Deck Breakdown: Rebel Capital Ships

Several weeks back I took a trip down to Bluegrass Magic in Louisville, Ky for my for Star Wars: TCG regional. I don't get to play much in the way of competitive these days so I decided to take a deck I needed to work on to see what could be done. So here is what I ran:

Rebel Alliance
A Legend Begins x2
Command and Control x2
Solidarity of Spirit x2
Green Squadron Deployment x2
Mobilize the Squadron x1
Capital Cover x1

A Legend Begins x2

A Legend Begins give some good edge for the Rebels and a way to possibly control what ends up getting to shoot at me in the engagement. Unfortunately I often pitched Wedge to the edge and the resource is the least efficient but it does do some interesting things for the Alliance. Just not sure if it is enough.

Command and Control x2

In this pod we get a way to increase handsize as long as we can manage to take an objective, a main that decreases the cost of most of the units in the deck and shielding; those two reason are solid choices to play it but it also bring Resupply Depot and another way to mess with edge math in Supporting Fire. Add in some Black Blast with a couple Corvettes I would probably take another another card in place of the second Corvette but it is a solid body. Not sure I would every cut this pod for this type of deck.

Solidarity of Spirit x2

I love and hate this pod, I wish it let the opponent put a unit that costs one less as I have to weigh triggering it every time it comes into play but had to run it in my deck, a free Home One is tempting but I don't want to have to see a free Vader in reply. Now I would play the pod for Home One and the free resource which I can't use it for the the Corvettes but if you want you can play the MC80 from this pod to get a little more mileage out of resources for capital ships. Battle of Endor rounds out the pod on a down note since most cards the deck runs are not Endor so it ends up as 1-2pips for the edge usually.

Green Squadron Deployment x2

So I don't really care about the force with this deck so I never really played the objective and while the seeds is nice I can't see me committing too many units since most are not elite and I can't afford the other side to over focus my ships. I ran it for the resource and The Liberty but it is a non-elite unit that needs to be committed to the force to work. Navy has Gladiators and other ways to manipulate the edge, Sith just has edge numbers beyond what this deck can handle. So I often felt it was overcosted for the current meta, at least for something that will get focused before it can pop a problem unit back into your opponent's hand.

Mobilize the Squadron x1

A quasi-elite objective that help to drop some of the more expensive units or even 2 capital ships on a turn with the proper reductions. Trench Run gave me another way to cherry pick objective with Home One and Rebel Assault gave me a another way to push on the last bit of damage for a unit or objective. Cheap bodies in X-wing and Rookie pilot for rounding out the resources I could spend or for cheap Covering Fore Bodies.

Capital Cover x1

Objective is usually a priority target but it give me a way to try and get the ships to survive so they can strike. Another capital ship in Defiance that can help the survivability for your key ships, MC40 gives you another way to try and survive the engagement and the MC30 is a source of cheap blast. Capital Fire was a card that I never got off but I like the threat of it. Rounding out the pod is protection for another source of shields for the ships.

So after the tournament I knew that I would either be dropping Green Squadron completely or at least going down to one copy of it. So I also needed more shields or tactics, shields seed easir so the changes that I as testing now are:

-2 Green Squadron Deployment
+1 Mobilize the Squadron
+1 Capital Cover

This gives me more resources on objectives while letting my draws for shields get a little more consistent. I want to get another good round of games with these changes in to see what else I can do to improve the deck. So while it is far from top tier it is a fun deck that could probably be improved from here.

Growing a Gamer: Alternatives to Candyland

...or why Hisss doesn't drive me crazy.

So our daughter is almost 6 years old she has been enjoying boardgames for a couple years now and it looks to have taken seed as an activity for the next few years. I often get asked by fellow gamer parents what we did to encourage the hobby so I decided I would throw together some thought on the subject and a few games for the younglings.

The first step is be excited about any game they want to play, this means you are going to play Candyland(seriously, be excited about it) at some point if they show interest in board games because a relative will buy it or you will be roped into playing it at a ply date. Be happy and excited that your child is interested, you can try and steer choices later, if you aren't happy chances are the kid will pick up on it and after a few fails the interest will probably die off. Nothing kills the drive for gaming than seeing someone playing a game in a lackluster way, especially if it is a game you wanted to play(so again, be excited).

Second do not hesitate to make changes to early games, you can often make house rules that will make the games easier to understand for games that push the child a little above the age range. The one thing to make sure is that the child knows you are playing by a modified set to rules. This brings us to the first game I will discuss: Hisss

Now Hiss is a game where you draw a card and play it onto the matching color to build a snake. The snake must have at least 3 pieces consisting of 1 head, 1 tail and at least one body section. The large the snake the more points it is worth. Now like most kids early game help them learn to take turns, teach something basic and teaches them sportsmanship. Now I decided to make the game a cooperative game at first, the goal was changed from scoring the more points than the opponent to completing all the snakes. This means we could talk through the turns and help each other make the decision and it made learning to lose easier since we lost together. We would try to make bigger snakes to beat our high score the next time we played the game so the goal was also a shifting number. This went on until I felt she knew the game and then I asked if she would like to try playing the game a different way and we used the standard rules. We still play by the modified rules every now and then but it is often the standard rules that are used these days.

