Looking Back at 2018

Let's have a brief look back at 2018. It's a thing I seem to do every year...

Looking at the Game Plan 2018, I feel like I accomplished some of my goals... some of those goals shifted a bit... and I did a lot of other stuff I hadn't planned on doing at the beginning of the year.

Board Games - 25x5

Well...



We played some of those... others.... not-so-much...

Part of the problem was it was sort of a personal challenge, and sort of a family challenge... I mostly counted games I played - so those two COIN games - those were games I played with other people, no one else in the family played with us. Also I wasn't keeping track of games the kids played on their own or with others. We played one game of Sentinels of the Multiverse together, but Finnegan played scores of games on his own.

Despite not succeeding in playing all the games in our challenge, we did still play a LOT of games! According to Board Game Geek we played:

Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team x29
Shadow War: Armageddon x24
Century: Golem Edition x21
Warhammer 40,000 (Eighth Edition) x21
Retro Loonacy x19
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle x16
Splendor x13
Carcassonne x10
Century: Spice Road x7
Kingdomino x7
Railways of the World x6
SET x6
Space Hulk (fourth edition) x6
Codenames: Harry Potter x5
Dominion x5
Five Tribes x5
London (first edition) x5
Viticulture Essential Edition x5
7 Wonders x4
Flamme Rouge x4
Just Desserts x4
Numenera x4
Rogue Trader x4
Wrath & Glory x3
Hero Realms x3
Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game x3
Lords of Waterdeep x3
The Pikeman's Lament x3
Arkham Horror x2
Bananagrams x2
The Castles of Burgundy x2
Castles of Mad King Ludwig x2
Codenames: Pictures x2
Cytosis: A Cell Biology Board Game x2
Exploding Kittens x2
For Sale x2
Kingdom Builder x2
Marrying Mr. Darcy x2
Race for the Galaxy x2
Star Wars: Edge of the Empire x2
Terraforming Mars x2
Unstable Unicorns x2
Agricola x1
Angola x1
Azul x1
Bohnanza x1
Century: Eastern Wonders x1
Colonial Twilight: The French-Algerian War, 1954-62 x1
Condottiere x1
Cthulhu Flux x1
Cthulhu Realms x1
Deluxe Weed! x1
Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game x1
Fearsome Floors x1
Firefly: The Game x1
Flash Point: Fire Rescue x1
Fresco x1
The Hanging Gardens x1
Love Letter x1
Monarch x1
Mysterium x1
Nations x1
Nations: The Dice Game x1
Nature Flux x1
Nautilus x1
O Zoo le Mio x1
Pendragon: The Fall of Roman Britain x1
Portal: The Uncooperative Cake Acquisition Game x1
Samarkand: Routes to Riches x1
Samurai Sword x1
Sentinels of the Multiverse x1
Spoons x1
Stone Age x1
A Study in Emerald (second edition) x1
Super Dungeon Explore: Forgotten King x1
Tales from the Loop x1
Virulence: An Infectious Card Game x1

That's a lot of games. (Okay, I didn't personally play 29 games of Kill Team or 24 games of Shadow War: Armageddon or 21 games of 40K - those also included games played by family and friends that were arranged and orchestrated and game mastered by me...).

So I guess we can say: Games were played. We had fun.

I am going to have a challenge of sorts for next year, but it will be a bit different.


Miniature Games

We played a LOT of 40k (and Shadow War: Armageddon and Kill Team and Space Hulk)... not a lot else. I did get in three games of The Pikeman's Lament, I guess. No Dragon Rampant, no Song of Blades and Heroes...


Role-Playing Games

I finished off the Tales from the Loop campaign I'd started at the end of 2017. I tried to get a game of Rogue Trader going... but it fizzled and died. I gave Numenera a try, but just couldn't get into it and quit. I was super stoked about Wrath & Glory - picked up the quick-start rules and introductory adventure on Free RPG Day and ran that, but despite the core rule book being available at GenCon in August, they still haven't made it into stores...

Next year is looking a bit more promising - my friend Bruce is planning to run a Call of Cthulhu game and I will definitely be running some Wrath & Glory!


