wargamesdiary   A diary of war games and board games

Card Games night.
Bruce, Mike, Andy and Phil.
First up was Cloud 9, fun game with a balloon. Andy cleverly won after Phil took an early lead.
Next was Senator. Bruce cleverly won after Phil took an early lead.
Next up Phil and Andy played Lord of the Rings the Collectable Card Game whilst Bruce and Mike Midway. Both games looked very good and seemed interesting to play.
Finally all 4 played Musketeers. Bruce won after Phil took an early lead and made himself a target. Someone really has to have a word with him about this tactic.

Sekhigara
Solo game to learn the rules. Interesting game. Not that good solo. Gold blocks won by killing black commander on final phase of final turn.

Mike, Andy, Bruce and Phil

Wrath of Ashardalon
In player order the following set out to defeat the Beholder: Fighter, Cleric, Paladin, Scout. The players worked well as a team. The fighter bravely led the way and the team were well supported by the Cleric. No healing surges were used and the players held back heir special powers for the final chamber, which was in fact quite small. Thus the Beholder and his minions were rapidly defeated.

Last Night on Earth.
In the first game the humans quickly found petrol and car keys and escaped. The second game took longer but somehow the humans survived just long enough for day to break and the villagers were all found and kept safe.

Wrath of Ashardalon
Solo games
Fighter and Wizard attempted to take on the Beholder. However they had hardly entered the dungeon before they found hemselves hard pressed. The wizard kept using up healing surges. He fell prey to traps or monsters, even though he was usingmirror image. Reaching the final room with their daily powers used already the heroes failed to defeat the beholder.

Next the Paladin and the Cleric set out. They raced through the dungeon pursued by a horde ofmonsters. Sentry Guardians kept spawning more corridors and they actually reached the Horrid chamber with just one tile remaining. Holding back their special powers they were able to make short work of the Beholder whilst the Clerics blade barrier defended their rear against the pursuing foes.

Mansions of Madness

The Witch

Phil (and Izzy), Andy, Bruce and Darryl played against evil overlord Mike. This was a fascinating scenario with lots of twists and turns. The players managed to find the secret ladder and enter the master bedroom. At this point the scientist (Izzy) managed to reveal the objective using her once per game ability analysing the clues revealed. This caused he Witch to spawn. The players had to destroy her before she could escape.

It seemed impossible with so little time, players suffering insanity, traumas and heavy damage with hordes of Shoggoth spawning but somehow they made it into the final cave to attack the Witch. Bruce went insane and tried to kill another player, Andy dropped his machine gun, Phil picked it up and missed! Darryl got hold of the evil book and the statue only to draw the overlords attacks as he struggled towards the altar!

Soon however Andy struck with his axe, Bruce shot with his pistols despite his broken arm and Izzy, though concussed hit with a spray of gunfire. The Witch was dead once more as Nola’s body lay ruined. The players were victorious and for once the evil overlord defeated. Just in time as a moment later the Witch would have escaped with the turn of the last event card! Without the scientist’s ability to reveal the objective when the players were in the master bedroom and faced with three different directions of travel they would surely have failed. A tough scenario.

Battlestar Galactica

Mike, Daryl, Phil, Bruce and Andy tried out the new Exodus expnsion. Before the sleeper phase the unified crew travelled no less than 6 distance. Mike was Admiral, Andy CAG and Darryl the scheming President. Phil was the engineer and Bruce the heroic pilot.

However it soon turned nasty when an explosion occured in hangar bay and the President identified Bruce as a cylon when both he and the engineer where in Sickbay. The engineer executed Bruce using her firearm.

Bruce returned even more deadly than before and took charge of The Cylon Fleet. The players then drew seven no vote cards in a row suffering badly and struggled to repair the increasing damage on galactica. Also resources especially fuel and morale were dwindling fast. All the pilots and vipers were returned to base but with command and hangar bay damaged could not be launched again. Unopposed the raiders struck! Soon after Galactica suffered a sixth damage token and the players lost. Mike and Bruce claimed victory as the Cylons.

