September Game-A-Day Challenge: Week Two

Another successful week of our 30-Games-in-30-Days Challenge for September - though as we got into evening activities and classes this week, we found ourselves short on time a few days and had to play some quicker games...

Day Eight - Friday 8 September 2017 - Set/A Study in Emerald



We were in a bit of a rush to get a game in today as we'd had a busy day doing things and found ourselves with only a few minutes before people came over to play D&D (which we didn't end up playing, but more on that in a minute), so the kids and I banged out a quick game of Set while Finnegan was still finishing up his supper. He got off to a slow start - perhaps being distracted by the fact that he was still eating! Though as the game went on it was only him spotting them and I'm sure the last four or five were all him - and they are crazy sets where there were more different than the same. He nearly caught up to me and The Girl who tied at 9 (Finnegan ended up with seven). Usually good for some quick fun. The kids certainly had fun today. Occasionally if they're a little distracted and they're just not seeing the patterns and other players are getting ahead, they can get pretty frustrated - but not today!

After that was supposed to be D&D - but the two players who were the hook for the adventure (on an errand for the thieves guild master, which involved chasing someone into a trap-filled dungeon, and the two rogues didn't show up...). So instead we played A Study in Emerald.

between trying to figure out what the hell I was doing and explaining and re-explaining rules I totally forgot to take a picture while we were still playing - so here's one of everyone hanging around while I  was putting it all away... 

In the end it turned out that Bruce, Brian and myself ended up as Loyalists and Amanda and Adele were restorationists. It was odd because of all the times I've played it I think only once before I played the Loyalist faction. I had pretty much everyone figured out early in the game as we got close to the end I had my next couple rounds all figure out - I was going to get the Vienna City card (which I think might have wrought me up to Bruce in the points race) and then play a couple victory cards for the Loyalists (ensuring our victory) and then assassinate a few of the Amanda and Adele's restorationist agents.... Then bruce dropped Cthulhu on Vienna and killed three or four of my agents!? Thanks a lot Bruce!? WTF!? We're on the same team!? Of course that "same team" is servants of the Great Old Ones... so I guess he was just playing "in character". He and Brian then played a couple cards to up the Loyalist victory point track and ended the game... 

Anyway, it was great fun. I love this game.  

Day Nine - Saturday, 9 September 2017 - Compounded

Today I introduced the kids to Compounded (and reminded Amanda how to play - we'd only played it once before a month or so ago at our friends place). Fun game. Amanda edged me out by a point in the final tallying by using her book to pick up a piece that gave her ONE MORE POINT....

I'd originally picked the game up to play when we're learning some chemistry... but we haven't really gotten much into that. So I'm not sure the kids were getting much of the chemistry angle - luckily the game can be played with no real knowledge of chemistry - you just have to match the colours. We'll be starting to cover more chemistry this year, so I expect we'll be playing this a lot more. 

Day Ten - Sunday, 10 September 2017

We all played a quick game of Kingdomino between me and Amanda watching episodes of Walking Dead Season 7. I could have just quit watching and played games all night, but once we start watching a season of something Amanda feels compelled to see it through... Why do I keep watching Walking Dead? Probably the same reason I keep reading the comics (despite every time I finish a collection I feel like that's it - I'm not going to read anymore...) - because they keep making them! 

The Girl CRUSHED IT she ended up with a HUGE forest with FIVE crowns in it. Her total at the end of the game was 102!? 

I also though Amanda was going to do really well as she had three mine tiles - each worth SIX, but the rest of her kingdom was only worth one point each. Still, she did better than me!! I actually ended up having to discard my last tile as it didn't fit with any of the surrounding tiles.... doh... That's the first time I've had to do that in a game... I don't mind losing the game - but the little closeted OCD part of my brain was seriously disturbed by the fact that everyone else had nice square kingdoms and mine was... well... WRONG! 

Day Eleven - Monday, 11 September 2017 - Smash Up

Monday we played Smash Up. I've kind of gone off Smash Up. In fact, I've been rather sick of it for quite some time actually and have been avoiding playing it whenever the kids suggest it... but it's September Challenge month and one of the kids had it on their list, so... 

