Board Game Haul

Christmas day has come and passed, and for myself and Laura, this may well have been the year of the board game. Between the two of us, we pulled in quite a lot of new games to try out.

Larua's brother got my a bunch of Last Night on Earth games and expansions: the game, Growing Hunger, Survival of the Fittest, the first Hero Pack, and the extra zombies with Grave Weapons that are featured in Survival of the Fittest.



Last night we got in a couple of games. We're still getting used to the rules, but at the moment, the zombies seem to hold quite an edge, having both taken over the manor house and having protected their plague carriers. On Christmas night, the heroes managed to find gas and keys and get out of town in their truck a mere hour before the sun set and the zombies took over town.

Laura got Descent, the Well of Darkness expansion, and the Sea of Blood expansion.



I started taking apart the base game yesterday and man, there are a ton of pieces in it! Hoping it will be a fun game for a group of us when we do finally get a chance to try it.

Laura was also given Talisman with three expansions, Highland, the Reaper and Frostmarch.



We've played the game a lot with Ellen's copy, and it has its faults. Mainly in that the game can drag on a bit at the end. Highland is a new end to the game, and hopefully will fix that issue. And it's always more fun with even more heroes to try.

I got a game called Zombie State: Diplomacy of the Dead.



I'm not familiar with this one at all. From what I can tell, it's a world conquest-type game where the world is overrun with zombies. You have to figure out, as the leader of a portion of the world, how best to deal with the zombies and how to create the best options for your people to survive. Do you rely on your scientists to find a cure? Do you rely on your military to hold back the tide of zombies? Looks like it should be an interesting game.

Finally, we also received a number of other smaller card games. Cthulhu Munchiken (with extra packs 2, 3 and 4), Zombie Flux and Chez Cthulhu.

Overall, Laura and I pulled in more board games than I think we know what to do with for the moment. It'll take us a while to digest them all and figure out which ones will become staples.

Merry Christmas to All!

Neverborn and Ressers

Last night I headed out to Huzzah again to get in a couple of Malifaux games. It’s wonderful having a gaming store so close to my house, and being able to work from home on Tuesdays so I don’t have to drive all the way from Tyson’s to Loudoun in rush hour traffic. Plus having all the terrain at Huzzah means I don’t need to worry about trucking mine back and forth. Good deal!

I’ve been playing with the Dreamer a lot recently, so I decided to give the poor kid a day off and try some of my other tricks. My least-used Neverborn master was Pandora, so I decided to give her a try with some of the new models. John and I played each other twice.


Game One
Pandora, Primordial Magic, Stitched Together x2, Alp x3, Doppelganger, 6 stones
Seamus, Copycat Killer, Belle x2, Sybelle, Crooked Man x2, 8 stones

We pulled Shared Contain Power (I think that’s what it’s called – the one where I have to have a master on his side of the board with him not having a master on my side of the board). For schemes, I took Bodyguard and Spread Insanity (or something like that – it’s the one where I cannot kill an opposing model with melee or ranged attacks all game). He took Breakthrough and the one where you have to control a terrain piece at the end.

The board was a city-scape so a lot of open buildings we could run between and a lot of open streets, but no real way to grab LOS early in the game. I led with my Stitched Togethers and had them pop their obscuring smoke down each street blocking him from seeing any of my models, and then moved the rest of my crew in behind them.

He split his forces, sending a Crooked man one way and the rest of his army around the other way. I sent an Alp and Stitched Together to take care of his lone Crooked Man while the rest of my crew went after his main force.

He got a Belle up near my Stitched Together on turn one, and then moved her back into one of the buildings I was in to prevent her from being tagged by one of the Shaft Tokens from the Crooked Man (those things are nasty). An Alp got next to the Belle and dropped her Willpower by one. I moved up a Doppelganger, copied Pandora’s damage from failed Willpower Duels, and Self Loathing. The Doppelganger cast Self Loathing and the Doppelganger hit herself for slight damage, combined with the two damage from failing the Willpower Duel. Pandora came in and Self Loathing-ed her again, and then tagged her with Incite, dropping her. On the other side of the field, I dropped his Crooked Man to one with my Alp and Stitched Together.

Turn four went even better for me. I led with my Stitched Together near his main force and used Gamble. He had to cheat to make sure it didn’t go off, which was fine by me – that was one large card out of his hand. Then a couple of Gamble Your Life’s went well and took down the other Crooked Man. The Copycat Killer tried to shoot the Stitched Together, but failed. Meanwhile, I finished off his other Crooked Man. The game got very bad for him very quick. Long story short, Pandora was able to move out and tag Seamus with a spell that triggered him to fall back. The Stitched Together was killed and so had one more turn of activations and dropped Seamus by 7 with a couple of Gamble Your Life’s (Seamus had a negative flip to his WP duels from Pandora). With his army fleeing or in tatters, we called it there as Pandora and her Alps had just swarmed in as well, ready to Slow his entire army and just start dishing out damage.


Game Two
Lilith, Primordial Magic, Mature Nephilim, Younger Nephilim, Terror Tot x3, 7 stones
Nicodem, Vulture x2, Canine Remains x4, Nurse, Crooked Man, Mortimer, Belle, 5 stones

I pulled Destroy the Evidence (destroy three tokens on his side of the board) and he pulled Claim Jump. I picked Kidnap and Bodyguard while he took Grudge and Army of the Dead.

This game took a long time to get through. I took a strong lead grabbing the first of the points in the middle of the first turn (Lilith’s speed is just awesome, plus use of Carry, Earthquake, Sprint and Transposition) and the second of the points in the first activation of turn two. But by then he had surrounded the third point, making it tough for me to get there. I took down one of his Vultures with a Younger Nephilim, and then charged in and killed his Nurse before she could make any of the dogs into nuclear missiles. The fight went back and forth, me killing nearly everything that came at me, but Nicodem growing more monsters to fight. I didn’t take the fight to Nicodem this game, which I realize in retrospect was a mistake. He was able to summon two Flesh Constructs, two Belles and a Crooked Man over the course of the game. That nearly doubled the number of points I had to face, and that doesn’t include the mindless zombies he brought to the table.

We got on to turn 4 and he had a clear path to his goal and I was one model shy of taking my Kidnap, and one point shy of taking my full points for Destroy the Evidence. I knew I had to make a push. I had two Mature Nephilims on the table by now, though one was almost dead. The nearly dead one used Wing Buffet to knock all of his models back 4”, putting most of them on the other side of the objective. The second Mature charged one of the models, triggered knock aside to push it back 4” and charged a different one, triggered knock aside again, and then triggered it a third time before finally landing beyond the point in the midst of his models. On the top of turn 5, Lilith companioned my last Terror Tot and then used Transposition to switch the only one of his models in melee range of the last point – a Flesh Construct – with my Terror Tot. Lilith then smacked the Flesh Construct for some damage and the Terror Tot activated, moving in to the token and destroying the last piece of Evidence. The Flesh Construct was now close enough to kill my nearly-dead Mature, but the two VPs were worth it. His Vulture flew past, grabbed a bunch of tokens, and then landed on top of the building.

