Put a little "AaaahhhHHH" in your life

October 20 marked the return of Border Board games' annual monster game fest.  We were pleased to have Carlo and Kristin drive up from barre for the event.  Also in attendance, beside Beth and myself, were regulars Mike O., Andrew, Dennis, St. Jay Mike and Karl.

We quickly split up into two groups as Beth, Carlo, Kristin, Mike O. and Andrew started up with Betrayal at House on the Hill.  They played two scenarios with the first being the Ghost Bride and the second where Beth became a vampire.  The Ghost bride failed to bring her beloved groom to the altar while the vampire succumbed to the strength of daylight as the heroes emerged victorious in both cases.

Meanwhile Karl, Dennis, St. Jay Mike and I tried our hand at A Touch of Evil, all for the first time.  To anyone familiar with Arkham Horror and Last Night on Earth, the play of aToE appears to combine some of the best portions of both games.  It is not scenario driven but, rather, dictated by the nature of the villain which gives the game a less structured feel.  That is good if you want a game that has the potential for replayability.  The heroes travel around the board visiting spooky colonial-era locations while seeking to gain information about the town elders, gather loot and weapons and try to figure out where the baddy lives.

Through a few missteps, mistakes which reminded me of my own lapses in running the Elder God in AH, we still managed to gleefully bumble our way through the game.  It was definitely a game where learning through play might prove more effective than trying to digest the entire manual in one go.  Dennis the hobo (he called himself a drifter but we saw through it easily enough), managed to track down the Headless Horseman and defeat him with good old fashioned musketry.  My school marm was closing in on the Horseman's lair in the bog but the drifter snatched away the chance.

In the next round of gaming table one played a game of Zombicide while table two cracked open Betrayal.  In Zombicide the heroes barely eked out the win despite a huge, ravenous horde of monsters rapidly closing in on them.  In Betrayal St. Jay Mike turned into a giant, hideous spider only to fall before the mighty little girl with the really big spear.  In Mike's defence it was sheer luck that the character who would have been easiest to fight, having sustained major damage prior to becoming the host for the spider eggs, was unassailable owing to those eggs.  Using the mystic elevator to gain access to the basement was also a bit of a cheat for the good guys but, hey, no one likes spiders anyway, right?

The next Border Board Games event will take place on November 17th at 6 p.m. in the Derby Line Village Hall.