July Games

 Welp... another month has gone by. Here's what I've been up to... 

Saturday, 1 July 2023

Canada Day!

Kicked off the month with a game of 1754: Conquest - The French and Indian War. This is part of a series of games from Academy Games. I have two of the others in the series (1775: Rebellion and 1812: The Invasion of Canada) but have not played them in... eight years...!? I played 878: Vikings: Invasions of England (also using the same general game mechanics), but that was six years ago. 

I was playing the British Regulars and John was playing the Provincials (he had never played any of the games in the series). Brent was the French Regulars, and Kurtis was the Habitants. They've both played these games more recently and had both actually read the rules this week... so they kind of won... also, Brent could not NOT hit when he rolled his dice and I couldn't hit anything... so... 

Setting up for the Halifax Hammer... no, wait... that's a different game... 

This was where I set up my extra guys at the beginning of the game. On the first turn four more cubes were deployed to the port and I tried a two pronged invasion of Louisburg. I succeeded in capturing the port, but the fort remained in French hands the entire game. I did briefly capture Quebec as well - and even moved up to Trois Rivieres where one of the Habitant spawn tokens was... but that was short-lived. The game only lasted three rounds. 

Boom! Played as many games on the first day of July as I did in all of June! 

Wednesday, 12 July 2023

With Jasper back from his month-long sojourn to teh family cabin in the woods, we met up with Brent to play Wingspan! 

We played at Jaspers - to break in Jaspers brand new copy of the game (which he received as a going away gift from the high school he'd been teaching at, as he's been transferred to a different one for the fall!) 

Brent just destroyed both of us in the first game, scoring 113 - and we weren't even playing with nectar!? I think he said it was the first time he'd scored over 100 points when not playing with the Oceana Expansion! 

We played a second game... and points-wise I did so much worse... but I got a lot more birds out there... and, like 17 points from Bonus Cards! 

We ALL did worse in the second game, for some reason!? Brent still won. Jasper swore he would play one hundred solo games befroe we were allowed to come over again - so he could get better at it... I don't know... This is over fifty games I've played, and I don't feel like I'm doing much better than when I first started!? 

...and... that was it for gaming.... 

On the plus side, I did a fair bit more cycling. Every week I did a bit more than than I did the previous week. It's not nearly as much as I would have been riding in previous years... all while still playing games... but... it's something. 

I also got together with friends on discord for an online "paint and chat" the last two Sundays... though I wasn't painting. I DID assemble all of the miniatures from the Ashes of Faith box set, which I picked up back in May. 

Earlier in the month I'd been assembling and prepping other things - The Beastmen from Kill Team: Gallowfall and rebasing some other stuff... and Skaven... and spaceship terrain... back to the old bouncing around between too many projects to actually COMPLETE any!? 

I... um... also bought a few new games!?

The first was Alien: Fate of the Nostromo. It was an impulse buy. I was looking on Amazon for something I actually needed... and this popped up and was DEEPLY discounted. Like normally $50CAD on for $20... It had miniatures (but, like, only SIX!)... Co-op or solo... (though It turns out the miniatures are HUGE - closer to 40mm!? Or more!?) 

Also... I'd been thinking about picking up the Alien role-playing game and thought these miniatures could be used (as if I didn't already HAVE enough generic sci-fi crew...). At one point I was even thinking about picking up Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps (I wonder if the miniatures are a similar HUGE scale or if they're closer to the more traditional 28 or 32mm? they are made by a different company...?)

In the end I DIDN'T pick up the Alien role-playing game... instead I picked up the Blade Runner role-playing game. (it seemed like there was less stuff for it and I would be less inclined to go ALL IN and buy EVERYTHING!?). I've had a brief look at it and it seems interesting. I might try and run a few adventures in the fall when the game room is operational again... 

Finally, I happened to be at McNally-Robinson - one of the only books stores left in Saskatoon - certainly the BIGGEST - I don't go there often as it's on the other side of town. But I happened to be out that way with Keiran and I though they might enjoy going into the two book stores out there (there's also an Indigo Books) (They were indeed THRILLED - and a little overwhelmed - but showed great restraint and only came home with three books!). 

Tiny Epic Galaxies was on a table with a few other board games and puzzles in the Bargains section and was marked down 50%, so I got it for less than $19 including taxes... I remember them selling for $50-60 just after the Tabletop episode came out featuring Tiny Epic Galaxies (as EVERYONE suddenly wanted one!). I don't recall much about it... but I remember thinking we should pick it up... but then coudn't find one... and then couldn't find one for any sort of reasonable price and gave up. 

It's small, so hopefully we can set it up on the kitchen table and play it sometime this summer while waiting upon renovations to finish up.