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A Gaming Life
New to Me – December 2023
It’s a new year, but let’s take one last look at the old year before we continue on!
December was not a huge month for new to me games, as I detailed earlier.
But quality trumps quantity, so even though there are only three games on this list, they were all killers.
The Cult of the New to Me was actually really ecstatic because not only were two of them older, but one of them was from 1991.
1991!!!!
They kind of went on a bender after hearing that.
I don’t think I’ll have to worry about a revolt for a while now.
Maybe next month?
Anyway, without further ado (all of my ado was used to pay the greedy translator anyway), let’s get started!
Read MoreDecember 2023 Gaming
It’s a brand new year! And as I mentioned yesterday, I plan to continue blogging at the pace that I kept up last year.
Maybe even more, though I’m not sure if that would kill me or not.
After the blog review yesterday, you know it’s time for the monthly “how did Dave game last month?” post.
That’s two posts in two days.
Yay, me!
There was no way that December would equal November as far as gaming went.
First, there was no convention like there was the previous month.
Secondly, we were working remotely all month due to getting a new floor in our office, so lunchtime gaming was out (we could play live on BGA, but there are a bunch of things that I do at home, including the occasional solo game but also blog writing and things like that).
What I lacked in quantity, though, I made up for in quality!
Here’s the list of what I played in December.
And here it is in grid format.
A few things to note, after the break…brought to you by Brylcream.
A little dab will do you.
Oh, and this break (which if you come to the post directly, you won’t actually see…one of the weird things about blogging!)
Read MoreBlog in Review – 2023
It’s Monday and 2024 is upon us, almost sneaking up on us like a wily coyote hunting a roadrunner.
As is my tradition over the past 4 years or so, I wanted to do an update on how this blog, and my gaming, is doing each year. A retrospective of the previous year is a great way to do that!
I’m not going to go into a great deal about the year itself, other than to say that if you’re going to be voting for Donald Trump in this year’s election, I don’t really want to know you (I’ve already nuked family members because of that).
At least no beloved icon died on New Year’s Eve like happened a couple of years ago.
I do value all of my readers and friends so much, you don’t even know. I hope you are having a wonderful new year and I wish you every success and accomplishment in this new year.
However, let’s talk about 2023 a little, because while there were plenty of dumpster fires in general, personally it actually was my best year in a while.
My mental health has never been the greatest, but compared to the last couple of years, it actually has been pretty good.
While there have still been ups and downs where that is concerned, they haven’t affected my blogging as they have in the past.
Ultimately, while I’m not in a “good” place, I am in a “better” place, which makes me happy.
With that all being said, let’s take a look at my gaming stats before talking about the blog itself.
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Trick Taking Games
It’s the last Friday of 2023, and possibly my last post, so I hope you all have a wonderful new year’s celebration and everything that is good in the upcoming year.
I want to thank you again for stopping by, having a libation or two, and chatting about some boardgame stuff.
These Friday Night Shots posts have been a blog-saver this year and I plan on continuing them into the new year as well.
So I hope you’re thirsty!
Tonight, let’s talk about something that you could play at a New Year’s party, because these games are pretty simple.
As long as you can explain what a trick is, anyway.
Yes, I’m talking about trick-taking card games.
Read MoreCombat Commander After Action Report Supplemental No. 3 – Scenario #42 – Rumanian Defiance
To end the year (other than tomorrow’s Friday Night Shots post and maybe something for Saturday/Sunday, I don’t know yet), I thought I’d write up one of this year’s most fascinating Combat Commander games I’ve had that wasn’t actually part of the monthly ladder.
My good friend Ted and I have been trying to play a monthly game and back in October, we thought we’d try to guess what the November ladder scenario would be, since that’s from the Stalingrad battle pack.
He left it up to me to choose the scenario.
I chose scenario #42, Rumanian Defiance, as it hadn’t been played before on the ladder and it didn’t take place in the depths of the city with all of the special Stalingrad rules.
(I’m not sure why they spelled it “Rumanian” instead of “Romanian”, unless it had a “u” in it in 1943, but to keep things consistent, I’m going to spell it that way throughout this report)
(You can click on each picture to blow it up if you want to)
This scenario has a bunch of plucky Rumanian (Teal, me) units defending an airfield from the Soviet (Brown, Ted) onslaught during Operation Uranus, the attack that surrounded Stalingrad and created the meatgrinder for the Germans and resulted in the annihilation of an entire army.
The Rumanians use the Italian deck instead of the German.
They also are in Defend posture, meaning they get to use all of those fun Defend only cards. The Soviets are attacking, of course.
The scenario has some interesting special rules that appealed to me as well.
First, the Rumanians can give up Initiative to have their Machine Guns (3 Light and 1 Heavy) become German instead of Italian. They’re still more prone to breaking because of the Italian deck, but they can repair much more easily.
