December Games

 Still not painting miniatures much, but I have been doing character portraits - which I've posted on my Art Blog:

Tim's Art Blog: December - Part One - Character Portraits

I did get in a few games - mostly within the last week... 

Saturday, 5 December 2020 

Finnegan ran another game of Four Against Darkness for us again this week - Christian joined us and make a swashbuckler character - Herbert Quornfeld - Accountant of Adventure - he fighted with a giant stamp and a brutally sharp letter opened. There was just no end to the accounting jokes and receipt writing (or demanding). 

As before, I was playing Gronq the Barbarian, Jon was playing Felquis the Cleric, and Chris was playing Leif Qdingleberries the Elf. With Herbert joining us, Quincy the Halfling left the party - figured he was too good for us lunkheads who didn't respect him and the 2nd level he gained... 

Only one of us got to try and level up this game, and the group decided it was my turn, and, carrying on the tradition of ineptitude, I rolled a "1"... the only thing I could roll that would not let me advance to level 2... just like Jon and Chris had done the previous game... so ridiculous. 

Other highlights of the game- we swindled a giant out of all his gold, killed a trolgre (half ogre, half troll - it was NASTY!) and killed a pair of Witch Hunters and I befriended their warhounds and took them as my own. Also added an emerald necklace to my collection of "bling". 

I did a rough sketch of a comic logo - inspired by the old Marvel Comics Conan the Barbarian comic. 

I had been thinking of doing a Character portrait of Gronq - as I've been doing the Wrath & Glory game (that we aren't even PLAYING right now!?) - but then had the idea of doing it like a comic book cover. I even thought of doing short comics about the adventures we go on each week, but then realized that would be WAY to much work... or... would it? Maybe it would be the sort of "challenge" I need right now to get me producing a LOT of drawings, quickly!? 

Son't hold your breath... 

Saturday, 12 December 2020 

Another game of Four Against Darkness.. 

Friday, 25 December 2020

Despite University staff being off a week earlier than ususal, we didn't get any gaming in all week. Probably had something to do with signing up for Netflix. 

Xmas day I actually convinced Amanda to play Terraforming Mars with me. Guys, it must have been a Christmas Miracle. or something because I WON!? Against AMANDA!? 

(there have been allusions to her "throwing" the game, but I think more likely the terrible things the greasy left-over take-out food was doing to her bowels that threw her off her A-Game).

This was one of the LEAST covered boards of any game we've played this year! 

I was playing Point Luna with ... I ended with a TR of 

Initially we thought we'd tied - and then Amanda won the tie-breaker with cash, but then we noted that we'd double counted a few of Amanda's points - I'd counted some points for water next to her Capitol, and she'd counted those same points as point awareded by a card - so I eked out a win by two points!? WOO!!!

Saturday, 26 December 2020

In the afternoon the kids played their weekly game with friends on Roll20, in the evening finnegan ran us through another game of Four Against Darkness. 

We finished up clearing out the dungeon we'd been in. Met some dwarfs on the way out and billed them for vermin removal and headed back to town. After partying there for a while we headed out on our next adventure which involved some cross-country travel. 

I'm not sure if this is what Finnegan had in mind, but I'm pretty sure this is how the rest of us envisioned the Dual-Axe-Wielding Undead Dwarf Mini-Boss we encountered this Saturday. I have to say I was a little sad when we crushed it's bones into dust. I'm sure we all felt, at that moment, the music died... again... some more...

...and then the cleric failed to make it to second level for the FOURTH TIME IN A ROW!? Seriously!? Who rolls that many ones!?

Monday, 28 December 2020

Despite no painting or miniature gaming for the last six months (or maybe it's been five? it was the summer...), I headed over to my FLGS and picked up some boxing week deals. I guess I was feeling hopeful for some return to miniature gaming and painting in the new year... 

My hope is that with the Shadow & Pain box I'll be able to add a bit to my Daemon Army for 40K as well as being able to field it in Age of Sigmar at a Hedonites of Slaanesh army - and also get a solid Daughters of Khaine warband for Warcry. The deal is, though, I don't get to open the box until I a) Finish the Game room and b) finish the last of the minis from Wrath and Rapture I got LAST YEAR!? 

