August Games

Mondays and Thursdays, amirite?

Sunday, 1 August 2021

Amanda and I played another game of the Arrival. 

That's four times I've played it, so I think that's going on the 5x5 challenge. 

Tuesday, 3 August 2021

Finnegan and i played a game of Age of Sigmar... I'd have a link to a game report here... if ever I had FINISHED the game report... still sitting as a draft.... 

whoops.

Wednesday, 4 August 2021

Another game of Necromunda with Orion and Nic. Full report can be found here:

Necromunda - Of Spiders and Scavvies

Saturday, 7 August 2021

After a year and a half, Finnegan finally got to run an in-person D&D game. I think it was a bittersweet reunion, as it was one of the players last game. She graduated from High School this year and will be going off somewhere to college in the fall and just got a job for the rest of the summer and has to work on Saturdays... 

He's currently running two other D&D games - every week - but not all the players in those games are fully vaccinated, so he's not inviting them over just yet. Maybe in September. Or, maybe we'll all be isolating in September again and he'll be back to running ALL his games online again... 

I'm trying to stay positive and hopeful, but there are SO MANY people refusing to get vaccinated around here, and it seems like everyone just thinks it's "over". There have been festivals every week since restrictions were lifted and there have been just crowds and crowds of people and hardly a mask in sight... Numbers going up...

Wednesday, 11 August 2021

Keiran actually suggested playing a game and I wasn't about to pass up that opportunity! 

We played Just Desserts which is a quick and fun little game, though it makes me very, very hungry... 

After nearly a month of 30+°C temperatures, it dropped into the 20s this week and suddenly it's all sweaters and toques! 

Friday, 13 August 2021

Friday Night - Game Night

I've been trying to re-establish Friday Nights as GAME NIGHT around here. Around supper time, as I was about to ask if anyone wanted to play, Keiran actually asked if we could play Retro Loonacy!? 

We played six games in the end. Usually I take a moment and organize my cards, but this time I just started throwing down the first ones I saw and the game was over in less than a minute!? Everyone was just kind of shocked. I actually ended up winning three of the six. 

Keiran won this last one. Won it before I even put a card down. Mind you, I was busy trying to take a picture! 

After Loonacy, we played a game of Splendor. Amanda won. Of course, if you know anything about us and our history of playing Splendor, you would have already known that by the fact that Amanda is sitting at the table with a game of Splendor in front of her. Keiran was close... but I had, like, 7 points...? 

Saturday, 14 August 2021

Saturday evening i finally got in a game of Warhammer Underworlds. I think it was the first game we've played since Amanda got Wingspan in May.... There are more pictures and a brief report here:

Warhammer Underworlds - Return to the Nightvault

Tuesday, 17 August 2021

Speaking of Wingspan... 

We introduced some new friends to Wingspan - super fun to play some new people - and birders! 

This was the 21st game we've played since May. 

Friday, 20 August 2021

Friday Night - Game Night

Kids weren't interested in playing anything, so Amanda and I played another game of Warhammer Underworlds. This time I tired out Ironskull's Boys. They played a little better than the Sepulchral Guard, straight out of the box.... but I still totally lost... More pics and a full report can be found here:

Warhammer Underworlds 

Saturday, 21 August 2021

Saturday evening I got the gang back together and we made some new characters...

We were using the Savage Worlds Fantasy Character Generator Toolkit. It's a book that lets you roll up a totally random character for a Savage Worlds fantasy game. I've always had a lot of fun using this - it doesn't always make playable characters - and you can't really use it hoping it will create a party that has any business knowing each other - let alone adventuring together... but we're making them for a one-shot adventure that I'm expecting will be rather tongue-in-cheek... 

I backed the Lost Tomb of the Bitchin Chimera sometime last year (I've been a HUGE Dead Milkmen fan since Big Lizard in my Backyard came out when I was in high school... so... how could I NOT!?) and I was just notified that it has finally shipped (I've actually had the PDF for some time.. but haven't really bothered to look at it..). The adventure is written for D&D5E, but I figured rather than learning a whole new system, I'd just use Savage Worlds which I used for years for every setting I felt the urge to run a role-playing or skirmish game in!

The plan is to do another round of character making the following week and maybe pick the best one - or the one that seemed funnest - and I'm going to run the game in September. After that, I'm kind of hoping to get back to Wrath & Glory - possibly picking up the campaign where we left off. 

