Mortal Realms

Well I managed to pick up a couple of copies Mortal Realms - for the Chainrasps, wraiths for Kings of War or Dragon Rampant.

I have another copy on order - so I will have 30 wraiths, 18 dice, 3 rulers and 9 Stormcast eternals - not sure what to do with these to be honest. I was thinking that I could convert them into Grey Knights for Kill Team ..... But I am not sure.

Morts

Twilight Imperium 4 - Annual Championship in Cornwall

The collective headed down to Snake-eye's place for the annual Twilight Imperium game - who would be crowned champion for 2020 and be the proud owner of the trophy?

Steedo didn't look after in very well this year.
The journey into the wilds of Kernow involved a stop at Strawberry Fields for a quality breakfast!


And if your were DK 16 orange Rennie!! We did check this the max for 24 hours - not the 24 minutes DK!

We went for the same drafting process (adapted for Risk: Legacy) we used last year. The races chosen were; The Naalu (Sylon), The L1Z1X Mindset (DK), The Federation of Sol (Snake-eyes, who took it to annoy DK), The Univerisites of Jol-Nar (Steedo) and The Clan of Saar (myself).
Then we set up that Galaxy - where we did make a little error placing tiles so that Steedo and myself had very poor starting systems. There was some brief discussion about whether or not to play to 10 or 14 victory points - but it was agreed LAST YEAR that we would play to 10 after the 14 point (10 hour) epic.

We then got down to playing - it was a very close and tense affair with a few early VP points scored and DK spilling coffee over his cards. This meant that DK missed picking up the technology card, as he thought someone else had it (which they didn't) and it led to Steedo and myself missing out on the secondary action of Sylon's politics card (This meant for me I couldn't score a hidden VP) - Frustrating as it was, we couldn't replay and rerun the process - A fog of war moment!

Then Snake-eyes making a quick rush for Mecatol Rex. Which he was able to reinforce with air drops. DK tried to blast Snake-eyes off the capital, but he was unable to (partly to due to not having a bonus card, as Sylon was still drying off DK's cards after the coffee incident). So Snake-eyes picked up a couple of VP. The next turn saw DK having to keep his ships in orbit around Mecatol Rex and Sylon allowing Snake-eyes collect another couple of VP! Madness I say!

The next turn saw myself take Macatol Rex from Snake-eyes - with a cunning move using the Saar's special trade agreement card in concert with Steedo. However for some reason I allowed DK to have the Impeial Action on this turn - Stupidity I say! This gained DK 1 VP and COST me 2 VP!!! D'oh!

Meanwhile Steedo was quitely gaining VP and Sylon planets. We also got to vote on the Dreadnoughts weapons limit (Last year DK passed it and caused such pain to Snake-eyes and myself), but "Revenge is a dish best served cold, and space is very cold" to para-phase Khan in Star Trek 2.

The game was going at a good pace for us - with Snake-eyes and Steedo taking the lead, closely followed by DK, with Slyon and myself chasing the pack. I was frustrated as I was holding Mecatol Rex, but I was being thwarted in my attempts to get hold of the Imperial card! Objectives to score and points for holding the capital all being missed!

The last turn was a mad rush to grab points - the key to who was going to win, was going to be who was going to score first (how Steedo won last year over DK). For the last turn Snake-eyes was going to scored first ....... then Sylon then played a card which meant that Snake-eyes wouldn't have the Tactics and Strategy tokens to score the 2VP he needed to win. Steedo was looking confident .... was he going to retain his title. I was charging around capturing planets (which gained a trade good - needed for an objective). Fortunately the DK played the Leadership card which allowed Snake-eyes to recover the Tactics/Strategy tokens for the win! The final scores on the doors were Sylon 6 (chould have done more with his position), DK 9 (and desperate for promissory note which no one would give him), Snake-eyes 10 and the WIN, Steedo 9 (but potentially 13 I think) and myself 6 (but potential 9 if I could have scored - and I also had enough for another point, but you can only score one point at a time).

A very good game (probably the best we played) and the quickest at 7 and half hours! Still only want to play to 10 points! And a first win for Snake-eyes - well played

After this we played a game if Escape from the Aliens from Outer Space, an old style hex grid based game, which DK won. A bit like battleships - hmmmm. Probably needs another game.

