Thursday, December 28, 2017

Clanktastic! (Playthrough of Clank! A Deck-building Adventure)


I looked at the map in my hands.  The myriad tunnels and passageways would be difficult to traverse, but I knew what lay down there, deep beneath the surface.  Gold, gems, treasure!  No self-respecting thief could deny the lure a dragon's horde, not even the thought of the terrifying dragon itself.

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Christmas Eve Game Night

So Logan and Jenn came over Christmas Eve and they brought with them a special Christmas Eve game!  It was one of the escape room board games that has been becoming so popular lately.  This particular one was The Forbidden Castle from the Exit The Game series by Kosmos.  It was a 4/5 for difficulty and it felt like it!  It took us a little over two hours to escape the castle, but we did it!  There were some crazy difficult puzzles in there, but in the end we were victorious!  

For $15, this is definitely something that I would recommend.  I've done one real escape room before and it was a lot of fun, but it was about $15 per person (I think?) and we had to put on pants and leave the house.  This was $15 for four people and we sat in my dining room in our PJs.  Hard to beat that.  The puzzles were varied and difficult, so you really have to put your thinking caps on!

Our brains were fried after solving so many riddles, so we tackled something lighter afterwards.  Logan had received Harvest Dice as a stocking stuffer and so we gave it a go!

Friday, December 22, 2017

The Euro Queen

Well, my wife must officially be a gamer because for the third week in a row we were gaming with her brother and wife.  Also, the new plan is to get together on Christmas Eve and play as well.  Am I lucky, or what?

In his continuing mission to make us Euro gamers, Logan introduced us to Istanbul.  Istanbul is a worker placement game where you are a merchant trying to collect the most rubies.  You travel around the city buying and selling resources and trying to collect rubies in a variety of locations.  You start with a stack of discs representing your assistants.  As you travel around the board, you drop them off in different locations to do your work.  You can travel back to pick them up one by one or head to the fountain and call them all back.  No assistants left?  No work can get done.  Better get 'em back!

Tragic Events Unboxing

One of my favourite cooperative games is Flash Point: Fire Rescue.  A lot of my games fall into the sci-fi/fantasy theme, and that can be very a big turn off for non-gamers.  But be a firefighter and save people?  That's an easy them to get into for anywhere!  Plus, the game is pretty easy to pick up and play without too much reading and learning to do.

That's why, when Tragic Events, the latest expansion for Flash Point came up on Kickstarter, I backed it.  And yesterday, it arrived!

What the Clank!?

I think that the Clank! games should come with an buzzer that goes off every time someone says the word (Clank!).  Whoever says it the most gets bonus points (or points taken away).

Logan and I had both recently received copies of Clank! games (I got the original and he got the In! Space! version).  I've played about five games solo of mine already, it's the first game to chase Gloomhaven off the table (although it did come back for one scenario with a friend on Monday night).  Logan's played his version solo, but we hadn't tried it with others.  Well, last night was the night!

First up: In! Space!

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Christmas Wishlist

With Christmas quickly approaching, I thought I would share my wishlist with you.  These are the games that I ran out of money to buy myself and hopefully I can get them sometime in 2018, whether as a gift or a purchase!

HOTSHOTS

I've posted about this one before (read it here) because Logan and I have played it a few times.  He also did a few review of it which you can find on here or also on BoardGameGeek.com.  I'm always partial to cooperative games because they tend to be solo-able and that's how I play most of my games.  I've only played this game multiplayer thus far, and have loved it.




VENGEANCE

This one was on Kickstarter last year and I believe is just getting out to backers now and hopefully into retail shortly after that.  Think of the game as Kill Bill the board game.  You have been wronged by some bad people and you are out for, you guessed it, vengeance.  You take on wounds from various villainous people in the form of a card draft.  Then, you build up your skills and abilities so that you can venture into different enemy lairs (kind of like mini dungeon crawls) and beat the snot out of them.  The more revenge you get on those who hurt you, the more vengeance points (VP) you get and that's what wins you the game.  I haven't heard must buzz about this game, but the concept looks really neat.

SPIRIT ISLAND

This game has been blowing up on the BoardGameGeek.com forums, particularly on the solo guild (which I frequent).  I've managed to play this twice at my local board game cafe and it was a blast!  I've also written about it before (read it here) and I am really excited for this game.  I THINK I might have tracked down a copy online which is a miracle right now! 

MOLE RATS IN SPACE

My kids might be a little young for this game still (4 and almost 2), but I'm really excited to play this one!  Lots of family friendly and kid friendly games have zero decisions to make (i.e. Chutes and Ladders), but this game is created by a cooperative board game master: Matt Leacock.  Does that sound familiar?  Oh yeah, he worked on a little game called Pandemic.  Ever heard of it?  Anyway, he bring his talents to this family cooperative game about being mole rats trying to survive in space while being attacked by snakes.  Not sure I love the theme, but the concept and the designer credentials make me keen on this one.





BLACK ORCHESTRA

I have a fear that this game will either be too Euro-y or just too hard for me, but I have to admit, the thought of conspiring to assassinate Hitler is very enticing.  Never a fan of history growing up, I've fallen in love with it as a teacher.  It's amazing to see how game designers can weave history and fiction together into an entertaining and involving board game.  Who wouldn't want a chance to take down one of the greatest evils of our time?  At the same time, maybe this is too idealistic of a view, but games that remind us about the mistakes of our past (i.e. Nazism) can hopefully keep us from making them again.

These are the top five games that I'm wishing for this Christmas.  There are a few others on my list that I'd be happy to receive, but these are the top!

