January 2020 Games

It was a bit of a slow month. But that's okay...

Wednesday, 1 January 2020

For New Years Day we'd planned to spend the day playing games... much as we'd planned to spend the week between Xmas and New Years playing games... and like that week, we didn't really get up to as many games as we'd hoped. Just the day before we'd said we'd play Lords of Waterdeep (Finnegan's choice), Viticulture (Keira's choice), Hellboy (a family decision) and... maybe something else...?



The Grrrlz and I DID get to play Viticulture.



I got off to a commanding lead - just picking up points wherever I could - selling and buying back land, selling grapes, etc.



I also started with the windmill, so I planed small vines EVERY turn for another victory point... it all added up!



They eventually started filling orders and gaining victory points... but by that time, so was I, and they just couldn't catch up.



Later, in the evening, Amanda and I played another game of 7 Wonders Duel - with the Pantheon expansion.



She totally crushed me with a military victory... She said it wasn't a very satisfying way to win and was disappointed we didn't get to play to the end and count up the points....?

Never did get to Lords of Waterdeep...

Or Hellboy...

Friday, 3 January 2020



Brent and Kurtis came by to join me and Amanda and Keira in an epic game of Terraforming Mars - with ALL the expansions we have! We played with the expansions we have: the Hellas/Ellysium board (on the Hellas side), Venus Next, Prelude, and Colonies. This was the first time we've played with Colonies and only the second time we've played with Prelude - and the first time we've played with Prelude with more people.

I don't know, it felt like the game went a little too fast!? Not in terms of the amount of actual time to play the game - -in terms of the number of actions we got before it was OVER!? We only played through six generations - I feel like usually we play through TWICE that many!



I played the Mining Guild with Power Generation and Mohole.



I was leading in Terraforming Rating when the end game was triggered... but..

too many moving parts.

prelude and colonies seem interesting... but also it feels like if you happen to get the right combination of cards at the beginning...


Saturday only two of Finnegan's regular D&D players came by, so, for a lark, they decided to make a bunch of first edition AD&D characters!


Sunday, 5 January 2020

This dude turned 16....



I mean, SIXTEEN!? WTF!?



There was a bit of a theme with most of the presents this year (if you can't make it out, it's three D&D themed boardgames - and Amanda's holding up a comforter we got for his bed that's all dice...



In the afternoon ALL the Saturday game crew showed up and played an epic SEVEN HOUR marathon one shot D&D adventure Finnegan had set up for them that was sort of an introduction to the new campaign that would be starting the following Saturday. They each played a pre-generated 15th level, evil-snake-person-creature-thing that was a warlord or leader of their respective tribe and had all found out there was a way to become a god-king-type thing and lead their people back to prominence in their world and subjugate all the other races as they felt they should...? Or something like that...? I was only listening in a bit of the time. He basically had it set up that they had to work together to do the thing, but if any survived, they would eventually have to fight each other to see who would become the new god-king... Basically it determined and, in a way, introduced who would be the nemesis of the player-characters in the NEXT campaign.

It was a riot. They all had a fantastic time.



Then there were cupcakes.


Wednesday, 8 January 2020

Keira asked if I was interested in playing a game Wednesday evening... like she really needed to ask...



She suggested Patchwork, which we haven't played in a while!



I actually even won - with a POSITIVE SCORE! (Seriously, over half the time we play, when we count up buttons and then subtract points for unfilled squares I have a NEGATIVE total!? Anyone reading this play Patchwork? Is this normal, or do I just REALLY SUCK at this game!? I mean, I've sometimes WON because I was less in the hole than my opponent!?

Friday, 10 January 2020



We tried out one of the new games Finnegan got for his birthday - Betrayal at Baldur's Gate! Kurtis joined us, as did Patrick - a new player at our table - who I met at the Strange Bedfellows 40K Team Tournament last summer (Other Tim and I faced him and his own eldar - which were teamed up with some T'au...).



I liked Betrayal at Baldur's Gate - it played a LOT faster than I initially imagined it would - especially considering four of us had never played it before - though Kurtis has played a fair bit of Betrayal at the House on the Hill (which this is just a resikinning of). Patrick owns the game, himself, and has played it a lot. The cool thing is, there are SO MANY endgame scenarios, that, even though he's played it a lot - BOTH TIMES we played we ended up playing one he hadn't played before.



In the first game I played an angry dwarf named Torskar... bit of a tank... but then I got this omen that said I can only take Mental damage instead of physical damage! Not my strong suit. He could HIT HARD though...

I knew the game involved one of the players eventually turning out to be THE BETRAYER - I didn't realize that this is fairly random and determined later in the game when the endgame conditions are triggered. Other games that I know of that are co-op, or semi-co-op, but have a traitor that works against the others - it is usually determined at the beginning of the game and is kept secret and the traitor has to subtly work against the others without being figured out. I like the way it is done in this game, as... well... some people just aren't that good at subterfuge - and they other style of play can be impossible for them!?



Finnegan reading the end-game scenario for the Heroes.



Amanda, the TRAITOR, explaining her bit... It seemed like it was going to be really, REALLY difficult for us - we had a limited amount of turns to figure out which things were real and which were illusion and uncover the true portal and shut it down before daemons swarmed the city!?



