Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
Review – Claim
Two-player trick-taking games are odd ducks.
I mean, not Cobra Chicken odd ducks.
Nothing compares to them.
But they are odd in their own way.
They always have to have some kind of neat twist because otherwise it’s just two players laying down cards for no apparent reason.
Who loves doing things for no apparent reason?
(Points two thumbs at myself)
This guy.
But not when I’m playing a game.
Sometimes it’s certain cards having unique abilities, or maybe even some interesting win condition, like The Fox in the Forest, where you only want to win a certain number of tricks and if you take too many, you will lose.
Claim is another one of those odd ducks, and it is really great for what it is.
Designed by Scott Almes, with artwork by Scott and Mihajlo Dimitrievski, the game was published by White Goblin Games and Deep Water Games (and many others!) in 2017.
And oh my god, looking at both of those web sites, there are so many expansions out for this game!
What’s a trick-taking game?
I actually explain this in my Friday Night Shots post about trick-taking games, so you can go there to see.
How does Claim work as a trick-taking game?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreShadow Kingdoms of Valeria – Storage Solution from Folded Space
It’s been a little while since I raved about the virtues of Folded Space boardgame inserts!
I bought three of them at the same time back in December, but then only assembled the Guild Academies of Valeria one.
However, I’ve now put together the second one, for Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria, and while it’s not quite as good as the previous one (and still gave me a few difficulties), it’s almost as impressive in how it holds everything together in the box.
You can find more details about the insert here.
Let’s take a look at it and see what’s what.
Read MoreCombat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario 104 – Go For Broke
It’s been three years.
Three years since I watched a bunch of videos about this wargmaming tournament with monthly games against different opponents each month, each featuring a scenario from various expansions and battle packs which will keep the variety going.
Yes, it’s been exactly three years (May 2021) since I joined the Combat Commander ladder, playing every month except June 2021 (due to personal issues, and what a way to start!) and doing much better than I ever thought I would.
Not only that, but I’ve met a bunch of great people, gamed with them, chatted with them, and gotten to know some of them.
The ladder, administered by the astounding Patrick Pence of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame, is exactly what I described above: a monthly chance to play one of my favourite games with people from all over the world (though with so many members, I’m thankfully pitted against people in the North American time zones for convenience sake).
Not to mention many pickup games, some of which I’ve accounted for on here and some which were fun to play but not very interesting to read about after the fact.
The May scenario is from the C3i Magazine #20, a really interesting scenario with some cool special rules.
Saturday mornings are becoming my gaming mornings, and my opponent Ben T and I matched up last weekend to see who would prevail!
(as usual, you can click on the picture to enlarge it)
The cool thing about this scenario is that the American forces are a regimental combat team (RCT) made up of 2nd-generation Japanese Americans who are fighting through the German lines to rescue a trapped and beleaguered American unit behind those lines.
As you can see from the setup above, the Americans had to fight through minefields, boobytraps, woods and fog to bring them home.
The Americans (me – green) set up first 3 hexes from the left side of the board. Then the Germans (Ben – grey) set up 12 hexes from the right side of the board.
With a ton of mines.
Exit points are doubled (the only Objective counter out) but one of the special rules is that the Germans are worth no points!
That’s both exiting and eliminating, which means it’s pointless for the Germans to try and exit the map unless they are going for a “all Germans have exited, they win!” victory (which thankfully Ben didn’t try, but the Americans set up nearer the bottom were set up to prevent that).
A few other special rules.
The US player can use “Artillery Denied” cards as Recover cards. So they’re no longer useless! (The Germans don’t have artillery…yet).
Moving from left to right (direction 2 or 3) costs an extra 1/2 movement point per hex (you’re running up the slope of the hill).
There’s a -3 Fog hindrance in all hexes. This will reduce by 1 for each Breeze event that comes out.
This isn’t a special rule, but the American forces do have a nice radio with Smoke and everything.
That might come in handy.
Finally, the Railway going from one side of the board to the other doesn’t exist, so those hexes are just open ground.
Would I be able to charge to the other side of the board, getting through all of those mines and withering fire?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Some Assembly Required! (Shipyard)
Happy Friday!
