We Do Still Play

Well I last posted in March, we're almost in October, by my maths (math for Americans) that's over half a year! So appologies, excuses and reasons abound. We hope to do a little better in the future, let's call this a wip.

In the past almost seven months there has been a lot of gaming and modelling though. The Highlights include Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, Sushi Go Party, over 6000 points of 40k built, and about half of that finished painted and based, some AoS & 40k has been played, the Marvel Super Hero game was tried out and we've completed all four scenarios in Mansions of Madness 2nd. Ed.

On top of that Mari's broken a finger, we've been to Disney World, Sweden, Cornwall and Stavanger. Life has been great, and now I'm just starting on my #Dreadtober and Tim has recently gifted me Destiny to try out (Level 17 Titan already).

I'll be in touch again soon, some details about all of the models I've been building and painting and a few photos of some of the games played.  

A Splendid New Year - Splendor Review

Over the New Year Tim introduced us to a new game, Splendor. With threes tiers of cards, half a dozen resources and a few 'Nobles' to offer patronage the game is a simple affair that offers plenty of things to think about and reasons to worry about what your opponents will be getting up to in their turns.      

"Splendor is a game of chip-collecting and card development. Players are merchants of the Renaissance trying to buy gem mines, means of transportation, shops—all in order to acquire the most prestige points. If you're wealthy enough, you might even receive a visit from a noble at some point, which of course will further increase your prestige."                                   - Back of Box

 

Tim picked up Splendor for us to try as an alternative to Dominion, we'd played that a number of times over the past few years and although we'd enjoyed it we always felt like it wasn't quite the game we wanted. I'm sure it was just us but games often boiled down to who picked up that little extra gold in the late mid-game, fun but not quite right. 

 

The main trick in Splendor is that you only get one action per turn, this means plenty of stress as whilst you feel you have so little effect on the board each round your opponents seem to have completely changed the state of affairs by the time it comes back round to you. Your choice of action each turn revolves around choosing to take resources (coloured chips representing gems and gold) or spend them on assets (cards representing trade routes, shops or mines, etc.). Each card provides one resource you can use each turn too, allowing you to pay for more and more expensive assets.

Eventually a player will win by having the most prestige at the end of the round where at least one player reaches 15 prestige. Prestige is collected from assets, the cards have values from 0-5 on, or patronage of nobles (a reward for having varied asset types in quantity). This building up of a buying engine makes for a slow and steady start followed by a scarily fast rush towards the finish as all players reach a point where the cheapest and even some of the better cards become free purchases and the board is in a state of constant flux. 

 

The simple design and clear colours make Splendor feel very in touch with its theme; something that we consider a big bonus to our games. It's of no surprise to me to see how many awards and nominations it received in the year of its launch (2014) and for only £25 or so it's great value in the money to hours ratio. Whilst there isn't a lot of content inside of the (way too big) box it all feels very nice quality and shouldn't get too easily destroyed. 

 

I'd be happy to recommend Splendor to anyone who thinks they may be interested, and if you're really on the fence there is also an app version that is apparently very good and accurate for only a couple of quid (£1.99). We were certainly very happy with our New Years Eve entertainment. 

Jay Played: 2015 in Review

2015 was a good gaming year for me, we tried out plenty of new games, many with a Star Wars theme, played a good bit of some classics like Pandemic, Dominion and Dice Masters and finally tried out 7th ed. of Warhammer 40k.

I record all my games played on Board Game Geek which is a great feature. I not only know what and when I've played games but also note down who wins and who played etc, really fun to look back at, I have stats going back to 2012. This doesn't include time spent painting and building models or sat in front of the computer gaming. So beyond what I have here I've also been working on my Dark Angels and Mentor Legion Space Marines and played a lot of Shadowrun games from Harebrained Schemes and Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, an amazing group computer game.

Here is the list of 2015's games

Clearly up in the #1 spot is D&D, my group played all the way through the beta test for DnD Next and then at the end of 2014 we started playing the Horde of the Dragon Queen adventure module. It's been great fun, we've at this point only one character remaining from the original party after some killer DM weeks in a row and have a feeling of dread as we move in to the next module of the campaign. The last few sessions of the year have been a break from the Forgotten Realms with a classic Ravenloft adventure updated to 5th ed.



The five games of Muskets & Tomahawks were all in one evening. We were playing small 200pt games (about 20 men per side), of French vs. British in the Peninsular Wars  the games were fast, bloody, fun and amazingly narrative. I'm really looking forward to finishing the two starter forces I started last year and playing more of this great game.

My biggest regrets of the year have been only getting in the one game of Bolt Action (we gave the Tank Battle rules a try) and three games of 40k. I came to the 7th. Ed. party late but am quite impressed now I've tried it. Finding the time to play miniature games is hard, but I hope to manage a little more of it in '16. 

Not a game we'll bother with again

When it come to Star Wars gaming the Fantasy Flight Games rpg has been the best of a great bunch. I've GM'd the three times I've played and really enjoyed the way the rules allow for anything to happen and really embrace the "Yes, and/No, but" attitude to roleplaying I like. On top of the great rules we have beautiful rule books and an amazing community (The Order 66 podcast and twitter are great places for support) that make it such a fun game. 

Heroic Dark Angels & wip Mentors

I hope you've all played loads of great games last year and have a ton of fun memories from doing so, please share, comment with what you've played most, what you wished you'd played more or what your best game of the year has been. Hope to hear from you, good luck over the next 365 days.