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Rails of New England

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Evil Mike was off on holiday so Mike Byrd stepped in for him for our night of gaming. Way to step up Mike and spend an evening goofing off with us!

This time we played Rails of New England. A train game which is a lot more about managing your businesses than actually shipping goods to places. With Evil Mike playing, this game took us two nights to complete. With the Mike stand-in playing, we got it <nearly> done in one night.

We learned a lot during this game. Things like “Never sit next to Mike when he has a hand full of screw-your-neighbor cards.”  Also that if you start in Vermont, you better not stay in Vermont. Get the heck out of there! Quick! Mike had Vermont. He stayed.

Speaking of screw-your-neighbor cards, guess who every one of those cards were played against? Me. It’s not like I had a cash reserve akin to Ft. Knox’s gold supply. (I did.) It’s not like I was earning money hand-over-fist. (I was.) And still everyone picked on me. I should point out that my good friend Owen never played a card against me. Good man, that Owen.

Speaking of Owen, he was earning tons of money as well, but the commerce gods decided to throw him a curve ball in the form of a fires/floods/snow…I forget which. It completely shut Owen down for a turn late in the game. Otherwise he may have pulled off one of his “come from behind” victories that’s he’s so famous for. But it was not to be.

You win the game by having the most money. I had $323 Gazillion. Owen came in second with $267. Ben third with $194 and Mr. Vermont came in last with $77.

And so continues my train game winning streak! (“Two” is a streak.)

Tonight we’re playing Constantinopolis with Latin tiles. No way will I do well in that game.

Chaos Steve

Walkers, Episode 10: A New Beginning

GM: Evil Mike McNeal

Ben (Hernandez. Dependents come and go.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Shane Hensley. No dependents.)
Alex (Joe Reynolds. His brother is his dependent.)

We finally made it to Dallas and are in a Banal corporation secret laboratory. Emergency sirens are going off and Banal employees are running to evacuate the building. Some Banal employees are running in the hallways because they are being chased by large, lumbering creatures. That’s where we come in.

We quickly try to gather some of the running employees to the safety of the lab. Whether this is because we’re nice people or, because we need dependents, can be debated in the history books. Let’s just say the most heroic of us, me, leaped into the hallway to try to slow down one of the creatures with his 9mm.The creature isn’t impressed and begins beating on me. We eventually kill two of the creatures and save several women. There is much dependent wooing after that.

The Banal ladies tell us of a secret, secret lab in the basement. Also that the head of the company had arrived and apparently was releasing these creatures. We head to the basement in hopes of both defeating the company head, but also to get away in his helicopter.

The room is easy to find. It’s red, pulsing with power, and filled with guys with submachine guns. Oh, and a weird vat spewing forth goo enhanced zombies. The company headman and another guy are also there. One of these two has a brief case. We decide we want what’s in that case.

Again I rush into the room. I disable a power pillar and start taking fire from the Banal goons. Soon the others follow my lead and enter the room as well. The headman opens a small elevator at the back of the room. I launch myself at him. He’s not getting away on my watch! During the fight I get clobbered and fall incapacitated to the ground, but so does he. One of our heads blocks the elevator door so it won’t close. Bang. Bang. Bang.

We defeat the rest of what Banal has to offer. Opening the briefcase we find notes on what’s going on, a location in Germany that’s the international headquarters of the Banal Corporation, and maybe some other stuff. I don’t remember. My head was a little foggy from being hit repeatedly with an elevator door.

With that we have a new base of operations. One with flushing toilets, showers, and everything! We now rule Dallas. (I added that.)

We would all like to thank Mike for running the game…

(Yes, I could have added a good joke or two there, but it was a fun game and I need Mike to behave during my Weird War Rome game that is coming up next.)

Chaos Steve

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Walkers, Episode 9: Welcome to Dallas

GM: Evil Mike McNeal
Ben (Hernandez. No Dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Shane Hensley. No dependents.)
Alex (Joe Reynolds. His brother is his dependent.)

We make it to Dallas. We find a shopping mall that we think would be a great place to hole up. The door’s locked, so we go next door to the theater instead. I think “Dawn of the Dead” is playing on the marquee. (What really happened: I was supposed to bring a shopping mall map, but couldn’t fine it. We already have a great theater map, so we used it instead.)

The theater was already home to a group of rather tense survivors. Some were even in tattered Banal corporation clothing. We offered them some ammo to let us in. They let us in and we find about 12 guns pointing at us. I try to calm the situation with some witty banter. It goes poorly and opposing group looks ready to mow us down. Then Ben tries to rescue us with some rhetoric in his poor, heavily accented, broken English. The opposing group takes aim…<BLAM> The doors behind us burst open as a vexation of walkers rush into the room. The opposing group opens fires, but on the walkers, not on us. These new walkers are different. Faster. Edgier. We eventually take them all down, but not before Ben and Mike are wounded. (I’m keeping a close eye on Mike.)

