Sunday, December 20, 2009

Frisco Library Game Day - Dec 19th, 2009

I've been delinquent with posts here. Hopefully, I can catch up on some recent gaming activities over the holidays.

We had our last game day at the Frisco Public Library this Saturday, Dec 19th, 2009. Here is a slideshow with some pictures from the event.



Some highlights:
GMT Games donated a copy of Command & Colors: Ancients to be given away. Tod Wolf was the lucky winner.
From 2009_12_19: Frisco Library Game Day


We also had a White Elephant Game Exchange. You can see many of the games on the table in the background of this picture.
From 2009_12_19: Frisco Library Game Day


We also had the largest turn out for a library game day this year - 20+ people showed up for gaming!

Friday, October 16, 2009

My Boardgamegeek Con Game Schedule

I concentrated on setting up multi-player games for BGG Con 2009.
Thursday: Britannia 1 - 6pm
Friday : Hell of Stalingrad 9am - 2pm
Friday : Successors III 3pm - 8pm
Saturday: Sword of Rome 9am - 4pm
Saturday: Friedrich in the afternoon sometime

Open Times: I'd be looking for 2-player or lighter filler games to relax.
Thursday: morning before noon
Thursday: evening after 6pm
Friday : evening after 8pm
Saturday: late evening depending on Friedrich start/finish

Saturday is my heavy game day with Sword of Rome followed by Friedrich.

Looking forward to the con!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

New webpage for our library group

I added a new webpage for our local group that meets at the Frisco Public Library for boardgaming sessions. The link is here and is included in my web links in the side bar. Its main goal is to facilitate game match ups before the game day.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Space Hulk 3rd Edition

After playing Britannia at the Frisco Public Library, I played three games of Space Hulk, 3rd edition with Cody. We played the first scenario, Suicide Mission, three times. We played the Marine activation points wrong the first two games. In those two games the Marines never made it past the first room (actually some Marines were still in the starting hallway) before the Genestealers were upon them. I erroneously thought the number of command points drawn were all that the Marines had instead of the each Marine having 4 command points plus the bonus command points from the chit draw.



In the third game Cody took the Marines again and at least got his men past the first room and down the hall before the Flame thrower guy got killed ending the scenario.

Sept 26th - Frisco Library Game Day

Ten players showed up for boardgaming today at the Frisco Public Library.

Four of us played Britannia. The first three places were competitive. I brought up the rear way behind. Here are the scores with the highest score of each nation listed for each player.

  • Mark Woodson - Red - 263 points (Saxons - 185 pts)
  • Steven Sheasby - Yellow - 261 points (Romans - 147 pts)
  • David MacAlpine - Blue - 200 points (Picts - 74 pts)
  • John Boone - Green - 142 points (Welsh - 74 pts)
The Saxons and Romans scored more points by themselves than all my guys did combined.

On the first turn, the Romans will invade England from the South.

The Roman-British fill the void left by the Romans, but only temporarily...

The Saxons take over where the Romans left off, once they annihilate the Romano-British.

It is turn 15 and the Saxons are unstoppable in Southern England and they rule for many years as Bretwalda and King.

William the Conqueror cuts a path through Saxon England and eventually will rule as King..


Al Hay and Brian Marrs played No Retreat....
BRIAN MARRS: I played the Soviets to Al's Axis. The Germans did the usual slice and dice number on my Soviets on the first turn. I started to form what I thought would be a good line of defense, but then Al played some kind of Operational Reserve card that allowed one of his panzers to advance farther than I had anticipated was possible.

By the start of turn 3, Al actually had captured enough cities for a sudden death victory, but I had a card that cancelled the victory and so we played on. I got blown out of Moscow and figured I was pretty much toast. But then the mud and snow turns arrive and my lines start to at least stabilize.

The Germans in Moscow were the most advanced units in what was becoming a bulge in their line. The winter offensives put my Soviets in position to cut Moscow off from supply, although it was a weak ring at this point. The Germans easily reopened supply on turn 5, but by the start of turn 6, they were once again cut off.

