San Antonio Board Gamers

Fortress America

2011-12-27T20:52:00.002-06:00

I never played this. I was just too poor when it came out, but a lot of guys I knew really enjoyed it. It seems that FFG is going to re-release it. Does anyone have the MB version? Did you like it?

2011-11-19T19:49:00.003-06:00

While I have been away from the SABG, I have had a chance toplay a good number of TI3 games with my game buddies from my church. Over the past year we have evolved a few house rules that I thought I would share with y’all. They have worked out quite well and would be
interested in your feedback.
·
Hidden Carrier Compliment – For just a few dollars (less than $6), I was able to get some small six-compartment boxes. We mark each compartment with a number and also a corresponding carrier (1 – 4) and war sun (5-6). Instead of placing fighters on the board, we place them in the box. This masks the number of fighters that a carrier has aboard. You would be surprised how well this works!! People now see carriers in a whole new way – does it have the full complement of fighters or just one or two…maybe its empty and just a bluff. The rules of the game
were not changed, just the units on the board. I loved the way this worked out. It also considerably reduces the board clutter.
·
PDS rule modification – A PDS planetary shield
can now effect a war sun similar to the way it effect a dreadnought. Basically the PDS will reduce the number of
dice that a unit (dreadnought or war sun) rolls by one during planetary
bombardment. So a war sun will roll only
2 dice when bombarding a planet with 1 PDS and only 1 dice if the planet has
two. Why this rule? We just thought that even if a war sun could get
past the PDS, it should still at least be hampered by it.
·
Double the amount of Political
Cards: This is only for the second set of strategy cards as these give you more
control over the political cards. Basically every time you draw a political
card, you take two instead. When you play a political card you will also
discard one without playing it. This will give more attractive choices for the
political process. We did this because we all agreed that this just gives us
more choices about playing political cards and we are more likely to use the
political process. It works well.
Before shuffling the objective deck, we photo copy the cards so that the
players can all see what the cards will be. This gives the players a chance to
know what to work for, but not know when the card will come up

2011-11-19T19:27:00.002-06:00

Well, I was finally able to get my latest Twilight Imperium expansion
on the table. I don’t think that Shards
of the Throne was as good as Shattered Empire, it defiantly is worthwhile if you
are a fan of the game. But for this
time, all we used were the new Flagship units and the Mechanized ground force
units.

The Flagship was phenomenal.
Each one is quite unique and because they were new to us their effects
were quite a surprise. Interestingly
enough the mechanized units were not used much at all in this game. I was rather disappointed with my own
Flagship of the Xxcha Kingdom – probably the lamest of the Flagships. The Human flagship had an impressive to care
scores of ground troops. This made it a
very worthwhile venture.

We did not try the mercenaries or the new political
system. Some of the buzz I have been
reading about the political system is that it slows the game without adding
much. I have mixed feelings about the mercenaries. My son really wants to try them out, so maybe
we will next time.

I think that I would have been happier with just
the new units. I do want to give the historical
scenario a try one day, but who knows when that will be. I have not read any feedback about it on BBG

Terraclips + Miniatures = Ridiculous

2011-08-18T22:43:00.003-05:00

If you haven't seen Terraclips yet, here's a look. I bought the Streets and Buildings set. What's shown is only about 60% of the Streets set; I haven't even punched out the Buildings yet.

They are not Lego bricks; they don't go together instantly or fit perfectly. You need to plan a little before you start throwing things together. The layout shown took about 15 minutes of forethought and an hour of assembly (and that's cheating a bit, since it's a simplification of what's on the Streets cover). Also, the raised levels do not attach to the walls below. This is a feature in that you can lift them off and manipulate figures underneath, but it's less visually appealing than I'd like (notice the slightly levitating tower in the background).

That being said, you can create just about any cityscape with these two sets, up to 3'x3' in area and several levels tall. It should make skirmish games like Song of Blades and Heroes tremendously more fun. Not to mention diorama building. Check out the crossbowman near the stairs, who just realized they are being outflanked.

Dice Tower Plans

2011-07-30T15:01:00.001-05:00

Anyone willing to post some dice tower plans here or email to me?

I know Brian hates this but...

2011-06-14T20:35:00.001-05:00

I put a post up on the BGG San Antonio Board Gamers guild site soliciting interest in a monthly casual Tichu gathering. If any of you fine readers are interested, feel free to weigh in!

2011-06-05T18:22:00.002-05:00

Hey, all, I have a question that I may have asked before but I am not sure. Have any of you played WotR with 3 or 4 players? I have never done this but from time to time consider trying it. When I read over the rules I get the impression that the players who are on the same team would get in each others way almost as much as your opponents - maybe even more so. So as a result I have never ventured to attempt the multi-player version of this game.

Any thoughts or experience with this matter?

BTW, while I am on this do you know if they are still selling the card sleeves for the collectors edition?

It's that time of the year

2011-05-28T13:56:00.002-05:00

For the SABG 50. As usual, voting will be from now (~Memorial Day) until just short of July 4th. You know what to do.

Squeeeeee!

2011-05-22T13:51:00.012-05:00

Yesterday I finally finished my first Hordes of the Things army project, a 60-point Skaven army made up of well over 100 miniatures. Painting took just under ten months, proving it's not about having time to paint, it's about having patience. Everything is plastic except the general (back right). Most are GW figures straight out of the box, but the Beast bases (back left corner) combine pieces from the Packmaster & Giant Rats box with loose rats from the Plague Monk sprue, and the wizard base (front center) is the optional Plague Furnace crew from the Screaming Bell set, with the pull ropes altered to look like banners.

Here's my favorite guy:

That's right. He's going to kick your ass with a piece of paper.

Who can stand up to the vermin horde?

Maybe this guy. But he's going to need a lot of friends....

Next TI3 Expansion on the way

2011-05-17T21:05:00.002-05:00

Has anyone else pre-ordered this expansion. I took a look at the rules and it looks fantastic. I am very interested in the new political rules and the "Lazax Scenario".

Anyone up for trying to plan out a game before the expansion is released? Perhaps as soon as it comes out?

Checking In

2011-05-13T14:48:00.003-05:00

So... an upcoming house move has momentarily curtailed my planned solitaire game quest for 2011. To be honest, I have kind of decided that playing board games solitaire is only slightly more entertaining than doing an income tax return, so perhaps for the best.

In the mean time, I've been wasting life's precious moments on the following:

DoomRL: The latest version of the rogue-like incarnation of all things Doom. As previously reported, the turn-based nature of this game makes it feel quite similar to the FFG board game, i.e., rolicking good fun. Besides, ASCII splash damage from the BFG is fun to watch.

Men of War: Take the hard core detail of Squad Leader and port it into a Russian-made RTS, crank up the mission difficulty to max, and you have Men of War. I love an RTS that demonstrates the difference between a 1941 Russian T-34/76 and a KV-1b. The scale is individual soldiers, guns, and vehicles. Give the demo and quick ride on Steam, and let me know if you ever want to try some co-op Comp Stomp.

GMT's Fighting Formations: Since I've been snuggling the rulebook and playbook for this game in the spoon position each night for the past month, I thought it prudent to at least get it on the table and push the pieces around a bit. Yep, solitaire sucks, but, wow! What a finely crafted system. I can't wait to play a lot more.

Shopping: Various fun things I've ordered: Ikusa, 1830, the new Twilight Imperium 3 expansion (of course!), Yggdrasil (love the theme), Arkham Horror Miskatonic (the system is starting to drive me insane though), Awful Green Things from Outer Space (pure nostaglia).

Fighting Games: Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and the new Mortal Kombat. Good stuff! My reflexes are not what they used to be... and I never was any good to begin with. Let's play!

Alright... time to go pack some more boxes!

Shiver Me Timbers!

2011-04-21T18:51:00.003-05:00

Good news: I just picked up a mint (though not in shrink) copy of Broadsides and Boarding Parties!

Bad News: I took multiple full stern raking broadsides during the E-Bay bidding war and had to pay $185 to win the auction. I think I'll spring for the shipping insurance.

Now to nestle it in safely next to War of the Ring: Collector's Edition.

You Dropped a Bomb on Me, Baby!

2011-04-21T18:37:00.003-05:00

Well... here we are back after a long hiatus. What happened to SABG attack on Libya via Hornet Leader: Carrier Operations. We'll never know.

I played the first of five days through to completion for about an hour, and I have to tell you in all I totally despised the game. I stepped away from the table, leaving it set up for a few days, and I could not bring myself to sit back down to continue the campaign. I went out of town for a week, and I still found I would rather finish my federal income tax than spend even another hour with this game.

What was wrong with it? Although the theme was fun (i.e., modern jets blasting the living daylights out of little guys scurrying about on the ground), I found the game a repetitious die rolling and accounting exercise with few meaningful decisions. Playing solo didn't help.

Anyway, many others on BGG seem to love the game, so I offer it here to any readers for $20, played very briefly one time to partial completion.

Oh.... and Rob was totally blown out of the sky on the first mission by a mobile SAM... SA-11 to be exact, which is a particularly nasty tank-mounted, radar guided piece of equipment. Everyone else survived, but unfortunately Rob was the best air-to-ground guy in the squadron, and I loaded him up with all the best bombs. So, the group failed to destroy the target. Overall, some pretty heavily negative VPs after the first day. Boo! Perhaps I'm just a sore loser.

SABG In the Navy!

2011-03-30T22:43:00.004-05:00

Back again for another episode of SABG at War. When we last encountered our heroes, they were steaming off the coast of northern Africa as part of a carrier battle group, ready to put the hurt on Col Qaddafi and friends. Yes, tonight we're kicking off an epic session report on DVG's Hornet Leader: Carrier Operations, with SABG as the pilots flying the Libya 2011 scenario.

Here is the roster (using the callsigns generated by the game, to keep me from going crazy) with their assigned aircraft:

Steve (Ranger) - F/A-18E, Veteran, Squadron Leader -- As the actual military pilot of the group, he gets the top slot.

Michael (Caveman) - F/A-18E, Skilled -- Gets the next top slot due to his outstanding performance fighting xenomorphs last game.

Dennis (Brick) - E-2C, Average -- This pretty much the cleric class aircraft of the group. You can thank him when he saves you from a SAM with his electronic warfare prayer powers.

Rob (Scout) - F/A-18E, Average -- Rob gets a prominent role in this game due to being shuffled into the background last game.

Brian (Bear) - F/A-18C, Average -- Brian is flying an older version aircraft, but his kamikaze flying style will make up the difference.

Chris (Hunter) - F/A-18C, Average -- Ditto. Pretty much another red shirt.

Sean (Panther) - F/A-18C, Average -- Sean wasn't in last game, so I expect a strong showing during this one.

Jon (Alien) - F/A-18E, Green -- Sorry, Jon. At least I paid to upgrade your ride.

The campaign will consist of five fun days of hot action, during which time we'll try to inflict maximum carnage upon the Colonel without getting anyone's aircraft shot out from under them. Sounds easy, right?

Day 1:

For the first day of the campaign, everyone is fresh, well rested, and happy just to be doing something besides sailing around with a few thousand of their closest friends. Unfortunately, Libya's air defense and intelligence suppression capabilities are still maxed out. We only get two potential targets to choose from:

Major Airfield -- Pretty much the hardest target in the game right out of the shoot!
Convoy -- A minor target.

