I haven't managed to post any "real" blog posts this month, as my focus has been on my basement. Over the course of the month, my wife and I managed to turn the basement from this....
Anyway, I have a decent sized gaming space now, with a ton of storage (that bottom "now" picture is basically another room of this sized, completely unfinished, that we are putting wire shelves in for storage. There's a bit of mess, but I've told my wife that it's just a matter of furniture to solve this. Every month, we buy one or two pieces of furniture for downstairs, and this will look perfect in no time. I also need blinds, and to re-seal the door, but that will likely be accomplished by the end of February
Games Played
- Warhammer Underworlds - Four games of this total, two against BK, and two against my brother, Matt. Against BK, he takes his newly assembled Eyes of the Nine warband, and I start out using my Cursebreakers. We actually play a fairly non-interactive game, aside from a summoned Horror on my side, and I fail frequently to cast spells, ending up with him winning 9-12. The second game, I switch to my Skaven, and I play a lot more aggressive to stop him from scoring his objective points. I over-extend myself, and he kills Spiteclaw, and I can't recover, and lose 4-9. My two games against Matt go better, as I take a newly built Steelheart's Champions deck against him running the Farstriders. The first game, we don't really engage until Turn 3, which works great for me, and I win 7-3. Game two, we fight a bit more, but literally every break goes my way, and I end up winning 11-1.
Start of game 1 against BK 
Early in game 1, with a Blue Horror that my spells refuse to hit. 
Game two against BK, after I've committed myself, and before things all fall apart. - Kill Team - One game against BK. I take my Grey Knights against his Thousand Sons. The scenario is Take Prisoners, which require melee success. I figure I'm in good shape. We shoot at each other for a bit before we get stuck in, and I end up going up 1-0 as I kill his Tzaangor in close combat. However, the following turn, his Sorcerer is able to kill my leader with a pistol shot, after I fail several different methods to put the game out of reach, and that kill puts me down 1-3, and I lose the game. So, my streak of losses continue, but I feel like I played this game better than my previous ones!
- PitchCar - Three games against Christian. This is a dexterity based racing game, combining something I enjoy (racing game) with something I am TERRIBLE at (dexterity). The end result is that I lose two out of three, with the losses MUCH more impressive than the wins. Still, what a good time!
- Aton - I bought this for Christian for Christmas, as it is a game from his favorite designer, and we managed to play it twice. The first was a learning game (where I won), and the second game (that counted) I lost. It's an interesting game with a simultaneous action selection mechanic I don't think I've seen before, and an interesting, varied scoring system. It's a game that I think more experience would be super necessary in order to play effectively.
- Nemesis - Two games, one with Bob and Forrest, and then one with Rob, AJ, and Dan. The setup for this game is that we are waking up in a ship like the one from the Alien movie franchise. We hear noises, we have to investigate, and we have secret objectives that may not be to everyone else's benefit. Ended up being very tense! The first game, I was the Mechanic, which let me fix issues quickly, but we ended up getting overwhelmed by the Invaders, and lost. In game two, I was the scientist. In this one, I chose the objective to send the signal and investigate the alien corpse. I handle the latter part pretty quick, send the signal the turn after, slowly move across the board, turn the escape pods on, and escape!
Start of my first game- we all start in the center, dazed and confused. 
We begin to explore, and attract some attention 
And then we attracted too much attention... - Infinity - Four games against Matt, as we learned the system from the Operation: Icestorm box. I took the Nomads, Matt took the PanOceania forces, and he trounced me in every game. We had a blast though, and the rules have me eager to finally build the small Ariadna force I've owned for a few years.
- Tokyo Highway - A dexterity based game about building highways in a city. It goes badly, as dexterity games frequently do for me :(. Matt ends up winning.
- Warmachine/Hordes - Three games. In an effort to reach my resolution goal, I try to get as many games as possible, and only manage to get three (I did have two cancellations this past week, so the potential for me to get through these isn't bad!). First game was with Jaga-Jaga in Will Work for Food against Rob, running Vlad2 in Wolves of Winter. He surprises me with the Doom Reavers, who make short work of a heavy on turn 2, but my counter attack is pretty vicious, and I put myself in good position to win. However, I leave myself open to assassination, and Rob sets it up, and takes it, winning the game. Game 2 was against a random person I met at the game store, Jesse, who takes Irusk2 in Legion of Steel against Rask in Will Work for Food. This is an army I've never seen before, and I had no idea how to approach it, and he literally tables me. Seriously- he saved my caster for last. Game 3 was against Joey's Ossrum Hammer Strike list. I drop Maelok Blindwater Congregation. He plays very aggressive, which puts me on the back foot, but I manage to get ahead on attrition, and end up winning by scenario.
