-
I took Norowas for another saunter yesterday evening while KT relaxed on the sofa, my Knight's adventures slowly taking up ever more space on the kitchen table. I decided to play the First Reconnaissance scenario again, aided by a couple of files on the Geek to help things go a little more smoothly and hopefully with fewer mistakes.
I scored thirty in the end, having completed the assignment in the slightly tighter time frame of three rounds as specified in my rule book, as opposed to the four rounds of presumably later versions, but still had time to get involved with some marauding orcs along the way. I think that I also ended up with a better idea of how the various locations behave, especially in terms of day and night and what gets revealed when.
As for fighting, I was happy to get involved with some enemies who had icons on them, although some of the more complicated nasties were given a wide berth for now. I'll deal with those symbols little by little until I am happy that I know what I am getting into.
By the end of it I did have some followers with me, and had also managed to beef up my deck slightly, leaning in terms of making it easier to travel and to influence people. I also felt that I had a much better grip of how to play the cards in certain combinations in order to get what I wanted and leave myself set up for the next turn.
I was also quite taken with the way that my character developed, even in this quite rudimentary play, and even though I have stayed well clear of the mage towers so far I am really looking forward to beefing myself up with some magic at some point and using the dark mana. There were so many possbilities and so much to explore that I was quite tired by the end of it, so I doubt that Mage Knight would ever be close to a daily play, but it would be lovely to get to it every week or so in the near future and get to grips with a little of what it has to offer. Consider my appetite whetted.:strip_icc()/pic6250080.jpg)
At the edge of the world.
Happy gaming!
meepleonboard.wordpress.com
Meepleonboard
When I am not putting notes on paper I like to play. Here are my scribblings.
Archive for First impressions
- [+] Dice rolls
-
I played my fifth and probably my last round of solo play of Omen: Heir to the Dunes today, upping the difficulty level and still strolling to a fairly comfortable win over the AI. My large monument granted me seven points of the thirteen I gained to the AI's nine.
It is a little unfair to compare the solo mode of something like Heir to the games on the shelves that have been designed as solos from the ground up, but it needs to live or die by that metric in my collection. I shall leave it for a bit and then come back to it, but it does not fill me with the idea of unexplored possibilities to discover over another fifty plays or so, merely the aim of building the biggest monument I can and then trying to shut down the game.
I could take it up another level of difficulty, but there are so many other games that I would rather play and, in any case, five games is a fair run to start with, so back onto the shelf it goes and I shall see how I feel a few months from now. In the meantime there are rules to read for all the new arrivals, and nooks and crannies to explore before my next run at Mage Knight Board Game.:strip_icc()/pic6248538.jpg)
In-scribed in history.
It seems that I might have an early printing of Mage Knight, because my copy definitely describes The First Reconnaissance as a three-round scenario, whereas it now appears to have acquired an extra night cycle at some point in its journey. Suddenly my score of twenty something does not look quite so bad, and next time it seems as though I might have a little time to stop and smell the roses and bash a few more orcs.
I also sorted the rather lovely Darkest Night (Second Edition) yesterday, perusing the character cards and marvelling at the possibilities, which is what much of my gaming is about. Give me possibilities and something new each time and I will be happy for a very long time indeed.
Happy gaming!
meepleonboard.wordpress.com
- [+] Dice rolls
-
My sleep patterns are all over the place at the moment, the polar opposite of the first lockdown when I slept better than I had for years. Maybe the stresses and strains are beginning to manifest themselves in nocturnal jumpiness, or maybe it was the fact that my dreams of playing Flamme Rouge were so vivid that my subconscious felt the need to drop a hint and wake me up in order to play it.
At least the very early mornings give me a little time to get things done before the world awakes, and I tucked in another solo game of Omen: Heir to the Dunes first thing, notching up a decent victory against the AI on a slightly higher level than before. My completed large building helped to tip the balance in my favour as I ran out the victor by sixteen points to eleven.
In the afternoon while KT was out and about I finally went the extra step after the previous day's explorations and played my first game of Mage Knight Board Game, taking Norowas for a First Reconnaissance, even if much of it was spent avoiding various landmarks in an attempt to discover the city. I did manage to bash a few Marauding Orcs, though, and even took down a Fortress in my final turn, putting one of my markers on the map.
I assume that having doubts about whether you have played Mage Knight correctly is one of those gaming rites of passage, but I think that I got most things more or less right. It is the play of cards that causes me the most doubts so far, specifically what is allowed when, but I really enjoy the restrictions on what can be done and in which order, and my first taste has enough for the puzzliness of the game to begin to peek through.