If we don't go after the airfield, it will put extra two bandits over every target each turn until its destroyed. It's going to be a bear, but, hey, we're bad ass, right?

Sadly, we're only allowed to take seven aircraft on this Death Star run, so I leave the Green recruit, Jon, back at the base to keep the beer cold. We arm up, and we're off!

Inbound on the target, we encounter some random troops with shoulder launched SAMs. Dennis fails to jam their targeting (here we go again...). They lock on to Rob and Chris, who both evade the missiles, but both take one stress each. Don't worry, guys! Plenty of clean underwear back on the boat.

The desert rushes by at high speed as the miles to the target tick down quickly. Catching the enemy airbase off guard, the team comes screaming out of the sky like a pack of steel birds of prey! The attack set up is shown below.

Tomorrow, the first day's attack run!

SABG Goes to War!

2011-03-20T15:17:00.005-05:00

Well, timing is everything. I had already planned to run a solo scenario Hornet Leader: Carrier Operations, featuring the familiar cast of SABG Classic filling the billets in the squadron. Given the current events in Libya, I was going to run the 1980's Libya scenario included in the basic game. Then today I noticed Dan Verssen games, the publisher, released an updated 2011 scenario for free on their website. Cool.

Okay, so fire up your Top Gun soundtracks and expect a full report later this evening!

The picture above is from the New York times, showing what I believe to be a Libyan Mig-23 Flogger having some severe fire containment issues. Note the ejection seat and parachute in the background.

Mansions of Madness - First Look

2011-03-13T19:26:00.002-05:00

We played two complete games today of FFG's new Mansions of Madness. The forces of ancient evil one both times, perhaps a tiny bit more than narrowly. Still, it was easy to see how more familiarity with the game and sound strategy by the good guys would have given them a chance.

My take: It's all the fun parts of Descent and a good bit of the fun of Arkham boiled down to a two hour experience; probably even quicker with repeated play. The good players need to be ready to get continually pummeled by debuffs, attacks, and "Hey look! Here is a card that kills you!" experiences cast at them by the DM, aka, The Keeper.

Yes, there are printing errors, but these are minor. Overall the components are amazing, the spectacle of the game on the table is suitably impressive. The game cries out for future expansions, of which I am certain there will be many over the next five years or so. A solid Ameritrash purchase. Two tentacles up!

Get to the Chopper!

2011-03-12T15:06:00.004-06:00

At long last, here it is. The exciting conclusion to our epic session report of SABG's journey through GDW's classic board game, Intruder.

When we last left our heroes, the remaining crew was huddled back in the ship's Command Module. Killed by the Alien xenomorphs: Ben, Steve, Jon, Ted. Still alive, but feeling very nervous:

Michael - First Officer; the Ripley of our story
Brian - the one remaining Engineer, the Yaphet Kotto / Parker of SABG
Mark - the spunky, loyal ensign, the Kif Kroker of this rust bucket
...and three sneaky androi.... I mean scientists: Chris, Rob, and Dennis

At the end our last episode, Michael, realizing the futility of trying to take on the Aliens, now estimated to be fully grow, immune to pretty much everything except blaster fire, and at least four in number, decided to punch the self destruct.

The ship's computer, "Mother," started the countdown, sounding loud klaxons, venting hot steam, and making the whole ship rather unpleasant. The ship was equipped with two still fully functional escape shuttle craft. Each shuttle could hold four crew. Michael ordered the computer to energize both shuttles and start the engine power up sequence. This would take four turns. The main ship would blow up in 8 turns.

The shuttles were each located in a separate shuttle bay at opposite ends of the ship. Motion trackers showed big, swiftly moving, angry blips around both bays. Reaching each bay required a mad sprint down a long corridor do-able in roughly two turns. The crew divided into two teams: Michael, Brian, Dennis, and Rob in one (safety in numbers); Mark and Chris in the other (the diversion?).

The path to Michael's shuttle cleared of blips for just a brief instant as they moved into an adjacent room, perhaps to go kill the last remaining house cat scurrying about the mess hall. The four crew sprinted down the corridor, popped open the shuttle bay doors, and jumped in the shuttle, slamming and sealing the shuttle doors.

Mark's and Chris' run was a bit more exciting. Two big, angry blips lay directly between them and the shuttle bay and would not move. The two knew to try their luck killing an Alien at this point would be suicide without some crazy luck. The ship grew ever louder and hotter as the failsafe point for turning off the self-destruct came and went. The ship was going to blow!

On the last possible turn, the blips briefing moved away, and Mark and Chris made a mad dash to their shuttle, hopped in, and punched it just as they ship was starting it's final countdown.

Both shuttles screamed away from the ship at top speed! They had to get outside the nuclear detonation radius before the ship blew. BOOM! The ship blasted itself apart.

Luckily, both shuttles escaped. But wait.... there's more!

First, Mark and Chris finally let go of each others hands and decided perhaps it was best if no one ever mentioned this entire episode. Suddenly, out of the corner of their eye they see an Alien crawl out from behind a pile of survival gear crates. Alien stowaway! Argh! The Alien launches himself at Mark. Mark bravely fires his blaster pistol defensively (D6, needed a 1 to kill). Miss! Mark is picked up and ripped in half. Gross! Chris backs up against the wall, sobbing. He grabs a pistol points at the Alien and shoots (D6, 1-2 needed) and hits before he realizes the rules forbid one of the Androids from making a lethal attack. Doh! Chris instead watches as his white-blooded body is splatter all over the inside of the shuttle. The shuttle eventually careens back into orbit of the planet where the Aliens were first found. The shuttle crashes, setting the Alien free. Whew! What a ride!

In the other shuttle, Michael, Brian, Dennis, and Rob breath a collective sigh of relief. In another 2 months time they'll be in communications range of an outer rim outpost and be home free. Not so fast.... Throwing aside a pile of space suits, another Alien stowaway is aboard this shuttle as well! (D6, 1-5 chance based on the number of live Aliens on the ship at the time the shuttle punched).

Michael steps forward, coolly drawing his regulation .44 magnum blaster sidearm. The Alien attacks him first. Michael rolls his defensive attack (D6, hits on a 1). Michael rolls a 1! Boom! The Alien is hit square between the eyes and falls dead at his feet. Hooray! Michael saves the day.

The official tally:

4 dead Aliens (the fifth from the first shuttle survived): +28 VPs
5 dead crew (not counting poor Ben): -25 VPs
Ship detonated: VPs cannot be >0.

So.... not a loss, but not a win either. Whew!

Final thoughts: A tense, bloody game that is remarkable for the "historically accurate" feel it provides in comparison to the original Alien movie. It is possible to kill the Aliens, but very tough with the improvised weapons the non-military crew possesses. More than likely the brave attempts to confront the Alien end up in very bloody death scenes. Sure, its a light dicefest, but a nice, nostalgic diversion as well. Well worth the $10 I spent on it via E-Bay.

Next up: SABG takes to the skies in Hornet Leader!

So Long, Ted!

2011-03-06T14:41:00.005-06:00

(This post continues perhaps the longest running session report on SABG ever: GDW's classic game Intruder).

Alright, space fans, we're headed towards the dramatic conclusion. The current score is: SABG 1, Aliens 3. To move things along towards the finale, I'll be a bit more concise in my reporting.

After Brian's dramatic airlocking of one of the Aliens, the team regroups to consider their options. There are still at least two Aliens out there, and each turn brings the possibility of more appearing, plus each of them growing stronger, more aggressive, and increasingly immune to the crews weapons, even if they actually decide to roll some hits.

First Officer Michael points out that one of the remaining command officers must stay alive to preserve the last ditch option of blowing the ship and escaping in one or both of the shuttles. Since Michael is the senior ranking officer, he says it completely makes sense that he be the one to stay here in the Command Module to keep an eye on things.

Brave Engineer Ted steps forward. The music swells as he gives an impassioned speech about what he believes is best in life: To crush the Aliens; to see them driven before us; and to hear the lamentation of their women!

Ted runs yelling out into the darkness wielding a blaster pistol. Brian and Mark trot along a bit further back. The three unscratched scientists skulk after them a few minutes later. Michael gets comfortable in the command chair and uses the time to do his daily WoW heroic instance and a bit of fishing.

Soon enough the group runs smack into one of the now quite mature Aliens. Here is what transpires:

Alien decides to attack Ted (random determination within the group).

Defensive attack: Ted misses

Alien kills Ted. Ted is lifted from the floor, screaming at the spearlike tail of the Alien protruding from his chest. The Alien brings him closer to regard him face-to-face. The SABG members wave goodbye to him, then in a flash the Alien's inner jaw shoots forth, ending Ted's all-too-brief membership with the group.

Counter attacks:

Brian misses.
Chris misses.
Mark misses.
Dennis misses.
Rob misses.

The crew runs screaming back to rudely interrupt Michael's herb gathering.

Michael takes one look at the monitors. There are now five Aliens out scurrying within the ship, and only six quite nervous crew left. Screw it! He punches the self destruct activation button! They now have eight turns to make it to a shuttle (or shuttles) before the ship detonates.

Next episode: Get to the Chopper!

Open the Pod Bay Doors, Brian!

2011-03-02T19:59:00.006-06:00

(The saga of SABG's foray into the world of GDW's Intruder continues....)

Now three crew down, the crew retreats back to reconsider their options. Luckily there is no evidence of the Aliens either growing or spreading at this point, which is good considering the toddlers seem to be vicious enough!

The party decides to split up into two main teams to chase down and locate the two Aliens quickly before they become too tough to handle. In addition, the two remaining Engineers, Brian and Ted, resolve to split off and go construct two more shock prods in hopes at least one of the Aliens can be frozen alive (i.e., big VPs).

At this point with two Aliens at Life Stage 2, the crew is not yet sufficiently motivated to disobey the Company and break out the heavy weapons.

Group 1 (Michael, Chris, Rob) and Group 2 (Mark, Dennis) each locate stray lab animals and over the course of the next couple turns successfully get them locked back up into Laboratory. This helps the team by reducing the motion tracker blips on the board.

Brian and Ted make their way to the workshop and crank away on the prods. Brian hears something outside. They try to concentrate... working fast, but trying not to electrocute themselves. They hear something run past their doorway down the hall into the main airlock. Brian pokes his head out, as Ted continues to work. Brian sees the distinct outline of an Alien inside the airlock, poking through spacesuits. He sneaks up and then in a final mad dash punches the emergency airlock release! Boom! The Alien is shot into space! Score one for the good guys.

The team reassembles back in the Command Module. Dennis studies the camera footage of the decompressing Alien and notices its exoskeleton seems to have evolved, with a new layer of thick goo on the outside. He tells the crew there is now a high probability the goo provides further thermal insulation, making the creatures essentially resistant to the ultra cold temperatures in the ship's freezer. Not good!

They're coming outta the walls!

2011-03-01T23:45:00.003-06:00

Hello, Space Fans! Here is the next episode of "SABG in Spaaaace!" a.k.a. a session report of GDW's classic solitaire game, Intruder. We last left our poor heroes weeping in the Command Module, distraught over Ship Commander Steve's slicing / dicing at the hands of the baby xenophobe. Now, counting Ben's original chest burst, they were left without their two most valuable players.

