Monday, June 15, 2020

MORE June Games (and... Other Stuff)


Another week... a few more games...


It LOOKS like we played a LOT of games on the 2nd, 9th, 10th, and 15th... but those were each ONE game of Blackstone Fortress - but I used FIVE expansions with each game we played and I try to always log plays with each item I used, that I have catalogued on Board Game Geek... (Otherwise it looks like I got a tonne of stuff I never use... well... I DO have a tonne of stuff that I never use - so I'd like to remind myself that I DO use SOME of it!?)


Monday, 8 June 2020

As I had mentioned in the Previous Post, Monday was to be our Blackstone Fortress Night going forward... but that didn't happen. I was still assembling furniture. I'd been working all day on the bookshelves and the LAST ONE was missing a piece... and rather than wait another 3-6 weeks for a replacement part to show up - all the while tripping over a partially assembled book shelf and piles of books that were to go ONE said bookshelf - I decided to manufacture a piece and just get it DONE. This took me well into the evening, so I decided to do a swap with Keira. On Tuesdays, she and Amanda are to watch an episode of Supernatural together... so the two of them watched an episode (or... two...? maybe three...?) while I finished the book shelf...

In the afternoon I'd gone out to get groceries and popped on by the Dragon's Den to pick up Engine War - as it had finally come in!


Tuesday, 9 June 2020

In the afternoon Amanda and I went for a bike ride. As part of this whole new schedule of things, she had been planning to get up and go for a half hour ride to start off her day - to sort of simulate/make up for the riding she was no longer doing, now that she's working at home. It didn't happen at all on Monday (because we were up a bit late on Sunday). Tuesday we didn't get out until noon - Oh, she'd started her work for the day, but decided to take a break at noon and go for a bike ride for a bit of a break (actually, in the new schedule, she's supposed to take a break at noon anyway - in addition to the morning ride - and do some sort of movement yoga, a walk, a ride, and impromptu dance party, whatever, just something to get her up from the desk and moving around - her set up here at home is not nearly so... ergonomic... as her office on campus... and she's starting to feel the effects of just sitting at our home computer all day!)

As we neared the end of our short loop, I peeled off and went for a bit of a longer ride, heading BACK to the Dragon's Den - this time to pick up Necromunda House of Chains - which had FINALLY been restocked! Apparently it had arrived just minutes after I'd left the day before!


In the evening...



We started on a NEW QUEST in Blackstone Fortress - The Dreaded Ambull!



The game went a little late, so we kind of paused it - at a bit of a cliffhanger - and left it set up on the table to finish the following day.


Wednesday, 10 June 2020 

Wednesday morning we DID get out for a ride.



Despite the sun, it was a bit chilly (and has been for the last few days!)



WE rode down to the South Bridge and across.



Back through Gabriel Dumont Park.

As we got to the Traffic Bridge, I peeled off and went for a longer ride - No, not to the Dragon's Den again (though I was briefly thinking I might later in the day... at this time, however, it was a few hours before it would have even been open!). I just wend for a bit of a longer ride while Amanda went home to start her work for the day.



Saw lots of goslings in the park downtown by the Vimy Memorial.



And a Blue Jay on a wire.

Later in the evening we continued with the game of Blackstone Fortress we'd started the evening before...



Starting with the encounter with Obsidious Mallex...



Then a battle with the Ambull itself!!!

More on this game here:

The Dreaded Ambull


Friday, 12 June 2020



Out for another morning ride with Amanda. We did the 8Km loop to the south bridge again and she tuned back when we crossed back over at the Traffic Bridge. I did another 37Km to the North Bridge, and then back down to the South Bridge again... and then another 10Km getting groceries.

In the evening, it was "Family Game Night"



Keira's choice for the evening: Dominion. We played one round. 30 minutes, tops... Ah, well... better than nothing.



