Skip navigation

CotC – Thursday AM

So Steve and I are off and running to CotC and I thought I’d post about how not to prepare for a convention!

First, it’s important to know that Steve and I have so much gaming stuff, we can’t fit it all at our houses (because we also have too much non-gaming stuff). So, our friend Ben has volunteered his basement and garage for storing our terrain and odds and ends. Ben also builds and repairs our terrain. And we also play Savage Worlds at his house now so it all works out well.

Anyway, as usual, I waited until the last minute to think about what I’d need. I grabbed everything I thought I’d need at the last game night at Ben’s but realized on Tuesday that I didn’t have everything. So I went to Ben’s that night and picked up my combat cases (large reinforced bags to carry miniatures and terrain).

Then Wednesday, as I’m typing up my game (herein lies the problem) and putting all my minis together, I couldn’t find a mini that was kind of critical for my game. I could always use a substitute, but I knew I had the perfect mini somewhere and I really wanted to use it. Anyway, I called up Ben to have him check to see if I’d left it at his house somehow and sure enough it was there. Well, that was like 8pm on Wednesday and I didn’t want to get dressed and go out, so I was just going to live without it.

On Thursday morning, I got up early and while in the shower, I thought I should call Ben and have him put those minis out on his porch and I would swing by and get them. Unfortunately, Ben’s house is in the opposite direction of I-70. In order to get to Norm’s game at CotC on time, we figured we had to leave no later than 8am and we wanted to leave earlier to make sure we had time for lunch. But with the detour to Ben’s it’s looking like we will be late to Norm’s game. Sorry Norm! It’s all my fault!

Last Place Aversion

Yep. Our “If you can’t be first, don’t be last” mantra apparently has a name:  Last Place Aversion.

“Our work suggests that people exhibit a fundamental loathing for being near or in last place – what we call “last place aversion.” This fear can lead people near the bottom of the income [point]  distribution to oppose [point] redistribution because it might allow people at the very bottom to catch up with them or even leapfrog past them.”

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=occupy-wall-street-psychology

Or otherwise known as “Harrison’s Law”.

Zombie Apocalypse Session 3

GM: Mike Byrd

Harry Babcock, lawyer (Steve)
Bill O’Malley, fireman (Mike)
Luke “Channel 13” Deering, news anchorman (Ben)
Vladimir Vasilevich, car mechanic (Owen)

A lot happened during this week’s Savage zombie apocalypse game. Let’s see if I can remember it all.

Since we were loaded up with guns, ammo, and fuel we decided to hike down the street to the supermarket and get some food. There were zombies loitering outside the police station. We killed them again. As we approached the supermarket the zombies closed in. A man ran out from the supermarket and began helping us against the undead. A large battle ensued. It’s amazing how satisfying it is to shoot a zombie in the head with a shotgun. Although my shooting skill rolls were less than effective. How many 2’s can a guy roll? Apparently a lot. Vladimir was nearly bitten again. He continues to fight off the zombie infection from the first bite…but for how long? I’ve got my eye on him, just in case.

After dispatching the zombies in the immediate area we all entered the supermarket and met Nathan and his wife. They told us of a kid holed up in the arcade across the street. Bill O’Malley, being the heroic one of us all, ran over to save him. I searched the supermarket and discovered the smart car they were planning to give away as a promotion. I worked on getting that ready for our escape. Never mind that it could only hold three people.

I think that Channel 13 helped O’Malley recue the kid. It turned out to be good that O’Malley is heroic. The kid he saved was his 8-year old son, Frank.

Nathan and his wife also have a vehicle so now we’ll have a little convoy to our next destination. Wherever that is. Oh, and O’Malley finally got the ax he’s been whining about. He used to good effect against the undead horde, so I guess it’s a good thing. Channel 13 got some hair jell so he’s happy. Vlad just looks happy to be alive although the bite on his arm is still a fiery red. I’d better keep back one shotgun shell…just in case.

Harry Babcock

7 Wonders

We played 7 Wonders again this week. 7 Wonders is primarily a card game, but plays like a board game. Each player receives a board showing their civilization and what is need to build their particular wonder. Along the way you play cards that represent materials and buildings. Some cards take effect immediate, while others become important later in the game. Many cards give you benefits throughout the game. One important thing to note about the game is that after you choose a card to play, you pass the remaining deck to another player. This means that not only are you looking to play good cards for yourself, but also may want to keep cards that might otherwise help your opponents.

