Friday, 5 July 2019
On this first Friday of July our friend Laura came over for the evening and played Terraforming Mars with us. Finnegan even joined in!
We played on the Hellas board and... there wasn't a lot of ON BOARD developments - compared to some of our games! I can't believe how few cities there were! Amanda didn't have a single one!
I played Helion (Yellow) and just BARELY squeaked out a win in a very, VERY close game!! I took the Diversifier Milestone and the Magnate Prize (which I'd sponsored) and second place in the Space Baron prize with a total of 53 points.
Laura was second with 52 points! She had been playing Tharsis Republic (Black) and had taken the Polar Explorer Milestone and was in a three-way tie for second in the Cultivator Prize along with Amanda and Finnegan. Keira had won the prize. In fact, I was the ONLY one who didn't get any points for the Cultivator prize!?
Keira (Ecoline - Green) and Amanda (Phololog - Red) were tied for third with 50 points each! Finnegan (UNMI- Blue) wasn't too far behind with 46.
I felt like the game went too fast and that we had all barely just started getting things going and - boom - it was over...
Saturday, 6 July 2019
Finnegan was running his Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign.
I rode over to Dragons Den Games and bought Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse!
Sunday, 7 July 2019
Played our first game of Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse!
Amanda and Keira played a combined force of Asuryani and Drukhari.
Ian and Finnegan played a massive horde or Tyranids!
There is a full report of that action and loads more pics elsewhere on this blog:
The Defence of Elamdavar
Monday, 8 July 2019
On Monday we played a SECOND game of Apocalypse! This time it was ME and Keira combining out Eldar/Asuryani forces to battle the hordes of buggy things.
Again there is an After Action Report of the encounter elsewhere on the blog with loads more pictures...
Elsewhere on Elamdavar
On Wednesday Other Tim came by to try out Apocalypse.
This game, lacking the BIG GUNS of Super Heavy and TITANIC elements, wasn't quite so epic...
Assault on Throshi Station
Thursday, 11 July 2019
Next it was Orion's turn to try out the Apocalypse - bringing his wolf lords to battle it out with my Eldar!
Game report... find it here:
Wolves Strike!
Sunday, 14 July 2019
On Sunday, Other Tim was back for another round.
Coming of the Comet!
Monday, 15 July 2019
Then... we took a break from the Apocalypse and played a game of Castles of Burgundy.
I won, but we've since learned that apparently that's a pretty common occurrence when playing with board #8...?
Wednesday, 17 July 2019
Back to the apocalypse, and finally facing some substantial opponents! Orion brought his KNIGHTS!!
Aw, yeah!
Assault on Ynysafallon
Friday, 19 July 2019
This time Laura joined us for a game of Castles of Burgundy. Amanda totally won this one... with 222 points!
I wasn't too far behind with 221!
Laura, who was playing the game for the first time, finished with 201!!! Keira was a bit further behind with 187...
Saturday, 20 July 2019
My old friend Woody was passing through town - from his home in Calgary to visit his dad. He had some time in Saskatoon, though, so I set up a game of apocalypse for him. It's been a LONG time since I got to hang out or play games with Woody! Such a good time!
I played my Asuryani - and got a little help from Keira's Wraithknight!
Woody played with some Astra Militarum Tallarn armour and the Titans of the Eritque Arcus Maniple of Legio Amare Feles
Legio Amare Feles Walks...
THIS is what Apocalypse was meant for!!!
Sunday, 21 July 2019
I spent Sunday at Brent's house playing High Frontier with Brent, Keith, Darrin and April.
There is so much I just LOVE about this game, but damn does it take a LONG time to play and can be frustrating in the extreme... We played for eight hours. Not even close to finishing. I think around the five hour mark I realized the thing I'd been working at for a few hours already would probably come down to a 50/50 die roll (in ideal solar flare conditions)... at some point... and if that failed, it would effectively set me back to where I was two hours into the game. That die roll came at the seven hour mark. Luckily, I "succeeded". If I hadn't I probably would have just left as... well... what would be the point if I'd need another five hours to get to where I was before the die roll!?
I played the United Nations and ended with 11 victory points. Early in the game I'd shot a rocket out to an asteroid and successfully prespected it... but.. that didn't count for much... It took hours and hours to get all the right equipment to be able to launch a rocket back out to, basically the same space, with enough stuff to set down and build a factory. When we called it I had one rocket sailing around to other nearby asteroids, trying to prosect them... I feel like if I were able to play the game, like, ten times in a relatively short period of time, I MIGHT get to the point where I have enough of a clue that, playing with others who equally had enough of a clue, we MIGHT actually complete a game in less than eight hours... but who has that kind of time to invest in learning a game that well when there are so many other great games that can be played in two hours or less at the first sitting and be... well.. almost as satisfying.
