New Year's Day Gaming

Happy New Year everyone!

We spent the day playing games over at our friend Kurtis and Shannon's.



It was a frosty one today - like most of the last week or so - windchill in the -40°C zone... We walked because it wasn't too far.



When we got there everyone else was already playing Mission: Red Planet and said they were only half way through. So we set up to play a quick game of Kingdom Builder - which didn't end up being quite so quick as Amanda had pretty much forgotten all the rules...



While we played on they finished, some people left, Joel arrived and the others sat down to play Sushi Go! I thought I was doing poorly in Kingdom Builder as I didn't have a very large continuous group of communities (one of the victory conditions) but I DID manage to spread my settlements evenly through out the four boards and put a LOT of them next to mountains and/or cities (other victory conditions. I was the first to finish, which I find also usually helps (if you can get the bonus token thingies that allow you to place extra settlements) - especially if you can get as many as you can in scoring positions... So I edged out Amanda by a couple of points - the kids weren't far behind.



After that everyone played a game called "Spoons" which was absolutely MAD! It uses a regular playing deck there is a card in all four suits for each player that are shuffled up and dealt out. Players pass cards to the player on their left and then can pick up a card from the player on their right, as soon as one has all four of the same card (in the four different suits) they grab a spoon from the centre of the table and as soon as one person goes for a spoon EVERYONE can try to grab a spoon and the one without one is eliminated and then you start all over. Finnegan made it through until there was only three, but then was eliminated.



After that Joel taught the kids and I how to play Samurai Sword. It's a variant of Bang - if you're familiar. I wasn't (I think I might have played Walking Dead Bang at one of John's New Year Eve parties a couple of years ago). It was nice to learn to play this as my friend Paul had given me the game for my birthday THREE YEARS AGO when he came for the Ronin Campaign Weekend. I had tried to sit down and read the rules ages ago, but it made my brain hurt... and I'm embarrassed to say it's been collecting dust since... But now that we know how to play it should see some more regular use!



Meanwhile Amanda played Rajas of the Ganges with Kurtis Eli and Mike.

After that we had supper - Shannon made a veggie chilli which I am told was wonderful but I didn't try any as it had a tonne of cilantro (which tastes like soap to me and makes me violently ill... ). So I just had more snacks... and far too much chocolate...



Finally we tried out Century: Spice Road,  which Kurtis had just picked up recently. I liked it. Has similar elements to Splendor.

I don't need to buy it, I can just play with Kurtis...
I don't need to buy it, I can just play with Kurtis...
I don't need to buy it, I can just play with Kurtis...
I don't need to buy it, I can just play with Kurtis...
I don't need to buy it, I can just play with Kurtis...

The kids did try out their new PS4 VR headset thingie and tried to fly around in an X-wing for a bit before we headed back home in the cold.

Fantastic way to spend the first day of the new year!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Could be the Shadowsword I'm working on... Or maybe some Shadespire minis for John... Hard to say. I'll probably get in a game of 40K later this week as the kids friend that plays it is coming over. Finnegan's birthday is on Friday and he has a day o'gaming planned for a few friends.