Norowas was still pretty puny by the time he found the city, with 23 Fame, but it was an important step forward in terms of getting to grips with one of the heavy hitters of the hobby. Rather nicely, I managed to wrap it all up in ninety minutes or so, not bad for a first run, and although I know that the full experience would take much longer and inevitably get considerably more involved I have a feeling that I might enjoy a bit more Reconnaissance over the next week or so as I get to grips with the different mages and what they bring to the table.:strip_icc()/pic6245195.jpg)
Out for a wander.
Happy gaming!
meepleonboard.wordpress.com
- [+] Dice rolls
-
Although I only managed to sneak in the single play yesterday I nevertheless had a day filled with games and gaming thoughts, and very enjoyable it was too, a taste of that laziness that comes with free time and the lack of deadlines, but without that nagging fear of every activity bringing with it the possibility of catching some hellish virus. Flamme Rouge made its way back into the house courtesy of the recent UK Maths Trade, a game that I had played and jettisoned but which I could not quite get out of my mind. Sure, when sorting it out I discovered that every rider from the base set had become detached from their bicycle, which more or less screams manufacturing error but they stayed on just long enough for me to be royally hosed by two AI teams as I traipsed in fourth and sixth out of six. I had once thought the game too easy, but I now think that I must have been playing it incorrectly.
Talking of trying to play things correctly, I set up Mage Knight Board Game on my office table and ran through a few turns in order to get a grip of the basic mechanisms, and I think that I am getting to the stage where I would be happy to give it a proper solo run. I really like the way that the tutorial scenario opens up the tiles bit by bit in a handholdy kind of way and I think that I have just about grasped the way that the cards should be played. As for combat, well, I shall deal with that when I get to it but I hope to be able to give this a proper session before too long.:strip_icc()/pic6243290.jpg)
Still in with a shout.
I was also delighted to be able to track down a new copy of Darkest Night (Second Edition) online for far less than RRP and significantly less than the various copies on offer both in the Geek market and on Ebay. I had feared that I might have to go in on a copy combined with the miniatures set, for which I have no use, so to find a base set in stock for a decent price was a joyous moment. It will go on the shelf next to Nemo's War (Second Edition) and Dawn of the Zeds (Third Edition) and I shall get to it in due course for some meaty solo plays, I am sure.
I was delighted also to read that Tony Boydell's Lux Aeterna is getting a rerelease, for this is a fine game that deserves a wider audience. I have been close to grabbing it off the shelf over the past few days, even if I have gravitated more towards my lesser played games, but I think that I should get back to it in the next couple of days. Tony was also kind enough to send me some files a few days ago for the third game in his solo trilogy, so I need to get busy with the printer and scissors and put that together before too long.:strip_icc()/pic6243291.jpg)
Not the result I wanted.
To be honest, there was probably more yesterday but it all bled into a rather contented haze of goodness, during which I played, bought, explored and perused. I really am in a good place with my collection at the moment, despite its being rather larger than I ever would have imagined, but there is plenty of quality there to explore, and it just makes me even more keen to play.
Happy gaming!
meepleonboard.wordpress.com
Wed Jun 23, 2021 5:11 am
- [+] Dice rolls
-
There are few better feelings in gaming than sorting through a recent purchase of some game or other and finding an expansion or promo or another bonus tucked away in there, unannounced. It turns out that my copy of Nemo's War (Second Edition) is replete with all three of the expansions as one of them had been opened and sleeved and tucked in with the other cards in the box. I had thought that I would need to track it down separately but, no, there it is.
I played the solo variant of Omen: Heir to the Dunes again yesterday and ran out to a comfortable 16-9 victory over the AI after stealing a few tiles from under its nose, building a decent-sized monument and keeping a couple of Treasured cards in hand. It is an okay way to spend twenty minutes to half an hour, but it pales in comparison to other solo games of the same kind of length, and I also keep having to look up all the various keywords, which is a bit of a pain. More practically I have still to work out how best to arrange the Omen cards on either side of the board so that the stats and text are simultaneously visible. First world problems.:strip_icc()/pic6241760.jpg)
Is that a knife in your pocket or are you just pleased etc.
I then moved to another play of Under Falling Skies and tackled the set up for Washington for the first time. I set it up on the default level, so a threat level of zero, and won with a little time to spare, although with the damage to my base just beginning to become a concern. Pleasingly, it really does also feel quite different from Roswell, enough to make it a new challenge.
There are also some quite delicious design choices going on that only really become apparent when you feel that you need to do something but then find that you cannot do it. I want to use those three green spaces, for example, but I need to generate five energy to do so, except that it's one or the other in a turn rather than both at the same time. Nice.:strip_icc()/pic6241769.jpg)
Staying power.