On turn 6, Lilith used Transposition again, this time switching the Vulture on the roof with the Flesh Construct on the ground, and then cut the Vulture in half, finally getting my Kidnap. Meanwhile, Nicodem and his army were falling back from Lilith’s sword and surrounded the Claim Jump. We flipped and the game did not go on – tallying points, we both tied at 8. Given the sheer amount of blood on the table, that was pretty amazing that we both still scored max points.

So I went one win and one tie last night against John. Not too bad.

The Christmas Spirit

Cracked.com has the most unintentionally disturbing Christmas Ads. I copied a few of my favorites over here.


I don't know what's more disturbing. The nipple-woman or the fact that evidently Santa just hanged himself.



Nothing says "Christmas" like a threesome.



I don't even know where to start with this one. What the hell happened to this woman?



It's not enough that the holidays generally see an increase in suicides - but now we need to provide the means? Looking into this one a bit more, evidently this advertisement came out during the Great Depression. Good timing.



Drunk Santa doesn't care about the cold. Good man.

Fun Christmas Song

A Christmas song performed together by 33 YouTube musicians in 32 different places in the world. Enjoy!

A Weekend of Gaming

This past weekend promised to be a weekend filled with all manner of adventures and delivered. I know this post will probably run long, so I'll break it up into different categories and feel free to skip to whichever one you'd like.



Grimm
We started out on Friday night with Grimm, the roleplaying game I've been starting up since the Halloween one-shot was so well received. The characters, all junior high kids, found themselves in a mix of several fairy tales including well known ones like Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty, as well as some lesser known ones like The King of Golden Mountain. After a long grueling series of tasks, they set free the Prince of the Kingdom Over Yonder and he set forth to rescue his Princess, Sleeping Beauty. The kids, meanwhile, headed back home, and were surprised to find that they actually got back to the real world. Only things were not as they seemed - small changes had crept in to their world. Instead of winning their last football game, they lost. All because Dan, their star QB, had quit the team months earlier. Brian and Ellen found that their characters, who were ambivalent towards each other before, were dating. And Mary had been relegated to the ensemble in the school play while Laura was given the star role. Only Jay seemed untouched by the changes. Now the characters have to figure out what happened to change their reality, and how to change it back.

All in all, a really good session, and caps the introduction to the story. Looking forward to picking it up again and seeing how the characters deal with their newfound situation.


Monsterpocalypse

After a long break from the game, Dan and I pulled out our MonPoc for another game. It was a fun game to play, but due to the way it was marketed and produced, we lost interest in it (check out this post if you're curious). I brought out one of my Martians that I'd never played, and Dan hit the table with one of his infrequently-used dinosaurs (it shows how long it's been since we played that I don't remember what they're called).

The game took about an hour on Saturday morning, and we had a blast. We crushed nearly the entire city under our monsters' throws and slams, and in the end, I had brought Dan's monster down to two life when he finished me off. As we were packing up, Dan realized that he could not have done as much damage to my monster as he had, and I should have had somewhere around 3-4 life left, not 1, and would have been able to smash his monster the next turn. We'll call it a mulligan - things may have gone differently, or may not. Point is, we had fun smashing buildings again.

I don't think the game will come out frequently, but it was a nice start to Saturday, which promised to be a huge day of gaming.


Malifaux

After MonPoc, I got in a couple of games with the Dreamer. First I faced off against Dan and his McMourning crew. I was pulling off a really good rout of his models, but in the end, he was able to distract me from my main goals while achieving his, and when I finally finished slaughtering everything I could, I was about a turn shy of reaching my goal. I lost the my first match-up with the Dreamer.

The second game I played against Convy's Marcus army. The game could not have gone better for me or worse for him, and I ended up pulling off an incredibly one-sided victory. It was Convy's first time seeing the Dreamer's antics and just what the little boy could do. Next time I'm sure he'll come in stronger.


Touch of Evil

After a quick break for a late lunch, we came back and got in a game of A Touch of Evil. John, Ellen, Dan, Convy, Chris and I all faced off against a Warewolf that was terrorizing the town. We decided, as it was all of our first game other than John, that we should try to play this one cooperatively. We had a few missteps along the way, but Convy was able to root out the Warewolf's lair, John called the hunt, and we all rushed in to fight the beast. The fight was bloody and brutal and John, Convy and Chris all got knocked down and had to leap off the covered bridge into the cold river and swim to safety, but I was able to put the finishing blow on the Warewolf and we saved the town.

Overall, a really fun game. I was hesitant when I first heard about it, mostly because I wasn't sure how it would stand against Arkham, but in the end, I was pleasantly surprised. It's a much faster game (and much less involved), yet still holds a lot of theme. Dan has asked for it for Christmas - hopefully he'll get it and we'll be able to get some more tries with it.


Football

Finally, on Sunday, the first week of the playoffs hit for us. I faced Ryan, and despite outscoring him by an average of 20 points each game of the season, I lost to him for the second time this season, 80-88. To make matters worse, my pick'em was so bad this week that I slipped from tied for first to third place, only getting 6 of the 16 games picked correctly. Now I'm out of the fantasy running, and I've got to catch up with only two weeks remaining in the season on pick'em. Not a great showing for football this week.

Ah well, there's always next season. If I lose this weekend against Ellen (likely - she was the number one ranked team during the regular season, and rightfully so with her team), it will be the third season (out of three we've had this league) where I've made the playoffs and then dropped both games, ending in fourth place.

One day I'll crack the top three.


Anywho, so that was my weekend. Lots of gaming and hit all the major types for me - roleplaying, miniatures, board games and football. Only thing missing were computer games.

Speaking of which, Dragon Age Two should be coming out sometime next year...

More Painted Goodness

I got another couple models finished up last week.



Coppelius is finally finished and ready to go. I had most of him done earlier last week, but finally got the heads put on the bases for him. Only things left to paint for the Dreamer are three more Alps.



Once Coppelius was finished, I decided to paint up this guy I picked up not too long ago. He doesn't really fit in any game that I currently run, but I thought it would be a cool model to have. Reminded me a bit of an evil Halloween monster, kinda like something out of Grimm.

Fantasy Football Playoffs

I realized I haven't updated anything of fantasy football since the fourth week when I was hovering at 2-2. Well, we start our playoffs this weekend and I managed to crack into the top four, so for the third year in a row, I'll be playing for the top spot. Of course, in both previous years I went 0-2 in the playoffs and ended up in fourth place, but THIS might be the year it all changes!

I ended up in third place at the end of the regular season with an 8-6 record. Ellen took the top spot at 12-2, Ryan the second at 9-5, and Joe took the fourth spot at 7-7 despite starting the season 0-3.

My team has been carried primarily by its running backs, but I feel like I've got a decent spread. My starters tend to be Tom Brady at QB, Peyton Hillis, LeSean McCoy and Ahmad Bradshaw at RB (we have a flex RB/WR/TE position that I usually fill with a RB), Andre Johnson and Steven Johnson at WR, and Jacob Tamme at TE. My kicker's been Lawrence Tynes of the NY Giants for a while, and he's done alright. I tend to switch up my defenses as the season goes, trying to get matchups. Some weeks that's great. Other weeks it's pretty terrible.

