Game Plan 2022 - Q4

 Well... I don't know what I'm doing. The Q3 Plan did not work out at all... as outlined in the Previous Post. It doesn't look like much is about to change... 

GAMES

The last suggestions for the remaining challenges were:

Q4 5x5 Challenge

1. Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep
2. Carcassonne 
3. Wrath & Glory
4. Kill Team
5. Stone Age

and...

2022 Annual 10x10 Challenge

1. Wingspan
2. Terraforming Mars
3. Five Tribes
4. Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm
5. Azul
6. Carcassonne
7. Stone Age
8. Wrath & Glory
9. Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep
10. Kill Team

So far this year, I have played:

• Wingspan x11
• Terraforming Mars x10
• Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm x9
• Five Tribes x8
• Azul x6
• Carcassonne x5
• Quebec 1759 x5
• Wrath & Glory x5
• Splendor x3
• Andean Abyss x2
• Stone Age x2
• Wizard Kings x2
• Angola x1
• Bananagrams x1
• For Sale x1
• Kingdom Builder x1
• Marrying Mr. Darcy x1
• Mutant Crawl Classics Role Playing Game x1
• The Silver Bayonet x1
• Space Base x1

Wingspan and Terraforming Mars are done. Two games of Five Tribes shouldn't be too hard. 

One game of Direchasm...? Shouldn't be a problem for the 10x10 list. What held us up on playing Warhammer Underworlds was me insisting on getting a new warband done each week... and then not getting that painting done... One game of Direchasm won't be a problem... 5 or 10 games of Harrowdeep...? I don't know. It COULD happen... if I started pumping out Warbands and we played (almost) EVERY WEEK for the rest of the year... 

Azul and Carcassonne shoudln't be a problem. Those could be on both lists. 

Stone Age...? maybe the 5x5, but we'd need to play EIGHT games to get to ten now... I don't know... I don't know if we love it THAT much!? 

Wrath & Glory...? If BOTH groups manage to get in a game each month October, November, and December - I'll totally made that one. 

Kill Team... If I got motivated and got some of those new teams painted by the holidaze, I could probably convince the kids to play a few games when school is over - five would be very doable (for the Q4 5x5 challenge). Ten, though...? I don't know... 

There is very little chance I'm going to play any more of 1759 or Wizard Kings... Although, if I made a category of "Columbia Games Block Games" I could endeavour to get in three games of Hammer of the Scots and that might finish THAT off...!? Seems more likely than eight GMT COIN games... or... ten of something else...? 

Q4 5x5 Challenge

1. Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep
2. Carcassonne 
3. Wrath & Glory
4. Kill Team
5. Azul

2022 Annual 10x10 Challenge

1. Wingspan
2. Terraforming Mars
3. Five Tribes
4. Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm
5. Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep
6. Azul
7. Carcassonne
8. Wrath & Glory
9. Kill Team...? 
10. Columbia Games Block Games (Quebec 1759, Wizard Kings, Hammer of the Scots)...? 

So in addition to five games of each of the 5x5 games, I'll need to play ONE game of Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm, TWO games of Five Tribes, THREE games of Hammer of the Scots... and then FIVE additional games of Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep and TEN games of Kill Team. 

MINIATURES

I have not been getting a LOT of painting done this year... Mind you, I haven't been buying a lot either... Though it is STILL more buying than painting. It would be nice to get into the black. 

Currently sitting at:

PAINTED

28mm Foot: 39

28mm Mounted: 1

Tokens and Bits: 6

Terrain Bits: 3

Micro Foot: 113

Micro Mounted: 9

Micro Tanks/Vehicles: 27

PURCHASED 

28mm Foot:80

Terrain Bits: 72

I'd like to paint at least 42x28mm figures - so I've painted MORE than I purchased this year. There are 89 days left in 2022. So... one every other day, on average. (plus all the micro scale stuff I'm trying to finish up!) 

Oh... and then there is the terrain... If I can batch paint the Kill Team: Into the Dark interior wall bits, I'd be happy. 

What is 44x28mm miniatures going to look like? 

Imperial Navy Breachers(12)

Kroot Farstalker(12) 

Mollog's Mob (4)

Da Kunnin' Krew (5)

Xandire's Truthseekers (4)

Skittershank’s Clawpack (5)

Blackpowder's Buccaneers (5)

That's 47... plus Terrain... Plus finishing up a few "Epic Scale" items. That's probably the best I could possibly hope for at this point... BUT, if I were to get anything else done... 

More Warhammer Underworlds...?

Elathain's Soulraid (5)

The Crimson Court (4)

The Exiled Dead (7) 

The Shadeborn (4) 

Myari's Purifiers (4)

Hexbane’s Hunters (6)

More Kill Teams...?