Since we fought so well against the walkers, the group of survivors offer us their own version of a cure developed by Dr. Quinn, an older, but attractive scientist. Their solution either cures you or kills you. We have Ben try it. He survives. Unfortunately that’s the only one they had. When we mention we’re going to the Banal Corporation, Dr. Quinn wants to come along to get more supplies to make more serum.

While a plan is being created for getting inside the Banal building, a few of us take to the sewers and travel to the mall. We scavenge, fight walkers, and find a bedroll and some ammo. Not a stellar day at the mall.

After some preparation we bluff our way into the banal corp. Once inside we realize we need to get a key card for the lab. I critically fail my roll to persuade a pretty technician to help get inside the lab. Things go to crap after that, although we do get inside the lab. Dr. Quinn points out needed supplies while others of us work at the computer stations. Then the alarms start blaring. The monitors inside the lab show us that the building is being evacuated and large looming shapes are prowling the hallways. Could it get any worse? Evil Mike is the GM. It’ll get worse.

Chaos Steve

Tarsa: Episode 3 – Pythos Found!

More on the Tarsa Setting can be found on the Tarsa Backround Post.

Players: Lee – Logan – Kantorian master of matter manipulation.
Mike – Pythos – Former military cybernetic being with mercenary tendencies.
Shawn – Sycrom – The most intelligent dense person (like really really tough to hurt) you’ll ever meet.

Logan and Sy survey the cavern they find themselves washed up in. Logan senses the rooms around him and feels a lot of steel in the next room and below the water where they came in.

Sy decides to explore the water depths where he finds a railing. Apparently this underground complex is connected to the other one. Meanwhile Logan discovers a couple of guards nearby. Just then, a very large shadow moves over Sy. He quickly gets out of the water and before he can tell Logan to stay clear of the water, Logan partially closes off the passage to the guards with his earth manipulation, and a giant Crocodile nearly bites him in two!

Sy attempts to shoot the Croc in the eye (noticing that a simple blaster would probably not penetrate the critter’s hide). But even Sy’s excellent shooting skills are not up to hitting that tiny spot. Logan’s two wounds don’t keep him from sliding out of the Croc’s jaws and getting behind the nigh impenetrable Sy.

The noise attracts the guards who let slip that they have a prisoner nearby that needs to be moved and that somebody named Lord Garmin should be warned. The one of the guards starts shooting randomly into the room.

That’s when Logan decides to open the wall between the rooms and create a tunnel for the croc to grab some dinner in the next room! The plan works perfectly (got him a benny too) and the croc munches the first guard down. Sy then blasts the Overmind in the room for two wounds. Logan and Sy also get their first glimpse of the beaten body of Pythos hanging in chains from the wall (“They didn’t even ask me any questions,” he grumbles.)

Logan quickly taps into his Kantorian powers and uses the metal chains to bind the Overmind. Sy then runs in front of Py to act as a shield, as the Overmind (Lord Garmin), slips his bonds and out the back door. The Croc makes short work of the remaining guards as Pythos and Sy run out to where Logan is.

Unfortunately, Lord Garmin is coming up the back hall and Puppets Pythos and makes him try to shoot Sy in the head. Even with all of Py’s skill, he is too weak from his wounds to succeed. Logan opens up the walls to try and get the croc to attack the Overmind, but the Croc has fed enough and just wants to get back to the water. So, Logan distracts Lord Garmin as Sy runs around and blasts the Overmind (with +2 from Logan’s distraction) and kills him.

Pythos quickly leads them out of the caverns where they find they are under the Hopper House. The trio quickly get in their ships and start to make their way back to the Pythorian, safely ensconced in a secret location on Drakos that nobody could possibly find.

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Seafarers of Catan

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Mike got a new Catan game called Seafarers of Catan. It’s an expansion to the regular Catan game that adds ships and islands into the mix. You get some extra points for building settlements on the islands.

Mike strategically out-thought all of us when choosing his starting position. Owen immediately accuses me of screwing him by building right by him. I point out that it’s a small map.

As the game progressed, Mike was the seafaring King. He also go a sweet 2:1 trade for sheep. This catapulted him into the lead. With all this sea action going on, Owen was pretty much left alone to build his roads and cities however he wished. We all expected Mike to win the game, but when all was said and done, Owen won because he got the Longest Road bonus AND the Largest Army bonus. Apparently we should have screwed with Owen’s turns a little more. Mike came in a close second and I was dead last. Settlers hate me.

Chaos Steve

 

Walkers, Episode 8: The Human Testing Facility

GM: Evil Mike McNeal
Ben (Hernandez. No Dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Shane Hensley. No dependents.)
Alex (Joe Reynolds. His brother is his dependent.)

We find ourselves in a natural cave system. Mike scouts ahead and finds some women tied and gagged lying on the cave floor. Mike is able to untie and un-gag one woman before some uniformed men arrive. Mike shoots them—as he does everyone. A gun battle ensues. Several try to escape the battle to bring back reinforcements, but we mow them down. (I think Mike killed them.) One of the men does survive our hail of bullets and Owen mercilessly interrogates him.

We discover that the women are part of some human testing going on here by the Banal Corporation. The women gladly join us and Ben immediately starts trying to impress one—he needs a dependent.