My bench consists of LaDainain Tomlinson and Ricky Williams, Brandon Marshall and Austin Collie, and Chris Cooley. I rotate the other slot to whatever I think might work well that week.

I face off against Ryan this week, and he's got an odd team. He holds a low overall score, but keeps getting matchups that give him wins. I've outscored him 11 out of 14 weeks, but he managed to grab me for one of those three he beat me in the regular season and we split our games, 1-1.

Anywho, glad to have made the top four. I would like to move beyond my normal 4th place prize this season. Just two more weeks to go...

Glutton for Punishment

ESPN just reported that for our game this weekend, the Redskins are going to bench McNabb in favor of Rex Grossman. I'm usually fairly stalwart in my support for the Redskins, but this is just beyond ridiculous. This whole situation makes makes me irate. Yes, we're losing games. But to lay that at McNabb's feet?

We're out of the playoffs. The only reason to bench McNabb at this point is if you think Grossman is possibly our future quarterback. We have a contract we can get out of with McNabb - let him finish out the season and see if this offense can gel! I know it hasn't yet, but give it the whole season. We don't lose anything by doing that.

Look what McNabb's got to work with. We have a subpar o-line, a subpar running game, a subpar receiving corps, and a subpar defense. Of course he's not performing well.

I think at the end of the year, we're going to cut ties with McNabb and draft a QB high in the draft. Unfortunate, in my opinion. I like the idea of drafting a new QB, but put him behind McNabb for a year and see what he can learn - take a couple drafts to strengthen our o-line so we don't end up killing the QB like we did with Campbell. Take a couple seasons and actually rebuild the team correctly!

Gah... I'm very mad right now. At least my second team is doing well - go Pats!

The Dreamer Faces Down Lady Justice

As always, some of the details might be a little off here, but by and large, here's how things went in my games on Tuesday. I played Bill twice, and both games we each used the same list.

Dreamer/LCB, 3x Daydreams, 3x Alps, Coppelius, Teddy, 7 Stones
Lady Justice, Governor's Proxy, 3x Death Marshall, Austringer, Nino, The Judge, 6 Stones

Game one, I had the Power Nexus Scenario (where I had to take four points on his side of the board) and took Bodyguard and Eye for an Eye. I wanted to try EfaE since it specified models on the board. I figured if I outnumbered him at the end, I could bury javascript:void(0)as many models as I needed to in order to bring myself back to the number I wanted. He had Treasure Hunt and announced Grudge and Framed for Murder.

This was the game that saw no combat. He rushed the middle of the board with most of his crew and I rushed the side of the board farthest from Nino and the Austringer with two Daydreams and the Dreamer. By turn three, I got three points on his side of the board. His army started to make a wall against me, ready for me to pop in for some attacks, but I figured I had the game well in hand already. Instead of engaging him, I rushed back to my deployment zone on turn four (I was able to chain some Daydreams and burying/raising mechanics to get a ton of movement). On turn five, I strung out a few Daydreams and stuck one near one of the last points I needed. Nino popped around and killed the Daydream, but that just summoned up Teddy who tagged the point. We called it there - I was going to bury Teddy the next turn, then have the Dreamer raise all my Nightmares back behind cover in my deployment zone to capture Eye for an Eye.

I didn't see a point in engaging with him when it could have cost me 2 points for Bodyguard and gained him 4 for his two schemes. Because of the schemes he took, it was better for me to sit on the defensive and let him come at me.

I know Bill wanted to see what the Dreamer could do and the first game was pretty short, so we set up a second one and I figured I'd get into combat the second game so he could see some of the Dreamer's antics. We got Shared Reconnoiter. I don't overly like shared missions, but them's the breaks. I took the same two schemes, Bodyguard and Eye for an Eye, and he took Grudge and Break Through.

The first turn I just moved the Dreamer and two Daydreams up about 1/3 of the board. He rushed everyone forward. On turn two, I wanted to see how far I could move the Dreamer and get into combat. First I moved a Daydream up who promptly got shot down by the Austringer (damn Austringer!). So I started my chain. Stay with me here:

1. My second Daydream activated, moved up, and cast Frightening Nightmares off the Dreamer, unburying Lord Chompy Bits (which buried the Dreamer). With his (0) action, he calmed LCB, bringing the Dreamer back into play, but about 12" in front of where he was originally.

2. Because of One Master, the Dreamer then activated. He decided he could fly, moved up, used Frightening Nightmares with the trigger and dropped Teddy, two Alps, another Daydream, Coppelius, and Lord Chompy Bits.

3. Because of One Master, Lord Chompy Bits then activated. He companioned the nearby Daydream and wrecked Nino's face (and the rest of Nino, as it were).

4. The Daydream activated, buried Lord Chompy Bits and brought the Dreamer back into play.

So before he got another activation, I had moved my entire crew across the board, switched from Dreamer to LCB to Dreamer to LCB and back to Dreamer, killed Nino, and brought out majority of my Nightmares. Good times.

There was some fighting around where he shot into combat and charged into combat with a few of his Death Marshalls, killing off an Alp or two but taking some damage in the process. Coppelius moved in and went to town, paralyzing the Austringer but missing the second attack. It wasn't a very impressive town. Though he did summon an Alp to replace the one he lost.

On the next turn, I won initiative and went with Coppelius again, giving him a second chance. He hit the Judge with Hallucinations, making him fall back and causing three morale duels all around him. Because of the Proxy, he had the +2 WP, but he had to succeed in all his checks or he'd lose the model. He had to cheat a couple times to succeed. Then Coppelius attacked the nearby Death Marshall twice, doing a little damage and paralyzing him. So he had three models - the Austringer, Death Marshall, and Judge, who were paralyzed or running away, all near a couple of Alps.

Lady J and the Proxy went, charged in and killed Coppelius (and nearly failed the Terror check, even using a soulstone, which would have outright killed her), giving Lady J 4 damage in the process. The Dreamer went and made all Nightmares nearby Terrifying 13 (which would be my Daydream and two Alps) so his mass of models would have to take a bunch of Terrifying checks or die because of the Proxy. Then he tagged Lady J with his spell that gives target model (-) flip on all Defense, WP and Cast duels against Nightmares. I wanted to make sure she couldn't cheat in any Reposts. Then I unburied LCB who started chomping on Lady J. She used all her stones to heal and dodge and ended up with one life left by the end of it all. The fleeing and paralyzed folks went, and the Death Marshall failed his Terrify check, dying outright (he had 1 wound and 1 poison on him anyway, so he wasn't long for the world as it was).

Next turn, Lady J killed an Alp and the Dreamer, and LCB killed Lady J, then charged and killed a fully healthy Death Marshall. He had an Austringer with two wounds, a Death Marshall with one, and the Judge with five. I had LCB and two Daydreams. The rest of the game was quick - LCB killed a Death Marshall after it failed to box LCB (that would have been unfortunate for LCB), then charged but was out of range of the Judge. The Judge tried to kill LCB but my stones kept me alive and I took only a few damage. The Daydreams killed the Austringer after he killed a Daydream. Last turn I won initiative and killed the Judge.

