Been a busy week .... But not a Lost Weekend!

As the title says a busy week at work, but I managed to get to see Lloyd Cole with Fish!

A really good acoustic set with some good one liners - I would say a better gig than the one in the principality 18 months ago.

Picked up a CD which I queued up to get signed - cool or what! Should to got him to write to Morts on it! Nevermind.

Not much happening on the game front - Steedo has supplied some figures for Rogue Stars - and sorted then into groups. 

Clockwise - Cultists, Psionics, Cyborgs and Pirates. 

Mercenaries, Star Cops, Merchants and Miners. 

Might do some adjustments to the groups - use some as civilians for getting in the way and as "objectives". Also the groups should be between 4 and 6 figures. 

Need to get some character sheets done so we can get gangs to the table fast. Some more scenery would be good. 

Morts

Iron Curtain and Rogue Stars

Well due to being snowed in for a couple of days - the move of the gaming stuff to the study (games room) was completed (apart from the actual sorting out of stuff properly... Some things were just shoved of shelves and the table needs a rub down and paint, but that will have to wait until dryer weather so it can be done outside!). 

So I decided to do a little christening/trial run for the room and Steedo braved the elements to play a few games of Iron Curtain and Rogue Stars. 

Iron Curtain

This was the first play of this 2 player game, based on the Cold War. It is an area control game which you place cards and follow the actions on the card or gain influence (cubes). The cards are either flagged US or USSR and are continent based - but it's more subtle than that as the if you are the US player, USSR player (and vice versa) gets to play the action on the card before you can get the influence - so then your card placement involves minimising the benefits to your opponent.

The game is scored by moving a counter along a track until it reaches either the Soviet or US end - the game end when the counter reaches one end. Movement along this track can be from actions on cards or scored when a continent is completed or in the final scoring phase (which we only did in the final game). 

Pictures with early placements at the top - bottom left the Soviets (Steedo) winnings the Cold War - bottle right the first hands for the last game (I was the USSR and all 5 cards in my hand were US, Steedo had 4 Soviet cards!). 

Our games played fast, with Steedo winning the first as the USSR, me winning the second with a crushing US victory, before a tight (until the final scoring phase) last game win for the US (Steedo). 

This is a really good little game - thanks to DK for getting it!

To get my revenge we moved on to Rogue Stars. We have played this before (sometime last year - enjoyed it but found the damage rules a little odd, mainly due to us not playing them correctly as we found out this game). 

We used the same squads as we did in original the play through (mainly because they were already pointed out) - Steedo taking the Starship Troopers (militia) and myself with the Star Wars Bounty Hunters crew. Steedo took the tactical doctrine allowing 5 rerolls of missed ranged attacks and I took hard to kill - my squad could shake off 3 wounds. 

We made up a quick rescue/kidnap a downed pilot scenario - and went for it! Quickly discovering that reading the rules before a game would massively speed up play!

A few moves to get into position - after my leader face planted trying to run across difficult ground. Steedo got a critical hit on my marksman - we managed to do this combat incorrectly, as we put my marksman Out Of Action (OOA) - meaning that I had to take a morale check, and my Wookie ran away. 

Things were not looking good only 3 characters left versus Steedo's 5. But opening fire (and playing the rules properly I managed to PIN one of Steedo's troopers and put OOA his leader. This meant that he had to take morale checks, which he helpfully failed - no one ran away but he was accumulating PIN markers. Now PIN markers are a right pain if you get them as they are difficult to get rid of (a 20 on a morale check is needed), but each one is a deduction on shooting and a plus for you opponent when trying to take the initiative....

Top - Steedo's initial advance (my Wookie is still on the table -just). Bottom left - Steedo's leader down and him collecting PINNED markers - so without the red stress markers I had a +4 to steel the initiative (with the Stress markers it was +8 in that picture). Bottom right - my gunslinger putting Steedo's final trooper OOA after he had collected 11 or so PINNED markers from hits and failed morale checks. 

So a win to me!

I did enjoy the game - it plays small and with the understanding of the ranged combat rules with the addition of PINs a game where your squad can degrade quickly - Steedo felt that this could be a problem, but roll higher dice. We probably need a house rule on the number of PINs a character can take. Need to make mini character cards to keep markers off the table. 

There is an element of Role Playing with this game in home you can develop you squad. The Starship Troopers make excellent grunts/minions for an anonymous Corporation or Government. 

Anyway Steedo has borrowed the book to see he can make up a Squad from his Star Wars collection. 

Morts

More Risk!

We managed to get together on Friday to play Mission to Mars. This is a nice area building game with a 9 card hand so that you choose your actions (more choices than Risk - Europe) as you race to get resources from the red planet over 10 turns.

The game started with me trying to much up the other by sending them to Phobos - which turned out to be a mistake, as this made the soldier card very useful. The game turned out to be very close with the final scores being 38 to Sylon, 36 to me, 23 to Steedo and not to much to Snake-eyes (mainly due to misreading a mission card!). A little gutting as I thought I managed a win, but Sylon pipped me at the end!

We then continued the quest to complete Risk Legacy - mainly to stop Snake-eyes getting another win!

I picked the new Alien factions and Attacked Snake-eyes in the first turn massively weakening me for the rest of the game, but also made Snake-eyes exhaust all 7 of his nukes! The game moved on at quite a pace with DK and the muties knocking out Snake-eyes!

