February's Games

We did play a LOT of games this month...

Friday, 1 February 2019



Friday night is Family game night and this first Friday of February Finnegan took us through the second scenario in his narrative campaign for Sentinels of the Multiverse. In the last game, we defended the Freedom tower from Ambuscade. Having defeated him, we discovered he had attacked the building at the behest of Baron Blade who wanted him to try and steal some piece of technology that Baron Blade wanted to use for some nefarious purpose. And so it was decided we must go and put a stop to Baron Blade, but to do that we would have to travel to space…. But how to do that? Well, apparently, the Maerynians have a few laying around, so we travelled to the Maerynian Refuge to see if we could borrow one… but when we got there AKASH’BUTA showed up and wreaked havoc upon the island… we had to put a stop to that!

And put a stop to it we did! We were a little concerned when Finnegan put out the villain card and it had TWO HUNDRED hit points on it!? Yowza! But it turned out to be not so bad because each time we destroyed one of the cards she put into play, it did a pile of damage to her… I ended the game by doing a colossal TWENTY-NINE damage – in one turn – to finish off AKASH’BUTA!

Starting to get the hang of playing Haka…


Saturday, 2 February 2019

Saturday evening is role-playing night, and this week Amanda and headed over to our friends’ place to play Call of Cthulhu, while the kids friends came over to our place to play Dungeon Crawl Classics.



In the Call of Cthulhu game I am playing George Patrick Fitzgibbon - a professor of Geology at Miskatonic University in Arkham Massachusetts. He is originally from England and served in the Tunneling Companies during the Great War. Amanda is playing Ethel Rigby, who is actually a character she played in the previous campaign (Masks of Nyarlathotep). This was the first real adventure of the campaign… and it was very nearly a total party kill at the first encounter and we totally failed to succeed in the mission.

I’m not sure where we’re going from here. As it turns out I’ll be missing the next two sessons – the first because of my annual Winter Wargaming Weekend and the second because of the Battle of the Abyss – team Apocalypse event at the beginning of March.


Sunday, 3 February 2019

Sunday evening is supposed to be our OTHER Family Game Night. As I originally planned to have a little “Apocalypse Practice’ with my team mate, we instead decided to play a game in the early afternoon.



It has been a while (over a year) since we played Abyss – so The Girl briefly went over the rules with us beforehand.



It took a bit for me to remember what was going on. I like the game – there are a number of different ways to gain influence (the player with the most influence at the end of the game wins) and you really need to pay attention to all of them – and manage and play your allies cards to gain as much as you can from them.



Amanda ended the game, but it was Finnegan that won – with 82 influence. Amanda was right behind him with 80. I didn’t do TOO badly with 73. The Girl was a bit grumpy to end up with 50 – when the rest of us being so close together. We were constantly, inadvertently, foiling her every move throughout the game – or at least is seemed like it.

Later, my Apocalypse partner bailed – being too exhausted from a busy week to leave his house (it was also really, really cold and snowy out – I wouldn’t have blamed ANYONE for not wanting to leave their house this week). So we ended up playing a second game!



This was our second game of Splendor so far this year. It was all very close – Finnegan triggered the end of the game, scoring 15 points...



But the round is finished before the game ends and, on my turn, I picked up a jewel card worth 5 points, which also allowed me to pick up another patron tile worth 3 more – rocketing me into first place with 17 points! The Girl was again terribly disappointed with this outcome as she ended with 14 points and had she had another turn would have picked up another scoring card. She has yet to win a game of splendor and was so very close with this game… Amanda wasn’t far behind at 11 points, I’m sure given another turn she would have managed to get 15+ as well….


Friday, 8 February 2019



I had tried to set up another Apocalypse “practice” with Halsten on Friday evening, but he once again had to bail – so I set up a little solo game to see how Titans did against massed tanks… The answer is, not so well… (if the tanks get the first shot!)

You can read about that – and see more pics here:

Titan versus Tanks


Saturday, 9 February 2019

In the afternoon, I stopped by Dragons Den Games and picked up a few things – a Fiend of Slaanesh and Khymerae (which I have since painted) as well as a couple of expansions for Terraforming mars (Venus Next and the Hellas and Elysium board).

Later in the evening, I kicked off the Saturday Evening Wrath & glory campaign. Three guys from the Hunters of the Warp – the local 40K League – joined Finnegan and I, and I ran them through the first adventure in the Darks Tides book.


Sunday, 10 February 2019



I played Phobolog. Amanda played Interplanetary Cinematic. The Girl played Saturn Systems. Finnegan played Thorgate. I think this was the first time we used Thorgate. Finnegan came up with a corporate tag-line "FEEL THE THUNDER!" which he used a few times throughout the game.

It felt like this game went very quickly. Like, TOO quickly. Like I was just starting to get into my stride, and BOOM the game was over!?



Finnegan won the Science and Thermalist Awards and took the Terraformer milestone. I came in second on the Science and Thermalist Awards. Amanda took the Builder milestone and was second for the Banker award. The Girl won the Banker award, tied with me for second on the Scientist Award and took the Mayor Milestone.



Amanda was the only one that made use of cards that took stuff from other players knocking off piles of my leaves and a few of Keira's, three of my titanium, one of The Girl's titanuium production and... I think some money of Finnegan's...?

The final scores were all very close – The Girl won with 61, Finnegan was just behind her with 57, and Amanda and I tied for last at 55.



Monday, 11 February 2019



Monday Amanda and I skipped our Ballroom dance class – mostly because Amanda was just too tired to go out and dance – but not too tired to play Terraforming Mars again. She had said we should play with the base game a few more times before adding any expansions, but when the girl and I set up the game, we went ahead and set it up with the new Elysium board.