Overall, the Dreamer is loads of fun. His maneuverability and constantly shifting army makes for a really interesting play experience. I'm still trying to bring together the list I want to use with him going forward. The problem is I like so many of the nightmares, I'm having trouble narrowing it down. Coppelius, Teddy, Alps, Stitched Togethers, Lilitu, Lilu... what do I cut!

Day Dreams

I got three more models painted up for my Dreamer crew. The Daydreams are ready to roll!

Taking Him For a Spin

Last night I ended up getting a game in with John with a few of my new models - I wanted to try them out and see what havoc they could spread. John hit the table with McMourning, the Resser I tend to have the most trouble with.

Dreamer, 2x Daydream, 3x Alp, Coppelius, Stitched Together, 8 stones
McMourning, Chihuahua, 4x Canine Remains, 2x Necropunk, Belle, Crooked Man, Nurse, 8 stones

We got corners deployment, and Shared Deliver the Message. For Schemes, I took Bodyguard and Kidnap on three of his Remains. He took McMourning's specific one (where he had to get five body parts off the opposing Master) and Kill Protege (on Coppelius).

I'll just hit the highlights here - the game ended in a 5-5 draw as he was able to get his message to me first with a drugged up Necropunk that hopped over the wall and got to the Dreamer before I could really do anything to stop him. He lost the Punk after that, but netted 3 VPs by being the first to get the message out. I was able to get the message to him with Coppelius later in the game, and managed to kill/allow to be sacrificed the three dogs I picked and kept Lord Chompy Bits alive. He was able to kill Coppelius, but wasn't able to get the Body Parts, so we tied.

Some of the fun parts (from my perspective - he'd have an entirely different view, I'm sure), were when he Lured a Daydream into melee with some of his guys, then killed it. It popped up Lord Chompy Bits (burying the Dreamer on the other side of the table). LCB swatted down one of the Necropunks, then shifted back into the Dreamer who flew back onto the other side of the board and dropped a trio of Alps on his Crooked Man, and put Coppelius in melee with it. The poor Crooked Man activated, got slowed, but threw out a Shafted marker. Coppelius finished off the Crooked Man and moved away from the Shafted counter. The Alps retreated and the whole group of them were promptly buried again by my Daydream, leaving only the Dreamer and Stitched Together (and the Daydream) on the table.

Later, I was able to rush near his deployment area (the entire battle was fought on his side of the board) and drop my Alps out amidst his dogs. He had to be really careful with who to activate because with so many Alps sitting around, he could easily start losing guys. While I did not do much damage to him as a result of his planning, I did manage to force him to make tough choices and give me the momentum in activating whoever I wanted.

Coppelius was able to steal an eye from a summoned Frankenstein model which freaked out the Nurse so much she turned to run. With one life left, Coppelius ate the eye, gaining back 3 life. He was again knocked down to one, but the Dreamer buried him before he could be killed that time.

Meanwhile, McMourning went out after the Dreamer, but was in melee range of the Stitched Together too. He had to attack the Stitched, and managed to kill him, but the Stitched wouldn't leave until the end of the turn. The Stitched successfully gambled, costing him one card and gaining me one card, and then used Gamble Your Life twice on McMounring, costing him three soulstones in twisting fate and reducing damage, and dealing 6 net damage to him. Lord Chompy Bits and the Daydream finished off McMourning.

Eventually the Dreamer was killed by a Frankenstein monster (he summoned two over the course of the game), but that just brought Lord Chompy Bits to bear. While Coppelius did end up dying, Lord Chompy Bits took down both Frankenstein monsters.

I was trying to think of my all stars for the game last night. Tough call. The Stitched Together had the best single turn for a model, I think, stealing a card, getting me a card, costing John 3 stones and 6 life, as well as preventing any damage from hitting the Dreamer. The Alps caused him to have to change his gameplay the most and forced him to deal with everything. And Coppelius successfully held down 3 or 4 models for a turn and a half as they tried to kill him and he terrified/paralyzed a bunch of other folks. Of course, then there's Lord Chompy Bits who killed two dogs, McMourning (and his totem), a Necropunk, and two Frankenstein Monsters over the course of the game. Really tough call.

Painted Nightmares

Six down, seven to go. I managed to finish three of my Alps and my three Stitched Togethers. Have to get Coppelius, three more Alps, and three Daydreams done. Plus still only halfway done with my Hooded Rider.

Spice Beer

Over the weekend, Laura and I picked up a bit of pumpkin spice - some weird spice jar that is supposed to taste like pumpkin pie or something like that. Naturally, when I saw this, I immediately wondered how I could apply it to beer. So when I got home, I coated the rim of one of my glasses with pumpkin, cinnamon and sugar, then poured a beer in it, and gave it a whirl.

Overall, it was okay. I think I would have benefited from a better beer choice. I used Freaktober (Magic Hat, I think). I have to say I wasn't too impressed with the beer itself, which may have made me unhappy with my contraption. Willing to try it again, but I'd say my first attempt wasn't so good.

Nightmare Reinforcements

Yesterday I finally got the phone call from Chris over at Huzzah Hobbies that my November Malifaux miniatures had arrived. I was working from home, and it was near lunchtime, so I hopped in my car and drove out to pick them up. Chris was pretty surprised that, not fifteen minutes after he had told me my new toys were in, I was there and picking them up. One might say I was a little excited about it.

So my Dreamer now has reinforcements. After spending a lot of time playing with only Teddy's, and then adding Lilu and Lilitu to the mix, I can finally spread my wings and try a bunch of different lists. My nightmares have expanded to include four new options: Coppelius, Alps, Stitched Togethers, and Daydreams.



Coppelius
The unique nightmare weighing in at a hefty 9 soulstones, this guy is great at control with a speciality in hurting the living. This monster skulks around Malifaux and uses his sharp claws to pick out peoples' eyes. It's horrifying enough that whenever he manages it (which he can do a couple of different ways - either by causing enough damage, or by hitting a trigger on his attacks), everyone nearby has to take Morale checks, and any who fail start taking damage too. He does not do a lot of damage, but he can cause living models to flee a number of different ways, and he can paralyze anyone he touches. Once he's collected some of those eyes, he'll be using them to either heal himself or others, or to summon more nightmares around him. All in all, a pretty solid piece, and one I'll be fielding in more than just my Dreamer armies.



Alps
These guys are designed to be swarmed, costing only 3 stones each. They're pretty simple to kill, and won't do a ton of melee damage themselves, but just being near them causes enemies fits. If you start near them, you have to test or become Slow, and the more that are nearer to you, the harder that test becomes. If you become Slow for any reason, each one of them will do damage to you. If you move or strike near them for any reason, they'll do damage to you. And if they manage to kill you because you became slow, a new one becomes summoned near them. A pretty nasty piece, especially with how cheap they are. Plus their attacks cause slow too. Not too shabby.



