Weekend Gaming: Warhammer 40k

This Saturday I played in a local Warhammer 40k tournament with my Space Wolves.  For 1850 points I brought seven Thunderwolves – including a Wolf Lord, two Drop Pods with Grey Hunters, a Drop Pod with Melta Wolf Guard, two Lascannon/Plasma Gun Razorbacks with Grey Hunters, and two squads of Missile Launcher Longs Fangs.  There were only five attendees, so the tournament organizer played against the bye. The other five armies represented were Tau, Death Wing, two Blood Angels, and an Imperial Guard.

My first game was against the Tau with three Riptides, a bunch of Suits, and some Kroot.  The Riptides all had interceptor, so my Drop Pods didn’t last long after arriving and my meltaguns weren’t able to do much against his army.  Then I didn’t rush my Thunderwolves straight into the Tau, so he was able to weaken them up quite a bit before they reached assault.  They were able to kill a Riptide, but that was it.  In the end, I wasn’t completely destroyed, but I wasn’t able to hold enough objectives to prevent him from getting full points.

After that I ended up with the bye.  I played against the tournament organizer’s Blood Angels consisting of three Drop Pods, a Land Raider full of five Terminators, two Dreadnoughts, a Vindicator, and a fancy Landspeeder.  The mission was a modified Kill Points thing, so I just needed to destroy everything.  I was able to destroy the Land Speeder with my Long Fangs on turn one.  My melta squads lasted longer this game, but were still ineffectual.  The Wolf Guard scattered off target and then completely failed to take out the Land Raider.  The Grey Hunters were more effective, with one squad dealing the final blows to the Raider and the other taking out a tactical squad.  The Thunderwolves were the MVP, though.  They chewed through his command squad and the terminators in assault and took out the Vindicator as well.  I manage to all but table him and walked away with full points.

At this point, no one was completely out of competition for first place and there were four of us within 15 points.  I was matched up against the Imperial Guard with six big tanks, a large blob of infantry, a Chimera with veterans, and three Ogryns with grenade launchers.  My drop pod meltas actually did their job this game and while I didn’t get the best shooting results, they were able to take out a few tanks on the turns they arrived.  The problem was keeping them around.  Once they landed, he would focus fire on them and pretty much wipe them out.  Thankfully, this allowed my Thunderwolves to advance up the left side mostly intact.  Once they hit his lines, things started to get chewed up.  The overall objective was to take and hold a relic in the center of the table.  I was able to sneak in with one of my Razorback squads and take the relic into cover on the fifth turn.  I was worried when the game continued to turn six, but they held their ground and even after a seventh turn controlled the objective and there wasn’t much my opponent could do.  I won the game with a majority of the points available.

Overall I ended up in second place, while the Tau player took first.  I walked away with a new box Thunderwolves to increase my pack.

Later that evening we celebrated Nick’s birthday with his family.  We played 7 Wonders with the whole group and Firefly after his parents had left.  I managed to win 7 Wonders with a strong science collection.  Nick won the game of Firefly without hiring a single crew member after picking up a job to transport passengers across the galaxy.  He filled his cargo hold and dropped them off for a 3,000 credit payout.  After that it was a quick pick-up and delivery to satisfy Harken and he was off to pay his debt.  The rest of us had barely begun to get going.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Trains, Wonders, and More

The usual crew of Joe, Kevin, Louis, Gina, and I were joined by Fr. Sean for games this Saturday.  He was a real trooper, learning three new games and picking them up quite quickly.

We started off with Chicago Express.  I spent probably too much and bought into the Red line first.  It worked alright, as Fr. Sean and I were able to get it to Chicago first and it had a very strong showing.  The problem was that I was only able to get the one share, while Fr. Sean picked up two.  This gave him too strong of a position on the board, and while I was helping myself I did more to help him.  Gina and Joe were doing well, being the only players in Blue and Green respectively, while Louis and Kevin were both working in Yellow.  The strong position of Red was the deciding factor in the game, and Fr. Sean took the win.

