Saturday, March 13, 2010

Iconica


Latest game ordered is Iconica. A post of the Geek Dad feed brought the game to my attention and the artwork really stood out. I have ordered a copy of the base game along with some extra cards to save on teh postage.
I must admit it was a bit of an impulse buy, I know very little about the game but the artwork is worth a look. Guys on the geek seem to like it and for the cost its worth a punt. I will be on the lookout for some larger prints of this if it goes well.

Other gaming has been Kids of Carcassonne with the boys. It's a very good version of the game simplified for young ones. Still enough in there to give them something to think about without overloading them with rules.

No other gaming planned for this week, so Yucata will have to sate my appetite for victory points.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Black Ops

Netrunner was played last night and it was great. Just as good as I remembered it and I am now ready to get the rest of my cards out the loft and start sifting through them building decks to play.
I played Corps first and managed to score the win. I was very lucky in that the runner didn't harass me even though I only have a couple of pieces of ice defending my forts. When he did break into my HQ I had 4 agendas in my hand and he missed them all. Systematic layoff allowed me to quickly score an agenda to win the round.
Next up I was the runner and I ran and ran. HQ and R&D were constantly hit and inside jobs allowed me to sneak past the first level of ice. I was knocked back a few times but at the cost of the corp paying up loads of bits to rez his ice. A few lucky runs on R&D and I had 7 points of agendas and it was game over.

A good pair of games that helped bring the rules back from a dormant part of my brain. REady for another.

The evening finished off with more card games. Battleline is a favorite and I won that one due to some lucky card play. We didn't play with the tactics cards, I admit I am not a great fan of them. We also played a game of Jambo, this time playing as African traders. Won that one as well, I had a good evening. Jambo always suprises me, sometimes I dismiss it as its a card game but there is a bit more to it than its "filler" status in my mind.

So from Alexander the great to Crash Everret, Inventive fixer all in one night.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Hidden Agenda


I'm a sucker for cyberpunk, give me Snowcrash or Neuromancer to read and I'm a happy man. When I heard about Netrunner back in the 90's it was as if they had made a game for me. I was heavily into Magic at the time and a Cyberpunk based CCG filled with hackers against corp was music to me ears. I remember taking a trip to London on launch day and grabbing starter decks and boosters then reading the rules on the train back home.
The game was brilliant, it fitted the world very well and the rules were simple and elegant. Needless to say it was played again and again. Boosters were bought and around singles were swapped using new technology called email and newsgroups. I even travelled to play in some sealed tournaments organised by newsgroups. My £20 a month pipex account was well used then.
The first expansion came out out, Proteus and I travelled to Brighton to pick up a box of boosters. I have never bought a box of boosters before or since, I was that enthralled with the game.

Then the news of it being dropped hit. Why! its such a great game, but the market was being saturated with CCG's. I was buying Xfiles, Mech Warrior, Star Wars, L5R and others but none came close to using Black Dahlia on that ice infested run.

I haven't played Netrunner for a few years now. It occasionally hit the table after a bit of nostalgic banter and this Wednesday sees it rise again from the ashes. Decks have been sorted, rules have been read. Hopefully Wednesday will involve some good games, that said the fact that Netrunner is going to be played means there will.