Amanda was a bit cranky that we had done so at first, but warmed up to the new play. It was really interesting how different play was- how you had to think about totally different things when all the milestones and awards are different!



I tried out the Mining Guild – which was really fun. The Girl played Terator and Amanda played Helion. Finnegan just rocked Ecoline! He won the game with 83 points – the rest of us were back in the 60s! Ecoline had done really well both times it’s been played.


Friday, 15 February 2019



Friday, I kicked off my annual gaming weekend. You can read more about it and see all the pics here:

Wrath and Glory Gaming Weekend


Sunday, 17 February 2019



After the gaming weekend activities wrapped up, Paul stuck around and had supper with us and then played a game of Terraforming Mars. This was Paul’s first time playing it. This time we tried out the Hellas board.

Finnegan played the Tharsis Republic.  Paul played Helion. I played the UN Mars Initiative, which was interesting. Amanda played Saturn Systems. The Girl played Inventrix.



Paul got the Polar Explorer Milestone. I was second for both the Cultivator and Contractor awards.  Amanda took the Diversifier milestone and was first for both the Eccentric and Contractor awards. Keira got the Tactical Milestone and was first for the Cultivator Award and second for the Eccentric.



Amanda and The Girl ended up TIED with 65. Amanda ended up winning as she had over 70 Megacredits, and The Girl had only 40… I was just behind both of them with 64. Finnegan wasn’t too far behind with 57 – it was nice to see Tharsis Republic NOT win, for once (it’s done exceedingly well the other two times someone’s played it!). Paul was just behind Finnegan at 52 – which is pretty good for a first game!


Monday, 18 February 2019



Monday was Family Day in Saskatchewan – a Provincial Stat Holiday. It also kicked off a week-long school break. The kids arranged to get together with friends and play games most of the week. On Monday, they continued the Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign that Finnegan has been running for a few sessions now.


Tuesday, 19 February 2019



Day Two of the School Break Gaming Week – continuing with their Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign – I noticed Finnegan was running the old Against the Cult of the Reptile Gods D&D module.



Later, after the Boyz left, the kids played a game of Mysterium!

In the evening, we started watching Legion Season Two. Nothing to do with games, really. But I really enjoyed it, so I thought I’d mention it…


Wednesday, 20 February 2019



Day Three of the School Break Gaming Week – we played a little 40K Apocalypse game (if anything Apocalypse can be called “little”…)

A full report of the days shenanigans can be found here:

Tyranids Versus TITANS! 

(plus another FOUR episodes of Legion Season Two – I borrowed he DVDs from the Saskatoon Public Library and, as it’s a new release, I knew wouldn’t be able to renew it and so we were just blasting through it… Also, Westworld Season Two arrived this week… so we had one week to watch both shows… or, request it again and wait until we get to the front of the queue..)


Thursday, 21 February 2019



On Thursday, they started off with Kobolds Ate My Baby… which was great… because I needed more shouting in my life…

(Finished off Legion Season Two… in the end, I don't think I liked it as much as Season One... I still liked it, though).


Friday, 22 February 2019



Friday was Family games night again, so we busted out Century: Golem Edtion.



At one point I had EIGHT Pink Gems (the most expensive) on my caravan!



Finnegan ended the game taking a fifth card... but I won, because my four were worth more overall!

Amanda and I started watching West World Season Two.


Saturday, 23 February 2019

Sturday evening I finished running the first adventure in Dark Tides for the Saturday evening Wrath & Glory group.   We finished up early so Amanda and I watched a few more episodes of West World Season Two



Sunday, 24 February 2019

Despite Sunday being our OTHER Family Game night – we skipped it this week to finish off West World Season Two (because I had to take it back to the library on Tuesday).

It was… okay…


Monday, 25 February 2019



In the afternoon my folks came over and did stuff with the kids – My mom did some baking with The Girl and my Dad played Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower with Finnegan.

Later in the evening I'd hoped we'd play a game together - to make up for not playing one the day before... but then I ended up in ER for 7.5 hours (long story, short version: I'm FINE!)


Thursday, 28 February 2019



Finally, on the last day of February, I got in a game of Kill Team with my friend, Bruce. You can read about that action here:

Escape and Evade


And.. that's it for February!



It seems like we’re keeping up with our 10x10 Family Boardgame Challenge. At two months in, playing two games a week, we should be around 16... and we're at 15 games played (of course two games a week for the year would be 104... so... I guess we're probably right on target).



I’m… doing not quite as awesome with my 10x Personal Challenge, but I was busy preparing for the Game Weekend, and I expect things will pick up this next month – already planning out my weekends to fit in some board and miniature gaming! Heck, I’ll be getting in THREE games of 40K this weekend! I am hoping to get in a Dan Mercy Game, a Phil Eklund Game and one of the GMT/COIN games in on each of the remaining weekends of the month.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably a report of the Battle of the Abyss – the Apocalypse event I will be attending with my THREE TITANS(!) this Saturday (2 March 2019)!

After that...? Who knows... I was working so hard to finish up stuff for the game weekend and then to finish up Leonem Caeruleum for the Apocalypse event... I haven't given a whole lot of thought as to what I should do next...

I suppose I should get working on the Blackstone Fortress stuff first - so we can get playing that!!

I have more old Necromunda gangers I'd like to finish up to use in Wrath & Glory...

There are the Rogue Trader minis too..

So many other things I'd like to paint - my craft world Eldar and harlequins... my Tallarn (still LOTS of those to do)... the Valhallans.... other Kill Teams and assorted 40K figures... forces for Rebels and Patriots and The Pikeman's Lament and even Dragon Rampant and Frostgrave that I'd like to finish up!