We followed that with 7 Wonders.  I had Giza and I made the mistake of not ensure I had access to any paper resources.  This meant that I was unable to finish my wonder or many of the other strong cards I was passed.  Both Gina and Louis next to me had very strong Science collections, and while the game was close, Louis’ science propelled him to the victory.

Next up was Dominion.  We played with the Underlings set from the Intrigue set.  We thought Louis was going to run away with the game when he started comboing Festivals into multiple Witches each turn, but I was able to swing things slightly with Masquerades to pass Louis some Curses.  Louis also slower down late in the game as his deck became less efficient, allowing Joe time to get his engine working and pick quite a few Provinces.  When we finished, Joe had the lead, despite the nine curses he had received.

After that, Fr. Sean called it a night and headed home, so the rest of us finished up with Glen More.  I was picking up a ton of tiles trying to use an annual fair, but not really optimally.  Louis had very few tiles and a bunch of whiskey that he turned into Taverns later in the game for quite a few points.  Kevin had the best town, though.  He had bonus points for his villages and was selling goods throughout the game.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Lords of Waterdeep

Saturday was spent celebrating my son’s birthday, which was LEGO themed this year.  He had a blast.  Along with that, our friends Nick and Laura were in town.  We were joined by Kevin, Louis and Joe that evening for a game of Lords of Waterdeep with the expansion.

My Lord awarded a bonus for each corruption I had at the end of the game, so I focused on completing high point quests using said corruption.  I was expecting the game to be similar to last time where most everyone was sitting on a fair bit of corruption, but boy was I wrong.  There were a few quests that reduced corruption and a couple of buildings were built later that helped as well.

I did managed to build a decent lead, but stalled in about the sixth round.  Laura was able to overtake me and jumped out to a huge lead by the end.  Nothing is ever as it seems, though, and she didn’t have a enough end game bonuses to counteract the few corruption she still had.  Louis — on the other hand — had a bunch of end game points and finished in first.  I lost 32 points from my corruption even after my Lord bonuses and ended up in fifth, just ahead of Nick.

Gina joined us and we played 7 Wonders with all of us.  I was playing Babylon, and somehow managed to get a ton of Science cards.  I did poorly in all other categories, but I had a bunch of science plus my wonder and the guild card that let me choose which science icon to score.  After a little help from the others choosing which icons to score, I managed to beat Louis and his Giza wonder by only a couple points.

Gina wanted to finish the night with Flash Point.  Joe sat out and just observed.  We used the more challenging of the two base game maps and had all but the medic and commander roles represented.  It ended up being a fairly quick and straightforward game.  Louis was working the deck gun masterfully and hit nearly every time.  The fire was constrained to one side of the building, while the victims were typically on the other.  Nick kept the hazmat to a minimum and we quickly cleared the house of victims with zero casualties.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Cards and More

Louis, Kevin and I kicked Saturday off with Terra Mystica.  Louis was playing the Giants, I had the Halflings and Kevin the Merfolk.  With only three players, it was tougher to build next to each other, but we all managed to cluster in the upper center of the board with our initial buildings.  I was the first to get a town, with a Sanctuary and two trading posts.  Once I got that completed, I went to work digging in the lower right of the board.  Kevin had taken control of the fire and water cults, while I had my hands in air and earth.  Louis had built a decent lead, but I was able to catch up.  My expansion was able to challenge Kevin for largest empire, but I was one short.  I thought I could keep him out of the lead in both earth and air, but ended up losing out in air anyways.  That effort cost me a couple points from not building my last dwelling, and Kevin beat me by three points.

Dana, Gina and Joe joined us, and we busted out Dominion, with the Intrigue and Prosperity expansions.  I was the first to buy an Expand and proceeded to use it to transform many of my Estates into Duchies, and further.  My deck worked quite well, with a King’s Court providing a couple extra expansions.  I managed to finish the game with three Colonies, only one of which I had actually purchased.  My 41 points was enough for the win.

