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Sentinels of the Multiverse, Railways through Time, and Merchants

sentinels of the multiverse
Back on July 3rd we got together and played Sentinels of the Multiverse with Ben and Owen. Mike and I really like this game. Mike used the Sentinels app on his phone to randomly generate the Villain, Environment, and Heroes we would be playing with.

The first game was brutal…for us, the heroes. The environment was extremely harsh and we were constantly battling it more than the villain. We were doomed and we knew it. The villain beat us…badly.

The next game went quite differently. Ben played a superhero whose powers could deal with nasty environmental surprises along with handily taking care of the villain’s cohorts. I don’t want to make it seem like Ben’s character won the day for us. It was a team effort. I only point out Ben’s involvement because he was actually helpful. The superhero team won. Then we destroyed a large metropolitan city.

railways through time
July 4th is Mike Byrd’s birthday. The entire country celebrates it. We took this opportunity to meet at Mike’s house and play a few games. (Evil Mike missed this one. He was at the Lakes.)

Ben brought along a new train game called Railways through Time. The game has the same general rules as Railway Tycoon (and all of the spinoffs.) The boards for each time period are small, containing only 5 to 8 cities at best. BUT you can run track into the various time warp hexes and emerge in any other time warp hex in any other time zone. This forces your strategy for delivering cubes to be a lot different from the other versions of the game. During setup, you get to pick which boards you want to use during the game. You get one more board than there are players. There are also new railroad operation cards specifically for the time periods.

Our first game found us struggling to get use to the whole travel-through-time-to-different-boards mechanic. Or as Ben put it, “thinking 4th dimensionally.” I thought I might do well in this game thinking forth dimensionally. I usually do terrible in the other versions. I didn’t do too badly. Owen ended up winning with 48 points. I was second with 46. Ben was a close third at 44 points. Mike, who is the reigning King of the Rails in the other versions, struggled through the game and ended up with just 26 points. It only took us two hours to play the game. So we played another…

This one went a little differently. For one, Mike was back as King of the Rails. Also, with the shipment of a single goods cube, I claimed four operation bounty cards. (Owen applauded my strategy. To which I had to confess I only knew about one of the cards.) Mike won this game with 55 points. I came in second again with 52. Owen was third with 50 points. Ben was distracted by squirrels and flashy objects and only got 39 points.

merchants
We still had some time before I needed to leave, so Mike got out a little game called Merchants. For a small game in a small box it was a lot of fun. Each player is a merchant who is buying, shipping, and selling goods to make money. Money wins you the game. You can also buy more ships and various other upgrades that help you along in the game, but those upgrades are limited. Surprisingly, to me at least, I won this game with 41 points. Ben had 37 and Owen had 35. Mike was distracted by squirrels and flashy objects and only got 23 points. (Those squirrels may have been his kids. Hard to tell, I was concentrating on the game.)

Chaos Steve

Walkers, Episode 4: Bloaters and the Black Cadillac

GM: Evil Mike McNeal
Ben (Hernandez. His parents are his dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister and sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Shane Hensley. Wife Michelle as a dependent.)
Alex (Joe Reynolds. His brother is his dependent.)

After saving my wife and three other women from the bandit compound, we all load into one of the bandit’s trucks. There are too many of us to all fit in the truck, so we hitched a trailed to the back and several of us ride in it. (Evil Mike kept reminding us that one of the bandits escaped. I’m sure we’ll never see him again.)

Traveling back we come upon a bunch of vehicles left haphazardly blocking the road. After some investigation we find the drivers and passengers have been dead for a long time. We scavenge what we can, but only Mike finds anything worthwhile. Ben decides to get the Cadillac running so we can use it too. Before he’s able to finish repairing it, we are attacked by a new type of “bloated” walker. These “bloaters” explode when wounded. We soon realize that we can’t defend the truck and trailer from the bloaters. We lose one of the women to Walker Bloat Syndrome—she swallowed some of the bloater splash. The rest of us escape from the vehicles. We hear a lot of moment coming our way from the south. We hightail it north.

The resulting chase goes well for us and we escape the walker horde. A few of us—the best of us—kill a zombie along the way. Ben then leads us into a cave. There we find out that one (or more) of the women had worked for the Banal Corporation. The Banal Corporation is generally credited with starting this whole walker infestation. (I think the corporation’s symbol is a red and white umbrella.) We pump the woman for information. She reveals that they were heading to America (we’re in Mexico) to the headquarters of the Banal Corporation. They hope to discover information on how to stop the walkers. We decide to do the same.

Oh, and Ben hears the bad news that his parents are dead. He immediately starts hitting upon the Banal women.

Chaos Steve

Walkers, Episode 3: Attack on the Compound of Walking Dead

GM: Evil Mike McNeal
Ben (Hernandez. His parents are his dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister and sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Shane Hensley. Wife Michelle as a dependent.)
Alex (Joe Reynolds. His brother is his dependent.)

