October Games

I had lots of PLANS for October... was going to try and get going with weekly games of Warhammer Underworlds again... Was trying to arrange to run two games of Wrath & Glory - one online and one in person. 

The latter didn't work out because it's apparently impossible to get three people together at one time!? Might try again in November, but if that doesn't pan out, I'm giving up. 

Might still try to convince Amanda to get going with Warhammer Underworlds. There's a whole new box for this out just a week or so ago - Warhammer Underworlds: Gnarlwood! I still haven't even painted of played ANY of the stuff from Harrowdeep or Nethermaze!? So I probably WON'T be buying that one. Also, it's $125CAD!? I think Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire, which only came out 5 years ago, was $40CAD, for essentially the same things two boards, two warbands, cards, dice, and tokens. WTF!? 

Also ANOTHER Kill Team box came out in the last week or so... Also not buying that one. Haven't even BEGUN to assemble any of the previous box... I don't think I've even FINISHED any of the teams that came in ANY of the FOUR boxes I've bought in the last year!? So ridiculous. 

I did get in ONE game in October... and it was amazing! 

Sunday, 16 October 2022

Finnegan ran the second in a series of one-shot games for me and a few things to try out. This time he ran Dresden Files Accelerated. Jasper and Neil were able to make it out, Beau was sick again. 

(I met both of Neil and Jasper a university physics class... like... 30 years ago!? And now Finnegan is in university and has met a new friend that's he's going to be playing D&D with... and has two professors that play D&D...) 

Finnegan ran an adventure called "Neutral Grounds" and we each got to play a pre-generated character. I played a Heavy Metal Werewolf names Sean Barnes. Neil played a Wizard's Apprentice names Zack. Jasper Played a Retired Detective with some psychic abilities. 

It was SO MUCH FUN! We decided to forgo trying any other systems and next time we'd make our own characters and try playing a campaign - still just playing one afternoon each month! (and that, hopefully, will be this coming Sunday!) 

...

Despite not playing many games, I haven't been totally idle... I did do a LOT OF DRAWING this past month!? Participating in TWO different drawing challenges!?

I have also been doing a little bit of miniature painting.. I just haven't gotten around to posting any pictures. I was waiting to finish up a few more things, but maybe I should just post what I've got. I'll try to get to that this week. 

Looking forward to the release of Xenos Rampant later this month. I've also been thinking again about Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames and getting around to trying THOSE out!? (How long have I been saying THAT!?) 

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 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... 

October - Act One

 After finishing up my September Painting-From-the-Masters Challenge, I took a few days off to figure out what the hell I was going to do next... and... I still don't know what I'm doing. One thing I know I'm NOT doing is painting any miniatures.... 

I was really hoping to carry on with Art-Making in October and add in some more regular bike-riding. 

I didn't do much of anything on the first... 

Friday, 2 October 2020

I did get out for a ride with this guy. We popped by the Dragon's Den and I picked up Century: Golem Edition - Eastern Mountains. 

Saturday, 3 October 2020

Got this one to her tap class - and went for a bit of a ride while she was in class. 

IN the evening, I ran a one-shot of Fate Accelerated - just to try it out. The adventure was called: Dude, Where's my WARHORSE!? Only two of the regular Saturday crew were able to make it out, so Finnegan joined in. It was a riot. Mistakes were made, but I'm really looking forward to trying this system again. 

Sunday, 4 October 2020 

I didn't go for a ride. 

I didn't draw or paint anything.

Amanda and I DID try out Century: Golem Edition - Eastern Mountains. I know I tried out the original non-Golem version a while back and wasn't overwhelmed by it... but it was fun and different enough from the original Century: Golem... but had some of the same ideas... 

I just trashed Amanda - she just couldn't wrap her head around it. I think I had 88 to her 60...? 

Monday, 5 October 2020 

I did draw a self-portrait on Monday. Self-Portraits are hard. Especially when tryiing to do it in front of the bathroom mirror. I wasn't happy at all with it. There is no way I'm sharing that hot mess here. 

I did get out for a bike ride though. There's a whole post about that over on the Bike Blog:

Monday Afternoon Ride

Tuesday, 6 October 2020 

Had another couple of goes at self-portraiture. Man, self-portraits are hard. Portraits in general are hard. Well... y'know.... portraits that actually LOOK like the person you're trying to draw. The portraits weren't  really for any vanity reasons, more because I wanted to try a portrait of an actual person and it's always disappointing for all involved when you try to draw someone else and it looks NOTHING like them... or... only looks slightly more like them than a potato. 

