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Mark Bakke
United States
Augusta
Georgia
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Memorial Day weekend. Remember what it stands for and honor those whose sacrifice has given it meaning.
Castles of Burgundy
Four-player game with a couple of new faces. This is rapidly getting to be my favorite Euro-style economic game. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any good combos going and my VP total suffered as a result. First time I haven't broken 200 VP and I finished *far* behind the leaders. I want to get into more of the alternate mapboards to see how they play.
Playtest of "Dark Age"
We spent some time playtesting a game that Josh Raynack brought in. This is a deck-building RPG-style game where you have an overall tribe leader and recruit mercenaries, train them in skills, equip them with weapons, and manage attack strategies against your neighbors. The game played pretty solid with the only major suggestion being to change the Leadership die roll from a d6 to a d10 to grant more points that would allow more and bigger attacks.
Mansions of Madness
First time to play the "House of Fear" print-on-demand scenario. There were three of us in the adventuring party. I played the machine gun-toting Michael McGlen character and, obviously, did most of the monster-whacking. In this scenario, we found that we were all a part of an ongoing movie project that, for some sinister reason, was unfinished. As the adventure unfolded, we discovered that the movie was actually a trap to ensnare souls forever. Unfortunately, the constant onslaught of Cultists and Witches and Maniacs slowed us down enough that we ran out of time once we had all of the necessary clues. Nevertheless, it was a fun scenario.
Abaddon
We played the four-player scenario #14 "West Wood". All four sides were asymmetrical, which led to some interesting decisions and teamwork. Skyler and I decided to sweep around to our right in order to avoid the majority of the Heavy Links arrayed against us. The plan was good, but the luck was terrible. We had two different times where we had what should have been a clear combat advantage and rolled so badly that *we* ended up taking double damage. So, we went down in a defiant blaze of glory.
King of Tokyo
Four of us finished the day with three rounds of this great favorite. In the first game, a monster in Tokyo delivered 5 damage to everybody else and killed all three of us with one blow. The second game saw me roll five 3's in consecutive turns for 10VP. It was a quick trip to 20VP after that. The third game saw Skyler pull off a nice card combo for 7VP on the last turn to get to 20.
No other games today as the crowd was a bit small on this holiday.
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Mark Bakke
United States
Augusta
Georgia
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New games are starting to show up in time for the big summer cons. Great time to be a gamer!
Dust Warfare
I've been looking forward to playing the tabletop version of Dust Tactics ever since it was first announced and today was the long-awaited chance. Rob and I made 150-pt armies and set up a March battle scenario. I made up an Allied Assault Platoon with lots of long-range weapons. My Grim Reapers squad Jumped into a commanding position in the middle of the field and laid waste to much of the opposing German force. A Wildfire Light Walker took care of most of the rest of the covering fire while the rest of my platoon looked for targets of opportunity. The scenario went the full six turns and I ended up with a fairly convincing win. Next week, we are planning a Night Engagement using 300-pt armies. I'll be taking the Germans in this next battle. I really enjoy the new tabletop rules!
Abaddon
The wars continued with this new Richard Borg design. This one is quick, bloody, tactical combat and lots of fun. There are four different types of units with each having its own set of movement, attack dice, and hit points stats. In combat, each side can play cards to modify its die roll. Higher die roll wins and causes damage to the loser. Critical hits can show up when you least expect them and are resolved by card draws from a special deck. Scenarios are *very* fast. We got in three games today. In the first, I got my Heavy Link blown up by a Critical Hit on Turn 1 and ended up losing. In Game 2, we played a scenario where one side air-dropped into the midst of a deployed opponent. Needless to say, this got the combats going fast and furious. I was the defender and took out the paradropping force in short order. In our third game, we played a four-player team scenario where each side deployed on opposite sides of the board. This one allowed for more maneuvering and team work was a big part of the overall strategy. My team was successful with my units providing flanking support for a heavier group powering their way into the center.
Skyline 3000
I played this one once before about a year or so ago. Players are trying to dominate various regions of the board with the most and/or tallest buildings. You will also need to win and control some critical auctions for important additions to the city. Bluffing, blocking, and other clever tricks abound in this game. I was doing pretty well with my building strategy, but couldn't win any of the important spaceports or megamalls. Three of us were within five points at the end and we didn't know who was going to come out on top until the last region was scored.
