Just in time for the Holidays...

...my 11 month old X-Box 360 Elite snuffs it! There I was, vainly trying to chase down Jon's gamer score in Fallout 3, slaying mutants, deathclaws, and mean guys in power armor when my console freezes. I reboot to be greeting with three very bright flashing red lights. Noooooo!

Oh well... thank goodness for the 3-year warranty. I guess its time to try some of those old PS2 games I never got around to playing... Anyway, hopefully I'll be back in commission in a month or so.

I other news, a package finally made it to my house from Germany containing the two new Duel in the Dark expansions. The Baby Blitz expansion is particularly interesting, as it turns the tables in the game with Germany now serving as the attacker. Component quality is very high and doesn't seem to suffer from the original release's toxic mold smell.

In any event, thank you for indulging my need for a cathartic blog posting. I feel a bit better now. I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season.

monday planning

I should be at DL between 5:15 and 5:30 tomorrow night. Who else thinks they will be making it out and when? I have a sneaking suspicion that those wacky Cylons will once again be dusting it up with those irrepressable Humans. (Vegas is going with the Cylons as the favorite; tin cans or no they always go with the odds.) There is a chance the final game of SABBL world series will be played or at least started.

What site was offering Dominion play via web options? Is there an AI or just an opportunity to play others via the web? What other AI options are out there for games that might also come up face to face?

WE MADE IT--almost

The good news is that Galactica made several amazing against-the-odds FTL jumps to make it to Kobol.

The bad news is that they forgot to bring humanity with them.

Midway through the game, two cylons [Michael as Boomer and Tiffany as Admiral Adama] had been revealed (after both having been arrested by President Roslin [strong work, Jon] and thrown in the brig). The humans seemed to be holding their own when a basestar jumped in next to Galactica and raiders shot out and began targeting civilian ships. The new admiral, Starbuck [Dennis] began strafing the raiders while Baltar [me], sensing the growing threat, left the lab and got on the horn to command the other vipers from Galactica. Meanwhile, Chief Tyrol [Scott] was kept busy in the hangar repairing the vipers as they returned with their battle damage. Starbuck called in a nuclear strike on the basestar while evading raider fire. Although the basestar survived, its ability to both launch new raiders and fire at Galactica was wiped out.

Suddenly, a bright flash of light erupted, and Colonial One was gone, wiped out by a Cylon bomb. Almost immediately, another basestar jumped in and the stars were thick with raiders (and vulnerable civilian ships). Feverishly, Starbuck wiped out one squadron and flew to defend another group of four civilian ships. He called in his second tactical nuclear attack and the new basestar vanished in a ball of fire. The moment of peace was short lived, however, as a third basestar jumped in in front of Galactica! The humans were now out of nukes and the remaining civilian ships were starting to fall. The FTL drive, which had been agonizingly slow to charge, finally came online and Baltar triggered the jump to save the remaining civilian ships from almost certain destruction.

However, Galactica did not travel as far as they needed to, leaving themselves two agonizingly difficult jumps from Kobol. The cylons began to throw crisis after crisis at the humans and the resources began to bleed away. One more jump, and the humans were one final FTL drive charge from home. But population had dwindled to one. Galactica and the fleet sacrificed all of their other resources to spare the last vestiges of humanity as the Cylons launched Incoming Nukes at the ship. Finally, down to (if I remember correctly) 1 fuel, 2 food, 1 morale, and 1 population, and with all of the humans' skills exhausted, we realized that one more crisis would certainly stop Galactica just short of its goal. We needed to jump NOW.

I drew one last tactics card, trying to draw a +2 to a die roll for the final jump chance. No luck. Finally, Scott moved to FTL control and triggered the jump. A success, and we would be home. A failure, and we would leave the fleet behind (-3 population) and humanity would end. We needed a 7 or 8. The die roll came.

Six.


WOW! This was incredibly close! Every roll for the humans seemed to be one short, but we still had a chance on that last roll to win the game. If Scott rolls a 7 or 8, we win. If I draw the +2 card and Scott rolls the same 6, we win. But no. The anguished cries as the die settled on the six were a testament to how much fun we all seemed to have. This game seems to be getting better with every play. And I think we got all the rules right.

