April Games Part Two

April Games bring May.... um... more games...?

Well we started the month off playing a LOT of games - it was Easter Break and we decided to take a break from things and just have a week of game playing... you can read about that here:

April Games Part One

Since then... things slowed down a bit.


Tuesday, 10 April 2018



We'd spent most of the first week figuring out how to play all of the various expansions in the Carcassonne Big Box. This week we carried on with he same - as there were a few more smaller ones we hadn't tried yet. I think this was our first time trying King & Robber and Cults...? We also used River II. In the end Finnegan and The Girl tied with 114 and I had 106 points.



Afterwards we finally cracked out own copy of Castles of Mad King Ludwig. I'd picked this up back in February. We'd gone out for lunch at Park Cafe during the Shadow War: Brind's World Weekend Campaign and walking back to my place we wandered past King Me Boadgamery and I popped in to see what was on the 50% off table... and there was a copy of Castles of Mad King Ludwig... and how could I pass that up...? So, yeah... finally played a game of it...



I may have mentioned... but I love this game. winning is kind of secondary to building a weird and wonderful castle... Well... usually... This one I did win, but the castle was kind of.. Meh... the kids kept snapping up all the FUN rooms and leaving me with all these stupid ones that gave me tonnes of points!? I DID get the Venus Grotto, so... There is that...


Wednesday, 11 April 2018



More Carcassonne. I think this was our first try with the Count of Carcassonne... also used River II and Traders & Builders.



I'm not sure how useful Count of Carcassonne is... It seems like another thing that might help with NOT screwing people over with crappy tile placement and actually encourage people to help others finish their stuff by offering an incentive... but the mechanics of how the count moves around seems a bit fiddly to me... in ended up only being used to score bonus points for other peoples cloisters.



Seems we had a good time.



Finnegan rocked it - scoring 153 points. The Girl was second with 101 and I ended up with only 98?! Not sure how that worked out. And he had been complaining he NEVER WON!?


Friday, 13 April 2018 



Friday Bob and Bruce came over and played some Rogue Trader with me, Amanda and Finnegan... well... sort of... it was supposed to be our Rogue Trader evening. I ended up playing a tabletop adventure using Warhammer 40K 8th Edition. You can read more about it here:

Voyages of a Rogue Trader


Saturday, 14 April 2018



MORE Warhammer 40K 8th Edition. Bruce came back the very next day to play some more 40K. You can read more about that action here:

Behind Orky Lines


Sunday, 15 April 2018



On Sunday we sat down to play a game of MEGA Carcassonne - with all of the expansions in out Carcassonne Big Box - Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders,  Princess & The Dragon, Abbey & Mayor, and River II, Count, King & Cult.



Wow... this looked a little dangerous off the start...



Counting up the points at the end of it all... Somehow I managed to do well this evening - I scored 241 points! Amanda had 218, Finnegan 182, and The Girl 147!?

Of course as we went to put it all away we realized we has somehow forgot to get out one stack of tiles and has only been playing with HALF of the base set!? GAH!? Guess We'll have to try another MEGA CARCASSONNE game sometime soon - before we forget how all the expansions work!?


Monday, 23 April 2018



Didn't get in another game for over a week. We had planned one playing games on Saturday. We'd told Amanda we were going to try and play the final game in Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle (which was just a ruse to get her to not make other plans for the afternoon so we could plan a surprise birthday party for her!). The party itself mostly involved gaming friends and the invite suggested there might be gaming going on, but in the end we all just hung out... so... Monday... The kids and I sat down and played a couple of quick games of Kingdomino after they got back from swim lessons while we were waiting for Amanda to get home from her Improv class...

The first round didn't go so well... poor planning meant the kids ended up having to discord tiles and ended the game with incomplete kingdoms...



Round two wend a little better. Finnegan still ended up having to discard his final tile, but The Girl ended with a complete kingdom.



My tidy little kingdom.

Wednesday, 25 April 2018



On Wednesday I travelled over to John's to try out Flamme Rouge with Brent and Connel.

The first game we played was Firenze-Milano. As I rode my bike over there I got to set up first so I set up at the rear, thinking I'd sit in and let the others pick up all the exhaustion cards... This isn't necessarily the best plan, I discovered....



Nearing the end, one of my riders (looks like my Sprinter!?) had been dropped and the other wasn't nearly close enough to the front... AND because I had been sitting in and NOT picking up and exhaustion cards I was running out and had been burning my higher cards when I didn't need to earlier...



The photo finish! Second place is the first LOSER! And that's my Rolleur!?



The second game we played (La Haunt Montagne...? or something like that...?). BOTH my guys, totally dropped!



There was no need to hold onto those Nines the sprinter had when it's a mountain top finish!