T'au Pathfinder Kill Team (10)

T’au Fire Warriors (5) + Drones

T’au stealth Suits (3) 

T’au Drones (many)

Corsair Voidscarred Kill Team  (10) 

Chaos Space Marine Kill Team (10) 

Assorted Objective Markers? 

Ork Kommando Kill Team (10) 

Not sure how much of this I'm going to get done THIS month, however as I'm busy with not one, but TWO daily drawing challenges!? You can see what's going on there over on my Art Blog:

https://artgeekbrown.blogspot.com/2022/10/

July Games

Another slow to start month. Despite a SUPER-LONG weekend to kick off the month we didn't get playing games until the 10th! This was partly because we all took turns being sick starting with Amanda and Keiran on the 4th, Finnegan was sick the next day, and, just after I thought I'd somehow dodged it, I got sick on the weekend!? Sunday I was feeling well enough to play a game, so we got back to playing some Warhammer Underworlds. 

Sunday, 10 July 2022

We played in Beastgrave, with Amanda fielding her Murder Grrrlz and I tried out Ironsoul's Condemnors. I thought maybe I hadn't tried them before, but when I went to log the play on BGG, I realized I had played them ONCE before. As with the previous time, I played with their standard deck, as-is... and... it wasn't awful. 

I have NOT had good luck with ANY of the Stormcast warbands... like... EVER. The DAughters of Khaine (that are my usual opponents) somehow just dance circles around them and cut them to ribbons!? I don't remember a single game where they weren't absolutely WIPED OUT!? 

The last time I played THIS particular warband, Amanda won 15-1... 

FIFTEEN to ONE!?

The first Round didn't go great... I was playing kind of "stow and steady" and letting them come to me... which COULD backfire as Amanda has all sorts of objective cards that can gain her points just... being in different places and surviving... I think I did take out Khamyss... who CAN be BRUTAL, but is a bit of a glass cannon...

The second round went better... I took out Kyrae in my first activation and then kind of surrounded Morgwaeth. By the end of Amanda's first activation on Round Three looked like... Amazingly, Morgwaeth survived TWO rounds standing there... the first Gwynne Ironsoul hammered on her - three dice - with two helpers and a smash attack, only one in six is a failure (the flury side), I rolled three regular hits and Amanda rolled a crit (which trumps everything!?) Ironsoul also had an upgrade which allowed her a reroll of one attack die on the first attack made each turn - and rolled another regular hit... 

For some reason, Morgwaeth stuck around!? She was not so lucky the next activation... 

Here's how things looked at the end of Round Three... Kyrssa, the last one standing, made a run for it, as there was NOTHING she could do and sticking around to get SMASHED by the Stormcast would just give me more points!? 

So... I FINALLY won a game with Stormcast Eternals! The final tally was 11-5!? Probably a combination of me being exceedingly lucky and Amanda being out of practice and/or just having an off day... I think with a bit of deck editing Ironsoul's Condemnors could be pretty brutal, though! 

Tuesday, 10 July 2022

It got brutally hot here as the week went on. So Tuesday evening we decided to hide in the cool basement Games Room and play Terraforming Mars. 

It was a LONG game - went for SIXTEEN turns (I feel like that's probably a record for us - NEITHER of us were producing heat. I'm sure by the end HALF of the raising of temperature was done by Standard Projects. We had all the oceans out before the mean temperature rose above -20°C!? (Not sure how THAT worked!?) 

Mars was definitely looking well and terraformed by the end of it, though!

Tim played Tharsis Republic with Business Empire and Donation (two prelude cards I've never used before) I took Builder milestone and the Landlord and Banker Awards

Amanda Played Eco line with Research Network and UNMI contractor - took Gardener and Planner milestones and Scientist awards.

She won. 

Monday, 24 July 2022

Our friend Kurtis came over and played a few games on this rainy Monday evening. We played Kingdom Builder (which I forgot to take a picture of) 

Then we played FIve Tribes (with the Whims of the Sultan expansion) 

In both games Kurtis and I were pretty close... and Amanda won by a BUNCH!? 

Wednesday, 27 July 2022

Didn't play a game this day, but I bought one. I kind of HOPED we'd try it out in the evening, but didn't end up getting to it... Kill Team boxes aside, I can't remember the last time I bought a game...? I have bought two expansions for Five Tribes in the last year...? Other than that, I think the last games bought were Century Golem and Wingspan for Amanda's birthday last year!? 

Amanda's played Stone Age a few times at ToonCon and I played it once. It's been a game that Amanda thought would be okay to get, but out FLGS hasn't had any in for YEARS!? Z-Man games just wasn't reprinting it or something!? A week or so ago, I saw on their Facebook page that they finally got in copies!

I was pretty excited to see it was only $66 - I kind of expected it to be $80+ as most other games seem to be these days!? 