We played four games in about three hours. In the first game I became kingmaker. This is, thanks to something I did, I helped Owen win the game. What I did was pass him a card at the end of the game that garnered him a few victory points and a few gold. This became very important when at the end of the game he and Mike were tied for the win at 48 points. The tiebreaker is gold. Owen had two more gold pieces than Mike. I came in third with 43 and Ben was last with 42 points.

I crushed them in the second game with 55 points. Owen, in second place, had 47 points. Mike had 46 and Ben came in last with 42 points—just like last game. We mentioned to Ben that it is unlikely that he will win unless he gets more than 42 points. He listened to us in the third game.

In the third game, first, second, and third places were decided by a single point. Ben, taking our advice, got 56 points and came in first. I was second with 55 points and Owen was third with 54 points. Mike got a dismal 47 points and came in dead last. But Mike learned a few things that he decided to put into play during the next game. His new strategy worked out very well for him.

In our last game it was obvious that Owen was going for straight victory points. By that I mean playing building cards that granted him no other benefit other than providing straight victory points. Mike was after artifacts. Artifact victory points can go up almost exponentially. The key is to get a lot of the right types of artifacts. Mike did this exceptionally well. (I blame Owen for not watching him more closely.)  MIKE CRUSHED US getting the highest game total ever; beating out any previous high total by close to 20 points! Mike made up for all of his previous poor showings by getting an amazing 75 points! Ben (surprisingly) came in second with 52 points. Owen had 51 points and I had an embarrassing 41 points. (Let’s not mention how Mike nearly doubled my points.)

I had seven pages of charts and diagrams showing the various statistical data from our games. I would have loved to have upload them, but Mike still hasn’t figured out why we can no longer upload images. Oh well you’ll just have to imagine just how cool they were.

Chaos Steve

Sum of
Score		 Game
Player Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 Game 4 Grand Total
Ben 42 42 56 52 192
Mike 48 46 47 75 216
Owen 48.2 47 54 51 200.2
Steve 43 55 55 41 194
Grand Total 181.2 190 212 219 802.2

 

Average
of Score
Player Total
Ben 48
Mike 54
Owen 50.05
Steve 48.5
Grand Total 50.1375

 

 

 

 

Zombie Apocalypse Session 2

GM: Mike Byrd

Harry Babcock, lawyer (Steve)
Bill O’Malley, fireman (Mike)
Luke “Channel 8? Deering, news anchorman (Ben)
Vladimir Vasilevich, car mechanic (Owen)

During tonight’s zombie apocalypse game, Bill O’Malley finally changes out of his hospital gown and into some real clothes…formerly worn by a now dead zombie. For the rest of the character’s this was a step up for O’Malley. Channel 8 also gives up his beloved chair that he’s been using as a weapon.

Tonight was also the “Assault on Precinct 13” session. Although a more apt name would be “Assault in Precinct 13” as there was plenty of assaulting going on inside the police station as we alternated between running from zombies and running to zombies to kill them. I must say I think Channel 8 did a lot of the former.

We entered the police station. The lobby was clear of undead, but over the small counter area we could see and hear zombies shuffling around in the back rooms. O’Malley led the charge over the counter into the next room. There were only three zombies in the room, but they were hard to put down. The good news was that a couple of them were undead cops that still had holstered side arms. The bad news is that I can’t hit the broad side of a barn with a pistol. One zombie when down piece by piece as Channel 8 repeatedly hit it with his chair. Once the zombies were dead we scrounged for useful items. There were a lot of zombies in the large cell at the very back of the police station, but since they were restrained, we weren’t worried about them.  Later, when we heard the loud clang of the cell door hitting the floor, we wished we would have worried a little more about them. Channel 8 And I thought this would be the perfect time to blow the taco stand. Unfortunately O’Malley wanted what was behind a locked door at the back of the station.