Later in the evening, Amanda and I played Century Golem Edition: Eastern Mountains. After five games, she's finally figured it out... which pretty much means I'm never going to win again... Ah, well... 

Later in the evening I actually assembled the Bloodmaster - first hobby thing I've done in nearly 6 months! 

Tuesday, 29 December 2020

In the morning I made another trip to the Dragon's Den and picked up a couple of the Faction Books for Warcry... 

In the evening Amanda played a couple more games with me, between watching episodes of Shadowhunters with Keira. After five years and nearly 30 games... Amanda finally figured out Farming in Carcassonne.... I will probably never win another game. (Which is actually totally fine, I mean, the whole reason I like Carcassonne so much is because I LOVE making maps! Winning has always been secondary to making a map that looks nice!) 

After another episode of Shadowhunters we played a quick game of Azul. Like, REALLY quick! I think it's the fastest game we've ever played!? It was pretty low-scoring compared to most others too!? 

Wednesday, 30 December 2020 

Another game of Carcassonne. 

Another big win for Amanda gaining 65 points at the end of the game from a combination of Farming anf Goods (from Traders & Builders) 

I went a little overboard with a massive re-basing/reorganization project to make old minis into Warcry Warbands (and maybe Age of Sigmar ARMIES?!) 

More on that in the Game Plan 2021 - coming in the next day or so... 

Thursday, 31 December 2020

Last day to get in games in 2020 - and for the final Quarterly Challenge

I got in two quick games of Azul with Amanda in the morning. 

Man, I was ON FIRE - totally rocked the first game! 99 points! (Amanda was doing pretty good too, she was only a few points behind!) 

Second game went even quicker, but was a bit lower scoring. 

After Azul, Amanda participating in an online dance thingie, so I went out for a ride and popped by Dragon's Den for one last little treat for myself. I don't actually HAVE Beastgrave - or ANY of the Warhammer Underworlds games... and I'm not really planning to GET any of the Warhammer Underworlds games... but I have a friend who does (I've painted all of his warbands for him) and this pandemic will end SOMEDAY and I thought it might be fun to try it out and have my own warband to play with.... AND the set includes five unique Daughters of Khaine miniatures that I will be able to use in Age of Sigmar and/or Warcry. 

Later Amanda and I played ONE LAST GAME of 2020 - another game of Carcassonne! 

I robbed her of some Farming points this time... but it wasn't nearly enough to deal with... 

ALL THE DAMNED GOODS she scooped!? 

I did score 40+ points from farming... which made it a much closer game that it had been all along... 211-208... but, yeah, she just crushed it all week with Carcassonne! 

And that was it for December. Oh, there are a few hours left in the month - and the year - but no more games are going to be played - the evening plans mostly involve supper and Netflix. So... 

This kind of rounds up Q3 of 2020... I didn't really have a plan, per se, at the start of Q3, but in a later post suggested I could "retroactively" pick out five games to play five times for the Quarterly Challenge - just to keep up with THAT part of the plan. At the time I suggested I'd probably go with Fate Accelerated (as I'd already played six games by that point!), Century: Golem Edition – Eastern Mountains (we'd played four games) and then Azul, Carcassonne, Codenames: Pictures, or Monarch (as we'd played two or three of each). I also considered Four Against Darkness an option, as I knew Finnegan would jump at the opportunity to play that with me. 

In the end, I played the following games over the last three months:

• Fate Accelerated x6
• Century: Golem Edition – Eastern Mountains x5
• Azul x5
• Carcassonne x5
• Four Against Darkness x4
• Century: A New World x2
• Codenames: Pictures x2
• Monarch x2
• Terraforming Mars x2
• Abyss x1
• The Castles of Burgundy x1
• Century: Spice Road x1
• London x1
• Patchwork x1

So... I didn't play five games five times... There were five games that, between them, I played 25 times...? And, in total, I played 38 games!? I like the Quarterly 5x5 Challenges - it's a little more flexible than a 10x10 Annual Challenge, but the same number of games (in total, 100) get played. I think I will continue this tradition. 