Saturday, December 9, 2017

Surprise Gift

So yesterday I mentioned that it was my student teacher's last day.  We, the class, pitched in to buy him Return to Hoth, an expansion for Star Wars: Imperial Assault.  Did he like it?  YES!  He was very surprised and excited.

Well, the plot thickens.

The bell rang and students (many of them tearful, going to miss an amazing teacher) exited the school.  My student teacher and I wrapped up a few things involving students' marks and assignments left.  After clearing this all up, he informed me that he had a gift for me.  Well, I had seen him give a Christmas card to our educational assistant and assumed it was the same.  I was right about the card, but there was something underneath it!

Friday, December 8, 2017

Five Minutes in the Dungeon

Today is a sad day.  I've had a student teacher in my grade four class since September and today is his last day.  Yes, I'm partially sad about the fact that I'm going to have to teach again (it's much easier to sit and watch him teach than to actually do it), but I'm mostly sad about just not having him around anymore.  We have a lot in common.  He is also a board game geek and so we've had lots to talk about during our down time.  We have actually both spent time working for our churches in youth and children's ministry, so there's been that to connect over as well.  I had the class pitch in together and we bought him the Return to Hoth expansion for Star Wars: Imperial Assault.  He hasn't opened it yet but I'll let you know how it goes!

During the last three months, we've had a chance to play a few games.  I introduced him to The Lost Expedition and he showed me the wonderful world of Marvel Legendary.  Today, we got to play one more game while the kids were off in music class: 5-Minute Dungeon!


I Can Stop Whenever I Want!

Honestly.  I can stop playing Gloomhaven whenever I want.  Play another solo game?  Sure, of course.  I have lots of great ones in my collection, games I've played dozens of times before Gloomhaven ever showed up on my doorstep.

No really, I can stop.  Anytime.  I just don't want to.

Last night my wife was out decorating cookies with her Bible study group all night and I had the house to myself (well, the kids were sleeping, so just about).  My plan was to wash the dishes, play a half hour of Gloomhaven, have a nice bath, and be in bed by 9.  The kids have not been sleeping well - one's been waking up a few times a night and the other has been waking up around 5:30/6 each morning, so I've been tired.

I was right on track, finishing the dishes by about 7:30pm.  Headed downstairs to continue the scenario I started the day before.  I was sure I wouldn't beat the scenario, but I had still accomplished enough tasks to retire another character, so I was ok with losing and heading back to town to do that.  Well, at around the 8:00pm mark I realized that I had a real chance of getting to the treasure chest AND defeating the scenario.  So, I couldn't just stop, right?

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Retire, Definitely Retire!

Playing Gloomhaven is kind of like watching an amazing TV show or reading a gripping book series that none of your friends have read.  You really want to talk to them about all of the plot twists and characters and evil villains, but you can't!  Sure, they might not watch the show or read the books, but they might and you don't want to spoil it for them.  And if they DO watch it sometime, they'll HATE you for spoiling it!  Prime example - I'm reading Harry Potter right now.  I've never read them and I have no idea about the plot twists and endings (I've been under a rock).  If someone ruined it for me now, I'd die!

Last night was a momentous night in Gloomhaven.  I won't spoil anything that isn't mentioned in the rule book or in the starting characters, but it was a doozy!

Monday, December 4, 2017

"This Girl is On Fire!"

As is becoming a regular occurrence lately, Logan and his wife Jenn came over for a games night.  My wife, Sharayah, has been enjoying and asking for these nights more and more.  It's great to spend so much time with her brother and plus she's really starting to enjoy the gaming side of things too (I think she's more of a Eurogamer than I am...).  Last night we played Kingdomino, Barenpark, and The Pursuit of Happiness.  And Sharayah, she was a game-wrecking machine!

First up - Kingdomino.  I've posted about this game before.  It's a short game, about 15 minutes, where you draft different tiles to build your kingdom.  Matching tiles that are connected multiply your points.  The more star tiles you have also multiply your points.

I chose this game to play because it's short and sweet and I know Sharayah likes it.  The fact that I had won two games of it last week had nothing to do with it...  Anyway, things seemed to be going well.  
Yes, Bugles were consumed this night.  And copious amounts of cinnamon bun Oreos.

Friday, December 1, 2017

To Retire or Not to Retire?

I'm going to try and keep this as spoiler free as possible, but I'm facing my first major dilemma playing Gloomhaven.  When you create a character you receive a life goal.  When your life goal is completed, your character retires.  They've fulfilled their purpose in Gloomhaven, their mercenary days are over.  When a character has retired, they are done.  Yes, you can create a new character from that same class, but that specific character has lived out their adventure.

I have two characters nearing retirement, although in two completely different ways.  I've only played three characters thus far, and I've grown quite attached to them.  They're a good team.  They work well together.  If one or two of them were to retire and leave the group, how would a new member fit in?  Both of these characters are level four and one is about ready to go to level four.  They already have upgrade skills, stats, and items.  Do I want them to leave me in the lurch now?  Leave their one level one teammate all alone?

But, on the other hand, the main way to open all of those mysterious boxes and envelopes in my gigantic Gloomhaven box is to retire characters!  When these two retire I get to open an envelope and a new character.  How exciting!  What will be in that envelope?  A new mission?  A new set of rules for the world?  Treasure?  What will the new character be like?  How will they fit in with my playing style?  What skills and talents and goals will they bring with them?

This is the beauty of Gloomhaven.  I am emotionally attached to Geeple, Kezkah, and Kenna (you can hate the names, but don't make fun of them - I'm very sensitive).  They've been through some crazy adventures together.  They've taken down some big bad guys.  There is a whole lot of game left for them to explore and they won't be able to do it together.  Playing Gloomhaven you can't help but feel invested in the characters, the scenarios, the world.  I know I am.

But the question remains: to retire or not to retire?