Saturday Games

Didn't really happen... at the beginning of the year I was suffering from chronic migraines and just was not in any state to be reading and learning new board games and it took all my energy just to get stuff ready for the Shadow War: Armageddon Campaign weekend.... and we just kind of fell out of the habit... Hoping to bring that back in the new year!


ToonCon

Oh, I went to ToonCon! and I ran a game of Kill Team there!


Painting

Either I wasn't updating my numbers or it was a slow year... only painted 235 28mm foot (I know, I know, it's more than a lot of you paint... but it's slow for me). I did get done about half of the stuff I planned to do at the beginning of the year. And I managed to get a lot of other stuff I DIDN'T plan to do at the beginning of the year.

Stuff I did get done:
John’s Shadespire Miniatures - Core Box, Sepulchral Guard, and Ironskull's Boyz
Tallarn Veteran Infantry Squad
Tallarn Infantry Squad x3
Tallarn Special Weapon Squads x2
Tallarn Roughrider Squad
Tau Kill Team
Tallarn Leman Russ Punisher Tank
Tallarn Leman Russ Vanquisher Tank
Tallarn Leman Russ Demolisher Tank
Tallarn other Leman Russ Battle Tanks
Tallarn Leman Russ Battle Tank
Tallarn Commander x2
Tallarn Command Squad x2
Tallarn Heavy Weapon squad
SHADOWSWORD!
Chaos Kill Team (3 Chaos Space Marines and 10 Cultists)
Space Hulk Terminators
Space Hulk Genestealers
Imperial Arvus Lighter
WARHOUND TITAN! X2!!!
ECW Highland Clansmen
ECWHighland Commanded Shot (6)

Stuff I planned to get done, but didn't... 
Tallarn Roughrider Squad x2
Tallarn Heavy Weapon squad x10
Tallarn Special Weapon Squad
Tallarn Scout Sentinel x2
Primaris Psyker x2
Tallarn Platoon Commander + Command Squad x2
Tallarn Infantry Squad x9
Tallarn Basilisk
ECW Dragoons x2
ECW Irish Pike
ECW Irish Shot
Highland Clansmen x2
ECW English Pike x3
ECW English Shot x2
ECW Mortar and Crew x2
ECW Horse

Other Things I ended up doing as well...
40K/Rogue Trader Characters: 7
40K - Eldar: 12
40K - Sisters of Battle: 14
40K - Adeptus Arbites: 12
40K - Drukhari: 11
40K - Genestealers: 8
40K - Astra Militarum Cadians: 19
40K - Astra Militarum Valhallans: 7
40K - Space Marines: 1
40K - Mechanicus: 17
40K - Rogue Trader: Gellerpox Infected: 8
Seven Years War - British: 14

Modern Micro - British: 17 Vehicles, 36 foot

Terrain
40K - Sector Mechanicus - lots
40K - Sector Munitorum - lots
40K - Deathward Forest - all of it
40K - Wall of Martyrs - lots

Disposals
I got rid of most of my 15mm WW2 stuff. More of it will be heading out the door this week.


Not bad... I totally failed to paint more than I bought. I blame Paul. Over half of the stuff I bought this year was stuff he was getting rid of... This coming year, I will be buying less and trying to finish off all the stuff I planned to paint last year... plus all the stuff I bought this year and didn't paint... AND maybe make a bit of a dent in the lead mountain...

Anyway... I did stuff... It was (mostly) fun... Looking forward to 2019.


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Game Plan 2019

MORE Grey Knights

Blackstone Fortress Figures!

September Game-A-Day Challenge 2018 - Part 1

For the last few years I've found that are game-playing kind of falls off in the summer and we try to spend a bit more time outside, and so in September I've tried to jumpstart our game playing with a bit of a challenge of some sort. I think the first year, the challenge was to simply play a game everyday for the month of September. Later I instituted a rule that it had to be a DIFFERENT game each day for the entire month. This year I kind of backed off on that, but we've tried to select games that are on our 25x5 list.  

Well, here's how it's gone so far...



Saturday, 1 September 2018 - No Game! 

Well... that's a bit of an inauspicious start to a month of gaming every day!? We did BUY some game stuff on the first! I picked up the Drukhari Kill Team starter (for Amanda!) and the Death World Forest Kill Zone. Finnegan picked up the Deathwatch Kill Team starter and The Girl bought Unstable Unicorns.

