Four weeks down already in 2020 - time does fly by nowadays, for better or worse! Ok, so what have I been up to in the past 7 days?
First of all, some more mins got painted, one for Wrath of Kings and one for Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon:
![]()
I dunno, I think the sculpt and art for this mini is hilarious, but concerning painting it just didn't really sing to me. Bah, it's done, maybe I should just take a break from Wrath of Kings next month to get my motivation back for these guys.
![]()
![]()
Beor is one of the two characters we chose to play in our 2p campaign. So I'll finish up Ailei and we're good to go playing with painted minis!
That still leaves 4 minis to complete the challenge this month - hmmmmm... I haven't given up, yet!
:caravan::caravan::caravan:
Thursday lunch break gaming was back this week! There's currently an arsonist going around town (fortunately only garbage cans and two cars so far, but it's still uncomfortable), so it was darkly fitting that we chose to try our hand at Flash Point: Fire Rescue.
![]()
Image by BGG User klaytonix
For most of the players it was the first time they were playing and we were 6 firefighters, which makes this game harder than with fewer people, I think.
But, nevertheless, we set up and got going. I explained while we were playing the first round and that worked really well - everyone got the hang of it quickly.
As usually, things started out fairly nicely, then things started to get out of hand really quickly. We were down to our last health point (of the house) and we held on to that last piece of stability on the walls for a surprisingly long time. But ultimately, we had to retreat from the inferno. We saved three people, plus the cat and the dog, so there's that.
Everyone enjoyed it and the game length, though at the upper limit of what we can do in our break, was good at 45 minutes including explanation and setup. Really nice to get this game back to the table, I really like it a lot!
I could use this game for the Categories, Mechanics and Diversity challenge - hot stuff!
~~~°°°~~~
Then on Saturday we visited some friends and had to find a game that played well at five players without being coop or too light. It's interesting how hard it is to find something that fits that bill and we decided we would try Vindication. M and myself had played before once, the other three were new to the game.
![]()
Image by BGG User mainshane
Two things I'd like to say about this game in general: It's hopelessly overproduced and looks and feels gorgeous on the table. And the rulebook is a really hot mess, not being helped by ambiguous wording on the cards and the player aid. Urgh. :shake:
It is also a really fun game with a totally pasted on theme, some balancing issues and smooth gameplay. So you could say it sends mixed messages to its players :D. Oh and speaking of mixed messages - the name of the game is strange. I think it should have been Redemption.
Ok, I guess this also sounds like mixed messages I'm sending out here, so let's try to clean that up a little:
Having played at both ends of the player count spectrum, I'd say this manages the rare feat of being fun at both two and five players. And probably anything in between, but we haven't tried that, yet. Downtime was not a problem, even with some AP prone players. We made several rules mistakes, some definitely affecting the outcome of our game, but we enjoyed ourselves. The game took about 2 1/2 hours, which is fine for a five player game, where almost everyone was new to the game. And it's not like M and me were true veterans, either.
Overall, the good stuff in this game outweighs the bad stuff for me. Fortunately, because it's not a cheap game, either and it would be a shame to have it collect dust on the shelf. It's also great to know that it works at the problematic player count of 5. I foresee a great future for this game in our game groups. And maybe someday they'll even come out with a decent rulebook... :whistle:
I logged this for all challenges except for the Magic Number - totally redeemed!
~~~°°°~~~
We then wanted to conclude the evening with something more relaxing. And we decided on Tokaido Collector's Edition, because there is hardly anything out there that is more relaxing :D.
![]()
Image by BGG User steckman
Frankly, I find this game slightly boring, but I never mind actually playing it. Our friends have the super-nice blinged out Collector's Edition. And while that doesn't do anyhting different than the normal version, it has pre-painted minis instead of meeples, a bigger board (which is great for 5 players) and comes with all expansions fitting into one box.
