Tim's ToonCon 2017 Report

This past weekend I attended ToonCon 2017 with my family. Two years ago I started going with Finnegan. Last year Amanda and The Girl joined us. It's kind of just a thing we do now. (I also ran games at the event in 2012 and 2013).

Day One - Friday, 29 September 2017



This year the event moved from the Sutherland Hall (on the far end of town from us) to the Ramada Hotel on Idylwyld Drive (about 10 blocks from us!). the even had a bike rack - though it was a very small one...  

The convention room actually had carpeted floors and suspended ceiling tiles which made it a lot quieter than the Sutherland Hall



The Girl and I kicked off things with a couple of games of 7 Wonders (something weird going on with this picture - it looks to me like she's about to burst into tears or something!? I assure you she was having fun). Last year The Girl won the event with the highest score of all the games played, but didn't manage to hang onto that title this year. I actually won both games!? And the first game I won with build cards and military - which is something I rarely ever do?



While we were playing 7 wonders, Amanda and Finnegan were trying out Vegas Showdown - a game about building casinos, I think (which none of us have played before).



Apparently he won the event!?



For the second segment of the evening Amanda joined The Girl and I to play Dominion



For out first game The Girl and I played with Logan (on the left) and... um... super nice guy I played a couple games with whose name I am suddenly totally blanking on... Ugh... I am the worst with names. I should write them down or something... (Sorry if you happen to read this!)

We played with the Village Square set from the original box - which was fun because they were cards I had not played with recently and never in that combination. I swear, I totally played my best game EVAR!? (which isn't really saying much... but at the end I felt like Hannibal Smith from the old A-Team Tv series I watched as a kid and felt like saying "I love it when a plan comes together!"

 

While the rest of us were playing Dominion, Finnegan played Roll for the Galaxy. He figured - we HAVE Dominion, he could play that ANYTIME (though we don't, all that often!?) and wanted to try out or play games that we don't own.

We do have RACE for the Galaxy - which we play a fair bit. And we've all TRIED Roll for the Galaxy, but don't really feel like buying because... well... we already HAVE Race for the Galaxy and we actually LIKE it! I know a lot of people that hate Race, but LOVE Roll...?

I don't mind playing games we already own at conventions - because as conventions I get to play them with different people who always have different approaches and different strategies than the people I'm used to playing with (which is for the most part, my family) which makes it challenging and informs my own playing as I learn a lot from seeing how others play the game.



For the second round of Dominion we switched up tables a bit and The Girl joined Amanda.



While James and... the fellow in the blue shirt (I want to say Justin, but I really have no idea...). This game we played with randomized cards picked by an app - though only using cards from the base set. It was a totally fun game, but I just couldn't seem to get my engine running fast enough...

There was another round of games later in the evening, but we decided to call it quits and head home to try and get some sleep.


Day 2 - Saturday, 30 September 2017



On Saturday I had to take the Yuba all loaded up with stuff for the game I was running in the evening.  It almost didn't make it though the gate!



When we got to the hotel I was a little disconcerted to note there were bits of cut bike locks laying about the bike rack!?



Cut cable lock.

Despite being locked outside all day and night - none of our bikes disappeared or were damaged (I was a little worried about the latter as the bike rack was kind of hidden behind a bush and almost directly in the path of cars backing out of the adjacent parking space).



To start off the day the kids played Sentinels of the Multiverse. Finnegan loves Sentinels - he often sets up solo games on the floor in his room. He was trying out a new hero this game, while The Girl played one of her favourites. They lost... I'm not sure which villain they were battling, but it was apparently a very close game.



Amanda tried out a totally new game (to her) - Mission: Red Planet.



I joined Logan and Ellen (in the blue) and... (ANOTHER person whose name I can't remember) for a game of Castles of Mad King Ludwig.



I didn't do great in the game... but I got a Secret Lair - so that's pretty much a WIN for me!

I've only played the game twice, but I love it. The castles that get built so very much remind me of the plans for "dream homes" I drew in my teens that were a mash up of castles, dungeons, and secret underground survival bunker complexes... with art studios...