Thursday, 28 July

Thursday Other Tim and Treena came over to play games! I can't remember the last time we saw each other...!? I feel like the last time we played games was the ToonCon just before the pandemic shut everything down!? 

We did get to try out Stone Age! Treena and Other Tim have played it a bit, so Other Tim just crushed it. 

Afterwards we tried out a game they brought called Space Base which was interesting enough. I kind of won... largely because I was lucky early in the game and got a few really good ships... also I had a total brain fart and for a turn or two was taking more for rewards when others rolled dice than maybe I should have... which might have changed things a little bit... I always ended up with waaaaaaay more credits than I needed to purchase any of the ships I did before I realized I ha made some mistakes, so it might not have affected things...? 

Sunday, 31 July 2022

This past Sunday, Brent, Kurtis and John came over to play Angola! 

We haven't played this in about four years... but for a while it seemed like we played it every six months - in July or December - and it seemed to coincide with Kurtis changing jobs!? Kurtis sort of changed jobs again this summer (sort of... he was just made the permanent University Veterinarian - a position he'd been holding as "ACTING University Veterinarian for a few years now) - but it WAS an official change of position, so I suggested we should probably play Angola. 

The game is played with four and those are divided into two teams of two. One team play the MPLA/FAPLA, the soviet-backed communist forces controlling Angola at the outset of the war, and the other team plays UNITA/FNLA, the western backed opponents. 

The previous four times we've played, Brent and I have played the MPLA/FAPLA with me playing the FAPLA three of those times all but one of those times we had randomly determined  who would play which faction. We joked a lot before that it would probalby be the same teams and when Brent rolled MPLA for his faction, it looked like it might happen again. 

It didn't, though. I ended up playing UNITA, John played the FAPLA, 

...and Kurtis was my partner this time with the FNLA

Now, I've never read the rules, I just bumble along as best I can.. I just move stuff around and when battles happen, they tell me what to roll and when. It has a fairly simple and abstract combat system and the activation system is fascinating leaving you always wondering what your opponents might do next... and sometimes wondering what YOU might be doing next, if you forget what you put in your activation deck and in what order!? 

Each turn you build a deck of a set number of cards (4-7 depending on what turn it is - starts at 4 cards, goes up to 7 by the end of the game) each represents one of the columns you have or "fifth column" which allows you to move a group of units not in a column and there are command cards which can allow you to swap column markers of two columns that have not yet moved (I've never used those) and one or two pass cards that MUST go into a deck (UNITA has two pass cards, everyone else has one). Once the deck has been made and the turn started you are not allowed to look at what's in your deck. A start player is determined somewhat randomly (d6, 1-4 corresponds to a player, 5-6 is the player to the left of the previous turn's start player) that player starts by revealing a card from their activation deck and activating that column or passing as indicated on card and then play continues clockwise with each other player revealing one card at a time... 

It's pretty intense. You can't move ALL of your forces. Your opponent can't move ALL of their forces. There is a lot of guessing and gambling based on what MIGHT be remaining in your opponents decks (and what's in YOURS, if you've forgotten!) 

Every faction gets one home base at one side of the board. UNITA starts in Southwest Africa, MPLA starts in Luanda, FNLA starts in Zaire, and the FAPLA starts in a town in Eastern Angloa... then three others are drawn at random... 

So the intital set up was CrAzY - UNITA and FNLA had control of four towns surrounding Luanda! One of the game-ending-goals is for UNITA or FNLA to capture Luanda. I don't think it's happened in any game so far but it looked pretty perilous!

Nothing really happened there because there was a LOT of troops and equipment in Luanda and making a move on Luanda would mean giving up your position in whatever town (which one of the columns of FAPLA troops that were also in teh area could swoop in and seize. 

Looking back, maybe we SHOULD have put more pressure on Luanda with direct attacks

As it was, for most of the game these just stayed as heavily armed enclaves that grew to massive sizes, just staring each other down. One of the UNITA columns made it's way up the coast clearing communist forces out of ports along the way... only to be pushed back a bit in later turns... 

In the end UNITA and FNLA won, AGAIN! I think it was turn nine after six hours of play. 

That's it for July. Didn't get in as much gaming as I'd hoped... Or painting as that last burst of painting energy ended up being very short-lived. Very little has been finished since then. WEll, very little MINIATURE painting has been happening... I HAVE been VERY BUSY with other sorts of painting in July!!

Might have to rethink those 5x/10x Challenges, too... 

Game Plan 2022 - Q2

I don't know WHAT I was thinking when I came up with the Q1 Plan for this year back in... like... mid-December of last year!? Feeling absurdly optimistic about the end of the pandemic, perhaps..? 

Some of it worked out... 

Most of it...? 

Not-so-much... 

