I want to make a brief mention of a friend's blog- Boardgame Strategist. This is written by a local friend, Dan, where he discusses his thoughts on improving gameplay for a variety of boardgames. Take a look!
Games Played
- Warhammer Underworlds - Six games, all against my brother, Matt. The first three games were basically teaching games, where Matt was able to get more experience with the game and the rules. I used it to good effect, however, and managed to get a little bit of practice with the Thorns of the Briar Queen. Matt then proceeded to get all of the available product, and showed up this past Wednesday to play. Game one, I ran Spiteclaw's Swarm against his Sepulchral Guard. Matt, having neither used the Guard, nor seen them in action, basically lost on setup- he put the Warden too far forward, and I was able to kill him before the first turn was over. Unable to resurrect his Petitioners, he parked two of them on objectives, and sent the named guys forward. I keep killing them, and end up winning 13-5. Game two, I again run the Skaven, and Matt drops Steelheart's Champions. He used a deck he found online, and came out playing aggressive. I kill two of the members, losing a few myself, but then I pull my warband back away from his, and score a bunch of objectives. I end up winning 10-6. I point out to Matt that he is likely running a defensive deck- coming forward should be secondary to scoring his objectives, which are designed around keeping his guys healthy. Final game, I switch to the Cursebreakers, and he keeps running the Champions. He plays more defensively, but leaves one of his guys too far forward, and I kill it. He attempts to enact vengeance, but leaves Stormsire on one health. I manage to get Stormsire back, however, and pull everything too far away for him to do anything to me, and manage to win, 9-6.
- Settlers of Catan - One game, against Marina, Christian, Megan, and Andre. A pretty interesting game- Andre decided to go after Marina the entire game, which led to her trying to get revenge, and ended up with them unable to really compete for first place. Christian and Megan race for the win, and Megan eventually gets what she needs to win.
- KeyForge: Call of the Archons - One game, against Matt. This was my first time trying this game, which has been extremely popular. It has fairly common mechanics, with the distribution scheme being the most interesting draw. Overall, it was fine. I don't love it, but I suppose I could consider buying a deck in order to play it with interested people. Maybe. I end up defeating Matt in our game.
- Warhammer 40K: Kill Team - One game, I take the Gellerpox Infected with three Nightmare Hulks and a Nurgling dude against Matt's Genestealer heavy Tyranids. I take quite a beating, but I can't get models to the objectives, and Matt can. Even though I do eventually kill quite a few of his models, he is able to outnumber me in quite a few battles, kill some Nightmare Hulks, and outscore me heavily. He ends up crushing me, something like 19-4.
- Mutant Year Zero - One session. This is with Rob as our GM, and we had myself, Dan, and Mark as the players. In this campaign, I am playing as Lug, a Bruiser. This session, I manage to kill some spiders, and we make contact with a woman in the north, who will help us in our battle with the Singing Monolith.
- Hordes - One game against Joey. I run my Maelok Blindwater Congregation list against Joey running his Ossrum Hammer Strike list. I make a bad mistake, letting him score three control points on the bottom of turn two. I respond by putting a unit of Gatormen Posse into each zone, and begin going for attrition. We trade pieces, but in general, I'm getting good value out of my trades. He is forced to commit Ossrum to try to clear the zone on my left, and when he does, I kill him, and win.
- Necromunda: Underhive. My wife bought this for me as a Christmas gift, as I had been eyeing it for some time. I played Necromunda in college, and am really excited to try the new version.
- Saipan & Tinian: Island War Series, Volume I. This is a re-release from Legion Wargames, a company I frequently by wargames from. Small company plus a pacific theater wargame? How could I pass that up?
- Armies of the Hobbit, for the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game. I stopped playing the previous version of the game before all of the Hobbit material was released, so I'm pretty excited to have all the rules and point costs for the Hobbit-relevant models. As I try to get back into this game, I'll eventually pick up an army from this book, I'm sure.
- A Bog Trog Mist Speaker and a Gremlin Swarm for Hordes. These are going to be additions to my Rask Will Work for Food list. A support solo and a great flag-scoring solo.
- Destroyers starter box for Monsterpocalypse. I already had the Protectors starter, but I wanted the included map, and really- I played Lords of Cthul so much that I consider myself more of a Destroyers player anyway.
- Deadpool vs the World. This was another gift from my wife. A bit random, but hey, more casual games is never a bad thing for when we have guests!
- Buffy Battles for VS 2PCG. Two new teams, ten new Main Characters, and a bunch of new cards to add the Photographic Universe. I really wish I had chances to play this game.
- Space Marine Adventures: Labyrinth of the Necrons. I bought this because it looked like a fun game to play with my nephews and niece- it is a cooperative game that has miniatures I can have the kids paint, and we can all play together, and looks interesting enough that their parents would play.
- I finished the assembly of the Gellerpox Infected for Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team. I put them on the table, as well!
- Finished the December issue of White Dwarf. What a fantastic issue- lots of new rules and variants in addition to all the regular articles. The January issue is looking to be very impressive as well!
- Continued reading Anna Karenina. Finished part five of eight. Fantastic book.
- Finished the Overlight RPG core rulebook. Seems pretty interesting, but I wish they had more content out, I have so many questions. With that said, I may try running this next year!
- Started Spear of Ultramar, a part of the Black Library novella series. So far, it is unimpressive.
- Started and completed The Blooded Rose, a part of the Black Library novella series. I was very impressed with this- I haven't read very much fiction about the Sisters of Battle, and this was very good. Well written with an interesting plot.
- Started and completed Auric Gods, a part of the Black Library novella series. This one is a story dealing with the Adeptus Custodes, another group I've never read fiction for. Once again, a very very interesting tale! I'm really finding these novellas to be a great value, overall!
- Finally, started and finished Steel Daemon, another of novellas. This follows the story of a Cadian tank regiment. This, once again, was fantastic. If you haven't tried the novellas, you should!