July Games

For anyone paying attention that noticed there was no June games post... that's because I didn't play any games in June... The first week of June was a made rush to get things ready for our European Vacation... and then the rest of the month was the European vacation... during which we did not play any games. At least during June! 

At the beginning of July we were still on out European trip. The first three days of July Amanda was at the conference in Paris (which was the "REAL" reason for the trip...).  On the fourth we loaded everything up and got on a train that took us to Carcassonne... 

 

Sunday, 5 July 2026

Playing Carcassonne... in Carcassonne... with the walls of Carcassonne in the background!? 

It was crazy hot while we were there. Sunday was only 35°C, but it wasn't too bad in the shade of the rooftop terrace of our AirB&B... which afforded a spectacular view of the walls of the medieval city of Carcassonne, for which the game is named. 

We had hauled our copy of Carcassonne with us on the European Adventure (well, just the base game...) 

In the tourist offices, they actually SELL copies of the game! And a lot of the expansions AND a tile you can apparently ONLY BUY IN CARCASSONNE!? (obviously we bought one...)

(note; I later found the tile on BoardGameGeek, and there was no mention of it being ONLY available in Carcassonne... Ah, well...)

Monday, 6 July 2026

The following evening, after another day of exploring the city, we played another game. This time Amanda won! 

Amanda had been a bit grouchy about losing the previous evening and had made a comment about wondering if she EVER won games and if I just won all the time... THIS is the reason I log games on BoardGameGeek! So I did look it up. I did look up the stats…

Over the last twelve years, we have played 52 games of Carcassonne.

I have 19 logged wins

Amanda has 16 logged wins

In one game we were tied for first!

In four of the games someone other than Amanda or I was logged as the winner (Finnegan or Morgan - which does not reflect on their ability or win rate, they’ve just played very few games!). 

In twelve games, I did not record the scores or who won. 

Initially when I started logging games on BoardGameGeek, I did so just to keep track of how many games we played... (hence twelve games where no scoring data recorded) but after hearing a lot of complaints of me "always winning games" - and did NOT feel like that was actually the case - I started to track the wins and scores). There are some games that I tend to win more. Usually ones requiring pattern recognition or geometry.. Amanda tends to win a lot of others - generally ones that require executive functioning skills and planning, worker placement, task management, short-term memory, etc...  

Tuesday, 7 July 2026

in the morning we walked all over downtown Carcassonne again and took in the festivities around the start of the fourth stage of the 2026 Tour de France... and then walked up into the fortified city again and by 5 pm we were EXHAUSTED... so we went back to the apartment and ended up playing Carcassonne SIX MORE TIMES!? 

Still in cheery dispositions...

Amanda started getting tired of losing...

At this point it was apparently five games to one...?

I'm fairly certain she won at least one other game... I'd have to go check BoardGameGeek again... the whole vacation was a bit of blur at this point!?

and one more made NINE games of Carcassonne played in Carcassonne (with the walls of Carcassonne in the background!?

(and just like that, Carcassone became our most played game of the year, so far... With ten plays, that is more than double the next more played game - Sagrada - at five! I mean, we still have five and a half months to go this year and plans to get playing Warhammer Quest again... so that could change!) 

In some of the pictures it almost looks like a mural or background that would drop in with zoom... but I assure you, we rented a place with a rooftop deck that overlooked a square with a church and the walls of Carcassonne behind it...  

After this it was onto a train the following morning to get back to Paris and then flying home to Canada the next! 

Check out the Art Blog to see some of the doodles I did while I was there: 

Sketches from Carcassonne

Friday, 17 July 2026

Friday morning I rolled out to the Warhammer Store to play a game of Blood Bowl with Vera! I'd hoped to get there before it got too hot (and hoped it would be quiet there - as it often is on weekdays... Alas, there was another group setting up a game of 40K when I arrived. It ended up being not TOO noisy and I got through the game without too much troubles! 

Vera brought the Halfling team she's been painting for RJ - who I was to play on Monday! It was a bit of a preview of what COULD happen, I guess, if RJ couldn't make a successful dice roll to save his life... It was... wow... the game ended with the Gnarly Gobbos winning 4-1 - the solitary goal the Halflings scored was a pretty epic ONE TURN TOUCHDOWN where EVERYTHING went right. If things had gone right for Vera all game, it could easily have been the complete reverse! 

Read all about the game here:

Blood Bowl - Another Pre-Season Exhibition Match - against Halflings!! 