Daydreams
The Dreamer's totem hits the table. These guys can come three to a master, and it's possible to summon more of them as time goes on. Which is good because they're just great for the Dreamer. Essentially they offer a way to raise and bury Nightmares without relying on the Dreamer's activation. They can bury Lord Chompy Bits so he doesn't need to trigger it himself, and if they die, they can unbury any nightmare they want near them. If that happens to be LCB, it means Lord Chompy Bits gets to immediately activate (because of LCB's rules). Not a bad set of blokes.



Stitched Together
Okay, ignoring the fact that you can only field three, but they come two to a pack, these guys are pretty damn good. They're not fast, but the Dreamer's okay with that. They are hard to kill for their cost, and as you're killing them, you may be taking damage back. Plus, when they finally do die, they get to reactivate and can't be killed again for the rest of the turn (though they're dead at the end of that turn, so that's okay). Their damage isn't great either until you start pulling in their other tricks (a theme among nightmares, it seems). They can offer cover for my advancing army, control my opponent's hand, and have the potential to do a whole mess of damage with their Gamble Your Life ability. Has a chance of killing himself outright, but also might just as easily do 7 damage to you.

Overall, a bunch of great models for the Dreamer, nearly filling out his list of options from Book 2. Looking forward to getting them all on the table and seeing how they perform.

Life as a Kelmelis

Over last weekend, my brother and sister-in-law took Laura, LeeAnn and me out to the Melting Pot for dinner - it was a Christmas present from last year. Every year they do something really nice for the siblings to all enjoy together. It's a lot of fun to spend a night out on the town with them. One year it was Eric and I enjoying a trip to Baltimore together. Last year, the two of them took Laura and me to sushi and a show.

So this year we arrive at the Melting Pot on the day after Thanksgiving. It's a bit crowded and they fit the five of us at a table that, frankly, is designed for four people. Plus it's right under the speakers for the music. None of us can hear each other, see each other, or pull our arms above the table to reach the fondue. So we decide we're going to ask for a new table before it gets too unbearable.

Eric heads back to the front to let them know our pain. The guy says, "Okay, I think we've got another table coming up soon." Eric looks around and spots a nice spacious round table that's clear and says, "I think we'd like that one." The guy looks at what Eric's pointing at and says, "Oh, that's an eight person table," and then shows Eric a different, much smaller one. Eric shakes his head and says, "No. I think we do want the other one instead." The guy looks at Eric a moment while Eric keeps a straight face, and then says, "Okay, we'll get you that one."

It's not the first time Eric's lived a charmed life. On the way to the Redskins game on Sunday, a car pulled up to his and said, "Do you guys need a parking pass? We have two and we only have one car." The parking pass in question? Platnium parking. Right in front of the stadium.

He's also managed to land not one but four hotel rooms at a hotel that was booked solid (or so they say) for a mistake in booking that he had made. When the man at the desk told him there was nothing he could do, Eric just said, "No, that's not going to work for me." There was a long silence, then the guy said, "Maybe I should get the manager?" and Eric agreed, "That sounds like the right thing to do here." Sure enough, the manager came out with four keys for him and his friends.

It's good to be a Kelmelis.

Lilith Cheats

Okay, so she doesn't really cheat, but she can be quite annoying. That's no big surprise, but there it is.

Dan and I got a game in last night and he wanted to see how Leviticus would stack up against his least favorite Neverborn master, so I hit the table with Lilith. We grabbed a 30 stone list, and the game got started.

Lilith, Primordial Magic, Mature Nephilim, Young Nephilim, 3x Terror Tot, 7 Stones
Strategy: Claim Jump
Schemes: Kidnap (both Steampunks and Teddy), Bodyguard

Leviticus, Rusty Alice, Teddy, Belle, 2x Steampunk Abominations, 4 Stones
Strategy: Slaughter
Schemes: Kill Protege (Mature), Frame for Murder (Leviticus)

Both Dan and I drew killer hands first go. I don't know exactly what he had, but I had a pair of 13s and a pair of 11s, as well as a 10, 9 and 8 to hold onto. Dan had his Red Joker and a couple other high cards too. Brutal for both of us.

It's been a while since I've played Lilith (my last outing with her was Warstore Weekend), and I made a very unfortunate early mistake. I moved the Mature carrying Lilith first rather than moving everyone else first and saving those two until last. Dan took advantage of my mistake and lured my Mature twice, bringing him 12" closer to his lines. I was able to use Lilith to earthquake him back 6", but it still wasn't enough. Leviticus and Rusty Alice were able to put the Mature down, bringing a new Steampunk Abomination out in its place. Terrible first turn!

On the second turn, I was able to stretch the field and came within 1/2" of charging his Waif on the turn Leviticus was dying. I didn't quite make it, and poor Lilith was stuck all the way downfield. Teddy came in to attack and hit her for three damage. Meanwhile, my Younger Nephilim and a Terror Tot killed off his Steampunks and Rusty Alice finished off my Younger and another Tot.

I ended up getting initiative on turn three and moved around to whack Leviticus, killing him before he got a chance to attack me. Teddy went but was unable to hit Lilith. I brought a Tot into melee with his Belle and Rusty, and my second Tot turned into a Younger.

On the fourth turn, Leviticus went full at Lilith, but I used all my stones and managed to survive. Lilith went and killed Teddy. I lost my Tot, but my Younger moved in its place.

Turn five saw Lilith charge and kill Rusty Alice. A few well-timed cheats kept Lilith alive with one life after Leviticus' attacks, and my Younger grew into a Mature from Lilith's blood tokens and knocked the Belle down to one life.

On the sixth turn, I won initiative and companioned my two big hitters. Lilith killed the Belle, which failed to finish off Lilith, and then trucked it 12" back to my objective. The Mature immediately flew 12" away and hugged the Claim Jump too. Leviticus limped after Lilith, but he was too far away and too slow to reach him. The game ended with me claiming a full 8 points and him claiming 4.

Turns Out Joss Whedon Is Funny... Who Knew?

So if you missed the news, there's evidently going to be a new Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie coming out. Only it's not going to have Joss involved at all. Entertainment Weekly asked Joss for his opinion. You can follow this link to see the article about it, or if you're too lazy, just read Joss' response below.

Kristin, I'm glad you asked for my thoughts on the announcement of Buffy the cinema film. This is a sad, sad reflection on our times, when people must feed off the carcasses of beloved stories from their youths—just because they can't think of an original idea of their own, like I did with my Avengers idea that I made up myself.

Obviously I have strong, mixed emotions about something like this. My first reaction upon hearing who was writing it was, "Whit Stillman AND Wes Anderson? This is gonna be the most sardonically adorable movie EVER." Apparently I was misinformed. Then I thought, "I'll make a mint! This is worth more than all my Toy Story residuals combined!" Apparently I am seldom informed of anything. And possibly a little slow. But seriously, are vampires even popular any more?

I always hoped that Buffy would live on even after my death. But, you know, AFTER. I don't love the idea of my creation in other hands, but I'm also well aware that many more hands than mine went into making that show what it was. And there is no legal grounds for doing anything other than sighing audibly. I can't wish people who are passionate about my little myth ill. I can, however, take this time to announce that I'm making a Batman movie. Because there's a franchise that truly needs updating. So look for The Dark Knight Rises Way Earlier Than That Other One And Also More Cheaply And In Toronto, rebooting into a theater near you.

