Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
Expansion Review – Paladins of the West Kingdom: City of Crowns
I received the Kickstarter version of Paladins of the West Kingdom: City of Crowns a long time ago, but I was having trouble getting the base game to the table.
There was no way I was going to get the expansion out without playing the base game again!
But given the recent multiple plays of it recently, I actually managed to get City of Crowns to the table twice!
I finally figured I could write a review of this excellent expansion.
City of Crowns was designed by Shem Phillips and S J MacDonald, with art by Mihajlo Dimitrievski. It was published by Garphill Games and Renegade Game Studios in 2021.
Did the base game really need an expansion?
Maybe, maybe not.
But the expansion they gave us is really, really good.
Read MoreNew to Me – September 2023
September was a fairly lean month for gaming, especially new to me games.
I’ve already talked about my September gaming in general, so how about the monthly chat about “new to me” games?
I’m actually quite proud of the fact that this is my 72nd post about them. I don’t think I’ve missed a month where I played a new to me game but didn’t post.
Hey, that’s 6 years of posts! (plus 6 months where I didn’t actually have a “new to me” game).
To celebrate that, I actually only played 3 new to me games in September, and they were all from either last year or this year.
The Cult of the New to Me members were kind of giving me the stink eye for that.
That’s ok, though! I placated them by cooking them all dinner!
That kept them busy with lots of gastronomical issues, keeping them off my back for another month.
Serves them right for not checking my school record before eating and seeing that I failed Home Ec.
All of it.
Anyway, without further ado (all of my ado was thrown into an ocean on Mars to help make it habitable anyway), let’s begin!
Read MoreSeptember 2023 Gaming
As 2023 steamrolls ahead, another month of gaming is complete!
September actually was a slight step back from August, even though I didn’t miss any game days!
However, there were fewer days at work where we had lunch free to play. In addition to that, a couple of our Sundays were dedicated to one (maybe two) games, which made the quantity go down just a little bit.
Here’s my list of games played last month!
I was able to play 12 games last month (22 in August) and managed 21 plays of them in total (25 in August).
Here’s the list in grid format (Thanks, BG Stats, for these awesome pics!)
What September lacked in total games played, it made up for in getting some older games to the table again after a long respite.
Let’s take a look at what was on the table.
Read MoreCombat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario L – Slopes of Hell
Talk about taking it right to the end!
We weren’t able to play our game until the last week of September, and then the VASSAL server went down and we didn’t finish the game until Friday, September 29th.
But finish we did, and it was glorious.
Oh, I guess I should tell you what I’m talking about.
Welcome to another adventure with the Combat Commander ladder, where I get to play one of my favourite games on a monthly basis with a great group of guys (though it would be nice if some women joined the ladder…hint hint).
The ladder is run by the unparalleled Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame.
The September scenarios come from Combat Commander: Pacific, the base game, and have the Japanese forces facing off against either US Marines or members of the Commonwealth armies (British, Australian, etc).
This month, my opponent was Jerry W and we were going at each other on the Slopes of Hell in New Guinea 1942.
The Japanese are in Recon posture (not Attack, which means they only get 5 cards) and the ANZACs are in Defense posture, meaning they only get 4 cards but have lots of juicy Defender-only cards to use.
If they can get them.
The ANZACs (khaki – Me) set up first, up to 12 hexes deep from the left side of the map.
The Japanese (white – Jerry) set up second, up to 3 hexes deep from the right side of the map.
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Convention Game Behaviour
Welcome back for another week!
I’ve been keeping the seat warm for you, since it’s starting to get a little colder out.
Yes, I’ve added heaters!
Hasn’t brought in anymore customers, though, which is too bad.
Maybe I shouldn’t have started testing these heated seats in July?
Anyway, we’ve got the bar to ourselves, so let me get you a drink of whatever you like, booze or just something lighter.
I’ll turn down the music (and I apologize for my Vanilla Ice phase…I’ll adjust the jukebox on Monday).
Let’s talk about convention game behaviour!
Since SHUX would have been happening this weekend (if it followed the same dates as last year, anyway) if they were doing it this year, it felt like an appropriate topic.
What does that mean?
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Player Interaction
Good evening! Welcome back for another week.
I’m so happy you could join me.
Truth to tell, it gets a little lonely behind the bar in this place, even on a Friday night.