I do have a Looking Back at 2020 post in the works, but if I don't happen to finish that up before midnight (and anyone happens to be reading this evening) I do want to thank you for popping by and taking an interest in what I've been up to - and everyone else who stopped by all year long - especially those that commented and were so positive and supportive through a very rough time - you are fabulous people and I can't thank you enough. I also want to wish you all the very happiest of new years and sincerely hope that 2021 is less of a dumpster fire for everyone. 

All Is Not Lost

 I case you were starting to wonder if there ever might be miniature gaming or hobby stuff on Tim's MINIATURE WARGAMING Blog (believe me, you are not the only one!), I have some good news!

After a hiatus of almost six months, I did a hobby thing... 

I assembled this Bloodmaster of Khorne! 

It's a start... 

Maybe I'll even prime the blighter before the new year!? 

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have a few posts in draft form coming up soon!

December Games - There wasn't a LOT of gaming this month - hence only ONE post - but Amanda and zi have gotten in a few games the last few days (in a desperate effort to complete the 5x5 Quarterly Gaming Challenge!).

A Look Back at 2020 - It will be brief... probably best to just put all that behind us. 

Game Plan 2021 - General plans (or "hopes") for the coming year and more specific plans for the first Quarter

There will also be posts on the Bike Blog and Art Blog in the coming days, for those interested in such things. 

For anyone that wishes more regular, up-to-date look at what I've been up to, I do have an instagram account where I post Game AND Bike AND Art stuff (and other stuff) on a pretty regular basis. You can find me here:

https://www.instagram.com/tim.in.saskatoon/

November Games - Part Two

 Yikes... what happened to November? What happened to this YEAR!? 

Played a few games in the First Half of the Month, The last two weeks... less so... 

Friday, 20 November 2020

On Friday, Kurtis came over for pizza and games... but he brought his own pizza. 

We started off with a game of London - I had suggested it, because I haven't played it in a long time. Took a while to re-figure-out the strategy... or at least A strategy. I did well on keeping poverty down throughout the game. Kurtis had had a PILE, but in the last few rounds had structures that eliminated almost all of it!? We actually ran out of Underground tokens as he was able to put so many of them in play and that kind of won him the game right there! It took Amanda a few MORE turns than Kurtis and I to get a rhythm going and was constantly trying to catch up. 

I really like London. Wish I could play it more.

After that we played a couple rounds of Monarch. In the first I ended up fling the banner of Might, Amanda had Bounty and Kurtis had Culture. In the second game, just to switch things up, I went with Culture, Amanda took Might and Kurtis flew the banner of Wisdom. I ended up wining both games (more because of luck than any solid strategy!?) . 

Saturday, 21 November 2020 

On Saturday we finished off the Fated Accelerated game I'd started the week before... except Christian wasn't able to make it... and Chris was, but he'd missed out on what had happened the week before and was a bit lost! 

The game was set on Mercury in the not-too-distant future. Bit of a mystery/thriller/conspiracy adventure as the players were trying to figure out what the hell was going on around them and who they could trust. 

Saturday 28 November 2020 

Only Jon and Chris were able to make it out to RPG night, and I had very little prepared, so I convinced Finnegan to run a quick game of Four Against Darkness for us - I played Gronq the Barbarian (who worships Croq - God of Ugly but Comfortable Footwear), Jon played a Cleric Named Felquis, and Chris played Lief Qjingleberries (the "Q" is silent) an Elf. We also had a halfling named Quincy following us along, basically to carry a lantern for us, so we could see the rooms and corridors of the dungeon we were bashing. We fought some hobgolbins, rats and bats a couple ogres and a troll. It was a pretty fun, light game and I'm glad I finally got around to trying it out. 

Finnegan has pretty much ALL of the Four Against Darkness stuff - including a few that aren't released (as he is helping with play-testing and proofreading/editing) - and just loves the game. Seems like we will have no trouble recruiting him to run more games if we are without players - or a game to play - on any Saturday night in the future! 

 Just thirty-one days left in the year (and Q4)!

I never really did come up with a plan for the fourth quarter... 

If I were to retroactively pick out five games to play five times - just to keep up with THAT part of the plan, I'd probably go with Fate Accelerated (as I've played six games of THAT already!), Century: Golem Edition – Eastern Mountains (we've played four - I'm sure we could get ONE MORE game in during December) 4 and then Azul, Carcassonne, Codenames: Pictures or Monarch (we've played two of each). Four Against Darkness could just as easily go on the list, I'm sure Finnegan would JUMP at the opportunity to run more games of that! 