We meet a new guy, Joe Reynolds, and his brother.

My wife, Michele, had wondered off during the last game. I decide that I must search for her, no matter who comes with me! (Everyone comes with me.)

We track her through the woods and come upon a benny sucking trip line. Next we come upon a small compound being used by an area gang.

I trade my empty rocket launcher for Michele.

She tells us that there are several other women being held inside. I decide that we should try to save them. I walk out hoping to trade my watch for something—this is a distraction.

Alex uses his crossbow and Owen shots his desert eagle. Owen kills his target. Alex only does two points of damage to his. I shoot the same gang member and shake him (Ben loaned me his 9 mm).

A rocket launcher pokes out at us. Alex is on hold and tries to run out of the blast area. He’s successful. We only end up taking 17 points damage. We expected much worse. Everyone survives.

Three more gang members exit the building. One fires at me and misses.

Alex gets a joker, but so does the Evil GM. Alex goes first and kills the entire group with a shot from his grenade launcher.

Then the gang opens the door to the zombie pens.

I happen to be near the gang’s vehicles. I hop in one and wedge/crash it into the pen opening.

I run into the building and free one of the women. A gang member shots from the rooftop

Mike took a wound earlier and now gets shot again taking another four wounds–he soaks two of them and ends up with only three wounds.

Evil mike gets another joker (who shuffled that deck!) and nails Ben for two wounds. Ben soaks one. He missed soaking both by a single point.

We continue our assault and I free the rest of the women.

The women and I make it to the car that mike’s driving. The women get inside. There’s no room for me. Mike doesn’t leave. He’s bleeding too badly.

Owen nails the leader, but he soaks all but one wound. The leader then turns around and nails Ben. Ben has no bennies and goes to the incapacitated table.

Alex interrupts the leader and shoots him. He doesn’t do enough damage (again).

Alex tries FOUR times with a d8 skill to hit a gang member. He needs to roll a 6. He rolls a 5 on all 4 attempts.

(My notes are a little skimpy now. What do you mean “now”!)

We get the girls, kill the gang, and return victorious to the town we use as base camp.

Chaos Steve

Through the Ages

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We recently played an epic game of Through the Ages. It took three nights, spread over 6+ weeks to complete. (We were playing the “Advanced” game—not the “full” game.) During the game there were many shouts of victory and screams of pain. I did pretty well during the early parts of the game. That soon ended though. Owen was a slow starter which is kind of normal for Owen. He then ends strongly, when it counts. His use of colonies was fantastic. Ben was unpredictable and had to be watched carefully. Mike had highs and lows throughout the game.

During the final game session, I know I was in trouble. You need science to play technologies and I had very little of it. My military was weak also. Mike’s military was week as well and thankfully Ben attacked him. Owen continued to methodically gain ground. Ben too. Ben and Mike were the leaders with Ben having a pretty good lead. Owen and I were fighting to not be last. Then the game ended. When the game ends you go through the remaining events and play them out. This changed everything. Ben still won with 192 points. But it was Owen, not mike, who came in second with 173 points. Mike and I were suddenly locked in a battle to not be last. In the end, Mike got 167 points which put him just ahead of my 164 points.

Three days and hundreds (yes, hundreds) of hours later, I came in last. We should have played Sentinels of the Multiverse.

Chaos Steve

JimCon Report Available

For all you long suffering readers waiting for the Spring JimCon Report, it is now available!  Enjoy.

JimConSpring2013ConventionReport

History of the World

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This week we met at my house for game night. This is because I was babysitting my 6-week old grandson. I was cautiously optimistic about how this would go. The little guy gets fussy in the evenings. It turns out he was very good and the guys were very understanding of the whining and crying. Of course they are used to that already. (We whine and cry a lot at our games.)

We played History of the World. Mike Byrd also joined us, so we had 5 players. Evil Mike wasn’t supposed to be there, but apparently he left one of his evil minions in charge and came over anyway.

I’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve played this game. It’s a crowd favorite. Everyone else will have to add comments once this is posted to spell out any in-game fun. All I remember is the end.

The End Mike was so far ahead of us on the victory point track, that we lost sight of his tail lights. Ben, who lagged behind during the first half of the game, had become a solid contender. So had Owen…but Owen always finishes strong. It came down to a contest between Evil Mike and I over who would be last. I thought I might take him because I still had armies on most of the continents. Unfortunately it was too little too late. When the scoring was over, I was 4th runner up.

Mike Byrd won with an amazing 212 points. (We won’t be inviting him back anytime soon.) Owen was next with 190. Ben and Evil Mike followed with 185 each. I had 180. (So since Evil Mike and Ben tied, was I 3rd runner up? Let’s hope so.)