Tuesday, 24 August 2021

And look what showed up on Tuesday. (Well... technically it showed up on Monday... but they didn't bother delivering it to me, just dropped it at the local Post Office and I had to go pick it up on Tuesday... but... whatever...). I spent a good chunk of the afternoon reading through parts of the adventure and giggling. I'm not sure if anyone else is going to get all the references. But it was entertaining enough just to read. 

In the evening Keiran suggested playing a game and we weren't about to pass on that opportunity. There was a bit of what-do -you-want-to-play-i-dunno-what-do -you-want-to-play, but eventually Kingdom Builder was settled on... 

Amanda had had a LONG day - getting up to attend a live, online conference that was being hosted in the Netherlands... When we started it was like she had never played and had to have EVERYTHING explained to her at least twice... three times, for some of the things... 

And then she proceeded to win, scoring almost as many as Keiran AND me COMBINED!? (In the picture above, those are her Orange settlements screaming across the board. 

I just couldn't get it together this game. Maybe it was because I spent so much time explaining and reexplaining I didn't really have any time to think things through... maybe it was because the first three cards I pulled were grasslands and I just coudn't get OUT of the area I was in. We each had one bonus action on the first turn... but the only other one I even got close to was snapped up by the others - by midway through the game Amanda had FIVE of them, and Keiran had three. And, being locked into one little area, I coudln't even really make USE of the one I had!? 

As I'm sitting here typing, I realized we forgot to add in points for castles... and that probably woudl have given enough that she WOULD have had more points than me and Keiran combined. 

Wednesday, 25 August 2021

Nic and Orion stopped by for another quick game of Necromunda! 

You can find the full report and a bunch more pics here:

Necromunda - Sump Croc Hunt!

Friday, 27 August 2021

On Friday evening, at the suggestion of Keiran, we played Lords of Waterdeep!

Amanda played the Silver Stars and Durnan the Wanderer. I played the Harpers and Kyriani Agrivar. Finnegan Played the Red Sashes and Piergeiran the Paladinson. Keiran played Kinghts of the Shield and Nindl Jalb. Playing with four is HARD as you only get two agents to start off and a third part way through the game it's really hard to DO some of the high point quests, but if you can pull one off, it pretty much secures you the game. I had a hard time as my Lord gave bonuses for Piety and Arcand quests... but there were NONE available for the first half of the game!? I did manage to pick up three later in the game and finish them off - which brought me up from trailing by 35+ points to... well... I was still about 20 points behind Keiran  and Finnegan... but only 14 behind Amanda, who's had a pretty commanding lead for much of the game.  

Saturday, 28 August 2021

NEW KILL TEAM!!!!

Later in the evening, we did Round Two of character-making with the Savage Worlds Fantasy Character Toolkit.  Everyone was there. Hilarity ensued. I actually posted the characters we rolled up on Savage Timmy's Playhouse - the Savage Worlds blog that I haven't posted on in over a decade. you can see them all here:

Savage Timmy's Playhouse: Lost Tomb of the Bitchin Chimera Characters

Next Saturday I'll be running the adventure! 

Tuesday, 31 August 2021

Finnegan and i got in our first game of the new Kill Team this afternoon. Took a bit of figuring out, but I have a feeling it will play MUCH faster when we do get it sorted and is going to be SUPER FUN!!!

Stay tuned for a game report! 

And more game reports! I have three more games lined up this week!

July Games

We got in a few more games this month! This was mostly because of the lifting of some of the Covid Restrictions and most of my friends now being fully-vaccinated! 

The games we played over the long weekend (1-5 July) were covered in the Long Weekend Gaming post. 

Sunday, 11 July 2021

On Sunday Brent and Barb returned to play Wingspan again! We played two games 

The first was with the Oceana expansion - with just the Oceana birds. 

(I was Green) 

In the second game we tried playing with he Oceana board but with the Euro Expansion cards. 

I like the Oceana board - it's like playing with Prelude in Terraforming Mars - feels like it gets things going a bit quicker. 

I noted that playing the expansions with four people - we tended to run out of cards as the expansion decks are half the size of the deck in the base game. Eventually, we'll probably just end up playing with ALL the cards mixes together and the Oceana boards... 

Tuesday, 13 July 2021

On Tuesday, Finnegan and I tried out our first game of Age of Sigmar! 

You can find more pictures and a complete report of the action here:

Age of Sigmar - First Game

Wednesday, 14 July 2021

The following day I played my first game of Necromunda in over a year! Woo! I forgot how much I loved this game. 

Again, more pics and a complete report can be found here:

Back to the Underhive

Friday, 16 July 2021

After the game earlier in the week, I was super excited to get a Paths to Glory campaign started, so on Friday, Finnegan and I kicked off a campaign. 