Sunday, 2 September 2018 - Unstable Unicorns



The girl had bought this the day before. She'd first seen it on our vacation in Calgary and had been wanting to pick it up ever since. So she did. And then we played it. It was a pretty simple fluff game. I think Finnegan won. I'd probably play it again if we didn't have anything better to do and The Girl dragged it out and said "can we play THIS!?"


Monday, 3 September 2018 - London



This was our first time playing London in a long time... We probably played it last a year ago, in September, for last year's challenge!

The GIRL was EXTREMELY frustrated by all the cards she kept picking up that required money to play when she just didn't have any... and even more distraught (as evidenced by the picture above!) about all the poverty she was picking up...

Finnegan managed his poverty VERY WELL and just buried the rest of us in negative victory points at the end of the game. BEFORE subtracting for poverty and loans, I had 52 points, Amanda had 47, Keira had 41... I ended with 29, Keira with 10 and Amanda with 5... Finnegan ended 43 points...


Tuesday, 4 September 2018 - London



Day two of London. EVERYONE did much better at managing their poverty. Everyone had tried to totally avoid taking loans last game (because of the -7 VP for not being able to pay them of at the end of the game). The Girl won this one with 53 points. Amanda was second with 42, Finnegan and I tied for last with 40! Big difference from the previous day's game!


Wednesday, 5 September 2018 - London



Day three of London. Still doing way better than the first day - everyone had much less poverty at the end of the game, but somewhat lower scored than yesterday... The Girl won again with 45 points, Amanda 34, Finnegan 31 and I was just behind him with 30... The game also went a bit quicker.


Thursday, 6 September 2018 - London



Day Four of London. Amanda finally won a game. If I hadn't helped her with the cost-benefit analysis of her options in the last round, Finnegan probably would have won... mind you, if I hadn't helped HIM with the options for the last two rounds, I might have won...



We stayed up pretty late trying to get this game in, and everyone was pretty tired by the end of it...

I tried to go easier on the loan-taking this game - compared to the last two... I also tried to manage poverty better (I had the least at the end of the game - foe once!). Didn't seem to help much, though. EVERYONE has been better at managing poverty - especially seeing how much you can lose in our first game. I think we all scored lower this game, for various reasons... Amanda had 45 points, Finnegan had 42, I had  39 (crawling up from last place,  slightly), and The Girl had 32.

Friday, 7 September 2018 - London



Our fifth game of London this week - and in finally WON a game!!! Wooo!!

I built Buckingham Palace and St. Paul's early in the game. Later I had TWO Steamboats and 5 boroughs along the Thames - which totally paid off all my loans. On the last turn I was able to play two cards worth a total of 7VP (A train station and... the Tower Bridge...?)... I think it was those three things that really made the difference.

I ended with 56, Amanda was second with 37, Finnegan had 32, and The Girl had 22 (just wasn't her day... but she was in much better spirits about it compared to earlier in the week!).


Saturday, 8 September 2018 - Five Tribes



Friday we moved on to Five Tribes. I didn't make any notes about this game... other than the scores. Amanda claimed she had no memory of playing this game at all, but I'm sure she has. Despite that she did okay. I won with 154, Amanda was in second with 131, The Girl was third with 128, and Finnegan was last with 118.


Sunday, 9 September 2018 - Five Tribes



Again with Five Tribes. Went from totally crushing it yesterday (with 154 points) to Dead-Last today (with 139 points)... Mind you, my dead-last score today was still more points than everyone else's score from yesterday! Everyone else just did WAAAAAY better today! Amanda won with 164 points,  Finnegan was second with 157, and The Girl came in third with 142.



Monday, 10 September 2018 - No Game

We missed Monday... I blame Skewl.


Tuesday, 11 September 2018 - Five Tribes



Back at it with another game of Five Tribes. Amanda crushed it again. She beat us down with 161 points. Finnegan was pretty close with 156 points. Me, less so, with 133. The Girl dropped down to 109...?