Part of me feels like I'd like to get this game... but I've actually gotten to the point were we have so many games that I already don't get to play enough, that when I encounter a new game that seems interesting I seriously question if I REALLY NEED it...

I should really cull some of the collection. I'd though of doing that at the auction this year, but didn't get to it...



After the first games there was a bit of a break for lunch. After we ate the sandwiches we brought along these two women that Amanda had played Mission: Red Planet with taught us how to play Splendor. We didn't get to FINISH the game as the organizers came and kicked us off the table so they could set up Scythe, but we got to play it long enough to get a sense of how it's played. It also seems like a really fun game that would be fun to have... I'd actually seen a copy in the bargain bin at my FLGS a month or so ago. I didn't buy it at the time. I went home and looked it up on board game geek and saw how highly rated it was and went back looking for it a few days later, but it was gone... Now I am kicking myself for having left it there... Ah well...



In the afternoon I tried out Scythe.

I've heard a lot of people raving about what a great game it is and I really love Jakub Różalski's artwork that inspired the game. Given all that raving and the amazing artwork I was really expecting... well... something... more...? I didn't dislike the game, and the guys I played with were just great. I kind of felt like I was just getting things going when the game ended.



My Saxon bit of the Scythe world at the end of the game.



While I was playing Scythe, Amanda and the kids were playing Viticulture with our friend Kurtis (and some other people) I like viticulture, I've played it at my friend John's. I kind of wished I'd played that instead. Ah well. I got to try a new game and now I know I don't have to buy it.

Neither Amanda nor the kids had played viticulture before and they all liked it a lot.

After Viticulture Amanda and Finnegan had signed up to play Wings for the Baron. As my Scythe game ended earlier than expected I got to join in. For some reason I didn't take a picture?

Wings for the Baron - which sounds like a Great War airplane game... well... I guess it IS a Great War Airplane game... but I feel like it sounds like a combat game, but it's actually an economic game where each player is a different manufacturer of German airplanes racing to develop better and better planes so that they can gain government contracts to make money and then convert that money into gold before the war ends and hyperinflation devalues all their cash money. I really like it. I'd played it before. Finnegan did really well at it - I think he actually won! Amanda was utterly lost - which was odd as she's usually very good (or at least lucky) at these economic management games. I think it was the mechanic that determined the number of contracts you got that confused her.



While the rest of us were playing Wings of the Baron, The Girl had signed up for 5 Tribes... she played that... and then found some people who were looking for another player for Machi Koro and just joined them!?

After that there was a bit of a break for supper while they set up for the auction.

I always forget to take pictures of the auction. I guess I'm too busy watching to see what's coming up next and if it's something I want to bid on. I have to say I felt I showed considerable restraint. Despite having $200 cash in my pocket (it's cash only) I spent less than $40 of it. I had looked over all the auction items (of which there were over 300!) Friday evening, made a list of things I was potentially interested in and the starting bids, went home and looked to see what they cost new and what they generally sell for used, and made a bit list with the maximum amount I was willing to pay - and I stuck to it! There ended up being only 10 items on the list, two or three that I was really interested in, a few others that were "well if I can get it for $10 or less..." I ended up getting one of the things I was actually interested in, and one of the "well if I can get it for $10 or less..." things and made one impulse buy (which was $6, so....).

After the auction I set up my big even a game of Faustus Furius: 3000! Faustus Furius is actually a chariot racing game, but upon reading I felt the mechanics would really lend themselves to jet bike racing - so over the last 8 months or so I've been periodically working on some jet bikes and occasionally play testing the rules for this event.



The players from left to right: Pat, Chris, James, John, Gary and Morgan.



it was a RIOT! I'll have a comple separate post with a report of the ensuing shenanigans!



Finnegan had actually signed up for Small World, but ended uphaning out with me until they were just starting Small World, ran over to play, played as quick as he could and then came back. He later said it was really hard to concentrate on the game when he could hear us all laughing and having fun!