A lot of that had to do with a whole new wave of Covid and the provincial government just deciding it was "over" and dropping all public health requirements and "moving on". They won't even publish information about the state of things (mostly because they don't know - because most testing has stopped). Through most of February and March the death rate in Saskatchewan has been as high or higher than any point in the pandemic in so far. Through much of it the death rate was the HIGHEST IN CANADA - and for a week or two higher than the next two highest, COMBINED - and that included Alberta and Manitoba!? 

So we didn't do a LOT of gaming with people outside of the family - only had the occasional friend over - mostly others who have relatively small "bubbles"... 

50 Miniature Games

This has not happened... Instead of a miniature game (and GAME REPORT) every week, I played ONE miniature game...

5x5 (Quarterly) Challenge

I did play some other games, though, and did try to do the challenge - play five different games five times each. 

I had guessed I might play:

1. Silver Bayonet
2. Frostgrave or Stargrave or Rangers of Shadowdeep
3. Wingspan 
4. Other Board Game
5. Other Board Game

I DID manage to play five different game at least five times... but it ended up being... 

1. Five Tribes x7
2. Wingspan x7
3. Azul x6
4. Terraforming Mars x6
5. Carcassonne x5

Other games I played included:

• Splendor x2
• Wrath & Glory x2
• Bananagrams x1
• For Sale x1
• Marrying Mr. Darcy x1
• The Silver Bayonet x1

Wargaming Birthday Bash/February Game Weekend

I'd had some wild plans for a Great Big Birthday Bash for the big FIVE-OH.... But, for a number of reasons, that just didn't happen. (Covid... General Malaise... Despondency... ) 

TOONCON

There IS a ToonCon going on this year. It's actually NEXT weekend. 

I'm totally not going. 

OTHER EVENTS

Nothing much else has happened thus far... I did sign up for the Hunters of the Warp 40K Spring League... but I have my doubts that I'll actually get any games in.

PAINTING

I DID paint a few things... I did spend a LOT of time and energy re-basing a lot of miniatures - mostly 40K, and mostly Eldar. But some other stuff as well. 

What did I get painted?

• 1x Gug
• 7x Napoleonic French Naval Officers and Crew
• 13x Regency Monster Hunter
• 1x Lifeguard Cavalryman
• 3x Treasure/Clue Tokens

Not a lot... 

On the plus side... I didn't really BUY much either... and don't really have any plans to!? 

One Regency Monster Hunter arrived that I'd ordered in 2021 and wasn't shipped with the rest of the order (that showed up in December!?) 

I bought Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep – Blackpowder's Buccaneers (5 miniatures) and teh Warhammer 40000 Kill Team : Nachmund box which included ten Corsair Voidscarred and ten Chaos Space Marine and some terrain... and that's it!? 

Q2 GAME PLAN 2022

So... the next three months... 

5x5 (Quarterly) Challenge

I will attempt to play five different games, at least five times each... Do I have ANY idea what those might be? Nope. 

One might be Five Tribes. There seems to be a resurgence in interest in that. 

Terraforming Mars and Wingspan seem to not be slowing down. Not sure if both will end up part of the Q2 5x5 Challenge, but I'm sure they will be played at some point this Quarter and they'll definitely end up as part of the 2022 10x10 Challenge... 

I REALLY WOULD like to get some miniature games going on... Could I get Kill Team back on the proverbial challenge map!? Or some 40K Combat Patrols? I don't know... we'll see... In two weeks one of Finnegan's classes wraps up and then he'll only be doing two, so hopefully we'll find some time to play then! 

OTHER GAMES 

MINIATURE GAMES

As I said, I REALLY WOULD like to get some miniature games going on... REALLY!!! Kill Team and 40K are of most interest at the moment. Warhammer Underworlds too. And Warhammer Quest - both Blackstone Fortress and Cursed City (though the latter would still require a lot of painting!). Necromunda...

I feel like it's been a little too long since I've played ANY and will likely have to do a lot of re-reading of rules... So I MIGHT just stick to ONE - or maybe TWO - Kill Team and 40K.. 

BOARD GAMES

There are a handful of boardgames that I wouldn't mind playing as well - but probably NOT five times... Some just because I haven't played them in a while... Others... well, also because I haven't played them in a while, but also one or two more plays would move them to the Five List (5+ Plays) to the Dime List (10+ Plays) on Board Game Geek. 

Century Golem: Eastern Mountains, Robo Rally, Marrying Mr. Darcy, and Hive - Pocket edtion - all just need one play to move to the Dime List (I'm SURE I've played Robo Rally WAY MORE than that... but that was all LONG BEFORE Board Game Geek was a thing...). Pax Renaissance also only needs one play, and I LOVED playing that, but I'm pretty sure it would require a lot of re-reading rules (and not exactly light and easy-to-read rules) to play that again... so... it's on the list, but I'm not holding my breath

Agricola, Castles of Mad King Ludwing, Hellboy: The Board Game, Monty Python Fluxx, and Samarkand all have 8 plays recorded (so, needing two to make it onto the Dime List...).