(Ben's Adventure Game)
We finished up Game Day with a couple of playtest games of Ben Neumann's card-based adventure game design. Players are travellers along a route that presents them with various quests, challenges, and other events. You acquire and use different skills in auctions and encounters to gain treasures and VP. Each player has a character that encourages certain goals and strategies that contribute towards important "Journey's End" points. With games ending with totals of 15-20 VP for the winner, making best use of those strategies is an important consideration. I won the first game with a Charm-based character and finished just short with a character who actually profited by having *less* treasures and skills than other players.
Other games played today included: Mansions of Madness, Star Trek Deck Building Game: The Next Phase, and Star Trek: Heroclix...
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Mark Bakke
United States
Augusta
Georgia
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Wow! Avengers movie is already over $1 billion!
Urban Sprawl
Four of us started the day with this favorite. Once again, I proved that getting out to an early lead in this game rarely ends up being a good thing. I had a *great* start and drew lots of attention for bad things inflicted by other players. Then, my well-placed Wealth and Prestige markers all got moved to unfavorable locations and I ended up going from well ahead to way behind. I only had seven buildings remaining on the board at game end!
King of Tokyo
Fun little five-player throwdown. People were not exactly racing to get into Tokyo, but once those positions had been claimed, the Attacks came fast and furious. Three people went out quickly and it was down to myself and Ryan. He would have won on VP in one more turn, but I got the first chance. I needed to roll two Energy, 1 Heart, and 1 Attack and I got them. That let me heal one point, then buy a card that gave all monsters three damage. I survived by one hit point and Ryan did not.
Claustrophobia
Got a couple of new players into this game as the Humans against my Demons in the first scenario of the base game. They did a very good job of not allowing me any openings to spawn my Demonic warriors until he had already located the Exit tile. They had two Blades near the Exit who used their Elusive ability to slip past my meager forces, get to the Exit, and grab the win.
Castles of Burgundy
Two new players joined me for a three-player game. As usual, the game was quite easy to pick up and we were rolling along smoothly within the first few die rolls. Two of us broke away and stayed very close in VP all the way through the game. I was slightly ahead after the last game turn, but got stomped after figuring up all of the game-ending bonus VP.
bezzerwizzer
Four of us tried this one again. This time we played as our own individual teams and had quite a few more missed questions. I had a couple of successful challenges and won the game with the last 3-pt question.
Rocketville
This is an old Avalon Hill game about future election campaigning. Players try to gain the favor of six different neighborhoods, each containing six regions. You win neighborhoods and gain Popularity by outplaying your opponents' cards in battles for each region. You can gain Robot cards that give you extra points for achieving various secret goals. It was close until the end, but I couldn't win enough neighborhoods to challenge for the win.
Other games played today included: Core Worlds and Globalization. I also got a chance for two play-test games of something that I've been designing after a recent flash of inspiration. Thanks to Matt and Ben for their help!
Next week, Rob and I are planning a 150-point game of Dust Warfare. If you're interested in this terrific new tabletop version of Dust Tactics, come in early next Monday and check it out!
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Mark Bakke
United States
Augusta
Georgia
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Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day, Boardgame Day. Works for me!
Claustrophobia de Profundis
Played two more of the new expansion scenarios today. First up was "Maze". This one has a large pre-constructed map and has the humans split into two groups trying to find their respective ways out in the face of moving walls and Troglodyte onslaughts. My Sicaria force bludgeoned their way through the opposition, while the Redeemer group faced the bulk of the demonic force. They tried to form a "meat wall" and block my group's passage, but I pulled off a nice combo move allowing the Redeemer to slip past them into the clear and secure the win. Next, we played "The Demonic Well". Here, my Humans had to take a treasure Vase from a guarding force, fill it with healing water, find the Demonic Well and pour the water into it. I had no problems taking the Vase, but my assault force ended up all being destroyed when the Condemned Blade's Explosive Vest was triggered and wiped out everybody in his tile. The two remaining Sicaria had no chance of bludgeoning their way through the Trogolodyte horde and eventually went down.
The Adventurers: Pyramid of Horus
Two games played, one with two players and one with three. I was able to take good advantage of the bonus points for getting treasures belonging to multiple gods. In the 2nd game, I got all five types of treasure for the first time and barely got out alive. Fun stuff!
Cold War: CIA vs KGB
Good game for two players while we were scarfing down some munchies. We each had our Directors killed before the game entered its third turn. Eventually, my Master Spy and Assassin also gave up their lives for their country. I came back to make it a close game, but couldn't make it all the way to victory.
Turn the Tide
Two four-player rounds of this fun game of bluffing and trick-taking. My luck couldn't have been more different between the two games. I won the first with a strong total of 16VP and lost the second with a pathetic -1VP.
