Saturday Morning Games
A few of us got together on Saturday morning for some good gaming fellowship. Carlos and Amy played a game of War of the Ring while Jeff and Ben played Battle Lore. I hope that we get a good report from the Battle Lore game, but for now I will say the WotR game was good, but unfinished.
Amy took the role of the Free Peoples while Carlos took the Shadow. Amy did a good job protecting the ring from too much corruption and managed to guide the fellowship to the very gates or Mordor with a corruption of zero. Yes corruption was accumulated during the journey, but she managed it well.
The shadow armies managed to take most of Gondore and I think all of Rohan. Amy’s Free People’s army managed to slay orcs and evil humans by the hundreds, but they just kept coming and coming. Aragorn and Boromir lost their lives defending the strong holds of Gondore and Rohan. The battle for Minas Tirith was exceptionally brutal. Amy managed to hold off against the first wave of Southern armies, but a horde of foul orcs lead by the Witch-King himself ended this siege, along with one of her noble companions.
Meanwhile, the free people ambushed Saruman and his minions, but they were too late. In the end Isengard was secure and Rohan was no more. The ambitions of the Shadow looked north.
Middle Earth was at a cross roads. The fellowship, lead by Gollum was about to enter Mordor. The strange and pesky Gollum turned out to be quite a friend as he shielded the ring bearers from many points of corruption. At the same time to the west, two large Shadow armies approached two Free Peoples strong holds with fairly good odds of capturing them. If this were to happen, the Free Peoples would certainly have fallen, plunging all Middle Earth into darkness. It was determined that the odds were about 50-50. Either side had a good chance to win.
And in a far away and parallel universe, he who guided the Shadow heard a powerful call from the god called “Home Economics.” A powerful demigod known as Sears was offering this entity something called “12-months no interest” AND “10% off appliances”, whatever this meant. The battle for Middle Earth ceased to exist.
I would like to than Jeff and Amy for their hospitality and invitation into their home. Truly gracious hosts.
Labels: session report
posted by Carlos @ 7:25 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Wait... is there another Ben? Was it my evil twin? I was busy wrecking out my deck, which is an interesting game in and of itself!
Sorry, Ted. It's just that you and Ben are so much alike.
I got some Saturday evening games in as well with the aforementioned other group. There were approximately 25 people there. Ben and his evil twin did not make it although I did meet Ted's friend Jim and played games of Can't Stop, an abbreviated Stage II, and a highly unabbreviated Turbo Cranium.
Party games are much more the game of choice in that group. A nice change of pace for those of us who might like that style of game from time to time.
My big regret was that I didn't push celebrities earlier. Best game ever.
Also, I tried to plug our Monday meetings to the people I thought might be interested. One guy, Rafael seemed like he might show up sometime so I might be able to weasel out of singing the Notre Dame fight song. I know the tune but all the lyrics I've looked up don't seem to have the right amount of syllables to work.
Oh yeah, I saw Alhambra being played multiple times throughout the night. It seems to be the Euro of choice. Also played was an 80's trivia game that took a large majority of the night for those involved and a large game of taboo with the same group when they were done.
Sounds like this is a good social group with lots of fun and light party games. I have always enjoyed such events with friends and church groups, but I always need to return to my real passion of deeper and heavier games like WotR. I saw some RISK plyers on their site. I wonder if they would like some of our games. I'm sure that Michael behaved himself over there and represented us well. Hopefully we will have some visitors soon.
Jeff and I played a game of BattleLore w/ the "Burgundian" scenario. Then to save time we swapped sides and played again rather than changing to a new scenario. The game continues to be lots of fun with plenty of interesting choices. The card play adds a lot to the replay value, IMO, because it forces the game into different channels each time. You will always be confronted with slightly different situations and choices.
I've now played this particular scenario 3 or 4 times, each side at least once, and the French have lost each time by a lot. This is surprising because the layout looks pretty symmetrical. I have some ideas I'd like to try out next time.
A few highlights:
Jeff cast a brutal chain lightning that impacted 5 units for like 6 total hits.
I had pulled back to regroup, and Jeff cast a spell to pull one of my units w/ one of his. My poor guy was suddenly surrounded, and a heavy cav suddenly appear next to two weakened units.
One cool thing about this scenario is that the lore councils are very different. One side has lots of low level guys while the other has a few high level guys. Thus one can cast lots of low level cheap spells, while the other is stuck with higher costs but has some powerful effects.
The lore system is great because it really helps smooth out the luck, and it gives you something to do on the other person's turn. There aren't any downsides I've found, but the 'non-perfect' part is that the various decks (cleric vs rogue vs mage vs warrior) aren't very distinct.
This game is a winner. Simple game play w/ lots of choices. The luck (mostly) comes in many small packages, so it averages out. The lore system smooths out luck and gives you more options and choices. The two caveats are that you've got to like the C&C system and the scenario balance is a uncertain.
It was great to finally meet Carlos, and I'm glad that Amy and Jeff were willing to host.
Looking forward to more chances to get my game on.
Ted, I have been really wantig to try out Battle Lore. Perhaps we can try to get a game together if you don't mind showing it to me from scratch.
Darn, I am so bummed I missed the fun on Saturday. I did have fun with sledge hammers and power saws, and for a moment I imagined I was playing Doom against my house. Still, board games would have been better.
Don't sweat it about the name, Carlos! Its a running SABG joke that every new member starts calling people by the wrong name on the blog. At least it wasn't the classic Jon/Simon combo this time. Besides, I'll take it as a compliment being compared with Ted.
BattleLore and WotR still beckon! Perhaps its too early to discuss next Saturday, but my schedule looks open...
We were glad to host. Happy to hear that you all had fun.
I'm also glad to see I'm not the only one with name issues.
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