What game is hitting your table?

[celticgriffon]

If you are into fantasy miniature wargaming Mantic currently has Kings of War.  The rulebooks are free to download.  I think it is around 25 pages.  Very, very easy system where you can use any scale or models. 

The game is trying to encourage the movement aspect of the game.  Side and rear flanking have some pretty incredible advantages.

It is still relatively new system designed by a bunch of ex-GW guys.  Kind of looks good imo after having bought ALL of the army books for Warhammer Fantasy Battle over and over and over again.  I have almost everything they ever made for the sytem - from 1st ed - current.

Michael

[Jolo]

5 player Power Grid on the US map. I squeaked out a win by building to 15 and powering 13 of them. I am such a stinker!

[Colin Dearborn]

Great day off yesterday.


Star Trek: Fleet Captains The best star trek game out there, too bad the Federation was victorious again. Their new warp experiment went well and of course the Ferengi and Q made their presence felt.

Quarriors Got to try out some of the new Quarmageddon cards. New expansion adds some nice touches. Imps and Gnomish Barbarians are solid.

Heave Ho Light filler, but a fun little tug of war in the scottish highlands.

later in the evening with the kids

Gem Dealer and Galaxy Trucker

[Jolo]

Hordes of the Things, Tim ran a 4 player campaign, I was Rats, Tim was Japanese, Bob was the Centaurs and Dave was the Anglish. I finished last, but at the end I did hold a city that wasn't mine.

Here is Day One

Year One
Year Two
Year Three
Year Four

p

[celticgriffon]

At the Frag Games Day I was able to get in a few plays:

Wiz War - The more I play the new edition the more I like it.  I started playing this game in high school... so I have a special bond with the system.  I tend to play the game with all of the old school rules - i.e. using the entire deck of spells, and creations which are on the map do not need to be maintained (i.e. they do not work against your 7 card hand size).  We also play with victory conditions that if both of your treasures are placed onto opponents home squares you go poof, and that you need two opponents treasures or to kill all opponents to win the game.

Pastiche - a neat game and my first play.  You play tiles to gain colour resources.  You then can then trade these resources to get what you need to complete your paintings.  If anything it offers a good lesson in pigment blending... lol  Weng ran away with things as he had played a few times before.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle - I own way too much stuff for Warhammer... like 5 display cabinets of mostly unpainted but built stuff... and boxes and boxes and boxes of blisters and boxed sets still in packaging).  I am actively going to start playing and painting again.  I honestly dislike painting figures.  I want them to look like something in the pages of White Dwarf but don't want to spend the time taking them there.  I like building terrain much better.  Even so... it was my second game of 8th edition (played a game when the new rules came out about a year ago).  The game was Orcs vs Orcs and Stu my opponent.  I like the system quite a bit.  The game was going very well for me... my big unz destroyed his big unz... and then pursued and caught his force.  This led me straight into the line of fire of two bolt throwers.  Eight causualties later I failed my panic test and they moved a 1/4 inch over the table edge.  Our moderator insisted the unit was removed... although I thought that was a very wrong call...  In the end Stu won by 104 points (pretty close game for 1000 points).  And I am excited to start playing on a regular basis again.

[Bix Conners]

HeroScape
We played our second official game of HeroScape on Monday night. The accelerated draft cost system is working well. (Each time a card is used in a game, the cost of that unit goes up by 5 points. If all six cards get picked on 1 night, a unit's cost shoots up by 30 points.) This encourages all of the players to explore new units to field and explore different synergies in game play. We played a four player game on our large map and I managed to pull off a decisive victory. I think I just made myself a target for the next game.

Star Trek: Fleet Captains
I have always been a bit of a Star Trek fan. I think this game really captures some of the feel and tension from the franchise and it is an enjoyable game to play. I played the Federation and was able to squeak a 10-7 victory over those pesky Klingons. I look forward to the Romulan expansion for this game.

Quarriors
I got my second play of the game in with the Quarmageddon expansion. The expansion adds value to the game and brings some freshness to an ok game. I enjoy this as a filler game, but would certainly not want a full evening of it.

Heave Ho
This is a fun light filler that represents three bouts in a Scottish Tug-of-war. I think I will sleeve the cards to make it pub proof. This needs to show up at our weekly Guinness Breakfast club meeting at OHanlons Pub.

