April Games

 I actually played GAMES in April! 

Well... not until the second half of April (after my projects and final exam were finished!)... and it wasn't a LOT of games... and there were no miniature games... or war-games... but there were still games!? So that's something! 

Saturday, 18 April 2026 

MORGAN actually suggested doing something Saturday evening - which was surprising in itself, as they usually want little to do with us! I can't remember the last time they played a game with us - let alone the last time THEY SUGGESTED playing a game!!

We played a pretty quick game of Carcassonne - with just the base game... Despite Amanda and I splitting a 50-point megalopolis, Morgan ended only a few points behind! I just snuck ahead of Amanda at the end of the game by ruthlessly cutting her out of the farming... 

After wards we played a few games of Retro Loonacy. I won the first game. Morgan suggested we play two more - best two out of three...? It's like they didn't even CONSIDER that Amanda could possibly have won a game... As it turned out Morgan won the second and I won the third. While Amanda very often DOMINATES at a lot of other board games... Loonacy is not one of them. 

Afterwards we all watched a couple episodes of Resident Alien! 

Friday, 24 April 2026

Initially we'd planned to have friends over on Friday to play Wingspan - which we have not played in ages.... Amanda had played it a couple times last year with some of her friends... but I have not played it since June of 2024!? (Despite that, I did finally pick up the latest Americas expansion for Amanda's birthday earlier this month! It is still one of our MOST PLAYED GAMES ever!) 

But there was a late-season snow storm on Friday (THE THIRD ONE in as many weeks!?) so that got cancelled... but since Amanda had slated that time in as "play board game time" I convinced her to give Sagrada a try... 

I picked up Sagrada a while back. It was on sale... I realized later it was probably on sale because there is a slightly newer version out now... but I think it MOSLTY plays the same...? Earlier in the week I'd watched a how to play video. 

While she was eating supper, I tried a couple of quick solo games - the solo play version is very quick and easy enough to play, but difficult to win! I totally didn't read how to determine the target score for the first game so wasn't even remotely close... 49/109

The second game I scored lower... but was closer to the target score... 44/73

After Amanda had finished supper and ran some of the pizza I made over to Morgan who was house-sitting for a friend a few blocks away and busy studying for their final exam for English the following morning... we sat down to try out a game. 

We got part was through the second round and realized Amanda had been doing placement all wrong... (Started in the wrong place... didn't place the next few panes adjacent to already placed panes...) So we called them "practice rounds" and started over again... 

So much fun was had utterly destroying me the first time, Amanda decided we needed to play a second game... which she also won... 

Amanda suggested we bring it on our little vacation together the following week... though I wasn't entirely sure WHEN she was hoping to play as the "vacation" was her going on a work conference and me tagging along for fun... and, looking at the itinerary, I'm pretty sure she was supposed to be doing stuff from 7am-8 to10pm, depending on the day. The spa that the conference was held at seemed an odd choice, considering the very full itinerary, I'm not sure when the participants were supposed to make use of the spa facilities... maybe they figured most of the participants would be men and they'd be  bringing their wives and the wives would want to make use of the spa facilities...? I wasn't entirely sure what **I** was supposed to do for the four days...!?

And again... that was it... 

Maybe next month I'll get out the toys and play with them! Seriously, it's gotten to the point where I'm thinking about solo games again! 

December Games

As with November, this is a scheduled post... 

I've started scheduling these posts, so they go up just before midnight on the last day of the Month. That way you can find the December Games post as the last post in December in the Blog Archive (over on the left if you're looking at this on a desktop computer... I have no idea where it is if you're looking at this on your phone...!?).

I can edit it throughout the month, adding games as I play them... 

If this post shows up with NOTHING in it other than this description... it's because I didn't end of playing ANY games this month. And I'm probably very, very sad. 

(or I've gotten so out of practice at doing this... BECAUSE WE HAVEN'T BEEN PLAYING GAMES AS MUCH ANYMORE.... that I just FORGOT to add to the post) 

The former seems more likely though...