DK before he knocked out Snake-eyes .... Followed by a brief flit with winning by Sylon, before the muties took his and Steedo's capitals. A win for DK. 

 We finish the evening with a couple of games of Skulls - I think wins for Steedo and DK.... A fallow night for myself and Snake-eyes with no wins. 

I also picked up a new table for the "games room". 

Needs a "bit" of a rub down and repaint - but it folds down and has a cupboard and draws!

Got some other diy chores to do. 

Morts

Moving stuff around .....

So have have been told to move all my stuff out of the back bedroom so that it can be a back bedroom. This means that most of my stuff has to go into 2 Billy bookcases....

Progress so far - still have to move the terrian and get the table (picking up on Wednesday evening - which will then need rubbing down and painting etc .....

I also need to get hold of a paint station - but annoyingly they don't do any with a depth of less than 26cm (the depth of a Billy shelf!), so I'll probably be cutting it down. 

Still lots to do sorting out the bathroom too!

Morts 

Risk - Europe ... A play through!

In a shocking turn of events we managed to play a game within a week of getting it!

Normally we wait at least a year - sometimes longer (not mentioning Star Wars: Armarda here ..). 

The game in question is Risk - Europe. 

About mid game - Steedo and DK building up forces, where as Snake-eyes and myself are already at war! The toad took my castle. 

The game played smoothly (thank to the Hasbro play through on BBG), although we might have missed some rules on resupply. The order cards do change the dynamics of the game without being a major pain with only 8 cards in your hand. The city bonuses where very cool - Berlin's manoeuvre after expand I found very useful. The combat after all the two cards had been played in a round meant that the force you thought you were facing could be considerably different by the time the dice start rolling. 

The different troop types again changed the game a lot from normal risk. 

The aim of the game is to gain 7 crowns - from cities, crown cards.  

The early leader was Snake-eyes who had picked Rome (gain a extra crown for the eternal city). 

The game itself was close and played in just over 2 hours!

The results below ....

Three of us finished a round on 7 crowns - so we went to the territory tie breaker - Steedo 16, myself 14, DK 12 ..... and Snake-eyes had well 3 crowns! But it's the taking part that's important. Risk - Europe is a really good game and not that much like Risk.

The evening continued with a game of coasters - sorry Skulls, which was fun, but again Steedo won (the best I can say is that I didn't lose, but then I didn't win a hand either). 

Then we played Splender (although at this point the beer, port and tiredness was taking it's toll) - after much collecting of gems, I think DK won .... I think I was third.

A jolly good mid week evening of games. 

Other news - the better half is organising a room move around so painting might be curtailed for a bit, but I may get a dedicated games table! So some of the blogs will be showing off the table transformation....

Morts

In the post was .....

Risk - Europe!

DK Jedi mind trick arrived!

A very nice looking game for £14.55 - bargain!

The board is large - nearly 3 foot (90cm) square and very nice looking components. 

The 4 factions look like Turks/Arabs in purple, Vikings in blue, Byzantines in orange and early 100 years war in green. All different sculpts. 

Now 24 pages of rules to scan - looks like it could be a winner!

Hopefully a review in the near future!

Morts 

A quality weekend .....

This weekend I made progress on my journey closer to a half century in years .... Not long to go now.  

As part of the obviously massive celebrations marking this momentous occasion I received the following gaming related gifts - a Viking Ship from my brother which is the right scale for my Vikings - do I make it waterline ....

A Cold War two player game from DK which I need to get a game of in. DK also did his mind games on me ....

Then the considerably better half took me down to Britain's Ocean city to spend a couple of hours at a wargames show. What was really good to see was an impressive Starship Troopers game. 

Above the communications outpost under attack - the insert is there as I have the same APC for my Light Armour Mobile infantry. 

Below bugs facing the main MI compound. 

Below inside the company. 

A really impressive set up - would have been good to see the Tanker bugs and flying bugs hit the table. Talking to the lads running the game the burrowing had started and the warrior bugs were 'testing' the defences. 

Above pictures of an ACW game, Vietnam and a Napoleonic game run by Geoff the grandmaster of wargames who I haven't seen for a few years- so it was good to catch up. He said that he is still painting .... And that his collection is around 15000 miniatures ....

The show its self was good with a good selection of traders but nothing really jumped out at me - I did pick up some Saxon civies and Celt heroes for a bargain price. I was hoping to see a cheap copy of SAGA 1st edition, but nothing doing - so after being Jedi mind tricked by DK on Wednesday bought Risk: Europe online instead. 

As I was with by better half - we headed off to the main shopping area of the Ocean city and picked up some bargains. 

The evening was spent at Frankie and Benny's - which was ok, nice burger but probably a bit overpriced.  This was followed by watching the Post -which is a well acted and put together film (the pace put me in mind of Bridge of Spies). It is a good film but would be as good on TV - there were a couple of heavy handed bits showing how oppressed women were back in the 60's and 70's. Still it was a good film. 

The next day we spent the morning up on the South moor in a cold wind. 

Some cracking views and a really good walk which I would heartily recommend. 

Some great views over the Sound. 

The only fly in the ointment was that I knocked my watch on the floor of hotel room and then forgot about it - when I contacted the hotel apparently it was nowhere to be seen ☹️

Overall a good weekend.