February Games... and stuff... (Part One)

Well... we are getting in a lot more games this month! (Compared to January). So much so, that I thought I might break this month's update into two! 

The first week of February I picked up a few early birthday presents for myself.... 

My FLGS (Dragon's Den Games) had like FIVE of each of these old Nightvault Warbands (which are actually the two warbands that were originally included in SHADESPIRE core set, reboxed as individual warbands for Nightvault?) and somehow I talked them into giving me a killer deal on them!!! I am thinking I will totally run this for ToonCon at SOME point...  when there IS a ToonCon again... (or host a WArhammer Underworlds weekend campaign... or BOTH!) but there is ZERO chance I'm going to bring Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven or Skaeth’s Wild Hunt or any of these spindly, fragile warbands to a learn-to-play game and have some ham-handed brute break my $50 warband... (like they did my Blackstone Fortress figures!). So, I got some super cheap ,older ones that are SUPER CHUNKY and SOLID to use as loaner warbands! 

Because I "think ahead" like that... 

(Like a moron)... 

This falls under: "It seemed like a good idea at the time"... 

I also picked up Champions of Dreadfane and Khagra's Ravagers and some other stuff. I picked up the Castigators because the Champions of Dreadfane included a group of Sequitors - and both are part of the Stormcast Eternals Sacrosanct Chamber and could be used together in a Warcry warband... which reminds me... missing from this picture is the Warcry Bringers of Death Book - the last of the four Grand Alliance books for Warcry - now I have them all! MWA-HA-HA-Ha-Ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

This kind of threw a wrench into the original painting plan for February... Despite Myari's Purifier's being partly painted... I kind of wanted to PAINT ALL THESE before getting back to them!? 

We tidied up a little corner of the upstairs the first week of February - as Amanda was doing a thing for an online conference the UofS was hosting, and she didn't want to look like she was presenting from a trash heap. While it was all tidied up, I thought I'd take a little "Shelfie". This is my Graphic Novel book shelf. Yep. Those are all comics. I've kind of run out of space, though... not sure if it's time to cull the collection.. or BUILD MORE SHELVES!? 

All of the history and game books are mostly in boxes and will go on shelves in the basement Game Room... y'know... whenever that gets finished... 

Friday, 5 February 2021

Amanda agreed to play board games with me on Friday evenings - and agreed to try and play five games of Kingdom Builder and London over the next two months. The first Friday of the month (the 5th), we played BOTH!

We started with Kingdom Builder and somehow convinced Finnegan to join us!

We were playing with Hermits, Lords, and Discoverers. 

I ended the game - running out of settlements first. 

But Finnegan (black) just crushed it!

after that, Amanda and I played London. I like London. I like every Martin Wallace game I've played - which certainly isn't ALL of them... but I have played a few. 

I did win this one... but I had a feeling that after a few more games, Amanda will figure it out, and i'd never win again! 

We also started watching The Expanse, Season Five on that Friday. 

Saturday, 6 February 2021

Saturday we continued the Harnworld adventure Chris had started the week before, at the end of January. Our group got into a fight. I bashed a guys head in with my club. That was about it. 

(and then, another episode of The Expanse) 

Sunday, 7 February 2021

Finnegan also agreed to play Warcry or Warhammer Underworlds on Sunday evenings with me through the rest of Q1. I thought we should start with Warhammer Underworlds, while it was still, relatively fresh in our heads... 

Finnegan decided he wanted to swithc things up and try out Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven... and utterly destroyed the Dread Pageant with them! A Full report of the game (and loads more pictures!) can be found here:

Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm - Game Two

Friday, 12 February 2021

Had another board game evening on Friday...

That's Amanda's Look of Serious Concentration. 

We started with Kingdom builder - with played with Merchants, Citizens, and Workers victory cards and the Oracle, Barn, Paddock, and Farm boards. I finished, but Amanda totally won - largely because she did a good job of keeping ALL of her settlements as one big winding line and surrounded a few locations.

It went quicker - but we were just playing with two. 

Afterwards we played London again, as well. This went a bit quicker - mostly because we're remembering more now. Amanda seems to have groked it... She had this crazy engine going where she all these cards that didn't flip and gave her PILES of money and points each turn - and we each had ten Burroughs, so poverty wasn't a concern - and she just sat there and did the Run City action and amassed piles and piles of cash and points. 