Cue the reality show style house meeting. After lots of shouting, crying, finger pointing, etc., the crew resolves to set out to track down the two nasty, pointy critters moving about the ship before further evolution or multiplication occurs. All the ship's lab animals are still on the lose, so there is plenty of fresh meat out there for any stray face huggers to jump on. Looking at their motion trackers, the crew sees blips, real and otherwise, moving all about the ever deteriorating ship.

Dennis, who for some reason seems to know an awful lot about these Aliens, tells the crew that his analysis of their latest encounter with the Alien indicates it has now developed some form of gill-like organ, rendering it immune to their poison gas grenades. He actually seems to admire the Aliens. Great...

First Officer Michael steps forward to take charge. He picks up one of the recently constructed electric shock prods and prepares to go back out into the adjacent corridor where Steve was killed and motion trackers show something scuttling about. Michael is followed by Engineers Brian and Jon with dart guns. Still adhering to Company orders, Chris follows them in, more than a few steps behind, with no weapons, but carrying one of the very non-weapon-like lab cages. Hey, maybe the Aliens are just misunderstood...

Fellow Science Officers Dennis and Rob slink out the back door, insisting they need to instead head to the Lab to get two more cages. Michael orders Ensign Mark to follow the two scientists with a blaster and keep an eye on things.

Lastly, Engineer Ted follows Michael's group with an some spare tools (a.k.a., improvised weapon, in game terms), determined to make his way to the workshop where he can assist the effort to construct flamethrowers.

==============================================

Michael's team bursts into the dark corridor. Sure enough, sitting there picking through the bloody remains of Steve's space suit is one of the Aliens. Jon runs forward, shouting, "One rabbit stew coming right up!" Famous last words.

Does it attack? Yes!
Who does it attack? Jon
Determine mutations that occurred during the last life stage progression: Immune to flame!
Jon's self defense attack with dart gun: Miss!
Alien attack vs. Jon: Jon is killed!

Crew counter attacks:

Brian fires dart: Miss
Michael uses shock prod: Miss
Ted strikes improvised weapon: Miss
Chris soils himself: Hit; No effect on Alien

Nice rolling, guys!

Next Chapter: Seattle

2011-03-01T20:04:00.002-06:00

Just wanted to let the SABG know that I'll be moving to Seattle in a few weeks.

Strangely, my wife's family has all gravitated to Seattle, so when I saw relevant job opening I applied, and the rest is history.

I have not been a participant in the last, what?, 1.5-2 years? Nevertheless, I fondly remember many hours playing games either at DL or someone's house.

Best wishes, and feel free to drop a line every now and then.

We're all Gonna Die, Man!

2011-02-21T13:12:00.003-06:00

Screaming like a banshee, Commander Steve, followed (right behind him every step of the way) by Michael, Chris, and Dennis, charges headlong into the dark corridor. The brave Spacemen are stopped in their tracks by what they see. The corridor is ripped apart, with wires, pipes, and cables dangling everywhere in the dim emergency lighting.

In one corner they spot one of the laboratory animals, a small dog, a Pug, to be exact, laying twitching in the corner. All of a sudden its chest bursts open in an explosion of canine gore, and a second Life Stage 1 Alien (we'll call this one Simon) launches forth, hisses loudly, then shoots off into one of the many exposed ducts. I guess now we know what happened to the missing egg from the Lab.

But that's not all... Suddenly from beneath a pile of rubbish appears the first Alien (Scott). Still in its first life stage, the critter is still somewhat bashful (attacks only on D6 1-3).

Commander Steve is not afraid. He steps forward, pulls out his Sleep Dart pistol, and prepares to take down the xenomorph. To inspire his nervous followers, Steve tells the Alien exactly what he thinks.

The Alien does not appreciate this and promptly rolls a 2. Next, we determine which of the four he attacks. Yep, you guessed it, he rolls Steve's number. Brave Commander Steve gets one defensive attack. He misses! The Alien at this puny life stage only will kill on a D6 1-3. He rolls a 1.

Steve goes down in a Tasmanian-devil style flurry of claws, teeth, and shredding. Michael reacts first, just a tad late, of course, and plugs the Alien with a sleep dart, knocking it out temporarily. Dennis runs up, nervously clutching the cage he carried from the lab. With a knocked out Stage 1 Alien, he can successfully cage it on a D6 1-5. Dennis rolls a 6.

The Alien wakes up, jumps out of Dennis' hands, and shoots off into the labyrinth of pipework. The three remaining crew stand there, covered in the spray of their Commander's insides, and start to freak out.

In this game when either an Alien or crewman is killed (assuming no other Aliens are captured), it triggers a panic sequence which sends all remaining crewman back to the Command Module for a Reality Show-style team interlude meeting. All blips are reshuffled and reset. Of course, now two of the blips are real Aliens. In the harder core variant, one random crew runs off on their own to hide in the recesses of the ship, becoming one of the uncontrolled blips until found and slapped back to their senses. I opted to not do this option during this first go-round.

Next, what happens after the Reality Show team meeting.

It's Coming Right At Me!

2011-02-20T18:45:00.004-06:00

Turn 1:

Our brave cast of Spacemen fire up their motion trackers and note nine indistinguishable blips moving about the ships. One is the Alien; the rest are either the "escaped" lab specimens or just sensor echos within the spaghetti bowl of pipes, shafts, and wires within the ship. One blip moves quickly into the lab, where Dennis is innocently figuring out how all the lab animals escaped and noticing one of the Alien eggs brought aboard now seems to be open and empty.... Uh oh! Luckily, the blip headed towards Dennis turns out to be a sensor glitch.

More ominously, four of the blips move in unison towards the blue collar portion of the ship where Ship's Engineers Brian and Jon are diligently preparing to whip up some better weapons from spare parts. Better work fast guys!

(Note: Blip movement, the first phase of each turn, is via somewhat random face down counters).

The highly motivated humans move as follows:

Rob (medical) beats a hot foot from the Infirmary to the Command Module with no incident.

Ship's Commander Steve (already in the Command Module) unlocks the Arms Locker and picks up Nerve Gas grenades and a Sleep Dart Gun. "I like to keep these handy, for close encounters!" Note, while the Alien is at life stage 1 and 2, the obedient crew tries to follow the Company's orders not to kill the alien, so Steve won't be able to use the grenades just yet.

Deputy Commander (#1) Michael and Science Officer Chris run from the Mess Hall (leaving his barely eaten lunch) to the Arms Locker with no incident, but aren't able to lock 'n load this turn.

Ensign Mark and Engineer Ted both run from the Living Quarters to the Command Module, wanting to arm up as well.

Engineer Brian dutifully begins work on an Electric Shock Prod weapon, which will be quite useful coaxing the Alien towards the carbon freezing chamber. He successfully completes 50% of the project.

Engineer Jon runs in from Ship's Maintenance and prepares to begin work on a flamethrower next turn.

Dennis scoots out of the Lab with one of the empty, portable cages and runs to the Command Module. He'll be able to catch an escaped lab animal or stunned Life Stage 1 or 2 (i.e., baby) Alien in the cage.

Turn 2:

The four blips continue to converge on the Engineers! Work faster, Brian and Jon! One is in the main corridor outside their workshop. Luckily this corridor is also adjacent to the Command Module, so backup is on the way.

Brian completes and arms the electric shock prod, ready for anything that might peek through the hatchway.

Jon works feverishly on the more complicated flame thrower, completing 33% of the project.

Ensign Mark runs into the Arms Locker and loads up a Sleep Dart Gun and Blaster.

Brave Captain Steve gives an epic speech worthy of Henry V to the gathered crew in the Command Module, and leads a brave charge into the corridor to take on the sensor blip about to move on Brian and Jon.

Michael (with Dart Gun), Chris (with Dart Gun), and Dennis (with Cage) let out a rousing battle cry and follow Steve into the breach.

Rob runs to the Lab to fetch another cage.

Ted spends the turn arming up with nerve gas and a blaster.

What happens next? Read the next post, dear friends.

They Mostly Come at Night... Mostly.

2011-02-17T11:21:00.008-06:00

When we last left our intrepid heroes, Ben was spread out on the dinner table, his innards splayed across a formerly mint copy of Star Wars: Epic Duels. The Alien (aka, Scott), had burst forth from his chest and shot out of the room. Now what are we going to do? (Special note: Hard drive failure on my primary PC last night drastically cut short my gaming time, so this report is a tad abbreviated.)

The Alien shot out of the Command Module, leaving a red floor streak and nine shocked crew in its wake. Here are the starting positions of the crew:

Command Module: Steve (command)

The Command Module is adjacent to the Arms Locker, so Steve's first priority as one of the three command officers will be to unlock the weapons for the other crew. He and the other two command officers will grab blasters, tranquilizer guns, and nerve gas grenades. The Company has issued strict orders that the Alien be captured, not killed. So, no lethal attacks are allowed until the Alien reaches life stage three (and the crew apparently realizes what they are really up against). If the crew can manage to knock out, cage, then freeze the Alien before it grows to powerful, decisive victory. We'll see...

Ship's Mess: Michael and Chris

Michael (command) and Chris (science) were apparently having a long, slow lunch at the time of Ben's chest burst. Thanks for the help, guys! They will both proceed to meet up with Steve and arm up. For some reason, Chris, like the other science officers, flatly refuses to equip anything but non-lethal weapons. Does anyone else notice how his reflexes seem a bit unnaturally fast?

Infirmary: Rob

Rob (science) is off on his own in the ship's infirmary. He has a ways to go to meet up with one of the other crew and arm up. Let's hope none of those blips near him are anything he needs to be nervous about...

Living Quarters: Mark and Ted

Mark (command) and Ted (engineer) are sacked out in the ship's living quarters. Ted thinks he can whip up a reasonably effective flamer some spare parts, but he needs three turns in the workshop to do it. Hopefully nothing will interrupt him. If this all works out, the engineers are going to want to renegotiate their bonus shares. Mark decides to head to the arms locker with the others.

Maintenance: Brian; and Power: Jon

The two remaining engineers will also head to the workshop to build some weapons. There is safety in numbers, right? Brian, rather than focusing on building a flamer, will whip up an ad hoc electric shock stick weapon, taking only two turns to build. It won't kill the Alien, but it can be used to force the Alien to follow a particular path. The Alien has a chance each turn to shrug off this control, with expected very negative implications. However, if control is maintained, the Alien can be pushed into an airlock or the carbon freezing chamber.

Lab: Dennis

Last, but certainly not least, is Dennis (science) in the laboratory. Somehow... either in the excitement of the situation or perhaps... well, let's not jump to any conclusions... someone in the lab "accidentally" released all the lab animals (dogs, cats, and monkeys), which promptly then bolted into the adjacent ventilation shafts. Unfortunately, now ship scanners aren't just showing one blip from the Alien, but now nine blips, all moving wildly through the bowels of the ship, adding to the confusion and frustration of the already terrified crew. It's almost as if someone on board wanted to study the Alien as it evolved...

Tomorrow... A few turns.

In Space No One Can Hear You Whine About Unlucky Dice

2011-02-15T15:38:00.004-06:00

This is the first in a series of posts covering a solitaire session of Task Force Games' Intruder, originally published in 1980. Characters represented in the report are completely fictitious and in no way represent any current or classic members of the San Antonio Board Gamers...