Channel 8 and I headed out the front door only to discover we’d never closed the front door and now zombies were getting in. We could have made it free, but where would we have gone? Channel 8 and I glanced at each other, shook our heads in disgust, and headed back into police station to save O’Malley and Vladimir. But not before we made sure the front doors were closed and locked. It turned out that O’Malley and Vladimir weren’t in such dire straits after all. They had formed a choke point at the entrance to the cell area. Vladimir was valiantly defending himself while zombie after zombie fell to O’Malley’s knife. When Channel 8 and I arrived, there were only three zombies left. Using O’Malley’s gun I managed to kill one of them—a freak occurrence. The rest were mopped up by O’Malley.

The locked door at the back of the police station beckoned. And O’Malley answered. Picking the lock he opened the door and reveled…a room packed full of zombies! Ok, just kidding. It was the station’s weapon’s locker. We loaded up on shotguns, grenades, pistols, ammo, and two-way radios. We also did some more scrounging and emptied out the vending machine of food. We decided to spend the night in our new little fort not knowing what new horrors the morrow would bring.

Tonight’s Zombie Count: O’Mally: 6, Harry: 4, Vlad and Channel 8: 0.

Chaos Steve

Colonia

Owen picked up a game called Colonia during the last few moments of this year’s Gen Con. He got this $65 game for $15. (BTW, there is a deluxe version that sells for $99.)  Colonia comes in a big box with lots of gaming bits inside. The bits are all high quality card stock and wood. The board is good size and fits together much like a giant jigsaw puzzle. The game itself follows the familiar concept of buying raw materials, using the raw materials to produce goods, shipping those goods to earn money, and then using the money to buy artifacts. It’s the artifacts that give you your victory points and he with the most victory points at the end of the game wins. The game is played over six weeks, each week having seven days and each day has it’s on task to be done. Each player also has a limited number of family members (38) that can be assigned to tasks on each day during the week. Managing your family is essential, as we will see later.

The game also uses four different currencies: Pound Sterling, Grivna, Mark, and Gulden. All of the artifacts fall into the same four currency categories. You can only buy an artifact with its matching currency.

Colonia has a few fun game mechanics. Everyone has bid cards with the values of 3 through 8 on them. Each turn the players select a bid card to signify their turn order during the coming week. You can only use a specific card once during the game. You also have to dedicate the same number of family members as the number on the card. If you don’t have enough family members, you card number is 0 and you do not vote on any special occurrences during the days of that week. During each day of the week you assign your family members to their various tasks. It’s after you do this for a day that you get back the family members you assigned last week. So, as I said earlier, managing your family is critical.

Our game ran about three hours. Normal playing time is 120 minutes, but you end up spending a lot of time deliberating over how to manage your family. We liked the game. The rules are easy, but there is a lot of strategy in what you do during each day of the week that finally earns you that much needed money. Going first is good. You get first choice during each of the day’s tasks.

So what happened during our game? The game seemed to run pretty smoothly for everyone. Some weeks you did well and some weeks you faltered. Shipping goods became paramount. Only one player can fill a cargo hold with goods, so any other players who had those goods were left keeping goods they would have rather shipped. On the fifth week, I ran out of family members during turn order selection. That meant I was going last. It wasn’t a good week for me at all, but on the up side I had lots of family members for the last week—the week where all of the ships in the harbor would pay off with money. Through no planning on my own, I got to go first. This happened because both Mike and Ben didn’t have enough family members left to cover their turn order card, so they went last. Owen and I tied, but since I was after him on the previous turn, I got to go before him on this turn. This simple turn of the events gave me a huge boost–just what I needed to win the game. Of course, I didn’t realize it at the time. I thought Ben was going to win. At the end of the game I had 24 points which was enough to win. Owen had 19 points. Ben had 18 and Mike came in last with 14.

Over the years me winning the first time we play a game has come to be known as “The First Game Syndrome.” I think Ben, Owen, and Mike did this to ease the shame of losing to me. It doesn’t happen as much as it used to, but then I’m playing against the best. But they are just a few guys you kno… I said they are the best!