I've done the same for LOOKING BACK AT 2023 post and the GAME PLAN 2024 post, which will be posting shortly after this!  

Anyway, here's what I (hopefully) got up to, if I got up to anything at all:

Saturday, 2 December 2023

Played another game of Five Parsecs From Home, online, with Chris and Christian. This was the second week in a row - which was nice, because we'd cancelled SO MANY games the previous month... 

You can read the full report of that game here:

Five Parsecs From Home - Online Campaign - Round Three - Space Pirate Raid

Thursday, 7 December

Thursday I got a new Ikea Kallax assembled and recruited #2 to help me haul some games downstairs. During said ordeal, they noticed our copy of Loonacy and felt like they hadn't played that in a while and suggested we play... 

We ended up recruiting Amanda, as well - who had just returned home from work.

We played three games

I won ALL OF THEM!?!?

I mentioned Just Desserts... so we ended up playing a game of that as well.

I won that one too.. 

yeah. 

On the weekend, Amanda had disassembled, moved, and reassembled this shelf in the basement as well... there is still a LOT of organizing to do... and still SO MANY MORE GAMES spread around the house... 

I didn't end up running a Five Parsecs from Home game on Saturday as we all went out to see Keiran in their high schools musical! (Mean Girls: The Musical - Keiran played Ms. Norbury - and did almost all the costuming and so much of the other set building and stuff!)

Thursday, 14 December 2023

One week later... Keiran and I were back at it. 

This time we played a game of Kingdom Builder. We played with the Hermits, Lords, and Farmers Kingdom Builder cards, on the Tavern, Oracle, Oasis, and Paddock boards. I won (by a little bit). It's been a while since Keiran played - August of 2021, I think...? And the time before that was in 2019... so, they did pretty good all things considered. More importantly, FUN was had and they said they'd like to play again! 

Wednesday, 20 December 2023

I got in my first game of Warhammer 40,000 (10th Edition)! I can't remember the last time I played a full game of 40k. I think it was just after the release of 9TH EDITION!?! I only ever bought two of the Codexes for 9th Aeldari and Imperial Guard... and never made use of EITHER of them!? There were enough changes to the core rules that all the previous codexes were instantly useless upon the release of 10th Edition, so Games Workshop has uploaded PDFs of ALL the Data Cards for ALL the models of ALL the factions, as well as the core rules... So... so far, I have not spent a penny on 10th edition... It MIGHT be handy to pick up the Index cards, though... 

The game was fun, I like whats going on in 10th edition - even if the scnenarios seem a little convoluted, with the constant fluctuation of goals every turn... 

You can read a full report of the action here:

40K10E - Exercise WOLF HAMMER 

(this was also the first game in the freshly - like THAT AFTERNOON) cleared out Game Room, post renovation! There is still a fair bit of organizing to do in the rest of the basement and all over the house... But we're playing games down there again! 

Finnegan ran his first D&D game in the Game Room on Friday.

I was supposed to run a game of Five Parsecs From Home Saturday... but no one responded to the message I posted midweek to our Discord to confirm we were playing... so... 

Sunday, 24 December 2023

Our friend Brent and Barb came over on Xmas Eve to play Wingspan! It was nice to see these two - and nice to play Wingspan! I feel like it's been forever since I played... though it's still one of the most played games for me this year! 

Round End Goals

My tableau at the end of the game - almost full! 

I felt like it was the best game I'd played in a long time - so much kind of all came together for me... still came in third... 

Monday, 25 December 2023

Could not get the kids to play games with us... are we THAT OLD!?!? So Amanda and I sat down and played a couple of games of Abyss. 

Took a bit to remember how to play... it's been TWO YEARS since we last played, apparently (according to my logged plays!? I figured it might be a year... but TWO!? Covid TimeWarp, I guess...?). 

Because it was set up and the first game kind of felt more like practice, we played a second... 

Clearly I need more practice!? 

Tuesday, 26 December 2023

I got up early to head to the Dragon's Den Boxing Day Sale... Usually an annual tradition, I've gone later in the week in 2020 and 2021 (to avoid the crowds!) and didn't even go at all last year! 