This one I was the least disappointed with - as it was the one where I least looked like a potato. Well, a regular potato. I do kind of look like a mutant potato. But maybe I should think of this as a success as I kind of look like a mutant potato in real life...

In the late afternoon/early evening I went out for a ride. 

When I got back, Amanda and I played another game of Century: Golem Edition - Eastern Mountains. I think she's kind of caught on. Despite a slow start and doing some wildly inefficient moves and going on about how she has no idea what she's doing, SHE's the one that ended the game by collecting a fourth victory toke (one turn before I would have!). I still won, but the margin was much narrower - 77-71. I think my days of winning this game are limited. Probably to two. The two we've already played.

Afterwards, I kind of stayed up CrAzY late and did this... back to the 40K theme... sort of... 

Wednesday, 7 October 2020 

I did get out for an hour or riding... but no pics

So... like... six months ago when all the COOL kids were doing this "Six Fan Arts" thingie (drawing six pictures of characters you are a fan of), I thought I'd jump in on that action and asked friends and followers on a few different social media platforms for suggestions, and my friend Orion suggested I draw Leman Russ - Primarch of the Space Wolves.... or... at least I HOPE he meant the Primarch and NOT the Astra Miliatrum tank named after him... boy will I feel silly if he meant the latter... Anyway, I never got around to doing ANY of the suggestions... until now...

Thursday, 8 October 2020 

I got out for two rides on Thursday. One was in the morning, to get to an appointment, and the second was in the afternoon... just for fun... and to do some sketching. 

Watercolour pnecils and Pentel brush pens, mostly. I did't eh wet brush work when I got home, as I'd not taken a brush when I went out with me. 

Friday, 9 October 2020 

Still all over the place. Back to portraits. This one was for my good friend Woody. He'd asked that I do a picture of Roy Batty from Bladerunner (back when I was asking for suggestions for the #sixfanarts thing... that I never did...) 

In the evening, Amanda and I walked over to our friend Kurtis' and played a few of the Century games from Plan B Games. 

First we tried out Century: The New World - the third installation in the original series. 

There were some familar bits - managing and trading resources - though this time the yellow, red green and brown cubes represented corn, meat, tobacco and furs, respectively! There are a lot of new elements - some worker placement and set collection - so many moving parts!? It was a bit overwhleming!? 

I dominated the first game by getting ALL THE WORKERS out as fast as I could. 

In the second game, Kurtis and Amanda tried to emulate the strategy I'd played in teh first, somewhat, while I concentrated on other things... the scores were almost identical!? 

Next we played Century: Golem Edition - Eastern Mountains - the second in the Golem series of games. 

I don't know what THEY Were doing with their turns, but when I ended the game, taking my fourth victory tile, I think they, collectively, had three between them (one had one, the other two...?) 

For the fourth game of the evening, we went all the way back to the original Century - Spice Road. Amanda won this one - proving that I do not ALWAYS win! Kurtis and I were about 10 points behind her...? She had 80-something and Kurtis had 73 and i had 72 - there, I wasn't even in SECOND place! 

Saturday, 10 October 2020 

I got out for a quick ride in the afternoon. I had started a drawing - a MAP for the adventure I was planning to run in the evening... but I didn't quite get it done in time... as it turns out, it wasn't really NECESSARY?! Maybe I'll finish it up for next week, though, as the one-shot I'd planned turned into a bit of a 1+1 shot... 

Originally, Woody was supposed to kick off his Traveller game this week, but had apparently forgotten he was on parent duty as his wife was heading out somewhere. Jon and Randy also couldn't make it so Finnegan Joined Chris and Christian for another game of Fate Accelerated. 

This one took place about 100 years or so in the future. Humans have spread out throughout the Solar System and have far more efficient drives - so it doesn't take years to get from planet to planet. The players were members of the United Nations Space Security Directorate - part of a Special Operations Recovery Team (SORT). A Manned mining station on one of Saturns moons went offline and as they were the nearest SORT, they were tasked with investigating. 

Hijinks ensued. 

As we spent MUCH of the time going over the rules again and trying to figure out character generation, we totally called it a night after 4.5 hours (which was midnight in Christian's time-zone, 10pm for the rest of us) and said we'd finish it off next week - or maybe some other week Woody isn't available. 

Anyway, that's it for the first third of October. I've taken to posting on the Art Blog and Bike Blog again, so I may just post THAT sort of stuff there and just go back to posting games and minsituare here... which, will likely be few enough in these strange and troubled times of RENOVATING DURING A PANDEMIC!? 

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

October - ACT TWO - just the games... maybe...