Leave me to my pain! Sincerely, Joss Whedon.

Commute Gets Worse

Last week, after several drives to and from work that had me in the car for a couple hours a day round trip, I finally asked my boss if I could work from home two days a week instead of one. She didn't have a problem with that, so now I get to work from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays, two of the worse traffic days around here.

So, of course, with things looking good on that front, they had to take a turn for the worse elsewhere on my commute.

On Wednesday, I was taking my normal meandering back-roads trip to work (Route 7 from Sterling to Tyson's is a nightmare), and I got up to the bridge over the toll road on Beulah. And there was a big sign there that said the road was closed. They didn't bother to put up signs before the bridge saying it was out, just at the bridge. So I had to turn around and drive back to Route 7 and make my way to the office that way. Final time: one hour, fifteen minutes.

On the way home, I figured the bridge might be opened again - they didn't look like they were working on it or anything, so I tried to get back to it. But no, it was closed. So I had to get back on the road and find another way over the Toll Road. Finally, I got home after an hour and forty five minutes of driving.

So my round trip that day took me more than three times as long as my round trip to my old office would have. So much for the benefit of working from home two days a week.

I checked online and found out that the bridge was out indefinitely because a truck had hit it on Tuesday evening, and they needed to do tests on it to make sure it was still stable. Of course, they had no idea how long that would take, nor when it would open up again.

Games that Died

These aren't games that have died everywhere. I recognize fully that all four of these games are still played, some with more frequency than others, elsewhere. Heck, some are played with frequency in this area. But these are games that died for me that I have played at one time or another.

I'm not going to include things like Uncharted Seas, which I have played a couple of times but am not playing much since then. The games on this list are some that I have played with some frequency at some point in time. I was thinking about one of them earlier today, and it got me thinking about why some games survive and some don't.



Arcane Legions

The game that I was thinking about that sparked my thinking about this topic was Arcane Legions. At GenCon 2009, this was the game that got my attention and got me pretty excited. It is a fast paced mass army game with some pretty unique mechanics. It wasn't too expensive to get into, though the collectible aspect of it was a turnoff. Fortunately there were not that many models that you needed to get, so it turned out to be affordable. The mechanics were fresh and it was a boatload of fun to play.

So why did it fail? I know it's still a big controversy (I checked their forums today and they're still talking about it), but for our gaming group, we simply could not deal with the archery rules the way they were. Whether archery units are broken in comparison to basic units or not isn't the point. Even when the game was in its infancy, the forums were filled with people harping on the fact that archery was too powerful. The company never addressed this issue, and soon people stopped playing the game, not wanting to play a game where one faction - the Hans who excelled at archery - would win most games where all other things were equal. That the company never addressed these concerns adequately left a sour taste, and soon we were looking for different games to try.

The game continues to flounder. Its first expansion has been put on hold indefinitely as it tries to build its player base. But of course it's hard to build players when there are no new models and toys coming out. To me, this is an example of what could have been a great game being completely mishandled by its company.

Even still, sometimes I look longingly at my models and wouldn't mind getting a game or two in again. Just enough to remind me why I stopped playing in the first place.



Monsterpocalypse

Monsterpocalypse was a game where you'd hit the table with massive monsters, aliens, robots, etc. and fight in a huge city scape. Several of us got into this game, and despite my insistence that I would not buy into it when it first came out, I was quickly convinced that I should and ended up joining the group with my own Martian army.

It was a pretty fun game for a while. But this game suffered from a couple of major issues to me.

First, it was collectible. I had to buy random packs that might come up with things I'd never use, and if I did, I had to hope that my friends got random stuff they'd never use that I would use, and would want to swap with me for the things I got that I didn't want. Annoying. We were able to get around this when we found sites that were selling singles, which was nice, so we didn't have to worry too much about that.

Second, it had collectors versions of all the monsters. This was not a case of "there are a couple of special models you can only get through tournaments", this was a case of "every monster can have a third, different form and you have to do different things to get them." Some you could get by winning tourneys. Some you had to buy a certain amount of product for. But whatever it was, there were a large number of models you simply could not get, and that discouraged me from wanting to play. I'm a completest, and not being able to complete my faction left me unhappy.

Third, and this is the one that really sealed it for me, we found out that every year, the game would cycle out six new factions and "retire" the six old ones. Sure you could keep playing them, but it meant that every year, if I wanted to keep up, I had to drop an entire faction I'd spent time and money on and start all over. For me, it meant it would be a good time to get out of the game, if I was still playing it.

It ended up that I wasn't still playing it at the end of the year. The reason for that is that it lost interest among my group. Their reasons for dropping it had less to do with the way it was being released like mine did, and more with the fact that many times, the game came down to "who got the first chance to throw their opponent through a string of buildings." When one powerful move could win games, it became frustrating.



Warhammer 40k

I know this game isn't dead. All I'm just saying it didn't appeal to me, and figured I should explain why.

Honestly, I don't know so much why this one didn't work for me. It's a decent enough game. It was fun the couple times I played it. I have an army that looks interesting to me. I think I can come up with a couple of the feelings I have when I think about it.

First, it's vastly different from other games I've played. In my experience, I'm much more interested in the skirmish games. 40k is definitely not one of those.

Second, I like when I can look across the table and know exactly what I'm facing. The learning curve for everything I'd be facing in 40k is very, VERY high.

Third, and I know this is really kinda picky, I like knowing who won and lost a game at the end. A number of times I played 40k, by the end of the game, we calculated up our points and ended up in a tie. A tie! I had just spent two hours playing, and ended up with a tie. I don't mind if I lose, and I love to win, but walking away with a tie leaves me feeling like, "Why did I bother?"

Now the odd thing about that, and I admit it makes me a hypocrite, is that I don't mind tying when I play Malifaux. I think it might be because ties are so much more rare in Malifaux and seemed fairly frequent in 40k, but I'm not sure.

In the end, the game was long to set up, long to play, and might not leave me feeling satisfied. I never felt like I really "got it" with the game. In other games, I can pick them up, figure out pretty quickly what I should be worried about, figure out what of my units are designed to do things, etc. but I never got to that point with 40k. That might have to do with the infrequency of playing - I couldn't watch for patterns in how things worked, but whatever the reason, it never really struck me as a game I would enjoy playing much.



Warmachine / Hordes

And finally, the big daddy of them all. Warmachine and Hordes. I'm going to come out and say first that I don't regret any of my time or money in this game. I got a good four years out of playing this game, and loved a lot of it. I met a lot of people through this game, including Dan, and made a lot of friendships. Overall, I call my time with this game a huge success.

So why don't I play it anymore? A lot of it goes back to my reasons for disliking 40k.

They made a new rule set: Mark 2, and already had hundreds of models available. When Mark 2 hit, everything changed. Everything. In order to keep up with the game, I'd have to relearn the entire game.

