February Games

Saturday, 1 February 2020



In the afternoon, Finnegan ran his D&D5E game - everyone showed up this week! The players seem very committed this campaign - there have been more days that EVERYONE's been there than not - so far - which was not the case for the previous campaign.



In the evening we started our third session (not counting the one where we finished off character creation and went over how the system works and introduced some of the campaign frame work - I'm talking third session of actual ROLE-PLAYING). This was starting on a new adventure: The Edge of Darkness - this is another old introductory Dark Heresy Adventure - but it's a lot tighter and makes way more sense than the previous one. We started a little late so we really only got through the mission briefing - which was pretty extensive and the characters had a lot of good questions for the Inquisitorial Interrogator that was doing the briefing.


Friday, 7 February 2020



Amanda, Keira and I played Power Grid Deluxe - on the European side of the board. Good Fun - and super close! Amanda won, by a few "Electros". She and I both powered 16 cities in the end, but she had more money left over. I had planned to play this every Friday this month - as I'm sort of helping out with it at ToonCon. Not the guy running it, but playing in it and helping out...


Saturday, 8 February

Only two of the players for Finnegan's D&D game showed up in the afternoon... so they made characters for 1st edition (something they do for time to time, for "laughs")

In the evening...



Continued on with our Wrath &Glory campaign. This got into the investigation proper. The trio were ambushed by Scavvies while staying in a hostel! The Scavvies were quickly dealt with. They did some poking around and picked up a few clues...

Saturday, 15 February 2020

Friday evening we didn't play Power Grid because Amanda and I went out on a date for Valentines Day. Well... sort of... We were in the same building together where she was volunteering for a function and I mostly sat on my own...

Saturday afternoon... well... kids these days. Every week Finnegan sends out emails to confirm whether anyone is going to make it to his game. Not everyone can make it all the time and it helps him plan the adventure. This week one of the girls had told him at the game last Saturday that she wouldn't be able to make it - it's a long weekend and her family was going to be out of province. When he did send out the email, one of the dudes who almost ALWAYS shows up, but almost NEVER replies to the emails, actually replied to the email and said he was coming... then one of the other dudes said he was coming. Now Dude #2 is NOTORIOUS for saying he'll be there without actually checking with his parents to see if he can - he's pretty busy guy with competitive swimming, but has none of that schedule in his head he relies entirely on his parents to get him to the places he needs to be at the time he needs to be there. I joked that Finnegan the he should double check with his parents to confirm. Finnegan replied as asked if his brother would be able to make it... and Dude #2 replied and said it turned out that neither of them would actually be able to make it?! The other girl finally replied to the email on FRIDAY and said she wouldn't be able to make it...

So, the one guy who always shows up was the only one that confirmed he would make it... Saturday morning he send a second reply stating he was at a friends for the weekend and wouldn't be able to make it...

Finnegan was a bit bummed by all this, but understood (it's the FAMILY DAY long weekend... some people actually DO do stuff with their families... I mean, WE tried...). But he is always frustrated with peoples inability to reply to emails punctually and accurately.

Saturday at noon... The girl who was supposed to be in Alberta and the swimmer Dude #2 (but not his brother) just showed up and expected to play... after both had told him they WEREN'T coming. No phone call or email checking that there still was a game going on, just showed up. Luckily, Finnegan HAS most of the campaign mapped out and has a pretty good idea what's going on in his world and is pretty good at just making shit up as he goes, so the three of them forged ahead with the campaign and it sounded like they had a RIOT!



In the evening we sat down to play Wrath & Glory again. Keira was in a bit of a sulk and we had to HOUND her to figure out what was going on and it turned out she had no interest in playing Wrath & Glory... but felt she HAD to...!? I was a little shocked by this as SHE had been the one that seemed most keen on the idea of the campaign and most excited about her character! So she's dropped out of the game - I'll have NO ONE playing that is only there because they feel they NEED to...

Despite the picture (which was taken later in the evening when they were tired) Amanda and Finnegan had a pretty good time and they did a bunch of investigating and picking up of more clues. Amanda was feeling like they were getting nowhere, but Finnegan pointed out all the clues they'd picked up and leads they had to follow up on... I think she's watched too many half hour cop shows and expected an investigation to be wrapped up in a single episode, and it's been three, 3-4 hour episodes so far and they're still not 100% sure who is behind what's going on...

They were a little bummed out at Kiera dropping out of the game and REALLY missed having the Psyker along!!


Sunday, 16 February 2020



Sunday we sat down to finally try out Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress. It took a LOT longer than I expected. I thought we'd get through a few expeditions in the afternoon... we got through ONE. and it took us nearly SIX HOURS!? Mind you, we stopped for lunch at one point and for the first few rounds there was a lot of looking up of rules and trying to suss things out and two points we really got stuck on trying to figure out what the rule meant (both could go one way or the other and would significantly change the whole play of the game - we chose to do it them one way, but in both cases, when I later looked up how others are interpreting it, I found the consensus seems to be the opposite!?) Despite that, it was good fun and I think we were all looking forward to trying it again! There is a full report of the ensuing shenanigans here:

Enter the Blackstone Fortress

Monday, 17 February 2020

We had all kind of planned to play games all weekend for the "Family Day" long weekend... Ideally, I'd hoped we'd get through games of all three of the games I am running at ToonCon, just three weeks from this weekend... Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress, Necromuda , and Hellboy: The Boardgame. As we got to the weekend it became clear that we weren't going to get through all three. I still hoped that we'd get to try out Blackstone Fortress (which we did, on Sunday) and that we'd get a chance to play necromunda - as it has been MONTHS since I last played - Hellboy we'd played more recently (although that was almost two months ago now, as well) so I figured we could forgo that one for this weekend.

