Saturday Night Football

Well, each game Texas wins makes the next game the "biggest game of the season." Well, I'm opening the doors Saturday afternoon for Texas' biggest game of the season against Texas Tech. The Texas game doesn't start until 7pm, but the other big game of the day, Georgia-Florida, starts at 2:30pm, and I'll probably have that on as well until the Texas game starts. So if you're in a college football mood tomorrow, you're welcome starting at 2pm to come over for some more hamburgers and chips and such. I'm sure there will be some halftime entertainment involving a drum set and a guitar or two.

(Will there be board games? Hard to say--I guess it depends on the size of the non-RB2 contingent that shows up and the board games that show up with them.)

Veggimeeples, anyone?

LOOK!!!! Post Essen goodies from lookout games

Some days should be erased from memory

Today started out well. I took the yummy blueberry muffins that I had baked, and picked Michael up, and drove to the casa de Chris for some lovely Sunday boardgaming. I had planned on leaving gaming, going into work, getting stuff done, and preparing for my meeting with the boss tomorrow, and then top that off by working on my grant proposal. But that was not to be.

When we arrived, Chris and Dennis were there, so there was some rock banding that occurred, and then some lunch (not pizza for a change. We had nummy burgers and macaroni salad and apple pie. Quite good). Then there was some football watching. The Dallas game went a lot better this time, though the Saints/Chargers game seemed to draw more reaction from the crowd.

During half time, Chris and I split to play Agricola, while Michael, Jon (who arrived during football/lunch) and Dennis played Rock Band. I am getting better, at least in the two player against Chris, and being able to be a consistent 40 something point wise. Which is good. Don't know how this will hold up in a multi player. With more vicious people.

Then the football game ended and Dennis suggested that we play Talisman. With some variations/rule fixes that came with the new edition. Something about taking fatigue points to -/+ the die roll by one on movement and picking who you want to kill when you are inthe center place of doom instead of rolling to see if you hit. Which is why, despite me being a wicked awesome troll of doom with Michael ever so gleefully killed me off. I suppose that is what happens when you are as threatening as I am. So then there was the end of the game. And more rock band playing.

And Chris and I played more Agricola. 2 more games.

And then i told the band that they needed to wrap it up so I could take Michael home and head to work. And so we wrapped it up. Packed up and left. To find out my car wouldn't turn on. Yay!!!!!! Broken Honda Civic! So we tried to jump it with Chris's car. But then decided that Dennis's Honda was better. And so we jumped it. And it turned on. Yay!!!!!!. So we unhooked everything, and since it was getting dark I tired to turn on the lights. And it dies. Boo!!!! And we tried to jump it again. And we were epic fail. Epic. And so, Dennis left, and we called AAA to come to the rescue.

And about an hour and half later they show up.

And taught us how to properly jump a car.

1) Hook up cars according to instructions.
2) Turn on dead battery car's lights. If lights are not on, you do not have a proper circuit and the car is not grounded properly
3) Turn on the car that is being jumped
4) Victory

additional information

if you have a civic, there is this nice little indicator light on the battery of battery cell health. It should be green. Mine was non existence. Deader than a doornail. So my poor little civic, running on alternator power, since the battery was dead, limped home and 1604. and now sits dead outside. But we are getting a new battery for her in the morning. And installing it. I might beg help from the apartment complex office manager. Since he knows how to do these things. And I don't.

But thanks to all who helped tonight in the car saga o Tiffany.

Needless to say, I will not be there Monday night. I have a lot of work to catch up on.

monday planning

Will the chickens chasing a cricket game be played? Will any political games come out to play? Will I be able to finish Sean off in the SABBL world series before the real world series ends? Come Monday and find out. (I hope to be there 5:15/30 but a late meeting could possibly put me a bit later.)

Weekend Planning

This is what I get for planning early, I suppose.

A friend called me up and gave me two extra tickets to the UT game this weekend. This means no hosting for me on Saturday.

I can switch hosting to Sunday, though (I don't think anyone is going to drop two free tickets to an NFL game in my lap between now and Sunday). If you can come over on Sunday, post within, and if there's some interest, I'll be here.

EDIT: Open on Sunday from 10am until whenever.

Emergency Saturday Rebound Gaming!

Since Chris has denounced saturday gaming, Casa de Bankler stands ready and able to host! We'll open the doors at 9am until whenever. RSVP in the comments

GMT Rocks

Today saw a slew of great announcements from one of my favorite game companies, GMT Games. 

GMT added Washington's War, the re-make of We the People to their P500 list.  Now I can stop searching in vain for the fabled thrift store with an in-shrink, mint copy sealed under glass for $5.  I expect this to rocket to 750+ orders quickly.

