July Games (Part Two)

(You can find Part One HERE)

This past week I've has this weird feeling like it's August already for some reason...? I've been looking at expiry dates on food items in the fridge and wondering why we have stuff that expired last month!? It's not August (at least not while I'm writing this, it more than likely WILL be when you actually READ this). It's the end of July and here are the games we played in the second half of the month.

Monday, 16 July 2018

Monday after work Amanda we all played a quick game of Century: Golem Edition. I think after finally winning on Friday she wanted to see if she could still beat me…

 

She totally didn’t… I scored 78… more than 20 points ahead of everyone else…



Saturday, 21 July 2018

We didn’t play any more games all week. I’m not sure why. I guess the kids spent a couple days hanging out with my folks. Other days we went on bike rides. Amanda was running her Kids Yoga Dance camp for kids. Everyone we pretty tired in the evenings and probably just wanted to hide in the basement and watch TV or movies…

Saturday evening I finallygot everyone to play a game of Warhammer 40000 (8thEdition). This was Amanda first game with her Sisters of Battle!



Sunday, 22 July 2018

On Sunday, I headed over to Brent’s for our semi-annual game of Angola with John and Kurtis. We’ve played in July and December for the last two years. Despite randomly determining who plays which faction Every Single Time Brent and I have ended up with the FAPLA and the MPLA (though we’ve each played both factions twice. John and Kurtis. This time I was MPLA. I’m not sure the government forces have EVER won…

The end of things… Government forces losing again with the FNLA controlling Luanda (for the second time this game!)


Monday, 23 July 2018

Monday evening we finally got in a game with Leanne and her son Taotao – who I’ve been trying to get together with for some time! We settled on playing Lords of Waterdeep

Amanda played The Knights of the Sheild secretly controlled by Larisa Neathal, I played the Grey Hands controlled by Mirt the Moneylender, Finnegan played the Res Sashes secretly controlled by Simnerza Sulphontis, The Girl played the City Guard who were controlled by Caladorn Cassalanter, Leanne played the silver Stars controlled by Rianne Byndraeth, and Taotao played the Harpers controlled by Halaster Blackstar III. It was Leanne and Taotao’s first time playing the game. Considering that Taotao did AMAZINGLY well scoring 111points, he was only beaten by Amanda who managed to score 112! We actually only got to play 7 or the 8 rounds and, given one more round, I probably would have finished upa few more adventure/goals I’d been working on and given them a run for their money… I probably won’t have won, but it would have been a bit closer…

Tomorrow they’re supposed to be coming back to play again…


Wednesday, 25 July 2018

Wednesday after work Amanda suggested we play a game and we eventualy decided on Marvel Legendary. We played with Daredevil, Punisher, Black Car, Moon Knight, and Spiderman. We battled against the King Pin this time and his scheme was an Organized Crime Wave, which kind of makes sense. Helping him out were Magia Goons, The Hand Ninjas, Streets of New York, Emissaries of Evil, Sinister Six and Spider Foes. IN the end We won... I punched the King Pin twice. His master strikes weren't too bad, but the cards revealed when you punched him were all bad...


Friday, 27 July 2018

Friday evening my friend Bruce came over to play a game and we settled on Agricola.

It was his first time playing. Amanda totally cleaned up, as usual, building a massive sprawling stone mansion and a huge family to take care of it all while doing just about every occupation she could… other than… y’know… FARMING!?

I didn’t do TOO bad. I came in second and was relatively please to have finally gotten a farm with some serious… y’know… FARMING going on! My biggest complaint about this game is that it’s too easy to have animals and too hard to actually plough fields and get stuff sown in them!


Saturday, 28 July 2018

We didn’t play games on Saturday…

 

But I did go and buy a BUNCH of stuff for Kill Team!! Expaect game reports in the not-too-distant future!


Sunday 29 July 2018

Sunday Kurtis and Shannon came over for an afternoon and evening of gaming. We told the kids they were welcome to join us... but they were busy doing other stuff.