And then there are the robots as well, which also offered more than they initially promised in terms of decisions, not least because they can become close to useless as their values gradually tick down, adding in an extra dose of When am I going to get rid of this thing? Sorry, Omen, but Under Falling Skies just does so much more in a similar time frame that it is really no contest at the moment, so while I might give Heir To The Dunes another shot or two, I think that I am going to be shooting at those invaders for a long time to come.
Happy gaming!
meepleonboard.wordpress.com
- [+] Dice rolls
-
i took another run at the solo variant of Omen: Heir to the Dunes yesterday, and while I am not yet convinced that I have all the rules lined up in the right order I did at least come away with a victory against the AI. My four Treasured cards made the difference at the end as I squeaked to a narrow win by fifteen points to thirteen.
It felt tight all the way through, not least because the AI becomes ever more strong as the game progresses, so you as the player need to grab points where and when you can. I managed to build a structure and grab three reward tiles alongside those Treasure cards, but it was touch and go as the end of the game took me by surprise.:strip_icc()/pic6238018.jpg)
Monumental.
I must admit that I have always found the rule books for the Omen series to be wafty at times, with various important elements dropped in here and there, and the player aids great with the outlines but less so with the specifics. At some point I need to sit down and work out what is really what, and I shall probably end up putting together my own aide memoire.
There are also some omissions, or at least gaps in the rules that could be filled by assumptions, but are those assumptions correct? For example, the abilities of a card loyal to the other god cannot be used when it is played, but does that also apply when the card is discarded in order to build a monument and its Labor effect could be triggered? Has this card been "played" or merely discarded? At the moment I cannot tell but I assume that there is a distinction.:strip_icc()/pic6238031.jpg)
Master of all I survey.
I did enjoy this play, though, not least because the outcome was in the balance all the way to the end, and I am sure that some more plays will really bring it into focus. Whether it will bring enough to the table to make it worth keeping for what will likely only be solo play is in the balance, but getting these first plays in has been very enjoyable so far.
Happy gaming!
meepleonboard.wordpress.com
- [+] Dice rolls
-
KT has been the one in the house doing good, honest days of work over the past months while I have been tinkering away on my various projects in the background and waiting for the storm to pass. Come the end of the day, therefore, she tends to be tired, and our recent attempts at the heavier gaming of yore have not always been hugely successful.
New games have also struggled, thanks mainly to the overload of new information, but yesterday I was able to introduce something light to her that she had not experienced before, even if I had played it online. This was to be my first time playing a physical copy of Can't Stop, thought, so would it have been worth the effort to track it down?:strip_icc()/pic6236458.jpg)
First time physically.
It turned out that it was, and we played four times with honours drawn at the end, and KT enjoyed the experience, though four games proved to be pretty much her limit. Can't Stop really does have the hallmarks of something that we could get to the table often, and it is certainly a game that we could put in front of curious guests as well, so it was a pleasure to be able to add these four physical plays to the forty odd I have notched up online.
Later, making the beginnings of a dent in my big pile of unplayed games, I tried a solo run at Omen: Heir to the Dunes, losing against the AI by a whopping fifteen points to seven, although I did miss a rule which would have evened things up just a touch. I still find the rules to be quite scattergun in the booklet and find myself constantly checking keywords and timings and things, but maybe that will all come once I have played it in a couple more times.
While it is never going to give the experience of playing against another human being, not least because the enemy AI never uses any of its abilities, at least there is a challenge against a gradual and constant increase in strength, such as one finds in something like 1066: Tears to Many Mothers. I plan to give it another run some time today and then a few times soon after that so that it can find its feet, and I shall then have a much better idea of whether it might be a decent long term fit for the collection. As for Can't Stop, well, I already knew that it was a keeper a long time ago.
Happy gaming!
meepleonboard.wordpress.com
- [+] Dice rolls
-
I hardly thought that I would ever get around to writing it, but I have spent the past couple of days back at the part of my career that I have been pressured to leave behind at various stages over the past fifteen months, accompanying a small group of singers in two small concerts in the proverbial English country garden. As it tends to do in those gardens, on day one it was glorious weather but yesterday our gallant audience sat there in the rain while the damp performers sang to them and yours truly, ever the gent, tinkled the ivories while shielded by a small pagoda.
It was, as they say, good to be back, and the response of our audience showed how much they had missed this kind of thing, live music made by live people, here and now. The other gigs I had lined up for the next few weeks have all been kicked further along the year - because inside - but my diary is beginning to become populated with rehearsals and sessions and so on, so the green shoots are definitely there.:strip_icc()/pic6235344.jpg)
As venues go, it could be worse.