Maybe, like what happened with Five Tribes, one or two of these games might be hit and actually get played a few more times and make it onto the 5x5 Challenge list...? 

PAINTING (and purchasing?) 

Eldar and Chaos seem to be the priority, at the moment. Both for 40K and Kill Team. 

There's other stuff waiting in the wings... (SO MUCH stuff)... but I haven't really been spending a LOT of time painting this last bit and that doesn't seem likely to change, so I think it would be best if I rode the mild wave of enthusiasm for Eldar and Chaos stuff and FOCUS on getting stuff DONE for that. Maybe some of the 40K Terrain, too!

(Well... I haven't been painting a lot of MINIATURES... I have been doing a lot of PAINTING and drawing PICTURES!)

The first things I'd like to do is finish up the three troupes of Harlequin Players I have - because that's ALL the Harlequins I have and then they'd be DONE!

Then there are two guardians and three Howling Banshees I need to finish off complete units of those and would give me a lot more options for Patrol Detachments. 

After that...? maybe some MORE Assuryani (Craftworld Aeldari) - Ideally 15 Rangers, 3 Warlocks, 5 Swooping Hawks - as those would finish up what I'd need for an Incursion level Battalion Detachment. 

Or maybe focus on finishing up some more Kill Teams (or options for Kill Teams): assorted Veteran Guard, Orks Kommandos, T'au Pathfinders (TWO teams - one mine, one Finnegans), Eldar Corsairs and Chaos Space Marines. 

Then maybe painting up enough of the Chaos Space Marines I have to have an Incursion Level Force (Battalion Detachment) and extra options...? 

Purchasing...? 

I'll be lucky if I get half of this stuff above painted, I REALLY don't need any more... 

The new Necromunda Ash Wastes box looks SUPER COOL! Not buying it. I have SO MUCH Necromunda stuff yet to paint... and loads of post apocalyptic minis I could use for denizens of the Ash Wastes - if I felt the need to play out there (I MIGHT buy the book separately... MIGHT...)

The ONE THING I can think of that I'd like is six more old metal Harlequins - to make ONE MORE Troupe - which would bring me to a full 50 Power Rating - Incursion Level - Force of JUST HARLEQUINS! 

In the same vein, I wouldn't mind tracking down one more old metal Dark Reaper - to complete a unit of five. 

There will be another Warhammer Underworlds Warband... I MIGHT buy it... and there's to be a two team box at some point this year. Just because there is so little being produced for this "season" it wouldn't be hard to get it all,  so I might just do that in hopes that AT SOME POINT this year I get painting and playing again. There is NO CHANCE I'm going to be buying into any of NEXT Seasons stuff if I don't get painting and playing Harrowdeep, tho!? 

At some point during Q2 there will e another Kill Team box... I can't even imagine a pairing that would motivate me to buy that... Maybe if it was and Inquisitorial Kill Team fighting against all new NOISE MARINES... I'd totally buy that... Otherwise...? meh.

And that is it for my "plan". More like some very flexible "guidelines".

March Games

 

We played games this month. Here's what we got up to...  

Saturday, 5 March 2022

Saturday I picked up Five Tribes: Whims of the Sultan - so we can play Five Tribes with... well... FIVE. I guess I picked it up FOR Finnnegan, as Five Tribes is HIS game. 

I also picked up the new Aeldari Codex. 

In the late afternoon Amanda and I PLAYED Five Tribes... but it was just the two of us (as Finnegan was still running his D&D game), so we just played with the base game 

We played one game and I eked out a narrow victory, despite Amanda's protestations that I was abosloutely "destroying her" (219-209)

She had some time before she was going out to hang out with some friends, so we played again. 

Again, she was quite certain that I had won by "a lot", but it turned out that she had won - and by a much wider margin than I had in the previous game! (215-186)!!

Saturday, 12 March 2022

The following Saturday we played... 

you guessed it MORE Five Tribes! 

Once again, we played TWO games... 

Math is hard. I did each of these a few times because I kept not getting the same totals!? (I was pretty tired). eventually I busted out the calculator on the phone and added them up - and even THEN I was getting different answers!? so I kept doing them until I got the same answer three times in a row... then I figured it was safe enough to post withont someone with too much time on their hands adding it up and realizing I'd made a mistake and pointing it out in the comments... (please don't. I'll probably cry...) 

STILL hadn't tried out Whims of the Sultan, at this point, though... And, now that we'd played it five times, I kind of wanted to focus on playing a few other games to get THOSE to five plays for the 5x5 Challenge (Azul, Wingspan, and Carcassonne seemed most likely, at this point..). 

Friday, 18 March 2022

Friday evening Finnegan agreed to play Five Tribes with me and Amanda. 