We started off with Fresco. I won the game in the raffle at ToonCon last year and hadn’t had an opportunity to play it yet. There are bunch of games I’ve picked up over the last year that I haven’t had an opportunity to play yet and I’ve tried to stack them in a PILE OF SHAME in the living room and was hoping to work through them this month… or maybe in August… Anyway, they spotted it there and said they’ve played it before so we had a go at it.

It was fun enough. It’s a keeper – I’d play it again.

I just realized there are, like, 9 expansions for this!? At least one was included in the box I have. Not sure if I'll ever play this enough to justify running out and getting any of the others...

Next we played Century: Eastern Wonders. The second in the Century series that Plan B games is to release over three years (the first being Century: Spice Road that came out last year). I find it's much like Spice Road or Golem. You're still trying to collect cubes of spices, convert them to other sets of cubes to eventually trade in for victory tiles which give you points. Instead of drafting cards from a market, you are setting up trading posts on islands that your little boat sails to. Unlike Spice Road and Golem where there is only one of each card and only one person can get it, anyone can build a trading post on each island and then use it to convert their sets of cubes. It just costs more to build a trading post if there are already posts on the island. Also by building posts on a diverse set of islands (each has a different symbol on them) you can gain the bonuses - either straight points or in-game bonuses like faster ships or bigger holds, etc.

Eastern Wonders is okay I guess. I really like Century: Spice Road and Century: Golem Edition. Eastern Wonders felt, to me, like an attempt to add a layer of complexity to a game that is beautiful in its simplicity…? I’d play it again, but I won’t be rushing out to by this one…

My final score: 58 – dead last. I thought I’d been doing pretty good off the start I was the first to pick up a victory tile (the 20!?) and I was the first to empty a vertical row on my card and gain a bonus for my ship (the extra move). I don’t know where it all came apart…? One more turn and I’ve have picked up a fifth victory tile – for another 13 points, but that still wouldn’t have put me in the lead…? Ah well…

I took a break to make supper and the rest played a quick game of Century: Golem Edition.

I think Kurtis won this one as well…?

After supper, The Girl joined us and got us to play a game of Just Desserts (it’s her game and she loves it and just can’t get people to play it with her enough). I don’t mind it, it’s usually quick and it’s simple enough… We completely exhausted the Guest Deck, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen happen before. Amanda won.

After Just Desserts Shannon had to leave because she had to get up waaaaaaaay too early…

So, the four of us played Splendor – with Cities of Splendor! The Girl FINALLY won a game of this! (She’s been lamenting for some time that she NEVER wins this game…)

I wasn’t even close. I was all set up so that in the next two turns I would have picked up two cards worth another 7 points. (one requiring the 7 black and another requiring the six red…). But I still would have needed one more green card or two more points… Ah well… it was fun.


Tuesday, 31 July 2018

the kids snuck in two more games this afternoon...

First, at The Girl's suggestion, we played a game of Hanging Gardens - one of our older games that I still like playing. Simple pattern making/set collection. I never don't enjoy playing this game.

thought I was doing pretty good for myself - got a few complete sets - scored FIFTY-THREE POINTS! Not bad at all...

Until this monkey went and counted up his points and got FIFTY FOUR!!! It was all those walls and the Guard that really added up. (He said he was building it to keep the Egyptians out!)

Afterwards Finnegan put together a thematic set of Dominion cards for us to play with. He called it "Market Day". I feel like we've played a different thematic set that he also called "market day" , but no matter. This set included Village, Market, and Workshop from the base game, Trader, Spice Merchant, and Haggler from Hinterlands, Horse Traders and Harvest - Cornucopia and Plaza and Herald from Guilds. Not a bad little set. Trader got me scores of silvers. I tried to trash coppers with Spice Merchants, but always ended up with silvers in my hands... haggler is awesome - should have picked one up earlier. Horse Traders was pretty weak considering the others in this set - I didn't pick up any. I don't think anyone picked up a Harvest...