Apologies for the long lull in posting on here. It’s been a month…and in addition I’ve had a healthy dose of Imposter Syndrome which has kept me from writing much.
If you have any suggestions on how to beat that, I’d love to hear them.
It’s been 11 days since the last post, which is not fitting with my posting goal!
But I’m trying to be gracious with myself when I need the downtime, and I really needed the downtime.
It’s been a rough month.
I wasn’t even sure I’d write tonight, but something made me do it.
Before we get into that, though, hop on the bar stool, let me get you a drink (whatever you like, maybe tea?)
The sun’s still out and it’s 8:00 pm. Summer is coming!
I took today off as a vacation day and ended up doing a couple of things.
Bought a new iPad! (The new one is very good so far, though I only have a couple hours use of it).
I also have a bunch of new game acquisitions that I may talk about later, one of which was Shipyard (2nd Edition) from Rio Grande Games.
I was lured to this game by Heavy Cardboard (the cad!) when watching a playthrough.
Edward has cost me so much money recently.
This game, designed by Vladimír Suchý, was recently reissued in a gorgeous edition (the original was published in 2009) by Delicious Games.
I thought to myself “self, why do you keep wearing socks with your sandals in the Summer?”
I also thought to myself, “why don’t I unbox Shipyard today? It shouldn’t take too long.”
I think Edward did mention that there was some assembly required when they did the playthrough, but I didn’t really register that at the time.
Then I opened the box.
Read MoreReview – Empire’s End
I would make a bad emperor, I think.
I’m not the quickest of thinkers, and when disasters happen (as they always seem to), sometimes you have to be quick on your feet, dealing with the situation at a moment’s notice.
The perks would be fun, though.
But the disasters thing is kind of a deal-breaker.
In Empire’s End, your empire is crumbling as disaster after disaster happens, though you can always bid to see if the disaster can maybe affect one of the other emperors out there instead.
The game was designed by John D. Clair (one of my faves) with artwork by Kwanchai Moriya. It was published (or the Kickstarter fulfilled, anyway) in 2023 by Brotherwise Games.
Near the end of all empires, as they fall into the ashes of history, disasters of all sorts can happen. Rebellions, outside invasions, earthquakes and massive fires, the works!
In the game, you have an empire that looks exactly the same as all of your opponents’, at least at the beginning.
How it morphs into something else, and how much of it is destroyed, is dependent on how the game goes.
Because disaster also brings innovation!
At least in other aspects of your empire.
What the hell am I talking about?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreCombat Commander After Action Report Supplemental No. 4 – Scenario 89 – Beneath a Steel Sky
Since my May Combat Commander ladder game isn’t until later this month, I thought I would share a previous supplemental adventure that I had back in February with a member of the ladder.
The March ladder scenario is always taken from the Sea Lion battle pack, and I thought it would be cool to try and guess what the next month’s scenario would be.
I was wrong, but it was still a fun scenario!
Eric and I finally hooked up for a game after numerous times of one of us not being available when the other posted in the Discord “Anybody up for a game?”
It was a nice and peaceful Friday night, which is always great.
For those who don’t know, the Sea Lion battle pack is a series of scenarios about the hypothetical German invasion of Great Britain in 1940 after the fall of France.
We decided to try Scenario 89, Beneath a Steel Sky, which portrays the German (Eric – blue) attack on the British (Me – tan) naval base of Portsmouth after establishing a beachhead on the coast.
(You can click on the pictures to blow them up)
The scenario has a couple of interesting special rules.
See that artillery marker in the 3 slot on the Time Track at the top?
Once the Time marker reaches there, there are no more Snipers. Instead, you resolve a 10 firepower fire attack from bombing raids against all units in the random hex drawn. Doesn’t matter if it’s yours or your opponent’s!
The bombing attack will add Wire (rubble) to the hex if it’s a building hex and add Foxholes to a non-building hex, both eliminating any fortifications that are already there.
Once Time 5 happens, Exit points become double (you can see it on the Time Track as well).
The British Molotov Cocktails go to the Time Track (any space I want) when used rather than being eliminated, coming back to a British unit when Time reaches that number. If the Germans eliminate a British unit holding one, they get to take possession of it rather than having it eliminated too.
