I've been lax in keeping the blog current so I'm making up for it today with a graphic recounting of the annual Border Board Games horror fest. It's been our tradition to break out our monster themed games in October because, well, monster games are cool. We were pleased to have some travelers from away as well as a few new faces at the Derby Line Village Hall this month.
Thanks to Evil Brad and Lia for coming along as well as a big thanks to Lee, Monique, Josh and Alton for coming by. Alton has been a regular for the past few months but, due to my sloth, hadn't been mentioned yet. The regular gang of Beth, Rob, Mike, Dennis, Homer, Neil and myself made for three tables of mayhem.
The longest game of the evening pitted Beth, Monique, Rob, Josh and Neil against The Dark Goat of the Wood itself - Shub-Nigurrath. The gang battled bravely fending off repeated monster surges, travelling to the outer worlds and eventually sealing off the evil from Arkham. having watched a few how-to videos on Arkham Horror prior to Saturday night enabled the gang to formulate a plan to help dig out the tools and knowledge the group needed to accomplish their task.
Lee, Lia and Alton tackled Betrayal at House on the Hill in the first installment of the game played. Not sure how that went but it appeared that they enjoyed themselves thoroughly.
Meanwhile, Homer, Dennis , Mike and I tried to take on Evil Brad and his legions of undead in Last Night on Earth. By some bizarre twist, this game turned out to be the worst Bible camp experience any of our characters had ever experienced. With Father McFeely (or whatever his name was) leading the group of teens in Sally, Jenny and Billy, it was some old dude and a bunch of hormonal kids against ravenous hordes. The outcome was pretty much a foregone conclusion as Brad unleashed endless waves of zombies while the teens picked through the wreckage of the high school in an attempt to dig up anything useful.
What they managed to find was a chainsaw in the garage, a pair of flares guns and not much else. father McFeely's flare gun lit up a zombie while Sally decided to use hers to send a signal for help. Unfortunately, the only help that arrived smelled bad, looked worse and only wanted to eat us all. No one is really sure what Billy did except to turn into a zombie and cost us the game.
In a strange twist, the transition from LNoE to Tammany Hall came as a great surprise to all of us. But politics is a horror show of its own I suppose. In the end, despite having trailed the pack for most of the game, Dennis pulled out the win based on the strength of his Irish votes. Dennis winning control of New York is probably what triggered the zombie apocalypse that followed.
From Tammany Hall, Brad and I took the hearse of defeat over to join Lia and Lee for a game of Zombicide. Our task was seemingly simple - gather some supplies, jack a car and get the heck out of Dodge. Amy, Ned, Phil and Wanda had to break into the old store, gather up water, canned goods and rice, find a car and then drive off into the post-apocalyptic sunset. easy-peasy you say. Well, it kind of was thanks to a couple of sawed off shotguns, an early Molotov cocktail, my second chainsaw of the night and some timely sniping. In the biggest surprise of the night, Evil Brad (or Brad the Beatific) declared that no one would get left behind. Constable Phil was stuck on the other side of the building by the Pimp Mobile and wouldn't be able to make it to the squad car for the quick getaway. Rather than abandon a fellow survivor, the gun toting maniacs decided to shoot Phil a path back across the Mega Mart. In the end, hot-foot Wanda raced the car around the corner and to safety, all four survivors and the goods intact.
Meanwhile, round two of Betrayal was breaking out as Beth, Monique, Josh, Rob and Neil braved that creaking old mansion on top of the hill. The haunt (Neil) turned out to be a pretty potent poltergeist. As the heroes rushed around, somewhat ineffectually, trying to find and light candles to perform an exorcism, Neil floated around choking them out one by one. In the end the poltergeist found the peace he sought, even if it was occasionally disturbed by the drip-drip-dripping of his victims' blood.
And that was how we spent our Almost-Halloween. How about you?
