February and March Games

I felt like I didn't play a lot of games in February (and was feeling tired...) so I didn't end up posting a regular, monthly February Games post, figuring March would be much the same and I'd combine the two... Then I played more games in March, so there's a bit here!? 

Sunday, 5 February 2023

Kicking off the month - one game of One-Hour Wargames for the Back of Beyond Campaign. You can read more about that here: 

Back of Beyond Campaign - Summer 1918

Saturday, 11 February 2023

While i HAD been playing a fair amount  of miniature games for the Back of Beyond Campaign... I hadn't board games with the family in over a month. Saturday afternoon I cleared off the kitchen table so we could play some games while Finnegan was running his D&D game in the basement game room. 

Initially I'd suggested Codenames and/or Kingdom Builder - both of which are fairly quick to play. Keiran suggested ALSO playing Splendor. In the end we just played Codenames... lots and lots of Codenames!?

THE FIRST ROUND - we were playing with the Two-Player Variant with one spymaster and two spies all on the same side and the Opposing side is run by an AI. Here we were the Blue agents and NOT off to a great start... New York and Bridge were out there - right next to each other in the middle of the grid... so I said "Brooklyn"... Amanda and Keiran guessed POLICE!? (because Brooklyn Nine-Nine!?) 

WE all took turns being the Spymaster. 

Keiran did exceptionally well as Spymaster (seriously want to be on THEIR team if ever we played against others!!) 

Though... occasionally they were frustrated by what morons their parents were!?

We ended up playing TEN GAMES of regular Codenames. 

Because apparently that wasn't enough.... 

We even tried mixing Codenames with Codenames: Pictures - and tried the variant with two spymasters and one spy... 

realized just before we started we didn't have enough to make a 5x5 grid... then realized after, that you only use 4x5 for pictures or the hybrid variant... oh well... 

Keiran (blue) was off to a commanding lead... but then I missed a few of their clues and Amanda and caught up and WON!? 

Finally we played one game of JUST Codenames: Pictures. Again, I think Keiran was a bit frustrated by what morons their parents can be. 

Sunday, 12 February 2023

There was one field battle to play for the Autumn 1918 turn of the Back of Beyond campaign. I played it on Sunday afternoon. You can read more about the battle and the season on campaigning here:

Back of Beyond Campaign - Autumn 1918

Saturday, 18 February 2023

Played one quick game of Splendor with Amanda and Keiran, while Finnegan was running his D&D game downstairs. 

Sunday, 26 February 2023

Sunday afternoon, my friend Jasper joined Amanda, Finnegan and me and I tried running them all through making characters for Hellboy the Role-Playing Game. 

I'd gotten really excited about this as I LOVE the Hellboy comics... and made it through the character creation section. I'm not sure we'll ever play, though. Just too damned many rules... I'd love to run a modern supernatural game using FATE or something like that. Might have to have another look at the Dresden Files RPG (which is basically FATE). 

Wednesday, 1 March 2023

I played two quick games of One-Hour Wargames for the Back of Beyond campaign. You can read all about those here:

Back of Beyond Campaign - Spring 1919

Sunday, 5 March 2023

I played a single quick game  of One-Hour Wargames for the Back of Beyond campaign. You can read all about those here:

Back of Beyond Campaign - Summer 1919

Saturday, 11 March 2023

While Finnegan was running his Saturday Evening D&D Game in the basement game room, Amanda and I played a quick game of Kingdom Builder (with elements of the Marshlands expansion). She beat me by ONE POINT! 

Sunday, 12 March 2023

Played the final battles of 1919 for our Back of Beyond Campaign. 

