Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
Combat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario 04 – Closed for Renovation (The Sequel)
If you’re experiencing deja vu with this post title, think of us poor Combat Commander ladder players!
June’s game was the same scenario, but how the sides were chosen was different (and of course, the opponent would be different, most likely).
Didn’t matter to me. I was still the Americans, and I was still destined to lose.
Or was I?
Welcome to another tale from the Combat Commander ladder, administered by the indescribable Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame (ok, I guess by calling him indescribable, I just described him? Is that a paradox? My brain hurts).
Anyway, as mentioned in June’s post, this scenario has an American force of Elite and Line troops attacking a rather large building in the center of the map that’s loaded with Germans.
No, it’s a chateau, not a castle.
And it contains nothing but death, in the form of two heavy machine guns.
Surprisingly, in this sequel play of this scenario, the Americans are actually winning a bunch of games, so it’s not as lopsided as I mentioned in the June write-up.
Would I be one of ones who did better?
This month’s opponent was Max R from out east, so we had to once again navigate a 3-hour time difference. Thankfully, he didn’t mind being up late on a Friday night.
(Don’t forget that you can click on a picture to blow it up)
The Germans (Max – grey) set up everything except a Weapons Team and the Infantry Gun, anywhere up to 9 hexes from the bottom edge of the board, though the Wire has to be adjacent to a building hex.
Then the Americans (Me – green) set up in the top row, followed by the Germans setting up their IG.
After seeing Max’s set up, I didn’t change a thing from my June setup, thinking that it was more an execution problem than a bad plan. He only had one squad on the right side, though I figured as soon as I put a major force over there, the Infantry Gun was going there.
I was right.
The only change was that now Buehler was attacking the chateau while Wray was attacking down the road. I was also looking to possibly flank the chateau rather than exiting, but we would see what happened.
Once again, the American radio would be heavily relied upon for smoke, because that is a lot of open ground to cover.
Also, I had no idea that there were a bunch of freakin’ zombies in this field.
More on that later.
Let’s see whether I could change history by actually doing something positive this time.
Read MoreI Think This is an OSHA Violation – Final Girl – The Marrek Murders Review
I mean, with all of these death traps scattered around the warehouse, who do we sue?
Another in the Series 3 feature films for the wonderful Final Girl solo franchise, we once again have a film that adds a bunch of stuff to keep track of and modify the usual gameplay for the game.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as long as the fiddliness doesn’t get too bad.
(Don’t forget that you can click on a picture to blow it up)
The Marrek Murders patterns itself after the Saw movies (or at least the killer, anyway) and takes place in a warehouse that’s just brimming with traps.
That’s because the Tormentor just loves her traps!
It’s how she gets her jollies, since she’s actually pretty weak otherwise.
The Marrek Murders was designed by A.J. Porfirio with artwork by Agnieszka Dabrowiecka and was published by Van Ryder Games in 2025.
As I said, the Tormentor love her traps, so she has a lot of similarities to Jigsaw from the Saw films.
The Marrek Warehouse doesn’t seem to be from a horror movie that I know, but I don’t know a lot about horror movies so I’m probably missing it.
There’s a lot to like about this one, so let’s get started.
Read MoreUpdated Evolution – Doomlings 3rd Edition Review
A couple of years ago, someone from Doomlings Inc reached out to me and asked me if I’d be interested in reviewing the second (I presume, though I thought it was the first!) edition of this cool new card game where you are a race of beings on some planet trying to evolve as greatly as possible before the world inevitably ends.
It sounded neat, so I jumped at the chance.
Now, two years later, a third edition of the game is out and I was once again offered a copy for a fair and honest review.
The game was designed by James Meyer and Andrew Meyer, with artwork by Andrew Meyer (I assume, though there is not a separate BGG entry for the 3rd Edition so I’m only assuming it’s the same).
The third edition of Doomlings was published in 2026 and has updated artwork on everything, some card tweaking (also with some cards removed and some new cards added) and the rules sheet has been completely revamped.
