April Games - Part Two

After an extended weekend of Terraforming Mars during the first week of April. We took a few days off of gaming... and then...

Things got busy!


Thursday, 9 April 2020

Starting off with... MORE Terraforming Mars!?



There had been talk of shelving Terraforming Mars for a bit and trying out some new games... Then I was feeling like I wasn't really in the headspace to be reading rules and figuring out new games... but still wanted to play games... and Amanda suggested we play a game on Thursday and I told her I wasn't interested in a new game, she said; "So... Terraforming Mars...?"

I had to laugh because I thought she was sick of it, or at least worked it out of her system... I guess not!

We played with Elysium,  Prelude, and Venus Next. I played Saturn Systems with Aquifer Turbines and Metals Company from Prelude. Amanda played Ecoline with Ecology Experts and Supply Drop.



It was a SUPER CLOSE game! There was her usual complaints remarks about how far ahead I was in the Terraforming rating while putting down card after card with victory points on them... WE BOTH put a bunch of greenery down on the planet - but I put out way more cities...

At the end of the game I had a Terraforming rating of 49 and Amanda was at 39.



I took the Generalist milestone, and the Estate Dealer and Industrialist Awards



Amanda took the Ecologist and Tychoon milestones and the Venuphile Award (I actually HAD a Venus tag in play, this time, so it was only a net 3 gain for her, rather than the net 5 gain the last few times she's done this one!).

We both had 14 green tiles on the board, I had seven cities generating about 23 points, she had five cities generating 16 points. I had 19 points on cards and she had THIRTY SEVEN!?

Final Score
Tim:124
Amanda125

SO CLOSE!!!

Anyway, it was a super fun game and we actually put stuff on the planet and got to realize a bunch of fun and interesting projects.

I'm not sure we're ever going to be able to play 3-4-5 player games anymore - they'll just be over too quickly and we'll feel like were weren't able to accomplish anything!? I guess we could remove the World Governor step (or... whatever it's called... were the First Player, at the end of each turn, gets to move one of the terraforming things forward - with no benefit to themselves - just speeds up the game)

Maybe we need to add Colonies back in...?


Friday, 10 April 2020 

Good Friday.

I've been losing track of days and stuff with all this social distancing and external things being cancelled, I was only really aware it was Easter because every online store I EVER ordered anything from sent me an email with their EASTER DEALS!



Before playing any games I decided to go for a ride. To escape the crowds of wanderers on the local trails, I decided to head south of the city. I'd been riding a lot a couple weeks ago, but then the hobbits in charge of local weather decided they needed Second Winter and temperatures plummeted into the -20s°C and we got a another big dump of snow... But it's back above 0°C (only just...) so I was determined to get out!!!



So some roads that were dry a couple weeks ago were now mud...



And some were still covered in snow!



It was a beautiful, if chilly, ride though...



and for part of it, the sky cleared up and the sun came out...



When I got home, Amanda insisted on running a yoga class for the family. Yoga Instructor is one of the MANY hats she wears, but all her classes have been cancelled for weeks due to the Covid-19 pandemic... She wanted to do one along with a video she had - the problem with videos is they're made for women that are 8 stone and know yoga poses and can bend in half in any direction they wish... which describes none in our household, save Amanda.... So... it didn't go great...

I did agree I'd do yoga with her in the future - as long as SHE led the movements and planned and adjusted the sessions for a fat, old, inflexible dude like me. And she can, she has taken a LOT of training and IS very good at what she does and can explain things that no video could ever do...

After supper we DID get in another game of... you guesses it - Terraforming Mars!



You'd think we'd be getting sick of it... or each other...!? But we haven't - on either account!



I played the Mining Guild with Early Settlement and Dome Farming.



Amanda played Morning Star Inc. with Bio Lab and Nitrogen Shipment.