The game trickled by amicably, we chatted some more and it was generally great to wind down for the evening. Just what everyone had wanted. And we had a truly funny moment, when I was close to getting the "Most visited baths" achievement, but L could have blocked me from the last spot. He contemplated for a moment - and then said: "Nah, I haven't bathed the whole trip, so I'm not starting now." That was a truly hilarious thing to say to conclude a great evening of gaming! :D
To top it off - I bathed a lot but ended up in last place. So while I smelled really nice, it didn't really help at all :shake:.
Still, Tokaido made progress on the Mechanics, Categories and Diversity challenges - good trip!
:caravan::caravan::caravan:
Alright, so much for gaming - what about the rest? I finished "Toll the Hounds" and... oh, my, that finale left me astonished, shocked and furiously well entertained. Eriksson is so great at setting up his pieces and then it all tumbles together in a grandiose finale.
Serious spoilers ahead!
[o]I was truly shocked and I'm still a little pissed he killed Anomander Rake, one of the coolest characters ever and a personal favourite. Although I'm not 100% sure he's really dead and not just... changed to something new. And killing Hood, Lord of Death, was a stroke of genius. Although, again, after Dragnipur was destroyed, I guess he's free to go about his business again. But might just decide to retire - I'd be surprised if I had seen the last of him.[/o]
Great read and first book of the year finished! I have now started "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells. It only has about 150 pages, so that should be a quickie!
Haven't finished either Far Cry 3 nor Dead Space 2, yet, so no progress on the video game front. Maybe next week?
:caravan::caravan::caravan:
Overall challenge progress:
40% Categories Challenge (Normal) :thumbsup:
22% Categories Challenge (Hardcore) :thumbsup:
14% Categories Challenge (Insane) :thumbsup:
40% Mechanics Challenge (Normal) :thumbsup:
22% Mechanics Challenge (Hardcore) :thumbsup:
12% Mechanics Challenge (Insane) :thumbsup:
Flavour of the Week :thumbsup:
10% Explore Diversity (100 x 1) :thumbsup:
Magic Number 22/25 :thumbsdown:
Books 1/15 :!block:
XBOX360 games finished: 1/20 :thumbsdown:
First of all, some more mins got painted, one for Wrath of Kings and one for Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon:
I dunno, I think the sculpt and art for this mini is hilarious, but concerning painting it just didn't really sing to me. Bah, it's done, maybe I should just take a break from Wrath of Kings next month to get my motivation back for these guys.
Beor is one of the two characters we chose to play in our 2p campaign. So I'll finish up Ailei and we're good to go playing with painted minis!
That still leaves 4 minis to complete the challenge this month - hmmmmm... I haven't given up, yet!
:caravan::caravan::caravan:
Thursday lunch break gaming was back this week! There's currently an arsonist going around town (fortunately only garbage cans and two cars so far, but it's still uncomfortable), so it was darkly fitting that we chose to try our hand at Flash Point: Fire Rescue.
For most of the players it was the first time they were playing and we were 6 firefighters, which makes this game harder than with fewer people, I think.
But, nevertheless, we set up and got going. I explained while we were playing the first round and that worked really well - everyone got the hang of it quickly.
As usually, things started out fairly nicely, then things started to get out of hand really quickly. We were down to our last health point (of the house) and we held on to that last piece of stability on the walls for a surprisingly long time. But ultimately, we had to retreat from the inferno. We saved three people, plus the cat and the dog, so there's that.
Everyone enjoyed it and the game length, though at the upper limit of what we can do in our break, was good at 45 minutes including explanation and setup. Really nice to get this game back to the table, I really like it a lot!
I could use this game for the Categories, Mechanics and Diversity challenge - hot stuff!
~~~°°°~~~
Then on Saturday we visited some friends and had to find a game that played well at five players without being coop or too light. It's interesting how hard it is to find something that fits that bill and we decided we would try Vindication. M and myself had played before once, the other three were new to the game.