It was a long, tiring week for Amanda. 

Once we got going, she livened up a bit. 

We were trying out the Whims of the Sultan expansion with it. I picked it up because Finnegan had said he was interested in playing this a lot more... and Amanda suggested this would be fun to play with Kurtis and Tanya... but that would be five if we ALL played together, and the base game only plays four. Whims of the Sultan, in addition to new, different tiles and the Whims of the Sultan cards (yet ANOTHER way to gain points!?), it adds components for a fifth player.

I thought we'd try it out with just us before trying to play with FIVE!? 

These goofballs... 

 

This ONE TILE netted me fifty points. With this one Djinn, I was able to add palm trees to the oasis, pretty much every turn... and the Oasis was adjacent to The Great Lake - a new tile, which is impassable (no meeples start on it or can be placed on it during the game) that DOUBLES the value of trees and palaces in adjacent tiles... so EACH of those palm trees were worth SIX points?! 

Yeah, I totally won that one... but not by much. We had a lot of laughs along the way... 

Saturday, 19 March 2022

The next evening Kurtis and Tanya came over to play... but then Finnegan decided NOT to play!? We played with Whims of the Sultan, anyway. 

Four player games (and, presumably five) are a whole different kettle of fish!? Because there are more players snapping up tiles and making use of meeples, you get a LOT FEWER turns at doing things before it's all over! So you really need to focus on... something.. in two player - and even three player games, I usually end up with a bit of everything. This game I ended without a single Djinn or ANY market goods card - which usually accounts for a large part of my total points... I still won the game. Amanda only controlled three tiles (out of potentially eight one can control!?) and had a single Djinn and not market goods... but she DID have the most Viziers, and in a four player game, that's a LOT or points (points + number of viziers you have + 10x the number of players you have MORE viziers than! so 30+ if you have the most in a four-player game! 

Wednesday, 23 March 2022

Amanda took a few days off this week and we actually played a game on Wednesday evening. 

Hadn't played Wingspan in a while so we busted that out. 

Amanda rocked the round end goals... In most cases she beat me out by ONE!? 

Mostly because I was too busy trying to fill my Forests and Grasslands with birds of ascending wingspans... The two bonus goal cards I had. That and the eggs and the Nectar just edged me ahead in the final tally! 

Thursday, 24 March 2022

Thursday, I somehow convinced Amanda to not only play ONE game of Carcassonne... 

but TWO games of Carcassonne!? 

She has admitted it's "not [her]favourite game"... But was "willing" to play... 

Friday, 25 March 2022

One more game of Carcassonne...

Saturday, 26 March 2022

Saturday Amanda suggested we play Wingspan in the afternoon... and then the games went SO FAST, we ended up playing THREE games!? 

Game One. At this point we were planning to just play ONE game - just to kill some time in the afternoon... 

pretty even spread on teh round end goals 

I got a BUNCH of points from bonus point cards... but Amanda eked out a win (I think from having a few more higher point birds) 

The first game went so fast, Amanda suggested we play again! 

This time I dominated the round end goads... and, well I DID win... by two points... but initially Amanda was suggesting that I was going to win by a LOT and when we initially tallied the points, SHE'D actually won - but then I remembered Id had a bit with a END GAME ability that would have put out more eggs on a all the birds in the wetlands, which pushed me past her. 

By the end of game two it was clear we were NOT going to get out and do any errands or projects about the house (it was really cold out. We were tired) and decided to play a THIRD

Again, I rocked the turn end goals, somehow!? 

But Amanda won this one, in the end, as well... 

It was a fun way to spend a cold lazy Saturday afternoon. 

I have a feeling Wingspan is going to be our most-played game again this year. We'll probably hit 50 plays by the end of the year (we are at 38 now!?) 

Monday, 28 March 2022

Keiran joined Amanda and myself for a quick game of Azul. 

Amanda just ROCKED the game - Yeah, that's her fillingalmost the ENTIRE BOARD with tiles - there is ONE SPACE left... she scored almost as much as me and Keiran together.. !? 

I didn't do TOO badly... probably one of my best games ever - I scored 118 points! Keiran did really good too, scoring 90-something... Amanda has 190-something, though!? it was CrAzY!? 

Thursday, 31 March 2022

On Thursday, Tanya, stopped by to exchange some stuff with Amanda and stuck around to play Azul... 

As with the last game (or so..?), Amanda and I were trying out the unprinted side - where you get to make up your own pattern. I tried to get fancy and not just do them on a diagonal (just like on the printed side, but in a different order) because my brain finds patterns amusing... 

This did not help me win. 

First game went so quick, Tanya stuck around for a second game! 

Still trying "funny" patterns. I did much better in the second game. But then so did everyone else... 

And that's IT for March!? AND the first quarter of 2022!? WTF!? 