I though I was doing pretty good, in the end, with all those Provinces... Then Finnegan counted up his stuff. He had less provinces, but a PILE of Duchies and ended up with 38, I had 34, The Girl had 32

Super close game in the end - unlike the last time we played where The Girl utterly thrashed us! (I think she had 39 and I had, like, 18...!?)


I guess the month isn't entirely over as I post this, but Finnegan has D&D tonight and Amanda, The Girl and I are watching a movie (or two) while I get some painting done... so I think that's it for our gaming...


The Challenge Board

We only ticked a few more games off the challenge board this month... Dominion, Legendary and Lords of Waterdeep, I think... 

In addition to working on the Pile of Shame (see below) I'm planning to knock a few more of these off through August - go for some of the "low-hanging fruit" - games that we (mostly) know the rules for and can play in less than two hours. Surely we can do a few of those each week...?

If we do a September Game-A-Day Challenge again, that will hopefully get us caught up as well.


Plans for August

The Pile of Shame

As I mentioned earlier, I've been piling up a few of the games I've acquired over the last year or so and still haven't played in the living room. My plan it to leave them there until I actually get around to playing them.

Okay, Space Hulk isn't on the pile, because that's actually Finnegan's game... and Kill Team, while technically a game I've bought in the last year and haven't played yet, I JUST bought and I KNOW I'm going to play a lot of it... soon...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I am STILL working on the Terminators for Space Hulk. There's so much detail on them. There have been a few evenings I sat down to paint and just felt like I didn't have enough focus or patience or something to paint that kind of detail, so I ended up assembling and priming other things - a few minis, some of the terrain from Kill Team... I DO still hope to finish off those Terminators sometime this week BEFORE I get painting anything else!!!

Hopefully in the next week or so you'll start seeing Kill Team and Space Hulk miniatures and game reports.

Oh and Finnegan finally finished off the Gorkanaut he started in December... perhaps I'll post a picture of that. Or Maybe I'll wait until we get it on the table for a game and post a picture of THAT! Not sure what I'm going to throw up against it. Power-Level-wise it's more than a Leman Russ tank, but less than two... and less than a Shadowsword or Knight - not even CLOSE to the Warhound.... He should have got a STOMPA! Maybe Gorkanaut plus Meganobs versus a Leman Russ platoon...?

April Games Part Two

April Games bring May.... um... more games...?

Well we started the month off playing a LOT of games - it was Easter Break and we decided to take a break from things and just have a week of game playing... you can read about that here:

April Games Part One

Since then... things slowed down a bit.


Tuesday, 10 April 2018



We'd spent most of the first week figuring out how to play all of the various expansions in the Carcassonne Big Box. This week we carried on with he same - as there were a few more smaller ones we hadn't tried yet. I think this was our first time trying King & Robber and Cults...? We also used River II. In the end Finnegan and The Girl tied with 114 and I had 106 points.



Afterwards we finally cracked out own copy of Castles of Mad King Ludwig. I'd picked this up back in February. We'd gone out for lunch at Park Cafe during the Shadow War: Brind's World Weekend Campaign and walking back to my place we wandered past King Me Boadgamery and I popped in to see what was on the 50% off table... and there was a copy of Castles of Mad King Ludwig... and how could I pass that up...? So, yeah... finally played a game of it...



I may have mentioned... but I love this game. winning is kind of secondary to building a weird and wonderful castle... Well... usually... This one I did win, but the castle was kind of.. Meh... the kids kept snapping up all the FUN rooms and leaving me with all these stupid ones that gave me tonnes of points!? I DID get the Venus Grotto, so... There is that...


Wednesday, 11 April 2018



More Carcassonne. I think this was our first try with the Count of Carcassonne... also used River II and Traders & Builders.