Chaos Steve

Zombie Apocalypse Session 1

GM: Mike Byrd

Harry Babcock, lawyer (Steve)
Bill O’Malley, fireman (Mike)
Luke “Channel 8” Deering, news anchorman (Ben)
Vladimir Vasilevich, car mechanic (Owen)

Like so many pre-zombie apocalypse movies about the zombie apocalypse, we awoke in a hospital with no one around. Each in our own room. Each unknown to the others. And just like those movies, the hospital was infested with the undead. This area that had, at my last memory, been a safe zone was now a deathtrap. For the life of me I can’t remember where I am–some island off the coast of Maine I think. I quickly got dressed in my street clothes and began eating a jell-o cup I found nearby. Then I peeked outside. Several zombies were aimlessly walking around in the hallways. I could see the elevator, but couldn’t reach it without encountering one or more of the undead.

Suddenly a man pushed his way into my room. He was well-dressed and well-groomed. I figured him for a drug salesman. It was worse. He said his name was Luke Deering from channel 8 news. My new partner was an anchorman. Not exactly survivor material if you ask me, but here we were thrown together by fate. Channel 8 grabbed a chair like it was the only thing keeping him alive. Good thing too as the zombies nearly broke their way in. I made a brake for the elevator only to realize that by the time it reached our floor we’d both be brain sucking zombies ourselves. I made for the stairs. Channel 8 followed me.

On the stairs I ran past another man, still in his hospital gown. He was holding a fire extinguisher. He looked competent enough, but I was in a hurry to find a weapon and to get out of there. I ran out into the zombie filled lobby. I’m pretty sure Channel 8 was following me—still holding on to the chair. Once outside of the hospital, I spotted some parked cars. I was lucky enough to salvage a tire iron out of one of the car’s trunk. That’s when I see this guy walking on a window ledge three flights up. As he gets to the corner of the building, he begins to climb down the downspout. I realize this guy has the kind of balls it takes to survive in this new world. Just then his luck ran out. The downspout broke away from the building and he landed hard on the ground. He popped right up, but the undead had already smelled him. They closed in and the guy was surrounded. I wanted to help, but I doubted my tire iron could take out three zombies. Besides, I had a zombie of my own to worry about.

I was sick of running, so I hit the poor bastard in the head with my tire iron. The zombie’s head split like a melon. It was very satisfying. I heard the sound of a helicopter and saw it pass overhead. I thought we might be saved, but all they did was open up on the zombies surrounding the poor guy from the third floor. He made a run for it and we both jumped into a nearby car. He hot-wired the car and we both discovered the car had been drained of gas. Crap.

I heard of the sound of glass breaking. Not long after we see Channel 8 running around the corner of the hospital, still holding his chair. Behind him lumbered a few bullet ridden zombies. Those suckers are hard to put down for long. My new friend in the car said his name was Vlad and I caught of hint of his Russian accent. I also noticed the bite on his shoulder. That could mean trouble later. We both leaped from the car and decided to hightail it to the police station. We were going to need some serious firepower to survive for long here.

About that time I see the guy in the hospital gown come out from behind the far corner of the hospital. He was running too. He was still carrying his fire extinguisher, but had also picked up a knife. I knew that guy would find a way to survive. As we all ran to the police station, I found out his name was Bill O’Malley. Looks like the lot of us are going to try to make out of here together.

One thing is for sure though. I’m going to make it.

Harry Babcock

Pirates Game – Epilogue

Excerpt from Nickolas’ Diary… Epilogue….

Life with the tribe is good! Not a care in the world! Well, may be one or two, but the weather is great!!
Tomorrow is my 16th wedding! She is a beauty of course. Also happens to be the 4th daughter of neighboring tribe, which should help smooth over some “disagreements” we have been having over the last few weeks.
Lost count of the number of kids… 28 I think? As well the usual local names, couldn’t resist naming a few after my old comrades: Duncan, Buck, Thomas, Winnie, and yes, Desmond.
Still see Seaman Bob now and then. He says he doesn’t intrude when he shouldn’t, but I am not really convinced… But what of the old crew? Last I heard, Buck did marry Elizabeth and lives back in England on the family estate –
doing very well for himself and is now a Lord. Who’d of thought he would settle down and be a savvy investor? Mind you, he did steal Duncan’s loot and have him committed. I always said he was a mean bugger. A bit of a shame really – I liked Desmond! What can I say about Thomas… the Captain of The Black Prince! He has made quite a reputation (and fortune) for himself – “The Scourge of the Carribean” – especially for the French! That musket of his must have killed over 100 Frenchies by now! His bounty is up to 100,000 – I hope he stays away from Buck.
I still have my share of the treasure buried where no one can find it. It has little value here, but who knows what the future holds?
I see a sail in the distance… I do believe that’s Winnie’s ship! This may be a little awkward now with the wives and all, but I can’t resist her charms!!!
Fini!

