30 Games in 30 Days (Into the Home Stretch!)

For the month of September I have decided to play a different game with the family (or at least the kids) every day of the month. You can read about the previous weeks here:

Week One
Week Two
Week Three



Saturday, 19 September 2015 - We played Frostgrave on Saturday (there's a more extended write up about this game here: Frostgrave: The Cemetery) This is where our challenge started to fail in the playing a different game each day department... this would have been way easier to do last month when I wasn't doing a regular game night - but I suppose it wouldn't be a CHALLENGE if it was easy. So while we didn't play a different game every day of the month I'm still saying it's been a success in the spirit of the challenge - which was to play more games more regularly and play some different games... 



Sunday, 20 September 2015 - We got together with our friends the Genets, that we ususally play games with on Sunday afternoons, and I ran them through the Song of Blades and Heroes scenario I was planning to run for ToonCon. I took a bunch more pictures and meant to do an blog post about the game... but I just haven't gotten to it. I think it was the funnest of the playtests I did, so I'll hopefully get to it this week. 



In an effort to try and keep with the play a DIFFERENT game each day (even though we'd already failed in that regard) we tried out Quiddler. I think a friend had gotten this for The Boy for his birthday a year or two back and we STILL hadn't gotten around to trying it out. I read through the rules and thought is seemed easy enough and a game that everyone would like and might become a regular "hey, we got 20 minutes to kill why don't we play Quiddler?" type game... But instead the kids were thoroughly frustrated by it and rounds ended in tears...!? I have no idea why... they're quite articulate kids with huge vocabularies.... perhaps it was because it was at the end of a very long tiring day and they just couldn't see the patterns in the letters...? Ah well... I had hands like this one above and then before it got back to me, Amanda would win the round! So I don't know what the kids were complaining about!?



Monday, 21 September 2015 - On Monday we played Dominion. WE played a LOT of it over teh summer so I was a little surprised when I looked back at the games we'd played over the month and realized we hadn't yet played it! Does anyone else get hands like this!? Ugh... 



Tuesday, 22 September 2015 - Amanda, The Girl and I were just able to squeeze in a quick game of Hearts between eating supper and running out to their Karate class and me having to run out and fetch The Boy from his Drama Class... 



Wednesday, 23 September 2015 - On Tuesday we'd read about The Warlords of Japan in our study of World History - Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, the end of the Warring States Period, the Japanese invasion of Korea, the battle of Sekigahara, the siege of Osaka,  and the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate... so on Wednesday afternoon we sat down and played Ikusa (formerly known as Shogun and Samurai Swords). We'd actually done extra chapters of reading on Tuesday so we'd have all day to play Ikusa  - as I expected it would take a lot longer to play... we finished it up in a couple hours. I totally crushed them both... I've actually played it before and knew not to waste money on ninjas and turn order and castles in the first few turns and to concentrate on consolidating an area of control... and I tried to articulate that to the kids and tried to point out they might want to gang up on me... but sometimes they have to do their own thing and find stuff out for themselves the hard way.



Thursday, 24 September 2015 - Thursday we played a quick game of Ticket to Ride between The Girl's bedtime 



Friday, 25 September 2015 - Sunday, 27 September 2015 - Friday was spent pretty much getting ready for the weekend - The Boy and I were at ToonCon 2015 all weekend - there wasn't much to prepare for the convention itself, but there are a lot of errands I usually do on the weekend that I had to try and cram into Friday afternoon... 

A complete report of the weekends activities at ToonCon can be found on a separate blog post:

ToonCon 2015

Amanda and the girl didn't totally miss out on gaming over the weekend - Friday evening was the regular Savage Worlds Realms of Cthulhu that Amanda and I play in. Because The Girl wasn't going for a sleep over at my folks (as the kids usually do on Cthulhu night) The Girl actually got to PLAY in the game - she actually just played one of the Characters who weren't able to make it (not mine, MY character DIED in our last game!). They were still playing when The Boy and I got back from our evening of gaming...

Three days left in our challenge... Whatever shall we play...?

10th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash – Part Two

After the Ronin Campaign on Saturday, the gaming raged on into Sunday!

Starting at 10am we kicked the days gaming off with a game of Ikusa… Cory (from Calgary) Paul (of Sabre’s Edge in Winnipeg) and Curtis (a local pal) joined in.

It took us a while to get going as none of us had ever played... or perhaps Cory had played the original version a couple decades ago...? Anyway, took some figuring out, but it was a totally fun game and I would definitely play it again. Funner than Axis & Allies! 

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Cory shows us how it’s done in Turn One by laying the smack down on EVERYONE!

A little more careful planning was required from Turn Two onwards…

Things looking bad for my Purple armies.

Paul took me down by assassinating my last daimyo with a Ninja and then cleaning up his army during the ensuing chaos. Fortunately for Paul I had a crapload of dudes that all quickly swore fealty to his Daimyos and kind of made the rest of the game a foregone conclusion…

Paul's Big Green Machine!

Feudal Japan was kind of the Big Theme of the weekend so I bought Samurai Swords for the winners of the Ronin Campaign and Ikusa.

We then cracked the copy of Smash Up Cory had brought me for my birthday – we all had a hearty laugh when I opened the rather large box to find only fourlittle decks within! (I guess they were planning for expansions...?) 

The game was a whole lot of fun. I think I ended up winning with my Zombie Leprechauns. It was a tight race as everyone else was within a point or two of winning.