Showing posts with label board games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label board games. Show all posts
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Sunday, March 17, 2013
All kinds of monkey business
One of our largest gatherings of recent memory brought a couple new, if familiar, faces to Border Board Games on Saturday night. We were pleased to have Lia travel from Burlington and Tim from up the road to join us for gaming mayhem.
The games started earlier in the day with twin tables of Battlestar Galactica. In both cases the cylons failed to destroy Galactica as the humans limped back to earth. There was no food, half the people had died en route to cylon attacks and fuel was running lower than the gas tank on a teenagers truck but for whatever reason people seemed happy. The fleet felt more spacious than it had before and a can of jellied meat seemed to last longer these days....
After a delicious meal of pub fare (it being St. Patrick's Day weekend it just felt right), we headed down to the Derby Line Village Hall for gaming. We had Beth running a table of Spin Monkeys, a new-to-our-collection product from Rio Grande Games that places monkeys in bumper cars running over fruit. It never having hit the table before it was a completely new experience for Rob, the Mikes, Lia, Andrew and Beth. It's a rather light game, as one might expect from the theme, but accommodated a lot of people and much hilarity ensued.
At the next table, and by special request, Dennis, Homer, Sue, Tim and I tackled Tammany Hall. As was the case in our previous experience, Dennis and Homer quickly struck a devil's bargain. Slippery Dennis was elected the first Mayor of New York only to face slander from every direction over the corruption of the worst police chief the city has ever seen (Homer). Tricky Dick served the next two terms as mayor despite a steadily eroding voter base, swinging a deal with Slandering Sue.
Once again, however, clean campaigning and skillful manipulation of immigrant populations helped the winner, Honest Tim, surge ahead at the polls and in the hearts of the Irish and Italians alike. Clearly the protestants were not his power base. despite having lingered in the back throughout much of the game both Tim and Sue rode waves of popularity to surge ahead of the embattled Tammany Hall veterans. Sue's surge fell just shy but did enable her to go from a distant fifth to second place behind Tim's impressive victory.
Afterwards Mike O, Rob and I tried Rob's game Sentinels of the Multiverse, a superhero themed co-op game. The game features a variety of different heroes each with their own respective power and equipment decks squaring off against a dastardly super villain and his minions. We may have inadvertently extended the length of the game at one point but our trio of masked avengers seemed largely incompetent in terms of dealing the villain a mortal blow. Next time Citizen whatsyourface...next time.
At the other table Andrew, St. Jay Mike, Beth and Dennis played Dominion. Apparently Mike and Dennis were slightly soured on he game based on their original introduction to the game. Having gone through the game with people willing to teach them instead of just beat them appears to have made new converts to the former Game of the Year.
Who knows what merrymaking will accompany the Border Board Games in April but I for one wouldn't mind tossing out a Uwe Rosenberg title onto the table.
The games started earlier in the day with twin tables of Battlestar Galactica. In both cases the cylons failed to destroy Galactica as the humans limped back to earth. There was no food, half the people had died en route to cylon attacks and fuel was running lower than the gas tank on a teenagers truck but for whatever reason people seemed happy. The fleet felt more spacious than it had before and a can of jellied meat seemed to last longer these days....
After a delicious meal of pub fare (it being St. Patrick's Day weekend it just felt right), we headed down to the Derby Line Village Hall for gaming. We had Beth running a table of Spin Monkeys, a new-to-our-collection product from Rio Grande Games that places monkeys in bumper cars running over fruit. It never having hit the table before it was a completely new experience for Rob, the Mikes, Lia, Andrew and Beth. It's a rather light game, as one might expect from the theme, but accommodated a lot of people and much hilarity ensued.
At the next table, and by special request, Dennis, Homer, Sue, Tim and I tackled Tammany Hall. As was the case in our previous experience, Dennis and Homer quickly struck a devil's bargain. Slippery Dennis was elected the first Mayor of New York only to face slander from every direction over the corruption of the worst police chief the city has ever seen (Homer). Tricky Dick served the next two terms as mayor despite a steadily eroding voter base, swinging a deal with Slandering Sue.