Opus Dei: Existence After Religion
Back to the table again for this great card game. Three of us battled and connived to grab the most illustrious philosophers and scientists for our worlds while avoiding the Fools. This one always features plenty of creative play and the flavor text on many of the cards is both informative and entertaining. In fact, this may be the rare game that is worth buying just to read the cards. Dan won this one after being able to grab *five* scientists for 25VP.
Power Grid
Six-player game on the Japan map led to some brutal tactical play. The last thing you can say about the Japan map is that it is "fast". Every house purchase had to be carefully considered and positioning on the turn order track was huge. I went with a strategy of specializing in garbage-powered plants. It worked well, but, as seems to be my usual performance in this game, I ended up being one turn short of being able to get the win.
Bezzerwizzer
This is a team trivia game with a twist where each team draws four category tiles out of a bag and places them secretly on a board where they are placed on point values from 1-4 in order of where you feel the most confident of getting the right answer. You can also swap one of your tiles for one of the opponents' tiles and you have two opportunities during the game to steal an answer if you think they will fail to get it right. The questions seemed rather easy and our two teams missed only one between us over the whole game.
Other games played today included: Innovation, Acquire, and Dominion...
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Mark Bakke
United States
Augusta
Georgia
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After 37 consecutive hours of working and bowling, it's great to relax with some great gaming!
Castles of Burgundy
We tried this out as a 2-player game to see how the gameplay might change. We also used the alternate map boards and I randomly drew one with a 8-hex building city, which I managed to fill in the third turn of the game for a whopping 44 bonus VP. As expected, the game played *very* quickly and the alternate maps made for interesting new strategies. It was pretty close until the end, but I lost out on the bonus points from Knowledge tiles at the end of the game.
Core Worlds
5-player game of what is becoming my favorite deck-builder. I was going for a Tactics deck strategy, but ended up getting the Core World that gives bonuses for Vehicles and Robots. It turned out that this gave my 1 extra VP at game end and that ended up being just enough to win, 34-33.
Claustrophobia de Profundis
We got in three games today. The first two were the linked scenarios "The Relics" and "Sisters in Arms". I took the Demons and won the first scenario fairly handily while preventing the Humans from gaining even one treasure. But, the Humans got their revenge in the second scenario with the Sicaria leading the way. The third game was "The Hunt Begins", which is an interesting one that has the Troglodytes trying to escape while the Humans are trying to kill enough of them and capture the corpses to collect their ears. I made the mistake of not splitting up my Trogs and got them killed in bunches.
Turn the Tide
Nice to play this one again. It's a quick and fun game where players get a hand of cards with unique values ranging from 1 to 60. Each round, two buoy cards with values from 1 to 12 are turned up for the players to bid on. Each player picks a card and simultaneously plays it face down. All cards are revealed and the high number takes his choice of the two center cards while the 2nd-high player must take the other. Then, the player with the highest buoy card loses one life point. This continues until all buoy cards have been claimed. Players score points for each remaining life point and the player with the lowest buoy card on top of his pile gets one bonus point. Then, each players takes his hand of cards and passes it to the player on his left. The game continues until everybody has played every hand of cards once. The player with the highest point total at the end wins. That wasn't me... *grin*
Ticket to Ride: Switzerland
My favorite TTR map and a brutal 2-player war. We both had drawn Destination cards that had us going in the same direction, Germany to Italy. So, we spent much of the early game blocking each other and generally making things difficult for each other. I ended up with a hand of close to 40 cards and couldn't come up with the three Orange cards I needed to complete my last two Destination tickets.
Quarriors!
Two of us ended the day by playing a game using all of the Corrupted cards. As such, we got to see quite a few of the new effects introduced in the expansion. I got a couple of Demonic Overlords early and they led me to the eventual win.
Other games played today included: Power Grid, Lord of the Rings: the Card Game, The Manhattan Project, Mousquetiers du Roy, and Rex...
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Mark Bakke
United States
Augusta
Georgia
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Lots of talk about GnomeCon and the new Dust Warfare rules. I foresee plenty of good stuff on the table in upcoming weeks!