Can't wait for Monday night. Sleep or no sleep, I want to play again.

it's an interesting debate about exactly what the best tactic is for an unrevealed Cylon. Do you blatantly spike the skill check right before your turn and then reveal so that you can't be thrown in the brig? I've seen Brian do this, and it seems to make sense. Do you try to stay hidden and throw a few bad cards in to make skill checks more difficult? In my experience so far, this hasn't panned out--as soon as a Cylon does this, they get found out pretty quickly because the humans can trace back who could have thrown in the errant colors by who DRAWS those colors, and it's even harder if some of the people who draw those colors decide not to throw in on that check (so that they're automically eliminated from suspicion). From my recollection, this is how we discovered Tiffany's treachery. It's awful difficult to surreptitiously spike a check and stay undiscovered. It would only make sense to do this if the reveal power for the Cylon is so unhelpful (because you have to assume you're going to be discovered, brigged, and lose the reveal power) that causing the skill check to fail is worth the risk. Michael made an interesting choice that I hadn't seen before. His power was to automatically determine the result of a skill check before it was resolved. We had an early skill check which was very helpful (I think it advanced the jump track twice, and the failure cost morale, or deployed a basestar, or something), and Michael outright said, "No, we fail that." Still pleading that he wasn't a Cylon, he was instantly brigged, but he remarked later that he thought trading his reveal power for the skill check automatically failing was a reasonable tradeoff. Interesting.

We also got in a game of Dominion (better in person than I was expecting after having played it online--the shuffling didn't bother me much) with a highly interactive deck, a quick fun game of Thebes (which came down to the last play for all of us [Scott, Tiff and me]), some Ca$h 'n Gun$ (being able to move around like a ninja didn't help Michael at all, as he was dead before turn 5) and four games of Race, which Michael seems to be consistently excellent at.

A few songs of Rock Band thrown in (with an agonzing 98% fail of "Gonna Hitch a Ride" just as the crowd began to applaud), some pizza and breakfast tacos (Mr. Black tried again for a taco, but Tiff is on to him) and it was all in all a really good day. Thanks to Dennis, Scott, Michael, Jon, and Tiffany for dropping by.

P.S. DennisOops--MICHAEL, I still have your Stage II. I'll get it to you either Monday or next weekend if you're around for gaming.

Quick reminder

I think everyone knows this already, but a handful of people are coming over at 10am for games. We're still on, and everyone of course is welcome.

Michael, don't forget the power cord if you want to play some XBox.

Post Turkey Crushing of Humanity

If there's gaming, there must by our good, dear friend.
Anyway, I happened to be a Cylon twice. I may have missed some details but I wrote two session reports for BGG. The highlight of the day was definitely getting caught by Michael Baltar and then, if not exactly convincing the crew, casting enough doubt to keep me out of the brig and force several actions (and plenty of cards) to be wasted on the debate. May have very well won that game if I had a partner-in-genocide.

Besides destroying humanity, we also played a quick game of "We didn't playtest this at all." I've now spent more time typing about the game (these two sentences) then playing the game, so I'm done. We also played a hand of 6 Nimmt! I'm sure the rest of you played other stuff (either during or after BSG) so I'm awaiting edification on that part.

Secret Santa Stuff

Just so people know, since it makes me happy. Soon I will have a nice new game/games to play with. Probably that only i like. But still. Variety is good. Just wanted to announce that. My box was sent out on black friday. Which turned out to be an amazingly good day. Which is nice after the series of amazingly not good days.

I wonder what a medium sized box means as far as included games means.........

I'm thankful ...

That we haven't yet invented the race that will annihilate us. I speak, of course, of the Turducken. As far as I know, we've only got those in safely dead form. But as the Biologists work in their labs towards breeding a living turducken, and I fear for humanity. Tomorrow. Today I help protect humanity from wild turkeys by eating as many of them as I can find. Hopefully Tiffany, Jeff and Amy aren't playing God by mixing such tasty and dangerous DNA.

