April Games

There were quite a few games played through the First Quarter of the year... though most of them were Warhammer Underworlds - which is fine, but I was thinking I needed to try and play some OTHER games as well... with some other people! 

So I decided to try and to establish a semi-regular Game Night on Fridays. Previously, I had been thinking I might try making it out to Skirmish Game Night at the Warhammer store on Fridays, now that the weather was getting better. So the plan was kind of to do this on alternating Fridays - which coincided with when Shannon and Kevin had their respective kids...

Wednesday, 3 April 2024

Started the month off with a game that WASN'T Warhammer Underworlds!

Our friends Ryan and Andy came over to play Wingspan! We broke out the new Fan Art expansion (just a set of cards with different art). It was supposed to be for Amanda's birthday, but since she was going to be out of town for her birthday, I figured we might as well crack them open NOW! 

Some of the art was cool... Some of it was... okay... did I need to buy this...? Probably not... but I did, so I guess we'll play with them from time to time...? 

Friday, 5 April 2024

Our first Friday game night of the month (and... year, I guess...) 

Shannon brought along Tokaido, which neither Amanda or I had ever played, and I'm not sure Kevin had either..? Each of us played a traveller on the "East Sea Road" in  Japan. Taking in the panoramic scenery, buying souvenirs, eating food, meeting people, visiting temples, and such. 

It was okay. I'd play it again. Not going to buy it myself. 

 

I played Hiroshige - who was very good at collecting panoramic thingies? Painting them, I guess... I did okay. Didn't once get to visit a hot springs!? 

Amanda played a food blogger or something and started with WAY MORE MONEY and got cheaper meals. She won. 

Afterwards we played Castles of Mad King Ludwig.

I love this game. It's one of my favourites. You get to design mad castles. They always end up looking alarmingly similar to the structures I spent so many hours drawing on graph paper as a kid. 

Sunday, 7 April 2024

Sunday we were back to playing Warhammer Underworlds! 

We started off with a game set in Shadespire (only using boards from Shadespire/Nightvault) 

I wanted to try out the freshly painted Sons of Velmorn with their own Rivals Deck on (Katophrane's Reliquary board). Amanda wanted to play Elathain's Soulraid again, still just using their own Rivals Deck (on The Cursed Oubliette). Nic was playing Grashrack's Despoilers with a Nemesis deck using Break Neck Slaughter (on The Ruptured Seal). And Orion was playing the Sepulchral Guard with a Nemesis deck using Rimlocked Relics (on The Cursed Oubliette)

Orion, once again, just trashed all of us, scoring 23 Glory Points!? I did... okay... scoring 15, Amanda wasn't too far behing me with 12, and Nic (who was tabled in the second round) only managed to score 9 Glory. 

For our second game we played in the Beastgrave

I decided to change things up and broke out Wurmspat with a Nemesis Deck using Break Neck Slaughter Nemesis Deck (on Pool of Fangs). Amanda continued with the Idonth Deepkin but switched to Cyreni's Razors, just using their own Rivals Deck (on Hive of Sacrifice). Nic tried out Sons of Velmorn with own Rivals Deck (on Ravaged Hall). And Orion continued to use Sepulchral Guard with the Rimlocked Relics Nemesis Deck (on Abandoned Lair)

I took Wurmspat because I knew there was a fair chance I'd have to duck out a bit early to get to my book club. I thought I'd just suicide charge them at... whoever... but after the first round it looked more like Amanda's warband might get wiped out (by ME!?), so I suggested she could play my warband when I had to leave. 

Later Amanda reported to me that both her Thrall AND Fecula survived to the end... but, again, Orion scored 23 Glory... Nic scored 10, Amanda scored 9 and the Wurmspat scored only 7... 

A brief description and a few more pics of the game can be found here:

Warhammer Underworlds: Battles in Shadespire and the Beastgrave

Sunday, 14 April 2024

The Following week Nic and Orion were back for some more Warhammer Underworlds! 

The first game we played was set in Shadespire (because I wanted to used my fancy new Soul Refractor terrain bits. 