So now when she suggests Candyland I will suggest Hisss, but if she insists I am happy to play a game of whatever she wants. Next time on Growing a Gamer: Alternatives to Tic Tac Toe

My Go To Publisher

So everyone tend to gravitate towards a favorite designer from Feld to Friese, looking from Lang until Uwe but sometimes companies are so in sync with what you want from a game that they end up feeling like home. I thought I would take a moment to talk about my favorite publisher:

Most of the games they have published over the years have been on the heavy side but that is what I love about them. I can always depend on the game to be deep and crunchy and yet approachable from a rules stand aspect.

Some of the games that I find myself going back to are Vinhos, Madeira, Signoire, Vasco Da Gama, ZhanGuo, Asgard and Nippon. I only own a few myself but I jump at the chance to play other people's copies of them and I have enjoyed them everytime. I am looking forward to Brasil and Railroad Revolution. The company has seemed to developed a a relationship with designers who like push people with a hard choice and allowing a limited amount of choices to means something. Well done.

Sith PK Deck Breakdown

Back when I dabbled in Legend of the Five Rings the Scorpion Clan ran a heavy PK(Personality Kill) deck. This is what come to mind with the Sith deck that I am currently tinkering on, the deck has a lot of mains but the board removal tends to come in the form of events like Force Lightning, Force Choke, Force Manipulation and Deadly Sight. This frees up units to attack or defend and still have a way to keep the board presence in the dark side's favor.

The deck stands at:

The Emperor's Web x1
Agent of the Emperor x2
The Plan of the Prophetess x2
Encounter at Stygeon Prime x1
Power of the Dark Side x2
There is No Conflict x2

Now let us go through pod by pod.

Just a solid pod that does a lot of work. Only one copy of it because of the low damage capacity of the objective and although two of them can work I just don't want to have to field a copy against a quick light side deck if I have the choice. Everything else in the pod is great.

Good main in Mara with targeted strike(true it does have to be turned on), a resource and a unit with protect. Rage can come in handy but it can be situational. The objective can slow down a deck on occasion the timing of it really only allows foe Echoes or a similar trick to take a unit out of commission on the same turn.

Decent objective against Jedi and can really lock the force for the dark side against other factions. It can also help set up Power of the Dark Side, Force Manipulation and Deadly Sight. Solid removal with Deadly Sight in the area of mid range units. A tactics icon on Sariss and the reaction screwing with other players can be useful but one of the weaker mains in the deck. Another resource in the pod as well.

Another unit with tactics in The Inquisitor and his action can serve for cycling for edge battle or just trying to pull a needed event or unit. The rest of the pod just tries to dictate how your opponent has to handle future conflict phases. Making your opponent make choices they do not want or usually have to make can win game by itself.

The objective can help by all the cards that can commit units your opponent doesn't want committed to the force and can work in conjunction with Plan of the Prophetess for a little soft unit removal, it can also trigger the Hunted so you have another way to pile on focus tokens. Another version of Palpy of the deck and he can get you back a unit for defense if you take hold the force. Yet another resource and a unit you can bounce from the discard pile if you can get the force engine running.

The objective can slow some deck in the early game if you can get it to trigger but it really comes in handy by taking away event options during the combat phase. This version of Vader can be interesting but the pod is included more for the Jedi hate it brings and another way to remove some opposing units with Join Me.

While the deck can be a real pain I'm not certain I would consider it a top tier deck, competitive sure but most deck with Vader and Palpatine pods end up competitive by default. The deck is very resource dependent and if your opponent can put early pressure by taking an objective within the first two turns it can put you in a situation where you have to rush you board presence and hoping to hold out until you can remove a few unit and take back board control. A solid deck to learn some the new tricks the dark side can use to get things done the old fashioned way.

Tiny Living, Tiny Gaming

So eventually we would like to move into a space with 600 sqft or less indoor living space. We have always been able to keep our collection around 60 games but if you had to cut down to just 5 games what would they be and why, here is the result of my list. Now these will not be games with a small footprint or our favorite games but games that I feel would see the most play with us and our group of friends being the focus, I also tend to store expansions in the main box so that does give the edge to games with a library of expansions released. So here is the current list of games that I will be working with so we will be keeping 5 of them, kids games are already removed because they serve a different purpose but we would trim those down to a handful as well.