Full report of those actions can be found here:

Back of Beyond Campaign - Autumn 1919

Monday, 20 March 2023

Monday I played two quick games of One Hour Wargames for the Back of Beyond Campaign:

Back of Beyond - Spring 1920

Saturday, 25 March 2023

Friday afternoon I stopped by the Dragon's Den to pick up some paint. It was busier than usual and there were a few people lined up at the till when I'd found my paint, so I took a meander through the boardgame section while I was waiting. I was wondering why I even bothered as I was feeling ZERO need to buy any new games as I have a hard enough time finding time to play the ones I already have and like!? As I happed to walk past the Wingspan games, something caught my eye - a wingspan box that I did not recognize!? Apparently a NEW expansion (that can also be played as a two-player game on it's own) was released sometime last year!? 

I texted a picture to Amanda and she said "BUY IT!?"

So... 

Saturday evening we tried it out! The new "Duet Mode" was interesting - added something a little different to the regular two-player game. More to think about... 

Totally lost... But, hey, I got to play a game with Amanda! Yay!

The unfortunate thing, I realized after the game, was I was so focused on the MECHANICS - what's changed, what's different... that I never even took much notice of THE BIRDS!? I'll have to play it again and take more time to read about the birds and bust out wingsong.

Sunday, 26 March 2023

Sunday Afternoon, my friend Jasper came by and Amanda and I introduced him to Terraforming Mars. While he scooped up most of the Milestones and Awards, he didn''t quite cotton on to the importance of cities and greenery on the surface quite quick enough. I'm pretty sure it'll be a totally different game next time we play! 

In the evening after supper, Amanda suggesed we have another go at Wingspan: Asia. 

Monday, 27 March 2023

I played two quick games of One-Hour Wargames for the Back of Beyond Campaign.

Bolsheviks and Chinese fighting in the West.

Bolsheviks and WEstern Interventionists fighting in the East. 

For a full report of that action:

Back of Beyond - Summer 1920

Tuesday, 28 March 2023

Jasper was back, along with Brent, to play a few games. 

First we played a game of Wingspan. I was really excited because I got the higher point value on two bonus cards by getting four birds out in my last three actions!? Photographer - Birds with colours in their names, and one that required birds that ate fruit (Viticulturist...?) 

And then, because we had some time, we played a quick game of Century Golem

Brent just crushed the two of us, finishing the game with six scoring cards, while Jasper and I only had four!? 

They look so serious in both photos!? We were having a really good time. Maybe Jasper was just concentrating because both games were totally new to him! 

Wednesday, 29 March 2023

One more game of Wingspan: Asia! 

I'd actually arraged to play a game of Xenos Rampant on Thursday with Tim Miller, who I haven't played a miniature game with for AGES.... and then completely forgot until he showed up at my door... Unfortunately I was just starting to make supper for everyone and had not prepared at all for playing... so we had to postpone until next week. But he did hand out for a bit and we got caught up, which was nice. 

Also... I've been spending a RIDICULOUS amount of time playing Star Battles on Puzzle Baron this past month... Which is kind of gaming... 

I was mostly doing the 10x10-2 stars... but occasionally do a 14x14-stars - like this one above (14x14 grid each row, column and colour have to have exactly 3 stars in them!). 

(Because as soon as you finish them they disappear, this screen-shot was taken about four second before I finished, once I realized what had to be moved about to complete it)

I played it SO MUCH so that I ended up being in the top 20 (worldwide) in March... 

Ha-ha! Waaaaaay down in 17th place there... 

It was fun... but I played WAY TOO MANY puzzles to get there. Won't be doing that again! (I mean, trying to compete - I'll still play Star Battles and do Logic Puzzles... just not enough to score enough to place anywhere in the top 20... or even 100!?) 

Amanda has suggested a game of Wingspan: Asia when she got home from work on Friday, but because I'd ended in the top 20, I kind of just wanted to do a few more puzzles to keep my place there. having never done this before, I had no idea how competitive these puzzle-doers were and how many would be on there last minute trying to increase there score. Considering I was a solid SEVENTEEN THOUSAND points ahead of the player in 20th... I probably should have just played Wingspan... 

And that wraps up both March and the First Quarter of 2023.... I'll probably be posting a look back and the Quarter and Second Quarter plans later today or tomorrow!