I like this game... It's pretty simple, but it's got all the elements that should be in a bicycle racing game - hills, drafting, limited energy.

I can't buy it.

Seriously... I still have a copy of Giro D'Italia still in shrink wrap sitting on my shelf that I got excited and bought after playing Leader 1 at John's place a few years back!?

Saturday, 28 April 2018 - International Tabletop Day

For International Tabletop Day we headed over to Dragon's Den Games to play games for the afternoon.



Finnegan and I got there just after noon and Brent was just finishing up a game of 6-player game of Flamme Rouge - with he Peloton expansion.



When he finished up he set up another game and I joined I'm. Finnegan sat out and just looked around the store as Darrin was supposed to be showing up soon to run Sentinels of the Multiverse.

I'm playing White. Decided to sit a little closer to the front this time, but not right at the front.



Playing with Richard (Red), Whitney (Blue), Angie(?) (Pink), and Brent (Black). There are cobblestones in the Peloton expansion. And pinch points. so fun. Still can't buy it...



I was trailing for a bit with Richard but clawed my way to the front of the peloton after the cobblestones, just before the curvy race to the end. My sprinter only had one of his nine cards left, but  there was a short hill just before the finish - if I timed my break right, I might just make it...

 

And I totally did. I was off the front on the next round and had a bit of a lead. Just before the end this chase group reeled me in, but they'd burned all their cards as well and that little hill meant no one could play anything higher than a five and I had a five and was ahead of everyone... so.. win for me finally!! Yay!!!!

By the time we were done that Amanda and The Girl had showed up after dance classes - just in time for the Kingdomino tournament. Only eight signed up and four of the eight was our family - and they were giving away two copies of the game as prizes! Plus there were a bunch of other goodies (new castles and a card tower).



Amanda and Finnegan were in one group with Richard and Alex.



The Girl and I were in the other with Josh and Whitney.

Top two players from each would advance and play in a second round. Top two scorers in the second round would win a copy of the game.



Counting up points at the end of Round One.



My little Kingdom at the end of Round One (which I won, but only barely - The Girl was only a point behind and Josh, who had never played before, was only two points behind!)



So The Girl and I found ourselves playing against Richard and Finnegan in the final round.

Amanda ended up being talked into a game of Monty Python Fluxx with Whitney, which was weird because at home she says can't stand the game and won't play it with us...? I did notice that Whitney didn't sing nearly as much as the rest of us do....?

I came in second in Round Two of the Kingdomino tournament and won a copy! I gave it to Josh, though (the guy I'd played in Round One) - we already have a copy... and he'd played so well...



Afterwards Finnegan finally got to play in a game of Sentinels of the Multiverse.

 

I introduced Amanda and The Girl to Flamme Rouge. We played Ronde Van Wevelgevn...? Or something like that...? They didn't LOVE the game...



Amanda made and early break... I'm not sure if she MEANT to do that...?

 

in the second last round The Girl got her two riders mixed up and played the wrong cards for them and it wrecked their placement for the final round... She took it... poorly...



Amanda won, my two riders were just behind her taking second and third...


Sunday, 29 April 2018

Amanda picked up a copy of Century: Golem Edition at the Dragon's Den Games International Tabletop Day sale, so we decided to try it out on Sunday after supper...

 

Unfortunately there was a power outage just as we were sitting down to play... So we started off in half darkness with flashlights handy, plus a little lamp The Girl had made and a headlamp I was wearing...



Luckily the lights went back on only a few minutes into the game.

I  spent way too much time screwing around trying to collect up gems for the high point cards. I ended the game with only TWO scoring cards in last place. If I'd had one more play I would have picked up a card for 20 points, but it wouldn't have helped much... Keira ended the game having picked up five, but it was Finnegan that won with four, edging her out by a point!

Mechanically it is the EXACT SAME GAME as Century: Spice Road. Aesthetically, I think I prefer the original. The kids like the golem illustrations on this version and Amanda seems to like the pretty gems, so...





This afternoon we played a game of Legendary with the Dark City and Fantastic Four expansions. We played with The Fantastic Four plus Daredevil against Dr. Doom and The Doombot Legion and an assortment of other baddies. It was fun and didn't take too long. I wanted to try out Daredevil, but the cards just weren't coming out. I only ended up with two of them...

So we got in a few more games... Unfortunately this did little towards completing our 25/30x5 Challenge - the only games we played that were on the list, other than this afternoon's game of Legendary, we've already played more than five times... As I've said, though, the purpose of the challenge is to have fun and inspire us to play games. As long as we're playing games and having fun, who cares...? Maybe next month we'll tick a few off our chart. 

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog: 

The Shadowsword...

After that...? Maybe some Drukhari...? Or more tanks?! or maybe a game report...?