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.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, May 2, 2011
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.
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.
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