I'm not sure how useful Count of Carcassonne is... It seems like another thing that might help with NOT screwing people over with crappy tile placement and actually encourage people to help others finish their stuff by offering an incentive... but the mechanics of how the count moves around seems a bit fiddly to me... in ended up only being used to score bonus points for other peoples cloisters.



Seems we had a good time.



Finnegan rocked it - scoring 153 points. The Girl was second with 101 and I ended up with only 98?! Not sure how that worked out. And he had been complaining he NEVER WON!?


Friday, 13 April 2018 



Friday Bob and Bruce came over and played some Rogue Trader with me, Amanda and Finnegan... well... sort of... it was supposed to be our Rogue Trader evening. I ended up playing a tabletop adventure using Warhammer 40K 8th Edition. You can read more about it here:

Voyages of a Rogue Trader


Saturday, 14 April 2018



MORE Warhammer 40K 8th Edition. Bruce came back the very next day to play some more 40K. You can read more about that action here:

Behind Orky Lines


Sunday, 15 April 2018



On Sunday we sat down to play a game of MEGA Carcassonne - with all of the expansions in out Carcassonne Big Box - Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders,  Princess & The Dragon, Abbey & Mayor, and River II, Count, King & Cult.



Wow... this looked a little dangerous off the start...



Counting up the points at the end of it all... Somehow I managed to do well this evening - I scored 241 points! Amanda had 218, Finnegan 182, and The Girl 147!?

Of course as we went to put it all away we realized we has somehow forgot to get out one stack of tiles and has only been playing with HALF of the base set!? GAH!? Guess We'll have to try another MEGA CARCASSONNE game sometime soon - before we forget how all the expansions work!?


Monday, 23 April 2018



Didn't get in another game for over a week. We had planned one playing games on Saturday. We'd told Amanda we were going to try and play the final game in Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle (which was just a ruse to get her to not make other plans for the afternoon so we could plan a surprise birthday party for her!). The party itself mostly involved gaming friends and the invite suggested there might be gaming going on, but in the end we all just hung out... so... Monday... The kids and I sat down and played a couple of quick games of Kingdomino after they got back from swim lessons while we were waiting for Amanda to get home from her Improv class...

The first round didn't go so well... poor planning meant the kids ended up having to discord tiles and ended the game with incomplete kingdoms...



Round two wend a little better. Finnegan still ended up having to discard his final tile, but The Girl ended with a complete kingdom.



My tidy little kingdom.

Wednesday, 25 April 2018



On Wednesday I travelled over to John's to try out Flamme Rouge with Brent and Connel.

The first game we played was Firenze-Milano. As I rode my bike over there I got to set up first so I set up at the rear, thinking I'd sit in and let the others pick up all the exhaustion cards... This isn't necessarily the best plan, I discovered....



Nearing the end, one of my riders (looks like my Sprinter!?) had been dropped and the other wasn't nearly close enough to the front... AND because I had been sitting in and NOT picking up and exhaustion cards I was running out and had been burning my higher cards when I didn't need to earlier...



The photo finish! Second place is the first LOSER! And that's my Rolleur!?



The second game we played (La Haunt Montagne...? or something like that...?). BOTH my guys, totally dropped!



There was no need to hold onto those Nines the sprinter had when it's a mountain top finish!

I like this game... It's pretty simple, but it's got all the elements that should be in a bicycle racing game - hills, drafting, limited energy.

I can't buy it.

Seriously... I still have a copy of Giro D'Italia still in shrink wrap sitting on my shelf that I got excited and bought after playing Leader 1 at John's place a few years back!?

Saturday, 28 April 2018 - International Tabletop Day

For International Tabletop Day we headed over to Dragon's Den Games to play games for the afternoon.



Finnegan and I got there just after noon and Brent was just finishing up a game of 6-player game of Flamme Rouge - with he Peloton expansion.



When he finished up he set up another game and I joined I'm. Finnegan sat out and just looked around the store as Darrin was supposed to be showing up soon to run Sentinels of the Multiverse.

I'm playing White. Decided to sit a little closer to the front this time, but not right at the front.