Alhambra: Big Box
The Castles of Burgundy
Chess
Codenames
Concept
Coup
Crokinole
Dixit
Doomtown: Reloaded
Elysium
Felix: The Cat in the Sack
Fire in the Lake
Firenze
Fleet
Fleet: Arctic Bounty
Founding Fathers
Ginkgopolis
Go
Gold West
Grand Austria Hotel
La Granja
The Great Heartland Hauling Co.
Guilds of London
Hanabi
Hive
Imperial Settlers
Keyflower
King Chocolate
King of Tokyo
Lords of Waterdeep
Love Letter
Luna
Machi Koro
Madeira
Mombasa
Myrmes
Mysterium
Nations
Orléans
Pandemic
Pandemic Legacy: Season 1
Qwirkle
Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island
Saint Petersburg
Seasons
Shipyard
Snowdonia
Splendor
Star Wars: The Card Game
Suburbia
Sushi Go!
Taluva
Terra Mystica
Terror in Meeple City
Tokaido
Trajan
Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar
Vikings
Vinhos
Washington's War
Wok Star

In no order the games would be:

Star Wars: The Card Game

This is pretty much the game for just the two of us, with all the expansion in the box it hits deck building and keeps itself fresh enough for me. The game has some interesting decision trees and has the added benefit of being set in the Star Wars Universe.

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island

Hits all the co-op needs that we have while still being fun and thematic, again all the scenarios and even the fan created content just means the game will have a long shelf life. The risk element to trying to do more actions with your limited resource pull and rolling to see if things are accomplished weighed against taking less actions with assured success makes for fun debate and adds some chance to the game.

Orléans

A bag builder game that has really tight game play at all player counts combined with different roads to victory makes for a great game. The fact that the mechanics are easy to teach but give the game an incredible depth of strategy make it an easy include on such a short list. I hope that the expansions can live up to the high standard the base game has set.

Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar

Another game with easy to teach rules but has a lot of variety with in the rule set. The game is about timing and knowing what you need to do, two simple things that the moving action slots and other players can change from turn to turn. So many games have come down to over extending by one worker or missing a chance to pull a worker to set up future turns. The expansion adds so many little changes that can all be thrown in or just a module at a time to keep things fresh by adding another level of decisions to the game.


Box of Delights

The biggest cheat on the list, we have our Dixit, Codenames and Mysterium all stored in one box, this is pretty much geared towards our game nights as Mysterium and Codenames have been really popular among the group. Dixit serves to freshen up both games and serve as another game by itself.

--Games for the youngling--
Animal Upon Animal
Feuerdrachen
Heart of Attraction
Monstertorte
Pharaoh's Gulo Gulo
PitchCar Mini
RattleSnake
Rhino Hero
Ticket to Ride
Unicorn in the Clouds
Viva Topo

We would probably end up with:
Rhino Hero
Pharaoh's Gulo Gulo
Ticket to Ride


All are fun for adults and can be competitive as she grows.

So there are my five, what are yours?

Star Wars and the Destiny of the LCG

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened. "

Many are worried about the effect that Star Wars: Destiny, seen below,

will have on Star Wars: The Card Game, I honestly don't think the game will shift many players away from the LCG unless they stop the game or break it before Destiny comes out. As a company that paved the way for non-collectible card games with any amount of success it just seems like a step back to release a collectible model now. It won't steal the people who are tired of blind buying packs hoping to pull Han or Boba Fett. It is a dice driven game so those who hate heavy luck games will need to be assured of ways to mitigate it before they give it a try.

Now it does break from the pod system of SW:TCG which some people will appreciate. I am of two minds on this, I find the pod system gives the design team a lot of ways to balance cards but it does limit the deck building side to 10 choices. This brings about a stagnant meta when really good pods like 'May the Force be With You' come along but not much can be done from a design aspect in this manner due to the pod system. If you don't design a self supporting pod it tends to lead people into running the same supporting pods, the only thing that can be done is good steady design and that is a hard thing to do.

I do feel that SW:TCG never really took of due to how good this guy is:

X-Wing was really starting to roll when SW:TCG came out and with good reason, it is a really fun well designed game addressing an aspect of the Star Wars Universe that is often glossed over for Jedi and other flashier things. If you were into Star Wars and gaming chances are you were playing it and had an established group or day at your local store. Why risk upsetting the balance of the force with a new game. Armada came along and gave another option of Capital Ship level engagements but it still hasn't come close to X-Wing.

Then you have great board games like Imperial Assault, Rebellion, SW: Risk and a few versions of RPGs flavored to whatever aspect of Star Wars that really speaks to you. Honestly as fans we are spoiled for choices of good Star Wars games. Unlike Game of Thrones which has a long board game or the LCG so that fan base isn't as split.

Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

Star Wars Jank Specter.0

So I enjoy jank, I think Specter might have made it easy for me this time around. Okay so here is the list:



Rebel Affiliation

The Last Warrior x2
Spark of Rebellion x2
Explosive Artist x2
No Match for a Good Blaster x2
The Gardener's Secret x1
To Arms x1

So lets look at the pods, starting with Spark of Rebellion.

The action has 14 unit in the deck that will trigger it, with Kanan and Sabine can give a jump in resources. The only card need a resource match for Jedi is Kanan's Concentration which can be nice for freeing up defenders in your opponent's deployment phase.

The Freelance Slicers have 16 cards that they could hit to trigger their ability, so more cards possibly for free. The Bo Rifle can be played from the discard pile with its own text and any of your Specter or Smuggler units. Bringing us to Zeb, situational targeted strike but you should have it active that to all the enhancement tricks in the deck as long as Tarkin doesn't hit the table early.

Sabine gives a lot of flavor to the deck, being able to add combat icons to all the mains and being able to hand out edge to 3 unit is good. Being able to recycle the Custom Paint Job and Improvised Explosive with the Junk Dealers can lead to some fun shenanigans.

With this pod we get another unit with Targeted Strike in Han, a unit that can seriously mess with the opponent's force phase in Chewbacca and some limited event protection in the form of a blaster.

We have another card in Monmaw that has 12 cards in the deck that he can search for and the Junk Dealers will allow you to be able to play 16 cards from the discard pile giving you some wiggle room for edge battle choices if you can keep them on the table.

There are 8 card that Hidden Cache can fetch that can all trigger the Sullustan Weapon Tech. Han and Chewie's weapons can do some heavy lifting if you can get them on their namesakes, otherwise they can put extra combat icons on other units.

You think you cannot see because you blind, but you are blind because you cannot see. What the deck lacks is tactics and twists. This will leave you open to first strikes often so try to choose survivable battles. No May the Force be with you means you will not be able to over commit to an attack and expect the card to save you but the deck is fun and should be something to break out during casual play.

Impessions of Shin Godzilla

...Shin Gojira, Godzilla Resurgence whatever they ended up calling it.

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(I feel for ya big guy)


Not even sure where to begin, I didn't like the film but I didn't hate it either, so that is where I will begin. This was definitely in the tone of the original Gojira and for that it gets my respect, the whole thing felt like a social commentary with Godzilla being the catalyst for change in the way policy is handled and bringing to light some United States/Japan foreign relation issues. The unfortunate thing is Hideaki Anno has some solid ground work but falls short(shades of Evangelion). The randomly mutating Godzilla is something new and by no means the worst Godzilla to grace the screen and the Prime Minister's endless cabinet meetings to discus the implementation of new policy to deal with this while missing opportunities to deal the situation when it is more manageable was brilliant, political back channeling to get the time needed to finish the plan inspired, but for some reason the whole thing just seemed average to me but lets face it, humans are weak animals.

Doomtown: Reloaded...

...or the failed Harrowed pull.

When Doomtown: Reloaded(DTR from here on) was announced I was over the moon with excitement. I want to breakdown my perception of the time line and make some suggestions that might have made the game more approachable(but definitely a different beast). The game came out at GenCon 2014, even with streamlined rules people struggled with DTR, despite having a strong showing at GenCon it never really had solid traction to build a large player base. My first change would be the attachment rules, I would not require the location to be controlled by the player trying to attach the goods. Often during demos I would have to stop players from attaching something because another dude had moved to the location to take control of it. While this does limit some of the chess aspect of the game I think it would have help to streamline the game and eliminate some of the more awkward growing pains of the movement game and made camping town square a little more involved since you could play goods onto dudes in the town square. This would have also opened up design space for goods and spell removal in the core set. Another core rule I would make spells boot the caster after use so deathstar type dudes are limited. The next streamline I would make would be to remove the public and private from deeds, every deed would be private in the sense that if you did not own it and called someone out they would incur the bounty of that action. Again try to limit the small book keeping of the game without changing too much of the core.

So we had a few local events but nothing ever took off, having both Landslide and Clown control as strong early archetypes led to most of the field playing one form of control or another and made the game look like some sort of sprawling chess game that more than one person just decided it wasn't their thing. So you had Sloan Rush as one of the other consistent decks, so the Law Dogs needed to be good, I don't play as much these days buy I think I am still waiting for this to happen. So my changes for the core set, Allie gets an upkeep and Influence making her less likely to show up out of faction and a higher upfront money investment. I think the core rule change to spell would slow Clown control enough for the other groups to keep up. Landslide I think is easier to play against than some of the other archetypes and with the ability to drop goods on dudes at deeds you do not control does give you some design room if it stayed a problem. Now Law Dogs, how to make them good in the core with just an idea and no testing is a tall order; I would start by making the home ability make it so your dudes don't become wanted when calling out dudes or preforming jobs, this shows the laws ability to serve warrants and preform tasks that would get the common folks thrown in the hoosegow. That along with keeping the ability to make dudes wanted should help give them a unique feel. Next is the income problem, always seemed to be short on money but being able to transfer a bounty onto the home for permanent income could be an interesting thematic fix but would need to be tested.