Above ground we find a warehouse. It’s strangely empty. Ben works on getting a vehicle running while Owen looks over the place. Mike cleans his shotgun.

(Now my notes get sketchy. Meaning I have no notes.)

Ben does get a vehicle running and we make our escape from the warehouse. I seem to remember us (or someone else) blowing up the warehouse and the testing facility.

Now we’re getting even closer to the Banal Corporations headquarters in Dallas.

Ben and I do get new dependents. I’ll cherish what’s-her-name right up until I lose her to the walkers.

Chaos Steve

Rolling Freight

rolling freight
We got together and played another game of Rolling Freight. Mike had never played it, so we quickly explained the rules to him. Ben also offered lots of advice on the best strategy for the game. Of course, Ben didn’t follow any of his own advice. (He never seems too.) Ben. Owen, and I have played the game 1.3 times before. Here’s a link to the earlier games. (I never get tired of reading it.)

Our game started out pretty normally except that Ben was really slow to earn any victory points. Usually this is Owen. But just like Owen, Ben caught up and soon was leading (or at least a contender for the lead.) Towards the end of the game, Owen started falling behind and Ben started closing the gap on the leader, me. I think had the game gone much longer, Ben would have pasted me and won. As it was though, I was able to hold him off and win the game. I am currently undefeated after 2.3 games.

I’ve figure out my secret to winning…or at least doing well in the game. Yep, I didn’t realize what I was doing up to now. That should be no surprise to the rest of the guys. I noticed at the end of this game that I did one thing similarly in all of the games. I think that “one thing” is the landmark “thing” one should do to win the game. And I plan on doing that “thing” again, if we play again.

Chaos Steve

De Vulgari Eloquentia & 7 Wonders

De Vulgari Eloquentia
Way back before we even went to Gen Con, we started a game of De Vulgari Eloquentia. In the game the players are creating a new language. One that will be commonly spoke in all of Italy. The aim of the game is to gain victory points (or Volgare points) by reading manuscripts, looking for important documents, and by improving their social status. Sounds exciting doesn’t it. It’s actually not too bad. During a turn you get to take a number of actions. Each of these actions cleverly move you towards victory. Whether it’s discovering the lost manuscripts in an area of Italy or gaining profit from your small business.

During our game, I found it difficult to figure out just what I should be doing. One of the plethora of actions you can take during a turn is to “buy” the support of Politicians, businessmen, and others. These are represented by cubes of various colors and are kept behind a screen. During the last part of the game, these are used for voting and can grant you a lot of VP if you play your cards right, which I didn’t. It seems that if you were taking your actions later in the turn, all the good support was already gone. That was my problem, so I majored in manuscripts, for which you get direct VPs from. It didn’t help.

It also didn’t help that we played half the game and then came back three weeks later to finish it. Although we weren’t crazy about the game, I think we’d all like to play it again now that we have an idea of how the VPs work.

Ben won our game with 42 points. Owen was a very close second with 41. I had 27 and Mike had 24. So much for our manuscript reading skills.

We got done a little early and decided to play a game of 7 Wonders. I love this game. This game does not love me. As this picture shows:
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Chaos Steve

Walkers, Episode 7: The Tunnel of Exploding Walkers

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 enter a cave system hoping to cross under the Rio Grande and under the vexation of walkers. Along the way Alex, our tracker, sets off a trap that closes the tunnel behind us. (And he’s the best of the best.) We also find that the drug smugglers who used these caves in the past left behind enough explosions, rigged along the tunnels, to bring the whole thing down on our heads. With no other way to go, we continue onward.

We’re attacked by walkers. I can’t remember who, possible Alex or Ben, poked one good with a knife or shot it. The walker exploded. Something about having its DNA being saturated with the explosives we found down here in the tunnel. I watch the Sci-Fi channel, so I know exactly how this works.

I successfully escape two walkers dragging my wife, Michele, along too. I fire two shots into one of the exploding walkers behind me. The resulting chain reaction of explosions kills five walkers. Not a bad use of ammo.

We lost one of the Banal Corporation nurses in the fight. Ben immediately starts hitting on the other one. (He needs a dependent.) I think he then spends all of his bennies on his persuasion roll. We discover a cache of cash and cocaine. The cash is worthless and we burn it. The cocaine we take with us. For medicinal purposes only. Or for trading. Or for using if we beat this walker infection.

We find an underground river that exits into a wall. It appears to be our only way out. Mike finds some drift wood and we fashion a boat. Into the darkness we go…

…and over a waterfall.

Alex and mike jump off the raft before the waterfall. Ben and Owen hold on for dear life. I jump from the boat after the waterfall.

My wife dies. Ben’s newly acquired dependent, nurse #2, dies as well. Owen loses Cindy. It’s a sad day for us all.

Next week it’s payback time! And this time…it’s personal!

Chaos Steve

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Walkers, Episode 6: The Long Walk Home

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.)

(This is a placeholder. I’ve misplaced the write up from 8/7. I blame Mike.)