The master computer aboard company mining ship, Spirit of San Antonio, awoke its hibernating crew in response to a faint distress beacon from a distant, barren planet. The ten groggy spacers crawled out of their cocoons to see foggy probe images of an ancient, wrecked alien ship on the planet's surface.

You know the rest... away team... pulsing eggs... face hugger on Crewman Ben... Ben is brought aboard... Ben seems to recover. Then while gathered in crew breakroom playing a particularly tense game of Star Wars Epic Duels, Ben launches the board, flies down on his back, and.... Chest Burst! A viscious baby alien explodes forth from Ben's chest then shoots out of the room! Gross!

OMG! The rest of the crew are in big trouble, and the trouble is getting worse as the Alien continues to grow, mutate, and grow ever more agressive and hungry. Here is the roster:

Command Officers (faced with the responsibility to lead the crew to kill or capture the alien or, if necessary, blow up the ship to keep the Alien from traveling to Earth):

Steve
Michael
Mark

Engineering Officers (They have the skills to assemble powerful ad hoc weapons, but can they work fast enough?):

Brian
Jon
Ted

Science Officers (Can they be trusted? Or are they just out to bring a live Alien back to the Company?)

Chris
Rob
Dennis

Next, episode, the initial set up and Turn 1!

War Never Changes...

2011-02-15T12:01:00.004-06:00

Steam holiday sales are fun. I blow $2-$10 dollars on a game I am somewhat interested in or perhaps played to death 10 years ago, just to lock it in as part of the library. Occassionally I get around to actually firing these games up and playing them.

Last night I finally did so with DEFCON. Wow! If you've watched the 80's film Wargames or perhaps remember the scenes in Dr. Strangelove involving the "Big Board," then you have the concept of the game. Essentially 1-6 players gather to fight WW3, nuclear style, at the strategic level. There are several game modes, some adding diplomacy and different scoring modes (kill the most, save the most, etc.).

Anyway.... DEFCON: $10 very well spent. I highly recommend it. Shall we play a game? Post a comment here.

Incoming!

2011-01-20T11:56:00.002-06:00

The year 2010 is now long gone. Long live 2011! It's now time to start focusing on a fresh crop of new games to fill our ever dwindling closet space. One of my little mental diversions is to continually polish my shopping cart at the on-line deep-discount retailer du jour (Coolstuffinc at the moment). I add games, think about them, remove them, add them back in, etc., and eventually gather enough momentum to pull the trigger.

Here is what is currently bouncing around the cart:

Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon Board Game - Essentially the sequel to last year's Castle Ravenloft game. I'm a sucker for big plastic, Ameritrash, dungeon crawls, especially ones that don't take 8 hours and leave everyone at the table angry (I'm looking at you, Descent!).
Thunderstone: Dragonspire - Because the thousand card sleeves this game has already consumed is not yet enough. I'm not yet convinced this is actually a good game system, and I dislike the setup and shuffling, but I find the actual gameplay exciting and rewarding.
Cosmic Encounter: Cosmic Conflict - An expansion for the best game I never play. More aliens, including some that have decades of playtesting behind them is a good thing. Perhaps I'll show up one Monday with this in tow.

So... what is on your wish list?

Back from Oblivion

2011-01-19T11:37:00.003-06:00

Hello, again, everyone! I hope the new year is bringing lots of gaming goodness your way. I have dropped off the face of the San Antonio board gaming scene quite completely these days, and the number of posts here is a reflection of that. Of course, the culprit is this.

Nonetheless, board gaming does continue here at the Fortress of Solitude. I am declaring this the year of the solitaire game. My plan is to invest time into one solitaire game per month for the rest of the year. Here is the current schedule:

February: Hornet Leader, Carrier Air Operations. The plan is to fill out a squadron using SABG Classic member names (since I don't know the current ones), and fly a full campaign. Who gets to fly the trench run and pop the proton torpedo down the exhaust port of the Iranian nuclear bomb factory? Stay tuned.

March: Where there is Discord. Definitely one of the more attractively produced games in my collection, this rather complex simulation of the Falklands War (from the British perspective) cries out for table time. To keep things tense, I'll assign the names of SABG Classic members as individual ship captains. Watch out for those Exocets!

April: Raid on St. Nazaire. Too long has this classic simulation of the British raid on the St. Nazaire U-Boat pens gone unappreciated. Again, to make things up close and personal, I'll assign individual SABG Classic member names to be the leaders of specific commando counters. With casualties projected to be over 50%, it might be time to consider upgrading your life insurance policy.

May: Labyrinth. I know this gem is seeing lots of SABG table time, but I'm postoning diving in until the solitaire game flowchart patch is published in the next C3i. Who knows... I may be kicking myself later for postponing playing this game (much like I did when it took me a year to get War of the Ring to the table. In any event, I have high hopes here.

Summer: Ambush. Hopefully by this Summer, Hornsfan will finally decide to donate his collection of Ambush expansions to yours truly. We'll see... In any event, I hope to lead a rag tag band of SABG brothers through the base game campaign. We'll see who survives to have their memoir converted into an HBO miniseries.

Later in the year.... Okay... I'll need to take a look at the collection to see what else I have to choose from. I know my mint copy of Task Force Games' Intruder (a.k.a., Alien: the Board Game) will be one of them.

What else to catch up on.... Oh, yes.... Yomi. Wow! If you like 2-play duel-style card games and are at all a fan of old school 2-D fighting games (e.g., Street Fighter), then you need to check this out. The designer of the game is the man behind some of the actual design and balancing of recent Street Fighter video games, so he knows the subject matter well. The good news is you can play the card game for free here. I picked up the full set of 10 decks with play mats, and am itching to get some play time in. In the mean time, if you'd like to arrange some on-line play at roughly 15 minutes per game, just shoot me a note or leave a comment here.

Okay... that's long enough for one post. See ya!

2010-11-27T23:35:00.003-06:00

Jose and I recently finished a game of Europe Engulfed….

After years of belligerency, Germany declared war on Poland and sent panzers and Stukas roaring across the Polish plains in September 1939. The Poles fought valiantly and won a small victory by forcing Germany to use a second special action to complete the conquest of Poland. During the next six months the Phony War remained quiet while both sides continued to build their forces. Germany built up a fleet of 60 U-Boats in an attempt to starve Britain into submission.

In 1940 Germany declared war on the Low Countries and conquered Belgium and the Netherlands easily. Meanwhile the British sent a sizable expeditionary force to Pas de Calais along with ground support units to stare across the border at the Germans.

With only 3 British blocks defending the British Isles, the German supreme commander saw an opportunity and launched Sea Lion in June 1940, instead of attacking France. Four German fleets plus an airborne attempted the cross channel invasion. The Royal Navy performed perfectly sinking the entire German navy without a loss of their own. The falschirmjagger and their ground support units landed outside London but without infantry support they were easily defeated. The lost GSU and infantry were a setback to the Germans, but the loss of 4 fleets would prove fatal. With the German navy all but eliminated, the Royal Navy ferried an expeditionary force to Norway to seize Trondheim. The operation was a success but a follow on attempt to seize Oslo was defeated by a combined German/Norwegian force. Even so, the British were able to hold onto Trondheim which proved to be a thorn in the side of Germany for most of the game. These events reminded the German player to conquer Denmark.

After the failure of Sea Lion, the Germans turned their sights to France. The Germans poured into Pas de Calais, but the French were prepared and the invaders took heavy losses. The valor of the French Army was not enough to prevent the fall of France as Vichy France was declared.

With France conquered and Britain still defiant, Germany headed east and moved into the Balkans. Yugoslavia and Greece both fell easily. Italian naval activity put pressure on the British in North Africa but the Brits managed to dig in outside of Alexandria. Without naval opposition in the Atlantic, the British were free to move fleets into the Med to keep their forces supplied. The Germans suffered another setback when their combined airborne and amphibious invasion of Malta was repulsed.

The winter of ’41-’42 came before Germany was ready to launch Barbarossa. Russia declared war on Germany in January 1942 and began building their expanded force pool. The USA also entered the war and began lend lease to Britain. Germany finally launched Barbarossa in May ’42, with the Germans gingerly attacking Russian forces in Eastern Europe.

Army Group North consisted of primarily infantry with a few panzer divisions providing additional firepower. Army Group South included the bulk of the panzer divisions, including three elite panzer divisions. On the western front, the Germans dug in along the coast and kept their reserves in Paris. The Russians continued to build their forces and dug in at strategic points, while the western allies built up their forces in London and Southampton.

In July/August ’42 the Germans pushed farther into Russia with Army Group North capturing Leningrad and Army Group South capturing the industrial areas of the Don river basin. On the last clear weather turn of ’42, Army Group South captured Kharkov, but their supply lines were stretched. The Russians saw their chance and launched a massive counterattack, recapturing Kiev and then using a special action to capture Bessarabia—putting Army Group South out of supply. To make matters worse, the western allies successfully landed in Normandy.

Next turn the weather turned wet and the Russian steppes turned into mud. Out of supply and slogging through the mud, Army Group South managed to link up with Army Group North in the Pripet Marshes to restore their supply lines. This cut off the Russian armor that was sitting in Bessarabia, putting them out of supply. Germany declined to counterattack the allies in Normandy.

Running out of time, we decided to call the game. It did not look like the Russians could break out of Bessarabia, meaning the bulk of their army would be wiped out. However, with bad weather ahead, the Allies in France and plenty of space for the Russians to rebuild, things did not look good for Germany. Russia still had its conscription option available and could rebuild very quickly. We predicted an eventual Allied victory, but it would be very slow going.

Looking back on our game, the failed Sea Lion attempt was a fatal blow to Germany. Germany has a very specific timetable it must stick to and the time lost to Sea Lion was just enough to force Germany to delay Barbarossa until Spring ’42, when Russia was better prepared.

This was my first time playing this game in a meaningful way and now I regret not playing it sooner. It’s not nearly as complex as I first thought, somewhere in between the original Axis & Allies and Paths of Glory on the difficulty scale. This game quite possibly makes all other strategic level WWII games obsolete.

The picture is the ending board position on the eastern front. In the West, the allies were in Normandy and had a small force hanging on in Norway.

Wargaming with Moral Queasiness

2010-11-17T12:47:00.007-06:00

Greetings. I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season and keeping warm with good games by a roaring fire... or at least a roaring LCD screen.

One game I've been snuggling up to is GMT's new Labyrinth. This game is essentially an unofficial sequel to GMT's previous Twilight Struggle game. The new game borrows many of the same key mechanics but with a healthy layer or two of extra chrome. For instance, there are now actual military units moving around on the board. Each country not only has a modifiable influence value but now also stability can be changed (aka regime change). Each side has different choices / mechanics with on which to burn operations points. So... a bit more complexity, but in my opinion, good, thematic complexity.

One issue that is tough to wrestle with is the uneasiness one experiences when playing the Jihadist side. For instance, the autovictory condition for this side is to successfully set off a WMD on US soil. Hooray. This is certainly a thought provoking game, but I can't remember ever having played one so directly dealing with the ugliness of attacking civilians.

Perhaps thankfully the game comes with a fully developed solitaire version where you're playing the USA vs. an evil AI Jihadist opponenet. I haven't fully digested how the AI system works, but I'll report back soon.

What else is new?

Lot's of WoW getting played. Thanks to Michael and Chris for the continual gifts of gold pieces and tough to find crafting components keeping me zipping along towards the Level 80 end game. I actually started having WoW dreams last night, so I'm officially taking a break for a day or two. Bad sign.