Exposure, after GenCon the hyped died, at the first Origins after the release there was no real push to demo the game to anyone. They didn't even have a banner. AEG has always been rather hands off with the tournament scene in all of their games I was just hoping for a little more support than I saw. The game seemed to be selling well at all the stores I visited but the AEG reps(I think they are called Vanguards now) in the area were unfamiliar with it and did not want to invest the time to run events and the stores were just okay with selling packs. So I ran 4 events and 2 demo nights at a FLGS but I could never get a consistent night off to really anchor a day so no luck with home growing a play group. This past year's Origins rolled around and I decided to skip DTR because two of the Origins events from last year that I played in only had one other person show up in one event and I was the only person in the other events. The main event was well attended both years but I had an event during the same time this year. After the event the cancellation was announced, which would have made it the sunset ride for me since I don't go to GenCon these days. AEG could have done a lead up announcement before Origins and at least let the community have a few more chance to say goodbye.

Anyway, those are just a few postmortem thought I had about the game.

Long Time No post

So over a year has passed and no posts were made. I did make my 10x10 challenge final count ended up being:


1. Castles of Burgundy -- 12
2. Founding Fathers -- 10
3. Keyflower -- 11
4. Robinson Crusoe -- 15
5. Saint Petersburg -- 10
6. T'Zolkin -- 13
7. Terra Mystica -- 18
8. Nations -- 10
9. Doomtown: Reloaded -- 45
10. Machi Koro -- 10

I have mostly switched to Instagram since I never got around to replacing my camera and I didn't have the time or energy for in-depth game analysis. Things have changed a little and I find with the kid in school and the desktop up and running I want to try my hand at some thoughts and reviews. Also I was busy trying to champion Doomtown in my area but not much came from the effort. So my first article is going to be about the Doomtown: Reloaded and my experiences in the short time it was around.

Until then,

Tom

Dino Progress

So the lizardmen are coming along. The archers are ready to be based, I just need to work out the number per base and if I want to do anything special.



I need to add in the waterfall, paint the base and add in some vegetation and the brachiosaurus is done.

I decided to two ankylosaurus per base, just need to do the second layer of flock and the paint and add vegetation and that will finish them up.

Triceratops are undecided upon the number per base but they are going on the 40mm x 40mm base, in either a pair formation with a few hand weapons or as a single beast flanked on both sides by spear toting lizards.

I have the shields on a handful of hand weapon lizards and their eyes and bases to paint and then it is time to base them all. I will have 3 bases of 40x40 and then the rest will go on 20x20 bases. I will probably have to order more bases before I start on my last batch of spears. Then I have the command models and 4 triceratops left to paint. I would like to order another brachiosaurus and 4 more triceratops as well as some flyer support.

I will probably wait for the ratmen for my next 6mm fantasy army since the Wildland Alliance didn't quite fit the scale I wanted. I was hoping to use the rhinos as ogres or trolls and the elephants as a step up from them. Unfortunately the rhinos look rather squat and about the size of the simian troops and smaller than the gorillas, they couldn't be swapped with the ogre cavalry so I could have rhinos on rhinos as my core block of troops. I might pick up a pack of elephants just for the command model but it will be far down the list of projects now.

So I can see the end of what I currently have for 6mm and the next project looks like it will be space frogs or WW2 Italian tanks depending on when I finish and companies release timelines.

Kid's First Go

So my daughter has been joining me for some of my painting sessions and she has been having a blast. Here is what she did over the last few sessions.



She has been working on loading the brush and having fun, something I loose sight of sometimes.

10x10 February Progress

Another month down and time to tally the count, no pictures this time around.

Doomtown Reloaded: 10

So, two months in and I have the plays for Doomtown finished, I will keep track just to see how many plays I get in over the year but only 7 of these plays are coming off of the count. Tried out a new abomination build out of Fourth Ring and it went pretty rough: I have some ideas to try and fix it but hopefully the new home might help because I don't have much faith in it being a tournament caliber build right now.

Terra Mystica: 2

Another two plays down, the missus won both pretty handily. Still our score have been declining steadily, something for me to try and figure out.

Founding Fathers: 1

I love this game, so much fun if you enjoy light banter and the continental congress.

Saint Petersburg: 1

Solid econ engine allowed me to control the aristocrats the other side had access to buying. This is one of the games that things just fell right when I had the first option.

So that bring the total up to 17 out of 100 plays so far this year.