I have been getting on with my own composing through all of this, of course, hacking away at my first symphony and other things, and I know that if all else fell away it is the thing that would remain with me, but working with other musicians is so vital and alive that it would be horror ever to let it go. I would miss those moments when you feel a singer take a slightly longer breath than before and adjust immediately, or you know that audience can take just a tenth of a second more on that particular pause at that particular moment.
I have to say that board games come close in terms of the joy that they can give me, and, like music, they have always been part of who I am. They, like the writing, are not just things I do, they are things that I cannot not do, an escape as well as a challenge.
I arrived home, sat outside with KT for a while, and then took Omen: Heir to the Dunes off the shelf to have a look at the solo rules, for I think that is how it might have to live or die in our collection, and I ended up playing a few rounds. My intial impression is good, and I must admit that I like the twists that it has added to the Omen formula, the loyalties and buildings. It may well not end up working for KT, but it could possibly be something that I could play with our neighbour and even get onto the table for a solo run, so the plan is to take it for a proper spin today.
Happy gaming!
meepleonboard.wordpress.com
- [+] Dice rolls
-
One of my recent purchases was made with Katie firmly in mind, and the first of the pile to get to the table was therefore Harry Potter: House Cup Competition. Reviews of this have been mixed and I was not hugely optimistic that it had the legs to go all the way and become a permanent part of the collection, but I wondered whether the theme would gel with Katie and it might get a free pass.
Well, to cut a long story short it did not get a free pass. It is a game without too many mechanical problems, a kind of simplified Lords of Waterdeep in which you gain levels and tokens and then fulfil challenges, but there is no real spark there to make it come alive in a meaningful manner.:strip_icc()/pic6213037.jpg)
The blobs are difficult to tell apart.
Sadly there are also some fundamental problems in the way the design is presented that make it needlessly difficult to play, most obviously the similarity between the symbols for potions and defence against the dark arts. One is a cauldron and one is a shield, but on the cards they just look like black blobs, and Katie mixed them up at least twice, including, crucially, while working towards her last haul of points, leaving her stuck up the gaming equivalent of a narrow alley without reverse gear.
I let her go ahead in any case and she won by ten points, thankfully, but it was a real pain to have to check the icons really closely every single time, and it was also slightly unintuitive to have the Easy Challenges represented by the letter "H" while the Hard Challenges had a cup. We took "H" to stand for "Hard" more than once, and wondered why there was not a cup on both sets of challenges but with an "H" on the upper level.:strip_icc()/pic6213039.jpg)
The colours are really muted - and which blob is that?
The level trackers were fiddly but generally okay - in fact it was the boards moving around that caused most problems - and the game was not terrible, but it simply felt rather grey and washed out, although that perception might have been helped along by the colour palette of the boards and components which looked like faded memories, even if the test tubes and crystals were a nice touch. Thankfully I bought the game at a decent price, which is why I thought it was worth a shot, and it is a solid enough worker placement, but adrift in a sea of very fine worker placements indeed, and the theme is not enough to save it from some irksome flaws, so it feels like a missed opportunity that could have been much better.
Happy gaming!
meepleonboard.wordpress.com
- [+] Dice rolls
-
One of my two missing game orders turned up yesterday afternoon, the one I ordered last week but not the one placed nearly three weeks ago, so I think that another chasing email is in order this morning. I had been hoping that both orders might have been consolidated into a single box but alas it was not to be.
I do, however, have more than enough that is new on the shelves to explore, and the game currently right at the top of that list is Space Hulk: Death Angel – The Card Game so, having scanned the rules and set things up a couple of days ago, I got down to the nitty-gritty last night, playing a few rounds and getting used to the choices and the mechanisms.
As so often with these Fantasy Flight card games, timing is of the essence, making sure that everything is triggered in the right order, and, again as is typical with these games, the information in the rules is a little scattered. Thankfully, though, it is all there, even if there are some moments that could perhaps have been a little more clearly expressed.
In fact, it was one of these moments that brought my play to a halt, the whole thing of shifting the formation when a Space Marine dies, by which stage it was getting late in any case and I could not quite work out what was meant to happen. A quick trip to BGG has more or less clarified things, so I feel more optimistic about my next play, which will hopefully be my first full experience of the game.
I have enjoyed what I have experienced so far and my impression is of a game that is gritter and deeper than I had initially suspected, which is a good thing, and there also appears to be a great deal to explore in terms of strategy and opportunities. I am also glad to report that this is a copy in excellent working order, because my first two rolls of the red die in the game came up with a result of zero, so the rumours are true.:strip_icc()/pic6210240.jpg)
Yup, that's definitely working.
Happy gaming!
meepleonboard.wordpress.com
- [+] Dice rolls
