around both of the Sphinx tiles were again flooded and then I drew the second "Waters Rise!" to end the game. Our second game ended more favorably with the crew narrowly escaping the encroaching flood waters. While much of the board had sunk beneath the waves, Fool's Landing and a few other tiles remained afloat long enough to gather everyone for the flight home.

Josh, Carlo, Beth and Zeke engaged in a game of Goblin Wars. Beyond it being a card laying game, there isn't much I can say about how it plays or even who won. During a fly-through to secure some snacks I did notice that all four players had quite the collection of cards laid out before them.

Early in the day we had a rousing eight-man throw down game of Bang! incorporating the Wild West Show. Sheriff Beth had whittled down the enemies until it was merely a contest between her and the renegade Big Spence (Homer) when everyone came back to life again. The contest ended with the outlaws victorious.

In a second match using Wild West Show and High Noon I was the sheriff and, though the forces of evil were on the ropes, my deputy misplayed one final card and gave the victory to the outlaws. I was down to a single life point with no cards in hand, both deputies were alive and Outlaw Zeke looked to be headed for Boot Hill. Then Deputy Beth played Indians and killed the outlaw and the sheriff giving the win to the wrong side.

The long awaited colonial throw-down in Age of Empires III ended in a most peculiar fashion. All four players had very respectable point totals with even the lowest total, Zeke's 77 points, normally being enough for the win. I managed to pull away in the final rounds with several key first place finishes in the colonies. A respectable trade good income round of point scoring didn't hurt either. The early pick-up of the Age I merchant provided me with enough money to continue to develop a strong base of development tiles. Britain ran away with the lead scoring 125 points followed by Homer's Spanish at 95, Josh's Dutch at 85 and Zeke's French at 77. It was very strange in that everyone appeared to be flush with cash throughout the game. Zeke's economy was sluggish but he more than compensated by nailing some of the highest yielding soldier explorations. Indeed, in one round alone his conquest netted him more than 20 coins.

While some of us were busy rewriting history, Beth, Carlo, Kim and Alexis were finding out the problems inherent in occupying a Small World. The game was played using the limited edition Necromancer's island rules that Carlo brought along. It was a closely fought contest that ended in a tie between Beth and Kim. A quick trip through the rule book determined the way to break a tie and Beth won by the narrowest of margins.

We also worked in a game of A La Carte earlier in the day. I managed to get the win but only by ruining Homer's blue plate special and inadvertently burning a chocolate mousse. The Little Blonde Girl (Alexis) once again showed her cutthroat side in a contest of Palazzo. Admittedly we have not played many games of Palazzo but Alexis' feat remains, none the less, quite impressive. She managed to construct a perfect brick palace to score an untouchable 27 points with a single building. She had also started work on a more modest palace but the points from her first building alone prove3d sufficient to wipe the rest of us from the board. Indeed, Kim, Homer and I were lucky enough to get some two storey buildings up to avoid the negative five point loss when the last Emperor's Emissary tile came out.

This year's GtYP was put together rather quickly, given that we had a drive back from Nova Scotia to accomplish before we could even dream of hosting. In spite of that, it was a day filled with games, laughter, good-natured outrage and, much to our delight as hosts, no puking. We will certainly look forward to hosting another GtYP event, perhaps again looking at memorial Day weekend to do so. We will keep you posted.