Dominion

This week we played Dominion; an expandable card game where each player is trying to increase his dominion over his surroundings thus gaining victory points. This game has been around for a while and has a plethora of expansions. We played with the base set. It comes with 500 cards, but you don’t use them all at one time in the game. For each game, you decide which cards to play with. One interesting aspect of the game is that the victory point cards actually are a hindrance during game play. Each turn you start with only five cards to play. If any of those are victory point cards, they are useless and take up a spot where a more valuable card could have been.

The games go pretty quick and we were able to get four games done in three hours. Ben had played Dominion before with some other gaming friends, so he was very familiar with the game. He offered a lot of suggestions and comments during the games. We mostly ignored him, but occasionally he was right on the money. Mike quickly became the action card king and he played numerous combos that allowed him to play card after card. Owen had big trouble in a least two games. In one game his number of coins (used to buy other cards) was low, so he couldn’t buy victory points like the rest of us. The most wanted victory point card cost eight coins. Owen quickly became known for being able to get seven coins—always one short. In a later game he just fell on hard times and his cards where not kind to him. Even with all these problems he was last only once.

Here are the scores from the games:

Game 1: Ben 38, Steve 34, Mike 32, Owen 22
Game 2: Mike 25, Owen 24, Ben 22, Steve 22
Game 3: Steve 34, Ben 31, Owen 28, Mike 24
Game 4: Ben 36, Owen 33, Steve 28, Mike 28

Poor Owen was second twice, but couldn’t quite pull out a win.

Next time we’ll have to mix in some cards from the expansion sets and see how it goes.

Chaos Steve

Fortune and Glory: The Cliffhanger Game

This last weekend Wayne Grelle (Inferno on the PEG forums) invited us over to his house to play Fortune and Glory: The Cliffhanger Game. As the name implies, it’s a game of cliffhanger movie pulp action as the players (as adventurers) race around the board uncovering ancient artifacts to gain fortune and glory. Along the way each adventurer encounters dangers that, if they overcome them, also grant them glory. The dangers are overcome by making tests against the adventurer’s skills. If you fail at overcoming a danger, you flip the danger card over to the “cliffhanger” side. This is where the adventurer stays until his next turn when he tries to overcome the cliffhanger. The Glory gained from dangers is used as currency to buy gear and allies. There are also event cards in the game that help the adventurer along the way. The easiest way to get these is if you roll a ‘1’ during the initiative or movement phase. The adventurer that reaches 15 Fortune and gets to his home city first, wins the game.

Wayne’s family (Michelle, his wife; Nick, his son; and Bea, Nick’s girlfriend) had already played the games many times. Mike and I were newbies. Fortunately the game is pretty easy to pick up and soon we were both globetrotting in search of artifacts. Each adventurer’s turn goes very fast and we quickly learned how important Event cards, Gear, and Allies are to overcome the various dangers encountered while artifact hunting. A few of the Event cards can be used to undermine the other adventurers as well. There’s nothing like having an adventurer (that is not you) turn in his artifact only to find out it’s a fake. This happened to me as I turned my only artifact of the game. Wayne hit me with an Event card that made it worthless. (Curse you Wayne!) Bea won the game and I ended up with not a single Fame point.

Then we played again. This game went completely different from the first game. Bea’s dice went stone cold and she struggled the entire game to overcome dangers and recover artifacts. Everyone else was doing their globetrotting best to gain Fortune and Glory. As the game drew to an end, Nick and Mike were neck-and-neck. Both had enough Fortune to win and both were sitting on their home city at the end of the turn. It turned out that Nick had one more Fortune that Mike and that was enough to win the game.

A couple of other things to mention about this game is that is has both a competitive and cooperative game mode. You can also play teams in the competitive mode. Eight total players can play which makes the game great for large groups.

Chaos Steve