Paul played Alien Wizards, Cory had Robot Dinosaurs, and Curtis ended up with Ninja Pirates!

After a quick supper out at Amigos we were back for more gaming. Starting with a game of Munchkin Conan

After that we finished that we had a go at the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game that Paul had brought along!  

It seemed like a pretty slick system. Finnegan and I started off playing Pick Patrol – Finnegan was Pink Leader and I played Pink One and Pink Two – two rookie piolots that were out on a training mission when we happened to run into a flight of TIE-fighters piloted by Amanda and Keria

Amanda trying to crash her TIE-fighters into each other.

Quite the mess – I’m surprised no one actually DID collide and blow up!

I think this was shortly before Pink Leader went BOOM! I managed to take out one of the TIE-fighters with one of my Rookie Pilots before we had to call it a night… it was getting waaaaaaaay too late and we were pretty much all gamed out.!

Thanks again to Paul and Cory who came so far to make this weekend awesome!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming of miniature painting and slightly less epic game reports… ‘til then… 

10th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash Update

I have settled on the 21-23 February weekend for the 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend. We will be playing Ronin – Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai! (well… and some other stuff…).

This image is © Osprey Publishing and I’ve used it here entirely without their permission (but since I’ve been effectively giving them all sorts of free promotion- by getting all you reader jazzed about playing – and buying – the game, I’m hoping they won’t mind!)

While about 14 people have expressed interest in playing, but I’m expecting about 10 players will actually show up.

Friday Evening

7pm-ish until we’re done

Get to Know Your Buntai (and the others)

We will sort out who is playing which Buntai and then play a few fun, pick up games to learn the rules – for those that haven’t played yet – and gauge the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various Buntai.

For previous campaigns, we’ve usually had one big mega-battle. Ronin doesn’t really lend itself to that sort of play, so I’m hoping over the next seven weeks to get in a lot of games with as many of the local players so I’ll have a cadre of players who will know the basic ins and outs of the game.

Saturday 

9am until whenever we get sick of it… (I’m hoping to get in at least five games)

Ronin Campaign/Tournament.

I will have TEN different Buntai ready for everyone to play with (though players are free to bring their own as well!). Everyone will start with a 400 point master roster with ~150 points being used per game – with casualties being kept track of – some, that don’t DIE, will be able to recover over the course of the campaign. Some guys will be able to advance in ability through an experience system. This is why I’m calling it a “Campaign”

Both the master list and what is fielded in each scenario should conform to the composition requirements for the Buntai. By the last scenario it may be more of a “play with whatever you have left” situation… I’m still trying to work out how to deal with any luckless player who, after three games going very poorly, finds himself without ANY models left in his buntai…. I’m currently thinking them ninjas and let them play assassination scenarios…? We shall see.

We will determine who is playing whom, through a Swiss-draw system - hence “tournament”. I figured this would be easier than some sort of map campaign – but maybe we could try that next time!

The overall winner will be determined by number of victories, ties will be broken by total accumulated victory points, if there is STILL a tie it will go to who ever has the most points remaining in their buntai

Sunday

This image is © Wizards of the Coast and I’ve used it here entirely without their permission (Again, I’m hoping they won’t mind the free promotion!)

For those who haven’t had enough… we will be playing Ikusa - a big multi-player strategy board game set in Feudal Japan for 3 to 5 players.

In The Meantime…

So what do I need to do between now and then? Well I sat down last night to do a bit of stocktaking to see where I am at and planning to make sure I have everything ready. I started by making up some actual Buntai with all the figures I have to get a sense of what I will actually NEED to have painted for the weekend…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

Here are nine of the Buntai. They are (front row, left to right; Ikko-Ikki, Peasants, Bandits, "Lion Clan" Bushi Buntai, Sohei; back row, left to right; "Crane Clan" Bushi Buntai, "Dragon Clan" Bushi Buntai, "Crab Clan" Bushi Buntai, and "Phoenix Clan" Bushi Buntai,…) There is one more on it’s way as well A second Sohei Buntai) as a few more figures for one or two of the other Buntai.

Almost all of them I will have all 400 points worth of miniatures painted – which is about double what I really NEED – because only 150 points worth will ever be on the table. The exceptions are the Peasants - as the will have between thirty and forty in the master roster, but only a dozen will likely ever be on the table… Also I think the second Sohei Buntai will be one figure short of 400.

As I finish up the buntai I’ll try and post pictures of them. The only complete one at the moment is the Lion Clan Bushi Buntai. I have painted all the figures I have for the Sohei and Ikko-Ikki - though there are a few figures in the mail that I’m hoping to add to them before the campaign. The  Peasants are also done, except for a few more Peasants en route from Black Hat Miniatures. The Bandits are also very close to being done. The remaining Bushi buntai are what need the most work. I probably won’t even need them. If I get ten players and couple of them are Paul and/or Cory and/or Curt (who are the awesome kind of dudes that paint their own damned toys!) I’ll only need seven or eight of them. But I do want to have ten ready incase I end up with a dozen people on the day!

In all I think I figured I have about 75 figures that I still have to paint. I could probably get those done by the end of January or first week of February (given my regular rate of painting) – and that would give me a couple of weeks to make some new terrain and game boards and such – and, if need be, paint up a few more guys – if January’s play-testing has turned up and major problems with any of the Buntai.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The Lion Clan" Bushi Buntai! 

After that I'll hopefully have a Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878 report for you as I ams supposed to be heading over to John Bertolini's tomorrow for a game!