Little has moved ahead with the renovation as my FINGER IS STILL BROKEN - went for an x-ray last week (or... the end of the week before..?) and through I haven't heard back from my doctor, we could see the results online and it said there was still a visible fracture... I've also sprained my LCL (ligament on the outside of the knee) and THAT feel like its taking for-EVAR to heal!? GAH!? 

I've still done no painting of miniatures... though I did get a lot of other painting done this month! 

Probably be back in a couple weeks with an update. Hope everyone is safe and healthy. Things are going sideways here. New Covid-19 cases are just spiralling out of control. Despite so many examples of best practices in so many other places that seem to have it under control, the prairie provinces just seem to want ignore other places success stories to learn how awful pandemics can be the hard way... 

November Games - Part One

Not a LOT to report... because there is not a lot going on. Still haven't painted any miniatures. I have been creating pictures - I kind of jumped in one Dinovember, but have been losing interest this past week. You can see what I've been up to on my Art Blog:

Dinovember 2020

We did get in a few games so far this month - mostly this past week. 

Sunday, 1 November 2020 

Amanda suggested we play a game this evening and I suggested Carcassonne, as we haven't played it for a while. 

Saturday, 7 November 2020 

All the guys actually showed up for Saturday RPG night and we made characters for a short adventure I was planning to run using Fate Accelerated the following Saturday (or two? depending on how it went...)

All I really told them was that they were to make characters that would be residing on a Danish National Research Station on the planet Mercury in the not-TOO-distant future.

It was really a lot of fun making the characters 

Jon's character is an American Geologist and a bit of a conspiracy theorist. 

Chris' character is a Robotics Engineer - building, maintaining and operating remote robotic devices. 

Christian's character is a Reactor Engineer - he's a bit of a fuck up, and this is sort of a last chance posting. 

Woody's character is the station's doctor. The alcoholic black sheep of an influential Danish political family, who has been bounced around from remote station to remote station all over the solar system - to keep him off Earth and as far from the prying eyes of the sensationalist news media. 

Seems like a fun group for what I have planned. 

Wednesday, 11 November 2020 

Amanda suggested we play a game. I suggested two shorter ones. 

We started off with Patchwork. 

I think this may have been my Best Game Evar! I ended with 35 Buttons (Amanda had six)! I think my previous highest score was, like, 20...? 

Next we played Azul... I thought I was doing pretty goo here to... but in on the last turn, especially with the end-game scoring - Amanda just blew right past me, leaving me in the dust... Ah, well... It's just fun to play - I like making patterns.

Both of these games we have now played 10 times! (which was actually the reason I selected them - I was looking at my "five and dime" lists on BGG and thought I should play a few of those on the "five" list that were at 8 or 9 plays, just to move them over to the dime list... I should look through the general play list and see if there are any games with 4 plays - to play again and get THEM on to the five list... 

Thursday, 12 November 2020 

Thursday we tried playing Codenames: Pictures - with the two-player/co-op play version of play. The idea was to discover all OUR agents (red) before all the blue ones were revealed. The first game I played the Spymaster and we ended with just one blue agent that hadn't been revealed. 

Then Amanda took a turn at Spymaster and we revealed ALL eight of our agents with only four blue agents being revealed (THREE were still hidden!) 

These two plays put this one on the dime list as well! 

Friday, 13 November 2020 

Our friend Kurtis came over for supper and games on Friday evening. 

We started with Abyss.

Damn, I was feeling like I was ON FIRE and playing my best game EVAR (or was just getting really lucky...?). What's going on this week!? 

But as it turned out my BEST EVER wasn't quite as good as Kurtis' trying-to-figure-it-out play... Ah well... I was having fun, so... 

Next we played Castles of Burgundy. It was really fun to play with 3 players (as most of the last half-dozen-or-so games I've played were 2-player games with Amanda - there were simultaneously more options, but more challenge in that I to REALLY had prioritize what I wanted to do in a given turn as there was TWO people going before my next turn snapping up all the good stuff... 