Not necessarily a bad thing - I could have done it. Mark 2 went a long way to cleaning up some of the problems I had with the game. The rules bloat, etc. But it also made the game size larger. More models were fielded. The game that had started as a skirmish game turned into an army-sized game. I tried a few games of it, but decided it was just too big for me. I know I can play smaller point levels, but it didn't seem like the game was intended for smaller point levels anymore. So I saw Mark 2 as the perfect time to drop the game and look for a new skirmish game to pick up.

Now that I have a new one - Malifaux - I am watching it and noticing that, frankly, it's going to do pretty much the same thing. It's going to get too big with too many models and too much rules bloat, and I'm going to want to drop it. But with luck, I'll get a good four years of fun out of it too, and by the, hopefully there will be a new skirmish game I can get in on the ground floor and ride the beginning of too.

Rising Power in Malifaux: Rising Powers?

I was just listening to one of the podcasts I subscribe to, Gamers Lounge, and there was a little bit of discussion around Malifaux's new book, Rising Powers, specifically regarding the power level of that book in comparison to Malifaux's first book. One of the hosts suggested that the new book's power level, particularly with the new masters, was higher than that of the first book with the exception of a few of the masters (Perdita, Lady Justice and Lilith being the three mentioned). I had a differing opinion, so I figured I'd take some time to talk about what my feelings of Rising Power are.

I took some time trying to formulate the reason I disagree with this point. I'm going to start with the easy part: the minions. I know this isn't specifically what was mentioned in the podcast, but it is part of the whole question as to whether the new book is that much greater than the old. My primary experience is with Neverborn, so I'll be concentrating there mostly, but having talked with another of my friends who plays Ressurectionists, he's of the same opinion.

There are plenty of models in the first book that I believe are on a level with or better than those in the second book. Mature Nephilim are still the Neverborn's king of dealing damage. Terror Tots are still among the best point-for-effectiveness models in the game. Their speed, their triggers, and their defense all make them incredibly good at getting to points and holding them, or coming in to finish off an enemy. Their ability to grow into Younger Nephilim and become models that are worth double their points is solid.

The Doppelganger, the Waldgeists, and the Slurids are all very good models, as are Baby Kade and Candy in their specific roles. Teddy is a hard to hurt heavy-hitter, owning one of the most impressive damage lines in the game (3/5/10) when he gets his teeth on you.

Rising Power likewise has a lot of fantastic choices. Lilu and Lilitu fit easily into a lot of the builds for Neverborn. Coppulus is just frightening. On the lower point level, Alps are a great swarm monster, and Insidious Madness gives us some nice support.

I think where I finally came down to in comparing the two books on the minions level is this: there is very little difference between the top of the class in book one and the top of the class in book two. But the bottom of the class of book two is better than the bottom of the class of book one. What I mean by that is there are a few models in book one I just don't like. Bad Juju. Sorrows. The Hooded Rider has yet to show me he's good. I don't feel like there's anything in Rising Powers that's that bad. As such, I can look through Rising Powers and be be wow-ed by everything in it, but can't do the same for book one. To me, that just shows that they've figured out how to not make crap models anymore.



Moving on to the masters, which is where the crux of the conversation was, I'm still not convinced that they are more powerful than the original models. These models are not more powerful, they're simply working differently than any other master has before. In Neverborn, we had a caster who was fast and attacked in melee (Lilith), a master who attacked willpower (Pandora) and another who makes your enemy's models attack each other (Zoraida). But in all of these, there were other masters in other factions who did similar things. Lady Justice attacked melee. Ressurectionists could create builds that would attack willpower (with terror and willpower-reducing effects).

In Rising Powers, each of the masters is drastically different than other things that have been presented. The soulstone manipulation of Collette is unseen before. The burying/unburying effects of the Dreamer are all new. Hamelin's crew utilizes dying and reviving rats, Kirai uses an entire army of Spirits with lots of movement, healing and summoning, and Hoffman can push his minions differently than we've ever seen before.

But I don't believe they're more powerful. I just believe they're different.

Any time you face a player who is using a master they understand decently well and that you've never seen before, they're going to pull tricks on you that will make you cry foul. I've done it myself. First time I faced Nicodem, he blased a melee I was in with a spell that hurt all my people and healed all his. WTF?! I faced Seamus with his Copycat Killer and saw the massive damage their guns could do. Other people who haven't seen Obey before will face Zoraida and scream broken when their own model smashes their master for half his life on turn one.

But the more people play against these masters, the more people realize how to stop them. If you don't want to be Obeyed, deploy differently. If you don't want a massive gun to the face, kill the Copycat fast even though he's only two points. Stop the Vultures and limit Nicodem's spell casting. All of these lessons come from playing games, and there are lessons for dealing with the new masters too. They just come in time. I'd expect that in several months, these new masters will be right along with the old, once everyone learns their tricks.

Three Games on Tuesday

Got out to Huzzah last night and managed to pull in three games against Dan. He's been having an itch to get back to his old Ressers, and I decided to use some of my less-used masters. I think Dreamer's shelved for the moment, at least until I get more options with him. He's a boatload of fun, but right now there are really only two builds with him since I have only three other Nightmares: Lilu, Lilitu and Teddy. This month I should greatly expand my options, though, as I pick up Alps, Stitched Together, Daydreams and Coppulus.

Getting in three games made each of them a blur, so I'll try to make sure I cover the main points, and may be off on the lists slightly. I think I'm close, though.




The first game came up as Pandora vs. Seamus.
Pandora, Primordial Magic, Lilu, Lilitu, Doppelganger, Baby Kade (4 stones)
Seamus, Punk Zombie x2, Belle x2, Copycat Killer, Hanged (4 stones)
Pandora had Deliver the Message and took Bodyguard and Kidnap (Copycat and both Punk Zombies)
Seamus had Claim Jump and took Bodyguard and Army of the Dead

I started out slowly advancing, getting my Doppelganger near his Claim Jump point under some cover to prep for where I thought the main fighting would take place, and brought Baby Kade close by to take out the first model that showed its face. Meanwhile, my twins headed up with Pandora. He ran Seamus out front throwing up the -2 WP ability and putting the rest of his army a little behind him for support.

On turn two, he went headlong after Pandora. Popping his -2 WP again (which really hurts!), he got a shot off on Pandora but I managed to save myself there. Then Lilitu went and started Luring Seamus, trying to get him closer. He used three of his stones to stop a couple of them, but some well-timed flips and cheats of Masks managed to get him very close by, and losing the WP duels gave him several points of damage (the Doppelganger was doubling the damage dealt). Lilu swung by and dropped Seamus to one life left. I activated Pandora and flipped to Incite one of his Punk Zombies to get the movement to get next to Seamus (I couldn't do it to Seamus because if he failed his WP flip, he'd die and I couldn't deliver the message then). She delivered him a message, then tried to Incite him to kill him off. At that point, Dan remembered that he had Terrify which, even with a stone, I couldn't pass. We tried to unravel the turn all the way back to when she was first in his terrifying range, but it became too complicated with all the flips and we just said we'd call the Terrify from there. So Seamus survived. The Punk Zombies moved up and the Hanged tried to get a shot off on Lilu, but failed.