Tomorrow there will likely be morethreats to humanity. I've written my thoughts in numerous places, but I'm still eager to play again. But if I can't make tomorrow, interested parties may wish to look at some slight (and not so slight) balancing variants.I also think they make the game more interesting. (Of course, with new players probably best to play a few more straight games, but I'd be interested to hear what others think about these).

Enjoy humanity while you still can! Happy T-Day!

Anyone want a pair of shoes?

http://www.sportiela.com/store/product.php?productid=19162&cat=302&page=3

Giving Thanks for Games

Amy and I would like to host a game day either Friday or Saturday. I know there are some plans already in the works. Post your intentions in the comments and we'll work out a schedule that allows maximum gaming for the most people.

Next to "Traitor" in the Dictionary

Me (Roslin), Travis (Tigh), Brian (Starbuck), Chris (Baltar), and Scott (Admiral Adama) started BSG at 5:30 on Monday. Right off the bat, no one took Chief Tyrol; not a good sign. But we clearly had no Cylon in the early going, and jumped through five units with minimal losses.

After the sleeper phase I was stunned to find that I still wasn't a Cylon. But with the first action after the sleeper phase, for safety's sake, I used a Quorum card to check one of Adama's loyalty cards. Sure enough, he's a Cylon -- but of course, no one believes me at first, because (a) what are the odds?, and (b) I'm always the Cylon, and that's exactly what a Cylon would have said. The loudest proponent of this view was Brian, who quickly modified a crisis card decision and revealed himself as the other Cylon. The good guys sacrificed population left and right to speed-jump to eight units, but couldn't draw any more jump counter moves before Brian took our last drop of fuel with the Inbound Nukes super crisis card. Still, not a bad run -- Galactica was undamaged, we had 4 population, and we were only one jump away.

At that point I had to quickly buy some paint and run to the airport. But as I'm at the register, the guy behind the counter hands me the phone. It's my wife -- the guy I'm supposed to pick up just called and said he never got on the plane. It turns out the rest of the message got garbled; he didn't get on because of some kind of security/visa issue (he's Russian), and is taking the first flight tomorrow morning. So nobody's in trouble. But hey, time for more BSG!

This time it's me (Apollo), Brian (Roslin), Chris (Admiral Adama), Tiffany (Boomer), Jon (Chief), and Michael (Tigh). Before I even begin my first turn Michael is convinced I'm a Cylon, and considers throwing me in the brig. On his first turn a crisis comes up that, if passed, will let him check one loyalty card. Of course I know he's going to check mine, and of course, I *am* a Cylon. I dumped my entire hand to defeat the crisis and still lost, not only revealing myself, but allowing Michael to check someone else's card too. Great start.

The humans reach the halfway point with fuel and food barely in the red, but *13* population. The next loyalty cards come out, and of course, I get the sympathizer. No third cylon, since two dials are red, but I can throw someone in the brig. I decide to go all or nothing, hoping that Michael drew the other Cylon card, because he's always a Cylon too. So I toss Chris (Adama) in the brig, passing his Admiral title to Tigh. And you can guess the result -- Chris was the other Cylon, and even through Brian released him, he was quickly re-brigged before he could reveal. The humans coasted to an easy victory with only fuel down to 1, and even that only on the last crisis. Early Cylon catches and frequent use of scouting cards (Michael's deft hand with the raptor notwithstanding) were the key -- only one Cylon ship card came up the whole game.

Rob, we're talking about doing things on the day after Thanksgiving. I'll have my brother with me and we'll be looking to game while the women shop.

Monday Planning

Another weekend, another planning post. While I could sure go for more Cylon goodness, there are options. I didn't order the new Titan, but if anyone is itching to play, I wouldn't mind seeing what the new set looks like. (Titan is one of my handful of '10' ratings). Or trying Red November Or whatever Sean brings back from BGG.con. ("Huge Karmic Debt?") Or if Le Havre happens to pop today (which I doubt). Or some Race. (Damn, I wish Keldon could release his Computer Opponent). Did anyone order Neuland from Tanga? (I missed it). You know what, we can just do everything. No work happens for the rest of the year, anyway.

And, since you asked, why yes I am a Sexy, shoeless, God of War. (And comedy gold).