Al once again attacked to open up a supply line, but with worse odds than on the previous turn. The Germans had a 1 in 6 chance of blowing the attack and as luck would have it, he rolled a 1. There were 4 units in the Moscow pocket that vaporized from lack of supply. We called the game at this point.

...followed by Storm Over Stalingrad.

Tom and Glen Richardson played a couple of games of War at Sea.


A close up of the action in the Atlantic and Med.

TOM: Played two games of War at Sea, switching sides for the 2nd game. Glen was just learning the game, whereas I've played quite a few times before.

In the first game, Glen's Axis forces attacked in the South Atlantic on Turn 1. Luck caused the battle to go the Allies way, and the Axis was not able to fully recover from that. We went about 7 turns before calling it an Allied win.

In the second game, I played as the Axis. Early on I attacked only where the Allies were weakest, and by mid game my forces were strong enough and Glen's forces weakened enough that I was able to break out through the North Sea and Barents Sea into the Atlantic. After Turn 6, we called it an Axis win.
GLEN RICHARDSON: We played two games and he placed his Das Boot in my Rear Admiral, if you get my drift!
Mick Mickelsen and Matt Kelley played 1805: Sea of Glory.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

August 15th 2009 - Frisco Library Game Day Pictures

Some pictures from the August Game Day at the Frisco Library.

Five-Player Starcraft. Mark Simonitch would eventually win as the Arcturus Mengsk faction.




JOHN BOONE: Called the game a early but Mark Simonitch was cruising to a win. His Stage II two extra Conquest Point markers were a big help gaining him 4 CPs in two consecutive turns. Mark S - 11 pts - Red Terrans Mark B - 8 pts - Green Zerg John B - 8 pts - Orange Protoss Mark W - 6 pts - Blue Terrans Mervyn D - 5 pts - Purple Zerg Mark B was the only player to select his Special Victory condition as his Stage I Leadership card, so everyone kept an eye out on him making sure he wasn't going to get 3 bases on three different planets. The combat system to the game takes to long to resolve, especially for new persons to the game.

Joseph and David battle over the streets of Stalingrad.

Ken and Steve play out the 1960 Presidential election.

Sean and Steven re-fight the US Civil War.

Al and Glen fight a fictional street battle from WW2.
The mean streets of Sniper Town.
GLEN RICHARDSON: WW2 Germans vs Americans Squad on squad fire fight, in a small village. Americans(Al) initiated combat,with an excellent first shot. From there on luck left Al. He usually moved second, and was rarely in a position to inflict casualties on the Germans. Dice went cold on him. I was able to take up good defensive positions, and quickly began inflicting casualties on the American forces. In the end Al conceded, as I had already inflicted 25% casualties on his forces, which demoralized Al's forces (and I think himself, to a degree) : )

Saturday, July 25, 2009

July 25th 2009 - Frisco Library Game Day

Another Game Day at the Frisco Library with a few regulars and two first timers showing up.

Nevin Ball, Mark Bausman, Mervyn Dejecacion, and myself played A Game of Thrones.

Here is a picture at or near the beginning of the game. It looks like Mervyn is up to no good.

At one point, as House Stark I managed to acquire the Iron Throne, the Valyrian Steel Blade, and the Messenger Raven, but I didn't do much with them that turn sadly.

In Turn 9, 4 of the 5 players had a chance to win depending on how our orders resolved,

but Mark Bausman came out victorious with the most City/Strongholds held at the end of the game!

JOHN BOONE: I think everyone had played the game at least once except for Mark so we had a little refresher rules session at the beginning. A random draw of the houses resulted in the following distribution: Sorry I don't know the house names so I've used the player colors. Mark B (Green), Mick M (Yellow), Nevin B (Red), Mervyn D (Black), and John B (White "Stark"). In the first couple of turns Nevin and Mervyn went head to head but soon formed an alliance under Mick's urgings. I moved north to occupy the two power spaces and south and east grabbing supply spaces. Mick expanded westward and Mark eastward. Nevin's memory of our last game where I as White expanded unchecked to win came into play as he and Mervyn arranged a sneaky sea invasion by Nevin's forces taking my home area around turn 4. On the next turn, of course I kicked him back out. The sneaky Red player would do this again on turn 9! Mick gained the lead first with 5 city/strongholds but Mark would take it from him later in the game with a Mark/Nevin alliance. Mervyn's 3 ship fleet made tried to make Mick's life miserable on the south and east coasts but Mick always seemed to have just enough to keep Mervyn out; eventually Mervyn's fleet would head back west. On the last turn the game was still up for grabs with 4 of the 5 players still having the possibility of winning. In the end Mark's Green forces came out victorious with the control of 5 city/strongholds. Congratulations to Mark for the win on his first time playing. We will have to keep an eye out for you next time! Other things of note, was that the first supply card did not come out until turn 7! I thought Mick did well with his limited supply up to that point.

