Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
New to Me – March 2021
It’s another month, and it’s another month of not playing any new games on the table.
All three of my new to me games this month are from Boardgame Arena. That’s not a bad thing, and it’s very cool that BGA has so many games available!
But it is kind of disheartening.
One day, and hopefully soon, we will be playing games on the table again with our friends.
British Columbia is going in the wrong direction regarding new infections, but vaccinations are also happening so maybe by the Summer, or the Fall at least, we’ll be playing games in person again.
One can dream.
In the meantime, the Cult of the New to Me is being a lot more lenient with me. There hasn’t been talk of an insurrection in months!
That could change soon, though.
There are rumblings.
So, without further adieu (all of my adieu was accidentally mixed in with the chocolate cake batter for office lunch anyway), let’s begin!
Read MoreC&C Europe – #3 Bonfire of the NKVD
My friend Michal and I have been playing Combat Commander: Europe through VASSAL and he’s basically been like the drug dealer giving me a free sample so that I then buy everything. I have now bought every scenario pack along with Combat Commander: Pacific, with P500 orders for the remaining two Europe modules (and anxiously awaiting when the base game will be on the P500).
So I guess I should say thank you? 🙂
Anyway, another great write-up of scenario 3 where major things happened and the setup was debatable.
Thanks, Michal, for such a great summary and for playing these with me!
We can’t stop. We started to play Combat Commander Europe scenarios with Dave in January and already finished four of them! It really got to us 🙂 All of this in PBEM form, using Discord to exchange files and communicate. Today I am presenting scenario number three – #3 Bonfire of the NKVD. So let me invite you to as usually picture-rich session report!
Other Combat Commander camping with Dave:#1 FatLipki#2 Hedgroves and HandGrenades
Bonfire of the NKVD again places defender (USSR, Dave) against attacker (Germans, Michal). It tells the story of the delaying action by Red Army during the Barbarossa onslaught – it takes place in June 1941, 2 days after the invasion. We have pretty interesting set-up rules as Soviets can place 12 wires after Axis place their forces. Still, the difference in quality of troops is significant – Militia on…
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Ecos: New horizons Out Today!
Alderac Entertainment Group really needs to work at their hype machine.
One of my favourite new games in 2020 was Ecos: First Continent, which is a world-building game where players are trying to build a world and get points by putting terrain tiles out along with animal tiles in a pattern that fits the cards they have.
And now there’s an expansion!
There was no hype. There was no huge announcement a month beforehand. There was no Kickstarter.
No, there was just an email earlier this week saying “hey, this expansion is going to be out on March 26.”
Yes, Ecos: New Horizon is a new expansion for the brilliant base game designed by John D. Clair (I love him).
And it’s out today in your local game store.
Read MoreBoardgame Geek Top 300 – Play or Played – #290-281
I such a timely guy, aren’t I? The first post in this series came out what seems like months ago (it was over a month ago, on February 15).
What’s taken so long for the second post?
Would you believe I fell asleep?
All those other posts since then…they were scheduled back in February.
Even the news posts.
Yeah, that’s it.
Oh, all right. Yes, I’m just lame.
Hopefully the next one won’t take as long to get to.
It’s time for a look at the next 10 games in BGG’s Top 300 games. This list was recorded on February 8, 2021, so there will be some movement. I’ve noted that where applicable.
Let’s get this started.
I see bears on the horizon!
Read MorePost-COVID Gaming
It has definitely been a long year.
As mentioned in my 4-year anniversary post on Monday, this year has been especially hard for me, personally but also as a gamer (this is not to diminish how hard it’s been to so many people, especially those who have lost family members…my heart aches for you).
We’ve all gone through anxiety this year, even if we haven’t been personally affected by this disease.
As a social person, even though I don’t always demonstrate it, this year of isolation has been hard. I went from having a weekly game day plus fairly regular conventions to being at home all of the time. My wife willingly played some games with me and that did help (and I love her for it), but it’s still not quite the same.
However, things appear to be looking up, as long as you’re willing to look into the future a bit.
Here in British Columbia, they have now approved public gatherings outside as long as they are ten people or less and they are socially distanced. The ten people should really be part of your bubble.
Vaccinations are going very fast and may even ramp up faster. We’re still not out of the woods yet (new COVID cases in BC have plateaued but at a fairly high level) but we can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Maybe we’ll actually be able to get together for games by September! Or even July!
Or maybe not. We’ll have to see.
(they are talking about us probably going back to work in the office by September, which would be 18 months after we first started working from home).