Wednesday, 12 September 2018 -



Another busy, busy day - the kids and I got in a very quick game of Kingdomino in the evening between activities and going to bed... Finnegan won this one with 64 points! I though I'd done rather well with 58, and a couple 5x5 grid, but those mines he had... Yowza!  The Girl had 42 points.


Thursday, 13 September 2018 - Splendor



Thursday we played Splendor with Cities of Splendor.



It felt like a really close game - everyone was picking stuff up so fast, I felt like I couldn't keep up - but then I got the 5 and 4 red gems and then just had to pick up one more gem to satisfy the number of crards. While most had the gems satisfy one of the victory conditions, none had the points - and were probably a few turns away from doing so when I ended the game. I was pretty excited about the win as Amanda's won the last few and just left me in the dust. It's been a while since we played (as we've been playing more of Century: Golem), I think she'd gotten rusty...


Friday, 14 September 2018 - No Game!!

Busy day, and Amanda and I went out to the Rosebud Burlesque Club's Variety night and then watched the first episode of Dark Matter Season Two we we got home...


Saturday, 15 September 2018 - No Game!!

I had really hoped to get in a game of Kill Team in the afternoon, since most of my Death World Forest was complete... Alas everyone was busy with different things... Dance classes, homework, errands...



I DID get to pick up Kill Team: Rogue Trader (and some other stuff!)

In the evening Amanda and I went out and saw ANOTHER burlesque show - this time with the Menagerie Burlesque Company - two burlesque in a row!? Then we came home and watched Ready Player One - which I was underwhelmed by...

Sunday, 16 September 2018 - Century: Golem



This morning Amanda challenged me to a game of Century: Golem (actually, it might have been afternoon... we kind of slept in a bit...).



Despite scoring 91 points... she still beat me! With 93 points! Darn it, she's getting too good at this game too, now!


Well despite not getting in a game EVERY day, we have gotten in a few games - and crossed a few games off our 25x5 challenge list!



We made a list of games  we'd like to play for the rest of the month - mostly the quicker easier games on the list (Lords of Waterdeep, Space Hulk, Sentinels of the Multiverse, Legendary, Viticulture, and Hero Realms) and a few games of Kill Team - which I am still hoping we might get to play this evening!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Some actual Miniature Wargaming!? I do still hope to get in a game of Kill Team later today and maybe get a game report up tomorrow...?

After that..?

I assembled and primed the Eludician Starstriders (that came with the Kill Team: Rogue Trader box) last night while watching Ready Player One - along with some more STC Ryza Pattern Ruins (that came with the Realm of Battle - Moon Base Klaisus box set). I'm thinking I'll use the Moon Base Klaisus boards for the ToonCon game, so I'm going to try and crank out a few of those STC Ryza Pattern Ruins over the next week and then on to some new Kill Teams!

Sisters, Valhallans, and Bog-Standard Cadian-Types

So I went a little overboard on Ebay again recently... but first a few more things I've actually PAINTED...

All of these figures are from Games Workshop.



Two more Sisters of Battle for Amanda's Adepta Sororitas force - a second Canoness and another Sister Superior. I picked up the second Sister superior because the complete squad I'd picked up for Amanda had a Imaginifier in it (which is actually a separate character now) and thus she had a character and a incomplete squad of 9... This second Sister Superior allows her to field the squad as two smaller squads of five or one of 10 (as this Sister Superior, armed with a bolter, could easily pass for a regular ol'sister...).



An Inquisition Acolyte with a big-ass flamer - to KILL IT WITH FIRE!!! I finished this one up to use as one of the extra characters for Blessings Unheralded. The Character is an Inquisition Acolyte that looks just like this figure... minus the big-ass flamethrower.



A renegade space marine... just... because... reasons...

I figured it's alway s good to have a handful of these as baddies for 40K roleplaying... I have two more to paint up, along with a pair of terminators and a squad and a half of cultists.

So... the other stuff...

A BIG order arrived in the mail today and I set to organizing them to see what I'd got myself into!