Eric Nicely finally showed up at one of our meetings after two aborted attempts. Eric and Sean Harris fought the Battle of Antietam in Glory III from GMT Games.
SEAN HARRIS: We played the short scenario of antietam. It was 4 turns long. The union suffer heavy losses due to failed charges in the early game and could never recover from it.

Another first timer, David Taylor played regular David Harrod in Twilight Struggle. This is another game by GMT Games. They are putting out a deluxe edition this year with a mounted map and new artwork I believe.

Regulars, Brian Marrs and Joseph Acker squared off in Warriors of God, a game by Multi-man Publishing.

It has a nice looking period map.
BRIAN MARRS: I think everyone had played the game at least once except for Mark so we had a little refresher rules session at the beginning. A random draw of the houses resulted in the following distribution: Sorry I don't know the house names so I've used the player colors. Mark B (Green), Mick M (Yellow), Nevin B (Red), Mervyn D (Black), and John B (White "Stark"). In the first couple of turns Nevin and Mervyn went head to head but soon formed an alliance under Mick's urgings. I moved north to occupy the two power spaces and south and east grabbing supply spaces. Mick expanded westward and Mark eastward. Nevin's memory of our last game where I as White expanded unchecked to win came into play as he and Mervyn arranged a sneaky sea invasion by Nevin's forces taking my home area around turn 4. On the next turn, of course I kicked him back out. The sneaky Red player would do this again on turn 9! Mick gained the lead first with 5 city/strongholds but Mark would take it from him later in the game with a Mark/Nevin alliance. Mervyn's 3 ship fleet made tried to make Mick's life miserable on the south and east coasts but Mick always seemed to have just enough to keep Mervyn out; eventually Mervyn's fleet would head back west. On the last turn the game was still up for grabs with 4 of the 5 players still having the possibility of winning. In the end Mark's Green forces came out victorious with the control of 5 city/strongholds. Congratulations to Mark for the win on his first time playing. We will have to keep an eye out for you next time! Other things of note, was that the first supply card did not come out until turn 7! I thought Mick did well with his limited supply up to that point.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

July 18 Gaming at the Boone Casa - Blackbeard and Age of Empires III

Mick Mickelsen, Nevin Ball, and Al Hay came over to play Blackbeard from GMT Games.

Of course if you're going to play a pirate game you must have provisions,

and more provisions,

and grog.

The game ended much too quickly with the pirates doing hardly any piratey deeds.

Mick really kicked our booty in the final scoring.

My useless pirate who stayed in port more than at sea.

Afterwards, we played Age of Empires III. Mick got the pirate building in this game and won this one too.


Monday, June 22, 2009

Impromtu Gaming Session

On Saturday, June 20th 2009, we played a 4-player game of A Game of Thrones. None of us had played before, but I had read the rules the previous night. A random drawing of Houses resulted in Nevin playing Tyrell, Mervyn playing Baratheon, Cody playing Lannister, and myself playing House Stark. The game is ten turns long after which the House with control of the most Stronghold and City Areas is the new King and wins the game. The game may also end early in an automatic victory to the player that manages to control seven Stronghold or City Areas at any point before turn ten ends.

Supply, or lack thereof hindered Mervyn and me from forming more than two armies until turn 7 while Cody and Nevin traded punches in the center of the map; the first supply card showed up on turn 2 but we were not prepared for it and then the 2nd Supply card did not show up until turn 7. Mervyn and Cody then ganged up on Nevin as I made my way down the East side of the map from the North. Turn 8 ended in a Stark victory when I grabbed the Neutral stronghold on the East coast and an open city in one March order.