Next, the annual Fall sale offer arrived, complete with loyal customer sales.  Anyone who bought a game via P500 this year may buy one or two games at 50% off.   Woo hoo!  Now to figure out if I want anything besides more counter trays....

Last, GMT announced a “Tough Economy” special offer where if you have lost your job recently and remain unemployed, GMT will send you two free games of your choice.  Yowza!

In related news, my copy of Pursuit of Glory just arrived and looks very nice!

It is all a big scam to make us buy more games....

sigh

Veggimeeples in Le Havre..... so evil.

Speaking of, there should be Agricola this week. So I can play. Sometime after Wednesday. Just saying. Anyone interested? Thursday maybe?

Monday Planning Post

After working 36 hours in a row, I may be a bit tired when it comes to Monday evening gaming. But since we didn't get in any games this weekend, I may just have to push past the limits of human endurance for the sake of having fun. Anyone planning to come by Dragon's Lair Monday evening? If I am not comatose, I'm looking at being there about 5pm (+/- time for food beforehand).

XB360 suggestion and weekend planning

Ok, so I think we're all doing our own things this weekend. My time is limited this weekend, so no hosting for me, as you might have guessed. Hopefully, we're all getting things taken care of so we can play next weekend (or Monday evening). So I'll go ahead and offer to host next weekend (the 25th). Clear your schedule. (Texas game at 2:30pm).

Now that I've made this gaming-related, let me throw this in for my XB360 friends. I'm playing Dead Space and it's fantastic. Now, we all like different types of games, and I think the fact that XB360 caters to so many different tastes is great. But if anyone likes story-based first-person shooters like Bioshock, this game is easily on the same level. (Yes, I know Dead Space is actually third-person, but it plays like a FPS.) Disclaimer- it's not for the little kiddies at all.

The reason I bring this up is that there is a free downloadable Elite Suit on the XBox Marketplace that really improves the game by lifting the restrictive inventory limit. But it's free only for a limited time. So if you think you might ever play this game, download it now. It's a tiny download, and it can sit on your HD forever until you get the game, even if it's months from now. Like I said, it makes the game a lot better without breaking it; in fact, it unbreaks it, as I think the inventory restriction with the original suit makes that part of the game just painful.

When I downloaded it, I was surprised how much more enjoyable the game became. So I wanted to get the word out, and this seemed the best way to do it.

Finally, the XB360 upcoming schedule:

10/19- RB2 Bundle (finally!)

10/21 Fable 2

10/21 Far Cry 2

10/28 Fallout 3

11/7 Gears of War 2

11/11 Call of Duty: World at War (online 4-player co-op campaign!)

Good times.

So it isnt the X-deck but it is a guaranteed Agricola Expansion

This would provide some variety, yes?

And fun international mail :)

Looking for Refs at Milleniacom

I've heard that Milleniacom is looking for people to run board and card games at the convention. Just thoutht I'd pass the word on. The link I was given:
http://www.millenni umcon.com

Friday Agricola???

So my faulty memory seems to remember a request for some Friday Agricola. And an offer by yours truely to host. Is my memory correct? Are there people inteested? If so, what time? Let me know. So I can know what I am doing with my Friday night :)

Long Time, No Game

Hey guys, it's been awhile since I last gamed with y'all, or posted on this board for that matter. I figured I'd drop a line and say that I'm gonna try to start coming around more often.

That said, I've hardly been slacking in the gaming department.

Dungeons and Dragons: I've been playing in a regular D&D campaign (4th edition) for about a month and a half. The game is decidedly influenced by MMOs, especially World of Warcraft. I wouldn't call the change BETTER than previous editions, but it's definately a DIFFERENT experience. The game is geared more towards miniature combat when it comes to the actual fighting, which is a cool thing in my book, while the rest of the RPing aspects of the game are largely untouched. I've never been much of a fantasy RPer (my tastes lean more towards sci-fi and modern day games), but I've been enjoying it quite a bit. If anyone's interested, I think my group has room for one or two more people.

Other Gaming: A long-time friend of mine has organized a regular gaming night on Fridays. He got a bunch of his co-workers and former co-workers interested in various games, and once their interest peaked he decided to get everyone together for regular gaming with a few of us "seasoned" gamers. We've played everything from Twilight Imperium and Struggle of Empires to our current group favorite: Horrorclix.

My friend who organizes the gaming nights bought a couple of starter sets and some boosters for the game, and we draft figures from that pool to use in the game. We use some house rules, mainly to allow five or six people to play in one big battle royale. It can be a mess, but it's an amusing mess.