Lord of the Rings with Batttlefields expansion.

Phil, Mike and Darryl tried our hand at the new Battlefields expansion.  Well we’ve had it since 2006 but had never opened the box except to punch the counters.  Our group has not won a game of Lord of the Rings since 2004 using my set so things were not looking promising as our merry band headed out of Bag End, setting Sauron at Space 12.  This time though we had Gimli, Aragorn, Legolas and Boromir helping us out, so what could go wrong?

Pretty much everything.  It did not help that we forgot how to Defeat the monsters on the tiles but nevertheless we bravely struggled onto Shelob’s Lair, feeling quitely confident.  Unfortunately events occured incredibly quickly and Darryl’s Pippin died due to a lack of a joker or 3 shields almost immediately despite holding 6 cards at the ready and being in good health.  Oops!

So we set out again with Sauron on Space 14.  This time we were ready with our jokers when we arrived in Shelob’s Lair.  However Shelob soon attacked and Phil’s Pippin, followed by Darryl’s Frodo were soon corrupted to the dark side.  Phil had 11 incredible cards but lacked shields to call Gandalf so did not even get a go as events overtook him whilst he slept! Every card Sam and Frodo drew but one turned proved to be an Event! Sam was then horribly devoured by Shelob and Sauron was victorious, yet again.

Next time we will win, I am sure!

Mansions of Madness

Evil overlord Mike tricked Andy, Phil and Bruce into the monastery. Lured by a letter from an old friend they took on the Cultists. Andy’s Nun armed herself with a dagger and carved up the Cult leader. Doning his robes she searched the caves mingling with impunity amongst the brethren and picking up a sackful of old books. Phil’s gun decayed leaving him powerless. Darryl’s axe decayed forcing his Professor to resort to his old boxing skills from his undergraduate days with deadly effect. Bruce proved a powerhouse with his guns when he was not dropping them or tripping over. Rapidly losing his mind he became a cleptomaniac, as well as blind and then panicky.

Finally all was revealed as a betrayal and the heroes raced for the exit, leaving the hapless Bruce to fend for himself. For some reason he kept running towards the Cultists but finally just managed to make the exit on the last turn! Victory for the players!

Castle Ravenloft

Andy (cleric), Phil(fighter) and Mike (ranger) entered the crypt. First scenario with young vampire went okay.

Second Adventure was to set out against the Dracolich. This was quite challenging. Ironically it turned out that the fighter was in a portal just as the ranger found the dracolich. So on his turn he appeared in the laboratory and destroyed the phylactery. With the cleric healing and the fighter and ranger inflicting damage the dracolich was heavily wounded when the fighter was ported back to the start. Then the poor dwarf was guided into a room and knocked unconscious by an encounter. Just as the fighter returned to the fray the ranger, now second level inflicted the killing blow.

Wrath of Ashardalon

Solo quest.

Elven Paladin attempted Quest One, A day in the life of Hero. Just as everything seemed to be going well our Hero found the Tunnel exit guarded by the evil Kobold. Dragonlord. With just one blow the Paladin inflicted Four wounds and victory seemed close. However the Kobold seemed to hit with every strike and a series of traps, poisons and a cage rapidly used up our Heroes surges whilst her own attacks incredibly missed time after time, despite using powerful gloves and a staff! Defeat.

This time the Half Orc Rogue and Dragonborn Wizard decided to find Roghar’s Gear. The rogue began with a flying carpet which proved interesting. Together they were ale to delve deep into the dungeon. Defeat seemed close when they fell prey to a Grell ambush just before the vault containing the gear. They had used one surge and both were just on one single remaining life point. Both however used their daily powers and with some amazing luck managed to defeat their foes. They also were able to level up, one by drawing a tome, the other by rolling a 20. This gave them more hit points and an extra daily power to use to destoy the remaining monster. With plenty of xp saved up for the end they discarded any difficult encounters and retrieved the gear for Roghar.