Maybe I should actually unlock the doors so people could come in?
Just a thought.
Anyway, take a seat and have a drink! I got anything you want.
Let me turn the music down (I’ll call tomorrow to get Justin Bieber removed from the jukebox) so we can have a chat.
Tonight, let’s talk about how much player interaction you prefer in your games.
I know, I know. Most regular respondents to these Shots posts are people who love interaction. Hell, they’re wargamers! Or do love wargames, anyway.
But how about some of you who are lurking in the background?
Let your feelings be known!
Read MoreFood Chain Magnate: Special Edition Coming to Gamefound November 14
Food Chain Magnate is not a game that I’ve ever really been able to get into, mainly because it appears to be long and pretty vicious.
It’s a Splotter game, and I’ve never actually played one of their games before.
I want to!
But I haven’t.
Anyway, the news I saw today made me excited for its fans, even though I am not one of them, so I wanted to give you a heads up about it!
Az Drummond from Lucky Duck Games announced on Boardgame Geek that they will be partnering with Splotter to produce Food Chain Magnate: Special Edition, which will be available on Gamefound on November 14.
This edition will only be available via Gamefound. It will not be going to retail (will there be a “Retail” pledge level for game stores who want to stock a few? Who knows).
The Gamefound link won’t be live until at least tomorrow, but you can check it out when it is.
Read MoreReview – Paladins of the West Kingdom
This review has been a long time coming.
I first played Paladins of the West Kingdom back in 2019, and actually had played it three times by January 2020 (for most games, especially longer, more complicated games, I want to play a game at least three times before reviewing it).
And then the pandemic hit, isolation caused my mental health to plummet, and I never wrote the review.
By the time I was thinking about writing it, it had been so long since playing it that I didn’t think it was fair to do it.
Now, however, I have played it five times this year and thus here it is!
Paladins of the West Kingdom is a game designed by Shem Phillips and S J MacDonald, with artwork by Mihajlo Dimitrievski. It was published in 2019 by Garphill Games and Renegade Game Studios.
It’s part of the West Kingdom trilogy of games, and the last one that I haven’t reviewed yet!
Back in 2022, when I did my Top 25 Games Played of all time, it had fallen down to #25, partially because it had been so long since I had played it. There were a few other reasons too, but I wanted to revisit the game and see what happened.
Will my Top 25 change as far as the West Kingdom games go?
Let’s just say that there is the possibility of some movement when I do another Top 25 next year.
Or maybe not!
What do I think of it now?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Playing Low-Rated Games
Hey there! It’s another Friday night!
Thanks for braving the crowd. I made a space here at the bar for you.
Yes, I was joking. You are the only one here.
For now, anyway!
Have a drink. Whatever you like.
Let me turn down the music (remind me to remove the Vanilla Ice songs from the jukebox one day) so we can have a chat.
I realize the title of this post doesn’t give a full description of what I’m talking about tonight.
The rating system on Boardgame Geek is always being debated, especially as to whether or not it’s worth anything.
I’ll be talking later (maybe next week?) about disliking highly-rated games, but tonight how about we talk about low-rated games that we’ve played?
We’ve played a lot of games. Nowhere near Tom Vasel levels, but still. I’m over 500 now.
There are definitely going to be some low-rated games in there.
Read MoreReview – Point Salad
There is a phrase in boardgaming that I’m sure you’ve all heard of (unless you’re new to the gaming scene).
When a game has a bunch of ways to get points, and where every action is going to get you some points but the trick is to figure out how to maximize these points to win the game, that game is often referred to as a “point salad” game.
You can get your lettuce to get you 5 points, your croutons over there will get you 3, and maybe even the radishes (if you like that kind of thing) will get you 25 points if you chain the three different farming icons together.
Back in 2019, designers Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin and Shawn Stankewich, along with Alderac Entertainment Group, decided to have some fun with this concept and publish a card game literally called Point Salad, where you are also collecting literal vegetables that might go into a salad.
That’s like a pun squared!
(ok, not literal vegetables, but just go with it, ok?)
The artwork in this game is by Dylan Mangini (he of Mephisto: the Card Game fame).
The thing about Point Salad is that you are literally just drafting cards or goals and trying to meet those goals to score points.
Read More
Dude! Take Your Turn! 