Brent played China and directed us into a decade long war, which made everything harder and everyone paranoid that everyone else was going to steal all their stuff... which made the game drag on longer than it could have...
April was playing NASA and managed to get some stuff on to Mars. When she did I actually suggested we just quit and play Terraforming Mars to see how Aprils settlement of the planet went. She seemed interested, no one else did...
Darrin was the ESA and Keith played Shimszu I think he won with 16 victory points...?
Friday, 26 July 2019
After a busy week of bike rides and getting Keira to and from Girls Rock Camp (You can still see some of the glitter-glam-make-up from the days activities on her face in some of the pics).
In the afternoon Amanda invited Kurtis to come and play games with us this evening.
We started off with Just Desserts.
I got pretty close - had two of both green and yellow customers (you need three of one colour or five different colours to win) - but Amanda won in the end.
Afterwards we played YET ANOTHER game of Castles of Burgundy! Kurtis had never played and always wanted to try it, and we've all been having fun playing it - Amanda, after our last game had suggested we play it every night for a week to learn it really well, like we had done for Race for the Galaxy a few years back. Unfortunately, Castles of Burgundy takes a bit longer to play than Race for the Galaxy... so we never really even tried to do that. WE DID get in three games of it this month and I think everyone is feeling like they have a bit better idea of how to play!
Amanda won this game with 224 points. Kurtis wasn't far behind with 221.
I had the board with a donut of yellow (Knowledge?) tiles in the middle, and I stuck my first palace right in the middle of it, thinking it would motivate me to fill that area and have a bunch of bonuses - or know what my end game points would be and that would give me some advantage through the rest of the game...? Well, that was the idea. I kept forgetting to USE the bonuses - like the +/-1 for placing green or blue tiles... I'm not sure I EVER remembered to use that!? I DID get four of the building I got victory points for and I did get all of the colours of goods (which I got points for)... but it wasn't enough to win! I was a bit behind the leaders at 205, and Keira was just behind me at 199 (so close to breaking 200!)
And... that was it...
The kids did do some the role-playing - on Saturdays, and Monday and Tuesday of this week... but that didn't involve "the family" or me, so... I don't really keep track of that stuff...
THE 10x10 CHALLENGE(s)
Well...
At this point, we should have played about 58 games... we've played 41...
Haven't played a single game of Blascktone Fortress - mostly because I have yet to finish painting all of the miniatures (or... any of them really, except for the Ur-Ghuls!), nor have we played any games of Shadowrun: Crossfire. It's Keira's game. I told her SHE needs to read the rules and say "okay, I've read them, here's how we play" and we'd set aside a month or so to play through a campaign - much like we did with her Harry Potter game...
Right now she's a little more interested in sewing and knitting and learning the guitar and not-so-interested in reading rules for games!
Very little movement has been made on the other Challenge as well... Although I DID get in ONE game on the list (High Frontier - a game by Phil Eklund!) I did play a LOT of Apocalypse (which isn't, but COULD be on the list...) I've played over 15 games of 40K so far this year - in addition to the half dozen games of Apocalypse I played this month. I should probably add Necromunda to this list - as I'm sure I'm going to play a lot of that in the coming months... then it will look like I got a bit more of the list games played...
Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:
Probably more Necromunda stuff... I've started a new NECROMUNDA GALLERY in the pages section - where you can see all of the Gangers I've done so far.
here is a fair bit of Imperial Guard stuff (and Imperial KNIGHTS) on the workbench that I've been plinking away at... we shall see...
No immediate plans for any games... but hopefully we'll get in a game of Necromunda soon!!!
Darrin was the ESA and Keith played Shimszu I think he won with 16 victory points...?
Friday, 26 July 2019
After a busy week of bike rides and getting Keira to and from Girls Rock Camp (You can still see some of the glitter-glam-make-up from the days activities on her face in some of the pics).
In the afternoon Amanda invited Kurtis to come and play games with us this evening.
We started off with Just Desserts.
I got pretty close - had two of both green and yellow customers (you need three of one colour or five different colours to win) - but Amanda won in the end.