I won initiative on turn three and used Lilitu to Lure Seamus, killing him with the WP flip, then moved around for better positioning. Both Lilu and Baby Kade went after the two Punk Zombies, but failed to kill either one. Pandora rallied and could not move. Fortunately, Pandora did not need to and managed to kill both Punks. I got Kidnap.

At that point, I had 6 points locked up and because I killed Seamus before turn 4, Dan had lost one point there and had a maximum of 5 points available to him in the game, so we called it there.



The second game I pulled out my least-used master: Marcus.
Marcus, Jackalope, Slurid x3, Waldgeist, Cerebus Tiger (4 stones)
Seamus, Copycat Killer, Punk Zombie x2, Belle x2, Hanged (4 stones)
Marcus got A Line in the Sand and took Power Ritual and Sabotage
Seamus got Supply Wagon and took Bodyguard and Army of the Dead

This one wasn't really that close. Neither of us had objectives that required us to fight, and I had a total of ten spots on the board my models had to reach and interact with, so I wasn't planning on getting close to him. The fact my army was all very fast helped there. I made almost no attacks all game, instead just rushing around the board completing my objectives.

The Slurids were able to complete two of the corners for Power Ritual on turns one and two, and also grabbed the Sabotage objective on turn two. My Cerberus Tiger was able to grab one of the corners on turn one and the last corner on turn three, so by the time I was at the top of turn three, I had already scored 5 victory points. Last thing I did, then, was have Marcus head over to the wagon and whack it three times while high on damage, dropped three moderate cards (two cheated), and destroyed his wagon. By turn three, he could not win anymore. I had 5 points and he could get a max of 4 if he got Bodyguard and Army of the Dead. I think the entire game I attacked one of his models once, and that was just to do something with my Waldgeist.

I'm going to take a brief moment to talk about those two schemes: Sabotage and Power Ritual. They are, without a doubt, far too easy to achieve. The fact that Archanists get the two easiest faction-specific schemes, and that one of them can be up to 3 points, is a huge boon for them. I had no trouble scraping together five points in the first three turns, and that put the game easily out of reach of Dan before any interacting had happened.

Now I like the fact there are scenarios and schemes that don't involve combat with the other person, because it gives a nice mix to what's happening out there, but giving the Archanists two relatively simple Schemes that can garner them 5 points means that your opponent, in order to stay on pace with just those schemes, has to get their full scenario and a scheme, or half their scenario and both schemes. And if you get your full scenario too, there's virtually no way you can't win.



Okay, on to game three. Zoraida came out against Leviticus.
Zoraida, Voodoo Doll, Mature Nephilim, Lilu, Lilitu, Convict Gunslinger (5 stones)
Leviticus, Rusty Alice, Belle x2, Killjoy (3 stones)
Zoraida got Deliver Message again, and I took Bodyguard and figured I'd try Seeds of Betrayal (I have to get one of his models to kill his master)
Leviticus got Contain Power and took Grudge (on Lilu, it turned out) and Kill Protegee (on my Mature Nephilim)

I started moving up as he did the same. We had a Lure war on my Convict Gunslinger (he must have thought he was hot stuff, three girls vying for his affections) as he tried to bring him into range of his attacks and I tried to keep him out of range, and I tossed my Voodoo Doll on Rusty Alice, figuring she had the best chance to kill Leviticus.

On turn two, I got my chance to try. Rusty Alice charged Leviticus and hit, and flipped Severe damage which would have killed him, but he used one of his stones to prevent one of it, keeping him alive. Damn! And to rub salt in the wound, Leviticus went ahead and died summoning Killjoy in front of my Mature Nephilim. I tried to get my Lilu in range of Killjoy but failed, and Killjoy hit my Mature for 4 damage. Next round, I won initiative and dropped Killjoy, but was dropped to two life in its dying attack. Leviticus came up and turned my Mature into a Steampunk Abomination (that's embarrassing). I saw my opening and went for it - Rusty Alice charged and killed Leviticus. I started jumping around - Seeds of Betrayal! Seeds of Betrayal! Even Dan thought that was awesome and we laughed about that objective for a little while before continuing.

He was able to come back and kill off my Lilu, and later my Lilitu but I was able to get Zoraida onto his side of the board and safe. While I was never able to give him his message (which was a love letter, evidently, and Leviticus kept killing himself rather than read it - doesn't bode well for future romance between the two), I was able to defeat Contain Power, and we ended up tying at 4-4.

Time is not Money

I had a conversation with a couple of my friends not too long ago about gaming and where it was in my life. I enjoy heading out to play games, be they board games on a Friday night, weekly roleplaying games, or heading out for a miniatures game with my buddies. As I'm certain nearly every aging gamer discovers, there comes a time where your limiting factor for the games you play ceases to be your financial situation and becomes your time.

I remember when I was in high school - we had nothing but time. Other than going to school and working on projects (which, frankly, never took all that long), we didn't have much on our plates. Sports would take their share of time, but most of our time was our own. We could do with it what we wanted. We could go play games whenever we wanted, and once we learned to drive, the major obstacle there was removed. I remember weekend gaming sessions that would start at noon on a Saturday and roll straight into the evening, then early hours of the morning before we all passed out exhausted.

But we did not have that much income then. Oh sure, we didn't have to worry about bills to pay or things like that, but our level of income was pretty low. I remember having to consciously consider whether I was going to buy a new bunch of cards for Magic or a roleplaying book I wanted to check out. I had all the time in the world, but not enough money to do what I wanted.

College was similar - now without a job I had even less money than high school, yet being on campus with gamers gave me that much more time to play games. We ended up doing things like pooling all our magic cards together and making "booster packs" of our collections, doing drafts, then mixing them all up and doing it again. Most of our time was spent playing roleplaying games because they were far cheaper per hour of entertainment than miniatures.

Now, though, I'm on the opposite spectrum. I have the income to purchase games I want, but I still find myself not buying everything that I want. Not because I cannot afford it (though I am a bit more careful with my spending now), but rather because I look at games and say, "Will I actually play this enough to make it worth it?"

Two games come up immediately as examples of this: Uncharted Seas and Infinity. Both of these are games that have had popularity in our group recently, but I have refused to purchase anything for either game simply because I know I have a limited amount of time to game and I will not get my money's worth from either one. The problem is, with rare exceptions, our group is very fluid in what we enjoy. Uncharted Seas was supposed to be "the" game for a while with several people trying to convince me to play it, but now, less than one month after I played my first game of it (with a free box I won at Warstore Weekend, so I don't feel bad about it), it has already been shoved aside for the next great new game: Infinity.

One of the touted benefits of Infinity is its affordability - you do not need to purchase much to have a full list ready to go with the game. But like I said, it's not the money that's the issue - it's the time. There are several games I would rather play when I go out with my friends to grab a game. Malifaux (a game I nearly passed up because I was not convinced of its longevity, actually) is my game of choice and has been for quite some time. Until I become disillusioned with the game as I was eventually with Warmachine and Hordes (and I am certain I will eventually become disillusioned with Malifaux too, be it a year from now or five), I cannot see myself trying to spend the little time I have to game on something else.