I figured out that Cool Stuff Inc. will ship card sleeves in bulk to you via USPS first class mail, making their already cheap prices even cheaper. No tax; 35% off retail; and $0.99 shipping makes the transaction quite a deal, especially given that the latest Thunderstone expansion consumed around 350 sleeves.

Netflix is awesome. Unfortunately I now seem to be compelled to put a Netflix-enabled device on every TV. Netflix is now officially a part of the Axis of Evil. Okay... sorry.... Channeling Labyrinth again there for a moment.

Bye for now. Off to find some egg nog!

Heroscape Dead; Wallet and Closet Relieved

2010-11-05T23:06:00.003-05:00

So... after a long, lingering malaise, Heroscape finally snuffed it today, as announced by their caregiver, Wizards of the Coast. One final wave will ship in a few weeks, and then its all over.

While I will miss the excitement of collecting each new wave, I really do feel I have way more stuff than I will ever possibly use. With ~15 waves of approximately 20 figures each plus multiple copies of four master sets... Yeah, I'm kind of relieved its done. Still... look at that photo... what a cool game!

Domination of the World: Twilight Struggle Deluxe

2010-10-31T16:40:00.002-05:00

After a long absence from gaming I got together online with Jose for a game of the new Twilight Struggle Deluxe edition. We used the standard rules with the new expansion cards. I love TS because its unpredicable and this game was no exception. Jose played the USA and I took the USSR. The USA dominated in the late game but a last minute goof on their part led to thermonuclear war and a soviet victory.

After many games of TS I have come to the conclusion that the original game is fairly evenly balance with the soviets have a slight advantage in the early war. The expansion gives the US a few more cards to help them stick around past the early war. The other option is the Chinese Civil War variant which does the same. I probably would not play with both the expansion cards and the CCW variant since that would give the US too big of an advantage.

One more thing, the combination of Vassal and Skype makes for a great online gaming experience. I highly recommend. The new Twilight Struggle module is great as it handles all of the recordkeeping and scoring for the players.

Looking forward to seeing more session reports.

Getting the band back together

2010-10-28T21:54:00.004-05:00

... this needs to happen. While the Pro Guitars aren't here yet, I've got a keytar, Rob has drums, we have about a zillionty-eight other instruments, and Michael has every song ever put in the Rock Band Store (that he likes). A veritable plethora.

So ... band. Back together. ASAP. Some thoughts

Expert Drums -- Aidan wants to get this. I suspect that's enough of a reason to get it. I don't think I'm ever going to spend much time on the drums, but they aren't expensive.

Songs -- Low Rider ... classic song. Boring as hell (guitar). Ditto Werewolves of London (keyboards). I suspect I've never heard of (or actively dislike) about 1/3rd of the songs, which is pretty typical, but the high points. Roundabout on piano? Oh hells yes. I've got to see what it's like on expert (no fail, obviously) but it kicked me off on medium without much thought. Be sure to connect to the RB store to get the free Doors pack (which may be a limited time, I've no idea).

Keytar -- It's hard to read the notes at speed, and I wish they'd give some basic information (like, say, the key the song is in, so I have a good idea how to position my hand before the expected major 5th interval comes flying in. Once I can read individual keys at speed I'll try to level up....) Anyway, I played the Keytar for about an hour or two (including some tutorials) then switched to guitar to let the kids play a few songs (and rest). The octave shifting isn't horrible, but until I mentally can associate the color band with a note it will be tough. It's also surprisingly difficult for me to see the difference between the black keys (sharps/flats) and white, but I'm getting better.

Some nice things -- nice to see that people can jump in and out during a set, and that the campaign mode won't force you to play the opening songs every time. Haven't really tried it out much though. I wish you could import your avatars/bands from RB2. (I need to pony up and export my RB2 songs, as well).

Essen 2010 Post Mortem

2010-10-28T14:38:00.005-05:00

So... I'm back. What can be said that hasn't been said by others already? Probably not much. Here are some random observations:

At least for me, one full day at Essen is more than enough. Towards mid-afternoon I had the distinct feeling my brain was melting down, and I was causing a permanent lifespan reduction.

Essen has the best Con food ever. The Germans know how to do junk food. Nothing like a fully loaded (sauerkraut, etc.) 12-inch bratwurst to get your HP back where they need to be. Of course the 3 Euro cokes kind of sucked... but, you have to expect to get screwed when you're trapped in a massive convention center.

The high end luxury hotel adjacent to the convention center entrance has the swankiest, cleanest, most full featured restrooms I've encountered outside of the United States (including Tokyo). After a seven hour train ride to get to Essen, this was much appreciated.

By planning out my booth targets in advance I was able to get everything I wanted to buy or pick up in less than one hour, which loaded full a backpack plus another large carrying bag. Overall the Con seemed to have a much smaller crowd this year than when I was last there. I'm sure having a mental map from my previous visit helped a lot as well.

Next time I go, I'm going to somehow get a press pass and get in on Wednesday. Waiting in line is for suckers.

Germany in October is COLD. I have new sympathy for the participants in the Battle of the Bulge.

At least a quarter of the floor space at Essen is devoted to children's games, which is a huge area. There was also a big inflatable bouncy castle zone, making this a potential family destination... assuming your spouse will hold down the fort while you go do the other 75% of the Con.

The night before the Con I had dinner with three native Germans I work with, all architects and engineers. They asked me what I was going to do the next day. I thought to myself, "Hey, I'm in Germany where everyone is a hardcore board gamer. Its the national pastime, right? Surely they'll all be pumped about Essen as well!" I told them, "I'm going to the go to Essen to the Spiel board game convention! Isn't that awesome!" ...Crickets... crickets... "Ugh... you're going to do what? Where? Ummm... why? Have you ever been to Essen? Its probably one of the least interesting cities in Germany. Why not go someplace nice or fun like Heidelberg? Board gaming?" So... pretty much the same reaction you'd get from a random group of Americans. Myth dispelled.

Sean: I have your Power Grid promo cards.

Anyway... now to play some of these new games!

RB3

2010-10-27T09:28:00.002-05:00

So I got RB3 last night in the mail. I can't speak for the other instruments, but the PRO Drums are awesome. I played for almost 2 hrs straight last night (both baby and mom where long alseep when I was done).

Now that I recently got a real drum set, this will turn into a handy tool to actually get better at the real drums. Maybe the PRO guitar will do the same.

Hellenic Heffalumps

2010-10-16T18:44:00.003-05:00

Rob and I got up a game of Hannibal:Rome v Carthage. You can read the full report over at BGG, since I'm lazy and I've already typed it up once. In other news ... ok, no other news really. I just pre-ordered Rock Band 3 (along with Pro Guitar and Keytar). That's my big purchase for the rest of the year, although I'll probably get a few more board games, too.

Back to Essen

2010-10-09T19:32:00.003-05:00

Well... it now appears about 95% likely I'll be there again this year, though unlike the photo above the Essen I remember was dark gray and full of rain. I managed to hornswoggle a business trip to Europe during exactly the right time to enable me a day at the Con. Still, getting there will involve 3.5 hours each way on a train and a very long day.

Worth it? We'll see. Last time I finessed my way into the Con during dealer-only set up day (Wednesday) and snarfed up all the good stuff before it was tainted by the masses. This year I'll be there on Friday, which I remember as being akin to Mortal Kombat (with wall-to-wall German chain smokers in your face)!

If I see any good free stuff I can get extra copies of, I'll definitely do so.

In other related news, Master Persuader Michael seems to have sucked me back into something I swore I had forever forsaken: WoW.

BGG Fleamarket

2010-09-29T10:18:00.002-05:00

Come one, come all. Who needs/wants me to sell their games at BGG.con again?

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/568733/bgg-con-2010-flea-market-registration-thread

Enough Quiet, let's say "I wanna" like 8 year olds

2010-09-25T10:09:00.002-05:00

I keep telling my kids that it's impolite to just shout out things you want for your Birthday, Christmas, or a random Thursday. But since everything has been so quiet around here, I'll kick things off:

Right now I want to:

Get Dominion Prosperity
Try Dominant Species
Get 7 Wonders (probably)
Get in some emergency gaming, since I'm going to miss Monday night.

Cool game intros...

2010-09-15T15:58:00.002-05:00

I've always been a sucker for game intros and in-between-mission movies, even when they are not real actual gameplay footage. For example WoW's intro, Civ IV's intro, etc...

The most recent one to blow me away? Dragon Age 2's. Awesome.

Download the 1080p trailer, and turn it to eleven if your system can handle it.

Epic BattleLore

2010-09-12T21:53:00.003-05:00

I'm trying to put together a 6 player epic BattleLore game for Sat. Current plan is for DL, but I'm open to other options. If you're interested, email me: t underscore kostek at yahoo dot com.

I'll bring my partly painted set which really improves the appearance quite a bit. Newbies are welcome.

Blood Bowl on Steam

2010-09-10T19:16:00.002-05:00

Although apparently a sequel is approaching soon, the current incarnation of Blood Bowl PC (including the expansion and strategy guide) is only $10 on Steam this weekend. If you pick it up and want to play, just post a comment here.

Oh... and I just burned a B&N gift card to pre-order Civ V. In the mean time, I'm back to playing (badly) Fall from Heaven 2.

De-shrinking Castle Ravenloft this evening for solo play. Anyone else have an opinion on this one yet? Descent light?

WotR Collectors Edition finally hits my table.

2010-09-06T01:14:00.002-05:00

I finally had my first game with WotR Collectors edition. Loved the painted pieces, the larger board, and I especially loved those larger cards. My son and I will try again tomorrow.

More Washington's War

2010-08-31T21:01:00.003-05:00

Round 2 of the WBC PBEM tournament for Washington's War. After my Turn 1 loss in Round 1, I'm comfortably bobbing around in the warm, shallow loser's end of the pool. This time I'm running the evil British forces. As you might surmise (if you've played this or Hannibal), my opponent is about to get a refresher on the political isolation rules... So far, this my favorite game of 2010, though I do have a fair amount of de-shrinking to do, and I'm hearing rumors of some game called Innovation taking the group by storm.

Persistence Against Consistency

2010-08-27T19:17:00.004-05:00

Another two weeks of daily Angband; an other level 30 Dwarf Fighter slain by a basilisk. This game will at some point cause my brain to explode. Anyhow, back to Level 1.

In more happy news, I did just order a pile of games:

Thunderstone plus expansion: Yes, I'm late to the game, but I was finally persuaded by marketing.

Axis and Allies: Europe 1940: Because I've gotta catch 'em all.

Bang: Wild West Show: Because I needed more reason to de-shrink Bang: The Bullet.

Arkham: Lurker on the Threshold. Because the game is not yet large and complicated enough.

Perry Rhodan: The Cosmic League: Because I don't yet have the stones to unshrink my mint copy of Merchant of Venus.

Carson City: In celebration of finally completing Red Dead Redemption

Heroscape D2: Again, gotta catch 'em all.

Talisman: Highland: I like my expansion boards to be symmetrical, so I have at least two more to go after this.

PC Gaming: I picked up Mount and Blade: Warband off this weekend's Steam sale.

Adios for now!

Tichu for the IPhone is Live!!