We followed that up with 7 Wonders.  I thought I was doing well with science, picking up four compasses, four tablets and a gear, but I missed out on the clay needed to get my third wonder entry.  Louis was next to me, and he was grabbing all of the Civilian cards available.  He finished with 40 points just from that, and another 18 from military.  He won with a solid 71 points.

Louis and Dana took off, but the rest of us stuck around for one last game of Eminent Domain.  I focused heavily on military, while the rest mostly were colonizing.  There was a lot of surveying as well, especially by Joe who was trying to survey and colonize as much as possible, while trashing as many cards as he could.  All of their surveying helped me get a decent number of planets, so I could focus on warfare and research.  I ended up with six colonized planets and a level two research card.  I ended the game relatively quickly with the last survey card, so my 19 points was just enough to get the victory.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Snow Day!

Saturday night started off with Louis, Kevin, Gina and I playing Thurn and Taxis.  I started off well by picking up the purples, but then slowed down.  Because of the cards available I decided to try to grab all of the central gray areas in one route.  I did manage to do it, but there was some slowdown when two of the locations didn’t turn up when I’d hoped.  Kevin ended the game with a big run through gray, but it was Louis with the most points at the end.

Joe and Dana had joined us at this point, so we broke out 7 Wonders. I wanted to go with science, but I never do well with that tactic. I ended up working with military and commercial. Joe was to my left and he had no military, but Dana had played a few so I actually had to work foot my victories. Louis on the other hand was able to maximize his military points with only two cards. The rest he spent on blue card picking up a ton of points. He also scored a bunch of points with a couple of guilds. He ended up with over 70 points and the win.

Dominion was next. The first game had a bunch of extra actions available but no extra buys. Everyone had a ton of money but could only get one card a turn. Platinum was very popular and I was having a tough time buying cheap cards because it seemed like a waste of the money in my hand. I eventually got a Minion engine running, but it was too late. Louis had been running Villages and Labs for a bunch of money and had the early lead on Colonies. He earned a big win in yet another game.

Another game of Dominion followed, but it was harder to get money. Joe was stocking up on King’s Courts, but rarely had anything to pair them with. Thieves were very popular, but they actually ended up helping Louis and I thin ours decks. I was trying to use the Forge to get Colonies, but rarely had the right combination of cards. Again Louis had the right idea using King’s Courts to triple Markets for big money. He was buying points left and right and ended with yet another win.

Dana and Louis took of at this point, so the rest of launched into a game of Agricola.  I had a decent grain/bread engine going for food, but I had little else.  Joe managed to pull the bookshelf and the occupation that gives food if other players randomly select which one to play.  This provided him tons of food just for doing a normal action.  He managed to easily fill his farm and maximize his family for the win.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Big Game Night

Everyone was in attendance Saturday night.  Phil, Ryan, Louis, Kevin, Laurel, and Joe all wanted to play, so I had to setup an additional table to fit everyone in.

Louis, Phil, Kevin and I played Castles of Burgundy, while Ryan, Joe, Gina and Laurel learned Ginkgopolis.  In Castles of Burgundy, I was ignoring boats and animals early.  I was trying to fill in my cities and grab the bonus tiles for the buildings.  I was mostly successful, netting a bunch of Watchtowers and Workhouses along with their bonuses.  Phil and Kevin were both shipping a fair amount of goods, while Louis was filling in a lot of small areas in his estate, grabbing a bunch of bonus points early.

In the end, I was able to fill in my animals, cities and knowledge areas, but the end game bonus wasn’t enough.  Louis had built a huge lead with all of his bonuses during the game, and then added a fair bit more at the end.

 

After we finished that and the others finished both Ginkgopolis and 7 Wonders, Ryan and Laurel had to take off.  The rest of us sat down for a round of Railways of the Western U.S.

 

My baron was to have the most bonds, but that idea got shot down in the opening bid.  Joe was bidding hard for the opportunity to go first and I didn’t want to hamstring myself that much.  I ended up picking up Hotel Topeka with the intent to deliver a bunch of the purple cubes that were in the area.