Once again, however, clean campaigning and skillful manipulation of immigrant populations helped the winner, Honest Tim, surge ahead at the polls and in the hearts of the Irish and Italians alike. Clearly the protestants were not his power base. despite having lingered in the back throughout much of the game both Tim and Sue rode waves of popularity to surge ahead of the embattled Tammany Hall veterans. Sue's surge fell just shy but did enable her to go from a distant fifth to second place behind Tim's impressive victory.
Afterwards Mike O, Rob and I tried Rob's game Sentinels of the Multiverse, a superhero themed co-op game. The game features a variety of different heroes each with their own respective power and equipment decks squaring off against a dastardly super villain and his minions. We may have inadvertently extended the length of the game at one point but our trio of masked avengers seemed largely incompetent in terms of dealing the villain a mortal blow. Next time Citizen whatsyourface...next time.
At the other table Andrew, St. Jay Mike, Beth and Dennis played Dominion. Apparently Mike and Dennis were slightly soured on he game based on their original introduction to the game. Having gone through the game with people willing to teach them instead of just beat them appears to have made new converts to the former Game of the Year.
Who knows what merrymaking will accompany the Border Board Games in April but I for one wouldn't mind tossing out a Uwe Rosenberg title onto the table.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
In the morass of 19th century politics, nice gals finish first
This month marked the unveiling of several new games from our collection. The first to hit the table was the Kickstarter gem Tammany Hall. History buffs and gamers alike will enjoy this rollicking romp through mid-19th century politics in New York City. Joining me for the ride were Dennis, Kim, Homer and Mike O. As this was our first play-through we had no idea what to expect and even less of an idea as to the best path to proceed.
What resulted was bizarre table-talk, double-dealing and treachery. For anyone familiar with Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery, Tammany Hall maintains many of the same devices of wheeling and dealing. Indeed, this element is what makes the game shine both for its crisp mechanics as well as a solid social experience. Dennis and Homer jumped right in securing a deal that gave up wards to one another in exchange for considerations in other areas. They also were the first to make use of their slander tokens, driving my poor, beleaguered gang bosses out of the largely Italian dominated Lower East Side.
Several battlegrounds emerged throughout the game as the mixture of immigrant populations ebbed and flowed. As the German and English populations spread, the Italians became increasingly confined to only a few areas while the Irish presence remained hotly contested throughout. In the end, Kim's practice of keeping her deals and avoiding using slander to best opponents as well as a single, well-timed deception enabled her to pull ahead of her less virtuous rivals and snag the victory.
At the second table St. Jay Mike, Beth, Sue and Noah competed in a good old-fashioned Power Grid throwdown. Using the Germany map, Beth pulled ahead and St. Jay Mike admitted he saw the writing on the wall. Forty-five minutes before the game officially ended he said he could see that Beth's line placement and generation assets would propel her to the win.
After the first round of games we proceeded to break out At the Gates of Loyang where Beth once again displayed her vegetable mastery. Though three plays, two being two-player games, Beth's unapparent strategy continued to serve her well. Though Homer, kim and I managed respectable finsihes (all three of us tied for second place as it turned out), Beth's economic engine prevailed.
At the second table the Mikes, Noah and Dennis ran through a game of Navegador. I am uncertain how it played through but it appeared that everyone seemed much satisfied at game's end.
I suspect that Tammany Hall will again return at the March Border Board Games game night as well as a few other favorites and new titles such as Urbanization and Netrunner. I also suspect that if either Agricola or Ora et Labora were to be proposed it is highly likely that they too might hit the tables.
What resulted was bizarre table-talk, double-dealing and treachery. For anyone familiar with Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery, Tammany Hall maintains many of the same devices of wheeling and dealing. Indeed, this element is what makes the game shine both for its crisp mechanics as well as a solid social experience. Dennis and Homer jumped right in securing a deal that gave up wards to one another in exchange for considerations in other areas. They also were the first to make use of their slander tokens, driving my poor, beleaguered gang bosses out of the largely Italian dominated Lower East Side.