2010-08-26T12:22:00.003-05:00

I may have a new go-to game of choice for wasting time when I'm sitting at the doctor's office... no offense to any doctors in the house. It's out, and I've played one hand so far... The cost is $3, and it's fairly well rounded. The AI has five skill levels and three "styles" - conservative, normal, and aggressive. Multiplayer is supported through bluetooth - no online multiplayer. The settings page has a decent amount of options, and you know the developer is a Tichu fan when one of the options lets you set which way you pass even cards...

Find it here

What are some of your other favorite board games on the Iphone? My other best purchases so far have been Roll Through the Ages, Carcassone (both have good solitaire versions of the game), and Words with Friends (scrabble clone). In the good but not great category are Button Men, Croke, Hive, Ingenious, Gipsy King.

Are you ready for some (fantasy) football?

2010-08-22T19:40:00.002-05:00

So do we have any interest this year in a free online fantasy football league?

WBC

2010-08-14T14:30:00.002-05:00

Yeah, I know it's not for everyone, but having gone for 20 years, and meeting and making friends with a lot of great people, it's worth going for me.

On the pleasant side, I won the Automobile tournament, which was an absolute brain drain, and I'm still amazed at the flexibilty the game has.

On the funny side, I thought having to travel by plane, I'd not be buying a lot of stuff at the dealers room. Wrong. Wound up bringing home about 8 new games. Fortunately, I've got someone who is sending me the excess games home.

Emergency Gaming Success!

2010-08-08T11:14:00.004-05:00

Chris and I got in a bout of CC:Med last night ... the full session report is online at BGG (may as well get a few thumbs). Right now I don't know exactly how many CC players we've got. I know three, but I think Rob converted another, and I don't remember if Ben plays. I've got to play this more ... I enjoy it and (as a 2 player game) it's very convenient for "emergency gaming" sessions at someone's home.

Angband... So it Goes...

2010-08-07T18:50:00.004-05:00

If you've read much of Tolkien's writing about the First Age of the Middle Earth (in particular the recently released Children of Hurin), you'll know its a story of one horrible, dark, bitter defeat and disappointment after another. Angband, the free Rogue-like game set in this universe, certainly follows this theme. Your job is to decend from town to level 99 of the dungeon, slay Morgoth, then return to the surface with his crown. The trick is that death is permanent. If you die, game over. Roll a new character, and start over. The game is also hideously difficult and death is sudden and merciless. Nonetheless, the game has had a loyal following for 20-years now and is continually under development, tweaking, and balancing. I love it, though in the ~10 years I've played, I've never come close to winning.

Here is how my latest attempt ended:

[Last Messages]>

The Greater basilisk gazes at you.> You are unaffected!>

The Greater basilisk bites you.> You are more poisoned!>

The Greater basilisk gazes at you.> You are unaffected!>

The Greater basilisk misses you.>

The Greater basilisk bites you.> You are more poisoned!>

The Greater basilisk breathes nexus.> You resist the effects!>

The Greater basilisk breathes darkness.> You die.

Killed by a Greater basilisk.

...and so ends another valiant try. My level 31 dwarf fighter bites the dust, the victim of overconfidence and complacency as he butchered his way through the first 35 levels of Morgoth's fortress, only to encounter a monster that normally doesn't appear until around level 45. Five keyboard clicks later, and about 12 hours of dungeon delving comes to a close. Great composure was needed to keep myself from smashing my laptop into a hundred little bits.

What is most infuriating is that I was fully capable of escaping his beast via teleport, but I was clicking away faster than my brain was engaged and so died before I realized what was happening. Argh!

Anyhow... valuable lesson learned. Starting around level 30, Angband seems to be actively trying to screw you. Several times in the last few levels before I died I encountered stuff that was from way deeper in the dungeon, sprinkled in little vaults next to enticing treasure, just tempting me to give it a shot. Now I know to be a bit more careful.

In other news, the Lord of the Rings Online Free Play beta is now open. I think I'll give it a shot tonight.

Also selling games

2010-08-07T17:08:00.000-05:00

...it's not just Tiffany. Check out the geeklist. Ya'll should be able to outbid everyone, since you won't pay shipping.

Westeros - Battlelore

2010-08-04T23:05:00.003-05:00

Hey all. Like Tifany, I too have been absent from the scene. Just wanted to let you know that today I played the Westeros/Battlelore game. I really liked it! I have only played one game so far, but it went very well. The game belongs to my friend Jerry - whom some of you met when we played TI3 at my house.

I thought it was a much cleaned up Battlelore system. Where BL uses the Left-Center-Right system, Westeros relies more on field commanders that fight alongside the troops. If you are unlucky enough to lose a commander, your ability to command your army is greatly diminished. I also liked the the victory conditions were dependent on capturing and holding certain objectives rather than just destroy enemy units. What was cool was that different things could affect the moral of the army - including the losses taken in battle.

I was a little disappointed in that the figures kept falling out of their stands. They did not seem as sturdy as my BL figures.

The game itself was very Battlelore Like. I would say that the games are at least 70% similar - Of course based on my one play. Not sure if I will get it myself, but I am sure tempted. My son and I like to play BL and I think this would be a worthy addition to our gaming experience.

Selling Games --

2010-08-03T23:29:00.001-05:00

Its been a while since Ive been around, i know, and things have been very blah and icky over here. That being said, I am selling off some games and stuff. Just so you know.

http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/57345/toggys-fundraising-geeklist

My precious...

2010-07-29T09:35:00.003-05:00

Anyone pick up Starcraft 2? Add me to your friend's list, to get pwned.

Perhaps Premature....

2010-07-26T22:16:00.003-05:00

...but it looks like I may be leading the British Army to victory in the BPA WBC BoAR PBEM tournament. Those red D's are the American Army blown off the battle line. My opponent is up next, but unless he rallies those troops, its time to rewrite the history books.

Round 2 (of four preliminaries) will feature Guilford Courthouse, which will be a new game for me and I suspect a humility lesson as well.

Saturday Gaming

2010-07-24T20:07:00.003-05:00

Since we haven't had a session report in some time ...

I showed up and Rob, Ryan and Dory were setting up Stone Age, so I joined them. I was pretty negative on this when it came out and figured it would be a flash in the pan, but it's still hanging around (and not just at SABG). In any case, I've had good luck with a "card rush" strategy (usually grabbing the 1-2 resource cost card, even if some of the "city" spaces are still available) and this time was no different. I only gained one meeple and two agriculture, but I got plenty of cards. By the midgame, I had 3x tools and 3x huts in my scoring pile, and I managed to get 7 of each for a 42 point bonus. The rest of my cards earned me another ~20, enough to win.

Then we played Small World (yay!) with the new "Random Event Cards" expansion (Boo!). I may play with the expansion again, if we agree to play only 'mild' cards. The major ones turn it into a crap shoot.

Then I taught Dory Glory to Rome with Rob (while Ryan grabbed dinner). We were just going to play a few turns, but I quickly built a Temple then Catacombs to end the game. Rob had to leave, so Dory and I played another game ...

We played a hand of Escalation, then had Scott A and another player (I didn't catch his name, although I guess his nick is Hobbit) played Dice Town. I rather like Dice Town .... Scott eeked out a win. After that I left for dinner, although there were still 4-5 people....

See ya'll on monday.

Caylus the Movie

2010-07-16T13:18:00.001-05:00

Or some other famous boardgame/book.

Joking aside, looking forward to it.

Grognardian Goodness

2010-07-15T19:26:00.002-05:00

Happiness is coming home to a big, chunky box from GMT Games sitting on your doorstep. Today I arrived to find GMT's Pensacola 1781 and Wilderness War (reprint) patiently waiting for me. For some reason I seem to be going through a musket phase...

The Wilderness War box in particular had a new, satisfying heft to it over the previous edition, with a nicely mounted board packed inside, worthy of the hoary ghosts of Avalon Hill. I'm a huge fan of the French-Indian War theme since way back in my days as a elementary school kid in Pennsylvania learning about Iroquois raids on the hapless colonists who lived in the area and reading lots of Fenimore Cooper. I find this particular card-driven wargame to be one of my favorites and particularly well suited to PBEM play due to the relatively low unit density.

Pensacola 1781 (still in shrink at the moment) seems to be a Battles of the American Revolution game on steroids, with the full campaign game predicted to last 8-10 hours. This is quite a feat, as the game system itself is quite simple and fast, so I'm curious to see the scale of the fight. The game includes French, Spanish, British, American, and even Native American forces who fought in the battle, so there is bound to be lots of chrome here.

In other news.....

Come join your fellow SABG pals on League of Legends. Post your handle in the comments, and I'll "friend" you there. Its good, free fun.

Another random recommendation: Puzzle Quest 2 (platform your choice, most likely) is dangerously addictive fun. Now if I could just catch up to Hornsfan on the leaderboard....

This looks like good gaming food.

It appears, sadly, that 1 vs. 100 is toast.

Okay, enough rambling. I have some shrink wrap to pop.

Hellenes

2010-07-12T09:54:00.002-05:00

R3Cube and I met to re-fight a chapter out the Peloponnesian War in GMT's Hellenes. I took the noble Spartan alliance, while my opponent took the evil, power drunk, decadent Athenians.

Deciding to skip straight to the final chapters of the Return of the King, on Turn 2 I marched the entire Spartan Army (plus most of their allies) to the gates of Mordor (a.k.a) Athens. The Dark Lord Perikles sallied forth his corrupt legions to meet me outside for a field battle. Cue evil laughter and pithy comments from the Emperor.

The Spartans, being studly B2 units fired first. I had 10 strength points (i.e., ten dice) needing anything but a three or four to score hits or routes. Assuming I decimated the evil army, I was ready with cards in hand to cast back-to-back plagues (a.k.a., cleansing holy light) on Athens, which would cast Perikles down into the fiery pit waiting for him. So... I confidently chucked the fist full of dice into my tower.

Out of ten dice, all but one were misses. Apparently my Spartan Army decided to just prance around the battlefield, showing off their six-pack abs to the Athenian Orc army, then retire for a session wine drinking and rubbing body oil on each other. The Athenians, now awake, struck back, rolling their dice, and killed and/or panicked my entire army.

Unfortunately a careful reading of the rules revealed that the 50% of my army not currently feeding the crows (because they were running scared for their lives) did not have a place to retreat to. Instead, the entire remaining army surrendered, sending the bulk of the red blocks on the map to the graveyard. Sparta!

Luckily, my recent experience sending George Washington on a similar death ride in Washington's War helped me keep composure and not upend the gaming table. I shifted to a guerrilla insurgency campaign and began popping barbarian allies and little revolts everywhere, keeping me slightly ahead on the prestige track.

We had to call the game with about a third of the turns left to play, and it was really too close to call. I was winning based on Prestige, but it was narrow enough that the game could have easily have gone either way on the final turns.

What a great game! Like Washington's War, Hellenes seems to tightly balance the asymmetry of the two sides and maintain delicious tension of a long attritional war, where you need to strike a soon as your opponent leaves an opening.

Always Practice Safe Corruption

2010-07-10T12:32:00.001-05:00

Hooray! The card sleeves for War of the Ring: Collector's Edition have arrived! Maybe now I'll actually have the courage to play this $400 board game.

The Time of Man is Over

2010-07-05T13:17:00.005-05:00

The time of the Skaven has begun.