Playing with Richard (Red), Whitney (Blue), Angie(?) (Pink), and Brent (Black). There are cobblestones in the Peloton expansion. And pinch points. so fun. Still can't buy it...



I was trailing for a bit with Richard but clawed my way to the front of the peloton after the cobblestones, just before the curvy race to the end. My sprinter only had one of his nine cards left, but  there was a short hill just before the finish - if I timed my break right, I might just make it...

 

And I totally did. I was off the front on the next round and had a bit of a lead. Just before the end this chase group reeled me in, but they'd burned all their cards as well and that little hill meant no one could play anything higher than a five and I had a five and was ahead of everyone... so.. win for me finally!! Yay!!!!

By the time we were done that Amanda and The Girl had showed up after dance classes - just in time for the Kingdomino tournament. Only eight signed up and four of the eight was our family - and they were giving away two copies of the game as prizes! Plus there were a bunch of other goodies (new castles and a card tower).



Amanda and Finnegan were in one group with Richard and Alex.



The Girl and I were in the other with Josh and Whitney.

Top two players from each would advance and play in a second round. Top two scorers in the second round would win a copy of the game.



Counting up points at the end of Round One.



My little Kingdom at the end of Round One (which I won, but only barely - The Girl was only a point behind and Josh, who had never played before, was only two points behind!)



So The Girl and I found ourselves playing against Richard and Finnegan in the final round.

Amanda ended up being talked into a game of Monty Python Fluxx with Whitney, which was weird because at home she says can't stand the game and won't play it with us...? I did notice that Whitney didn't sing nearly as much as the rest of us do....?

I came in second in Round Two of the Kingdomino tournament and won a copy! I gave it to Josh, though (the guy I'd played in Round One) - we already have a copy... and he'd played so well...



Afterwards Finnegan finally got to play in a game of Sentinels of the Multiverse.

 

I introduced Amanda and The Girl to Flamme Rouge. We played Ronde Van Wevelgevn...? Or something like that...? They didn't LOVE the game...



Amanda made and early break... I'm not sure if she MEANT to do that...?

 

in the second last round The Girl got her two riders mixed up and played the wrong cards for them and it wrecked their placement for the final round... She took it... poorly...



Amanda won, my two riders were just behind her taking second and third...


Sunday, 29 April 2018

Amanda picked up a copy of Century: Golem Edition at the Dragon's Den Games International Tabletop Day sale, so we decided to try it out on Sunday after supper...

 

Unfortunately there was a power outage just as we were sitting down to play... So we started off in half darkness with flashlights handy, plus a little lamp The Girl had made and a headlamp I was wearing...



Luckily the lights went back on only a few minutes into the game.

I  spent way too much time screwing around trying to collect up gems for the high point cards. I ended the game with only TWO scoring cards in last place. If I'd had one more play I would have picked up a card for 20 points, but it wouldn't have helped much... Keira ended the game having picked up five, but it was Finnegan that won with four, edging her out by a point!

Mechanically it is the EXACT SAME GAME as Century: Spice Road. Aesthetically, I think I prefer the original. The kids like the golem illustrations on this version and Amanda seems to like the pretty gems, so...





This afternoon we played a game of Legendary with the Dark City and Fantastic Four expansions. We played with The Fantastic Four plus Daredevil against Dr. Doom and The Doombot Legion and an assortment of other baddies. It was fun and didn't take too long. I wanted to try out Daredevil, but the cards just weren't coming out. I only ended up with two of them...

So we got in a few more games... Unfortunately this did little towards completing our 25/30x5 Challenge - the only games we played that were on the list, other than this afternoon's game of Legendary, we've already played more than five times... As I've said, though, the purpose of the challenge is to have fun and inspire us to play games. As long as we're playing games and having fun, who cares...? Maybe next month we'll tick a few off our chart. 

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog: 

The Shadowsword...

After that...? Maybe some Drukhari...? Or more tanks?! or maybe a game report...?