Two things I'd like to say about this game in general: It's hopelessly overproduced and looks and feels gorgeous on the table. And the rulebook is a really hot mess, not being helped by ambiguous wording on the cards and the player aid. Urgh. :shake:
It is also a really fun game with a totally pasted on theme, some balancing issues and smooth gameplay. So you could say it sends mixed messages to its players :D. Oh and speaking of mixed messages - the name of the game is strange. I think it should have been Redemption.
Ok, I guess this also sounds like mixed messages I'm sending out here, so let's try to clean that up a little:
Having played at both ends of the player count spectrum, I'd say this manages the rare feat of being fun at both two and five players. And probably anything in between, but we haven't tried that, yet. Downtime was not a problem, even with some AP prone players. We made several rules mistakes, some definitely affecting the outcome of our game, but we enjoyed ourselves. The game took about 2 1/2 hours, which is fine for a five player game, where almost everyone was new to the game. And it's not like M and me were true veterans, either.
Overall, the good stuff in this game outweighs the bad stuff for me. Fortunately, because it's not a cheap game, either and it would be a shame to have it collect dust on the shelf. It's also great to know that it works at the problematic player count of 5. I foresee a great future for this game in our game groups. And maybe someday they'll even come out with a decent rulebook... :whistle:
I logged this for all challenges except for the Magic Number - totally redeemed!
~~~°°°~~~
We then wanted to conclude the evening with something more relaxing. And we decided on Tokaido Collector's Edition, because there is hardly anything out there that is more relaxing :D.
Frankly, I find this game slightly boring, but I never mind actually playing it. Our friends have the super-nice blinged out Collector's Edition. And while that doesn't do anyhting different than the normal version, it has pre-painted minis instead of meeples, a bigger board (which is great for 5 players) and comes with all expansions fitting into one box.
The game trickled by amicably, we chatted some more and it was generally great to wind down for the evening. Just what everyone had wanted. And we had a truly funny moment, when I was close to getting the "Most visited baths" achievement, but L could have blocked me from the last spot. He contemplated for a moment - and then said: "Nah, I haven't bathed the whole trip, so I'm not starting now." That was a truly hilarious thing to say to conclude a great evening of gaming! :D
To top it off - I bathed a lot but ended up in last place. So while I smelled really nice, it didn't really help at all :shake:.
Still, Tokaido made progress on the Mechanics, Categories and Diversity challenges - good trip!
:caravan::caravan::caravan:
Alright, so much for gaming - what about the rest? I finished "Toll the Hounds" and... oh, my, that finale left me astonished, shocked and furiously well entertained. Eriksson is so great at setting up his pieces and then it all tumbles together in a grandiose finale.
Serious spoilers ahead!
[o]I was truly shocked and I'm still a little pissed he killed Anomander Rake, one of the coolest characters ever and a personal favourite. Although I'm not 100% sure he's really dead and not just... changed to something new. And killing Hood, Lord of Death, was a stroke of genius. Although, again, after Dragnipur was destroyed, I guess he's free to go about his business again. But might just decide to retire - I'd be surprised if I had seen the last of him.[/o]
Great read and first book of the year finished! I have now started "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells. It only has about 150 pages, so that should be a quickie!
Haven't finished either Far Cry 3 nor Dead Space 2, yet, so no progress on the video game front. Maybe next week?
:caravan::caravan::caravan:
Overall challenge progress:
40% Categories Challenge (Normal) :thumbsup:
22% Categories Challenge (Hardcore) :thumbsup:
14% Categories Challenge (Insane) :thumbsup:
40% Mechanics Challenge (Normal) :thumbsup:
22% Mechanics Challenge (Hardcore) :thumbsup:
12% Mechanics Challenge (Insane) :thumbsup:
Flavour of the Week :thumbsup:
10% Explore Diversity (100 x 1) :thumbsup:
Magic Number 22/25 :thumbsdown:
Books 1/15 :!block:
XBOX360 games finished: 1/20 :thumbsdown: