Another month, more games played! July was a bit slower than usual because I got sick and burnt out at work, which required some time to get over, and my wife had surgery, which kept her from doing the things she normally did, meaning I really couldn't go out. Even so, I did manage some gaming.
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One Piece Card Game - Eight plays against a variety of opponents. I had some time while my daughter went to Russian school on Sundays, and stopped by Stevenson Games, which plays this on Sunday. I picked up a starter, learned the game, and have come back and played a bit more, plus taught the game to Matt S. I went 2-6 this month, mostly using the Red/Purple Monkey.D.Luffy Leader. It is a pretty fun game- I know next to nothing about the source material, but it has not detracted from my enjoyment of the game. It plays fast, the decisions matter, your resources can serve multiple purposes, just a bunch of aspects that I think really help this game succeed. I bought a few packs and was lucky enough to pull a chase manga art card, which I traded for a couple of boxes, expanding my collection. One thing I noticed about the boxes is that a single box almost gives me a complete set, and I ended up with very few excess cards (more than a playset of a particular card). Very good distribution in the booster boxes. Anyway, this is one I will likely play more at some point.
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Zone Wars - Two plays against Rob, winning both. I use the Ark Mutants, and Rob takes the Genlab Tribe. The first, learning scenario ended very quickly, with one of my characters taking a single artifact off the board, with every other character dying from acid rain. In the second game, we put out more terrain, and had a slightly larger force. I take two long range characters, and the combination of these two, and an early... zone worm? I do not remember the name of the card, but imagine the creature from the Tremors movie, and you will have an idea of what was going on. Basically, every time we move, the worm attacks us heavily. But you can sneak around, you can fly, you can climb on top of buildings, all of which will keep you safe. So, I spend the game sneaking up with my snipers, who can sneak and shoot, I fly onto the highest building with my one flying character, and I go straight attrition, and get a handy win against Rob. The game itself was pretty good! It uses the same rough mechanics as the Mutant Year Zero RPG, but without some of the downsides (exerting yourself does not injure you, which I hated). There are two factions we did not use, and I am sure we will play it again.
- Android: Netrunner - One game against Matt S, which I lose. I run The Outfit, which generates money when I gain Bad Publicity. He runs Mercury, who accesses extra cards whenever she doesn't break a subroutine during a run. I do not get any of my Bad Publicity cards, and do not get decent ICE, and he rolls through me for an 8-0 win. His deck was interesting, using Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga to turn subroutines into net damage, and running enough card draw to suck it up. The Mercury deck I had started building was not that good, I am pretty sure, so I may change it up to have more of this tech.
Anyway, a month with very little gaming. August will likely be much the same, and then things will pick up towards the end of the year.