In the end I took the Mayor and Builder Milestones and Amanda took the Planner - on turn two... or three...? By just buying ALL THE CARDS - and then spent the rest of the game trying to put them ALL into play... along with all the other ones she got! She did have 23 victory points on cards at the end of the game (to my 15), but I put a LOT of stuff on the surface of Mars (17 Greenery to her 7, and 8 cities to her 3).

She also took the Venuphile and Scientist Awards and I took the Miner Award.

This was one of my biggest wins yet 124-100 (but I still think she's ahead in combined points)!


Saturday, 11 April 2020

Saturday we actually took a break from Terraforming Mars!



We actually tried out a new (to us) game that Amanda had me buy at the ToonCon Auction.



Amanda actually even read the rules! I think this is the first game EVER that SHE read the rules for - and explained it to US! It really is quite a simple game, but I felt like it was a HUGE step!



Even got The Girl to play - they're laughing at me because I got EVERYTHING about the Pygmy Sperm Whale wrong! You basically place bets on the range, length and weight of an animal and gain points if you get it right or were close. Despite my utter failure at guessing anything correctly about the whale, I knew enough about all the other critters to WIN!!!

Overall it wasn't a terrible game. It was a bit simple. Would have been great if we picked it up 10 years ago - the kids would have loved it. Of course, Finnegan would have pulled all the cards out of the box and memorized all the animals stats and then it would have become unplayable - at least against him.



Finnegan ran (one of) his weekly D&D game(s).



I went for another bike ride. This time I ramble south east of town on the other side of the river.

 It was a LOT colder than the day before - and the headwind coming home was brutal.

When I got home we all had supper... and then Amanda and I tried out ANOTHER game she had me buy at the ToonCon Auction. (For all my complaints about HER purchases, I think we've played MORE of them than the ones I bought!)



This one I read the rules for... Castle. I'd never heard of it, but Amanda had been talking to some guy who said it was a good game (He was probably one of the guys selling one - there were three copies for sale!). It wasn't terrible. Probably take a few plays to figure out how all the different cards work together. Not sure if I love it enough to play it enough times to bother figuring it out...


Sunday, 12 April 2020



More connecting with friends online - Amanda ran another Family Yoga Dance Party for two families with younger children that are friends of ours. It was a pretty good time - despite some hiccups with the technology...

Afterwards I went out for a ride - picked up some easter chocolate for the kids from my folks place. Not sure why I had to be the one to go over and get stuff that isn't for me, that I'd really rather not even have in the house right now!?



 I love spring in Saskatoon and getting out to hit the dirt trails...



It was really cold and windy again, and I was really tired from the last two days, so I mostly just rode around town, rather than heading out of town for a longer ride.



A sure sign spring might actually be on it's way - Richardson Ground Squirrels!



After supper, Amanda and I sat down to play Splendor and try out all the expansions in Cities of Splendor. Cities of Splendor includes four separate expansions for Splendor: Cities, Orient, Trading Posts and Strongholds.



We started with Cities... which removes the nobles and adds different victory conditions. Amanda crushed it.



I was a bit behind...



Next we tried Strongholds. I didn't love this one... Amanda won again.



After that we tried Orient - which adds a bunch of new cards to the game - making for a dizzying amount of options and ways to get stuff done.



Finally we tried out Trading Posts. I didn't really get a picture of the trading posts. This picture above was taken because so many of the starting cards all needed ONE TYPE of gem - which is tricky to get in a four player game - but even HARDER to get together when just playing with two and so many of the gems are removed from the game.

It was good to finally try them all out... We've played Cities a couple times before, and maybe Trading posts once, but had never tried Orient or Strongholds.

Honestly, I could live without them.

I like Splendor because it's simple, fast, and straightforward. I like playing it when I need a game that is just simple, fast, and straightforward. All of these expansions make a game that is simple, fast, and straightforward into a game that is complex, slow, and convoluted...


Monday, 13 April 2020

Woke up to windchill of -20°C!? Stayed like that all morning! Later in the afternoon I went for a short ride and picked up a few groceries. When I got back, Amanda was baking up a storm! Afterwards we played a game of Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress.



