Monday, April 30, 2007

Columbia's EastFront and EastFront 2

Columbia’s EastFront is one of my favorite WWII board games. There are many reasons that I think that this game “Works”, and I have played it at least a dozen times. Right now I think the War of the Ring is one of our favorite 2 player games within our group, but EastFront might also be a good one to add to our repertoire. Probably one negative that I have against the game is that to play out the entire war in the east would take quite a while. The game actually has an effective method of scoring victory every six months of game time.

I have not had the chance to look into EastFront 2, but would very much like to some time. If someone (Ted?) is up for a game, I would be all for it. I may have to wait until after May, though. The last month of the school year is always a busy one.

Any thought on EastFront 2?

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Free Yspahan for your PC

Just played it in "Strength: High" (I'm assuming it means HARD), and got my rear handed to me. My score 64. First player: 92.

Westpark gamers made it. It's you vs computer. 2-4 players. Pretty cool. Make sure you install the language pack down at the bottom.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Monday Gaming

I'll be arriving at DL at approximately 10:00 AM to begin board gaming. Right now it looks like we'll have a total of two initially with a third showing up a bit later. I'll be leaving by around 4 PM, but by then the evening crew will probably be appearing. Please post if you plan on participating.

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Saturday Game Report

We started Saturday off with empenadas and Tolkien! Rob, Steve, Ted, and I pulled out Knizia's Lord of the Rings and this week we ratcheted things up by adding in Friends and Foes. I had Battlefields already punched and ready, but after explaining the game with just F&F added the players new to the game (Rob and Ted) felt we had enough to digest without the extra layer. To keep things brief, we made it about halfway through Helms Deep when everyone except the Ringbearer bit the dust. Ringbearer (Pippen/Steve) lasted another 2-3 futile turns before succumbing as well. One thing that killed us was that Sam (i.e., me) when selected to take a black die roll for the team rolled eye symbols instead of corruption damage about four times, rocketing the Dark Lord towards us. Argh!

Time was growing short for Ted, so we decided to play 4-player Nexus Ops. A closely fought game was played, but evil Rob and his flight of dragons carried the day. Once again the player who held the monolith most of the game prevailed.

After Ted departed Rob recruited his brother Kevin to play, and we played a spirited game of Ruse and Bruise. I totally enjoyed the game, and my enjoyment was further enhanced by winning. Hooray!

By then pizza had arrived, and Steve had to leave. We decided to play one more game: Vinci. Amazingly, after spending almost the entire game in last place, Rob raced forward, overtook Kevin and I, and squeaked out victory by a nose! Congratulations, Rob!

Many thanks to Rob for hosting. Score another wonderful Saturday of SABG board game action.

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April Winding Down


After Monday night, we're into May. I'll be at DL at the normal time. And if anyone wants to stop by tonight for some games, well, I wouldn't turn it down.

Last night our plans cleared up, and Jeff and Amy graciously came over. The 'big game' of the night was Pillars of the Earth (left), which is gloriously overproduced. We also got in a game of Glory to Rome, and two games of To Court the King (which I have now played forty times, not counting online). Glory to Rome worked out better, although I still want to see the next edition rules/errata.

For the last few years I've got more satisfaction out of longer (2+ hour) and shorter (30 min) games than the mid range (~1 hour). Nothing conspiratorial, just a number of great entries into the 30 minute range (Court the King, Roma, Yspahan, Cash n Guns ... say, did I mention that I saw the Cash N Guns expansion? Ninjas. You point swords at each other, and have shuriken). Meanwhile, the hour long Euros are stuck in a rut. (Pillars of the Earth is a great example ... it seems heavily influenced by Caylus, just with randomness. I did like Notre Dame, but it seemed like another variant of existing games).

Anyway, if anyone is interested in gaming tonight at my place (starting around 7pm), just let me know in the comments. A quick game of Titan, perhaps.