More on the campaign and the game can be found here:

Age of Sigmar - Clash at Gloomy Crest

Monday, 19 July 2021

On Monday, I actually got the whole family to play HABITAT! It's been a few years since we've played, but it was easy enough to pick up again and play. It's super fast and it's a GREAT game for learning about... well... Habitats! 

This was part of Helping Keiran catch up on some of the Grade Nine science that kind of fell by the wayside over the skewl-year. We have a few more science-y games I'm hoping we'll get to play through August. 

Wednesday, 21 July 2021

Necromunda again. It seems this is becoming a regular Wednesday thing... which just delights me! 

More about this game here:

Necromunda - The Fiery Wrath of the Redemption!

Saturday, 24 July 2021

Saturday Kurtis, Brent and Jason were looking to play a game so I suggested we try out The Arrival! I'd found out about the game when I was looking for games to play with the kids while we were Gaming Our Way Through History. The game isn't historical, per se, but PART of our study of history also involved looking at the Myths of various cultures throughout history and this in based, loosely, on Irish Myth. At the time, however, the original printing was exceptionally difficult to track down. 

A year or two later, Cryptozoic Entertainment rereleased the game and I snapped it up... of course we were done with the Gaming our way through history, so this kind of sat for a few years... 

Anyway, lots of moving parts in the game and things to keep track of and different ways to win or gain advantage. I would definitely like to play this more. 

After our first game, Jason had to take off, but Brent and Kurtis stuck around to play a second game. 

In the evening, I was supposed to meet up with the Saturday night guys... but most of them bailed and I was feeling a little bummed out... 

So Amanda thought beating me at Terraforming Mars would cheer me up... 

I have to say, she played an exceptional game and actually DID some terraforming (she was green!). Usually I cover the board with cities and greenery and raise the temperature and make oceans all by myself... and then she wins with, like, a PILE of points on the dozens of cards she puts into play... 

I felt like every time I did a thing, Amanda was always 10 steps ahead of me. I gained one greenery production  brining me to four (every other turn I'll be placing a Greenery hex tile), only to look up and see Amanda's at 14!? GAH!?

In the end it turned out to be a REALLY CLOSE GAME - because, for once, I had a pile of points on cards I'd put into play (like, FIFTY points!?) but, unlike when Amanda does it, it was nowhere near enough to catch up to her amazing lead. 

Despite feeling like everything was going wrong for me, it did kind of cheer me up... I like playing the game - even if I lose most games. 

Tuesday, 27 July 2021

A second battle in our Age of Sigmar - Paths to Glory campaign. 

Game report and pictures can be found here:

Age of Sigmar - The Tower

Wednesday, 28 July 2021

And another game of Necromunda - this time Orion brought along his partner Nic to try the game out!

More pics and complete story here:

Necromunda - On the Way to the Fighting Pits

Saturday, 31 July 2021

One last game for July - Amanda said she wanted to try out The Arrival. 

I think she found it a little frustrating as she would say, "so you want to do this..." and almost all of my responses "well... it depends..."as with a LOT of Martin Wallace games, while mechanically being quite simple and easy to pick up, there are a LOT of moving parts to the game and a LOT of different ways to achieve different goals and different ways the game ends and different things that determine victory... so... taking out my castle MIGHT be to her advantage... but it might actually give ME an advantage... There were SO MANY possibilities to explain that could come from any action taken... 

I like it. I haven't quite wrapped my head around the best way to go about things. I think it would be next to impossible to win with low corruption in a four player game - unless EVERYONE was trying to stay as small as possible and expand Fomori everywhere... without killing any of them...? 

Looking at the Game Plan 2021 - Q3 I didn't really have a super clear idea of what I was going to do for a 5x5 Quarterly challenge. I had initially suggested: 

• Wingspan
• Age of Sigmar
• Warhammer Underworlds
• Some other Board Game?
• CURSED CITY! 

Looking at what I've played this month, I think I may modify that somewhat.... 

• Wingspan
• Necromunda 
• Age of Sigmar

Those are definitely three of them... I mean, I've played FIVE Games of Wingspan already!? Maybeit shoudl be dropped from the "Challenge" as it really doesn't seem to BE a challenge to get games of that in... but what else... The Arrival...? Terraforming Mars....? I've already got two or three games of each in and wouldn't mind playing more... "Science Games"...? I'm still interestred in getting back to playing Warhammer Underworlds and still haven't given up on Warhammer Quest: Cursed City! Maybe I'll have to wait and see how august rolls out...