We played with the Base Game and Intrigue and used a set of cards called "Underlings". I basically just bought Stewards and used them to buy gold or trash Estates and Copper and when I had enough gold I just started buying Provinces. But I couldn't buy them FAST ENOUGH! Should have picked up a Festival or two...



Amanda and I decided to play something else. We'd had fun playing hanging Gardens last week, so we tried that again, except with just the two of us.



Wow... when there is just TWO playing you get a LOT more tiles - and points. Amanda got super excited and, upon tallying up declared she did "really good" and had 93 points... (I had 118).


Saturday, 13 June 2020

Finnegan ran his D&D game.

I ran my Wrath & Glory game. Three showed up, so their Characters arrived in the Xoxigar system and met with a high ranking Adeptus Arbites official on Xoxigar Tertium, who informed them of some potential Heresy going on! The investigation began.

Totally forgot to do a screen shot of the game... AGAIN!


Sunday, 14 June 2020



Kind of rained all day. I spent a lot of the day just painting and organizing... but I did dig out the cello (after not playing for 6 months) and retensioned the strings and tried to learn a new tune with Keira. She's also not played for months. But I thought maybe I'd try and get her to play with me once or twice a week through the summer - just to keep in practice. I probably won't start taking lessons again any time soon, but Keira is starting high school in the fall and has signed up for band. We met the band instructor in the spring and she seemed pretty excited at the prospect of having a violinist join.

The tune we were figuring out were the first few bars of a string arrangement of Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the Name Of. It's been stuck in my head a lot lately. It is both despairing and infuriating that it is STILL so utterly relevant almost 30 years after it came out!?


Monday, 15 June 2020



Last week Amanda got an email from work saying they could make arrangements to go in and pick up certain stuff to take home for work... Seems the university is planning on keeping their employees working at home for the next little bit! So Monday morning we rolled over there to pick up a few things.



Afterwards I went out for a ride on my own... just along the paved trails up and down the river.



It had been TOTALLY sunny in the early morning when we first went out. but it rained the whole time I was out alone....

Later in the afternoon the sun came out - which was nice, because I had to head out and pick up groceries!




In the evening Amanda and I finished The Dreaded Ambull and conquered the Lair of the Beast! the Explorers successfully stole away with 3 priceless Ambull eggs!

I'll do a full report on those escapades in the next few days....


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The epic conclusion to The Dreaded Ambull: The Lair of the Beast!

New distractions on the workbench.

Also started working again on a few posts about necromunda gangs I started AGES ago!?

5 comments:

  1. A single speed, nice and relaxing !!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fixie, actually. Yeah... I have... a few...

      Actually, less than I did, now that I think of it - one was passed on to Finnegan... another had a derailleur added to it and THEN passed on to Finnegan. Another has been "retired for parts"... I guess I really only have three currently two fixes (the "fancy" one, above, and the "ugly" one that I ride to places and can lock up for extended periods of time, in the dark, in sketchy locations, and not worry too much about anyone stealing it!) and a single-speed mountain bike.

      You ride one?

      Delete
  2. We have a new bunny visiting our yard recently. I say new because it is a lot smaller than the one that visited last year. I'm of two minds about this visitor. It *is* very cute and, unlike the moles, it doesn't destroy the lawn. On the other hand, it has a definite taste for pansies and a couple of other annuals that we planted. On the other other hand, they're just annuals and didn't cost very much.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. like an actual bunny or wee Hare? There were bunnies all over Canmore last time I was there!

      We have hares all over the city. Big Snowshoe Hares. There is actually quite a bit of wildlife near our place - as we're only a couple blocks from the river... and it's not a very big city... and it's completely surrounded by a LOT of wide open space...

      There was a cougar that wandered into town and was spotted chilling in a couch in someone's back yard a couple years back! There have been a few dead deer found just south of town, more recently, and a cougar is suspected (makes me just a TAD nervous about going out for mountain bike rides on my own!)

      Delete
  3. Most likely it is a Mountain Cottontail

    ReplyDelete