While I was running my jet bike racing game, Amanda tried out Terraforming Mars. I'd really wanted to try it out as well - and was pretty disappointed when I found out it was scheduled for the same time as the game I was running! She seemed to like it a lot. She even asked if there was anyone I knew that had it (I do) and if we might be able to convince them to bring I over sometime (we probably will!).



The Girl signed up for Codenames while we were all doing our other things. I have to admit I was really impressed that she did this - she is often EXTREMELY shy in situations with people she doesn't know. I guess it is a testament to just how friendly and welcoming everyone at this event are!



As the game I was running and the one Amanda was playing were longer games, the kids had also signed up for Pandemic. I think they actually won.



The days haul. I actually WON Fresco in the raffle. I've never played it, but every game I've like any game I've played by Queen Games, so I'm looking forward to trying it out. Tail Feathers was the game I got in the auction (for $25CAD) - as we have Mice and Mystics (though we have yet to PLAY it) and I've seen Tail Feathers for $95!? Lascaux was on the "well if I can get it for $10 or less..." list, and Space Junkyard was the impulse buy that I paid $6 for... and am kind of regretting... I mean, I already HAVE Space Junk!? How many games about garbage in space do I NEED!?

If anyone out there wants it and has anything they'd like to trade...?

There was one other game I wished I'd bid higher one - there had been a old well loved copy of Ultra Marines there... It came up early in the auction when I was determined to not bid over what I had originally planned to bid... and let it go at $12... I kind of wished I'd bid a bit more. Maybe $25. I still might not have won it...

It was a LONG day - we got home after midnight and everyone was very, VERY tired...


Day 3 - Sunday, 1 October 2017



Everyone was a little crusty in the morning, but we eventually got out the door and on our way.



The Girl and I started off our day with Kingdom Builder. I've only played once, and the last time I played was at ToonCon 2015. But it's a pretty simple, straightforward game so it all came back to me pretty quick. The game was a lot of fun. I somehow squeaked out a win...



...and that put me at the "Winner's Table" for round two... it was an altogether different game - very cutthroat. It was still totally fun - but one of the victory conditions was connecting sites with contiguous settlements so there was a LOT of cutting off of each other. The guying the ball cap won by two or three points.



Amanda andFinnegan went for something altogether different - they tried out Dominant Species!! I think The Girl and I were both done out Kingdom builder games before Lief, who was running it, finished explaining the rules! The both really seemed to enjoy it. The game went a little long, though, and Amanda missed out on joining in Tzolkin which she had signed up for in the last slot of the day.



After Kingdom Builder The Girl had signed up for Castles of Burgundy. She played it last year with Amanda and liked it so much she'd asked for it for Xmas. We couldn't find a copy at that time, but picked one up later for her birthday in the spring... but we STILL haven't played it at home!

For the afternoon I ran one of the Learn-to-Play events. The Learn-to-Play series is new to ToonCon this year and featured games that are a little harder to learn. While other events have 4+ copies of the game and the person running it would give a brief explanation and then let everyone go at it, and maybe group beginners at one game and try to help them out, the Learn-to-Play series had very limited spots - only enough for one table. This was so the event moderator could sit and thoroughly explain the rules and play through the game with the participants pointing out options and strategies and such.



The game I ran was Pax Renaissance - which I love - but it is a fairly complicated game (not quite as complicated as High Frontier, but it is a Phil Eklund game and it is up there!). I ran Amy, Aaron, and Jon through the game. It was a long game, but I had a lot of fun (despite being dead tired...). I think everyone was pretty tired at this point in the weekend. There is an overwhelming number of choices and strategies and even once you've played the game a few times, you can't just follow the same plan as wild different cards can show up in different parts of the game. Amy came very close to a Renaissance victory (republics and laws) but Aaron eventually won with an Imperial victory (two more kingdoms than anyone else). Great game with a fun group of people to play with (who, hopefully, feel like then know sort of how to play the game now). I feel like I should write more about how the game went... but I'm SUPER tired and just want to get this done...