Stay tuned, I should soon be posting my Q2 Game Plan... if it can even be called a "plan". 

February Games

This month also got off to a slow start and I thought it might be a repeat of January... but things picked up about halfway through... This probably COULD have been split up into two pots... but by the time I realized I should have, the month was almost over... so... 

Sunday, 6 February 2022

Almost a week into the month before we played any games... 

Amanda and I played Wingspan - with ALL THE EXPANSIONS!? 

Sometimes, when playing with just the two, I try the goal board that's point per/max five, rather than points for most. Sometimes it works better... sometimes it's just to easy to get five... Like this one... 

My sanctuary at the end of it all... 

Tuesday, 8 February 2022

On Tuesday, after school, Keiran actually asked ME if I wanted to play a game?! Well I wasn't going to past THAT opportunity up! 

We played Splendor and they were delighted to WIN - for the first time EV-AR!? 

After Amanda got back from teaching yoga, we played For Sale. (Which we haven't played in a long time!) 

Didn't get Amanda in the playing picture... so here are the two of them with the box. 

Friday, 11 February 2022

Played with Ellysium and Prelude

Amanda (red) played Inventrix with Ecology Experts and Research Network - took Ecologist Milestone.

I (blue) played Credicor with Io Research Outpost and Mining Op - took Tycoon and Generalist Milestones and Desert Settler Award.

I actually won a game of Terraforming Mars! Yay! 

Saturday, 12 February 2022

If playing Terraforming Mars on Friday weren't enough, we played again TWICE on Saturday evening!?

The first game we played on Hellas 

Amanda played Credicor with Nitrogen Shipment and Power Generation - took Diversifier and Energizer Milestones and Cultivator Award.

I played Vitor with Supply Droop and Metals Company - took Polar Explorer milestone and Space Baron Award.

I won this game as well. 

Amanda suggested "best two out of three...?"

I'm not sure she understands how that works... as I'd already won two!? 

In the second game, Amanda played Tharsis Republic with Bio Lab and Society Support. She took Gardiner and Planer Milestones and Banker Award

I played the Mining Guild with Acquired Space Agency and Self Sufficient Settlement and took Mayor Milestone and Miner Award

Both tied for Scientist Award.

I had SO MUCH steel production... and just couldn't draw any building cards!? It was ridiculous!? 

Friday, 18 February 2022

Some friends, Kurtis and Tania, came over on Friday to play games.... They're both co-workers of Amanda and both recently started dating each other (Though I've known Kurtis for longer than he's been working in Amanda's office) 

We started with Wingspan. 

Of all our games, I don't think we've used the Food Cost of Played Cards goal before!? 

My Sanctuary at the end of the game. SO close to filling the board. my bonus card awarded 2 points per card in the row with the fewest... so would have been cool to get two more.. but it just wasn't happening. I had one more I COULD HAVE played, but went with eggs for my last activation instead... The card was only worth two points... and it would have taken two eggs to put it into play - so, net zero... Or I could gain eggs, discarding food or card for an extra one... for four eggs and four points... IF I'd played the card I would have also not had to share the round end goal... but that would have only gained two points... so... still better to do the lay egg action. 

Afterwards we played a quick game of Azul. I think Kurtis had suggested it because he thought Tania might like it. She did. She totally crushed it... 

THEN we played Bananagrams - which Keiran owns and we haven't played in AGES... but Tania is a bit fan 

This was mine at the end of the game. 

Saturday, 19 February 2022

Friday evening, Amanda and I played Terraforming Mars again. 

Amandas mess of cards at the end of the game. She played Thorgate with Mining Ops and and Galilean Mining... She took all three milestones: Diversifier, Energizer AND Rim Settler.. AND took the Cultivator and Eccentric Awards... (after I sponsored the Cultivator!?) 

How it all looked at the end. I had a LOT of cities and got a lot of points from them... but not nearly enough to catch up... 

I was playing Tharsis Republic with Acquired Space Agency and Martian Industries and trying to build a lot of space stuff... I almost single-handedly heated up Mars... A lot of Amandas points were from the milestones and one card (I forget which) that she got out on the first turn - along with a couple that gave her, like 8-10 power generation - which scored her 2VP/turn by spending energy resources... it was crazy. 

Sunday, 20 February 2022

Sunday we played Terraforming Mars again... 

Amanda played Cheung Shing Mars with Power Generation and Self Suficient Settlement. AGAIN she scooped three milestones before I could get any - took Terraformer, Planner and Builder milestones. She also won the Thermalist award

I played Phoblog with Biolab and Business Empire... got off to a slow start and Kind of knew I wasn't going to win by the second or third turn when Amanda took her third milestone!? In the end I won Scientist (with 10 tags!) and Landlord Awards and put a LOT of greenery and cities out there... but just couldn't catch up. 

