Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
Friday Night Shots – Mechanic Surprises
Welcome back to another Friday! The year is moving on, week by week, but I’m happy to have you spend at least a bit of your Friday night with me (or, more likely, your Saturday morning, but beggars can’t be choosers!).
Belly up to the bar (where did that phrase come from, anyway?) and I’ll get you a drink.
I have some Kool-Aid if you don’t want anything stronger.
Let me just turn down the music. I love me some Irish reels but when there’s nobody actually here to dance to them, they’re not as exciting.
And you can’t talk over them!
I know the title of this post may be a bit confusing. It sounds like I’m talking about games where the publisher hasn’t released any information about it so it’s all a surprise.
But no, that’s not what I meant.
Instead, I meant if you try a game that features a mechanic that you generally don’t like, and you not only enjoy it but you think maybe, just maybe, you might change your mind about it!
Tonight, for me, I’m talking about negotiation games.
Read MoreMr. President – Storage Solution From Rails on Boards
Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a huge fan of the plastic, form-fitting counter trays for wargames offered by Rails on Boards (in their Cube4Me shop).
I’ve actually put together a few sets for them to sell on their site, but this one is a set that I bought from them.
Mr. President: The American Presidency 2001-2020 is a new solo game published by GMT Games that I have simply been mesmerized with recently.
In it, you have just been elected President of the United States and now you have to actually do your job!
Meanwhile, the world could be falling apart around you.
This is a game that I figured there was no way I was going to buy because the table space required was tremendous.
And there are a ton of counters!
I’ll talk more about this in a different post, but suffice to say…there’s a ton of stuff here.
And it needs to be organized unless you want to spend hours trying to set the game up (I’m not 100% sure that’s an exaggeration).
Let’s see what Cube4Me offers.
Read MoreReview – Twilight Struggle: Red Sea – Conflict in the Horn of Africa
Twilight Struggle is one of those long-standing classic wargames (oops…I don’t want to get into that argument) from GMT Games about the Cold War from 1945 to 1989. It’s long, it’s 2-player, but its gameplay has stood the test of time to make it a favourite among gamers.
It was the #1 game on Boardgame Geek for a long time and is still #14.
While I have played the app a number of times, the length as well as it only being a 2-player game has kept me away from actually buying it and getting it to the table.
The recent publication of Twilight Struggle: Red Sea – Conflict in the Horn of Africa, however, has made it to the table 4 times this month!
That’s because it’s designed to be a short, punchy game that gives you the feel of the cold war conflict in one dedicated area of the world over a shorter time frame.
Twilight Struggle: Red Sea (no, I am not typing that whole name again) was designed by Jason Matthews with artwork by Terry Leeds. It was published in 2023 by GMT Games.
It’s another in a series of Lunchtime Games which make great games for work and really makes it possible to pad my games-played stats get some relaxation after a long morning.
It’s also really quite good, with a few issues that may keep some people from enjoying it.
What does that mean?
Let me tell you!
Click Here if you just want the review without all of the “how to play”.
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Polyomino Games
It’s Friday again!
Weekends are awesome, aren’t they?
But I’m pleased that you spend your Friday night (or Saturday morning, maybe?) hanging out with me, having a drink or two (we do have water or pop!) and just commiserating about board games.
We’ll just leave the Loverboy on the jukebox, though I will turn it down so we can actually hear.
It’s not like there are any other crowd noises in here.
Tonight, let’s talk about polyomino games a bit.
These games are ones that I don’t hate with a white-hot passion (I’m looking at you, real-time games), but ones that I tend to avoid because my brain just doesn’t see spatial patterns very well.
In other words, I suck at them.
But believe it or not, there are actually a couple of them I like!
So let’s talk about the positives, because it’s Friday night.
Read MoreHighlights From the October GMT Games Update
What’s this, on the horizon?
Is that a GMT Update post by Dave?
Does Dave really like a bunch of GMT games but just has had nothing really to say about the updates since June?
Does Dave really talk about himself in the third person?
Is Dave really full of himself that much?
Ahem…
Anyway, yes, it’s time for another GMT Update post regarding the monthly GMT newsletter, since I actually have some stuff to say!
It might not be interesting, but who knows?
There are a few really cool things in this one that I wanted to talk about.
And I’m posting this tonight because I want to beat Grant to the punch.
So let’s get started!
Read MoreCombat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario M10 – Bulolo River Bridge
Welcome to another tale of conflict and adventure from the Combat Commander ladder, where I get to play one of my favourite games monthly online with some wonderful people.