Monday, 20 July 2026

Monday I played my first Blood Bowl League game. I was pretty anxious about this. I was playing against someone I never met before and... you never really know with these open leagues that anyone can just join... but it ended up being a super good time! The fellow I played against, Ryan (or RJ, as goes by in the league, because there are two other Ryans in the league of 16 people!?) was a super friendly and fun opponent! He looks kind of serious in the picture above, but it was 90% laughs and 10% "Wow... How do I unfuck THIS situation!?" 

It was definitely the fastest first half I've played yet! I don't think there was a single turn in that first half where either of our teams got to activate more than half of the team before some idiot self-downed themself or tripped over their own feet, fumbling the ball  and ending the turn!? 

It was absolutely EPIC in it's absurdity! Hilarious and ridiculous. These are the games I remember over the years; where just DUMB STUFF happens and we just can't stop laughing. This is the very best of Blood Bowl! I look forward to when we meet again on the fields of astrogranite (Where Leon Cankersore will have his REVENGE against those trees that wronged him so! I mean, there are splinters in there that will just NEVER come out!?) 

My MVP absoloutely SHOULD have been #16 S. Maulfart... who was thrown by a troll (and was NOT eaten), landed on his feet without shattering his knees, dodged through THREE tackle zones and rushed twice to score that ONE goal in the VERY LAST turn of the game... only using ONE re-roll (from his Dodge skill!) 

Instead the MVP went to Lil Bopper, the Goblin Pogoer, who, while not actually scoring any goals or beating anyone up, was probably responsible for the most forward movement of the ball during the game, having gained possession of it one multiple occasions and running it up the field before, ultimately, being brought down by those sneaky, nasty halflingses (or... as was often the case... his own HUBRIS!!)

For more pictures and some brief commentary...

Blood Bowl League: Match #1 - Gnarly Gobbos versus Los Sicarios (Halflings!)

Thursday, 30 July 2026

I have to admit... I'm not a huge fan of Uno... But I am a fan of Shepard Fairey... and after seeing his work at the Moco Museum and the Beyond the Streets Exhibition in Paris, so is Amanda! Soooo..... 

We ended up buying a copy of the Uno Artists Series featuring his art work... 

It arrived on Thursday... 

So we somehow managed to convince the kids to try it out!

Morgan dropped out after one round, when they found out that a proper game involves keeping score at the end of each round and playing until someone got to 500... We ended up playing over a DOZEN rounds before someone scored over 500... 

Will we EVER play is again...!? I don't know. 

I know a number of the people Finnegan plays D&D with love it. Finnegan despises the game... but put up with it to play with us... so maybe he'll play it with them sometime.. 

Amanda will probably suggest it. We have friends that would play it... I don't mind it so much when I'm looking at fun art on the cards...

Friday, 31 July 2026

I'd had my second league game scheduled for the last day of July - but then my opponent got unexpectedly called into work!! Hopefully we'll get to play some time in the next week! 

Blood Bowl - Goblin Doom Divers

I thought it might be fun to have a Goblin Doom Diver on my Blood Bowl team! 

I really didn't want to use the current plastic or finecast resin one - it wouldn't really fit the aesthetic of the old metal goblins from the 80s/90s... So I looked on eBay and found plenty, but with shipping most were going to set me back $50-65CAD... for ONE Doom Diver... and... that doesn't bother me SO much these days... but I thought I'd have a look around to see if I could find something better! 

Ultimately, I discovered Games Workshop has re-released the old Warhammer Fantasy Doom Diver Catapult - which includes TWO Doom Divers (which I saw individually being sold for $50+ each) AND a whole catapult that I could probably make into a warmachine of some sort for some game (possibly replacing the doom diver with a large boulder...? or maybe a bound up dwarf!?) for $65CAD!?

So I went with that!

One of the Doom Divers required a bit of converting/modelling, as it was intended to be SEATED in the Catapult, waiting to be launched! 

Two Doom Divers!

#37 "Icky" Russ

(Backside of "Icky" Russ)

Russ is the only one I'm adding to the team at this time - as I am only allowed ONE Doom Diver - But incase he flies too close to the sun and his wings melt and he plummets to his death... or... just... some mean fucking Ogre stomps his guts into the ground... I have a back-up...

#38 "Daddy" Les

(Backside of "Daddy" Les) 

and I've gotten them done just in time for my second league game on Friday!! 

This is the line up for Game Two of the Bridge City Blood Bowl League. 

I also hired an Apothecary for the team... as it could potentially make it slightly less likely that someone important DIES during a game...? 

Blood Bowl League: Match #1 - Gnarly Gobbos versus Los Sicarios (Halflings!)

I played my first league game on Monday versus RJ and his Luchador-Halflings - Los Sicarios! I'd played against the team on Friday when Vera, who had painted them for RJ, decided she wanted to try them out before handing them back over to RJ! 