Afterwards we played YET ANOTHER game of Castles of Burgundy! Kurtis had never played and always wanted to try it, and we've all been having fun playing it - Amanda, after our last game had suggested we play it every night for a week to learn it really well, like we had done for Race for the Galaxy a few years back. Unfortunately, Castles of Burgundy takes a bit longer to play than Race for the Galaxy... so we never really even tried to do that. WE DID get in three games of it this month and I think everyone is feeling like they have a bit better idea of how to play!
Amanda won this game with 224 points. Kurtis wasn't far behind with 221.
I had the board with a donut of yellow (Knowledge?) tiles in the middle, and I stuck my first palace right in the middle of it, thinking it would motivate me to fill that area and have a bunch of bonuses - or know what my end game points would be and that would give me some advantage through the rest of the game...? Well, that was the idea. I kept forgetting to USE the bonuses - like the +/-1 for placing green or blue tiles... I'm not sure I EVER remembered to use that!? I DID get four of the building I got victory points for and I did get all of the colours of goods (which I got points for)... but it wasn't enough to win! I was a bit behind the leaders at 205, and Keira was just behind me at 199 (so close to breaking 200!)
And... that was it...
The kids did do some the role-playing - on Saturdays, and Monday and Tuesday of this week... but that didn't involve "the family" or me, so... I don't really keep track of that stuff...
THE 10x10 CHALLENGE(s)
Well...
At this point, we should have played about 58 games... we've played 41...
Haven't played a single game of Blascktone Fortress - mostly because I have yet to finish painting all of the miniatures (or... any of them really, except for the Ur-Ghuls!), nor have we played any games of Shadowrun: Crossfire. It's Keira's game. I told her SHE needs to read the rules and say "okay, I've read them, here's how we play" and we'd set aside a month or so to play through a campaign - much like we did with her Harry Potter game...
Right now she's a little more interested in sewing and knitting and learning the guitar and not-so-interested in reading rules for games!
Very little movement has been made on the other Challenge as well... Although I DID get in ONE game on the list (High Frontier - a game by Phil Eklund!) I did play a LOT of Apocalypse (which isn't, but COULD be on the list...) I've played over 15 games of 40K so far this year - in addition to the half dozen games of Apocalypse I played this month. I should probably add Necromunda to this list - as I'm sure I'm going to play a lot of that in the coming months... then it will look like I got a bit more of the list games played...
Probably more Necromunda stuff... I've started a new NECROMUNDA GALLERY in the pages section - where you can see all of the Gangers I've done so far.
here is a fair bit of Imperial Guard stuff (and Imperial KNIGHTS) on the workbench that I've been plinking away at... we shall see...
No immediate plans for any games... but hopefully we'll get in a game of Necromunda soon!!!
Lots of minatures games, so still a lot of games played!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
It was great getting in all those games of Apocalypse!
DeleteI just picked up Pandemic. We played it once and enjoyed it (even though we lost).
ReplyDeleteI was surprised that my wife suggested that we bring it along on our vacation trip this weekend as she really doesn't like to play board games. I guess Wil Wheaton is correct when he says that "there is a game for everyone. You just need to find it".
(I'm binge watching TableTop right now on Youtube and that's where I got the urge to pick up Pandemic.)
Oh, yeah, Pandemic is great! We haven't played it for a while, but it's been a favourite around here.
DeleteTabletop is great! I love Will Wheaton and he always gathered such fun people to play games with. I wish so much it was still going on!
We've bought so many new games because of Tabletop.... Some of them turned out great... some of them... less so... (Like DIXIT - I think you have to play it with the right people - of Course Wil Wheaton was playing it with actors and writers and other totally creative types - so it LOOKED really fun. Keira often wanted to play it so we played a lot of 3-player games, which just fell flat - I think it's a lot better with 5 or 6 or whatever the maximum is!). Actually I'm pretty sure we had Pandemic before we saw the tabletop episode. Monarch was a gem we picked up after seeing it on Tabletop. Marvel Legendary was another that we picked up - it's okay... Oh, and Lords of Waterdeep - another good one! I think Felicia Day was in that episode. She's always fun!
You had so many games this month! Looks like a pretty awesome one for sure. I got in a few games of the Forbidden Island/Desert, Avengers Thanos Rising, and Sentinels of the Multiverse, but that's it really. You are inspiring!
ReplyDeleteAlso, those hover tanks are wonderfully painted, the colour scheme is quite striking!
Thanks, Joe!
DeleteGood to hear you're getting in a few games! The thing that was really different foe me this month was that I actually got in more MINIATURE games than board games - for the first time in a LONG time!
(love the Andalusians, by the way!)