wargamesdiary   A diary of war games and board games

Mike, Phil, Bruce, Andy and James the Younger.
We played Phil’s Waterdeep game with the Undermountain expansion. Phil had been practicing on his ipad but only narrowly avoided coming in last place. James beat Bruce in a winning tie to claim Victory. Well done.

We also played sharks and swimmers game called Get Bit which Phil won and a Tides and Sheep game and finally a game of Bluff both of which Mike won.

Andy (Fatty), Mike (Frodo), Phil (Pippin)l, Bruce (Merry) and Izzy (Sam) played Lord of the Rings: Friends and Foes.

The game started roughly with lots of foes appearing quickly and Sam having to use his special ability even before they left Bree.   However the party were able to bypass Moria travelling through the Gap of Rohan to Isengard.  Ringbearer Sam picked up a few items from the Elves and then they went to Isengard.  Again they survived with a clever use of Frodo’s determination enabling them to complete travelling and find  pipeweed thus thwarting Saruman’s evil plans.  Again they decided to bypass Helm’s deep defeating Foes and next was Shelob’s Lair.

Things looked almost promising as we climbed the stairs but as usual whenever I play all we drew at Shelob’s Lair were Event tiles and so the board was quickly over before the Hobbits had a chance to move.  Now the heavily corrupted party were perilously close to Sauron (except Merry who seemed to be playing the friendly version of the game).  As this unfolded they realised that only four foes remained with just 2 hidden and a Military Victory seemed easier than the Mordor board if Event tiles were to keep being drawn with such frequency.  So Merry and Fatty heroically defeated all they could and then as the Party entered Mordor with Sam bearing the Ring he dispatched the final Foe and the heroic hobbits scored a Military Victory.  None of the Hobbits had been lost (though Fatty was just one space away) and the final score was 87.

This was only the second time ever we had defeated the game using my set; the last being in 2004!

Next we played a good game of Cutthroat the card game.  Mike won (as usual) but only just:  he had completed 12 correct bids, Andy 11 and Phil 10 with the scores awarding him for this accuaracy.  Andy was unlucky in the last round allowing Mike to steal the lead back and claim Victory!

Andy, Mike, Phil and Izzy played some fun games. We even managed to escape from the temple on our final attempt.

We played our first game of Ronin rules. The Sohei monks against the Bushi.

You can see the images and the scenario details here.

In brief the Sohei defeated the Bushi and enjoyed the Sake wine.  They seemed quite powerful.

Pax Porfiriana

Andy, Mike, Phil and Darryl played Bruce’s new card game about Mexico under the great dictator.

Very nice cards and lots of interesting twists and turns.  We didn’t finish on our first try.

Next we played two games of Bluff.  Phil won the first and Bruce the second despite Darryl being seated to Mike’s left!

A Game of Thrones the Card Game

Phil, Mike, Bruce and Andy played the FFG LCG.  Phil’s Targaryens won through.

Battlestar Galactica

An unusual 4 player game.  Darryl, Phil, Andy and Bruce played as Mike sadly had to drop out.  To begin all players were clearly human.  Bruce was the Admiral and Phil the President.  The Admiral was incredible and soon had us on six travel points without a scratch.  Phil had amassed a lot of Presidential Quorum cards but they all involved losing morale which was getting low any way in order to gain something else.  The team arranged to have Fuel just in red ready for the sleeper phase in order to get the friendly pro-human sympathiser (Bruce).  Incredibly no Cylon attack cards came at all.  Bruce checked Darryl’s card and stated he was human.

After the sleeper phase it seemed everyone was still human.  The cards kept putting the Admiral in the Brig so Andy took over as Admiral but we only needed another two travel and had started half way up the track because of the Lion’s Head nebula.  In any event when trouble came it did not last long because the team fired up the engines and jumped!  So the Cylon had to bide their time.  Phil began to worry he had forgotten to put one in the deck.  Then when the attacks came the ships took a lot of damage but fortunately Pegasus soaked some up.  Also the Admiral had repair skills and Phil used Exec Orders to keep things going only to get criticised for not using Quorum Cards (which would only really have lowered morale or transferred the Admiral card)!   It became clear there was a Cylon out there from the dubious card plays but who was it!?  And why were they hiding for so long.

Finally someone decided to Exec Order Darryl despite everyone’s protestations and he duly revealed as a Cylon hitting us with more morale loss.  However we had plenty of fuel, population and a newly repaired FTL so the team jumped and Galactica was home!  Hurrah!

Playing with 4 was fun and interesting but perhaps not so challenging.  Being able to manipulate the sleeper phase to get a friendly sympathiser is kind of harsh on the Cylon player as there is only one in the deck.  Still the cards were incredible and the distances travelled amazing with two 3 cards for distance coming up.  Fuel, morale and even food were getting low by the end even with all that in the humans favour.  Congratulations for the humans and thanks to Darryl for being such a sport and keeping everyone guessing until the end.

War of the Ring Collector’s Edition

Challenge week.  The last two times Phil and Darryl played, Phil was Evil and won.  This time it was Darryl’s turn to be evil.  We had two mega-games which we completed in one session each.  These were very tough and lengthy with Darryl winning the first through a military victory and narrowly losing the second when Frodo made it to Mount Doom on eleven corruption! This was a very lucky escape for Phil as Darryl had 2 strongholds besieged (Dol Amroth and Grey Havens) ready to fall and provide him with a military victory.   Phil had almost completely run out of cards and re-inforcements.

We still have not seen a comfortable Free People Victory won with a clear strategy in our 2 player games!

Legends of Drizzt the Boardgame
Close off the fissures to defeat the Drow invasion in the caverns beneath the Mithral Hall
Somehow the brave adventurers managed to win through with no surge tokens remaining.