Baby Name Game

And in other news, my wife Amy did a wonderful job delivering our new baby this morning. Baby and Mom are doing very well, and we're all thrilled at the new addition. Notice how I'm saying Baby a lot? That's because despite taking almost eight months to pick out a name for our new little girl, she decided to play a prank on us and grow a wiener. So we're now picking out boy names... And yes, that is our third boy for those keeping track at home.

7lbs4oz, 19inches, +2 cards when producing on any windfall world.

Day 62: OH GOD!! THEY'RE EVERYWH-

With a basestar right ahead, Admiral Adama, President Baltar, and the crew of Galactica (Chief Tyrol and pilots Apollo and Helo) had no time to waste. Yet things started poorly -- the crew failed to overcome their first crisis (a hangar accident), costing them some men and precious Raptors. Meanwhile a second basestar appeared, and soon four heavy raiders stuffed with Cylon boarding parties were steaming towards the hangar bay. The basestars opened fire and damaged Galactica's jump control, leaving the ship dead in space. Challenge after challenge was left unconquered, and morale dipped dangerously low. Only Apollo's deadeye shooting (knocking out two of the heavy raiders) and Chief Tyrol's quick repair of jump control kept humanity's slim hopes alive.

The Cylons soon caught up with two basestars, but a precious nuclear warhead from Admiral Adama dispatched one, and the other failed to add more damage before the next jump. At this point things seemed to improve. Crises were dispatched at a solid pace (though one cost the crew its only remaining nuke), the remaining boarders were dispatched, and Galactica was repaired. Despite all resources being at 50%, the third jump put Galactica 75% of the way home, and optimism was growing.

Which is, of course, when the bottom falls out. First a basestar ambushed while green pilots were on a trainee mission. Apollo flew out to protect them, and started mowing down Cylon raiders at a dizzying pace (he would end up dropping 14 in four turns). Meanwhile Baltar's new screening device discovered that Chief Tyrol was a Cylon. But the next player (Apollo) was unavailable to throw Tyrol in the brig, and the next player after that was...Tyrol. He revealed himself, shot Baltar, and called in a massive assault of ten more ships. And before the crew could rally to defend came the worst cut of all -- Admiral Adama revealed himself as a Cylon, threw the bleeding Baltar in the brig, and took personal control of the invading fleet. In two minutes the humans ran out of raptors; in five they ran out of humans.

------------------------------------

Holy cow, this game is fantastic. A bit long, but that will come down with experience. The slow creeping dread punctuated by total panic when the basestars arrive is just fantastic.

It turned out that Brian (Tyrol) and I (Adama) were both Cylons from the beginning, so the humans were hard-pressed. I steered Galactica's jumps as poorly as possible and wasted both nukes, while once Brian stopped fixing things, the humans were in trouble. I think human victories will rely heavily on more scouting (to find better Crisis and Destination cards), more Quorum cards, and quicker detection of the Cylons (since they are generally stronger while hidden, where they can screw up Crises more efficiently). Can't wait to play again.

Celebrate quick before it abruptly ends

Good thing I didn't buy any Troy gear this week, because for a rare moment there's (restrained) optimism. Spurs win 2 by 2, Cowboys keep hope from being stomped out for at least one more week, and the Horns win against the small moon Mangino ("that's no moon").

A Missouri win in the Big 12 championship game might be the only path to the big game, assuming the Aggie cultists don't have their one good game of the year.

Milleniumcon was ok, but little there for a 25mm ancients/medieval fan.

Paths of Glory, Texas Glory Update

Just got word that Texas Glory, the new Columbia Games block game about the Texas War of Independence is shipping.

Jose and I just finished our second campaign game of Paths of Glory. Jose's Central Powers won in the Summer of 1918 after I resigned. My undoing can be traced to August 1914. The Germans had launched an offensive into Sedan that failed miserably. The French couldn't stand to sit in their forts and launched a massive counterattack into Sedan. Sedan is exposed to attack from 3 sides and the French armies were decimated. This allowed the Germans to advance deep into France and besiege Paris. The Allies were able to recover but not before the Germans were able to form a heavily fortified line running from Calais to Amiens to Strassbourg. This proved to be a handicap for the rest of the game.