Kurtis took an early lead and maintained that almost right to the very end.... but I, apparently, was playing the LONG game - setting myself up for big points later in the game or in game-end scoring. I think THIS definitely was my best ever/highest scoring game of Castles of Burgundy. Amanda, no the other hand, who usually dominates Castles, just couldn't seem to get her game together tonight? 

Saturday, 14 November 2020 

Started playing the Mystery on Mercury adventure I cooked up for the lads using Fate Accelerated. Didnt quite get through it all and ended on a glorious cliffhanger! 

Monday, 16 November 2020 

Finished the first two weeks of November the way we started - with another game of Carcassonne. 

Not much else going on. We had a large snow event and we've barely left the house this past week. There are a few pictures over on the Bike Blog:

Tim's Bike Blog: November

Probably back in a couple weeks with another game update... Let me know if you stopped by by posting a comment below - and tell me what games you've been playing! 

October - Act Three

The GRAND FINALE, as it were... 

or... 

Something like that. 

But not really... 

On Friday, 23 October 2020, Amanda and I played Terraforming Mars.

We played on the Elysium board with the Prelude expansion. The game took us fourteen turns. 

Amanda played Cheung Shing Mars with Society Support and Galilean Mining from Prelude. She took the Specialist AND Generalist milestones. She sponsored the Industrialist and Benefactor awards - but only took the Benefactor! She ended the game with 139 points. 

I played Valley Trust with Biolab, Research Network, and Donation from Prelude. I took the Ecologist Milestone and Desert Settler and Industrialist awards. Ended the game with 116 points. 

I did get together with the lads on Saturday evening... but we didn't end up playing a game... Just a bit of a chat about things. 

There were no games the last week of October. 

I was looking over John Lambshead's One Hour Skirmish Wargaming and considered setting up a game on the dining room table a few times... but just didn't get to it. It does look like an interesting game, so I do hope I get to it in November. 

I tried to keep up with the drawing, but ended up flailing a bit... You can see what I got up to over on the Art Blog:

October Challenge - Part the Third

I also tried to keep up with the riding. I did a bit of walking too. There are pictures over on the Bike Blog:

And a Few More Pics from October

Things aren't looking great here with the Covid-19 situation. As of the end of October, we've had the highest number of active cases since the whole thing began - more than doubling the two previous high points in May and August... and they just keep rising... 

Hope you are all healthy, safe, and happy. 

October - Act Two

The (Canadian) Thanksgiving Long Weekend wasn't anything special this year. I only went over to my folks on the Sunday to help them prepare for moving later in the week. On the Tuesday, I was over at their place again to help start with the moving - as the new place was available a couple days early. Just as we were leaving to get a second load I crushed the tip of my left middle finger between the sections of a steel overhead door as it closed... and that pretty much ended the usefulness of me for the rest of this move. Lucikly my folks had a BUNCH of friends that were willing to help out and my sister and they'd hired professional movers for the bulk of it (the loads we took over were mostly fragile things they didn't trust to the movers!). 

I apologize to anyone that left comments on the last few posts that I didn't respond to. I do appreciate all the comments, and would have liked to respond to them - especially those on the last one - but typing has been... challenging... So, there will likely be minimal commentary with this post as well. 

On the holiday Monday, Amanda and I got in a game of Century: Golem Edition - Eastern Mountains. My concern about her catching on and me never winning again was, perhaps a bit... presumptuous..? I won 85-73 and that's AFTER we realized over halfway through the game that Amanda was only paying one gem to place a trading post on locations where I already had one (you're supposed to pay TWO gems, in a two-player game). 

Saturday was Role-Playing Game night which EVERYONE BUT CHRIS bailed on at the last minute. So I recruited Finnegan, once again, to finish off the short Fate Accelerated game I'd started the week before. 

This week we made use of maps and tokens I'd drawn and uploaded to Roll20

You can see better pictures of all the original illustrations over on the ART BLOG

Last night Amanda and I played a quick game of Azul. I was surprised to discover we haven't played this since June - we played it a LOT in the spring after Amanda got it for her birthday, and then... sort of just stopped. 

I have been keeping up with the drawing, but the recent work is all posted over on the Art Blog. Likewise, some bicycle riding has happened... despite difficulties with crushed finger... there is a brief report of rides over on the Bike Blog... 

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

October - Act Three - the last eleven days of October 2020...