Would I be able to beat back the merciless German onslaught?
Let’s find out.
Read MoreApril 2024 Gaming
After a really full March, where it seemed like I played one game a day (ok, that’s only if you average it out, but still), April was a wasteland for gaming, sadly.
Missing two Sundays, not as many games during lunch at work (if we hadn’t played some work games, though, it would have been even worse!), it just kind of sucked.
However, even though there were very few games played in total, the quality of the games was actually quite good!
Or at least the month allowed me to play some games I haven’t played in a very long time.
Let’s take a look at what was actually played.
And here all of that is in grid form.
There are a few games in there that haven’t been seen on this blog in a very long time!
Many thanks to BG Stats for all of this wonderful data.
If you have any interest in tracking your plays at all, you have to invest in this app.
Anyway, this is going to be a short post, but lets get to the meat of things.
Or the carrot of things for you vegetarians out there.
Read MoreNew to Me – April 2024
After a March that was a literal cornucopia of new games (yes, literal, they were all about fruit and veggies!), April was a really hard month for new to me games (and games in general, but that’s tomorrow’s post).
Until last Sunday, I only had one new to me game played in April, but that changed when Abi brought some of the new hotness to the day.
The one new to me game I had played earlier in the month was from 2013!
So the Cult of the New to Me was quite happy.
But last Sunday’s game was a 2024 game that has just arrived, and that dampened the mood.
I got a few stern looks, but overall they seemed ok.
It might have been because I spiked the punch with a sedative, though.
Sometimes when you’re a cult leader, you have to take drastic measures to quiet a rebellion.
Anyway, the writer in me is grateful that this post isn’t going to be that long!
So without further ado (all of my ado was used to construct my latest building anyway), let’s get started!
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Reviews vs First Impressions
It’s a Friday night and the rain has stopped!
Until overnight, then it’s supposed to rain all weekend.
Welcome to Vancouver!
Thanks for coming into the bar, even with the Canucks game on.
Sorry, I don’t have a TV. Just a jukebox that plays nothing but the greatest hits of Donny Osmond.
You’ll notice there’s nobody else in here?
Maybe I should get a TV.
But you’re not here to listen to “music” or talk about hockey.
You’re here to talk about board games!
So let me grab you a beverage of your choice and let’s get started.
Tonight, I’d like to talk about review posts and first impressions posts.
Read MoreReview – Villages of Valeria
There’s a certain attraction to families of games out there, though it’s funny how there aren’t as many as you would think there are.
When I say “families,” I’m speaking of games that are based in the same universe, though the mechanics and style of each individual game is different.
There are the Garphill trilogies (I won’t use my usual gif there), and I’m sure there are others out there that I’m not thinking of.
These games use the same artist, ostensibly take place in the same type of world (or same section of it if we’re talking about the real world), and are generally related in some way, even if only by background.
One of the most obvious family of games is the Valeria family from Daily Magic Games, of which I have now played only four but there are many more out there to be tried.
There is, of course, Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria, which I have reviewed and really enjoyed, and two others that I haven’t played enough to review yet.
And then comes a perfect filler game that totally meets the needs of a worker with only an hour for lunch.
Villages of Valeria is a relatively quick card game of building up a new village in the Valeria kingdom in order to hopefully have it become the new capital city (which would be a huge shock to the inhabitants used to peaceful village life, I would think!)
It was designed by Rick Holzgrafe and Isaias Vallejo with artwork by Mihajlo Dimitrievski (who is also the only artist for the Garphill games trilogies…coincidence?). It was published by Daily Magic Games in 2017.
That’s the cool thing about the Valeria series of games: many of them are designed by different designers. It’s not all just the same two people.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that either, but the different perspectives in the Valeria series can make them seem really fresh.
What I really like about these games, or at least the four that I’ve played, is how different they are. Two of them are dice-drafting euros while the other two (including Villages) are card games, but with different mechanics that are quite interesting.
Villages gives a bit of a twist to the time-honoured “multi-use cards” mechanic that differentiates it a bit from others that I’ve played.
What do I mean?
Let’s take a look.
Read More
Dude! Take Your Turn! 