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Friday, April 27, 2007

Friday Night Gaming


Well, since Brian hasn't posted about hosting tonight, we're going to open our doors for some gaming. We can start tonight at 6 o'clock, if anyone is interested in starting a bit earlier. Please post in the comments if you plan on coming over -- if no one posts, we may make other plans.

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Thursday, April 26, 2007

Star Wars Pocket Model TCG

Thread: Video of pieces, etc. | BoardGameGeek

I think I can actually feel my wallet getting lighter....

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Saturday Morning Board Games

You know the drill. Go time is 0800 hours. I can host unless someone else desires to do so. Coffee provided. Please add a comment if you plan to participate. Agenda suggestions always encouraged.

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BattleLore News

I just found this. It's about a week old, so it might be old news to some.

Wow! I didn't realize these guys had such an ambitious plan for BL. They are clearly planning to have an entire 'universe', and it seems like they have the wherewithal to pull it off, too.

If everything turns out as great as the base game has, this should be amazing!

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Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Fog of War

“Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory;
even more are false, and most are
uncertain.”
—Karl von Clausewitz

The term "Fog of War" was coined by Clausewitz. I found the above quote the in manual for CC:E which is full of amusing and thought-provoking quotes.

I played CC:E one time w/ Brian and I really enjoyed it. I had a strong feeling of narrative, barely controlled chaos, and tension. I won that game partially because neither of us completely understood the rules, and partially because of a single tempo.

“It is even better to act quickly and err than to
hesitate until the time of action is past.”
—Karl von Clausewitz

I have never been in battle, and I hope to maintain a perfect record in this regard. Nevertheless, CC:E seems to capture the "intellectual essence" of the thing w/o the need to change my underwear. The chaos, the narrative, the tension are all really appealling to me.

So what I'm saying is that I was all set to buy one in the next few months now that I've gotten some use out of BL.

But...then I read about Tide of Iron. At first the minis made me think it was a lot like M44, and I figured I wasn't interested. Then I read Tom Vassel's review, and it seems the game is a lot more hard-core than I thought. My guess is that it won't be nearly as chaotic and out-of-control as CC:E which is both good and bad.

The other big difference between the two is that ToI could theoretically be played solo, whereas CC:E, being a card driven game, would be awful solo. In the next few months (years?) it'll be hard for me to schedule lots of time, and a game w/ solo ability has some appeal.

Decisions, decisions...

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Cardhaus Clearance Sale

There seems to be quite a few good deals at Cardhaus right now. They're running a clearance sale on a large number of their board games.... including the Mare Nostrum expansion set!

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Tuesday, April 24, 2007


I really liked several games we've played recently, but they are too long to play on a Monday night without planning. Would anyone like to play any of these on a Saturday?
Mare Nostrum
Railroad Tycoon
Junta
Twilight Empires III
Here I Stand
Conquest of the Empires
I'm going to start with trying to plan a Mare Nostrum game this Saturday, if 3-4 other people are interested. It's really a fun game. Problem is, I don't own one! I also have to make sure that one of the people playing is bringing a copy. Being poor sucks.

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Valley Games reprinting Titan!!!

From the same company that brought us Die Macher and Hannibal: Rome versus Carthage, now comes the long-overdue reprint of the monster slugathon game - Titan!!! Rejoice!

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Fear the Turtle

I just noticed that the Turtle Creek Duplicate Bridge Club opened near me. I haven't played much this last decade or so, but I played tournaments constantly (if not well) for 5 years. And there's a regional tournament in San Antonio this summer...

Civilization, in two hours this time


Us working slobs met yesterday evening at Dragon's Lair. Michael and I started out with Roma, and then I taught Al while Michael got food. Then we played San Marco (which I had only played once, something like 7 years ago). Jeff had arrived, at this point I pulled out Mare Nostrum (the original "Civ in 2 Hours" game).

Old "Horse Nose" does manage to get all the key aspects. You have trading, advances (heroes & wonders), and a military system that you have to use, but don't want to invest too much in. And it's purty.