This game turned out to be a lot of fun actually... Maybe I just need Smash Up in small doses - like once or twice a year? The downside of not playing regularly is I have NO IDEA what groups work well with each other... but the kids are in the same boat, so I guess it doesn't really matter. 

I ended up playing the Kittens of Innsmouth, The Girl had Ninja Princesses, and Finnegan played Magical Pony Pirates. It turned out the kittens had a lot of 2 power things and ALL of the Innsmouth minions are 2 - and the Innsmouth set had a few things that boosted anything per two or less - so it seemed like I could get something cool going on, but I just couldn't get my ducks in a row... or kittens in a row - Ah! Well that explains it - I was trying to herd kittens. 

I forget who won - I'm pretty sure it was one of the kids - but it was a close game and everyone had fun, so... 

Day Twelve - Tuesday, 12 September 2017 - Carcassonne

Tuesday we played Carcassonne with the Inns and Cathedrals expansion. For a bit I was blown away by the high scores compared to our last game, but then remembered we were playing with an expansion which essentially added half again as many tiles... 

The Girl had this clever idea of placing a farmer in this... little area - almost a courtyard, really as she would be the only one who could possibly end up farming this area. It might have been a little more clever if she'd done it earlier in the game and could guarantee she could finish off all four cities.

In the end I squeaked out a victory a couple points ahead of Finnegan - requiting myself a bit after the disastrous defeat the last time we played. At the start of the game, the kids totally thought it was going to be a repeat of said previous game as they had PILES of point before I'd even got on the board - I just could NOT get the pieces in needed to finish off a city... so it just sprawled and sprawled and when I finally did score it, it was HUGE and I bought right up with them...

Day Thirteen - Wednesday, 13 September 2017 - Retro Lunacy/Star Realms

This week was getting a little crazy - trying to get back into the groove of fall activities and lessons and finish up an Education Plan and keep the renovation moving forward and so on and so forth. We'd planned for some longer games this week, but ended up changing most of them up for shorter games... Wednesday was no different...

We started off with four rounds of Retro Loonacy - the first round we played - as soon as the cards were flipped to start the piles Finnegan just put one card down after another and emptied his hand before Keira and I played a single card!! There were lots of laughs. I think we all won a round. 

We had a little bit more time so we busted out Star Realms. for some reason I've tired of Hero Realms already, but I still like Star Realms...? I am keen to try the co-op campaign that is supposed to be coming out for Hero Realms. I actually have a pack that allows you to play solo and co-op games in Star Realms as well, but we haven't tried that out yet. Perhaps next time... 

We kind of distributed damage fairly evenly amongst everyone - no ganging up on anyone this time around. Then I finished them off with the hand above. That's a game-ending pile of BLOB hurt I'm about to lay on them!

Day Fourteen - Thursday, 14 September 2017 - Firefly Fluxx

Finally, today was our quickest game yet! We played a quick game of Firefly Fluxx just before going to bed. I kind of won, but really didn't 

I realized as I was looking at the pictures I had taken I couldn't have won because there was not one, but TWO creepers sitting in front of me!? DOOOH!!! Neither of the kids called me on it, so... I think we'd had our few minutes of fun playing it and it was wearing thin and everyone was just happy that it was over and they could go back to reading or whatever...

I do hope we'll get some longer games in over the weekend and next week! Well maybe NEXT week... I'm pretty sure Amanda's going to want to binge-watch the rest of Walking Dead Season Seven tomorrow night, Saturday afternoon I'll bet she's planning on running around to more tiles countertop and tile stores trying to figure out stuff that probably should have been figured out months ago BEFORE I started wrecking our kitchen, and in the evening we're going out to a show... Maybe Sunday evening...? Is it possible I can get them to sit down and try Pax Renaissance..? We shall see! 

In Other News... 

Haven't been much movement on the painting front, just too busy with other stuff... and playing games. I do have most of the Tallarn re-based, primed and tucked away into their storage drawers - ready to paint whenever the mood strikes (and I'm done a few more Jet Bikes!).