Secondly, the Rumanians get any combination of seven Wire and Foxhole counters.
Third, it’s Winter terrain, so fields do not exist and Orchards only have 1 hindrance instead of 2. (I just realized as I’m typing this that this is the same map that our December ladder game used!)
Finally, the Rumanians can not exit the map for points. They are trying to keep the Soviets from exiting but they can’t exit themselves.
Would they show their pluck?
Or would Ted plow right over me?
This was back in October, so I don’t remember!
Let’s find out together, shall we?
Read MoreHighlights from the December GMT Update
Every month, GMT Games reliably send out an update on what they’re doing, which P500 orders are being charged and sent out, new P500 order opportunities, and just basically a “what’s going on at GMT Games” kind of update post.
I don’t always do one of these posts, though. That’s mainly because some updates, I just don’t have a lot to say about them. If you want a complete analysis of the monthly update, The Players’ Aid does a great one (that links to November’s because they don’t have their December one up yet at the time of this writing).
This month, though, I had to say something.
And if you have seen the update, you can probably guess why.
So let’s make some gif pic money!
(Disclaimer: I don’t actually make any money)
The December update is chock full of good news, which I will detail below.
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Catch Up Mechanisms
It’s the last Friday before Christmas and all through the malls, too many creatures were stirring, so much so that I would rather carve Shem Phillips’ initials into my hand with a penknife than go shopping.
I think that’s how that old Christmas poem goes.
I could be a bit off.
Anyway, welcome back to the bar!
I’m glad you decided to get cozy and warm here, having some libations (maybe not alcoholic) and discussing some weird boardgame topic with me.
Let me go downstairs and get the good stuff.
Or maybe I’ll send my intern.
The jukebox is broken, so nothing to turn off!
I may have to catch up with the repair company in the new year…
Hey, that reminds me of tonight’s topic.
Catch up mechanisms!
Read MoreReview – Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria
Who knew being evil could be so much fun?
There aren’t a whole lot of boardgames where you are playing the bad guy (unless you’re in a one vs many game). A well-respected one that I’d love to play sometime is Dungeon Lords from Czech Games Edition.
The Valeria series of games from Daily Magic have a lot of different mechanisms in them, but you are always on the side of the good and righteous.
Until Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria came out, anyway.
Designed by Stan Kordonskiy with art by the Mihajlo Dimitrievski (I seem to be on a Mico kick this week!), this game came out in 2021.
In it, players are one of the evil monsters of Valeria trying to tear down all of the great things that they’ve built in previous games (thematically…this isn’t a campaign or anything).
It has an interesting dice drafting mechanic that really shines, though a couple of minor issues bring it down a bit from excellent.
How does it work?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreApp Expansion Review – Wingspan: Oceania
Did you know that birds aren’t real?
But for some reason, game designer Elizabeth Hargrave continues to try and convince us that they are!
In 2020, Hargrave and publisher Stonemaier Games released the second expansion to the excellent Wingspan game, still one of my favourites.
Wingspan: Oceania is an expansion that adds a bunch of new birds from Australia and New Zealand, along with new powers, new player boards and a new food type!
The reason this is relevant right now (ok, it’s always relevant, but the reason I’m writing this post) is that app developer Monster Couch has now released this expansion for their digital Wingspan app!
I already explained how to play Wingspan in my review of the base game app, so I won’t do that here.
However, I will go into detail on what this excellent expansion brings.
Hold on to your hat. This one’s a doozy!
Read MoreReview – Scholars of the South Tigris
If you’ve been following this blog for more than a fortnight, then you know that I’m a big fan of many Garphill games, especially those designed by Shem Phillips and S J MacDonald.
They seem to be a fan of trilogies, with the North Sea trilogy (from just Shem) and the West Kingdom trilogies already complete (and the East somethings coming out in 2025-27 maybe?).
Scholars of the South Tigris is the second in the “South Tigris” trilogy of games that take place in and around Iraq and its surrounding countries (though obviously they weren’t those countries in this time period). It was designed by Phillips and MacDonald with art once again by the Mico (Mihajlo Dimitrievski). It was published in 2023 by Garphill Games and Renegade Game Studios.
Scholars of the South Tigris (I’m just going to say Scholars from now on, ok?) is a game about hiring translators and then finding and translating ancient scrolls to expand the world’s knowledge.
As with its predecessor, Wayfarers of the South Tigris (as well as the 2024 game, Inventors of the South Tigris), this game involves a bunch of dice.
This one, however, has a bit of a twist to it.
You’d better know your colours!
Actually, the game makes great effort to help you with your colours if you don’t.
Still something to be aware of.
How does it play? Is it better or worse than the others?
Let’s take a look.
Read More
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