Gina was also down in that area, delivering to Oaklahoma City and eventually connecting to Grand Junction for the major line bonus.  Joe had Texas to Denver handled pretty well, and Louis had the Tacoma to Ogden route completed.  Phil and Kevin were both on the West coast, with Kevin working much more efficiently.  Phil had taken a ton of bonds to get started, but he eventually started making some big deliveries.

We were all shipping quite a bit, and a lot of towns were emptying out quickly.  The game ended before a lot of us expected it to, and scores were tallied.  Gina finished with the fewest bonds and had scored the Baron for that.  That pushed her into first place, with just barely over 20 points.  It was the shortest and lowest scoring game we’d ever seen.  It was at this point, that someone noticed that there weren’t enough Empty Cities.  Apparently I had miscounted and we only had 16 instead of 18.  We called the game as it was, and another round would not have significantly affected the score most likely.

 

After everyone left, Gina and I finished the night with a quick game of Ginkgopolis.  I focused on spreading out with the urbanization action.  I managed to get the building card that provided a bonus for each building that was size 2 or less.  That netted me about 15 points at the end and provided the winning points.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2013!

Joe, Jaime, Ryan, Louis, Gina and I spent New Years eve playing games at our place.  We started with Hawaii while Ryan sat out to just chat.  I got into the boats early and used them heavily to propel a Kahuna/Tiki strategy while also scoring a bunch of points with the boat god.  Joe came close with a strong spear hut strategy, but came up just short.

Jaime had to take off at that point, and Ryan wanted to play 7 Wonders.  I didn’t think I was doing too well, sitting low on military and science.  I was able to use the good provided by my wonder to push heavily into civilian cards in ages two and three, though, and picked up 37 points from them alone.  I ended up edging out Louis for the win.

The last game of 2012 was King of Tokyo.  Joe stood in Tokyo too long and was eliminated early.  I managed to get in at that point and then picked up the Jets card to allow me to escape without damage.  I scored some points and managed to eliminate Louis while in Tokyo.  Gina eventually knocked me out of the city, but not before I had scored 13 points.  I regenerated some and then took control again when Gina had to yield.  It was looking tight between Ryan and I , but I had a nice roll, scoring the last 4 points I needed to take that game.

So after finishing three for three on New Years eve, we started the new year off with Castle of Burgundy with Joe, Ryan, Louis and I.  I didn’t have a real strong idea of how to progress in the game, and I was trying to get some decent animal and city points.  I came close, but Ryan took one of the bonuses I desperately.  Louis had been hitting the boats and shipping early, plus he had the estate with the city area that he managed to complete to launch himself into the lead for good.  It was a closer game than some, but I fell a bit short in the end.

On New Years Day,  Joe and Jaime joined us again for some Star Trek Catan.  I started off hot with some nice Tritanium ports and locations, but then slowed down.  Joe started slower, but eventually started picking up cards with the McCoy ability.  I held the Longest Supply Route card for a while after stealing it from Joe, but then Gina swooped in and built a bunch of roads to take it, putting her within one of winning.  It wouldn’t be enough, though.  Joe managed to grab the last point card from the deck to get him to ten and the win.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Away from Home

We were away visiting my parents this weekend so I could attend a Warhammer 40k tournament on Saturday.  I’ll have pictures of that event up a little later this week.

On Friday night, we met up with Nick and Laura and played some Settlers of Catan.  I put all my eggs in too few baskets, and came up short.  I had Ore and Sheep ports, and needed 5’s and 8’s to get those rolling.  8’s were relatively plentiful, but 5 only was rolled three times, and one of those times one was covered by the Thief.  So I wasn’t able to get anything going, while Laura was able to build up a nice road system and a big army.  Nick eventually broke the road to take the longest, but he wasn’t able to finish it up.  Laura stole it back in the end to win.