There is a full report of this game and loads more pictures here:

Saving Bone'ead Brogan

Afterwards while I was starting the game report I looked to see when our last game was - it felt like forever ago... I asked Amanda when she thought we last played. She said it was a month at least. It was just two weeks earlier.

I saw someone post something on Facebook that said something like: 2020 is a special Leap Year - there are 29 days in February, 300 in March and 5 years in April. It's really starting to feel like it! without reference of all our regular spring activities we're all feeling a bit adrift and lost in time.

The fact that we're STILL having days with highs below 0°C isn't helping!?


Tuesday, 14 April 2020



Warmer weather today and I went for a longer ride - 41Km - but mostly within the city limits (though there are parts of the city within the city limits that still seem pretty remote! Saw piles of Canada Geese in a field at the North end of town.



Tracks in the snow on the river ice - presumably left from geese walking back and forth across it...?



Mostly stuck to the roads in the central part of the city - took to the trails in a few parts - lots of people out walking and riding bikes.



In the evening I read through the rules and we had our first crack at Legendary Encounters Firefly this evening. We actually got Keira to play! (though she seemed mightily bored... or maybe she was just tired...? She does LOVE Firefly - the TV show!).

I played Mal, Keira played Kaylee and Amanda played Zoe. It was pretty tough... definitely an interesting reskin of the Legendary game engine - winning was definitely NOT a foregone conclusion, as it always seemed with Marvel Legendary when we played... We totally lost this one just at the end of the second episode... Yikes!


Wednesday 15 April 2020

Wow, half way through April...



I went out for a ride a bit earlier today.



I rode out to the Chappell Marsh Conservation Area (about a 20Km round trip). Not as cold or windy as the last few days.



Wetlands are still pretty much all iced over.

When I got back...



I actually talked Keira into playing a game of Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress with me!

We used the Army of One rules from the 2019 Annual to run her Harlequin Solitaire through the fortress on a mission to take out Obsidius Mallex, the Chaos Lord bent on taking control of the fortress and turning it into the ultimate weapon in the galaxy!

We both had a great time! Harlequin Solitaires are BRUTAL!

I'll have a full report of the adventure later.

We had to take a break part way through as my friend Other Tim stopped by to offload some games on us - he is downsizing in preparation for a move at the end of the month.



Among the games was Machi Koro. It looked simple enough so we tried it out after supper. Fun. Quick. Keira kicked our butts...

And that's it for this week... last week seems like forever ago!? Anybody else experiencing some extreme time dilation!?


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

A game report of the Harlequin Solitaire's adventures in the Blackstone Fortress. It was pretty exciting - I think she'll be back. Perhaps next time she'll be hunting Astroth Mythrak, Master of Possession!

I have an assortment of Imperial Guard I'll probably be posting pictures of... Then I might get to work on that Master of Possession and the two Greater Possessed  - get me back working on the Chaos project AND preparing something I'll be able to use in Blackstone Fortress - for games with BOTH Amanda and Keira!

In a week I'll have another instalment of April Games. I am looking at trying out a couple more new games... Not sure exactly which just yet - there ARE a LOT of them!

Games Games Games

It's been a while since I did a bit of a Boardgame Round Up. The last one I did was for the first week or so of February. The Following week the only games we played were Shadow War: Armageddon, and I did full game reports for those...

Monday, 12 February 2018



The first was my Tallarn Veterans against Amanda and her Tau. You can read the full report here:

Shadow War: Armageddon Again


Thursday, 15 February 2018



The next one was my Tallarn against The Girl's Harlequins. You can read that Game Report here:

Shadow War: The Raid


Friday/Saturday, 16-17 February 2018



Over Friday Night and Saturday I hosted a Shadow War: Armageddon campaign for 8 players (including myself!). Full reports and loads of pictures of the ensuing shenanigans can be found here:

Shadow War: Brind's World Campaign Weekend (Part One) 

Shadow War: Brind's World Campaign Weekend (Part Two) 

Shadow War: Brind's World Campaign Weekend (Part Three) 


Sunday, 18 February 2018

It was the Family Day Long Weekend in Saskatchewan and so all activities were cancelled for the weekend so we had a day-o-gaming with my friend Paul - who had come from Winnipeg for the Shadow War campaign and stuck around another day to play a few more games.