Oh... but killing the Traitor also worked... Remember when I said my dwarf could HIT HARD!?

 

BAM! One-shotted Amanda's traitorous little halfling!

Kurtis took off and Keira didn't feel like playing again. But Amanda, Finnegan, Patrick and I had another go at it.



This time when the end game was triggered, it didn't even determine a traitor just yet - everyone moved to the tile where the person who triggered the end game was at... removed all the other tiles - as we realized we were in and illusionary shadow version of Baldur's Gate.... and basically had to start all over again!



When the end game was triggered again, it was, once again, AMANDA's character that was in league with Count Strahd (yeah, from Ravenloft) and was trying to capture us all to feed him for dinner (or... something like that..?). Two of us had to escape for us to win... in the first post-haunt-turn, Amanda's character totally took out Patricks. Finnegan and I thought we were totally Effed! But I slipped out past her - and so did Finnegan a turn later and so we won! Woo!

I like the game. Plays quick enough and it seems like there are LOADS of end scenarios to play through... I have a feeling we'll see it hitting the table regularly!


Saturday, 11 January 2020



In the afternoon everyone showed up to make characters for Finnegan's new D&D5E campaign - one showed up late. Keira's not playing in this campaign for some reason...? I think maybe it's the way some of the guys play that's irritated her in the last two campaigns and she's decided to take a break.



later in the evening we kicked off our family Wrath & Glory campaign! It was mostly finishing up character creation and introducing some of the other (non-player) characters and what it's all going to be about. So excited to get going this!!! By the time we were done with all that it was a little late to get started on the first adventure, so we called it a night...

The campaign is going to be an Inquisitorial campaign. I have loads of stuff from the old Dark Heresy role-playing game that I'm going to make use of. Amanda is playing a Sister of Battle, Keira is playing a Sanctioned Psyker, and Finnegan is playing a fast-talking, ex-ganger from a hiveworld. Should be fun.


Sunday, 19 January 2020



I can't remember why we didn't play on Saturday...? As no one was available to play Necromunda on Sunday, however, I started off our Wrath & glory campaign proper. I was making use of Shattered Hope - an old Dark Heresy adventure... man... there were plot holes you could pilot a void ship through... They spent the entire evening just exploring outside the mine and talking with people above ground - something the writers clearly did NOT expect players to do - They expected them to just jump on the railroad and head straight down into the mines!


Saturday, 25 January 2020

We'd originally planned to play a boardgame on Friday evening... but then Supernatural Season Five arrived at the library and Amanda and Keira decided they were going to binge-watch the WHOLE FREAKING SEASON over the weekend...



On Saturday, Finnegan did carry on with his new D&D campaign...



and the Grrlz took a long enough break from Supernatural to finish off Shattered Hope. This evening they headed down into the mine - and it went pretty well. Had a real Horror Movie vibe going on. The baddie they faced at the end - a solitary Bloodletter of Khorne, just about did them in! Nearly cleaved the Battle Sister (in Power Armour!) in two - She'd failed two defiance checks when Cynthia was able to stabilize her - after, nearly single handedly, taking down the Bloodletter with a couple blasts of SMITE (a psyker ability).

I'm really excited about this and looking forward to continuing on with it! The next adventure looks a bit more promising!


Friday, 31 January 2020 

Railways of North America.



Friday evening our friend Laura came by and joined me and Amanda and Keira for a game of Railways of the World - using the Railways of "North America" board... it's an odd name for it, because... well... it's CANADA!? The Eastern U.S. is called Railways of the Eastern U.S. The Western U.S. board is called Railways of the Western U.S. The Mexico board is called Railways of Mexico.... But this one is Railways of North America!?

It was almost like two separate games going on until the last turn or two. Laura and I were fighting over the west coast, and Amanda and Keira were all over the East. Amanda started off strong - she took a LOT of bonds - like, NINE of them. Though it looked like she would get swamped with debt - when she started making 4-5 stage deliveries in the first few turns and when rocketing WAY ahead of us in points! It took some time, but I eventually bought up and only had four bonds at the end of the game and was able to just squeak past her in the last two turns! Woo! I don't often win at Railways - or... even do well! - so I was pretty excited.


Looking back at Game Plan 2020 - Q1... well... I ticked off three of the Wrath & Glory games on the 5x5 list... Looks like I'll have some catching up to do in February - which shouldn't be a problem as there is the Family Day long weekend coming up - where I plan to play Hellboy, Blackstone Fortress, and Necromunda all weekend... except Friday and Saturday night. Friday night is valentines and Amanda and I are going out. Saturday, I'm hoping I'll be running Wrath & Glory.

Every other Friday evening in February I'm planning on playing Power Grid - as I am helping out with that at ToonCon now and every other Sunday evening I will be playing... some sort of skirmish game Hellboy, Blackstone Fortress, or Necromunda - and, if no one else is available, I'll be roping the family into it because I want to do a LOT of practice and play testing of the scenarios I plan to run for those at ToonCon


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have a half written game report from a Hellboy game at the end of December I still haven't posted?! Maybe I'll try to finish that up! Also should have some more Blackstone Fortress stuff done in the next few days!