Saturday night, after the tournament, Ryan, Gina and I all headed over to Nick and Laura’s again for games.  We started the night off with Puerto Rico.  I was pushing a fast building strategy with three Quarries, and a Coffee Roaster getting me a single coffee each time someone produced.  Ryan was sitting to my left and he was shipping sugar and indigo, so it worked out that my coffee never got shipped and I was able to trade it away nearly every turn.  I was able to buy up three of the large buildings by the end of the game, and I eventually ended the game by filling in my city.

I was concerned with the pile of points that Ryan had, that I didn’t even notice Gina.  She was shipping right along with Ryan, and she had the big building that provided bonus points for shipping points.  When it was all over, I had 39 points from my buildings, but only 4 shipping points for a final score of 43.  Ryan had mirrored me with 39 shipping points and 7 building points for 46, and Gina had a nice mix for a total of 49 and the win.  I had thought I was doing well with three large buildings, but I wasn’t able to finish fast enough or with enough balance to take the game.

My board

Ryan’s on the left, Gina’s up top

Next up was 7 Wonders.  I was trying to go heavy into Science, but I’ve never really figured that strategy out for some reason and ended up struggling.  Things were pretty even going into Age 3, but then I pretty much handed Ryan the game.  I ended up passing him the guild that rewards you for your neighbor’s Science and the one that rewards military victories.  Since Gina and I were both in Science and Ryan had maxed out his military points, those two guilds were worth a whopping 23 points.  I really couldn’t do anything about it other than pitch those guilds for money, which would have had no benefit to me.  Ryan ended up winning with 69 points.

We finished the night with Phase 10 and Monty Python Fluxx.  Phase 10 came down to a race between Ryan and Nick.  Nick managed to edge Ryan out and score the last phase.  Monty Python Fluxx got quite ridiculous when Laura was able to draw about 15 cards in a single turn and play most of them.  The game ended with the Cheese Shop goal and her playing a card that allowed everyone to discard their hand, Keepers and Creepers.  Everyone discarded everything and we all took a shared win with nothing.

Until next time, happy gaming.

 

 

 

Weekend Gaming: Games Away From Home

Between being of town all weekend visiting relatives and our new camera needing to be sent off for repairs, there are no pictures of the games this week.

We did play a bunch of them, though.

On Friday, we headed over to visit Nick and Laura and played Puerto Rico, 7 Wonders and Sentinels of the Multiverse.  I managed to win Puerto Rico with a very strong trade/building strategy.  I was able to monopolize coffee early, and with an Office and both Markets I was buying the large buildings at full price.  I ended the game with only 7 shipping points and 39 points from my city.  Nick was a close second with 38 points and the two large buildings that I didn’t buy.

7 Wonders was a close one.  I was playing Giza, but didn’t have any access to paper, so I couldn’t finish the wonder.  I also ended up with no access to Ore, so the last Age was rough.  Laura ended up dominating all of us for the win.

It was the first time for all of us playing a borrowed copy of Sentinels of the Multiverse.  I was playing as the big robot Bunker, Nick was Absolute Zero, Gina had Fanatic and Laura had Visionary.  We were fighting against The Matriarch in Rook City.  We started off alright, but then we hit a card that brought all of her birds back as the last card in the deck, causing us to face every single bird in the deck.  Between that and her ravens killing of Nick’s and my equipment, the game went downhill quickly.  It’s a fun game, but definitely needs some good luck to have a chance.

On Saturday evening we again joined Nick and Laura.  Joe and Jaime had also come to town for some shopping and Nick’s sister Anna paid a visit as well.  Nick, Joe and I started with a quick game of Agricola with the K deck.  Joe was pushing for a heavy enhancement + rooms game, since a lot of his cards made for easier room building.  I was trying to get animals because of the Tanner, Pelts and Loom, but Nick was making it difficult by grabbing animals too.  We didn’t let Joe get easy access to the wood he needed, but Clay and Stone were undesired for most of the game.  He did get to a six room house, but the rest of his farm was empty.  I did get enough Boars to make the good use of my Pelts and Tanner.  Cows and Sheep were secondary and helped with my Organic Farmer points.  The biggest impact was that Joe lost 9 points for unused space, while I only lost two.  That combined with my end game bonuses propelled me into the lead.