Chaos Steve

2013-05-01 18.53.26

Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization

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Ben is off traveling the country for work, but that didn’t deter us from gaming without him. We played Owen’s copy of Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization. A game I have called the most complicated card game I have ever played. Thankfully of the three variations of the game you can play (Simple, Advance, and Insane), we played a couple of simple games.

Our first game ended too quickly. All of us were expecting a much longer game, so many of our plans went unfulfilled. You win by having the most culture points. Both Mike and Owen scored a lot of end-of-game points. Me, not so much. Owen and Mike ended up tying for first place. I guess that makes me second. (Certainly not last.)

We played the next game knowing full well how quickly it could end. Mike shot out of the gate and never looked back. He quickly dominated the culture and the military tracks by skillfully snatching up a great combination of cards. Owen and I languished way behind him. On the last turn of the game, I was able to play a leader that would have gained me much culture in the future…if there was a future. As it was, Mike ended the game. After scoring, Mike won, but only by a single point! It turns out Owen had A LOT of end of game points and an action card that instantly gave him 6 culture points. I was third—not last.

Chaos Steve

Walkers, Episode Two: Out of the Frying Pan…

[I had thought I posted this a couple of weeks ago. Uh, I was wrong.]

Walkers GM: Evil Mike McNeal
Ben (Unknown name. Unknown dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister and sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Shane Hensley. Wife Michelle as a dependent.)

Those no longer with us…
Mike Brady (Ben) Turned.
Carol Brady (Ben) DOA.
Mike McNeal and his kids (Steve) Turned. Killed by Mark Kale (Mike),

This was a particularly brutal session with three player characters either dying or turning into walkers. Evil Mike couldn’t be happier.

We were still on the cruise ship, but it was time to make a run for the lifeboat. With a few thousand walkers on board, this was not going to be easy. Mike used the Chase rules to simulate our mad dash. It lasted five rounds. We rolled Agility to get cards during the chase. Obstacles are walkers who attack us. As an extra incentive, we get to scavenge any walker we kill. Let the mayhem begin!

First round, first roll, Owen critically fails his Agility roll. Bad things happen to him. Second round Mike critically fails his Agility roll. Bad things happen to him. Third round is uneventful. On the fourth round the walkers get a joker and attack us all. Owen is surrounded by walkers and takes five wounds! He soaks them all! Ben gets bit and (because of the poor card he drew) immediately turns into a walker. He attacks Owen, but misses. I also get bit, but it will take a while for me to turn. (I hoped no one noticed.) The fifth round comes and goes and we make it to the lifeboat!

We cast off with everyone breathing a sigh of relief. Then I turn into a walker and attack my kids. Fortunately Mike saw me get bit and was waiting patiently. He puts a shotgun blast square in my chest, knocking me and the kids overboard.

The survivors spend several grueling days at sea fighting hunger and thirst. Meanwhile Ben and I quickly roll up new characters. I’m now Shane Hensley and Ben is Carol Brady (the wife of his previous character.)

The survivors find land and dock at a small town in Mexico. Right away a couple of dependents wander off into the water to clean up. Meanwhile Ben and I are holed up in a building in town. Our building and the church are surrounded by walkers—they know dinner is inside. Someone comes into town to look it over, but before they can do anything, there’s shouts and screams from the water. This gets the walker’s attention and they begin heading to the beach.

One of the items Ben’s new character had scavenged was a dirt bike. My new character had found some gas and an empty rocket launcher. Ben takes advantage of the distraction and moves the dirt bike outside. He fights off some walkers, but eventually heads out on the bike. The walkers are drawn to the noise and start following Ben as if he’s the walker pied piper.

Meanwhile Owen is busy saving his dependents that wandered out into the water. There are some tense moments, but everyone survives.

Ben makes a fatal mistake. He decides NOT to move his full Pace of 15 on the dirt bike and is caught by 3 walkers. Ben ditches the bike and RUNS! I run to the bike and rev the engine in an attempt to distract the walkers. It doesn’t work. The walkers catch Ben. Carol Brady goes to meet her husband in Brady heaven.

I now have the bike and lead the zombies out of town and lose them somewhere out there. I return to town and we go to the church. Inside we find many people.

Evil mike had a detailed family tree of everyone inside the church, along with relationships and blood types.

Now we have a ton of people to keep safe. We’re doomed.

Chaos Steve as Shane Hensley

Dominion and Roll through the Ages

dominion
Evil Mike is in New Jersey for his work this week, but that didn’t stop Ben, Owen, and I from doing some gaming. First up we chose to play Dominion. We played with just the core set and randomly picked our 10 stacks of kingdom cards. In the first game we had a lot of kingdom cards that generated coinage. So it was no surprise when the game ended with the last 6 point victory card being bought. Ben got the majority of those 6-pointers and won the game with 52 points. I came in second with 42 points and Owen was right behind second place with 32 points. (Notice the symmetry of our scores? That’s the hallmark of real gamers. Or it could be just dumb luck.)