Then we played a game of Mission Red Planet - I like this game but didn't have a good game (too tired is my excuse), but a better game than DK (too much Lambrini and Rennie I guess), We all thought that Sylon had this one in the bag, but Snake-eyes had it at the end!

The most little astronauts we have ever had on the board.

An enjoyable day and well done Snake-eyes.

Morts

Risk - Europe 3 players variant

So after about 2 years of hibernation we managed to get Risk - Europe to the table again. The game is written for 4 players - but as only myself, Steedo and DK were playing we had to use the 3 player variant, which involved having a mercenary army (green in the pictures), who are controlled by the first player for a round (8 turns of playing order cards, before battles are resolved). The mercenary army starts with 2 cities and 10 footmen randomly chosen.
DK was the purples who placed first(By winning the bidding) in London, then myself (blue) Rome and Steedo Berlin (orange). However I win the bid for the bid for First Player.
The first round saw me reach the heady heights of 6 crowns - needing 8 for the win. However this made me the threat! So they turned on me... I had also made a tactical error by not heading east from Rome, but had headed north to Zurich (only for Steedo to take it).
I had manoeuvred and reinforced the mercenary forces into good positions against Steedo, but less so against DK.

Picture shows action during the at the end of the first round (might be second round) as DK had taken Madrid from me, and the Mercenaries were about to take Berlin from Steedo. By this point Steedo has caught me up, with DK close behind.
The second round saw DK as the first player - so controlling the mercenaries. This round saw major expansion in the east by Steedo and DK getting plenty of tax revenue as he had linked his territories and myself being reduced to Rome and a couple of same enclaves in Europe (and less victory points than the mercenaries..... The embarrassment of losing to the Non Player!).

The start of the 3 round saw DK in an almost unbeatable position, but Steedo in charge of the mercenaries..... DK made a rush for Athens only for Steedo and myself to come up with a blocking plan with the mercenaries out on Constantinople, and a diversion attack on Dublin from Scotland.
So while I was diverted by trying to stop (and extent the game to a 4th round) and DK by trying to win, Steedo manoeuvred the mercenaries out of a couple of cites allowing then to be taken easily by his forces .... and DKs attack on Athens failed, and the purchase of a second crown card, Steedo won with 8 crowns - hopefully not foreshadowing of next week's Twilight Imperium epic ....

A really good game, plenty of talking points - DK had 18 coins, more than enough to win the  game by buying crown card. DK also ran out of footmen because he wasn't buying the Seige engines (which are really good, but you do need to make sure you have some footmen to take the hits in combat). I think Rome is a city to go for at the end rather than the start, as although it is worth 2 crowns (all other cities are worth 1), the bonuses from other cities are better - extra troops or discounts, which are useful earlier in the game. I think Snake-eyes had the same problem the first time we played. The mercenaries were an interesting addition, well used by DK and Steedo - after I had got them into position (having 1st player early on did not benefit me too much). DK's well defined and linked empire was impressive and came so close .... Steedo's build up in the northeast was well managed.

Next time we will use the mission cards instead of being able to buy crowns -  should be interesting.

Good game - hopefully we can fit in another game (either 3 or 4 player) before the end of 2020.

Morts

New Year - so much to do.

Well the new year is upon us, so looking forward to lot to of "jokes" about twenty-twenty .......
This holiday season I have managed a few games - a quick (8pts for victory) game of Catan with the better half and offspring.... which the eldest sprog won. But they were up for a game, so a win there anyway.
Then today eldest sprog, her other half and my other half managed a game of my first edition of Dungeonquest .....

A classic dungeon crawl - which managed to defeat us all and keep its treasure! So a bit of fun after New Year's Eve involving 4.5 pints and a bottle of red wine ..... so I'm feeling a little tired.
For Christmas I picked up a copy of Frostgrave - The Perilous Dark and the latest Miniature Wargames. Hopefully I might get some more games in - possibly some solo ones.
On the horizon is the annual trip to Snake-eyes for the Twilight Imperium championship ..... A report will follow (I am not expecting to win .... again).

The new year does mean I have to look at all the stuff I have and decide what should be culled from the collection as some of it hasn't been played with in years ..... And consider what will be played over the course of the year. I will have to ponder on this.

Morts