10x10 January Progress

So my final list of my 10x10 challenge is:

1. Castles of Burgundy
2. Founding Fathers
3. Keyflower
4. Robinson Crusoe
5. Saint Petersburg
6. T'Zolkin
7. Terra Mystica
8. Nations
9. Doomtown Reloaded
10. Machi Koro

So the progress for last month was:

Nations: 1

Got the set-up but we forgot to get and end game picture. The game is starting to wear down the missus since I do not ignore the wars and she tends to even when it would be in her best interest to start one to deny me the opportunity. These might be our last plays of the game if her outlook of the game stays the same, would give me a chance to get another civ game so I'm okay with whatever decision comes down the road.

Terra Mystica: 1

Here are our starting places, she went with Witches and I went with Swarmlings(I wanted to try them out).

Here is the game right before we converted resources to victory points, I believe the final ended up being 95-93 Swarmings, this was one of our lowest scoring games. We pretty much stayed away and she didn't build her Stronghold because she wanted to try a more Temple focused game. We both made some poor decisions that led to suboptimal bonus scoring but we did learn a lot by trying out a different style of play.

Doomtown Reloaded: 3


Playing as Fourth Ring a lot right now and tweaking the deck after most games. I am probably going to finish out this cycle with them until I win a play mat or I get tired of the builds I have but nothing else really appeals outside of a possible Mad Scientist build after Election Day Slaughter comes out. From there I will probably switch over to a blessed deck from the pine box and just keep busy until shamans show up.

Machi Koro: 1

Castles of Burgundy: 1

The first time I have won against the wife where I didn't have to ply her with alcohol. She had one of the expansion maps and the tile fell my way when it came to going first choice on the turns I was first player

So 6 out of the 100 plays down in January. I didn't not knock off any of my unplayed games last month.

Catch you on the flip side.

Clown Control

The base set didn't have enough for the circus to really hit their stride. Most builds were more about getting a hex to use for things other than the actual hex. Now, the deck was solid but it had the problem of an inconsistent stud in Mongwau and a low starting influence; this led to many slow starts, and with The Sloane Gang being a really effective early game shooter, Wendy starting most games and Morgan Cattle Company getting a bit of a cushion in the time they needed to set up their income engine and you had a rough time in the base set with The Fourth Ring.

Now the first saddle bag New Town, New Rules went a long way to fixing those issues. Solid hexes at good values for a deck that needs to make the clutch pulls: Forget and Paralysis Mark. A source of cheap influence in Dulf Zug and a useful body down the road in Slade Lighbody. The hexes gave the circus a win condition and a way to control movement and deal with some of the more troublesome characters in the game.

While Double Dealin' doesn't add much for most people it seems, I like Leon Cavallo as an alternate starter that will help hinder the opponent's movement and he gives me another outlet for the hexes. This allows me to spread the hexes out to avoid Unprepared shutting down my turn. Fetch has been another card that has really helped get the right card into my hand if an opponent cheats. Baird's Build and Loan fit the values and helps with my light income.

I can see several changes to test, but right now it has been pretty solid. I run the Unprepared for mirror matches, but I could see dropping the Unprepareds and adding in another Recruitment Drive. You could split them and see which works better for you, the same could go for Rumors/Reserves. With the two slots still left I would run two more Hex Slingin'.


The Fourth Ring
Starting with 2 wealth, 1 income and 6 influence

♠ Spades (* starting posse) (13)
1x A Dulf Zug*
1x 3 Mongwau the Mighty*
1x 6 Wilber Crowley*
1x 7 Arnold McCadish*
1x 7 Leonardo "Leon" Cavallo
4x 8 Steven Wiles
1x 10 Avie Cline
1x J Kevin Wainwright
1x J Tyxarglenak
1x Q Jia Mein

♣ Clubs (12)
1x 8 Reserves
3x 8 Rumors
1x 10 Recruitment Drive
3x 10 Unprepared
2x J Hex Slingin'
2x Q Takin' Ya With Me

♦ Diamonds (10)
1x 8 Circle M Ranch
1x 8 Pat's Perch
1x 10 Carter's Bounties
1x 10 The Union Casino
1x 10 Baird's Build and Loan
1x J Jackson's Strike
1x J Undertaker
1x Q General Store
1x Q The Pharmacy
1x K Railroad Station

♥ Hearts (17)
2x 7 Fetch
4x 8 Paralysis Mark
4x 10 Shadow Walk
3x J Forget
4x Q Blood Curse

Jokers (2)
1x Joker (red)
1x Joker (black)

"Have you paid your dues, Jack?"

10x10 Gaming Challenge for 2015

So,

We are closing in on the 10 games we are going to play 10 times or more during 2015.

1. Castles of Burgundy
2. Founding Fathers
3. Keyflower
4. Robinson Crusoe
5. Saint Petersburg
6. T'Zolkin
7. Terra Mystica
8. Nations
9. ??????
10. ???????