The weather was fine at the Halfling's pitch and the coin-toss determined the Gobbos would receive the first kick-off... and off we went!

The Gnarly Gobbos received he first kick-off!

#69 Jean Klean - the Goblin Ball-and-Chain Fanatic lurched into the halfling lines knocking Halfling left and right! 

#15 - Fungusface - the Goblin Chainsaw Lunatic - also surged forward, swinging his chainsaw about like a maniac! 

I realized #13 - Frankie Sweatscab had somehow snuck into my carrying case and ONTO THE FIELD despite not yet being hired by the team?! Whoopsie! Luckily he hadn't done anything at all and was quietly escorted off the field by security... well... quiet for a Goblin Blood Bowl player! Three of the security guards were stabbed in the incident and one bled out on the pitch... BUT THE GAME WENT ON!!!

Someone brought the ball up the field and tried to convince one of the Trolls to throw him (and the BALL!) up the field... unfortunately, the troll picked the poor lineman up and slammed him into the ground, knocking him out entirely and scattering the ball between the goblin and halfling lines... 

There was a LOT of goofy back-and-forth nonsense with one team trying to pick it up in the middle of the scrum only to get knocked down or trip themselves up trying to get OUT of the giant clusterfuck in the middle of the field... 

Both Fungusface and Jean Klean were knocked out of the game early in the first half - damaged by their OWN secret weapons when rotten little halflings tripped them up (I think mostly from throwing exploding pies at them?)!

Ever so slowly the ball made it's way toward the Halflings end zone... even if it wasn't always in the Gnarly Gobbos possession! 

One of the "Treemen"/Giant Cacti thumped #4 - Leon Cankersore - pretty good and he was out for the game... and would be out for the following game and developed a lifelong hatred of giant cacti, and, honestly, any sentient flora of any sort... I mean... there are cactus spines up in there that are never coming out! 

#7 - Bill S. Pestmaim - fouled one of the Halflings... and killed him DEAD!! (which apparently does NOT get you Star Player Points! I call bull shit on that! I mean, HOW are Goblins supposed to ever get ANY Star Player Points if they can't through taking opponents out via fouls!?).

Piles of players all over the field... ball, slowly rolling towards the Halfling end zone... 

It was a little ridiculous. I think it was the fastest first half I've ever played. I feel like there wasn't a single turn played where either team actually got to activate more than half of their team because SOME IDIOT would self-down themselves, or try to pick up the ball and fumble it because they were in the middle of SO MANY tackle zones of other players all trying to grab the ball (which would mean a turn-over) or they'd pick it up and try to move and get tripped up or tackles trying to dodge out of opponents tackle zones... 

The Gnarly Gobbos Team Captain, #1 Hotlicks Wobblespot briefly had possession of the ball and tried to dodge out of the scrum and got tripped up and fell so hard he STUNNED himself!?

Other #3 - Norg - one of the Gnarly Gobbos Trained Trolls went toe-to-tow with one of the Halflings Giant Cacti... or... Toe-to-Root...? I don't know... 

Eventually the game timed out and the whistle blew marking the end of the first half - No goals scored - but one halfling dead, so there was that! (Goblins are vicious little bullying curs!) 

Starting the second half the Gnarly Gobbos kicked off to the Los Sicarios Halflings! 

Head Coach RJ wondering how to unfuck this situation...!

(he looks pretty serious in this picture, but this game was 90% hoots of laughter it was all so completely absurd...) 

A Hafling picked up the ball and ran it up to hand off to another halfling that tried to get one of the Giant Cacti to hurl them down the field... but either the hand off was fumbled...? or the Giant Cacti fumbled the Halfling and we were back to a giant scrum in the middle with the ball bouncing here and there and players knocking each other down and rolling around in pain... 

Seriously... some of the rolls we had... THIS was after a troll tried to swat a Halfling lineman... with more than double the strength the troll got three block dice and on the first roll rolled TWO Self Down and one Both Down... so I used one of my two re-rolls that weren't stollen by the halflings... and above is what I rolled... a Self-Down and two Push-Back!? It was a minor improvement to push someone back and NOT get knocked down themselves (which would have ended my turn right there...) but it was frustrating to roll SIX DICE and not get a single POW! 

Somehow the ball got over to the other sideline and a Halfling got it and ran it up the side. #48 - Lil Bopper - the Goblin Pogoer - gave chase and tried to keep him hemmed up against the sidelines and stuck in his tackle-zone (necessitating dodging OUT of said tackle-zone to move forward)

But move forward he did and scored the first goal of the game!! WOOO!!!