Like ALL the cash. By the end we'd run out of the £5 coins. You score 1 point per three £ at the end of the game... she scored 45 points!? So over £135... !? I'm lucky to end the game with £13 (though I think I ended THIS game with about £20. She's ended the game without ANY money and uable to pay off loans (-7 VP per loan) 

It's WAY easier to do well in the game with only two players. Three or four makes it MUCH more competitive and cutthroat - and HARD. 

Saturday, 13 February 2021

Sometimes... Amanda just gets a bee in her bonnet. 

Today, that be was Kingdom Builder. 

I'm not sure if it was just that she had so much fun playing it the night before...? Or if it was that she wasn't sure how she ended up winning and wanted to see if she could do it again. Regardless, just after lunch she asked if I wanted to play another game, and I said "Sure!"

WE ended up playing on the Tower, Harbour, Barn, and Oracle boards with the Citizens, Hermits, and Discoverers victory cards... and I ended up winning... 53-33... 

So she said, let's do it again... 

In the next game we played with the Oracle, Farm, Barn, and Oasis boards, with the Lords, Merchants and Knights victory cards... and I won that one, 74-67. She scored higher and tightened the gap. 

She said "Best two out of three?" and i said "I've already won two...!?" and she said "you know what I mean - I want to see if I can win one". I said "okay..."

I didn't get a picture of Game Three.  We played with the Paddock, Harbour, Oasis and Barn boards, and the Hermits, Knights, and Merchants victory cards.... and I won that one 75-32!?

Then she had a zoom-quiz-get-together-thingie with her folks and relatives in England, who are all in LOCKDOWN! 

Afterwards, she asked if I was up for another game... and I asked if SHE was up for another game and she said YES!!! (Bee + Bonnet)

We played with the Paddocks, Oasis, Tower, and Oracle boards, and the Merchants, Lords, and Hermits victory cards.... and... um.... 89-54... 

"ONE MORE?! Before your game?!"

"why not..."

This final game with played with all the boards we didn't use in the previous game (so, Harbour, Tavern, Farm, and Barn) and Citizens, Knights, and Workers. And AMANDA WON! 80-67!? WOOO!

(Okay, at that point, I ended up helping her with a LOT of her moves... but whatevs... fun was had!)

So... that was FIVE games of Kingdom Builder in ONE DAY - I can check THAT off my Quarterly 5x5 challenge list! 

Later in the evening... 

We were scheduled to play one more game of Harnworld this week... but Chris wasn't feeling up to it... so we got together for a chat on Discord and I'd thought maybe we'd start making characters, or at least talking about AGe of Sigmar: Soulbound... but we didn't really get to that. Next week. For SURES.

Sunday, 14 February 2021

Because we are gluttons for punishment, Amanda suggested ONE MORE game of Kingdom Builder... 

We played with the Barn, Farm, Paddock and Oracle boards, with the Knights, Hermits, Citizens victory cards. 

AND Amanda totally won this one - without even any help from me!

Well... not much.... She did finally pick up on how to do things a little better and played a pretty solid game. Woo! 

later, just befoer supper, finnegan and i got in a game of Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm. Tried out the new Khorne Bloodreavers warband. It was a pretty one-sided slaughter... 

You can see more pictures and read the complete Game Report here:

Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm - Game Three

Monday, 15 February 2021

the 15th was the Family Day long weekend in Saskatchewan and still crazy-cold out. It has been a tradition that we play games on Family Day for the last few year. The kids are less interested in playing games this year, but I did manage to talk Amanda into giving Warhammer Underworlds a try... 

She played Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven and I played the Dread Pageant. 

Morgwaeth's Remains unbeaten! 

Teh Game took a little longer, having to explain and reexplain everything to Amanda. She did say she'd play again and expected it would take less time as she was finally, at the end of the game, starting to cotton on to what was going on. 

There will be a full game report (with lots more pictures) in the next day or so! 

Wow... what a month so far! Lots of games - and looking forward to lots more! Amanda is committed to playing boardgames every Friday evening (and fitting in a few more here and there). Finnegan is still keen to play Warhammer Underworlds (or Warcry on Sunday evenings). I'll be starting up Age of Sigmar: Soulbound next Saturday - and we have an EXTRA session planned for my birthday the following Thursday - as well as a few games with the family in the afternoon! Stay tuned!