The 10th game is still in the air since I would like to try a few of my unplayed games before deciding on the final slot. Machi Koro could fill in for the 9th slot but I still think it might be too quick for the challenge.

Sick, Yet Again

So the plague has taken up residence in my house for what seem like over a month now. We have delt with a cold, tonsillitis, a sinus infection and bronchitis. We are all starting to get better but it has left zero time for games and painting, what I have been doing is thinking about project and doing a 10x10 challenge. SO I need to pick 10 games that I will play next year and play each game at least 10 times. Right now my list includes:

Robinson Crusoe: I want to do a narrative report for each game of this so that might slow things down.
Machi Koro: This will probably take 2 sessions so I might swap in another game or keep this for the flex room it gives.
T'Zolkin: A favorite of ours, so it shouldn't be too hard.
Key Flower: In the same boat(I see what you did there) as T'zolkin, but has a longer playing time so it might be harder since we often have conflicting schedules.

So I have 6 slots open and about 4 week to finalize the 10 games. The other goal on the boardgame side is to play all of my unplayed games, so that list is:

Wok Star
Imperial Settler
Shipyard
Madeira
Fire in the Lake
Snowdonia

On the miniature side I have my lizardmen to finish up and I would like to do another batch of them next year to fill out the army. The NMM gold will take a little bit of time on the large dinosaurs but I will just be adding large blocks of infantry in the second batch. The other fantasy army for next year will be the Wildland Alliance from Microworld Games, so I have a little bit of time before they are released to finish up my first batch of lizardmen. For 6mm sci-fi I will be picking up the Tzacol(aztec space frog) army when it releases next year.

I'm not sure if I will get a second sci-fi army this year or wait for next year and see if anything else comes along that catches my attention. I wouldn't mind Thousand Sons or Death Korps but I don't know if I could track enough down to make decent table presence. I also like the Sisterhood from Onslaught Miniatures, so I will probably hold off on the second choice until I have my first choice well under way. The last project definitely hitting the table next year will be WWII microarmor Italian Tanks, I will probably avoid infantry as much as possible and just field tanks, artillery and armored cars.

Sloane Gang Mk 1

The draw structure right now is focused on Aces and Eights backed up by Jacks. You can draw into a Dead Man's Hand(DMH) or use the Pair of Six-Shooter and Ghostly Gun to make the desired hand. Barton Everest can also help bump a hand. I haven't had a lot of games against Law Dogs, so I would probably make changes if cheatin punishment is prevalent in your area. This is what I am running right now and here are the changes I am considering.

The deck does run light on deeds, choosing to use actions and the Home's ability for income and control points.


The Sloane Gang

Ace of Clubs
Hired Gun x1
Lady Luck x3

--I will probably go back to an even split on these two cards, being able to cycle has been a boon but sometimes you just need a body on the current turn. I will make that decision after a few more games.

Ace of Spades
Allie Hensman x2
Clementine Lepp x2

--I will end up with a third Allie since she is key and often what people save their actions for so she can't refuse that first round of a shootout. Againt Morgan Cattle Company she helps to try and keep the game from going long so they don't have as much time to set up their economy.

Ace of Hearts
Pair of Six-Shooters x2

--Helps to fill out a DMH, other than that it is on value.

Ace of Diamonds
Pony Express x2
Bank of California x1

--Both on value but I would like to play out the 'Pony Express' in a mirror match to help cycle into cards or to get key values out of my hand.

Two of Spades
Fred Aims x1

Two of Diamonds
Gamorra Parish x1

--Off value so it only helps the draw structure to play it and can help to thin the deck with the ability.

Three of Spades
Lawrence Blackwood x1
Ramiro Mendoza x1

Three of Clubs
The Stakes Just Rose x2

--Will probably go to 3 by cutting Sloane, helps off set Wendy and Pistol Whips also lets me not fully commit to jobs until after they form their posse.

Four of Spades
Marion Seville x1
Sanford Taylor x1

Five of Spades
Barton Everest x1
Travis Moone x1
Pancho Castillo x1

--Travis is okay at a cost of 2 but there aren't many cards that I must have on turn one, I might end up cutting him and bumping another action up to 3 or finding a couple more card to run 'Hiding in the Shadows' x3.

Six of Spades
Johan Essex x1

--A bit pricy, probably won't make it to the first saddle bag if this deck stays together another card that can make room for 'Hiding in the Shadows'.

Six of Clubs
One Good Turn x2

Seven of Clubs
Kidnappin' x4

--Helps to start shootouts and can help to swing influence and let the deck be a bit more aggressive, 'Ambush' is nice but the cost can't be sustained in this deck.