I'd like to try this one again with 5 players. The 5th player(I forget the house name) is a neutral house in the 4 player game so Stark can ignore him.

Next up was Kingsburg. Nevin took the lead early and lost it only to Cody for a short period before regaining it as he cruised to victory with 40pts followed by Cody with 36pts and Mervyn and myself with 30pts.

Nevin(Borgo), Cody(Hegemony), and myself(Outpost) finished with a three-player game of Neuroshima Hex!. After all the nuclear dust settled, Cody came out on top followed by Nevin and myself last.

On Sunday, I taught Claire how to play Ace of Aces. She said she enjoyed the game even though her dad kept shooting her down.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

D-Day, June 6th, Game Day at Frisco Public Library

On Saturday, June 6th, we had our third game day at the Frisco Public Library. Thirteen people split up into five groups and played the following games:

FOR THE PEOPLE
Joseph Acker and Sean Harris managed to get in two games of FTP.

Sean: I got schooled in the ways of how the south lost the war.

JUNTA
The group of Al Hay, Mark Bausman, John Boone, Nevin Ball, and Mark Simonitch played Junta.

The game was very fun and the the table was loud with the trash talking. I believe the government changed 5 different times during the game. Nevin and Mark ended up tied for first place followed by Al, myself, and Mark.

Al left after the game finished so that left the remaining four for a game of Small World.


SMALL WORLD
Nevin, Mark S, Mark B, and I then played Small World. Small World is based on the earlier game Vinci.

Where Vinci had nameless empires, Small World adds a little flavor by using fantasy races each with their own special power mated with randomly drawn additional special ability. Some of the combinations that came up were Commando Hobbits, Berserk Humans, and Diplomatic Skeletons.

I owned Vinci before and traded it away as too dry so I was surprised by how much I liked Small World. It played quickly and the race/power combination's that turned up were fun. This must have been Nevin's day as he came in first again followed by Mark Bausman, myself, and Mark Simonitch.


HAMMER OF THE SCOTS
Steve Gallob and Tom first played Hammer of Scots where Tom's English defeated Steve's Scots.


TWILIGHT STRUGGLE
They then played a game of Twilight Struggle. I'm not sure how that one turned out.



WATERLOO
Mick Mickelsen brought the new Waterloo game by Martin Wallace and he and David Harrod gave it a try. I believe they played it twice both games ending in Mick's French being defeated.

Mick: The first game of Waterloo was a learning game. The British cavalry broke through the French columns causing great chaos. We rebooted. I continued as the French. They did better but still had made no significant progress when the Prussians started to arrive. Neither David nor I could see a clear path to victory for the French. Plan to double check the rules to make sure we were playing correctly. We then played Twilight Struggle. I played the USSR and David had the worse luck on the card draw. USSR seemed to control most of the map most of the game.
TWILIGHT STRUGGLE
Afterwards, they played Twilight Struggle.



UNHAPPY KING CHARLES
Brian Marrs, as the Royalists, took on Steven Sheasby's Parliamentarians in Unhappy King Charles.In the end the King got to keep his head by surviving till game end for the victory.

Brian: I had the Royalists versus Steven's Parliament. For most of the game, we fought over the Midlands and South regions. I briefly laid siege to London but the dreaded 1-6 die split went against me and I had to retreat.

The Scots made a brief appearance in the North, but Newcastle, with 3 brigades of Veterans won the first battle, and then I hit him with a card that not only drained 2 cards from his hand, but also 2 brigades from the Scots. That left them easy prey for Newcastle to finish him off.

The New Model Army(NMA) became available during the final two turns of the game. Steven received relatively few Operations cards and was unable to get the NMA into action. Cromwell spent some time chasing after Hopton in the South but could never quite catch him. Meanwhile, Byron was running amok in the East region converting spaces as he went.

In the end, Parliament controlled the South and Midlands, while the Royalists controlled Wales, North and East. I think Parliament controlled 3 resource areas and the Royalists controlled 5. Charles was happy and got to keep his head.

Plenty of tables at the Frisco Public Library McCallum Meeting Room.