The game rules themselves haven’t changed, so it was easy to get a bunch of my co-workers around the table (who already like the game) and take it out for a test drive.
What were our opinions?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreBGG Top Games – 4101 – 4200
Another week and another look at the Boardgame Geek boardgame rankings!
This time we’re moving further into the 4000s, and this is where you start finding the niche games that are really good, but not that many people know about them or play them.
This mostly applies to wargames and has been applying for a while now, but there’s definitely a great example in this week’s century.
There’s also a fair number of games I’ve played (or own) compared to recent weeks, though that’s not saying much!
Finally, we’re going to run an experiment like we did last week with The Game Makers (which is now already up to #3550, by the way).
Just how high can a new and popular game get between the time I start writing this post and the time it publishes?
Will it defeat The Game Makers?
We shall see.
This week’s list can be found here, but beware!
If you’re coming to this post in the far future, then Boardgame Geek probably doesn’t even exist anymore and you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about.
Or maybe WordPress won’t exist either by then?
Anyway, things might have changed is all I’m getting at.
My numbers this week are much better than last week, with five games played and four owned.
We’re still going strong!
And of course more interesting games to talk about.
So let’s get started before I go over word quota!
Read MoreTrapped in Hell – Final Girl – Hell to Pay Review
There’s something about reviewing these Final Girl feature films kind of out of order that really highlights some things about the various series/seasons.
I did all of Series 4 (except the one that hasn’t come out yet) prior to doing most of Series 3 (except The Killer From Tomorrow).
What that has told me is that Series 4 got a little more back to basics, adding some new mechanics (like the Volkar’s hidden movement) but not overloading the game with other, more fiddly stuff.
Now that I’m playing Series 3, there are a lot of fiddly things in these various films, at least so far.
Either that, or they add extra new things that you have to deal with, like last film’s Sand Snakes.
Hell to Pay adds that as well, though it’s not quite as complicated as the Savior or the Sand Snakes and it’s probably one of the more basic films of Series 3.
Even so, both the killer and location add some interesting little twists that add to the terror (and the difficulty).
Hell to Pay was designed by Ryan Jorjorian with artwork by Roland MacDonald.
It was published by Van Ryder Games in 2025.
In this film, you are facing off against Razorface (inspired by Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies, I think?) in the Hellscape (same thing, probably).
Both the killer and the setting are interesting, so let’s get started.
Read MoreNew to Me – July 2026
July had no conventions or anything, but yet it somehow managed to almost have as many new to me games as June did.
The fact that all of these were shorter games, unlike last month, made things a bit different though.
I’ve now played 40 new to me games this year, so I am kind of slacking.
In 2025, I played 84 new to me games, so my pace is falling behind.
I need a new convention where new to me games come out!
Or I need to buy some more (don’t tell my wife that).
The Cult of the New to Me was extremely happy this month, though, and has actually been quite satisfied with my behaviour lately.
Two of these three games are from the ancient times!
Well, the 2004 one, the version I have was actually published in 2024, but still.
Even the most recent game was published in 2024.
That’s two whole years!
That game’s almost an adult now, in game years.
That means no leadership coup this month, but who knows what next month will bring?
Cult leaders have to watch their backs.
Without further ado (all of my ado was stolen in The Great Rat Mob War of 2016 anyway), let’s begin!
Read MoreBGG Top Games – 4001-4100
We’re now starting to get into the 4000s in the Boardgame Geek game rankings, and while this century isn’t as bad as last week’s (though hopefully you think my post about it was A+, would highly recommend!), it is close.
However, there are always interesting games to talk about, which is why I think this series is so rich in material, and why I keep doing it.
At least last week had a game I own and have played that is extremely awesome.
This week doesn’t even have that.
In fact, it has a game that I barely remember playing!
But it does have some games that I’d like to talk about, so there is that.
This week’s list can be found here, and let me reiterate (are you getting tired of me yet?) that the games on this list might change, or at least their rankings might.
Some 3rd world despot might come along and declare these rankings invalid, which I guess would mean that all of these posts would cease to exist!