I played Skabbik's Plaguepack, Amanda played Elathain's Soulraid, Nic tried out Da Kunnin' Krew, and Orion played The Chosen Axes with a Voidcursed Thralls Nemesis deck. 

Nic one this game... I think it may be the FIRST game they've won!? 

For the second game we played in the Deathgorge - as I now had FOUR boards for that setting, having just picked up Wintermaw the day before!

For this one I played the Thricefold Discord. Amanda went back to her roots and dug out Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven (and the Paths of Prophecy Nemesis deck she'd cobbled together). Nic played Da Kunnin' Krew again and Orion played the Thorns of the Briar Queen. 

Amanda won this one... but I wasn't too far behind!  

A brief description and a few more pics can be found here:

Warhammer Underworlds: More Battles in Shadespire - and DEATHGORGE!

Friday, 19 April 2024

On Friday Shannon and Kevin were back for the second of our hopefully regular bi-weekly game night! 

We started with Robo Rally... because Amanda was in San Fransisco... and she does NOT love the game. 

Shannon was in the lead for the first bit, but then ran off a conveyor belt into a pit after misjudging the direction her robot would be facing. Kevin and I got close to the second marker and ended up blasting each other a few times - not because either of us were playing particularly aggressively... it just kind of turned out that was. I ended up taking more damage (5!) and Kevin had gotten turned around on a conveyor belt and was being carried off in the other direction, so I powered down and repair, thinking he wouldn't be turn around quick enough to get to me... He DID get turned around and came back very quickly... and caused me some anxietly but then the conveyor belt carried him off the board when he turned the wrong way... 

My robot made it to the third marker just as Shannon's was getting to the second and Kevin was still struggling near the first where his replacement robot appeared, again, I was a little anxious he might come over and blast at me with his laser or try and push me away... but he didn't.. Just not that level of cutthroat competitive, I guess! 

Which I am totally fine with, generally, I'd much rather play with people that are chill and don't do dick moves just to fuck with other people when it becomes clear they can't win or whatever... but in Robo Rally... I've kind of always played with people where anything is legit and fair and kind of... EXPECTED! I mean we're racing. If he could have pushed me into that pit or just one space off of my planned moves so I just drove myself into the pit, or onto a conveyor belt which could carry me off the board, I would respawn at the previous marker and it would suddenly be. a real race again! 

Usually in Robo Rally I spend my first few registers turning back and forth, so I end up following others when I finally move off the start space... and shoot them in the back with my laser all the way to the next marker! Because this was their first game, I did none of those kind of dick moves or purposely try to push anyone off their programmed route... it happened, but not on purpose! 

I LOVE Robo Rally. I haven't played it in SEVEN YEARS, though... Largely because Amanda has no interest in it... 

Afterwards, we played a quick game of Century: Golem Edition. 

Kevin ended the game by taking a sixth point card, but Shannon won! 

Sunday, 28 April 2024

On the 21st Amanda was still in San Fransico and Nic and Orion were getting they're hair done... but on the 28th everyone was back and looking fabulous... so we played some MORE Warhammmer Underworlds! 

In the first game Amanda played Cyreni's Razors, Nic played the Crimson Court, Orion played the Sepulchral Guard, and I played the Thricefold Discord. Orion won, with, like, 19 Glory!? But this was probably one of the higher scoring games for all. No one had less than 13 Glory!?

In the second game Amanda played Magore's Fiends , Nic played the Crimson Court, Orion played the Hexbane's Hunters, and I played the Thricefold Discord. Orion won again. Again with 19 Glory!? The rest of us did.... less well... 

And... that's it for this month... 

Not so many games played as the last few months, but I'm not about to complain. In total I played:

• Warhammer Underworlds x6
• Castles of Mad King Ludwig v1
• Century: Golem Edition x1
• RoboRally x1
• Tokaido x1
• Wingspan x1

So far this year, I've played FORTY-TWO games of Warhammer Underworlds!?

The Warhammer Underworlds Warbands I played this month were:

• Thricefold Discord x3
• Skabbik's Plaguepack x1
• Sons of Velmorn x1
• Wurmspat x1

May Games

With demolition going on in the basement, the Game Room has been closed and will probably remain so until the fall... but that didn't stop us from playing games! I ended up playing games at three friends houses and even managed a few at home - where we could. 

Finnegan has shifted his D&D games back to the kitchen table. I kind of forgot how loud they can be! It's probably a bit louder still as a couple players have returned from University in other cities for the summer and attendance at game nights has been up! He's currently running TWO different campaigns - one on Saturday evenings and one on Monday evenings.

 

Friday, 5 May 2023 

Friday evening Amanda and I rolled over to our friend Shannon's new place to check it out and play some games. She was actually having a house-warming party the following evening, and had invited us... but I don't love parties, especially where I don't know who is going to be there and a large proportion of them are likely not going to be people I know... so we went over the evening before and played some games with Shannon and her boyfriend, Kevin. 

We started with a tiny little game called Tinderblox, which Shannon had brought over as a gift for Amanda's birthday a few weeks earlier. 

It's a fun little dexterity game that fits in a little tin box that can fit in your pocket. 

You draw a card from a deck which shows the orintation of one or more blocks which have to be stacked in the orientation specified on the card, and then added to the fire without knocking anything over. 

We played a few times! 

Afterwards Shannon and Kevin introduced us to Boss Monster. You play a Boss Monster (like, in a video game) and build dungeon to lure adventures into and try to kill them. I ended up with a pretty kick-ass dungeon (largely due to luck of having drawn some powerful cards that worked really well together!?) 

Saturday, 6 May 2023 

As I mentioned, with the renovation well underway, and the game room is closed for the next few months, Finnegan was back to running his Saturday D&D game on the kitchen table, amidst all the mess of stuff in boxes that were dragged out of the basement. That's left the rest of us unsure what to do... THIS Saturday we ended up playing a few games on the corner of the desk upstairs... 

Amanda and I started off with a game of Century Golem Edition

Keiran joined us for a second game. 

Afterwards we played Azul. 

Finally we played a game of Splendor. 

We didn't play any games the following week, but the week after that... 

Thursday, 18 May 2023

Finnegan and I rolled over to Brent and Barbs to play a few games. Jasper joined us there as well. 

The first game we played was Clank! In! Space! Neither Jasper nor I had ever played the game and Finnegan had played it once, years ago, at ToonCon. It was an interesting game - there's deck-building element and moving around a board doing stuff and kind of a race and trying to keep yourself alive... a LOT of moving parts. I died... Then Finnegan did. Both Jasper and Brent made it out alive and scored. 

It was a bit of a bummer as when I died, it was my move next and I easily would have gotten to a place and healed half my injuries... and into the end area where, if I then died, I'd have still scored points... I only had 65 points accumulated. I guess making it to an escape pod would have gotten me another 20 and I might have picked up a card or two with points in the final round or two it would have taken me to make it TO the escape pod... would have been close... alas. 

Afterwards we played Cyptid. The name sounded cool and both Finnegan and I had visions of cool cards with pictures of crazy monsters on it... Unfortunately the only monster illustration was on the cover of the box and it turned out to be a very abstract game of deduction... 

It kind of hurt my brain. We accidentally played with the ADVANCED RULES (by selecting a black bordered card, instead of a white one) It's a little like clue, everyone has ONE clue about where  the Crytid could be hiding in. You win by figuring out what everyone's clue is... and then finding that ONE HEX on the board that meets everyone's criteria!? 

Saturday, 20 May 2023

Saturday I wandered over to Kurtis' to play some games. Eli drove into town for his birthday to play some games. They're played a few before I got there. 

Brent had also showed up and the four of us played a game called Beyond the Sun. We each played a faction trying to develop technologies and/or colonize other planets.

There are a lot of moving parts to the game. 

By the end of the game I felt like I was starting to get a sense of what was going on and how to play the game... but then it was over. Probably should have leaned a little more into developing technology and worried less about snatching up planets earlier in the game. 

After that Eli had to take off... 

We were joined by Joe and played Castles of Mad King Ludwing. 

I love Castles of Mad King Ludwig. I just love making weird castles - that are strangely reminiscent of the hundreds of castles I drew on graph paper in my youth. How did I not end up being an architect?! 

After that we played Imhotep. 

I've played it once before (also at Kurtis'). I could take it or leave it... 

Finally, Brent and Kurtis and I played Shakespeare. 

This was kind of interesting. You have to recruit artisans and actors to build a set make costumes and put on a play. 

Wednesday, 24 May 2023

The following week Jasper and I rolled over to Brent's again and played some more Clank-In-Space! We had talked about playingVinci, but Brent suggested it was better with four and we should wait for a week when Finnegan was available. 

The first game I was just one move away from scoring any points... when I died... Had I been able to play one more hand I'd have made it across and scored around 125 points. Instead I scored ZERO and Brent won with 95. I think Jasper also died without scoring. 

We had time, so we played a SECOND game adding in stuff from the Apocalypse expansion. 

The second game I died one move away from an escape pod... 

GAH!? SO CLOSE.... 

So, I won this game with 76 points... because no one else made it far enough to score before they died!? 

The game is pretty brutal. 

Tuesday, 30 May 2023

This week Finnegan was available so we arranged to play Vinci... but then Jasper sent a note at the last minute saying he couldn't make it... Since Brent had set it up, we played with three anyway. It was interesting. I've never played, but I'd heard about it. It's a moderately historical game that Small World was based on (a game I have played a LOT of!) I had thought there might be specific empires - Greeks, Romans, Celts, Saxons, Vikings, Franks, etc, etc - like History of the World and a few other similar games - instead each new empire just had some random generic strengths or abilities - VERY MUCH like Small World! 

Finnegan found Brent's d100 in a container full of odd dice and delighted in trying to roll it... or... more to the point, getting it to STOP rolling!? 

We got through Vinci quick enough that it was decided we should play Clank-In-Space! AGAIN! 

Once again, I died just before making it to an escape pod. Brent AND Finnegan both escaped! 

And that's about it for this month... That's 32 games I've played so far this Quarter and 76 so far this year! I'm pretty excited about this Kill Team: Ashes of Faith box, I'm hoping in the next month I'll be able to knock out enough figures to play the campaign included in the box! I hope I can convince Finnegan to play out the campaign, I think it's seven games... six campaign games then a finale...? Seems doable through the summer! 

What's everybody else been playing? Let me know in the comments below!

August's Games

Friday, 2 August 2019



On Friday our friend Laura joined us for a game of Nations.

I played Greece, Amanda played China, Keira played Persia, Laura played Egypt, and Finnegan played Rome. Amanda totally crushed it, ending the game with 51 points. Laura wasn't far behind with 49 - which is pretty AMAZING, considering it was her first game!! The kids and I were all in the 30s and felt like total amateur chumps... aye-yi-yi!


Saturday, 3 August 2019



Another Dungeon Crawl Classics afternoon. It's been hard to get the WHOLE gang together through the summer, but EVERYONE showed up this week - AND they even had a NEW player! (Not to mention gender parity among the players!). She was a welcome addition to the group. AS they arrived at their first encounter the Boyz were getting out their weapons and warming up their dice ready for a fight and she said, very loudly; "Hey! Could we NOT just murder the first group of people we happen to meet along this road!?" Keira was very excited about this, as this is the way SHE'd like to do things, but the Boyz have tended to be a little more on the belligerent side!


Sunday, 4 August 2019



Amanda, Finnegan and I played Race for the Galaxy with the Xenos Invasion expansion.



I played the Alien First Contact Team and thought I did pretty good ending the game with 56 points! Apparently I wasn't paying much attention, because Finnegan and his Starry Rift Pioneers gathered up 58 points! Amanda Plante, who usually does really well at this game (and... EVERY game) just couldn't get it together for Earth's Lost Colony. She ended the game with 33 victory points.