First he and I played a game of The Pikeman's Lament. A full report of that game can be found here:

Pikeman's Lament: The Battle of Blackdunny Water



Next the family joined us for a game of Firefly: the Game. Paul said he had the game, but has never played. So we did the "First Time in the Captain's Chair" scenario.

I love playing this game, but I'm terrible at... y'know... actually doing well in it! I have a hard time keeping and "eye on the prize" (remembering the victory conditions... or... that there ARE victory conditions!). I just have so much fun puttering around with my spaceship, collecting up crew and ship upgrades and equipment and doing jobs.... and then Amanda wins... And I always feel really... irritated! Not that she won and I didn't, it's that she ended the game before I could collect up an entire crew! I mean she had $8000 before I even got to pull a Crazy Ivan!?

We should seriously just set up the game and say; "Hey, let's play all day and whoever has the most money at bedtime 'wins'!"



This was my ship at the end of the game.

I should have taken a picture of Amanda's it was super impressive. She had Nandi (my favourite captain!) - who can hire crew for free. She collected up a full crew of six and then never paid them for jobs - disgruntling them, and then sending them on shore leave to make loads of money... Despite the fact that I ended up with Malcolm and the Serenity, SHE had the Serenity's crew! She had Simon and River Tam, Jayne, and... I think Zoe and maybe Reverend Book...? It was crazy...



After that we played A Study in Emerald (Second Edition). I was a Loyalist (as ALWAYS) and I was pretty sure The Girl was one two (as ALWAYS!) and Amanda was a Restorationist. I totally read Paul and Finnegan wrong. I had though Paul was a Loyalist and Finnegan a Restorationist for most of the game - largely because Paul kept collecting up powerful Loyalist cards, and Finnegan had grabbed a few with bonuses for Restorationists. I know the Loyalists won, but I can't remember who had the most VP in the end...


Monday, 19 February 2018

It was a stat holiday Monday and Amanda has the day off so we just stayed home, most of the day, and played games. Well, ONE game, multiple times. (We did take a break to go out and see Black Panther!)



We played a few more games of Harry Potter: Hogwart's Battle. We've been playing through the campaign - I've been playing Ron Weasley, Finnegan has been playing Neville Longbottom, the Girl has been playing Hermione Granger and Amanda has been playing the golden Boy himself: Harry Potter. We have been stuck on Game Four for a bit, though. I think we've lost it, like, three times...?



Well today we FINALLY beat it!!! And there was much rejoicing! Huzzah!



So then we tried Game Five. I think this is the first one where He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named shows up.



It was pretty close we actually got to the point where He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named was revealed - and so we were facing FOUR villains simultaneaously and it totally looked like it was all over for us... It looks like we were down to the last spot on the Location Card (you lose when three location cards have been taken over - they are taken over when all the spots are filled with markers... or maybe that was just the second card....? Anyway, it looked bleak...



But somehow we pulled it out of the fire and beat down Lord Voldemort™(the kids think it's hilarious that all the main characters have ™by all their names...)

After going out to see Black Panther we were feeling cocky and had a go at Game Six!

Yeah, we totally lost that one...


Tuesday, 20 February 2018

On Tuesday Amanda was back to work and the kids and I had the week off of activities. I had planned on having a Week-O-Gaming - playing games all day, every day... well... at least one every afternoon and one every evening. We didn't quite get to playing a game in the afternoon as I spent much of it organizing pictures from the weekend and writing game reports...



We did convince Amanda to sit down and play a game of Viticulture with us in the evening. This was the first time we sat down to play it as a family with the copy that The Girl got for Xmas. I've played it with friends over at John's, and Amanda and the kids tried it out last fall at ToonCon. The Girl loved it so much she asked her grandma to get it for her for xmas!?