After I'd packed up the game I found the family at a table and The Girl had set up Kingdom Builder and was trying to teach them how to play. As they had not started I joined them for ONE MORE GAME.

I asked afterwards what their three favourite games were and Amanda said Terraforming Mars, Dominant Species and Splendor. The Girl liked Castles of Burgundy, Viticulture and Kingdom Builder. Finnegan couldn't nail it down to just three - he liked Sentinels of the Multiverse, Pandemic, Vegas Showdown, Viticulture and Dominant Species.

Despite being dreadfully tired at the end of it all, everyone had a GREAT time. Pretty much everyone I played with were fabulous people that were there to have fun. There were no "WIN-AT-ALL-COST!" types. I really like the new location, I hope they run it there in future years. I don't know if I could nail it down to just three - the two games I ran were the best, other than that...? Dominion? I had a lot of fun at that... Maybe we should play that more (and I should open the expansion I bought at the ToonCon auction last year that I still haven't opened!?)

Thanks to all the organizers and volunteers and players that made it a fantastic weekend.

(Now to figure out what game I'm going to run next year)

(Actually first I should probably figure out what I'm going to do for the Winter Wargaming Weekend in February...)

September Game-A-Day Challenge: Week Four

The last week the game-a-day thing was wearing a bit thin - oh we made it, we've played a different game each day of the month so far!



The remaining two days are the first two days of ToonCon (which I'll have a separate post about on Sunday) where we will be playing another half dozen or so games...

But this last week, for various reasons, we pulled out all the super quick games and were trying to squeeze games in between different activities or just before bed...

Day 23 - Saturday, 23 September 2017 - Warhammer:40K/Timeline: Historical Events



In the afternoon on Saturday we finished off the game of Warhammer 40,000 (8th Edition) we'd started the evening before - a full report of that game can be found here:

First Crack At 40K 8th

Because, technically, that was a continuation of the previous day's game, we'd decided we should play another. Originally we'd planned to play through Pax Renaissance, but then got watching Heroes Season One and everyone seemed more interested in watching more episodes of that than playing Pax Renaissance....



...so, between two episodes, we quickly got out Timeline: Historical Events and played a quick game of that. I won. I pretty much always do. We went back to watching Heroes.

I don't win the game because I know more about history that everyone else in the family... okay, I DO know more about history than everyone else in the family, and it is a significant factor in me winning all the time, but I also play smart - I always do the hardest ones first and leave the easier ones - the ones that I DO know the exact date for for last, which seems to be the opposite of what everyone else does. For example, I have no idea when the Mutiny on the Bounty was... I would guess between 1600 and 1800... so I'd try to get that our first before there are other 17th and 18th centre cards out there. When the only other cards out are the Roman invasion of Britain and the Beginning of World War One... well, it's going between those!


Day 24 - Sunday, 24 September 2017 - Pax Renaissance



FINALLY we got to playing through Pax Renaissance. I'm running a Learn-To-Play event for this at ToonCon this weekend and, while I've played it a fair bit this year, it's been a couple or so since I last played. So I wanted a chance to brush up on the rules and have them fresh in my head for this weekend. I also wanted an opportunity to try explaining the rules to people that had never played and, for the most part, weren't even really familiar with Phil Eklund games.

They've all actually played Pax Porfiriana - once, over a year ago. Both kids have played Pax Pamir as well - The Girl, again, once, over a year ago, and Finnegan played it twice. Finnegan has also played Pax Renaissance once, but it was a while ago as well. So they were pretty much like newbs.

Amanda was utterly lost, she looked like she was about to fall asleep through half the game -not from boredom, just from being very, very tired. She said it looked really interesting but was just too tired to figure it out. The Girl was actually really close to winning with a Renaissance victory - Laws and Republics, but a second comet showed up and Finnegan scooped a Imperial victory!

It was a really fun game! It seems like everyone would be willing to try it again sometime. Perhaps on an afternoon when everyone is still wide awake!