I like the Xenos Invasion expansion. You kind of have to work together to stop the Xenos invasion while still trying to work towards expanding your own influence...


Monday, 5 August 2019



Amanda demanded a rematch of Nations... I'm not sure why...? Usually one demands a rematch when one does less well than another, as a chance to prove you were just "off your game" that last time and are really good at it. Amanda did exceptionally well in our last game, as she ALWAYS does... Perhaps she needed to do this to crush me again and remind me that it wasn't a fluke (not that I ever suggested it was!?)

She also said she wanted to see how long a two player game took compared to the 5-player games we normally play.

I was crushed.

 Again.


Sunday, 11 August 2019

Sunday was our anniversary, so Amanda and I planned a little bike trip out to Pike Lake to stay at a cabin. I brought a BUNCH of smaller card games along - mostly ones we haven't yet played, or haven't played in a while.



In the end we only really got to play Cthulhu Realms. Id' picked it up at the ToonCon auction last year and had tried to play a game of it around that time with the kids... but I think they were a little "gamed out" and just weren't into it and we quit part way through.



It's a fun little game that uses the same mechanics as hero Realms or Star Realms - which are, themselves, very much like Marvel Legendary - which we've played a lot of.

The first game was pretty quick. The second took much, much longer!

For our anniversary, I picked up 7 Wonders Duel. A few people have mentioned to me that it's a really good two player game and a good two-player iteration of 7 Wonders, one of our favourite games.



After a couple rounds of Cthulhu Realms, we tried out our new copy of 7 Wonders Duel!



Pretty close game - I like it - it seems like it has all the elements of the original game in a clever new mechanism to play with just two.



Amanda wanted to play again.



She apparently groked it... the second game was... not-so-close... Yikes!!!

More about the Trip over on the Bike Blog:

Anniversary Weekend Ride to Pike Lake


Monday, 12 August 2019



Back home... Amanda was still recovering from being sick, but felt up to playing another game of 7 Wonders Duel.



Oh yeah, I rocked this one... Probably because she was so sick and not really paying attention.



Better savour this, it'll probably be my last...


Tuesday, 13 August 2019

On Tuesday Amanda and Keira went out to a Stage Make-Up Workshop at the Free /flow Dance Centre.



When they got home, Amanda played another quick game of 7 wonder Duel with me upstairs - as Finnegan's Tuesday evening D&D game was going on downstairs.



I got a bit of everything... But Amanda seemed to get a bit MORE of EVERYTHING!?


Thursday, 15 August 2019



Another quick game of 7 Wonders Duel....



Somehow this one came together for me and I got all my wonders done and a PILE of blue structures... Woo!!!


Saturday, 17 August 2019



Finnegan ran the final session of his Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign that he has been running (mostly) weekly since January. It was a pretty epic conclusion, I am told. They are already making plans for a new campaign in the fall - at this point they thought it might be Dungeon Crawl Classics again or it might be D&D 5E.



In the evening our friend Kurtis joined us for supper and games. Amanda, Kurtis, Keira and I started off with a game of Abyss.



I triggered the end by collecting my seventh lord. I was feeling like I had done pretty good... heh... not-so-much...

This was Kurtis' first game and he apparently totally figured it out and won with 72 points... Amanda was just behind him with 68. I managed 65, and Keira ended with 54!?



Afterwards, Amanda, Kurtis and I played castles of Mad King Ludwig.



Folks, I don't CARE what the points were - I got to build a SECRET LAIR (beyond the Venus grotto right next to a fully-stocked armoury!) It's like a castle I would have designed as a young teen, so, that's a WIN for me!!!


Wednesday, 21 August 2019



On the weekend I was in Dragon's Den Games and noticed the sale table had gone from 40% off to 60% off and it still had the brand-new, in-the-shrink copy of Perikles on it... so I had to pick it up. I mentioned this to Kurtis when he was over on Saturday and he suggested I bring it to his place on Wednesday...

So I did...