Several battlegrounds emerged throughout the game as the mixture of immigrant populations ebbed and flowed. As the German and English populations spread, the Italians became increasingly confined to only a few areas while the Irish presence remained hotly contested throughout. In the end, Kim's practice of keeping her deals and avoiding using slander to best opponents as well as a single, well-timed deception enabled her to pull ahead of her less virtuous rivals and snag the victory.
At the second table St. Jay Mike, Beth, Sue and Noah competed in a good old-fashioned Power Grid throwdown. Using the Germany map, Beth pulled ahead and St. Jay Mike admitted he saw the writing on the wall. Forty-five minutes before the game officially ended he said he could see that Beth's line placement and generation assets would propel her to the win.
After the first round of games we proceeded to break out At the Gates of Loyang where Beth once again displayed her vegetable mastery. Though three plays, two being two-player games, Beth's unapparent strategy continued to serve her well. Though Homer, kim and I managed respectable finsihes (all three of us tied for second place as it turned out), Beth's economic engine prevailed.
At the second table the Mikes, Noah and Dennis ran through a game of Navegador. I am uncertain how it played through but it appeared that everyone seemed much satisfied at game's end.
I suspect that Tammany Hall will again return at the March Border Board Games game night as well as a few other favorites and new titles such as Urbanization and Netrunner. I also suspect that if either Agricola or Ora et Labora were to be proposed it is highly likely that they too might hit the tables.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Witches, oil barons and treachery oh my!
The March edition of Border Board Games saw the return of a lost son and a visit from the southern marches. We were pleased that Rob was able to rejoin us and Bradford Brad journeyed north to join our merry band. Also stopping by for the first time in ages was daniel, the chess guy. I'm sure Shannon remembers him well.
We started the evening with a round of base set Dominion that featured Brad, Beth, Rob and myself. It's been ages since we broke out Dominion and, not surprisingly, some of us had gotten fuzzy about what exactly each card did. Our card set up was also less than ideal lying sometwhere between a bastard and a punch in the face. We had only two 3 value cards and the awful thief made an early appearance. Needless to say, coin was scarce in the latter goings with Rob the only player to acquire more than a single Province. Despite being cash poor, my witches proved brutally effective clearing out the Curse deck as a way to spend a quick finish. As it turned out, despite his collection of Provinces, the big pile of purple cards dragged down Rob's final score allowing me to squeak in the victory.
Next up was a game of Black Gold, the newest addition to our collection. St. Jay Mike took one for the team replacing Dennis at the chess table. It's still a fairly new title for us but it is a surprisingly simple game to play. Hudson Oil appeared to fall on hard times throughout the game with its prices yo-yoing between average and terrible forcing most of the bid battles on Jet Oil and US Oil. In the end, a key win for Brad gave him the edge and the win. Despite a slow start including a noticeable lack of oil derricks, Dennis rebounded nicely to snag second place on the strength of a solid position of hi train in the final round.
Our final game of the evening proceeded after the departure of Brad and Daniel, one headed south, the other north of The Wall. Shadows Over Camelot, aka The Traitor Game, was the choice of the night, both because of its ability to accomodate a large number of players as well as not having hit the table in a long time. Not surprisingly, once again I was dealt the traitor card. For a game with so much randomness, it is positively uncanny how often I am selected to try and sabotage the efforts of the noble knights.
My efforts would be quickly foiled, however, since only a single lasting sepcial black card ever appeared, Morgan, and it was eliminated in a single round as the Saxons were routed from England's shores. The knights proved frightfully effective capturing both Excalibur and Lancelot's armor in addition to completing a few other quests. Though I remained undiscovered until the end, the loyal knights had banked sufficient white swords that even a sudden reversal of fortunes was unable to swing things my way.
The next edition of Border Board games will be the BBG Roadshow in Lyndonville. To everyone else it will be known as Spring Meltdown. We return to the Derby Line Village Hall for the May game night.
