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.

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.