It is silly getting TWO MORE boxes of Warhammer Underworlds when I HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME ALL YEAR?!?! But I really like the game and I'm hoping with an organized game room, we'll get back to playing games more regularly (at least that's what Amanda keeps telling me!?) - and hopefully back to playing Warhammer Underworlds.

I decided to get myself a miniature version of the new 40K10E rules - saving myself $50 over the hardcover... but then realized the printing in it is VERY SMALL!!! I'd difficult to read even with my reading glasses!? Ah, well... 

I picked up Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory, Threat Assessment: Xenos because I'm still really excited about the idea of Wrath & Glory and am hoping to get a game of it going in the new year... 

The Wingspan Fan Art Pack...  it's all the cards for Wingspan, but done by 300 different artists?  When I heard about it I thought "well, that sounds interesting... but..." I'm not one that often buys different versions of things that I already have that are still completely useful - for board games, usually. But when I saw it in the store and the price, I kind of thought, why not? (I somehow expected that it would cost a LOT MORE!?) 

Later in the evening we managed to talk Keiran into playing a game of Splendor! 

Amanda won... as she does... 

Wednesday, 27 December 2023

Amanda was at the hospital all morning and afternoon for some tests. 

In the evening our friends Ryan, Andy, and Jasper all came over to play Terraforming Mars. Because Amanda was still sedated - we all had a CHANCE!!!

We really Terraformed Mars!!!

This was my Tableau at the end of the game - before doing the last generating resources bit. 

I was trailing in the points - Dead last for Terraforming Rating (26)... I did get a milestone (builder) and an award (thermalist), but that just kept me up with the rest. I fell back a bit when we counted greenery and cities... but holy makerel, did I ever have a LOT of points on CARDS!??! TWENTY FOUR!? Which catapulted me into the lead (by three points!)! Wow! 

There was seven points on Pets alone - because I got it out at the beginning of the game and there were SIXTEEN cities built! 

Fun game! Great to see all of these guys again! 

Thursday, 28 December 2023

On Thursday we somehow got Keiran to play a game with us AGAIN! 

This time we played a quick game of Kingdom Builder! 

We played with Merchants, Lords, and Citizens Kingdom Builder Cards - which kind of worked together. We played on the Oasis, Oracle, Farm, and Harbour boards. I eeked out a win, but largely because of luck of card draws. Amanda was totally set up to absolutely DOMINATE the game if she'd drawn either a valley and/or grassland in the last turn or two... 

Friday, 29 December 2023 

On Friday Orion was back to play some MORE 40k and try out Warhammer Underworlds! 

You can find a report of the ensuing shenanigans here:

40K10E - Exercise WOLF HAMMER II

Afterwards I walked them through a game of Warhammer Underworlds. It was so great to get playing Warhammer Underworlds again. They played the Thorns of the Briar Queen, and I played Ironskull's Boyz. I've really missed playing Warhammer Underworlds. I was incredibly rusty (despite having reviewed the rules over the two days previous) and feel like I didn't do the greatest job explaining it... But Orion is super quick on the uptake and figured everything out right away and totally beat down Ironskull's Boys 11-8!? 

There is a brief report of the action here:

Warhammer Underworlds: Return to the Nightvault! 

Earlier in the day we got my new semi-permanent painting station set up in the new TV room - Keiran's old bedroom... The desk looks ridiculously huge and... ostentatious...?  The desk was part of Keiran's bed-over-desk thingie and would not fit in their new room, so Amanda REALLY wanted me to repurpose it for a new painting station... Otherwise we'd be just tearing it apart and pitching it out.... So... GIANT PAINTING STATION FOR ME!? 

Saturday, 30 December 2023

In the afternoon, Keiran actually suggested playing Set - and I will never pass up an opportunity to play a game with either of the minions if they suggest it! The two of us played a game and Keiran won... They were off to a quick lead as my brain took a moment to catch up and remember how to play... but not quick enough..

Amanda got roped into the second game which Keiran just DOMINATED. Amanda did get two sets in the end, but about half way through said "thanks for inviting me to watch you play a game..." because she was so utterly lost!? 