The ladder is run by the peerless Patrick Pence of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame.
Really, he is famous. Look him up.
The October scenarios are from the New Guinea battle pack for Combat Commander: Pacific and have the Japanese facing off against Commonwealth and US troops in 1942-44 in (wait for it)…New Guinea.
This month, my opponent was Ted S and I managed to land an opponent in my time zone!
Scenario M10, Bulolo River Bridge, has the Australians and Japanese both in Recon mode as they are attempting to cross the Bulolo River and get off the map edge for extra points.
(Don’t forget that you can click on a picture to blow it up)
Both sides have to set up on the east side of the river. The Japanese (white, me) have to set up in a certain number of hexes on or along the road in the northeast.
The Allies (tan, Ted) can be positioned up to 3 hexes from the bottom of the map. The picture was taken after Ted’s first move, which is why three stacks are in the water. He did set up correctly.
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Liking Low-Rated Games
Hey there!
It’s the weekend again, and I really appreciate you stopping by every week just to chat board games.
Or to chat about anything, really.
Actually, that’s not totally true, but it is nice to see you!
Let me pour you a drink and turn the music down. Really, who put all of that bagpipe music played by music students who are failing their courses onto the jukebox?
That must be the morning bartender…
Anyway, a few weeks ago we chatted about playing low-rated games on BGG.
I won’t go into all of the stuff about BGG ratings and all of that. We talked about it then and you can go back to refresh yourself if you want.
But tonight, I want to talk about low-rated games that I’ve not only played, but actually liked!
Yes, I want to go into the weekend on a positive note.
Read MoreHalls of Hegra – Storage Solution With Rails on Boards
I’m back to trying to make my games a bit easier to unpack and pack up again, after a short hiatus.
The trays from Cube4Me really make that so much easier!
Today’s storage solution is for the solo World War II game, Halls of Hegra, the story of a German siege of a Norwegian base during the Nazi invasion in 1940.
The game was designed by Petter Schanke Olsen with artwork by Jog Brogzin and Joeri Lefevre. It was published in 2023 by Tompet Games.
In this game, you build up the ragtag forces manning the abandoned mountain fortress, trying to fix it up some and perhaps find some more guns or whatever. Then the Germans attack and you have to withstand the siege.
When I actually get the game played (I’ve looked at it and done a couple of demo turns), I’ll talk a bit more about the game itself.
But how do you store all the counters and wooden blocks that represent your men?
You could do baggies.
But that could be a lot of baggies! Or a lot of sorting if you use fewer baggies and include more pieces in each one.
How about some trays to help you sort?
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – The Shelf of Shame
Yes, I know it’s Saturday.
But after a day of having a hole punched in our wall and then another day of long driving (which was great and I picked up a couple of awesome-looking games, but it was long), I wasn’t in the mood to write anything last night.
The rum flowed better tonight, though this is still going to be a fairly short post compared to some of mine.
So welcome back to the bar! Happy that you came on an off night (yes, Saturday is an off night at this bar…we’re usually packed on Wednesdays with History majors).
Let me turn the music down (I think I saw Don Johnson in here earlier putting his song on the jukebox…I’ll need to remedy that tomorrow).
How about we talk about one of the most common nouns in boardgames!
No, not “meeples,” though I suppose technically that’s probably true.
I’m talking about the infamous “shelf of shame,” when you look at your game shelves and see just how many of the games you bought, salivated over, punched all of the pieces out of, and then never played, are on your shelves right now.
I have a bunch!
Though not as many as there might be, considering that I don’t look at all of my unplayed games the same way.
See, for me there are two categories, though I realize this might be almost unique to me and my situation.
Read MoreApocalypse Road – Storage Solution With Rails on Boards
It’s time for another game storage solution using the great plastic trays from Cube4Me (Rails on Boards).
This one I’ve actually had done for a while but I was missing two card trays and I didn’t want to do an incomplete one.
I finally have them now, though, so I present another one to you.
Apocalypse Road is another racing game from GMT Games, designed by Jeff & Carla Horger.
It was published in 2020.
It uses a lot of the same rules and mechanisms as its parent game, the “This really isn’t NASCAR” game Thunder Alley, but this one adds the ability to try and blow up your opponents’ cars!
That’s not very nice.
But it can be fun!
Unsurprisingly, the storage trays for this one are much the same as those in Thunder Alley.
Read More
Dude! Take Your Turn! 