Poker
What? What is going on in the universe? I actually won a game of poker!!! I have had a long dry spell in our poker league so it was refreshing to actually win a game. We run a freeze out style tourney with a $40 buy-in and a $5 optional bounty. I took first place for $160 and cashed in four bounty chips for an additional $20. Felt good and long overdue.

[Jolo]

Venture
A card game of taking over corporations and building conglomerates. The basis of the game is trying to make "sets" of cards that match letters but not colours. This is a nice game with interaction and was close at the end. The game does show a bit of it's age, it being published in the 60s, but I think it is still pretty solid.

Sleuth
A deduction game by Sid Sackson, you are given a hand of gems and you have to use deduction to resolve which is the missing card from the game. Good fun, especially if you like deduction games. This is also from the 60s but seems to have aged a little better.

[Dana_Tillusz]

King of Tokyo
Chad brought this one over Saturday and Kathy cleaned up. We played two games of this silly Monster Yahtzee-type game... I'd play it again and again.

Castles of Burgundy
My ninth time played this year and I'm not bored of it yet. It has a lot going on but it does drag a little with 4-players. Still #1 on my hot list though...

Safranito
Fun disc throwing game to finish the night. A hoot if you get your throws right, but a bitch when you don't...

[Jolo]

Railways of the World

A 6 Player game using the Eastern US Map, needless to say, the board was crowded, and there were 2 players in the NE, 2 in the South and 2 around Chicago.

One of the Southern players ended up connecting Minneapolis to New Orleans (ok he was only sorta in the South) and he crushed us, mainly me, with a resounding 68 points. Everyone else, except me, finished in the 45-50 range.

[Bix Conners]

Played a bunch of games last week. It was a wonderful week for gaming...

HeroScape
Played another game on our large map. This was a four player game. I had an army called Phantom Menace which basically had 6 squads of the Phantoms. I dominated in the game. Everyone would fear the phantoms in the future. Unfortunately, with the accelerated draft cost, they went WAY up in price.

Formula De
My driver, Willie Survive, finally won a race. He is a bit of a crowd favourite because of his tendency to blow up. Everyone is quite surprised when he wins a race, including him.



Played some games at a friend's place on Saturday (June 30th). He was celebrating his birthday and had a few people over for an Epic Meal and some games. We played...

Incan Gold x2
Two games of this. This is a solid push your luck game. Always a hit.

Junta, Viva El Presidente!
This was my first time playing this. What a fun cheesy game of backstabby goodness. I quite enjoyed it. The game goes well with beer.

Lords of Waterdeep
A five player game of this was next. I enjoy the game and it's roots in the Forgotten Realms D&D setting. I never seem to do well at this game, so I see lots of replay as I explore ways to improve my play.

Get Bit!
This is another quick, fun filler game that evokes lots of laughs and shouts of dismay as players get torn apart by sharks.

The Red Dragon Inn
We ended the day with a five player game of Red Dragon Inn. This is another one of those games that is enjoyable with the right group. It brings out a feeling of nostalgia harkening back to my days playing dungeons and dragons.



On Canada Day, I hosted the second annual Bixby's Canada Day Backyard Lobster Boil and Dexterity Games Extravaganza. We had a dozen people in attendance and had a hoot in the backyard playing games, drinking beer, eating lobster, shooting darts and some other fun dexterity games.

Pitchcar x2
We set up a large pitchcar track in the backyard and had that as the opener for the day. I really enjoy this fusion of Crokinole and Slot Car racing.

Tumblin' Dice x2
I played a couple of games of Tumblin' Dice. This game is always a hit and especially so in the backyard on a sunny day. I know this was played a number of other times throughout the day.

Werewolves of Miller's Hollow x3
The last game we played in the backyard was Werewolf. After the meal, we gathered around the firepit and decided this would be a good game to play while we digest our food. I changed the playlist to play some tense, thematic soundtrack music. To add to the ambiance, a HUGE storm was brewing on the horizon. So with full bellies, rolling thunder, some sheet lightning, and a brilliant horizon with a multi-hued sunset, we played werewolf. I played two games and ended up being a werewolf both times. The last game I tried my hand at narrating. I immensely enjoyed all three games. What a perfect setting for the game. It will be very hard to duplicate for future sessions of werewolf.

Cosmic Encounter
We ended Canada day by playing an eight player game of Cosmic Encounter. I was worried about this many players, but the game played well and was a fun way to end a wonderful day of gaming.

I am already looking forward to next year's gathering!!!