She does do so very, VERY well at games that require planning (executive functioning) but just lost when it comes to pattern recognition - that's where the Autistic/ADHD weirdos in the family SHINE!! 

In the evening I finally got together with the online RPG group again and we played through one last adventure for the crew of the Æthelwulf this year. 

I will probably get to post ing a game report at some point... but that might not be until sometime in the new year! 

Sunday, 31 December 2023 

And that brings us to today, the last day of the month - and the year!?

I somehow got the WHOLE FAMILY to play games with me today... this might have been the only time this whole year... (I don't think I even got everyone to play on my birthday!?) 

We started off with a game of Splendor - which Keiran won (and they were VERY excited about that because of the fifty or so games we've played.. I think this was their second win!) 

Then we played the FASTEST game of Loonacy that we've EVER played - Keiran won in less than ONE MINTUE!? 

We played a considerably longer game of Lords of Waterdeep. Keiran played the Silver Stars secretly led by Larissa Neathal, Finnegan played the City Guard secretly led by Khelben Arunsun the Black Staff, and Amanda played Knights of the Shield secretly led by Nindil Jalbuck

I played the Harpers lead by Fiergeiron the Paladin

Keiran won this one too! Ending the game with 123 points! 

Finally we played another quick game of set... which Keiran ALSO WON!!! They ended with ELEVEN sets and I was next highest with six! 

And that was it for this month... and this year!? 

Usually at the end of the quarter, I look back on what I got up to... but as I'm going to publish a whole post looking back at the entire year in a few minutes, I'm not going to do that here. 

Off to a slow start, but I ended up getting in a few games over the Holidaze!

What have YOU been playing this last month?! 

October Games

Despite plans (and then MORE plans) for lots of gaming, we got off to a bit of a slow start this month....

Thursday, 7 October 2021

Orion came by and played Necromunda, just to switch things up a bit... She brought her enforcers and they were ordered to bring in Kal Jericho.... 

You can read all about it here:

Necromunda: Get Jericho

Friday, 8 October 2021

While waiting for supper to cook, Amanda and I played a quick game of Azul 

Later in the evening, our friend Rob was to come over and play Terraforming Mars, but he ended up not being able to make it... so Amanda and I just played! We played on the Hellas map with Prelude. 

I played Inventrix with UNMI Contractor and Galilean Mining. I took the Energizer and Diversifier Milestones, and the Space Baron and Contractor Awards - the only two that were funded.

By the end of the game I had four cards out that each gave me a 2 MegaCredit (or, whatever the money is called) discount on ANY card with a space tag... except after I put the first one in play, I drew exactly ZERO other space tag cards for the rest of the game!? WTF!? 

Amanda Played the United Nations Mars Initiative with Biofuels and Society Support. She took the Polar Settler Milestone..

It was strange  because USUALLY by the end we have the map COVERED with greenery and cities!? The map at the end of this game looked rather sparse! 

It was a VERY close game - though she ended the game with almost 15 more Terraforming Rating than me and almost twice as much greenery... I caught up and passed her (Just!) with all the Milestones and awards and Other points squirrelled away on cards - and she only had ONE city!? I may have had HALF the greenery, but I had five cities strategically placed to capitalize on what greenery there was! 

 

Saturday, 9 October 2021

Met with some of the Saturday Night RPG Group on... well... Saturday night... to discuss plans for the next ten weeks. We'd been messaging about getting a Wrath & Glory game going again - as I had mentioned in the most recent addenda to the Q4 Plan - and had even been planning to make characters this evening... but then decided to do something completely different - over the next ten weeks I would run a series of FATE one-shots - to get in ten plays of FATE this year!

I do really like the system, but I also really didn't feel like I know my way around it well enough, and was really hoping that running ten, totally different games in ten weeks might give me a better idea of how to run it! 

Sunday, 10 October 2021

Once again, I'd had one game planned, but players cancelled so Amanda and I played a few games of Azul. I won the first game. It was quick so Amanda suggested we play again. 