The basic idea is simple -- Get income, trade, buy, fight. But apart from income, each phase has a 'leader.' And the leader sets the pace. How many cards does everyone have to trade (trading is mandatory)? The Directory of Commerce decides. Who gets first shot at purchasing (which matters in a tightly counter/card limited game, and also forces people to reveal their military hand)? Political leader chooses order. Who moves and fights first (and last)? That's up to the military leader. Each of those leadership positions can change at the end of each turn (measured like "Longest Road" in settlers).

The way to win is build the four Heroes & Wonders -- first person to four gets it, but building the Pyramids is an automatic win. You buy stuff with sets of goods, and a set is either all tax cards (which you get from cities) or all different commodities. And you can't hold commodities from turn to turn.

I love Mare Nostrum, but it's a ruthless game. It doesn't care about balance -- that's your job. If someone is winning you have to stop them, there's no pansy come from behind mechanisms here. So our game went off the rails a bit, mainly because I messed up the setup. (In a four player game you are supposed to omit Babylon, not Greece). Still, at least I didn't win because of my mistake (Ben).

We played a ton of M.N. when it came out (in North Carolina), but it got put away. I've been hoping to try the expansion (which adjusts the base game, adds a sixth player, mythical units and new wonders). Now I think I'm just going to go ahead and buy it. I can't believe I've been letting this sit in the closet.

(For those who were there, the expansion modifies the starting positions as follows: Carthage starts with a legion, Greece starts with a trireme, and Rome can't build fortresses for 2, just legions. And then there's the mythic units, and offerings to the gods!)

I liked Civ, but it's an event to play. Mare Nostrum should enter the regular rotation...

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Spare change, guvna'?

Since unemployment sharply rose by 25% (at my address), I have a slim window of freedom before having to don a suit for interviews. Please feel free to grab me for a last minute game session if the opportunity presents itself.

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An Army Worthy of Mordor: Session Report, Monday 23 Apr 2007



Yesterday, Steve and I gathered to kick off the traditional SABG Monday game session... only this time we started at 0800 hours. Suspecting that no one else was going to show, we decided to once again play War of the Ring (with the expansion). We rolled for sides, and I took the Free People.

The dice started out quite kind to me. I averaged around two Will of the West dice every turn for the whole game, which is amazing luck for me. I've gone a whole game without seeing a single WotW previously, so I thought the time was nigh for a solid FP victory. Aragorn and Boromir were in Minas Tirith on turn 1, dumping a random hobbit next to a tree in Fangorn along the way. By early turn 2, Aragorn was crowned, Treebeard was awake, and Galadriel had spawned. Things were looking good! I started loading the end-game cup with blue tiles and slowly progressed the Fellowship southward.

Then, much to my chagrin, things started departing from the plan... I hadn't invested in muster dice, so the Elves were still far from war. Steve sallied forth from Dol Guldur and before I could react, he burned Lorien to the ground, sent Galadriel back to Valar, all while the Fellowship watched from a nearby hillside. Not good! I truly expected Lorien to put up more of a fight, and this reinforces the lesson that you need to get an extra elite or two in there as soon as you can.

I then made another big mistake, which Steve was quick to capitalize on. I decided to order Theodred and company to stand and fight a second round of combat at the Fords of Issen. Steve rolled well, and suddenly Helms Deep was left with a single regular to defend it. This poor guy promptly soiled his armor, then was overrun. The rest of Rohan soon followed.

The Fellowship kept moving, and made it to Minas Tirith for a turn or two of psychotherapy, and was ready to set forth for Mordor with just three corruption, Gimli, Legolas, Merry, and still the possibility of Smeagol in tow. Steve unfortunately continued his strong military push. His legion at Lorien shot northward and rapidly took down Erebor and Dale, but didn't have enough to take down the Woodland Realm. Next, the Witch King came out of Angmar and took out the Shire. I briefly retook Dale, but then lost it again, which cost me the game! Argh!

Other lessons learned:

- Watch out for the card that nukes Will of the West dice. I was about to stabilize the bleeding with a roll of three Will of the West dice (i.e., Musters), but then Steve cancelled all three with a single card. Argh!

