Weekend Gaming: Firefly

It was just Kevin, Louis, and I on Saturday and Louis suggested Firefly.  After explaining the rules, we were off and running.  The goal for the game was an elaborate heist to try and steal the crown jewels.  There were three separate tests that needed to be complete across the ‘Verse with misbehaving required for each.

I tried to get a jump on the competition with a mission right where I started, but things went sour and I ended up with a warrant on my head instead.  I was eventually able to build up enough cash and negotiation skills to be the first to complete the first goal of buying an elaborate counterfeit.

Kevin wasn’t far behind, but I was on my way to get the second goal in the heist.  Louis had built up a sizable crew, but had run into some morality issues and they were a bit disgruntled.  The trouble hit when he ran across a ship in distress and didn’t have the fuel to help.  His crew deserted him at that point and he was starting from scratch.

I was on my way to the second goal, but then trouble hit.  I was taken by the guys in the blue gloves and didn’t have a means of escape.  My entire crew was killed and I was back at square one.  That gave Kevin the time he needed to catch up and overtake me.

I did manage to replenish my crew and complete the second goal, and came close.  Kevin and I had some run-ins with the Reavers near the third goal, and after Kevin failed his first attempt to steal the jewels I made a last chance, desperate attempt.  I nearly made it after succeeding all of the misbehaving tests, but I just didn’t have the guns to do it.  Kevin finished it on his next turn, taking the crown and the game.

Until next time, happy gaming!

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: Castles, Caylus, and Firefly

Most everyone was busy Saturday night, so Gina and decided to play Castles of Mad King Ludwig.  Gina was scoring quite a from the purple rooms, but I has a nice thing going with the L shaped rooms.  I managed to build every one of them so I received the bonus for the empty pile along with my bonus card for the same thing.  Gina had bonus cards for nearly everything she built as well, and we split the royal favors; she won for most square footage of hallways, while I had the most basement rooms.  After totaling everything up, the score was tied until we realized that the supply of stairs was also empty and needed to be scored.  My extra stairs ended up being the difference.

Joe was interested in a game at that point, so came over for Caylus.  I didn’t really have a strong plan, but I was trying to build as many buildings as possible.  I was doing alright, but had to switch things up about halfway through.  Gina was focused on contributing to the castle, while Joe was jousting and taking advantage of the favors.  I had stockpiled some cloth, so I began jousting in an attempt to get to the point where I could built the residential buildings.  I was successful in that, but it was far too little, too late.  Joe was in a position to build prestige buildings, and although I was able to build the castle, it wasn’t enough.  I ended up in third, while Joe took the win.

Then on Sunday, Gina, Jax, and I played my new copy of Firefly: the Game.  It took a bit to get rolling.  Jax didn’t want to do anything evil, so he was looking for all the legal jobs he could get.  I started off with some simple deliveries before stopping at the Bazaar for goods and crew.  I had a strong crew with Jayne’s Hat, a fancy tie, and a fake ID.  I was ready to roll.  Gina was pretty much working delivery missions, and Jax had found one crime job to do.  He was having a tough time making trouble.  He didn’t have a ton of resources, but he was lucky.  He managed to roll two sixes in a row to complete the job, and shortly after had the funds needed to win the game.  He just needed to cross the galaxy – while short on fuel – before Gina or I could turn get to Ezra to do the same.  He had the advantage of turn order, and made the trip safely to claim victory.

Until next time, happy gaming!