Even so, the Allies stayed in the game and made the CP work for their victory. It remained close into 1918, when my Balkan expedition got caught out of supply. That was the final straw and I decided to throw it in.

I'm looking forward to my next game.

Monday (& Mules)

So, since our weekend gaming didn't happen (if someone wants to do something tonight, I could host but can't travel), I figured I'd start the thread for monday. And ask another question -- is anyone going to BGG con? It seems like all of us are bailing for some random reason. Usually involving babies. Because if someone is going then usually other people ask them to bring back all sorts of stuff.

Me, I'm wondering if anyone would sell my stuff at the flea market. I've got a copy of Gridiron Master. Painful to ship, but someone may spring for it at the flea. (Obviously I'd give my seller a cut). Plenty of other games too.

Anyway, I'll be at DLair at monday, normal time. Anyone wanting to game tonight (or mule) drop a comment. I'll be home from 7pm (ish) onwards.

Weekend planning

For those who may be interested, Casa de Chris will be unavailable for the next three weekends. Just putting it out there so people can plan accordingly/grieve/whatever. (I should be around for Monday nights, though.)

SABBL world series

I am happy to post game reports as detailed as folks would like but sensing less interest I figure I will just post the scores of the five games to date:
game 1 Sean 2 Scott's Marlin Cubs 15
game 2 Sean 7 Scott's Marlin Cubs 1
game 3 Scott's Marlin Cubs 5 Sean 0
game 4 Scott's Marlin Cubs 8 Sean 3
game 5 Scott's Marlin Cubs 5 Sean 11
So that leaves us going back to Philly, my home stadium with my team up 3-2 and needing one of the last 2 games.

BGG ticket for sale

It looks like I can't make it to the convention; rule #1 --with pregnancy MOD.

I will take the $60.00 I paid; if interested, email me at mtraviswhite@yahoo.com

Other than that, hope things are going well. I'll be off the entire week of Thanksgiving so hopefully I will get to see a few of you then.

Take care,

Travis

La Havre Orders

Did you all see this ? La Havre Info

Game Gotten On, Check!

Thanks (as always) to Chris for hosting. Much football, much rock band, and much Race Expansion. I'm not sure what other games were played in the morning (perhaps others can comment), but Chris, Scott and I also got in a three player game of "Through the Ages."

Following Moon's Rule ("Real Gamers start out by playing the full game, with all optional rules"), we forced Scott into the full game. Chris got off to an early lead, pocketing an extra 1-2 VP a turn. Everyone had a small, roughly equivalent military. In Age II, Scott discovered science ("It works, bitches") but was lagging in production. I had production, and when I managed to discover the scientific method finally unlocked my position. At that point, Scott used his superior military to raid Chris for a turns worth of economy, which forced Chris to abandon a partially complete wonder. Early in Age III I managed to ramp my culture (VP) production from ~5 to 12 a turn, as well as winning the science race and having a good economy, so we called it. I think we spent ~4 hours playing, which isn't bad since I had to explain (and pause to re-read) the rules.

One nice point -- I skimmed the Errata/FAQ, and I don't think we did anything significantly wrong (besides potentially forgetting to get our VPs/Tech each turn, always a bete noir).

Monday???

So I have my postcard expansion for Agricola -- Agricola Through the Seasons. So I want to play that. It is in German, but I have translations, and once you know what is going on, it really is kind of language independent.

I also have the Carriage expansion for Mr Jack that I would like to play.

And not that I kinda sorta know what I am doing in Race to not need to be walked through every single play, I might even be willing to play some more of that. Though I doubt i will ever be good at it. I am far too far behind.

So who all is gaming Monday? Tuesday is a holiday for me, so gaming is a good thing. In fact I might even manage not to have a time point in the evening this week as well. Which would be fantastic. :)

Weekend Planning

Let's do it one more time.

Steve reminded me that there's a really good slate of games on Saturday. I'm gone for the next couple of weekends, so I'll host once again for this one. I'd like to play some board games, so anyone who wants to show up at 10am is welcome to join me. The usual football/Rock Band tango will start at 11:30.

saturday november 8 gaming?