I think I might have won this game. I tried a tactic I'd seen Brent use in one of the game I'd played - selling off fields on the first turn to make money to buy all the things needed - trellises, irrigation, and larger cellars - and got a victory point doing it (being the first one to buy/sell on the turn - since no one else considered it!) I even bought my fields back later in the game when I got visitor cards that gave me a pile of cash (which ALSO gained a few victory points!).

This will probably be the first and only game I will ever win of this game, now that Amanda has figured it out...


Wednesday, 21 February 2018

The kids got tired of waiting for me to play games with them and set some up themselves. (I was also experiencing debilitating headache/head pressure and dizzy spells at this time - and all week, so it wasn't that I was just ignoring them...)



Finnegan sat down and finally figured out Sewer Pirats and taught it to The Girl. A fellow we met at ToonCon had won it in the raffle and figured he wouldn't ever play it, so he just gave it to us. Seems like they had fun...



The Girl also set up and figured out a game of her own - and played it solo! This is Ninja All-Stars. We got it for her for her birthday last year and this is the first time she cracked it. I figure if it's your game (either you bought it or it was given to you as a gift) it's up to YOU to learn the rules and teach it to others. This has not been The Girl's favourite thing to do in the past, but she's finally getting to realize that it's the only way she's going to get to play these games that she has! I'm looking forward to trying this out with her when she's fully got it figured out - it LOOKS fun... but maybe it's just that all the miniatures are so cute...


Friday, 23 February 2018

So much for a WEEK-O-GAMING.... Friday afternoon I did crawl out of bed and sit down to play a game with the kids...



We played Sentinels of the Multiverse. Finnegan loves this game. LOVES! I think he has just about all the expansions for it. He'll solo games all the time, spreading it all out on the floor of his bedroom. I have to admit, I don't love the game at the best of times, and when my head was pounding and I couldn't focus, it was trying to get through it.

I don't hate the game. I just don't care for it. It feels like it COULD be interesting - but I'd have to play it a LOT more to get all the card interactions and understand what each hero does and how their cards work with each other and with the other heroes and what advantages they have against which villains and how each villain works and so on... but I'm just not engaged enough by the theme to want to spend the time to DO that...

I played Ra in this game, and Finnegan played Tempest and The Girl played Nightmist. We were battling against Infinitor in the Realm of Discord. it seemed a total miss-match and we lost the game very quickly. VERY quickly. I think it was the shortest game we've EVER played - and, on this particular day, I was thankful for that at least...

In the evening we played a game of Dominion, which we haven't done in a long time!



After our game of Sentinels I set the kids to designing a set of cards to play with. The love putting together thematic sets - based on the NAMES of the cards - not what they actually do in the game. They usually turn out fine. This was an interesting set, which included a few we haven't played with before. The called it "Low Troubles in the High Court". In included Pawn, Great Hall, Baron, Tribute and Nobles from Intrigue, Chancellor, Feast and Throne Room from the base game, Scheme from Hinterlands and Herald from Guilds.



There were a few interesting interactions and card combos... but I can't really remember what they were... I seem to recall I had a few Barons and Heralds. Nobles and Great Halls were popular. It was a close game in the end. I think I had 43, Amanda and The Girl both had 38 and Finnegan had 37.


Saturday, 24 February 2018

Saturday Amanda came down with something and was feeling even worse than me, so I took The Girl to her Saturday dance classes. In the afternoon Amanda was feeling a little more like a human again so we propped her up at the table and played a few more games.



We started with Viticulture. Amanda won. She ended the game with 23. I had 19.



Often when I take these pictures I'll take a few hoping one will turn out. Often I will say something goofy, but somewhat related to the game like; "okay give me your Galactic Overlord look" after playing a 4X game. I thin I must have said "Look like you're drunk on wine" or something similar... It was too funny not to post...

