The Order is in

Well I am eagerly awaiting a friends return from Vegas, why?
Because he has a bumper load of games for me

Command & Colors : Ancients
Race for the Galaxy
Twilight Struggle
Poison

Three great games and one that's ok (but for the kids, honest). All games that have been high on my wishlist for some time but the cost has put me off. All in £64 which is great as Ancients alone is £40+ in rip of Britain.

Now I just have to wait for his return.

Pandemic Averted

This week I was sent up North for business so managed to make some time to meet up with Earthquake and JohnnyB at the Coventry Scimitar club.

We played a few different games, I brought along Pandemic which went well. We managed to win but only with 3 player cards left. Unusually we only had 2 outbreaks so it wasn't the most tense game I have played.

We didn't have enough time for another monster game after that so Neil opened up his games bag and brought out Race for the Galaxy, Colloretto and Poison. Race for the Galaxy is a great game but I am only just getting the hang of it. Needless to say I was whupped.
Coloretto was fun, and always a blast to play. Poison was new to me and although it was a bit over produced played well. It's been added to my wish list.

All in a good evening of play, and I should be back in Coventry in a months time.

A New Cold War

I finally managed to get to play Twilight Struggle in the week and what a game. It was absolutely brilliant and even though it took nearly four hours to play I enjoyed every minute of it.

Its a two player game where each player takes the role of either the USA or the USSR. You then play cards over a number of rounds to apply influence to the countries of the world. Certain cards then score the areas and whoever has the most control gets the most points.
Sounds easy enough but when the cards you have can also help your opponent its sometimes tricky to know what to play.

Throw in a space race, coup's and a decreasing defcon status and it all adds up to a fantastic game.

The worst thing about this game is the cost. You don't get a huge amount for your money and they definitely didn't go all out for a great looking board. But if you can get over that its a game worth playing.

An icy wind blows in Arkham

With the road to legend taking a break, well its not really started our Thursday night group decided to give Arkham Horror a go. It's a very good if difficult game set firmly in the Cthulhu Mythos.

The intrepid investigators of myself, Romeo and Gornad took our heroes through a whirlwind game. It's been a while since we have played it so rules and player aids were well used. We were doing ok until a rumors card appeared and with it 5 monsters in the university. If we had of kept these in check all would have been ok but when this particular card got to 8 monsters all hell breaks loose. Needless to say it did and with a terrror level of 10 hitting Arkham the shops shut and the monster limit went out the window.

We struggled on and managed to close 4 gates before the great one, Ithaqua made his presence felt. We struggled on and managed to get him down to 3 tokens before he managed to consume Gornads struggling salesman.

Good game but next time we need to stay on top of things.

The Road to Legend hits another snagg

I was all set for Descent last night, but a few of the guys dropped out. Other commitments and communication problems abound.

In the end it was just myself and Romeo and rather than call it off we pulled out a bunch of two player games to fill the void.

First up was Battleline, I love this game but I am crap at it. I lost two games to Romeo.
Next up was Battlelore, armed with my newly painted heacy infantry I managed to win both games. We played scanrio 5 which introduces lore to the mix. Romeo has the game but has never used lore so was quite keen to give it a go. I enjoy Battlelore, its a great game nad my recent online exploits have helped me out with a few tactics.

To round off the evening we played Jambo, a new game to Romeo and one that I have forgotten about. Its a nice card game that plays like a CCG but without being collectable. I lost after handing over a card that allows the player to buy and sell at a better price. Doh!

I have noticed that Play.com has teh new WOW: The Adventure Game for £17.99 and i'm tempted. I love my Runebound but find it a bit long and this looks like a shorter and a more interactive game. Will have to see how the month goes.

Follow the yellow brick road

Tonight if the planets are alligned we will be kicking off a game of Descent : The road to legend. Its been planned for a couple of months now but we have had problems getting everyone in the same place at the same time. Fingers crossed this will happen tonight.

I have not played Descent yet, its always appealed, but the price tag hasn't. Although now I have seen what you get I could be converted. It looks like a great dungeon crawl of a game and after playing its older brother Doom I quite like the rules set.

So hopefully tomorrow I can post a report on what happened in our first campaign.

Gaming has generally been a bit slow the last week, I was absolutely thrashed in the first round of the Shotten Totten tourney by Harry the Lime. Hopefully next round won't be so bad. Battlelore against Steerpike and Earthquake continues, although we are now using lore or the hundred year wars expansions to add a little more to the game.
I am desperate to get Agricola out again and have a good game. I have thought about the game a bit and have a few strategies I would like to try out, but thats going to have to wait a week or two I fear.

I have also managed to paint all but 4 of the heavy infantry from my Battlelore set, the volume of medium infantry is still causing sleep issues so next up will be some archers.

Anyway, I need to sharpen my broadsword and find Pico ready for tonight.

Earth Elemental

I have been getting back into Battlore recently, mainly as its pretty easy toget a game up on Vassal. My main opponents are Steerpike and Earthquake. Both of which are giving me a sound beating.

I blame the dice.

Anyway, I didn't preorder the original game so didn't get the promo figures of the hill giant or earth elemental. I have been looking for a suitable replacement for both and found this one on ebay.

Its the Loyal Earth Elemental from a D&D collectable mini's game. It's maybe a little bit too big but its better than nothing. The cards are available on the net as images, a quick google will find them. So I'm now ready to give him a go.

Next up is a replacement for the hill giant, better start googling.