Valhallans



There are a few more minis inbound from different sellers (another mortar team, two more Infantry men and two more BA-64s). I will, ultimately, have a Brigade Detachment of these. HQ options will include up to three commanders (or possibly a Commander, a Primaris Psyker and Lord Commissar...?). I have six identical Infantry Squads for troop options (Sergeant, Flamer, and 8 Guard with Lasguns). I have three Command Squads for Elites (and possibly 2 Lieutenants, if I go with the Primaries Psyker and Lord Commissar options for HQ). I have four Heavy Weapon Squads for Heavy Support (Heavy Bolters, Lascannons, and two squads with Mortars). Additionally, for Heavy Support, I plan on converting those three 1/48 scale KV-2 tanks into Ragnarock tanks (which will basically use the same stats as Leman Russ tanks...). Maybe I could get a fourth and make it a Tank commander for ANOTHER HQ option...? For Fast Attack I thought I'd use three BA-64... and just use them as "Armoured Sentinels". I thought I might remove the diminutive turret (as no 40K guns would fit in it...) and place one of the Sentinel rocket pods on top. Alternatively, if I could find a model of an OT-26 "chemical tank" I could pass those off as Hellhounds...?

But wait, there's MORE...


Cadians



Because they had them, I picked up two squads of metal Cadians from the same place I picked up more of the Valhallans. At one point I had an entire COMPANY of Cadians - in plastic... but I traded (most of) them away over the winter when I decided I didn't need THREE full Imperial Guard forces... (of course, now I'm going to have FOUR). This force is a bit "top heavy" - I have three officers and three command squads for a force with only three Infantry Squads... Ah, well... I have no intention of filling this out to a full-sized force - definitely not getting any armour for this force. I thought I'd used them for Ship'sTroops for the Rogue Trader campaign or as a back up or supplementary detachement for another Imperial force - like the Sisters or my Knights... There's basically a Battalion Detachment there (with 9 Command Points!).

Oh, that wasn't all...


Adepta Sororitas
 

I also picked up another squad of 10 sisters from the same place to add to Amanda's force. I actually have another 5 inbound - so eventually this will be a Battalion force (when fielded as squads of five - or two of ten and one of five..?). It will bring the force to 29... they could all fit into three Rhinos - which might be the next addition - once these all get finished... and maybe PLAYED with!?

She will be playing with ONE of them Friday evening, as Amanda has called "dibs" on Battle Sister Henna Orten.

Shoot, I just realized She also picked up the Celestine: The Living Saint box for me to assemble and paint for her... (which are not included in this pic). That'd be THREE HQ options... Could this become a Brigade?! No... that would require a bunch more elites... and some fast attack... and heavy support... Battalion, though... sure, that's doable.

I'm not sure when exactly I'm going to get to painting any of these (or the Drukhari, or my Craftworld Eldar, or the couple handfuls of Marines and Chaos Renegades for that matter)? My original Game Plan set out a pretty full schedule of painting to try and get my Tallarn all done this year - and most of the ECW stuff... I'm sure I'll fit a few in here and there and it might be another year before ALL of the Tallarn get done. The problem is enough are done that I can play a pretty decent sized game, so some of the impetus to get them finished has gone. It gets harder to finish up units that I'm pretty certain won't ever see action (or not much...).


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hopefully I'll get a chance to finish up that first Knight soon... but I do have new shiny stuff, so... I'll probably spend some time over the next few days stripping minis that need stripping, basing and priming all of them.

I also need to maybe take a break from painting and stuff and do some serious cleaning and reorganizing of the hobby dungeon. It is a bit of a mess. Has been for the last four years - never really recovered from the renovations in the rest of the house (when we had to take everything from the rest of the house and store it in the basement - some stuff just never found i's way back upstairs).

Over the summer, after I've cleaned and organized things, the plan is to haul everything out of the Game Room and do a little renovating in there - building some new shelves, dismantling the giant gaming table (to make room for a new gaming table that Amanda found last fall and has been propped up between the bed and the wall in Finnegan's room ever since...). But, as I said, the first thing is to clean up the giant mess downstairs.

Imperial Knights: Renegade

So... I kind of did this thing...



There is a LOT of stuff in that big box... should keep me busy for a while...

So much to consider...

Do I do them as Freeblade(s)?

Do I start a Knightly House?

Do I go with the Pink Leopard pattern of my Warhound Titan?