- The Fellowship was on its way to the ring dunk, but I tried to get there too fast. I should have paid more attention to defense in the North.

- I did do a good job at keeping Minas Tirith free. I had Aragon, Boromir, and most of the Gondor military sitting there, and this kept Steve from even attempting an attack the entire game.

We followed this game with two sessions of the Knizia's Lord of the Rings. We lost one and then won one! Woo hoo!

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Recruits Needed?

I've been noticing a bit of attrition among our ranks. Several folks are moving away, I hear Monday nights are faltering. Can we have a roll call? Can folks throw up a reply to state if they are planning to be an active game player in SA in the forseeable future?

To some degree this is natural as people move and their hobbies ebb and flow. Also, within the last 6 mos or so we've picked up about 3 new members: Al, Steve, and the mysterious Sean (?).

Still, it might be time for an event or something.

I have a few ideas.

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Sunday, April 22, 2007

Shadows Over Camelot

I just played my first game of "Shadows Over Camelot" this afternoon. I have not seen any posts on it from our group, so let me give you my thought and ask about yours.

I really enjoyed this game. It was all that I thought it would be and a little more. I would imagine that most of you are familiar with it, so I will spare you the details, other that to say that I liked the shift in the paradigm and the concept of a cooperative game. I know that there are a few such games on the market, but this is the first time I have played one. I found it frustrating trying to convince my companions to take one course of action for the good of Camelot. I myself found it hard to make self-sacrifices for the good of the many vs. the good of the one (Hey, I sound like Spock!).

If you know about this game, the spice that it has to offer is that someone may be the traitor. I was all wrong in thinking that it was this one guy. I mistook his incompetence for deviousness. I was certain that we were going to be a band of brothers who lost our Kingdome to the invading barbarians as we all went down singing glorious songs, only to have my son play the final siege engine that sealed the fate of Camelot…only to see him unmask himself as the traitor as the his dagger snuffed out my life.

This is a great game, especially among friends. It moves quickly and takes about 90 minutes.

Cities and Knights?

Playing Civ yesterday it struck me that Settlers of Catan is sort of a simplified version of Civilization. I have Settlers and the 5-6 player expansion, but I haven't played in several years.

Viewed as version of Civ-lite, Settlers is pretty basic, but still fun. Playing Civilization yesterday was so great, it got me thinking about it more. In particular, I've been thinking about the Cities and Knights expansions. Does anyone have a copy of Cities and Knights?

The reviews all agree that it adds a lot of extra options and depth in addition to longer play time. While there's still no direct combat per se, there's lots of ways to attack each other. There are more things to build, more versions of interaction, and more resources to acquire. Even the longer play time is short compared with Civ. In short, the game is a richer version of Civ-lite.

Does anyone in the group own C&K? I'd love to give it a try.

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Saturday, April 21, 2007

It's Civ in 7 hours!

Over the last few years, one of the holy grails was the "Civilization in 2 hours." Well, this fine morning Ben, Ted and I pulled out the original. The rules took around half an hour, then Ben took Africa, Ted played Crete and I led Italy.

Civ has plenty of systems. Your limited tokens represent people and treasury (and having a shortage of either can be devastating). The advances come in four flavors (Science, Arts, Engineering and Civics), and have a complex discount structure. Finally, you have the "Archeological Something Table." This shows turn order (for many phases) and advancement. Each turn, you move one space to the right. But a few turns have 'checkpoints' -- you need two cities, or three different colors of advances, or seven advances total, or 1000 points of purchases. Don't have the requirements? Lose a turn. In theory, countries could finish in 16 turns, but most countries get hung up for a turn or two 9at least). Each country, apart from having a different starting position, has its breakpoints at different times (and different thresholds for the final few spaces, which usually require 1100+ points).