 

Later in the evening we played Railways of Great Britain. It was a quick game. Everything is so close in Railways of Great Britain, it always feels a bit like a knife fight in a phone booth. No one did any new industries so... it ended quite quickly as cities got emptied out. Amanda won. Again.


Sunday, 25 February 2018

My Birthday. I can't remember what else we did this day. I think after playing Railways of Great Britain we stayed up stupid late watching a movie and so we slept in late. Then Amanda took the kids to activities. Afterwards we met up at my folks for supper. When we got home, we played a few games...



... of Splendor!



I seem to win this one a lot. Everyone else seems to want to try and save up for the yellow and blue cards right away and leave the cheap green cards for me... which I pick up loads of and then grab patrons (or whatever they're called) and by the time I have two of everything I hardly have to pick up gem chips on my turn, I just pick up whichever cards I can...

 

Amanda and The Girl wanted to play again, but Finnegan had had enough...



and I kind of won again...

That's it for February... we didn't get any more games in.


Friday, 2 March 2018

Friday evening was supposed to be Rogue Trader night, but I didn't have anything prepared. It's been difficult focusing well enough to read and come up with ideas for an RPG lately... so I cancelled that. But Bruce came over anyway and we played a boardgame instead.



ANOTHER game of Viticulture! It was fun to play with five, because that opens up the third spot for workers to go on at each location. But by the end of the game it meant there were another six workers taking up spaces!



We played five rounds. Amanda (blue) was at 15 at the start of the round and announced it would be the last one... she scored 7 point in the summer with two yellow (summer visitor) cards! And then scored another five filling one last contract for a total of 27!!! For a brief moment in the fall I had bought up to her at 22 - filling a contract and playing a blue (fall visitor) card that got me a few points... then she filled that last contract. The kids did a lot better this game. I think Finnegan's highest score to date had been about five (he was green)... Bruce (Purple) did amazingly well for his first game, I think I scored five the first time I played.

So it seems Amanda has groked the game and I will never win again. I'm not that concerned, I just have fun playing it. What will be disappointing is when she starts winning before I've made a single bottle of wine!!



Here's our tracking card for the 25/30x5 challenge for the year. 25 board games and 5 miniature games we want to play at least five games of through the year. that makes a total of 150 games so we need to be playing, on average three games a week. As we're just finishing up the ninth week, we should have played twenty seven games by now to be "on schedule". We've played twenty-eight. So far, so good. Mind you, we've played a lot of the EASIER games... We haven't even started in on the COIN games... And we've actually played a lot more than twenty-eight games. We've played a few games that aren't on the list (A Study in Emerald). And some of those games on the list we've played a lot more than five of - Harry Potter: Hogwart's Battle and Shadow War: Armageddon. I'm sure we'll be playing more of Harry Potter (to finish the campaign!) and Splendor this year - even though we've already played the five required for the challenge...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Tallarn. Lots of Tallarn. I've gone and signed up not only for the spring league (I signed up for the winter league, but never actually played a league game), but I've also signed up for a TOURNAMENT on the 24th of March! Those that have known me for a long time will no doubt be utterly shocked by this. For the longest time, that whole style of play was anathema for me. To be honest, I still don't love the idea, I'm more about fluff and narrative than competition. But I thought it might be a good opportunity to actually get out and meet some of these guys in the league and see who else is into fluff and narrative...

It's only 1000 points - and I easily have 1500 points of my Guaiacan Commandoes... and I could probably even cobble together a 1000 point battalion detachment of the Tallarn I have already... But I got this daft idea that it would be fun to field a brigade detachment of the Tallarn for under 1000 points... and for that I need to get a few more things painted... like three more squads of Infantry... and another Sentinel... and a couple officers and command squads... and another Leman Russ... and another Mortar Squad... all in the next three weeks! You might think that whatever is causing these headaches I have is clearly causing some brain damage... but I've always had stupid megalomaniacal plans like this... sometimes I even pull them off!!