We started the evening with a round of base set Dominion that featured Brad, Beth, Rob and myself. It's been ages since we broke out Dominion and, not surprisingly, some of us had gotten fuzzy about what exactly each card did. Our card set up was also less than ideal lying sometwhere between a bastard and a punch in the face. We had only two 3 value cards and the awful thief made an early appearance. Needless to say, coin was scarce in the latter goings with Rob the only player to acquire more than a single Province. Despite being cash poor, my witches proved brutally effective clearing out the Curse deck as a way to spend a quick finish. As it turned out, despite his collection of Provinces, the big pile of purple cards dragged down Rob's final score allowing me to squeak in the victory.
Next up was a game of Black Gold, the newest addition to our collection. St. Jay Mike took one for the team replacing Dennis at the chess table. It's still a fairly new title for us but it is a surprisingly simple game to play. Hudson Oil appeared to fall on hard times throughout the game with its prices yo-yoing between average and terrible forcing most of the bid battles on Jet Oil and US Oil. In the end, a key win for Brad gave him the edge and the win. Despite a slow start including a noticeable lack of oil derricks, Dennis rebounded nicely to snag second place on the strength of a solid position of hi train in the final round.
Our final game of the evening proceeded after the departure of Brad and Daniel, one headed south, the other north of The Wall. Shadows Over Camelot, aka The Traitor Game, was the choice of the night, both because of its ability to accomodate a large number of players as well as not having hit the table in a long time. Not surprisingly, once again I was dealt the traitor card. For a game with so much randomness, it is positively uncanny how often I am selected to try and sabotage the efforts of the noble knights.
My efforts would be quickly foiled, however, since only a single lasting sepcial black card ever appeared, Morgan, and it was eliminated in a single round as the Saxons were routed from England's shores. The knights proved frightfully effective capturing both Excalibur and Lancelot's armor in addition to completing a few other quests. Though I remained undiscovered until the end, the loyal knights had banked sufficient white swords that even a sudden reversal of fortunes was unable to swing things my way.
The next edition of Border Board games will be the BBG Roadshow in Lyndonville. To everyone else it will be known as Spring Meltdown. We return to the Derby Line Village Hall for the May game night.
Friday, February 24, 2012
The Howling Hag that got away and other timely misfortunes
It was a strange sort of Border Board games for February 18th. With the village hall seeing some other use, the action moved to the newly re-christened Creaserton Abbey. Mike and Dennis came up from St. Jay early to get their game on. The afternoon started with Age of Empires III. Beth and her Dutch legions staked an early lead that she would not relinquish over the ten turns of the game. Racking up many points in the colonization rounds coupled with some fortunate capital buildings allowed her to run off with a commanding victory. Dennis and his Portugese forces employed an interesting armed camp variation that effectively slashed into Beth's point total while bolstering his own. While the French under my leadership explored like mad, my lack of a presence in the colonies hampered my startegy. Though not sure what strategy Mike employed, his was at least as successful as my own despite a fourth place finish.
We then launched into a few rounds of Trans America at which point Mike O arrived. As Trans America goes, it tends to end quickly and a disasterous secound game saw Dennis plunge into the Pacific in near record time. I hink everyone saw the advantage ofusing the Screw You pieces and the second game saw frenzied placement in the rush to avoid a cliff-diving finale.
We then brought out Castle Ravenloft in a co-op frenzy to defeat the Howling hag. It was, in my estimation at least, one of the more difficult scenarios I have played to date. Having the party scattered to the four corners of the map forced us to rely on our own pitiful skills in the early going. My wizard and dennis' rogue teamed up in the one two-man group while the Mikes and Beth had to fight their way out of their respective corners. Dennis and I caught up to Mike O's ranger in short order while we blazed a path to the central summoning circle. Dennis, amazingly, managed to draw four of the five zero monster tiles in our push ahead.