I managed to take the early lead, purchasing the only Mysticism advance. [There are a limited number of each advance, but in a 3 player game, only Mysticism is limited. In a seven player game, there are normally only four of the basic advances]. This directed a fair amount of wrath my way. Crete used Clothe Making to increase his ships range, while Ben militarized with Metalworking and started plinking us. (Militarization just changes the order of when you lose units, so sometimes you save a unit, or force your opponent to commit another). By this point, we had encountered the other main system in Civ -- trading. There are cards valued 1-9, and you get one card from each stack up to your cities (so, four cities earns a card from the 1, 2, 3 & 4 stack). Most of these cards are just goods, but some are catastrophes. Some calamities hit the player who drew them, others can be traded. In fact, you can trade everything. You can negotiate trades as you like, with some limits on truthfulness (you can't lie about number of cards or total value, and you must trade at least one card specifically named). We mainly traded 'nicely' for the game, keeping things truthful. There's plenty of other things to consider.

By the mid-game (as judged by the AST victory track, closer to 1/3rd of the way by time) when you need seven advances to make the next age, we all got stuck. Ted got astronomy, so the Cretins rules the seas (what with their cloth). Africa over-ran Italy (ugh). Everyone had their own problem -- Ted had to keep ferrying people around (paying the cost of a navy), Ben needed to diversify his advances, and I had too many tokens on the board, which meant I had to move (and commit troops) first.

[I always liked that balance in Age of Renaissance, and now I know where they got it from].

After a few more turns, Ben started pulled ahead on the AST. But he had to surmount the 1,000 points of advances, which cost him a few turns. But he had space to fill up on Civics (which are worth the big points). At this point, he couldn't buy anything else (since you only have so many 'slots'), but was guaranteed to advance for each of the final turns, unless we destroyed all of his cities. Sadly, no earth was salted. Ted and I were both 2 spaces behind him on the AST, although if I'd had 1300 points instead of 1295, I could have moved one extra space. Ah well.

Fortunately, during cleanup we discovered that Ben had been using 55 tokens (instead of 47 for the 3 player game), so I declared that his win didn't count. As pharoah used to say, "So let it be written, so let it be done."

The game took us quite a while, perhaps 7-8 hours. I think with a bit of play we could probably squeeze two hours out of that, but probably not much more. And the game does want more people. If not the full compliment of seven, then at least five (see the comment by Chris Farrel). For day to day play, I suspect I'll be sticking to those games that try to pull this off in 2 hours, but Civ deserves its reputation.

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Friday, April 20, 2007

Gaming during Fiesta, Monday, 23 Apr 2007

For those of you able to tear yourself away from San Antonio's annual Fiesta bacchanal, board gaming at Dragon's Lair starts at 1000 AM (or as soon as someone is willing to join me). I'm able to stay until 4:00 PM. Cascarones are optional.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Saturday Morning Games

Hello, everyone! Its getting to be time again for games and coffee on Saturday morning. Start time and end time are flexible as are the gaming agenda. If you're interested, just post a comment.

I don't expect we'll have a quorum for TI:3 (pictured above), but its nice to think about now and then...

Other random ramblings:
  • I just picked up the full set of Nuclear War and its expansions. Let the madness begin!
  • Also in the box came the new FFG World Tank Museum miniatures... very nice. Unfortunately I just can't convince myself to buy enough to replace everything in Tide of Iron. Maybe if I end up totally loving the game, but apparently its going to be another month at least before I see if Tide of Iron plays as good as it looks.
  • I finally broke down and picked up Federation Commander, the kinder and gentler Starfleet Battles (SFB). Anyone interested in flying a starship?
  • Jeff and I have selected each other a Netflix friends, which seems to be pretty cool. Any other SABG Netflix members interested in joining us?

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Friday Night Games


Jacqui and I will host this Friday night. It's just like old times (has it really been a month or so since we hosted and I went to a Monday night?)

RSVP in the comments!

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Sunday, April 15, 2007

More on WotR: Collector's Edition

Another BGG user recently suggested adding more color to the board for the War of the Ring Collector's Edition. The current board color is one of the few things that's always bugged me about the game. This homebrew variant board looks much more like the Middle Earth I've always imagined and depicted in the movies.