Unfortunately the following morning I remembered WHY we had originally planned to play it Saturday. I actually had a nagging feeling when I told the kids on Saturday it was okay to put it off until tomorrow that there was some reason why we couldn't play it on Sunday, but couldn't think of what it was. Amanda and I had tickets for a play at the Persephone Theatre Sunday evening... totally missed it... DOH!?

Day 25 - Monday, 25 September 2017 - Codenames: Pictures

We were out to dinner at my folks to celebrate my sister's birthday and then the kids had their swim lessons and when they got home they desperately wanted to watch more of Heroes... so we play ONE quick round of Codenames: Pictures. I teamed up with The Girl and Amanda played with Finnegan. Amanda and Finnegan got a bit of a head start when The Girl guessed wrong on my first clue and actually picked on of THEIRS. We got it back by the end and actually won! 

Day 26 - Tuesday, 26 September 2017 - Coup

 

Amanda and I had spent a long day out running around looking at countertops and tiles for our kitchen renovation. by the time we got back in the early evening, finnegan's D&D group had arrived and they were well into their game. After they left, we got in a super quick game of Coup before we all went off to bed. I don't love Coup, but we were running out of quick games to play. I actually ended up winning - mostly by NOT EVER bluffing!?

Day 27 - Wednesday, 27 September 2017 - Drakon



We actually had a bit more time today, but spent way too much time deciding what to play and ended up settling on a game of Drakon - which we played in, like, 15 minutes. The Girl suggested we play another round, but I was feeling a bit of gaming fatigue and said "no"...

 Day 28 - Thursday, 28 September 2017 - London

Today we had a bit more time on our hands - or at least we THOUGHT we did, so we broke out London. It's been a LONG time since we played but everyone seemed to have pretty fond memories of it and I was feeling like more Martin Wallace games play the same (sort of) and we've got A Study in Emerald down to just over an hour, so surely this wouldn't take us THAT long to play.. by the time we had a quick review of the rules and got it all set up and started playing the first turn, we realized we had less than an hour before Finnegan would have to leave to go play D&D (he's joined a group that plays after school on Thursdays and it just happens to be run by an old friend of mine that happens to teach there). But we left it out hoping to finish off the game after both kids get back from their classes at Persephone School of Theatre... which we did. 

Final score: 

Keira - 103 points

me - 73 points 

Finnegan.. 3 points... 

Seriously, he had 62 victory points accumulated at the end of the game, but Keira had managed to get rid of almost all her poverty and Finnegan was sitting on a pile that added up to -59 points!! He also did not get into the land buying and only had 4 stacks at the end of the game. Early in the game I thought his strategy of having only a few stacks would do well in reducing poverty, but whenever he ran the city he'd gain a bunch from cards in hand and didn't really get much out of each time he ran his city... I think it's more efficient to have about five stacks - that way it's a bit more efficient when you run your city, in that you at least get some stuff out of it each time you run it. Also - BUY LAND! 

I like London. It's been waaaaay too damned long since we last played it. I do feel like it's another  game that we should play, like, 4-5 times in one week and then the rules (and maybe a bit of the strategy) will be solid enough in our heads that in the future we can just pull this out and play it in an hour (like we can with A Study in Emerald - Second Edition - well, except Amanda she always has to be reminded of the rules... and then still kicks our butts...).

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

As I mentioned this weekend is ToonCon! We're all signed up for a lot of fun games. 

I think Friday night we're all signed up to play 7 Wonders and then I'm playing Dominion, but some of the others are playing Roll for the Galaxy (I know Finnegan is, and maybe The Girl...?). 

Saturday is a long day! I'm starting off with Castles of Mad King Ludwig and Finnegan is signed up for Sentinels of the Multiverse. I'm not sure what Amanda and The Girl are doing. After that I'm playing Scythe - so many people have raved about it, I thought I'd best check it out. Everyone else is playing Viticulture (which I'm kind of wishing I'd signed up for instead...). While I'm still playing Scythe I think some of them are playing 5 Tribes, or maybe Imhotep or Terra Mystica...? I can't remember. After that is the game auction (we had a pretty BIG HAUL from that last year!). Finally, in the evening I'm running my Faustus Furius: 3000 game while everyone else is playing... Small World..?  or Codenames...? I'm not sure... I know Nations is on in the evening, and despite everyone having played it and liked it, I don't think any of them signed up for it. 

Sunday I think I'm starting with Kingdom Builder and Finnegan is playing Dominant Species... Again, I can't remember what Amanda and The Girl signed up for...?! After that I'm running the Pax Renaissance Learn-to-Play game for the rest of the day. I have a feeling Amanda and the Girl are signed up for Castles of Burgundy and Amanda may have signed up for Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar. I know Finnegan didn't sign up for anything in the last slot on Sunday because none of the games were of interest to him. The convention had a HUGE games library which you can just play pick up games with anyone who isn't doing anything, so I think he's planning to do that! 

Stay tuned for reports of the entire weekend and a separate report of the FF3K game! 

July 2017 Boardgames Round-up

This past month started out really good – we played games almost every day for the first week of the month… then things… well... tapered off a bit.

It’s summer, we’ve been getting out for a lot of bike rides!

1 July 2017 - Kingdomino/Race for the Galaxy

Over the long weekend in July my folks moved into a new condo. It was just down the hallway from the one they’ve been renting for the last year, so it wasn’t very far to move… but moving is moving.

We took a bit of a break on the afternoon of the first to play a quick game of Kingdomino. I thought I had it in the bag – because I ended up completely filling up my 5x5 grid – but The Girl beat both me and Finnegan – largely due to a vast region of grassland with 3 crowns in it! Each of those squares were worth 3 points each – that adds up quick!!

After getting home from my folks, in the evening, we played a game of Racefor the Galaxy.

I had a bit of an Imperium theme going on and had a BUNCH of military – which I pretty much NEVER do. It never seems as good as going for genes or alien stuff or setting up a little production/consumption engine and raking in the VPs through commerce. But it somehow worked for me – I got a 6-point development (I forget what it was called – that gave me a bunch of points and two high point rebel worlds and the Not-Death-Star.

2 July 2017 – Dominion: Intrigue

The kids and I played Dominion: Intrigue. We have lots of other Dominion sets, but I just wanted a quick game and so I just grabbed Intrigue and used one of the suggested sets (Victory Dance?). It was a bit longer that I’d hoped – I’d wanted a quick 30-40 minute game so we’d have time to watch a movie and get to bed at a reasonable hour, but I think the game was over an hour. Not sure if it was the mix of cards or because we haven’t played in a while…?

Counting up the points. I think I won…? The Girl was a close second and Finnegan wasn’t far behind.

3 July 2017 – Angola

John, Kurtis and Brent came over for the afternoon to play Angola. It was almost a year to the day (well, a year and one day) since we first played (we also played it 6 months ago over the xmas holidaze). Though we’ve always determined the sides randomly. Brent and I have always ended up with MPLA/FAPLA and Kurtis and John have always played together with UNITA and FNLA. This was the first time I’ve played the MPLA – the two previous games I’ve played the FAPLA.

One of my starting towns was Sa Da Bandeira, which was kind of cut off from the rest of my forces but directly blocked the road from South Africa (or Namibia?) – the UNITA staging area so I put as many troops as I could in there at the beginning and tried to hold on as long as I could. Eventually it fell and pretty much all the other towns I held… but I held onto Luanda and built a pretty MASSIVE column of troops there and in the last few turns broke out of there and, with the aid of Brent’s FAPLA, pretty much wiped out the FNLA forces in Angola. John held on in the centre and south of Angola and after 10 turns and SIX HOURS of playing… it was a draw. Some might find this outcome disappointing – but I just had a great time playing an interesting game with a great bunch of guys. There is a lot of back-and-forth in the game – just enough chaos and friction to keep you guessing as to how it’d going to turn out.