After supper, Keiran suggested they'd like to play a game and settled on Azul. 

They just crushed us... like 64 points to Amanda's 49 and my 40!? WTF!? 

Finnegan and I stayed up STUPID late and binge-watched all of Space Force season 2. 

Monday, 21 February 2022

Monday was Family Day in Saskatchewan (and the beginning of public schools February break) so everyone was at home and, theoretically, not working or having much to do... so we did get in a few games. 

Amanda and played Carcassonne. 

Afterwards Keiran suggested we play Azul again. Amanda suggested we try on "the OTHER side".

She refered to is as "the hard side".  Without the pre-printed pattern, she had a really hard time figuring out where things could go without messing things up. 

I didn't find it particularly challenging. You can basically follow the same sort of pattern that is printed on the opposite side... but start with whatever is easily available the first round or two and then follow that patter. Yeah. Totally rocked this one. Keiran also did really well.

Friday, 25 February 2022

Friday was my birthday. I'd really hoped to host a weekend of in-person gaming, but the way things have been here in Saskatchewan in terms of Covid, that didn't seem like a great idea... Which was a bit of a downer. 

And then the whole Russia invadine Ukraine thing... ugh... 

Despite all this... I tried to stay positive and have a good time. 

We went and got donuts from Darkside Donuts and a non-dairy "ice cream" cake from Fable Ice Cream - both located just a block away! 

The cake we had with lunch. Actually there was a lot left over and it would last a few days! 

It was delicious. 

Then Amanda played a game of Terraforming Mars with me. I played my 50th game of Terraforming Mars on my 50th birthday! 

"Oh, you thought I was going to go easy on you? Think again! 

Pretty much from the get-go, it was pretty clear I was going to lose - Amanda just got an AMAZING group of cards to start with and scooped up all three milestones in the first few turns and was generating just piles of money and resources... 

She was playing Point Luna with Metals Company and UNMI Contractor.

I was playing a game of catch up the rest of the game. 

I did not catch up... 

I played Ecoline with Early Settlement and Mohole.. 

We Terraformed Mars. I got a lot of greenery and cities out there. I did a fair bit of the temperature raising. But Amanda has SO MANY cards in play - I think she had 39 points of cards to my ten or eleven...? And then the three milestones!? She ended with 150 points and I had... maybe 120...? 

After Terraforming Mars we nipped downtown to pick up some supper from Seasoned Fusion. 

We had the donuts from Darkside for dessert. 

In the evening, the family joined in for a few more games. 

Everyone joined in for Splendor.

I think they LET me win... 

(this also happened to be my 40th game of Splendor!) 

Then we Finnegan dug out Five Tribes - which we have apparently not played in 3.5 years! They very definitely did NOT let me win this one... I was dead last. 

Saturday, 26 February

I tried to run a game of Wrath & Glory online. I didn't have much prepared. We spent most of the time discussing the situation in Ukraine. We did develop the background a bit more. Everyone arrived on Xoxigar Secondus. One of the tank crew died of Space Herpes and had to be replaced with fresh meat from the Reserve Squadrons.... that's about it... 

And that's it for February.... 

How are things going for  GAME PLAN 2022 Q1...?

Well....

The miniature-game-a-week-plus-game-report thing hasn't happened so far... 

5x5 Challenge...? 

So far I have played:

• Terraforming Mars x6
• Azul x3
• Wingspan x3
• Carcassonne x2
• Splendor x2
• Wrath & Glory x2
• Bananagrams x1
• Five Tribes x1
• For Sale x1
• Marrying Mr. Darcy x1
• The Silver Bayonet x1

Terraforming Mars is done and looks like a contender for a 10x10 by the end of the year. We'll probably play two more games of Azul and Wingspan in March to get in five of those... Splendor might make it to five (seems kind of lame having two short an easy games on the challenge - Azul AND Splendor...) Maybe Carcassonne? 

It WON'T be Wrath & Glory as we are only scheduled to play every other week... so we'll probably only get two games of that in. 

Everyone had a lot of fun playing Five Tribes... could we play it four more times in March?!

I'd LOVE to get some miniature games going on... but I just haven't had the energy. I also haven't been painting much. Usually it's the PAINTING of miniatures that gets me excited about PLAYING with them... no painting... no playing... which is ridiculous, because I have SO MANY, FULLY-PAINTED that I could EASILY set up any number of games in any number of periods... bah. 

Maybe the new Eldar Codex coming out next week will get me motivated to play some 40K...?

Interest in Silver Bayonet has waned and unlikely to recover. Neat idea, not enough there to keep my interest. So many other systems I could do the same thing in and have more fun and better campaign rules. Song of Blades and Heroes... Savage Worlds... I'd actually thought about replaying the last game we played USING Song of Blades and Heroes to see how it compares... but just didn't get to it.