I spent all of Monday morning and most of the afternoon getting stuff ready for Necromunda - filling out cards and typing up bits of scenario details and rules and a quick reference sheet I could read, and spend what remained of the afternoon setting it up... After supper we were to get playing!



But then, after supper, the kids were very slow at dragging their ass to the table. Keira showed up first, but just sat there sulking... AGAIN!? In the end I just told her to go away. I like playing games with them, but only if they're actually interested. If they're only there because they feel the HAVE TO, NO ONE is going to have fun. Finnegan's response was pretty much the same, so I told him to get lost as well...

Teenagers, hey...?



Amanda WAS willing to play, but I knew she had other things she'd rather do, so I suggested maybe she go do that and I'd just solo a few rounds on my own....

I did get gangs all set up and figured out what they were all going to try and do and played through about one turn... but then other family crises ensued and the game was put on hold...


Tuesday, 18 February 2020

I did leave it all out on the table, and on Tuesday played through a second turn, again, solo..



Soloing both Monday and Tuesday proved to be very valuable - I got to remind myself of how the game played on my own time, without worrying about player(s) sitting there being bored while I looked stuff up.



Tuesday I really only got through a second turn and that was enough...

I did do a game report of the action with a bunch more pictures:

Necromunda Scenario Play-Test for ToonCon


Wednesday, 19 February 2020 

I was determined to actually play test this with scenario with real humans, however. So Monday evening and Tuesday I started HOUNDING everyone I could think of to try and get them over here either Wednesday or the following Tuesday to play.



On Wednesday, ONE person, Rick, showed up to play with me...

A couple others had expressed interest, but then all bailed...



Despite only having one player, it was still a valuable play test - and a lot of FUN! I was feeling at this point I was ready to run it for more people - and more people WERE planning to come on Tuesday!

Again, there is a full report of this action elsewhere on the blog:

Necromunda ToonCon Scenario Play-Test #2



Friday, 21 February 2020

Two Weeks to ToonCon! The original plan was to play Power Grid... but then both people I'd arranged to come and play bailed...



So, I talked the family into doing a quick run-through of the basic starter scenario for Hellboy: The Board Game

More Pics:

More Hellboy


Saturday, 22 February 2020



Finnegan's Saturday D&D game...

In the evening we were supposed to finish off The Edge of Darkness.... but that somehow didn't happen. I think Keira picked up another season of Supernatural from the library and we were busy binge-watching that with her... I decided to sit with them and do some painting...

Originally on Sunday we were supposed to play Hellboy again... but I ended up being CrAzY sick - like in bed all day, except for a few visits to the toilet... I was terribly worried it might be the flu and I might have to cancel the Wargaming Birthday Bash on Tuesday. I was still feeling pretty awful on Monday, but somewhat better.


Tuesday 25 February 2020

By Tuesday morning I was feeling a little more Human, so forged ahead with the Birthday Bash!



Starting the day off right - with a donut from Darkside Donuts!



I spent the afternoon setting things up so everything was ready to go when players showed up.



Other Tim played Enforcers, Aaron played The Escher Gang, Kurtis played Cawdor.



Rick played my Delaque Gang and Jacob played a Crusade of Redemptionists!

More pictures and a complete report of the ensuing shenanigans can be found elsewhere on this blog:

The Return of Karloth Valois - Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash


Thursday, 27 February 2020



Thursday evening Darrin and John stopped by to try out Hellboy - giving me another chance to practice teaching it to people who had not played...

More Pics:

More Hellboy

Once again, on Friday, people that had planned to show up bailed and kids were unwilling to play and Amanda was tired... so we watched Jo Jo Rabbit, which I'd picked up from the library earlier in the day. Ah well... hopefully I'll remember how to play Power Grid when I play it next weekend at ToonCon.

Saturday, 29 February 2020 (Leap Year!)



Finnegan's Saturday D&D game...

In the evening we'd planned on playing Blackstone Fortress, instead of carrying on with the Wrath & Glory campaign... but then... that didn't happen either...

Maybe in March...



So far games played this year...

Wrath & Glory x6
Necromunda x3/4
(It was three, but one was a solo game spread over two games and logged as two games on BGG)
Betrayal at Baldur's Gate x2
Hellboy: The Board Game x2
7 Wonders Duel (with Pantheon) x1
Patchwork x1
Power Grid Deluxe: Europe/North America x1
Railways of North America x1
Terraforming Mars x1
Viticulture Essential Edition x1
Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress x1

Not really hitting those Q1 Plan objectives... but... whatevs... Games getting played.

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:


In just over a week - the ToonCon 2020 Game Report(s) - there will probably be three or four of them - one each for each of the games I'm running, and another for the rest of the weekend...

Before that, though, I will probably be posting a few pics of minis trickling off the workbench this week... some Necromuda stuff... a Noise Marine (or two!?)... maybe some other stuff!?