Claustrophobia
The latest "Blast from the Past" to hit the table. This one came back in order to try out the new "de Profundis" expansion. This gives Hellhounds to the Demons and the female Sicaria warriors to the Human side along with plenty of new cards and map tiles. We played two scenarios today and I had the Demon side for both. The first was "Cleansing with Fire". This one has the Humans searching for the three dead-end Stash tiles in order to destroy egg-laying female troglodytes. The tiles ended up rather far apart from each other and I parked my Hellhounds strategically in order to force a headlong charge by the Humans. I could pick them off while regenerating my Trogs. The Blunderbuss-packing Blades were a problem, but the Humans eventually went down. The second scenario was "The Hunt's Afoot" and introduced the Sicaria. In this one, both the Humans and the Demons are trying to escape the dungeon with two out of the three treasures. I thought I had the upper hand until the Sicaria got into the battle and proved to be too tough to handle. The "Elusive" skill let the Humans get through the last Trogs to the Exit for the win. This game looks great on the table and drew several onlookers while we played.
Eclipse
Four of us played and we had two Aliens vs. two Terrans. I had a Terran and quickly got cut off by a fast-advancing Draco faction. I managed to put together a fearsome Cruiser design that eventually made mincemeat out of a sector defending by two Dreadnaughts, a Starbase, and an Ancient Ship, but ended up far behind the two Alien factions -- who went 44-43 in the final VP count.
Castles of Burgundy
Four of us played this time in our second go at this excellent game. This one featured some rather dramatic swings in the VP count all the way through. The last of these was on the final count of bonus points when Ben came from being buried in last place earlier in the game to score a ton of points and win the game by *one* VP, 251-250. Wild stuff!
Other games played today included: Innovation
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Mark Bakke
United States
Augusta
Georgia
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For Caesar, it was "Beware the Ides of March". For US taxpayers, it's "Beware the Ides of April".
Core Worlds
We got in two games today. First was a two-player game while waiting for other gamers to show up. The second was a full five-player game with a couple of new players. The game continues to play remarkably smoothly and gets thumbs up from everybody who has tried it. I had to settle for 2nd place in the final game when I couldn't get the Core World that I wanted.
Founding Fathers
The latest "old favorite" to come back to the table after too long away. We had a full five-player game and quickly got into the conniving and maneuvering that's such a feature in politics. This was the first game I can remember where the Anti-Federalists captured most of the Articles -- and, of course, I drew only two Anti-Federalist cards the entire game. Somehow, I still ended up in 2nd place even though I couldn't get much of anything to work.
The Castles of Burgundy
First time out for this new Stefan Feld Euro. This one blends mechanics from different games in a unique mix that leads to a very good and quick-playing game. It has a "roll dice for actions" mechanic similar to Troyes or Alien Frontiers, but also provides a way to adjust your die rolls up or down so you rarely get stuck with a bad roll. Players acquire hex tiles of six different kinds that are used to build their personal Empires for fun and profit. There are lots of opportunities for inspired combos and good strategy. Lots of scoring in this one, too, as the winner ended up with 221 points. Three of us played and we all thought the game was excellent!
Power Grid
Four of us played the Benelux map and we included the Robots expansion for the first time. This threw a few new wrinkles into the overall strategy and was a good addition. The Benelux map plays very quickly and the game ended up extremely close. The Robot forced the issue by buying five houses on its last turn to hit the "magic number" of 15. Dan also got to 15 and could power them all, while the Robot could only power 12. I build and powered 14 and ended up in a dead-even tie for 2nd with Cory.
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Mark Bakke
United States
Augusta
Georgia
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Did Augusta National *really* want a Masters champion named "Bubba"?
War of the Ring Collector's Edition
Came in shortly after the store opened today in order to get this great game on the table for the first time with the complete set of miniature strongholds that I've been acquiring over the past year. Naturally, the game looks even *more* incredible with the 3D look of all the stronghold minis, but still plays as one of the best games around. I took the Free Peoples this time and started looking for the opening I would need to get Frodo and Sam to Mt. Doom. Isengard and Saruman mobilized early on, but I was fortunate enough to have a hand of Rohan reinforcement cards and the card to mobilize the Ents. The Uruk-hai advanced on Helm's Deep, but the force I had been building in Edoras came in to save the day. Then, the Ents trundled into Orthanc and wiped out the remainder of Saruman's forces. The Rohirim followed up and captured the tower. Sauron responded with a steady build-up against Gondor and eventually conquered all of it, taking out Aragorn in the process. By now, I had acquired several cards to mobilize the Rangers of The North and decided to pressure Mount Gundabad. This diverted Sauron's attention long enough to let me get the Fellowship (now led by Gollum) into Mordor. Sauron advanced on Erebor and the Grey Havens and the game came down to whether or not I would roll a Character Action die and not get stopped at the precipice of Mt. Doom. Fortunately, I got what I needed and the final Hunt tile draw was the -1 special tile. Yet another terrific nailbilter!