Beth had poor luck as she almost instantly drew the howling hag figure. The tile placement was also working against her, locking her into a corner while Mike's fighter tried to cut his way down. Eventually we managed to open the circle and start whittling away at the time tokens. This is where things took a turn for the weird. Mike O had already taken heavy damage, often as the result of unfortunate Encounter draws. With two of the five time tokens off, the hag teleported Beth closer and herself further from the action. This is where we thought we had it won. Suddenly, my raggedy wizard was sucked off into a corner with two monsters including an Environment strengthrned ghoul. I used my fire blast but managed to slay only the rat swarm. The ghoul took one swipe and down I fell.
Meanwhile, the others battled an assortment of fiends near the circle as well as dealing the death blow to the hag herself. sadly, two of our companions dropped as well. All we needed to do to win was remove the final three time tiles by simply starting and ending our turns in the circle. unfortunately, two of the four characters in the circle were lying in pools of their own blood and we had but a single Healing Surge remaining. Thus, with the monster defeated, we still took the loss.
To cap off the night we rolled out an oldie but a goody: Settlers of Catan. It went as settlers often does. While most of us bickered amonst ourselves, the 8s were noticeably absent and the 4s and 10s obscenely prevalent. This was good for virtually everyone at the table except for Dennis and myself. Mike O pulled out the ninja victory by slowly but surely building up his roads and armies while everyone else concentrated on whomever built the latest city. In a stunning final move Mike O connected his two neighborhoods snatching away the longest road from Mike while simultaneously laying down his third knight to claim largest army for the win.
We then launched into a few rounds of Trans America at which point Mike O arrived. As Trans America goes, it tends to end quickly and a disasterous secound game saw Dennis plunge into the Pacific in near record time. I hink everyone saw the advantage ofusing the Screw You pieces and the second game saw frenzied placement in the rush to avoid a cliff-diving finale.
We then brought out Castle Ravenloft in a co-op frenzy to defeat the Howling hag. It was, in my estimation at least, one of the more difficult scenarios I have played to date. Having the party scattered to the four corners of the map forced us to rely on our own pitiful skills in the early going. My wizard and dennis' rogue teamed up in the one two-man group while the Mikes and Beth had to fight their way out of their respective corners. Dennis and I caught up to Mike O's ranger in short order while we blazed a path to the central summoning circle. Dennis, amazingly, managed to draw four of the five zero monster tiles in our push ahead.
Beth had poor luck as she almost instantly drew the howling hag figure. The tile placement was also working against her, locking her into a corner while Mike's fighter tried to cut his way down. Eventually we managed to open the circle and start whittling away at the time tokens. This is where things took a turn for the weird. Mike O had already taken heavy damage, often as the result of unfortunate Encounter draws. With two of the five time tokens off, the hag teleported Beth closer and herself further from the action. This is where we thought we had it won. Suddenly, my raggedy wizard was sucked off into a corner with two monsters including an Environment strengthrned ghoul. I used my fire blast but managed to slay only the rat swarm. The ghoul took one swipe and down I fell.
Meanwhile, the others battled an assortment of fiends near the circle as well as dealing the death blow to the hag herself. sadly, two of our companions dropped as well. All we needed to do to win was remove the final three time tiles by simply starting and ending our turns in the circle. unfortunately, two of the four characters in the circle were lying in pools of their own blood and we had but a single Healing Surge remaining. Thus, with the monster defeated, we still took the loss.
To cap off the night we rolled out an oldie but a goody: Settlers of Catan. It went as settlers often does. While most of us bickered amonst ourselves, the 8s were noticeably absent and the 4s and 10s obscenely prevalent. This was good for virtually everyone at the table except for Dennis and myself. Mike O pulled out the ninja victory by slowly but surely building up his roads and armies while everyone else concentrated on whomever built the latest city. In a stunning final move Mike O connected his two neighborhoods snatching away the longest road from Mike while simultaneously laying down his third knight to claim largest army for the win.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
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!
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!
Monday, July 18, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, June 20, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, March 21, 2011
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!
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!
Monday, March 7, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
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!
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!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, January 17, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
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.
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.
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