Amanda got home from a week in the U.S.A. and I’d hoped we’d get in a game as a family, but instead we watched Yoga Hosers…

4 July 2017 – Monarch

Had I been thinking a little further ahead I might have dug out 1775: Rebellion in honour of our neighbors Independence Day, alas…

Instead we played a quick game of Monarch. I started off with a couple of critters and got the Beastmaster. Finnegan looked like he was going for Wisdom and The Girl was going for Culture. I thought I might be able to pick up the dragon and the asp to add to my menagerie, but Finnegan swept the board (not just to deny them to me, he isn’t that much of a dick, there just wasn’t anything for him there…). but that brought out a trio of fantastic bounty cards – the one that allows you to buy them for less (cornucopia?), the one that gives you 2 points per bounty card (it’s a dress… the Harvest Dress? I can’t remember and I’m too lazy to look it up) and the one that gives you one point per bounty card (Ermine – also another animal) – all these bounty cards allowed me to claim the bounty banner – which gave another point per bounty card, so I was now getting FOUR points per bounty card in my court AND per bounty improvement – of which there were three or four!



Picking up those three cards ended the game and I scored 42 points.



Of course when Finnegan counted up HIS points he ALSO had 42!? The Girl had a very disappointing 16 points (she’s clobbered us at this before, so I don’t feel TOO bad about that…).

5 July 2017 – Pax Renaissance

I had hoped to play this with the kids in the afternoon – for some practice explaining the game to people that had never played, but we went for a bike ride

instead.

We actually had TWO four-player games of Pax Renaissance on at John’s. I was super excited about this as, so far, I’d only played three-player games – and they often seemed to turn out the same. Two players end up battling over one half of the map and the other wins in the other with an Imperial Victory.

I played with John, Kurtis, and Darrin. Kurtis had played before. John has played Pax Porfiriana and other Phil Eklund games. Darrin had no idea what he’d got himself into. Despite that, John nearly had an early Renaissance Victory – with England turned into a republic. Darrin then turned Aragon into a republic and stole England from John and nearly took the win, but never had quite enough Law Prestige. Four player games seem MUCH harder to win – as there are three other players messing with your stuff before you get another action. Anytime someone’s close – everybody dogpiles on. Darrin also came close to an Imperial Victory – he had FIVE kingdoms at one point (and at the time Kurtis and I two or three each – stealing stuff back and forth from each other) – though that ended up being the only victory card was never revealed by a comet.  Kurtis also came very close to a Religious Victory with Islam! So exciting seeing these other possibilities open up.

In the end it was me that won – on my turn ran Eastern Ops and campaigned from Hungary taking over Mamluk – giving me a second Patron Prestige point and then bought a card from the Eastern Market place – which revealed the last card in the market decks ending the game. It was a win for me, but if felt like a cheap one.

After six games I still feel like I’m just figuring stuff out. With this longer four-player games I actually got to try out a lot of new different things I’d never really tried before thus I feel like I learned a lot. Not that I think I’m some sort of Master of the Game – or necessarily all that good at it – but I had a lot of fun and I started to feel like maybe I’m starting to figure things out.

6 July 2017 – Retro Loonacy

Played a couple quick rounds of Retro Loonacy after supper before watching a few more episodes of The 100.

8 July 2017 – Die Macher

Saturday I made my way over to Brent’s to hide in his nice cool basement and play DieMacher

with Kurtis and Jason.

Die Macher a totally fascinating game of German electoral politics. Each player is a German political party trying to get their representatives elected in different regions of Germany. I know… it sounds like a yawner, but the play is really interesting and I’d love to play it more. Unfortunately as it takes about four hours to play, I doubt I’ll get to play it often enough to remember how to play, let alone ever figure out the strategy behind it…

16July 2017 – Compounded, Coup, Incan Gold

The following week our friends Kurtis and Shannon found themselves kidless and decided to have a game day. Amanda and I headed over there for the afternoon while out own kids were out at friends or my folks. Joel and Brent also joined us. 

The first game we played was Compounded. I’ve been wanting to try this game for some time. I actually own the game myself – I picked it up thinking it would be fun to play with them when we get to learning more about chemistry. As it turns out absolutely zero knowledge of chemistry is needed to actually PLAY the game… you can play it by just matching the colours of the necessary elements needed to form the various compounds… but some learning could be worked into it – even if it’s just recognizing the elements being used and the compounds they form.