Eclipse
My first time trying out an Alien faction. I took the Descendants of Draco in a 3-player game and tried to maximize my ability to get VP from ancient ships. I did fairly well at that, but didn't get much of anything else and ended up far behind the other two players. Still looking forward to a full 6-player game!
Core Worlds
Three of us tuned our decks and set out to conquer the universe. I decided to go for an Infantry-heavy approach and ended up getting cards with lots of combo bonuses and versatility. I was able to take the Core World that Marc Reed needed for his strategy and ended up winning the game by two points, with a final total of 37.
Summoner Wars
I took the new Filth faction against the Shadow Elves. The Filth have a new ability called "mutation" that allows them to greatly upgrade their Commons. I got off to a strong start, but the Elves were able to put a few dings on my Summoner while he was helping to clean out the opposing forces. Right when I thought I had things well in hand, the Elves summoned a powerful Champion and used Event cards to give him enough extra movement to plop him right next to my Summoner and finish him off with a brutal attack. The Filth was a fun faction to play!
Urban Sprawl
Two-player game to finish off the gaming day. This one turned out to be a score-fest that we had to cut short as we ran up against closing time. I was behind by 220-170 with about half a dozen Metropolis deck cards yet to play.
Other games played today included: Lords of Waterdeep, Rune Age, Dominion, Rex, and Innovation...
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Mark Bakke
United States
Augusta
Georgia
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Nice to get back into the "all day and all night" mode of gaming back at the Gordon Hwy location.
Core Worlds
This space-based deck-builder had two games played today and new players continue to give up rave reviews. We had one with four players and another with three. Playing with the optional "Round 0" draft cards is really the best way to go with this one as it throws many new twists and lots of variety into the standard decks. I kinda stunk it up in the 4-player game, but did much better in the 3-player game as I got a good total of 35VP, but still came in just short of the 39VP winner.
Star Trek Deck Building Game: The Next Phase
Four of us formed two teams and took on the Romulan Reunification scenario for the 1st time. This one had a very unique feel to it and it took us a few rounds to understand exactly where the new Mission deck was going to lead us. After that, the game got *very* tactical as each team tried to maximize its own Missions. With the score tied at 325 points each on the way to 400, the Romulan Senate team scored a 100-point mission (thematically called "Unification") and took the victory. We *will* be doing this one again!
Innovation
We introduced two new players into this great card game. It's been too long since the last time I got in on a game. We used only the basic card set to introduce the new players to the conniving that is rampant in this game. Each of us had our chances to abuse a card combo for our own nefarious purposes. I was scoring 8-point cards at will with Diplomacy, but lost the race to four Achievements.
Power Grid
This time, five of us played the Russian map which features some tight resources and limited availability of power plants along with a map that contained many choke points where players' expansion plans could easily be cut off. A strange draw of power plants led to several rounds with a lot of passing during the auction phase and a few turns of massive house-building as players tried to cut each other off at the pass. The last turn saw four of us with a chance to reach the magic number of 15 houses, but Ben could power 14 and guarantee the win for himself.
Archaeology
We had only about an hour remaining, so I broke out this old favorite card game that has too long been away from the table. Four of us played and we actually got three games in the time we had remaining. I won the first two (one with a very strong 93-point total) and, as expected, got Thieved into submission during the third game.
Other games played today included: Thunderstone: Advance and Rex. I also showed my newly-completed set of stronghold minis for War of the Ring Collector's Edition and arranged to come in early to play the game next week.
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Mark Bakke
United States
Augusta
Georgia
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Thanks to Josh Raynack for hosting Boardgame Monday while the store is in the process of moving back to Gordon Highway...
Core Worlds
I got two new players into this excellent deck-building space conquest game. We used the optional "Round 0" draft cards and it made the game even better. I fell behind early on Energy generation and couldn't get my overall strategy rolling quite as I had envisioned it.
Keythedral
My first time playing this great old game. Four of us had a lot of fun with some unique worker placement and resource gathering mechanics that led to building the structures needed to gain the VP to win. Lots of screwage in this one and it's lots of fun!
Lords of Waterdeep
Five of us tried out this new D&D-inspired game. No combat, no monsters, but lots of quests. Players each have a secret Lord that grants them extra VP for completing their own goals by game end. The game plays very quickly and was quite easy to get into even if you're not a D&D player.
Thanks again to Josh. Looking forward to next week's return to the Gordon Highway location.
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