Eight of Spades
Silas Aims x1
The Ghostly Gun x1
Steven Wiles x2

--'The Ghostly Gun' is the main target for 'Recruitment Driv'e since he can help fix your draw hand, honestly the Gun could go for a third Wiles and the Drives can go for bulking out other actions.

Eight of Clubs
Reserves x3
Rumors x1

--Helps with the economy, but I want to be able to swing a deed sometimes without having it be in a shootout so I run a single 'Rumors'.

Eight of Diamonds
Circle M Ranch x1
Pat's Perch x1

Ten of Clubs
Recruitment Drive x2

--Another job to let shootouts happen, might get cut for bumping other actions.

Jack of Clubs
A Coach Comes to Town x2
This Is a Holdup! x2

--Both help with the economy and work well with the Aims boys and the job gives me another way to bait shootouts.

Jack of Diamonds
Undertaker x3
Jackson's Strike x1

--On value, if I have to play one it would be the 'Undertaker' since I want to ace a lot of my opponents dudes in shootouts.

King of Spades
Sloane x1

--First on the cutting block for this deck, high cost and off value, although another nice target for Recruitment Drive and one of the few dudes that isn't an easy 'Shotgun' target.

Jokers x2


Now if your area runs heavy shotguns I suggest you find room for 'Hiding in the Shadows' before you take the deck for a spin.

Condensed deck list:

The Sloane Gang

Allie Hensman x2
Clementine Lepp x2
Fred Aims x1
Lawrence Blackwood x1
Ramiro Mendoza x1
Marion Seville x1
Sanford Taylor x1
Barton Everest x1
Travis Moone x1
Pancho Castillo x1
Johan Essex x1
Silas Aims x1
The Ghostly Gun x1
Steven Wiles x2
Sloane x1

Hired Gun x1
Lady Luck x3
The Stakes Just Rose x2
One Good Turn x2
Kidnappin' x4
Reserves x3
Rumors x1
Recruitment Drive x2
A Coach Comes to Town x2
This Is a Holdup! x2

Pony Express x2
Bank of California x1
Gamorra Parish x1
Circle M Ranch x1
Pat's Perch x1
Undertaker x3
Jackson's Strike x1

Pair of Six-Shooters x2

Jokers x2

The Splendor of it all

Not much time to paint but I have stolen an hour here and there to put a color or two on my spearmen and work on the armor of the Brachiosaurus. Other than that I had a lot of games of Splendor. The game is solid but I find the luck factor to be very high, probably more so in a 2 player game than the other player counts. I tend to try and stall out a color and win on points instead of relying on the nobles for their point boosts. This is often undone by the randomness of cards coming up after having controlled them, with two players there isn't another player to even out a run of free and/or lucky cards coming up. Now statistically it shouldn't happen as often as it seems to happen to me and I am sure the stats will even out over the life of the game so it is a minor complaint.

I think it really shines at 3 to 4 players and I wouldn't turn down a two player game but I have other games I would prefer at that player count and time, Taluva and The Great Heartland Hauling Company to name a couple.

6mm Projects

I have been looking at some 6mm lately and I am really liking what I see. These are the project that I have thought about doing and one or two of them might join the Lizards in the queue this year.


Lizardmen

--Right now I am in the middle of working on a Lizard list for generic fantasy rules. I have a few unit nearing completion and I have plans on expanding what I already have.--

Kislev

--I worked out most of a list on what to pick up for a 6mm WM army for them, I just have to figure out the War Wagon and it should just be down to ordering and painting it all up.--

Brettonian

--Another list that should be pretty easy, Baccus has some great stand ins from their Crusades, English Civil War and Crusades lines. The 6mm Pegasus Mounts might be the toughest find for the list. I might be able to snip some Giant Eagle wings and reattach them to a standard mount. This is another list that could pull historical and fantasy duty--

Araby

--I have a few thing in mind, this could end up as Warmaster and Ancients with the core pulling double duty with the more fantastical units being rotated out.--

Samurai

--Another MWA, generic and WM option but I would have to try and track down some of the more fantastical units.--

Godzilla

--There are a few rules systems out there to do these battles, I just need to decide what nation and get the harassers for the Giant Monsters to step on and the terrain. Honestly the tanks and what not usually just end up as terrain in these games so it is something that I found to be neat but the toys are the main drive of the game.--

Okami Technocracy Combine

--I really just want to paint up some of their battle suits.--

Quozotel(Lizardmen Sci-fi)

--Unreleased from Onslaught Miniatures, it will be hard to resist once they are released. Might serve as a proxy army for Eldar in Epic but I will know more once I see the models.--

Wildland Alliance

--Unreleased from Microworld Games right now but will be hard for me to resist. Will either end up as a generic list or I might try to figure out something for WM, maybe Ogre Kingdoms.--

Ratmen

--Unreleased from Microworld Games right now but will be hard for me to resist.--