This same user does suggest a 40% increase to the current size, which I think borders on madness, but we'll have to see... In the mean time, I'm looking forward to more plays. Steve and I have even made tentative plans to play the battle scenarios. Feel free to join in on the fun!

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Saturday, April 14, 2007

A little less conversation, a little more action ...

Well, now that I'm back and settled in ... I find out that I can't make next Monday night anyway. I'll be at Dragon's Lair on Tuesday though (playing Shadowfist if nothing else). I'll also bring the bag, and Glory to Rome, which I've now played five times, have noticed quite a few issues with, and want to play again.

Anyway, who will be at DL next Monday? Tuesday? In the immortal words of Caesar: "Bueller? Bueller?"

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Thursday, April 12, 2007

Friday the 13th

Any fellow slackers want to game tomorrow?

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Gaming, Saturday, 14 Apr 2007

Who is up for more Saturday morning gaming action? I think I can tear myself away from income tax preparation and playing Command & Conquer 3 long enough to get some good board gaming in. Arkham Horror still sits on the ramp idling its engines; War of the Ring is always a favorite, and I need to restore myself to winning status after my recent loss to Steve; and of course there's more Struggle for Rome; Viking Fury; Perikles... the list goes on as you all know.

PS: Anyone else playing C&C3? I'm thinking best... RTS... ever! Perhaps not as elegant as Company of Heroes, but a total ton of fun.

If anyone is interested in monitoring our SABG game of Wallenstein, just swing by Spielbyweb and look for the game entitled SABG. I can't post the link right now as the evil net monitors at my daytime operating location block the site.

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Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Jon the Barbarian, Session Report from 9 Apr 2007

Chad, Jon, Rob, and I rallied in the local gaming and mead hall (aka Dragon's Lair) for an afternoon of epic Viking-style raiding and pillaging across medieval Europe in the form of Asmodee's production of the Ragnar Brothers design, Fire and Axe (aka Viking Fury).

In this game we each assumed the role of a Viking tribe, setting out to accomplish feats worthy of being memorialized in the Norse sagas while trading, raiding, and settling. At the start of each week, we had to decide how many warriors and provisions to load into our longboats, then brave the dark waters towards our targets.

Rob the Terrible focused on founding new settlements of his green tribe throughout Northern Europe. Jon the Fierce pursued a strategy of completing the most sagas, which really meant he was a thorn in everyone's side the entire game. Chad the Bloody was the most warlike among us, sacking and pillaging cities up and down the coast, including one particularly brutal and bloody assault to burn Paris to the ground. Ben the not so Terrible, not very Fierce, and kind of afraid of blood meandered a bit around Norway then hurried back to the warm cabin nestled into the fjords.

By then end of a few hours of play, Europe lay in ruins. Chad had by far captured the "bloody axe" bonus of pillaging the most towns. Rob scored a great number of points for his settlements. Jon, however, proved himself the mightiest warrior of them all with his mastery of sagas from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. My tribe was last seen still floundering somewhere outside Oslo harbor, trying to figure out which way the lodestone was pointing...

Overall, a great game!

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Saturday, April 07, 2007

Best Saturday Yet! World of Warcraft on 7 Apr 2007

This morning my humble abode was graced by five wonderful guests from SABG, arriving at the early hour of 0800 AM despite rather nasty weather. We resolved to take on a 6-player game of FFG's World of Warcraft, with the Shadow of War expansion set shuffled into the mix.

Rob did a masterful job at rules explaining as the two teams formed up: Rob, Kevin, and Steve were the evil and smelly Horde, while Jeff, Amy, and I were the shining examples of purity representing the Alliance. The fact that I had to play a female dwarf priest did not in the least bit deter my optimism for our chances at total victory.