The Gnarly Gobbos received another kick-off! 

Lil Bopper had bounded up the field with it and tried to hand if off to a Goblin Lineman for Dagadyr the Troll to hurl up the field... but the hand-off was fumbled and bounced and landed at the Trolls feet... who... PICKED IT UP!? 

The other troll, unfortunately, forgot why he was there and the Goblin Linemen had to gang up on some Halflings themselves to knock them down... 

Dagadyr trundled up the field and tried to pass the ball back to Lil Bopper, but they were swarmed by Halflings and a giant cacti and they lost possession and it bounced... and grabbed by someone else... 

Who was knocked down and it bounced again... 

Norg going toe-to-root with the giant Cacti again... this time the Cacti got the better of him and knocked his ass out cold. 

What a mess... 

Somehow, someone on the Halfling team picked up the ball and hurled it down the field.. 

.. where another player actually caught it... and was able to hand it off to another player... 

Who ran it in for a SECOND GOAL!!! WOOOO!!!!

This was on their last turn of the game... 

The Gnarly Gobbos had ONE LAST TURN... and were down 2-0... 

Recieving the Kick-Off, Lil Bopper, the Pogoer, bounded up the field and handed the ball off to #16 - S. Maulfart! 

Dagadyr the Trained Troll, not only remembered why he was there, AND managed to NOT EAT Maulfart, AND hurled him (rather inaccurately) up the field, where Maulfart managed to land on his feet and not shatter his kneecaps! 

Maulfart took off down the field like a Cave Squig out of a bathtub, sprinting straight at the line of defence the Halflings had established.  

He dodged through two tackle-zones and rushed once to get past the line... 

and then had to dodge OUT of the tackle-zone and rush once again to make it into the end zone and score a single goal for the Gnarly Gobbos!

and the crowd

WENT 

FUCKING

WILD!!!!

WOW!!! what and insane series of successful dice rolls that had to happen to pull that off - and all without any Team Re-Rolls!? (one Dodge roll was failed, but re-rolled because the Goblins all have the Dodge Skill!) 

POST GAME SEQUENCE...

We went through most of the post-game sequence. 

First was recording the outcome and collecting the winnings - the app we're using kind of did all the recording. The Halflings won, scoring two Touchdowns and the Gnarly Gobbos scored the one. 

Leon Cankersore will be out the next game due to injury and thereafter will have a "Niggling Injury" (any future Casualty rolls - to see how serious a serious injury is - will be done with a +1)

Trampa De Miel, a "Halfling Hopeful" (lineman) died of his injuries... 

The Halflings gained another thousand Dedicated Fans. I did not LOSE any... because you can't drop below ONE Thousand!? 

#48 Lil Bopper was determined to be the MVP for the Gnarly Gobbos (it's kind of random) and gained four star player points. While not actually scoring any goals or beating anyone up, he was probably responsible for the most forward movement of the ball during the game, having gained possession of it one multiple occasions and running it up the field before, ultimately, being brought down by those sneaky, nasty halflingses (or... as was often the case... his own HUBRIS!!)

As MVP, Lil Bopper gained four Star Player Points and I decided to spend three of those on a Random Primary Skill and ended up with Safe Pair of Hands - which essentially means if ever he is knocked down or falls down, he can CHOOSE an empty square for the ball to fall into, rather than it randomly scattering... 

#16 S. Maulfart gained one Star Player Point for safely landing after being tossed and three more Star Player Points for scoring a touchdown... so I also spent three of those on a Random Primary Skill and ended up with Quick Foul... which means when he's fouling... like hitting during a Blitz, it DOESN'T stop his movement, he can foul a downed player on the run and keep on going!? (assuming he's NOT kicked out of the game!) 

In retrospect, I'm not sure spending the star player points on random skills was a great idea. Instead I could have waited and spent six to PICK a primary skill (or ten to pick a secondary skill) ... (or fourteen to have a random characteristic improved). The skills I got aren't the most useful, but with gaining skills, the VALUE of each player increases by 20,000 gold for a Primary Skill - regardless of whether you picked a useful skill or took a random one that ended up being not-so-useful! 

#1 Hotlicks Wobblespot and #3 Norg the Troll both gained two Star Player Points for injuring opponents

The Halflings took in 80,000 gold crowns and the Gnarly Gobbos took in 70,000 (so they now have 145,000 gold in their treasury!).

I'm not entirely sure WHAT to do with all that gold? I now have 145,000 gold in my treasury!

I could get a Doom Diver and either an Apothecary... or an 'Oolingan... or a Bomma... or TWO more Linemen...? 

I don't know... we'll see..