Read More4 Years and Counting
I sometimes lose track of when I started this blog. Over the weekend, I realized that Saturday was the 4-year anniversary, with my first post going out on March 13, 2017.
It was a review of a wonderful little game called World’s Fair 1893, a game I still really like (though I haven’t played it in a while).
This will be my 446th post and I have to say that it’s been an up and down four years.
There have been times where I’ve posted like crazy and there have been times where I’ve taken almost a month off.
This past year has been hard due to COVID, but after a couple of false starts, things have actually picked up.
The number of times I’ve thought about packing it all in are more numerous than I would like to admit sometimes. I have not always been in the best mental place while doing this blog.
Overall, though, I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m proud of what I’ve done with it.
Read MoreC&C Europe – introduction continuation – #2 Hedgroves and Hand Grenades
This was an amazing scenario of Combat Commander. Once again I truly have to thank Michal for leading me through Combat Commander. He’s a very good opponent, patient with me and it’s always fun to exchange our files back and forth.
The write-up for the 3rd scenario will not be as good because I totally borked the set-up. But I’m sure Michal will make it entertaining!
In the meantime, read his excellent write-up of our second scenario below.
I am continuing our Combat Commander Europe games with Dave. We had such a blast with the first scenario (see here: Once again introducing Combat Commander Europe – #1 FatLipki) that is was a no-brainier that we will play further scenarios. The pandemic situation is not getting any better so it is really great that we can play in digital format.
Again, we will be using Discord for files exchange as well as for any interruptions – like opportunity fire or hidden mines/wire. It proved to be working quite well and game is really flawless. So let me invite you to as usually picture-rich session report from our second game!
Other Combat Commander related articles:CCE REVIEW#1 Fat Lipki#3 A Midnight Clear#4 Closed for renovation#6 One Steppe Beyond#8 Breakout Dance#10 Barbarossa Unleashed#11 Hold the Line#6 Paralyzed from the West Down
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Clank In Space Adventures: Pulsearcade Coming in July
If you’re a fan of this blog (and I can see you, Randy…), you know that I love me some Clank!In!Space! (and once again, that will be the last time I use the exclamation marks as the key on my keyboard is getting worn out).
So imagine my glee when I get an email from Renegade Studios yesterday stating that another expansion is coming in July!
Clank in Space Adventures: Pulsearcade, designed by Paul Dennen and Evan Lorentz, will be hitting game stores this July, adding to all of the Clank in Space fun.
I reviewed the game, along with the Apocalypse expansion, already. A review of the Cyber Station 11 expansion will be coming in the next little while (damn you, COVID!)
What’s this expansion about?
Let’s take a look at the extremely limited information from the web page.
Read MoreExpansion Review – Shards of Infinity: Relics of the Future
One of my new favourite deckbuilding games is the brilliant Shards of Infinity, a game I reviewed back in January.
The game is published by Stoneblade Entertainment and Ultra-PRO and is Designed by Gary Arant and Justin Gary with artwork by Aaron Nakahara.
One of my criticisms of the base game is that while each player is a character/faction, it makes no difference during the game. It’s all very generic.
Enter the expansion, published in 2019, called Relics of the Future.
The expansion adds a number of things that I found really helpful and interesting.
First, it adds 24 new center deck cards. It also gives you 8 Relics (which I’ll talk about in a minute).
Finally, it has three more ways to play the game.
Since I explained how to play the game in my review, I’ll just get into what the expansion adds and why it’s an incredible expansion for this already great game.
Read MoreApp Review – Pavlov’s House
One genre of games I haven’t really gotten into, mainly because I haven’t had the opportunity, is solo gaming. There are many great-sounding solo wargames out there, but the idea of spending 2-3 hours playing a game on the table by myself just doesn’t suit my current situation.
Yet when I learned that one of the acclaimed solo wargames, Pavlov’s House (especially acclaimed by Grant at the Player’s Aid), was coming to digital, I jumped at the chance (it also helped that developer Bookmark Games provided me with a free Steam *and* iOS code for it) to try this out.
In Pavlov’s House (designed and with artwork by David Thompson and published by Dan Verssen Games in 2018), you are in the middle of the epic battle of Stalingrad as Soviet troops defending a house from an enormous German horde of aircraft bombing, troops and tanks trying to storm the house, and artillery.
Many thanks to Grant for the Action Points posts that helped me understand the game enough to really play it in-depth.
What do I think of the app?
Let’s take a look.
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