Unfortunately, being slain three times during the succeeding turns did that job quite nicely! Both teams had various glorious victories and bitter defeats on the path to the endgame. Steve proved himself to be a particularly mighty opponent, reaching level 4 while most of us were still struggling through level 2! Eventually though as the game progressed to the final turns, both teams seemed closely matched.

Because Steve was so powerful, we (the Alliance team) thought we might have a better chance taking down the Overlord boss in a 3 vs. 1 fight rather than taking on the Horde in a 3 vs. 3 PVP battle. We were almost right... but not quite. Just a bit less sucky luck, and we would have congratulated ourselves on our masterful skill and strategy! So, after resurrecting at the nearest church, we were teleported (with the theme from Mortal Kombat playing in the background) to the final PVP match. As we expected, a major beatdown was then administered, with the evil Horde leaving hoof marks all over our formerly shiny armor!

Good game! I'm really happy with how the expansion set both adds a lot more opportunities for PVP (i.e., player interaction) as well as making killing the blue monsters more fun. I think the game needs one more good, solid patch (aka expansion set) to further enhance interactivity and reduce downtime. I still think WoW is the most beautifully produced game I own, and more than once today I just sat back and marveled at all the pretty bits!

Best of all, of course, was the great fun I had in playing games with five great people. I can't wait to do it again! One good game that might be fun if we get another 6-player group together is Dune...

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Friday, April 06, 2007

Post Holiday Gaming, Monday, 9 Apr 2007

I have the day off on Monday, so I'm up for gaming starting when Dragon's Lair opens its doors until around 4 PM. I'm sure others will continue on through the night. Hope you can make it!

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

FFG on Youtube

This may be old news, but I had never seen this video produced by the staff at Fantasy Flight Games (FFG). The video is in three parts (with the first linked below). If you're interested, definitely watch all three. Its nice to see the designers of some of my favorite games (e.g., Kevin Wilson, Christian Petersen, etc.) hamming it up.

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Gaming Friday 4 / 6 / 07






Get your gaming fix Friday night at Jeff and Amy's!!




Start time 7:00




RSVP in the comments.




If you fail to RSVP, other SABGers may think that no one will be showing up, so they won't RSVP either. Also, if Amy and I think no one is coming, we may go out to dinner, and you'll show up only to be mauled by our cyborg penguin guards.

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Tuesday, April 03, 2007

4/7 Saturday + Session Report + Rambling = fractal chaos

Ha! Ben, beat you to it. Anyone interested in gaming this Saturday? I could play between early am, and 2'ish pm. I'd like to try Die Macher if there is enough interest (I know Ben loves this game). If not on Saturday, maybe next Monday?

4/2 Session report? Jon and I played Epic BattleLore. As always, whenever I have a creature, it meets a premature death. My Hill Giant's hammer was left longing for skulls to crack. Oh, and never forget to fear the BattleLore card. It can be very very nice when you are within range of multiple units that are down to a single figure. After that we played Princes of Florence (I felt like my brain had been dipped in molasses until I finally 'got it'), Hermagor (Michael loved this game... NOT!.... I like the game, so please don't sabotage the group to keep me from trying it again in the future; I want to try it again with the first player determined by the low-numbered tile), and Smarty Party (ahhhh....sports categories, my bane).

I laughed my ass off with all of them (my PoF multiple-park strategy rules!, Michael's Attention Deficit Disorder leading to a screwup and a restart on Hermagor, Mr Milkshake dude and Big Mac Daddy as McDonald characters in Smarty Party), so yes, all were GG's. A break from the hardships of real life... that is what gaming to me is all about. As I stepped out of DL, I went back to worrying about my house which I'm trying to sell, the house I need to buy at Galveston, wife demanding more attention, dog running in the backyard that had just been sprayed with herbicide, sad report on Newsweek about the service men/women that have died in the war, etc etc. Here's to hoping the Houston game group provides the same 'tonic'.

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Sunday, April 01, 2007

4/2 plans



Anyone gaming tomorrow? I could be there early (10am), but will probably get there late (3-4pm?) because Monday nights are getting better again.

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