I won that one too... by, like, a LOT! 

It was probably my best game EVER!? only two spaces weren't filled and I scored 135 points?! I usually score about half that... Amanda scored about half that. 

She insisted on playing one more and she won that one. 

Ever the gracious victor! 

Monday, 11 October 2021

Monday afternoon, Amanda and I sat down and played a game of Wingspan! 

pretty much even on the Round End Goals... 

My board at the end of the game. I managed to squeak in a victory - mostly by playing that Great Egret - which I'd only gotten because Amanda activated some card that allowed ALL PLAYERS to draw a card... and kept activating some other card that kept giving ALL PLAYERS a fish... and the last time I went to gain food, I had to roll the dice it came up ALL rodents!? 

Friday, 15 October 2021

Kingdom Builder

We played with Hermit, Merchant, Knight Kingdom Builder cards (that determine what you get points for) on the Oracle, Tavern, Harbour, and Tower boards. 

I realized as I was rereading the rules, that we are MISSING a few of the Kingdom Builder cards!?  Not sure what could have happened to them!? Possibly they got left on the table and accidentally cleaned up into another box...? 

After Kingdom Builder we played a few games of Wingspan. 

Starting the game off we has only MURDER BIRDS on the display!? 

I totally dominated the End of Round goals this game... some how!? 

My tableau at the end of the first game! 

Amanda insisted on another round. 

I was ON FIRE this evening! 

Saturday, 16 October 2021

I'd originally planned this week to be the first week of the TEN WEEKS OF FATE... and I'd kind of prepared a short introductory one-shot based on Escape from Kalisz - the introductory adventure from the original Twilight: 2000... but people were pretty lukewarm on that and I wasn't feeling SUPER prepared and realized I'd probably bitten off more than I could chew with that one... so I discussed the next idea I'd had and we made characters - or at least STARTED making characters for NEXT week's game!

The plan is I'm going to post the adventure background/setting parameters on Sunday in our Facebook Messenger thread and, through the week, make characters, so that come Saturday we should be MOSTLY ready to play and can blast through a game in 3-4 hours before Christian, who lives two timezones to the east, falls asleep! 

Monday, 18 October 2021

MORE Wingspan! 

I thought we might try the "easy" side for the round end goals. 

On the standard (green) side you get a fixed number of points depending on whether you are first, second, third, etc. It doesn't matter if you have one more or ten more of the thing... which is okay for a multiplayer game. But in a two-player game you get 3 points more than the other player - always (unless they don't have ANY of the thing you need) and it almost always ends up being a net of zero - as one will win two of them and the other will win the other two. OR one player gets 12 points more than the other for having one more of the thing each round... which SOOMETIMES seems a little unfair, because often, if it's an odd one and you just didn't even SEE any of the cards you'd need... 

Using the Blue side, you COULD get more points if you manage to get MORE of the thing... but also get less points if you only have one more of the thing. 

It worked out okay... 

My nature preserve tableau at the end of the first game

The first game went quickly, so we played another. 

In the end, using the blue side has been a little less swingy... Which... I don't know... maybe we'll go back to using the green side. 

Tableau at the end of game two. 

Saturday,  23 October 2021

TEN WEEKS OF FATE #2 (technically the first adventure, as I just explained the system and help people with starting character creation for this adventure). 

In this game, titled "Dude, Where's My Warhorse...?", the characters were all members of a Knight's retinue. their knight had just won a tournament hosted by the king of the land to celebrate the betrothal of his only child to the king of the neighbouring nation with which they have been at war for decades and finally brokered a peace. They all went out celebrating the night before the game starts and got very, VERY drunk and have next to NO memory of what happened. All awaken with a terrible hangover, some strange memento of the previous evening's debauchery, and their knight's prized warhorse is missing?!

Hijinks ensued... 

I added a few more to the group as it's often been difficult to get everyone out. At least one, and often more are generally unavailable on any give weekend... I figured with a few more players added, we'd for sure get 3-5 one any given week, ideally four... so, of course this week, while I'm still trying to figure things out... SIX of them showed up. 