The second game we played – that went so fast I didn’t even take a picture of it – was Coup. I don’t love Coup. It involves bluffing which I am terrible at. Playing with a larger number (6 – we have played it before with 3 or 4) and adults (only played it with the family before) was a bit better. I think it helped that I went last and could see what everyone else was trying to do. Still not a game I’m going to suggest to play… but I’ll probably play it from time to time.

The third game we played was Incan Gold. I can’t remember who won, but I did pretty good – mostly because I bailed before everyone else and actually GOT treasure while so many of the others pushed their luck and ended up losing out.

26 July 2017 – Nuclear War, Nuclear Escalation, Nuclear Proliferation, Weapons of Mass Destruction, etc.

I have not played Nuclear War in… I don’t know how many years. Could be 20…? And I have never played with any of the expansions (Nuclear Escalation, Nuclear Proliferation, Weapons of MassDestruction, or any of the promo cards or bonus packs or whatever…). John has them all and decided it was time to dig them all out and have a go.

I started the game with NO Propaganda cards at all – so things escalated to war pretty quickly – there were an awful lot of secrets though, I’m guessing a lot of them came in the expansions. There were also a lot of new delivery systems and warheads I hadn’t seen before. Despite the quick entry to war, it was one of the longer games of Nuke War I’ve ever played! People just could not get the combinations of delivery systems and warheads they needed! I think I was the third to get blown up… John actually made it past the propaganda round – which is unusual for him – and almost made it to the very end.

I’ll have to dig my copy out and play it with the kids sometime…

27 July 2017 Shadowrun: Crossfire

The girl bought Shadowrun: Crossfire early in the year with money she’d received from relatives for Xmas. She’s been wanting to play it since. Finnegan was in Drama “camp” all week, so this week became “Do Stuff With The Girl” week and I promised I’d sit down and help her figure it out. I know we’d watched a how to video some months ago, and I wasn’t really paying attention to it so I had no idea what was really going on and she’s not quite at the stage where she can read rules entirely on her own and explain them to others… So we watched a different how to video and it mostly made sense – sense enough that we dug out it out and popped out all the counters and… buy that time Finnegan was home from camp so we recruited him to play.

GAME ONE

I played an elf. I think I was the “Faceman”. We lost. We played the basic starter scenario (I think it was just called “Crossfire”?) and I think we got to the second scene, but it very quickly went sideways. By the end of the first scene we were all down to one health and had no way to get it back (other than the one recovered at the end of the scene). At the beginning of Scene Two we suddenly had MORE and MEANER opponents and it was all over very quickly… Still, it seemed straightforward enough and with a little more familiarity with the cards and a bit more experience playing we might (and maybe a bit of LUCK) be able to beat it.

GAME TWO

When Amanda got home in the evening we recruited her to try and play a game. We told her it would take less than an hour. The first game went fairly quickly and it seemed like once we knew what we were doing it could go faster. But now that we knew we needed to be a bit more coordinated, we spent more time contemplating how to go about overcoming each obstacle… and it ended up taking a lot more than one hour. And we still lost. The kids found that a bit discouraging. I think we made it to the Third Scene, though, so… better than we’d done the first time.

I think I played the female troll in the second game - again, the "Face" Role... 

I’ll definitely play it again and would like to try out the campaign! In the campaign you gain “karma” with successful missions and can improve your character with some sort of bonuses (haven’t really looked into it that much). Of course… it would require WINNING some games…

28 July 2017 – D&D 5E

Only game of D&D we got in all month…

I accidentally shot Amanda’s barbarian in the back with an arrow. I rolled a one for damage and she had to go and make a comment about it at least being a "wimpy" shot... I wasn't going to remind anyone that I to +7 DAMAGE with my bow... but she HAD to go and open her big mouth... (We all survived). 

That’s about it… Hopefully our game playing will pick up a bit in the fall… We’ll have to do the 30 Games in 30 Days Challenge again in September.