Perikles with Darrin, Kurtis, John and Brent.



I really like this game -as I have every Martin Wallace game. As with most Wallace games, there are many moving parts and it's a little overwhelming, at first, to get a sense of how to do the things you need to do to get ahead in the game... I felt like I was floundering, but in the end it turned out I was floundering less than others... Kurtis won with 55 victory points and I was a not-too-distant second with 53. The rest were in the 40s/30s...

Thursday, 22 August 2019



Thursday Keira sat down to teach me to play Patchwork. She bought it for my mother for her birthday or Xmas last year and she's played it once or twice with her. She borrowed it and brought it home to play with us.



Such a fun little game! Very clever.



I thought she was going to CRUSH me as she had WAAAAAAAAY more buttons than I had at the end of the game, but after losing 2 for each empty square - I just squeaked ahead of her 15-13 - because I'd filled out more of my quilt!


Saturday, 24 August 2019



Saturday afternoon, while the kids were making characters for their new D&D game, I taught Amanda how to play Patchwork.



And she basically did the same thing to me that I did to Keira.



Way too much open space on my quilt at the end. I think it's better to take more cheaper, larger, faster pieces and fill it completely out than to go for more expensive ones with more buttons on them....


Monday, 26 August 2019

For the last week of August I'd planned to run a little narrative Necromunda campaign for the kids and their friend Ian...



Monday we played a short learning game.



Finnegan played with his Genestealer Cult, Keira played with her Escher gang, and Ian borrowed my Cawdor gang for the week.

There is a full game report (and MORE pictures)  here:

Necromunda - First Game

We ended up not being able to play Tuesday and Wednesday because I've been ill...


Thursday, 29 August 2019



Thursday I ran a campaign where the three gangs had to stop Karloth Valois and his zombie horde from getting into a populated area and running amuck!



A full report  (and MORE pictures) of this action can be found here:

The Return of Karloth Valois


Friday, 30 August 2019



On Friday, the gangs were hunting a team of Spyrers that has come downhive to hunt underhivers fro fun...



The Battleground fought over.



Keira's gangers gassing the Spyrers... and some other gangers...

A full report (and MORE pictures) of this game can be found here:

The Hunters Hunted


Saturday, 31 August 2019



Kicking off the new D&D5E fall campaign. The kids made characters today and then started off on the first adventure. Only Heidi was missing.


Later, in the evening...



Brent stopped by in the evening to play Terraforming Mars with me and Amanda.

We played with Venus Next.



I played Ecoline (one of my favourites - though I didn't really get the plant-thing going until nearly the end of the game). Brent played the Tharsis Republic and Amanda played Aphrodite - one of the corporations from Venus Next.



I ended up with the Builder milestone and was first for the Thermalist Award, which I'd sponsored. Brent grabbed the Mayor milestone quite early in the game and ended upping second for both the Scientist and Venophile awards. Amanda scooped up the Planner milestone (Sweet Jupiter! She put a LOT of cards into play by the end) and was second for the Thermalist  and first for the Scientist and Venophile awards.

Into the Home Stretch....



Well the year is 2/3 over and we've gotten 43% of our 10x10 Challenge games played...

Oh, I'm still not giving up or anything... We could knock off the rest of the Splendor, Century: Golem Edition and Race for the Galaxy games in a weekend... I figure we'll play through a Blackstone Fortress campaign after the Necromunda weekend in October.

I've been thinking maybe next year we could do quarterly 5x5 challenges...? Five games we're going to play five times in the next THREE MONTHS!!



Little movement on the personal challenge... I did play a few games of necromunda though and that was awesome. This is the hard part of a challenge like this, my interests change throughout the year!? I don't know if I'm going to get any more of this done. Maybe the Wrath & Glory... I will hopefully be playing a lot of necromunda over the coming months and the plan is to have all the Hellboy stuff painted by Xmas so we can play a campaign of that over the holidaze... and if I can pull THAT off, I'd say it's been a pretty good year!!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog: 

MORE NECROMUNDA!!!