It was a bit overwhelming, but I think everyone ended up having a good time. 

One of these weeks I'll actually be a bit more prepared!? 

Sunday, 24 October 2021

Sunday evening, Amanda and I played Warhammer Underworlds. 

You can read about that here: 

Storm of Celestus Enter the Nightvault

Friday, 29 October 2021

After supper we played a few quick games of Retro Loonacy. We only needed to play ONE game to tick that off the list of 10x10 games... but because they were quick, I suggested we play a few - like until one of us won three games... that would be a maximum of seven games... wouldn't be too hard, then we could get to watching HORROR movies - which was kind of the plan for the entire weekend. 

We played three. 

Amanda kept badgering Keiran about school stuff so that neither were able to really concentrate on the game and I just won three in a row and we were done. 

After that we watched Scream... and... something else? Maybe the first episode of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina...? 

Saturday, 30 October 2021

I had originally planned to play FATE this evening... but in the end had to cancel. No one was actually available. I may end up cancelling next week and most of November (because... REASONS!?)

We ended up watching more HORROR movies on Netflix. Starting with the Fear Street series (parts one, two AND THREE) and then The Girl With All The Gifts. 

Sunday, 31 October 2021

Halloween. 

It was really Keiran who spearheaded halloween activities this year, planning the movies to watch and stuff. They carved the pumpkin.

The finished pumpkin.

Later in the evening, someone stole it from our front porch, smashed it in the street and stole the rechargeable bike light we'd put inside to light it up... booooooooo...

Keiran in their halloween costume. (and the bowl of treats and pumpkin we left out for the evening) 

Teh costum they put together themselves, sewing all those patches on to the hoodie and making the appliqué storm cloud.  

The costume is for a character names Virgil from a youtube series called Sander's Sides. 

Amanda went with her standard witch costume... 

This was really the best picture... too bad it was out of focus... 

Amanda and Keiran. 

I have costumes... but... I don't know.. couldn't really be bothered to get in any of them. 

We started watching SCary Movie... but it was just so awful, NO ONE was enjoying it and we had to stop... finshed up the Horror Movie FEst with watching another episode of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. 

 

THE PLAN

So... THAT PLAN... (Played/Still to Do):

• Wingspan (26/0)
• Retro Loonacy (12/0)
• Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm (12/0) 
• Azul (11/0) 
• Kingdom Builder (10/0) 
• Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team (8/2) 
• Terraforming Mars (7/3)
• Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault (7/3)
• Necromunda Rulebook (6/4) 
• FATE(2/8) 

We DID play NINE of the thirty games needed to play to finish up the challenge. Ideally, we need to play ten of those games each month - so pretty close! I may have to drop FATE off that list and switch it up with something else... Century: Golem Edition – An Endless World seems most likely...

We've played Century: Golem Edition – An Endless World three times, so far, this year... (Amanda got it for her birthday - along with Wingspan) seven more plays seems easy enough. Maybe a few of those could be in combination with some of the other games in the series. Each of the games in the Century: Golem Edition series are games on their own, but the latter two include bonus sets of rules for combining them with elements of the other games. We have not tried any of these, though Amanda's suggested it a number of times. We nee to play seven games of Endless World to get in ten plays. Four could be of just the base game and the remaining three could be combos - one with the original Century: Golem Edition, the second with Century: Golem Edition - Eastern Mountains, and the third combining all three! 

That seems like a plan... 

ORKTOBER

At the beginning of the month, I got (very briefly) SUPER MOTIVATED and decided I would participate in ORKTOBER and try to paint thirty one Orks or Orcs or Orruks throughout the month... but then I kind of got busy doing inktober/artober (or whatever you want to call it), and didn't really get ANY orks done at all!? (though I did pick up Harrowdeep and I assembled and primed Da Kunnin Krew, the Orruk Kruel Boyz warband included in the new box.... so, I guess there is that... 

I doubt much miniature painting will go on this month, either, as I've gotten started on a whole NEW art project... (and this might be why not much FATE is going to happen either...)