Monday Gaming

2010-07-04T15:23:00.002-05:00

What time will people be at Dragon's Lair? I can probably be there around 3-4pm ... I'm sure others have the day off.

Wargame Dilema

2010-07-04T10:32:00.006-05:00

After spending some time debating between two player war games, I have realized that if I spend the money on a heavier, more time-intensive game, it will only collect dust in the closet. I narrowed it down between Conflict of Heroes and Memoir 44. Then, Battle of Westernos came along. I am going to go with this one because I feel I could get it to the table more often with family and there is always a copy of Memoir nearby. I would love to hear from anyone who has played Conflict of Heroes --especially the eastern campaign, I may be looking at it again for my next order.

I am going to place an order this week with Coolstuffinc.com and would love to have a few piggy-backers to ensure free shipping. We can make arrangements to meet up when they come in.

Doomed!

2010-07-03T21:39:00.004-05:00

So, just when I thought I successfully discovered a totally free of cost, extremely fun diversion in Doom Rogue-Like (or DoomRL for short), I found myself motivated to go play Doom 3 again. Thank goodness Steam is having a Crazy Eddie-style self off right now. I picked up the the entire catalog of ID games for $35. Yowza. Its something like 20 games, some of which aren't even Doom clones!

At the risk of falling into my trap, if you enjoy Doom or even the Doom Board Game, I'd heartily recommend downloading DoomRL. Its a "coffee break" style Rogue, designed so you can jump right in and have fun, progressing reasonably far pretty quickly. Because its turn-based, the game play actually feels closer to Doom the Board Game than the video game, though I'm usually too excited / terrified to do much analysis.

To enhance the straight ASCII graphics, the designer has included all the key sound effects from the video game, plus the background music. Oh, and yes.... there is still the chainsaw! I haven't survived deep enough yet to get a BFG, but I imagine there will be a huge pile of ASCII characters flying across my monitor when I do.

These same fellows have also more recently published the Aliens rogue-like, again with sound effects and music, but so far I'm just getting annihilated by that one.

Future development of Doom is supposed to include a graphic tile (rather than ASCII) interface as well as on-line play (i.e., death match).

Anyway, they're both free, so go check them out!

The SABG Top 50 for 2010 are ...

2010-07-03T19:40:00.001-05:00

available in geeklist form! Thanks to everyone who voted.

Steam...stop!

2010-06-30T19:28:00.001-05:00

Please Steam... stop offering amazing discounts on games. I can't resist. I am weak. I have already downloaded WH40k Dawn of War II and the expansion for $20. Now Torchlight is at $5. I must get that. Oh, and Mass Effect 2? $24. Might pick it up too....

Must finish these before Star Craft II arrives

Last-ish call

2010-06-27T09:31:00.002-05:00

I usually do the results for the SABG Top 50 on (or around) the 4th of July, which is on the horizon. So if you haven't voted yet and want to vote, try to get those in soon.

WoW

2010-06-26T14:34:00.002-05:00

Those South Koreans sure seem to dig Starcraft. I need to get around to finishing SC1 Brood War one of these days...

The last time I gamed at Dennis' house...

2010-06-22T23:20:00.001-05:00

went something like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqSroFmRMME

Washington: American Martyr

2010-06-22T19:02:00.006-05:00

So... after suffering two terrible defeats at the hands of the Master Deceiver (making my lifetime record for the game 0-3), I managed to salvage a very ugly victory today in GMT's Washington's War.

American superhero George Washington (under my command) led a bold early war assault against Cornwallis in Delaware, triumphantly watching the tattered British army retreat Dunkirk style out to sea. Then... General Washington turned around. At his back was Clinton (I think... or perhaps it was Howe) marching down the one-way street onto the Delaware peninsula. Unfortunately, the American Navy apparently hadn't yet been invented, and the French were still frolicking in Paris with Benjamin Franklin. So... no American Dunkirk. Washington rolled the dice, lost, and was summarily executed with the rest of his surviving troops. The horror!

This was all on turn 2 of 12, so we decided to play on. Jon was one pesky American army overrun away from auto-victory, so I thought we'd be having an early lunch. Pretty much the entire British Army, almost completely intact, roamed and pillaged the countryside. Congress was disbanded and dispersed nearly every turn. Somehow, though I managed to get enough military and political control on the board to stay alive.

Time marched on and the people continued to turn to the light side of the Force. Jon had stormtroopers in every colony, but he couldn't quite snuff me out. In the end, I think the final tally was three British "colonies" (counting Canada) to my 8 or 9 (we may have had a neutral or two). USA! USA!

Wow, what a tough and closely fought game. Washington's War is a deep and fascinating game, with mechanics elegantly depicting the asymmetry of military power vs. guerrilla agility and grassroots support. This one is a keeper.

So... next on the agenda (besides anything else that I'm able to squeeze in) is to finally get Paths of Glory to the table! The Master of Deception and I are committed to making this happen.

Other news:

-- 100 Rogues on the I-whatever is tons of fun. A great brain diversion during long meetings where you're able to sit at the back of the room.

-- Speaking of Rogue-likes, I just downloaded the latest builds of Stone Soup, Angband, AliensRL (i.e., set in the Aliens movie universe); and DoomRL (yep, set in the Doom universe). I have a few trips coming up, so this should keep me busy on the work laptop.

-- Probably late to the game, but I just read Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Good, old-fashioned military Sci-Fi.

-- Next up in my board game shopping cart: Rommel in the Desert (finally), Talisman: Highland expansion; Memoir '44 Breakthrough expansion; and something else that I haven't yet decided upon that will get me $100+ in the cart. Recommendations?

-- I'm still alive in the Great Battles of the American Revolution World Board Gaming Championship PBEM tourney. I'm slightly up on my opponent, but one bad roll could send me to the locker room.

Alright.... fading back into the woodwork....

SAVG News....

2010-06-17T11:54:00.003-05:00

Any following this year's E3? I've been following it on Gamespot.com (where you can even "subscribe" to follow particular games a la RSS reader), and G4TV.com (the iphone app works really well btw). Great stuff.

Games that have picqued my interest:

1. Star Wars: The old Republic. As I said before, this is the game that will get me back into MMO's. The new trailer looks particularly awesome (even if it isn't actual gameplay footage). The other video updates are a must see too.

2. Warhammer 40k: Dark Millenium. Like I told Mike S, games like Space Hulk, and Horus Heresy have planted the seed of interest in this whole setting. Might even download the latest RTS for the PC from Steam. Dark Millenium is an MMO based on WH40k. The gameplay videos look great.

3. Portal 2!!!! Enough said.

4. Bunch of sequels... like DeadSpace2, GOW3, Halo, etc... and most important of all, Rock Band 3 which will have a keyboard, and a "closer to the real deal" guitar. No significant updates on my fav, the drums, though.

Monday night revival?

2010-06-14T14:16:00.003-05:00

I've been itching to play a few games and was wondering if anyone would be heading to the Lair for some Monday night gaming? I have an uplayed Cyclades I would love to bring and am open to anything. I know its late notice but post a reply if interested.

In other news, I've just been playing Red Dead Redemption on PS3 and watching my daughter systematically destroy our home.

Take care,

Travis

Blah Blah

2010-06-08T18:27:00.002-05:00

Remember to send in your votes for the SABG Top 50!
My Netflix queue isn't in serious danger of depleting, but I'm open for suggestions.
ADG has announced that they want Beta testers for a computerized Seven Ages. The sound you just heard was Michael sending an email.
I don't mind having an asian blog spammer, but points off for lack of originality. Dude.
I can't believe I sat out of Rodentia Bubonica to play Imperial. Although I did get a review out of it.
I believe this video is real, intellectually. Emotionally, no. The research and ability of people to hold their breath really has taken off in the last 10-15 years.

SWTOR

2010-06-06T14:28:00.004-05:00

Last night, I went to see Star Wars in Concert. What an amazing performance. My wife and I were simply blown away. This of course just made me itch for another SW game. So I decided to look further into Star Wars: The Old Republic, Bioware's MMO coming out next year. Wow... this game will definitively get me back into the world of MMO's. To my surprise, when I talked to my wife today about this game, she said "you know, I would like to try that game out too". I was floored. Sure I enjoy when she decides to dabble on the occasional euro with me, but this... a PC game... an MMO! In the words of Neil, the chosen one, "woa...".

The game is set a few hundred (thousand?) years before Episode I. Bioware has been releasing an online comic book to give some background to the story underlying this setting. Great stuff.

I Regret I Have but One Auto-Victory to Give for My Country

2010-06-01T20:48:00.005-05:00

So... I've been officially bounced to the losers bracket World Board Gaming Championship PBEM Tourney of Washington's War after one turn. Yes, its ugly and true.

I led the valiant American Army, commanded by George Washington into upstate New York to meet any incursion by Cornwallis and a sizable force of British regulars. We clashed in an epic battle near Albany, and the British were sent scurrying back to Oswego. Hooray! The French government applauded quietly across the Atlantic and began preparations to join the party.

However, then bad things began to happen. First a large scale Iroquois rebellion sprang up behind me, removing American control of most of upstate New York. Then, while I was getting ready to bed down for the winter (i.e., I was out of cards), British General Howe struck out from Boston, sneaking past the smaller American rear guard under Greene (missed the intercept roll) and hit Washington's army from the rear. Washington was then sandwiched between Cornwallis and Howe, with no retreat possible. To seal my fate, I rolled a "1" for my combat roll. Argh! Washington and the entire American army surrenders. Game over.

I actually conceded rather than suffered an auto-victory, technically, but AV was going to happen within a turn or so. Many tears shed.

Anyway.... all that said, it was still a wonderful game. I can't wait to play again. On to the loser's bracket!

Around the Town

2010-05-31T09:41:00.003-05:00

Some items, in no particular order:

I have a new pile of Bridge Books (Thanks, Fred, for the heads up). This includes ~30 beginner's books. Some are standard "Bridge in a few hours" types. Many of them are British or Old (which teach slightly different/archaic bidding systems, but are otherwise fine). These are free to a good home. Some of them are actually good (deep) beginner's books that cover one aspect in detail (Bidding, Declarer Play or Defensive Play). I'd be happy to float these around for extended loans.
Do you have any summer gaming resolutions? I do. I've actually been getting more and more of my collection played (and rotating through the not-recently played games at a reasonable clip).
Thanks to Rob for Hosting, and also for confirming something I learned in Graduate School (Doctors performing math is a terrifying sight).
Thanks to Anne for buying Greed (so I don't have to).

It's the Most List-a-ful Time of the Year

2010-05-29T09:17:00.004-05:00

We have an early summer tradition here in San Antonio, the SABG Top 50. And, as the monkey says "It is time!" Just a reminder for how this works:

Email me your (ordered) list of your Top 20 games.
Your #1 Favorite game will get 40 points, your #20 game will get 21 points. (So, points = 41 - Position). I think this works out reasonably well, in that a game on two people's lists is worth more than a person's favorite. I've been saying for years that I should make the scale 30-11, so I think that this year I may run the results both ways.
Sometime around the 4th of July I'll post the results
Sometimes I group games together ... for example, all the Combat Commander games. Ticket to Ride games (etc) usually get grouped.

You are eligible to vote if you've been to a few SABG meetings/meetups, whatever. If you are reading this, odds are good that you are eligible. We have a lot of new members, so I'm hoping that we'll get 20+ voters!