Next up was 7 Wonder with everyone.  I was playing as Rhodes and was able to make the most of my military in ages 2 and 3 for some good points.  I also played a bunch of the yellow cards that allowed me to not worry about resources as much.  I ended up with a pretty balanced score, and even managed to grab a set of the sciences.  The game was close, but I was able to pull of the win by a single point.

Joe and Jaime left for home at this point, and so Gina, Anna, Nick, Laura and I played Ticket to Ride.  My opening two routes were to connect Vancouver and Seattle to Montreal and New York.  I quickly connected Vancouver to Seattle and Montreal to New York, and then spent the rest of the game working to connect the two.  I had to fight with Anna and Gina for a couple spots in the North, but otherwise I was pretty well left alone.  I was able to complete the three 6-train connections and the 5-train connection in the North, which really helped my score.  I did add another route from New York to Nashville late, but the majority of my points were from the long connections and my two initial routes.  I ended the game while everyone else had quite a few trains left, which earned me some dirty looks.  Nick and I shared the Longest Route, but I had him by about 30 points at the end of the game.

Nick, Gina and I finished the night with Castles of Burgundy.  Gina and Nick were grabbing points throughout the game, while I was focusing more on end game points with Shipping and buildings.  Nick had a big field of chickens, scoring himself a bunch of points, while Gina was filling everything else.  She just missed out on finishing her large city area, which hindered her score quite a bit.  They were both about 50 points ahead of me when the game ended, but neither of them had any significant end game bonuses, though, so I knew it would be close.  I was able to pass Gina, but I finished just behind Nick, ending my winning streak.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: So Many Games!

I played a bunch of games this weekend, but didn’t get many pictures of any of them.

On Friday, Gina and I tried out Stone Age for the first time.  It was fun, but we ended up playing a couple rules wrong, which lead to less conflict than there should have been.  As a result, the scores were quite high and I ended up winning about 300 to 250.

We then played Race for the Galaxy, in which I snuck out a win due to some nice development cards.  We finished the night with Eminent Domain.  I was able to get a very nice warfare/trade system going with the tech that allowed me to trade my ships for points.

On Saturday, out friends Nick and Laura joined us for the evening, along with Ryan and Louis.  We played some 7 Wonders, which was won by Laura.  Then Ticket to Ride Europe with the Big Cities cards from the expansion.  Louis was able to rake in a ton of routes, but they were all relatively low points, while I had fewer ones, but with bigger points.  We both finished strong, but I was able to just edge him out for the win by three points.

Next up, Ryan, Louis, Nick and I played a round of Kingdom Builder.  I was doing alright with a big group of settlements in the center, but it wasn’t quite enough.  Louis had connected to every castle and had a strong presents in all regions, which lead to a win by about 10 points.

We finished up the night with a quick game of Monty Python Fluxx, won by Nick.

Then on Sunday, after playing some disc golf and enjoying the park, we headed home for some Eminent Domain with Nick, Ryan, Joe and I.  We played two games, and I managed to win both.  The first was due to a bunch of planets and a strong military presence.  The second was a quick game with nearly everyone either surveying or colonizing each turn.  I had wanted to try a produce/trade system, but ended up with good colonization planets and managed to colonize six planets and win by two points.

We finished up the weekend with a game of Cities and Knights of Catan with Jaime and Ryan (Joe was on baby duty).  Jaime and Ryan were just rolling in cards and resources, while Gina and I were having a tough time getting rolling.  We both managed to get some stuff going late in the game, but it was too late.  Jaime was able to go on a nice run of Cities, and then finished the game with a single settlement.

All in all, a wonderful weekend with a bunch of friends.

Until next time, happy gaming!