Game 1 
Game 2 
Early game 3 
End game 3 - Small World - Two games, once with Marina and Eric S, and one against just Marina. The first game, I taught to everyone, and ended up coming in dead last. The second game, I ended up winning. I didn't really take great notes, I admit.
- Artifacts, Inc - One game against Marina and Eric. My first time ever playing this game. Worker-ish placement, some die rolling... I'm not sure how to describe it, but it was a lot of fun. I focused on buying more workers immediately, then tried to go with a buy/upgrade everything strategy, but I wasn't getting points as fast as Eric was, and he won over me.
- Star Wars: The Card Game - I played Eric's Sith deck against Eric's Jedi deck. He drops Luke early, but I kill him with Force Lightning. Then I drop the Executor. He manages to destroy two objectives, but by this point, I out-gun him significantly, and he's no longer convinced he can take objectives, and I end up winning.
- Star Wars: Legion - Taught the game to Matt. I forgot how I was supposed to handle Vader in a game like this (basically, run the heck away from him), and instead kept throwing things at him, which he then killed. Ended up losing my army by the end of the game :(
- KeyForge - Two games against Frans. I didn't take any notes, but I do know I went 2-0, using his decks.
- Codenames: Deep Undercover - Three games with Christian, Megan, and Cassie. A lot of bad references, and a lot of laughter. I believe we end up going 2-2.
- Ticket to Ride - Played against Marina, Chelsea, Megan, and Cassie. I focus on completing and getting new destination tickets, and manage to rack up an impressive score... but only got me to second place behind Marina, who ended up with higher scoring destination tickets than me. She wins by five points.
Before destination ticket scoring... game is VERY close (look at far side of board). - Splendor - Four games against Christian, as I teach the game to him. I go 3-1, helped by my experience playing this game against Marina!
- Small World: Power Pack 2. This is a game I like, but I always felt like there would be a point I'd want more variety. This solves that, no problem.
- Nothing So Well Lost: The Siege of Rhodes 1522 and The Union Forever!, two postcard games from Against the Odds. Basically, mini-wargames, which can be played in less than an hour.
- Balck Friday: The Tatsinskaya Raid, December 1942 and No Safe Harbor: The Raid on Darwin, slightly larger bonus games that came with my issues of Against the Odds magazine.
- Apocalypse in the East: The Rise of the First Caliphate 646-656 A.D. and Confederate Rails: Railroading in the American Civil War 1861-1865, the actual games that were the focus of the issues I received. Lots of new wargames!
- Doomtown Reloaded: Too Tough to Die. Great game- can't help but want to keep up with new releases!
- The Horrific Journeys expansion for Mansions of Madness. Once again, great game, so I keep up with the releases.
- Old School Tactical: Ghost Front, Belgium 1944. An expansion to the Old School Tactical system, part of a big Kickstarter purchase (which is turning into a great value!)
- Platoon Commander: Kursk, with the Tracks in the Mud expansion. A new wargame from Flying Pig Games, which also came as part of an old Kickstarter.
- Strike for Berlin, ANOTHER game from that same Kickstarter. This one is a magazine wargame.
- Three Massive Darkness Expansions, meaning I'm just missing a single one to have a complete set.
- A Dark Legacy starter and the level 5-7 booster. I don't know much about this game, but it's LCG-ish, so I'll give it a try.
- A bunch of Warmachine/Hordes miniatures. Basically, I now have everything I need to build my Maelok and Rask lists!
- I got off to a slow start, as basement work was more important, but I'm definitely getting moving on quite a few projects.
- Star Wars Legion - I have filed all of the Rebel miniatures I have, which is the Core Set, another box of Troopers, Leia, and a snowspeeder. The AT-RT is assembled, but not on its base, the other minis are in various states of assembly
- For Warmachine/Hordes, I have the Retribution Battlegroup Box filed, and I'm starting assembly, as well as some Minion models- Dahlia Hallyr & Skarath, a Gremlin Swarm, and the Bog Trog Mist Speaker are all filed and currently under assembly.
- Several of the Novellas in the Black Library novella series- I read #4 through #8, Spear of Ultramar, Dreadwing, Wanted: Dead, Warqueen, and The Red Hours. Mostly, they were good, although I found the writing of Spear of Ultramar to be a little amateur-ish. Saved by being a good story at least. The rest had good stories AND good writing.
- The new Gloomspite Gitz Battletome. I'm doing my best to keep up with Age of Sigmar stuff, even though I haven't played a game yet. Really fun looking book. Wish I got it on the table!
- Anna Karenina. WHAT A FANTASTIC BOOK. If you haven't read it, you should. It's a bit lengthy, but there aren't too many characters to remember, which is nice. It really was a satisfying read, and very engaging. I could not recommend this book enough.
- I've read the rules to Saipan/Tinian, with the intent to set it up and play it in my basement.