Superstars....

2010-05-26T21:51:00.001-05:00

Apparently Chris and I are GMT superstars....

The Father of our Analysis Paralysis

2010-05-24T21:29:00.003-05:00

Proceeding slowly, gingerly forward in the BPA tournament of Washington's War, I'm learning how PBEM can totally suck you into an acute case of analysis paralysis. When you don't have an opponent across from you, staring you down, clearing their throat, and letting out periodic heavy sighs, you are free to indulge your hidden AP monster's darkest desires.

This evening I took over an hour pondering the first move of the game. Good Lord! I could have been doing something entirely more productive!

Thanks to Jeff and Amy for Hosting!

2010-05-23T15:13:00.002-05:00

Jeff, Amy, Ian and Floppy Monkey hosted a day long gaming ~~session~~ wake to celebrate their impending move to the wilderness of Maconga. (When Jacqui was working for the airlines, she got a call that said "I need a ticket to Maconga." She eventually figured out that the customer wanted to go to Macon, GA. As the pigeon says, True story.)

People came from near and far, food and drink flowed, games were played:

Chess
Cornerstone
Factory Manager
Hansa Teutonica
In the Year of the Dragon
Innovation
Pandemic
Race
Shadow Hunters
St. Petersburg
Uno

Innovation was interesting ... and also taught me that Jeff had a job for all these years despite not being able to read simple sentences. Due to repeated failures, the floppy monkey was appointed his strategic adviser. Good luck to Jeff and Amy on their upcoming move!

This is Cute.

2010-05-23T06:21:00.000-05:00

Learn to Talk Like Yoda with the Yoda-Speak Generator

Happy 30th, Yoda.

Retro Arcade Fun

2010-05-22T15:47:00.000-05:00

Go to http://www.google.com/.
Click "Insert Coin"
Enjoy (for as long as it lasts).

More X-Box Fun

2010-05-19T09:45:00.005-05:00

Sorry for my continued habit of making non-board gaming-related posts, but I'm assuming gaming in general is at least tangentially of interest to most here. Plus, posting random thoughts on this blog is a healthy catharsis of the brain cells after a night of overstimulation, so I beg your indulgence.

Anyhow... I spent last night trapsing about the dusty environs of Rock Star's Red Dead Redemption. Over the course of a few hours I had a wide variety of adventures, including a duel, slaughtering various outlaw gangs, and a failed attempt to rescue an innocent man being hung. I had to shoot the rope he was dangling from while fighting off the evil lynch mob. Unfortunately my accuracy was a tad sub par, and the poor guy is now with the angels. In addition, my cowboy is now officially a one man wildlife killing machine, slaughtering all manner of critters that crawl, fly, run, or otherwise slink about the Wild West, skinning and selling the by-products of each.

So... my overall assessment is that this game is GTAIV with horses and cacti, much better graphics, and packaged in a no less interesting sand box. The game is still intensely gritty, with racism, murder, rape, prostitutes, and all the other stuff Rock Star is known for. Multi-player is way different, feeling almost like a full-blown PvP MMO, with up to I think 18-players in an instanced world, free to team up or take each other on, and lots of mini-adventures to take on. The game tracks XP in multi-player and seems to dole out nice toys at regular intervals. Right now my guy rides a very uncooperative mule and only has a terribly inaccurate, short range pistol, so I'm assuming I'm still Level 1.

Anyone else have this game? If you see me there, please go form a posse!

Oh... here is a stretch, but the game has a fairly involved poker mini-game built in as well.

Nocturnal Wargaming

2010-05-17T16:08:00.003-05:00

Now that I'm with child, my "Me Time" largely occurs after 2000 hours. Thus, my board gaming lately consists of using rulebooks as bedtime reading, sleeving cards, arranging counter trays, and wondering which games I'll auction off next.

Thankfully, some motivated individuals associated with the Board Game Players Association (the same folks who run the annual World Board Gaming Championship) have organized two play-by-e-mail tournments I'm now engaged in. Although the competition in these tournaments appears to be quite fierce, so far its also been quite friendly and seems to be a great way to learn the systems as I go.

The first tournment, now officially kicked off, is for GMT's Great Battles of the American Revolution Series. The first game in the tournment is the Battle of Eutaw Springs (pictured above), a nasty, bloody little scrap that took place late in the war in South Carolina, featuring the Swamp Fox of Disney TV fame (starring Leslie Nielsen). The tournment will proceed through all the games in the series, which up until now have sat unpunched, decorating my bookshelves. Wish me luck!

The other tournment is for GMT's Washington's War. I like to think of this game as Hannibal with a three-cornered hat. This tournment is still forming up, but I suspect due to the newness and popularity of the release it will be a big one.

So... what else is going on? Lots of X-Box 360. I'm on the downward slope of Mass Effect 2, and Red Dead Redemption appears tomorrow. ME2 is incredible. I'm still not a huge fan of the Mass Effect combat system, but the writing, location design, and sound are amazing. I did have to bump up the difficulty to Veteran just to make things a tad more challenging, which isn't saying much, as my poor shooter skills are somewhat legendary within SABG.

I also tried the Halo: Reach beta.... More of the same, IMHO. Star Craft 2? I just like driving the Schwarzenegger-sounding unit around the battlefield.

Oh... and the "new" Good Old Games incarnation of MOO2 is getting a lot of play these days as well.

Okay... that's enough for now.

On to Mass Effect 2....

2010-05-07T10:31:00.002-05:00

Yep. After two years, I'm done. I have to say, just like the time it took me two years to play my first game of War of the Ring, I feel pretty silly. What a great game! ME1 was way, way better than Dragon Age, in my opinion. In a fit of geekiness I even picked up the ME1 soundtrack.

Anyhow.... I have ME2 loaded in the tray and ready to launch tonight. I expect it to be rudely interrupted by Red Dead Redemption next week, but I'm looking forward to continuing the ME story.

What is everyone else playing these days?

Steam findings....

2010-05-01T00:27:00.002-05:00

If you like what I call Games for the energy-drink generation, I recommend getting Beat Hazard from Steam.

Download the demo. Try it with a few "high-powered" songs (techno/trance/electronica seems to work best). Play in a dark room using a good set of speakers or better yet, headphones. Call me to remind you to buy the game, after you have recovered from your seizure.

Converting Vinyl to Other Formats

2010-04-28T10:59:00.002-05:00

Does anybody have the hardware/software to convert vinyl to mp3 and/or audio CDs?

I've got four or five LPs and a similar number of 45s I'd like to convert before we move. It'll be that much less to pack!

Thanks.

Anyone else been following the Mayday Games Crokinole Board saga?

2010-04-27T16:18:00.003-05:00

For $100, not bad.

Here is is one picture of a sample of the product. Hopefully they'll produce the rest soon!

Saturday Gaming Session on May 15th

2010-04-27T00:15:00.002-05:00

Prepare yourselves, folks! It's time for another Saturday gaming session.

Tomorrow Will Be Good

2010-04-26T20:18:00.001-05:00

Time to give nostalgia a true test.

BSG Achievements

2010-04-21T10:36:00.002-05:00

I don't visit BGG very much anymore, but there is an outstanding thread there now that combines our love of BSG with the addictiveness of the XBox achievement system. I belatedly want the "Who's Flying This Thing?" achievement, for getting everyone to evacuate Galactica for fear you will reveal with the Brig power, then early-jumping three times to zero the population.

iCat

2010-04-19T16:11:00.001-05:00

This reminded me of Anne's cat.

Hello Again!

2010-04-16T20:54:00.003-05:00

....Oh... Hello! Does anyone still come here? Its been a long while since I've had any meaningful contribution here (perhaps forever), but I thought at least out of nostalgia I'd post something. I was supposed to fly to Germany tomorrow, but a crazy volcano seems to have messed that up. So... I have some extra spare time to kill. Here is a smattering of what I've been up to:

-- StarCraft 2 Beta: Thanks for the code, FFG! Overall it feels like SC1 with a pretty skin, including the clunky old interface, need to memorize high speed hot-key macros, and nearly identical units. I'm quite surprised, though I suppose if it ain't broke...

-- Battlefield Bad Company 2: Quite possibly my favorite multiplayer FPS of all time. Somehow I seem to regularly score as best player in the X-Box Live matches I'm playing in, which means I'm likely being automatched with unskilled 10-year olds. In any event, its quite a hoot.

-- Mass Effect 1: I never finished this back in the day, so I restarted. My original character looked far too much like Steve, so fear of seeing him in a love scene was also a strong motivator for a reboot.

-- Heroscape: I'm finally getting around to sorting and organizing the hundreds of Heroscape minis I've collected. Good fun.

So.... not a lot of board gaming unfortunately. I did complete a massive sell-off, so my board game closet is in a never-before-seen state of organization and readiness.

Stuff I'm most looking forward to:

-- Red Dead Redemption.... Perhaps the next GTAIV-quality game? I pre-ordered from Amazon on Hornsfan's recommendation and paid the extra $6 for release date shipping in a fit of silliness.

-- Washington's War: I have it... I've studied it... Now I just need to play it.

-- Great Battles of the Revolutionary War: Same theme.... I'm in the WBC PBEM tournament for this game series, kicking off any day now. I've never played, but the games are colorful, simple, and very digestible. I can't wait to see if they're as fun as they look.

Anyhow.... I hope everyone is well and has a fantastic Fiesta season. If anyone wants to hook up for some on-line gaming of any of the above (or anything else really), just shoot me an e-mail.

Is there anything going on this weekend?

2010-04-08T21:13:00.002-05:00

So is there any gaming going on this weekend? I know I will miss all gaming next week and next weekend so I thought I should see if there is something going on this weekend I could use to tide me over.

Monday Gaming

2010-04-03T22:23:00.001-05:00

May as well see who is showing up on Monday. I will, after having been grievously absent last week. And who else? We'll see...

No April Fools...

2010-03-30T00:28:00.000-05:00

The Gauntlet has been Thrown

2010-03-29T19:05:00.002-05:00

Surely the SABG Band will not let this stand. If I remember the last few sessions I attended before fatherhood, this was the typical weekend routine for you guys.

For those WOTR CE owners..

2010-03-28T01:21:00.001-05:00

Are all those who purchased the collector's edition following this thread on BGG?

Seth from Mayday Games posted this afternoon:

"Just to confirm, those pics Mike put up are exactly what we needed... we ARE going to make these in the next few WEEKS (as in 2-3) and will have them available for preorder in the next 7 days on our site. We are putting these into 75 sleeves per pack so you will need two packs to sleeve the entire game.

We are just waiting on the exact time frame and quote from the factory to price this right. We will post as soon as we have them available. This will be a one-time run though for sure and we will have reasonable worldwide shipping costs as well

We will post the preorder as soon as it is available."

Carpe freedom...

2010-03-26T20:50:00.002-05:00

Feeling a looming life overhaul in my future (read, baby coming in about 4 months), I feel like I should be doing more with what's left of my freedom, like gaming, before I turn into Ben.

Has anyone ever considered getting into Paintball?

Further Game Clearance

2010-03-22T22:33:00.003-05:00

Yes, I have launched yet another BGG auction. The purge continues...

Bid early and bid often!

I'm not looking forward to shipping this stuff, so I'll entertain any local offer with great interest.