We also play video games during our gaming nights. Soul Calibur 4 is the current favorite, although my old school fighting game sensibilities don't care for its dumbed-down mechanics compared to previous games in the series. I'm a bit of a fighting game snob, though, and everyone else digs the game quite a bit. I'm just waiting for Street Fighter 4 to finally come out, then I'll be happy.

Monsterpocalypse: I recently bought into this game. Yeah, it's a collectible game, which quite a few people don't care for, but for me this is a dream come true. Other than Monster Menace America, I've yet to see a full-blown giant monster game outside of the realm of video games, so I had to give the game a try.

While the game is like most other miniature games, in that the gameplay is all about moving about the map and taking down units, it has a clever bit where the action dice you use to make your attacks effectively act as action points. It costs action dice to spawn new units, it costs dice to move units, and of course it costs dice to make attacks. You have 10 action dice to use each turn, so you have to use them wisely. Do you use them to spawn more units, or do you use them on a big attack against your opponent's monster? It isn't the most brilliant game ever made, but there's a surprising amount of tactics for a game about Godzilla-wannabes and UFOs wrestling and destroying buildings.

I think it's a thing ot beauty.

Anyway, like I said, I'm going to try and be around more often. While I get a decent gaming fix with my other group, they don't have a taste for a lot of the games I've been craving to play. For instance, I doubt I'd ever get them to try out something like Agricola.

end of sabbl season?

Ok, so the first question is are Brian, Dennis, Jon, or Michael interested in playing any more regular season games and within mathematical reach of 4 games over .500 in their remaining games? Based on what I have heard and not heard I think the answer to this is no. So the second question is whether Chris is interested in playing any more regular season games. I asked last night and the answer was no. If any of these folks would like to indicate that I am wrong or that they have changed their minds hopefully they can do so within the next week.
All of this is preface to what otherwise appear to be the final standings of the top 3 in the league: MarlinCubs (my team) 16-11; Sean's team 14-10; Chris' team 12-9. (I would hope this would qualify me for manager of the year or luckiest strat baseball manager for the regular season since I ran my team and the second part of Sean's team.)
So this would seem to set up the SABBL world series between my team and Sean's team with my team getting home field advantage games 1-2 and 6-7. (Interesting side note that I play in Philly stadium and Sean in Fenway; the two stadiums that were in our league and that are at least for the moment still in the running in the MLB post season; coincidence?)
I asked Sean last night and at that point he was willing to take back over the reigns of his team to play me and my team in the world series. Sean, if you have had or have a change or heart let me know.
So I am thinking/hoping this means we could start the SABBL world series Monday night? I assume a 4 man rotation because of the days of rest between games 2 and 3 and 5 and 6.
Again please let me know if you feel anything I have outlined doesn't sound right but otherwise perhaps we can put an end to this season and enjoy some final baseball. (Dennis I have Chris' team and can give it to you the next Monday you can attend.)

And they're off!

Scott, Chris and I were at Dragon's Lair and started off with a game of Acquire. I managed to win the first merger ... and then no mergers happened until after everyone had run out of money. That usually lets the player who got the most money in the first merger run away with it.

Our game was no exception.

We then broke out the Sport of Kings in Win, Place and Show. Sean had arrived, so the four of us played the ponies for a while. It's been a long time since I've played WPS, and I like some of the ideas (such as a single throw for all the horses), but six races is just too long for my tastes. (That's my problem with my favorite horse racing game, which is Really Nasty). Fortunately we called the game after three races, which was about right.

Then we all pretty much turned into pumpkins. Sean and I played a few 2-player games of Race (with new homeworlds) I oohed and aahed over Monsterpocalypse (but didn't buy) and everyone headed off to wherever it is people go when the aren't gaming. Are Monday nights slowly dying out in favor of the weekends? It's starting to look that way...

Randomness : Poker

It is a game, though it isn't a board game, per se, so this might be a bit off topic. One of the guys at work (Dave) who said he would eventually come to board gaming, though he works far more than anyone in the building I think, used to play a lot of poker before he moved to SA. And now that he is here, he was looking for some people to play poker with again. So I told him I would ask some of the people i know if anyone would be interested. I do not know the particulars, for I know he hasn't figured it out yet. But there might be some semi-regular poker playing. If anyone is interested. So let me know. So I can tell Dave.

monday planning

So who is up for Monday night at DL? I suppose some folks might even have Columbus day off but not being among them I expect to be there in the 5:15-30 range. So will Monday night be Columbus day themed? Come and find out.

Play Agricola Online 1-4 Players

Well, what do you know? It was bound to happen. Looks like someone figured it out.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/345804

GMT Expansion Goodness (and Weekend Planning)

While I imagine that anyone that is remotely interested in this got the same email I did, I just wanted to post this for much rejoicing. Imperial Rome and Epic Ancients. Man, that's like chocolate and...well, more chocolate. Internal Roman civil wars sounds fun. And revised rules and special cards for Epic battles? That can't be bad, either. Sign me up.

Let's start talking weekend. Now, Saturday is the OU game at noon EDIT: oops, it's at 11AM. That can't really be any more in the middle of normal Saturday gaming time, so unfortunately, Saturday is right out for me as far as gaming goes (but someone else can feel free to host if that's the best time for everyone). I'm up for hosting some Sunday gaming, as the Cowboys don't play until 3:15pm. But Sunday will always be family day for some, and I also get the impression that we're moving into a part of the year where others of us will start having less time to get together, so I'm trying to gauge the level of interest for Sunday morning. Anyone interested?

In addition, someone help a friend out and post a session report from Monday night.

monday planning

So we know we have an SABG alum due to attend. Who else will be making it to DL tomorrow night? I have had an unexpected change that has left me free to attend for the next month so I should be there 5:15-5:30.

Introducing Friends to Gaming

One of my friends came over tonight for a nice introduction to some Euro gaming. She has heard me talking about this mysterious gaming thing that I do, and is contemplating some Monday gaming, but wanted to try some things out first. So she came over for some snacks and gaming goodness. After looking at my collection, I wanted to give her a sampling of gaming, without bashing her over the head with stuff. She liked the look of Puerto Rico and Notre Dame, but since it was the two of us, i decided against it. I also didn't wanna attempt Agricola, though the thought did cross my mind, and I was quite tempted. So after all that inner monologueing we I decided that perhaps starting with Fjords was a good idea.

Sandra caught on quickly and won one of the three rounds, but the final round was very close. I ended up winning by one space. (much to my relief (sadly))

We then moved on to Cartagena, a nice little game of pirate debauchery. We ended up playing two games. I pulled ahead quickly in the first game, and she did not get her people out fast enough. In the second game she won, pulling all her people into the boat before I could get my last two there.

Then I decided to move onto something with more depth. Something near and dear to my heart. Tikal. And she liked it (much to my happiness. the more people who will play it with me the better). We ended up two final points about.

And so, Sandra said that she would be in touch about gaming. So I might start bringing a friend. :)

The Xbox Experience

Some of you were wondering what else was in store for us when Microsoft announced the the Xbox Live Experience. Sure, we knew it had avatars, and Live Party functionality, but what else did the future hold for us, the Xbox 360 consumer? Major Nelson is on the case, with a letter from Marc Whitten detailing some of the new things that'll be made available in the fall.

Let's get right to the meat of the letter. Here are the outlined details from Whitten's memo that should pique your interest:

Play from hard drive.
Copy your games from the game disc and play directly from the hard drive. Not only will the drive not spin, but load times are quicker, as well. Of course, you will still need the disc in the tray to prove you own the game.

Access Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the Web.
Browse and purchase Marketplace content whenever you want from Xbox.com and it downloads automatically to your console. Purchase that new map, television episode, the latest Xbox LIVE Arcade game or set up a movie to watch when you get home from work.

Dashboard built into the new Xbox Guide.
For everyone who loves the blades interface, it’s not going away; they are now built directly in to the new Xbox guide. Every feature and option is available right from the guide. You can even access your full games library at all times. No matter where you are (in dash or in game), immediately call up your games played list and directly launch a game.

LIVE Party system.
Create a party of up to eight friends, and stay with them from one game to another, or watch a Netflix movie together, or share a slideshow of your personal photos. It works with all Xbox 360 titles, not just upcoming games. LIVE Party allows up to eight people to chat in the dashboard, so you can meet up before playing.

Xbox LIVE Primetime.
This whole new category of games is going to give you more reasons to get online with your friends. Games will support everything you’d expect, like Achievements and leader boards, but many of these games will include real prizes. You can invite your friends, and even set a reminder for an upcoming show. Each game is broadcast simultaneously, so everyone is answering the same questions. Many events will have a live host, calling the shots as they happen.

Avatars.
Your online identity started as a Gamertag - it then grew into a personalized Gamercard. Now, it has evolved even further into avatars. You can express your style, check out new outfits and share this with the community. Avatars will also be integrated into Xbox LIVE Arcade games, LIVE Party, as well as retail games.

New display support.
Because you asked for it, we are adding 16X10 over VGA or HDMI, and support for 1440x900 or 1680x1050.

As you can see, there's a lot in the works for the Xbox 360 consumer. What we're most interested in is the ability to play from the hard drive, as that sounds like a great way to play through a potential multi-disc endeavor like the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII.

In any event, Whitten promised more updates in the future, so we'll keep you updated with more information as it becomes available.