The second game we chose another random set of kingdom cards. This time we were heavy on cards that gave you extra actions and allowed you to draw more cards into your hand. I think Ben was the king of this. He’d play 4 or 5 actions, grabbing another 4 or 5 cards. Fortunately for us, all that card shuffling did him little good when it came to getting coinage to buy victory points and kingdom cards. Owen on the other hand, had a well-tuned deck and he continually garnered Victory Point cards. He didn’t end up with a lot of 6-pointers, but had a slew of 3-pointers. Owen won the game with 40 points. That would have got him last place in our first game. As it was Ben only scored 28 points and I had a measly 18 points. You have to wonder if Ben and I were even playing the same game as Owen.

roll
Then we switched games and played Roll through the Ages. Our first game was rather ordinary. I thought I could pull off a win by ending the game quickly. It turns out that Owen beat me by three points. Owen had 26 points. I had 23 and ben was dead last with 17 points.

Our last game of Roll through the Ages was by far the most exciting…at least at the end. Ben had rolled two Skulls on the dice. (This would normally mean Drought for him, -2 points, but he had the Development so he could ignore this.) Ben had three more dice available. If he could roll one more skull, it would mean -3 points to both Owen and I. This would probably win him the game. He rolled…and got TWO more skulls for a total of FOUR! This was Invasion or -4 points for him. Poor Ben. Owen ended the game on the next turn, but I still had one more roll of the dice. Although I didn’t have many points, with a lucky roll I could grab the Empire Development and game 13 points from it. I had six dice to roll. I immediacy rolled two skulls just like Ben. Ben and Owen both thought I should roll all of the remaining dice to try for one more skull. A -3 to both of them could win me the game. I didn’t listen to them and wasted my second roll. Now I was down to my last roll. I decided to follow their suggestion and I rolled all of the remaining dice…and got TWO more skulls just like Ben! That was -4 points to me! Oh the injustice of it all! (It was just funny when it happened to Ben.) Owen won the game with 17 points. Ben was right behind him with 16. I had a whopping 13 points thanks to that -4.

All-in-all we had a great time. We hardly missed…uh, what’s his name.

Chaos Steve

Walkers, Episode One: It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets Bit

Walkers Gm: Evil Mike McNeal

Ben (Mike Bradley. Has four kids as dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister and sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Mike McNeal. Has twin kids as dependents.)

This week (uh, last week really) we started a Savage Worlds campaign in a new setting Evil Mike developed called, Walkers. It’s a zombie apocalypse setting with a twist—you must have dependents. The setting has various rules for these dependents, plus a few new edges and hindrances. We all start the game with five draws from the Hell on Earth scavenging table. The end result is that we find lots of various ammo, but only a few firearms and none of them use the ammo that we scrounged. Evil Mike makes a rule that you can spend a Benny to change one type of ammo to another type of ammo. Maybe now we’ll have a fighting chance? (I doubt it.)

Our adventure starts with us and our families having a great time on a Carnival line cruise ship. (Right there we should have known we were in trouble.) While on the ship we began hearing news about a virus ravaging the land around us. We were not too concerned. We’re on a ship with tons of food and fun. We’ll wait out the breakout until the authorities get it taken care of.

Six months later…

It turns out that one of the passengers was infected with the virus. We are the last survivors on the ship. Now the entire ship is filled with the walking dead or “walkers”. Many of our family members have died or have turned. For the last few days…weeks, it’s hard to tell which, we’ve been barricaded in the ship’s ballroom.

Our food is running low. It’s time to make a break for the lifeboats. But first we decide to head up to the bridge to see if we can get anything useful like maps or navigation equipment. We quietly remove the barricade from the window of the ball room and sneak out. I fail my Stealth roll. Owen fails his Stealth roll. Mike critically fails his Stealth roll and falls flat on his face in the hallway. The heck with sneaking. Next round we open fire.

Mike takes the brunt of the walkers’ attack. He uses up all of his bennies to soak his wounds. We fight to staircase which is bi-step-ual—meaning the stairs go up and down. (Evil Mike’s joke, not mine.)

I and my dependents make it to the bridge level. The walkers catch the rest of the group on the stairs. We can hear their near-hysterical screams. We quietly move down the empty hall towards the door to the bridge—away from our noisy ex-companions. The rest of the group make it to the top of the stairs. There are more screams and gunfire. Oh well…might as well let them come along.

The door to the bridge is locked. I use my lock picking skill to open it. I fail on my first attempt. I try it again and get it open. We all rush inside and close the door. Inside we find a thin, foul-smelling crew member. For a ride on our life boat, he’ll show us where all the things we’re interested in are. We agree.

Next time: Man the Life Boat!

Chaos Steve

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