Is there any interest in any gaming Saturday November 8?

Session Report in Brief

Tribune fun as usual. Brian was the only one to satisfy victory conditions this time. Silly tribune requirement.

Power Grid China Map -- challenging. Just when i think I am getting the hang of power grid, I am throw at a map that is harder to handle that anticipated. Though for all that we moaned and groaned it was a fairly close game. Even if the connection costs were high and the resources pricey and scarce to start with.

Yay Agricola. As per usual the first game that i play I forget how to play. Too bad Sean and I only played one game.

And then we left, and I came to work, finished what i needed and now I go home and get some much needed sleep.

First game with SABG

Well I'm looking forward to my first game with SABG. I will be available on Thursday at DL if anybody wants to meet up. War of the Ring is my game of choice if anybody is up for it. And I'm always open to learn new games as well. If anybody is up for a few hours of gaming please RSVP me. I look forward to meeting new GAMERS!

SABG's Newest Member

On October 29th at 2:50 PM, Vicki and I (well, mostly Vicki) brought a new meeple into the world, Elaina Brielle Kindt, weighing in at 6 pounds, 10 ounces and measuring 19 inches in length. While I will probably be scarce for some time to come, I thank each of you I've gamed with over the past ten months for the wonderful relief you've provided from the stress and anxiety of becoming a first-time father.  Thanks go out especially to Steve for sage parenting tips; Jeff and Amy for all the wonderful advice and goodies; and Chris for his reassurance and knowledge.

Race to DLair on Monday

Thanks to Chris for hosting... as an especially gracious host, Chris managed to get in his copy of the Race for the Galaxy expansion. I like it, but I think I'm ready to ditch the tiles. I'll play with them, but it makes things more random. On the plus side, it looks like Buck Roger's graphic designer got drunk and wrote a haiku.

Anyway, I'll be a DLair on monday. Will the race expansion be in? Dominion? You?

RSVP in the comments.

War of the Ring

Hi all, I guess i can say I'm a new member to SABG. I am also a board game lover, my current favorite is War of the Ring. My brother in law and I play about 2-3 times a week. I am always the FP side. Tonight we had probably the best game yet. I was able to pull of an extremely rare military victory. To start the game off I quickly moved the ring a few times which didn't work out to well because he was able to draw a hunt tile every time. And on top of that he was playing cards which also added corruption. Before the 3rd round was over the fellowship was 4 territories away from Rivendell and the corruption was on 8. OUCH! Looked like it was going to be a quick game. So i decided to move it a few more times and declare the Fellowship in Dale to Heal the corruption. I did this for about 7 rounds. While waiting for the ring bearers to heal up, the North nation was able to get to war while sauron conquered Minas Tirith. To protect the ring bearer during healing I mustered a small army in Dale. A nearby Easterling army attempted to overthrow Dale but only got one Successful hit when attacking. I luckily defended with 5 successful dice and left him with 3 measly units. So that ended that attack. Moria then trampled up and through Rivendell, and Umbar conquered Pelegrir leaving the SP with 5 victory points. Having the North Nation at war early ended up being my best move of the night. I mustered a large army in Carrock and quickly conquered Mount Gram and Angmar to claim 3 out of 4 of my victory points. I tried to blits Mordor with my army in Dale but Dol Guldur made quick work of them. I had no way to get my forth Victory point. So what do i do? Start moving the fellowship again on its path to Mordor. The next two rounds consisted of just that, getting it to Mordor was no problem. However he had some nasty cards on the table that made me not want to move it much in Mordor. Suddenly I got bold and built up an army in Dol Amroth with Aragorn and Gandalf the White. I used it to threaten the Easterling army that took over Pelegrir. I attacked and forced the Easterlings to retreat into the Stronghold of Umbar. Low and behold a clear path was opened up for me to march right into Far Harad and claim my last needed Victory Point. Congrats to my opponent though for playing a spectacular game. Unfortunately for him, his action dice weren't rolling the way he needed them to. But hey! you loose some and you win some, and every once and a while you get that sweet victory that makes the goose bumps on your arms stand out. For anyone who hasn't played this game... you need to. Its a blast.