I would not like that.
My numbers this week are better than last week’s, but still kind of in the crapper.
I have played four of the games on the list and own two (one which I haven’t played).
There could still be some interesting games to talk about besides what I’ve played!
It’s getting to the point where that part is more fun to write than the first part.
Anyway, let’s begin!
Read MoreBidding Rats – Ratzia Review
One of my favourite auction games has to be Reiner Knizia’s classic game, Ra.
I love the pieces, I love the auction mechanism where you are either starting an auction on what’s out there or you are adding to it, but the choice may be taken out of your hands if you draw a Ra tile (or fill up the auction with 7 items).
It’s just a lot of fun.
What I had forgotten, however, was that after Ra came out originally in 1999, Knizia had created a card game version of it in 2004.
Thus was Ratzia born.
Kind of.
Designed by Knizia with artwork by Ivan Iserte, Michael Menzel and Sarah “Freedz” Conlon (at least in this new version), the game was originally published in 2004 but the edition I have was published by 25th Century Games and came out in 2024, with a slight name change from the original Razzia, I believe, along with a different theme and a couple of additions.
Ra has an Egyptian theme, while the original Razzia has a gangster theme.
Ratzia keeps the gangster theme but makes them…rats (with the police being mice, I think, though maybe they’re rats too).
Have you had enough anthropomorphic animal games?
If so, then maybe this isn’t for you.
If you don’t mind that, let’s take a look under the hood.
Read MoreJuly 2026 Gaming
July is always going to be a bit of a slower month for gaming, mainly because I’m on vacation for a large portion of it.
That means no lunchtime games!
Though I was able to get a bunch of Final Girl plays in, which made up for those a little bit.
No conventions, just our Sunday fun days, which have been including some longer games so the number of different games can be pretty low sometimes.
I was happy to get a different solo game played once too, because I enjoy it and to add to the statistics.
Sorry, I’m a stats nerd!
Overall, I played 15 games a total of 24 times, which actually does slightly beat the last month (April) where I didn’t have a convention or some other long day of gaming (17 games 22 times).
Of course, Final Girl once again tops the charts with 7 plays, but I also played a new to me game 3 times (so it will be talked about in that post, after I review it).
Here’s the list of what I played.
And here it is in grid format.
Thanks to the wonderful BG Stats app for these pictures and the statistics!
Don’t forget that you can click on a picture to expand it if you want.
Also, the three new to me games will be talked about next week.
There were a couple of unique to 2026 plays in there, so let’s get started!
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Expansions Revisited
I know I’ve talked about expansions before on Friday Night Shots (both ones you won’t play again and whether or not you even like them to begin with), but a recent post on Boardgame Geek prompted another thought that I wanted to explore.
Somebody in the Final Girl forums was asking about the various feature film expansions, and Final Girl co-designer A.J. Porfirio weighed in on it, and how the expansions in Final Girl are so much different than expansions for regular games.
“I think an important factor regarding the solo vs multi factor when it comes to expansions is that very frequently with multi-player games the expansions are additive meaning you keep stacking more and more expansions on top of each other and it quickly gets unwieldy. However with FG the playset is confined to the same elements (for the most part) each time, i.e. Killer, Location, FG, and go. This means there is an accessibility element that is key in terms of the level of friction required to play. Just think of that game we all have with 7 expansions and how you want to play with all of them but the thought of relearning everything stops you before you ever really start. With FG sure you might have to relearn the special rules for whatever killer or location you are playing, but the lift is generally manageable for most people.”
This made me sit up and take notice a little bit, though it might be because of all the Canadian Club I had consumed (this is Friday Night Shots, you know).
A couple of minor thoughts from that.
For regular games where expansions are just heaped on top of each other, when is it too much?
And what is the difference between heaped expansions and expansions that are so modular that you never have to play with all of them at the same time?
(I have talked about modular expansions before, but this goes a bit beyond what I said there)
Two very distinct questions, but two things to keep in mind when talking about expansions.
Read More