Probably not. Warhounds would be part of an Adeptus Titanicus Legios... Knights are part of the Questor Imperialis... I guess there are Mechanicus Knights... and the Titan Legions have some affiliation with the Adeptus Mechanicus...?

Another thought was to carry Baron Philipe Lapin forward into the 41st millennium and form a knightly house around his Bunny Rampant Banner...

Finnegan keeps asking if I'm going to be building BOTH knights. I think he'd like one... mind you, he hasn't finished the Gorkanaut he picked up on Boxing Day, so.... Honestly, if he wants a giant robot monster, he should probably pick up a Stompa for his Orks (or the T'au that he's planning on doing next). The Stompa, in terms of power level, is about the same as the TWO knights together!? I saw a really great Gargant scratch-build a while back. I was thinking we could build one of those... then I could take my knights AND my Warhound Titan AND my Shadowsword up against that!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I'd like to say "KNIGHTS, Obviously!" but I actually have two Shadespire gangs on the workbench and one is very nearly done and the other is half done and I'd kind of like to get those out of the way before working on these new beasties!

April Games Part One

This first week of April was the spring school break - which usually means a break from all our regular activities. I had been looking forward to a break from things and just hanging out with the kids and playing games and going of bike rides and hoped they'd get a chance to meet up with friends... but then there was three final performances for theatre classes, there was an extra rehearsal for a jazz class, two dance festivals and a make-up violin lesson... so... pretty much the same amount of running around as we normally do... and it was bitterly cold all week and we didn't get out for any bike rides (other than to get places)... at least we did get in a few games...

Sunday, 1 April 2018



Gaming got underway on Sunday when we went over to my folks for supper and we tried out Bohnanza. They're not really gamers and it took a while for everyone to figure it out, but in the end everyone had a lot of fun. I think we'll definitely be able to play this one with them a lot. I'd never played the game before - I really like it.


Monday, 2 April 2018



A few years back (okay, maybe MORE than a "Few") I picked up a Carcassonne Big Box (strangely, when I initially catalogued it on BGG there was a listing for the Big Box, but then sometime later I received a notice from BGG that they had split it up and anyone who had the Big Box in they collection had had it split up in to several entries - one for each of the expansions... but now I see there is a Big Box again...?) at one of the Dragon's Den Games Boxing Day sales, but so far we've only ever made use of the base set and the first expansion. I'd put Carcassonne on the 25x5 list with the express purpose of playing it every day for one week and playing though all five expansions. We decided this week should be that week...



Monday we played with the base set and Inns & Cathedrals (which we've played before). I think we were all relatively close until the very end when I rocked the farming and left the kids in the dust. It's been a while since we've played and they'd completely forgotten about farming and how many points it can bring in at the end...

Since Monday was the one day that we really didn't have anything else to do we got in a few other games...



We played a game of Dominion next. I let Finnegan come up with sets for us to play with. He has fun coming up with themes. The themes have nothing at all to do with game effects - they're all about the card titles and maybe the flavour text. Sometimes they totally don't even work together at all... but usually they turn out pretty interesting. No worse than any totally random sets.



Today's set I think he called "Towns and Villages", but I was thinking it should have been called "Property Tax Assessment" or "Tax Assessment Time"... it included Village and Festival from the base set, Hamlet, Farming Village, and Harvest from Cornucopia, Shanty Town and Mining Village from Intrigue, Taxman from Guilds, and Inn and Border Village from Hinterlands. Finnegan and I started in with the Taxmen early on - turning all our coppers into silver and then gold, Keira didn't buy a Taxman until later in the game when it was much to late to catch up... I'm not sure what she was celebrating in the picture above, Finnegan and I had scores in the 40s, while she had 27...? (which is odd, usually she totally creams us at Dominion!)



After supper we played a game of Lords of Waterdeep.



I played the Red Sashes secretly controlled by Larissa Neathal - though I tried to keep the kids guessing by picking up lots of Arcana and Piety quests... I think I managed to get at least one building out there every turn though, so they were pretty sure of who I was by the end of the game. They were less sure for the first few rounds, because some of the building were just so good!



The city at the end of the game - with all my buildings - MWA-HA-HA-Ha-Ha-ha-ha-haaaaa....

Finnegan played the City Guard who were secretly controlled by Mert the Money Lender, and The girl played the Harpers who were secretly controlled by Nindl Jalbuck.


Tuesday, 3 April 2018



On Tuesday we got to trying out one of the Carcassonne expansions we HADN'T played before: Traders & Builders. I REALLY like this one. The Traders part really gives players incentive to actually HELP other players finish off their cities. This is because whoever FINISHES the city (i.e. places the last tile that caps off the city and causes it to score), regardless of who has followers in the city, gets all the trade goods in the city - and whoever has the most of any type of trade goods (of which there are three) at the end of the game gets a bonus ten points!



In the evening we played a game with Amanda. We'd considered introducing her to one of the new Carcassonne expansions, but for some reason ended up playing Dominion instead...? We ended up playing with another set dreamed up by Finnegan which he called "the Royal Architect". This one included Throne Room, Gardens, and Council Room from the Base Game, Plaza and Masterpiece from Guilds, Menagerie from Cornucopia, Stables and Development from Hinterlands, and Courtyard and Great Hall from Intrigue. It played super fast with four - I thought Materpiece would be useless, but Amanda used it to pick up LOADS of silver right off the start and I think started picking up provinces on the third turn!? The rest of us just couldn't keep up!

We seem to mostly used the Base Game, Hinterlands, Intrigue, and Guilds & Cornucopia. WE actually have TWO MORE Dominion expansions that we've never played with (Adventures and Prosperity). I bought each of them at the last two ToonCon auctions - both brand new, never used - for less than half price - and we've never even cracked them. I think I put Dominion on the list as incentive to do so. We'll have to make the effort to do so for the next time we play. I think at least one (or both?) of them adds a totally new element to the game, which is why we haven't bothered trying that one.


Wednesday, 4 April 2018

Today we tried out Carcassonne: Princess & Dragon!



Eeep!

Yeah, that Dragon came out really early. Princess & Dragon is really nasty. I think it's really meant to be played with more than just the base set. Other than this first turn when the dragon ate my monk on the cloister and Finnegan's Knight in the city, we kind of tried to keep the Dragon stuck in a corner so it couldn't do TOO much damage... for the first half of the game or so...



The Fiary was a nice counter to the Dragon, but not nearly enough.

If there wasn't enough dick moves in Carcassonne with nasty placement of tiles that make it really hard to finish cities, etc - Princess & Dragon takes the screwage to a whole new level... which none of us are terribly fond of... I'm not certain this will see much play at our place.



If it does, we'll mis it in with at least a few other sets, because with just the base set, the princesses and dragons just came out too often. The princesses would just ruin Amanda's plan as she tends to build sprawling megalopolises!


Thursday, 5 April 2018



We didn't get to trying out a new expansion for Carcassonne today, but we did get Amanda to play with Traders & Builders.



It was a SUPER close game! Amanda and Finnegan both scored 80 points, I was just behind with 78 and The Girl was only a little further behind with 74!

Friday, 6 April 2018



Friday morning and afternoon a couple of the kids friends were over and we played Warhammer 40K all day. It was pretty mad. You can read a full report of the ensuing shenanigans - with loads more pictures - here:

Another 40K Friday



Later when Amanda got home we had another go at Carcassonne. Again we didn't try a new expansion - my brain was pretty much mush after 6 hours of running five games of 40K for the kids (on top of ongoing migraine/screwy-head/new medication issues... uuggghhh...). But we did try a game with the base game and the first two expansions (Inns & Cathedrals and Traders & Builders).



It was a pretty freaking epic game - well, epic compared to the games of Carcassonne we've played - and a lot of fun. Amanda crushed it - building THREE sprawling mega-cities and scoring 178 points in the end. Finnegan was second at 124, I wasn't far behind him at 120, and The Girl was last at 120. A lot of those cities would never have been finished off if it weren't for Traders& Builders...


Saturday, 7 April 2018



While Amanda took The Girl out to dance, Finnegan and I got in another game of 40K. Again there is a full report on that action elsewhere on this blog:

Ambush at Carf Gakl

Later, in the evening, we played ANOTHER game of Carcassonne!



This time we finally did get back to trying new expansions and we added Abbey & Mayor to the base set and Traders & Builders.

Everyone seems to start out with little cities and short roads, scoring four or six or eight points here or there... Not Amanda.



No, when Amanda scores her first points in a game, she picks up the 50 counter to say she's wrapped the scoring chart and passed us all with her ridiculous megalopolises!? (For what it's worth, I capped this off and took the trade goods, though!!)



In the end I finally squeaked out a win with this one - largely due to some last minute BARN/FARMING! WOO! Unlike Amanda's 50 point lead in the previous game, however, this one was very close. I had 124, Amanda had 116, Finnegan had 112, and The Girl had 77...?


Sunday, 8 April 2018

Finally, back to Sunday and one more game of Carcassonne!



This time we tried a quick game with just the River II Expansion.



It was quick with just the base game. Amanda and I actually tied for first with 82!

Whew! Busy week!

Hopefully we'll keep up with the regular gaming all this month. There are two or three more expansions in that Big Box (it's weird... the big box says it comes with 5 Expansions... 1. Inns & Cathedrals, 2. Traders & Builders 3. Princess & Dragon, 4. Abbey & Mayor, and 5. River II, Count, and King & Cult... Except on BoardGamGeek it is counted as FIVE separate expansions River II, The Count of Carcassonne, King & Scout, and The Cult!?  This is why it looks like I have so many games on BGG - I have so many micro-mini expansions for games and each is a game entry... I digress... I do hope we'll get a chance to try them all, and try a few more in various combinations before the momentum wears out...

Looking at our (25+5)x5 Challenge Board (more details of which can be found in the GAME PLAN 2018)...



We are 13 weeks into the year and as that is essentially 30x5 games that's a minimum of 150 games so about 3 games from this list need to be played each week - on average... So far we are doing okay. We're a bit ahead of the game, actually... But we're technically DONE with games like Carcassonne. if we do try out the rest of the expansions and play some MORE games to mix and match and try new combinations, well... that's not working towards completing the challenge... The Challenge isn't everything, though. I mean, the main goal is to have fun, and if it inspired us to get that Big Box off the shelf and FINALLY try all those different Carcassonne expansions after all these years and we don't play another game on the list all year... It was probably a success. I need to keep that in mind.

I WOULD like to TRY and play a few more of these games, though.

The COIN games will definitely be the hardest.

Rather than 5x Pax Renaissance and 5x Bios: Megafauna I should have said 10x Phil Eklund Games... Oh, but High Frontier is on there as well... Hmmmm... Maybe 5x PAX games (which could include Pax Renaissance, Pax Porfiriana, Pax Pamir, or Pax Emancipation- when it comes out) and 5x Bios games (Which could include Bios Megafauna or Bios: Gensis, etc...). Perhaps I shall make it so.

The rest should be pretty easy.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle  is kind of holding us up a bit. A number of them are kind of campaign games - or at least can be played as campaigns (Hero Realms, Mice & Mystics, Shadowrun: Crossfire, etc) and I kind of want to finish Harry Potter before starting in on the next campaign game...

My plan for Firefly and Arkham Horror was similar to Carcassonne - we have a few expansions for each we've never played with I thought each game we'd add one. Unfortunately both those game are considerable LONGER than Carcassonne and so I don't think we'll be banging those out in a week! I should pick a month for each and play a game each Saturday afternoon for a month adding a new expansion each week. I think I had planned to do so last October with Arkham Horror... but the kitchen renovation kind of hindered that plan some. Maybe this year!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I'm not sure... Maybe another game report. I've been having a hard time focusing enough to paint lately - due to the never ending head-screwiness and some new meds to deal with that (I saw the Neurologist at the beginning of last week and it has been decided that it probably is just a weird chronic migraine that I've been suffering from all along - for SIX MONTHS NOW! I've been given some new medication that I've been taking for the last week, but it doesn't seem to be doing much just yet... I think it may actually be intensifying things a bit...? GAH!? At least I can still play games - sometimes - and ride my bike and type on the computer, though reading fro prolonged periods and reading rules is challenging - which is why we haven't been tackling some of the more complex games on the list just yet!).