Caps Game

So last night Ellen and I made the horrid trek into DC to see the Caps play. Her Manager was given tickets by a Subcontractor, but wasn't able to go, so he passed them on to Ellen as a thank you for being the only person at her job sight who does work.

We went to a place called BGR The Burger Joint for dinner. By sheer happenstance I saw the place in the Washingtonian magazine yesterday and it sounded amazing. The place has 8 burgers and 4 types of sides. Thats it. They do milkshakes too I think. I got, "The Burger" with Bacon, Cheddar, Lettuce, Pickle, and Mojo Sauce. I also got their fries. Ellen got "The Greek" which is their famous throwdown with Bobby Flay winning burger. Her's had Lamb, with Feta, Cucumber, white yogurt sauce, a HUGE tomatoe, and lettuce. Both burgers were out of this world, seriously go try them. Its a near religious experience.

So DC Sucks. It took us waaayy too long to get to the stadium, at one point DC has construction set up so people are driving on the wrong side of the road. This was apparently normal since I was the only one who seemed hesitant about this. Eventually we made it in though and Our parking pass was for the Garage at Gallery Place. We parked, under the Damn Verizon Center, it was sweet.

We head straight in and go to our seats. We weren't sure if we were right on the glass, but we were totally RIGHT on the glass behind the goal where the Canadiens were warming up. Right as we sat down a puck smacked in the glass, it was really damn loud, we both jumped a bit.



About 2 minutes later a puck slipped over the glass and fell right under my seat. It was pretty awesome.

So we watched the game, barely getting up from out seats. Ever time guys got smashed into the glass in front of us Ellen and I would bang on the glass. I was on TV apparently too. It was with out a doubt the BEST gaps game experience I have ever had. I have sat in the second row behing the glass once before (when the caps sucked) But this was just totally different. Also being behind the Goal was amazing. And during the 2nd Intermission Slap Shot was skating by and I slap my hand up on the glass and he gave me window love. It was a wierd moment, but I felt like we really connected. And as a bonus the Caps won 3-0. All the Goals went in on our side.

With 2 mins left the Canadiens down 2-0 pulled their goalie and I started yelling Cheap Goal for Ovie! and sure enough he snagged the puck on a break away and got an open net goal. I was thrilled. But nothing beat Mike Green's Goal. I was right there to snap a photo, but fumbled my camera, so I got the guys skating away after the celebration. But they were like 5 feet from me when they piled in on Green.

Picture Time!

Caps Right After Green's Goal


Varly


Ovi


Slap Shot


Varly's Victory Lap, He was Player of the Game


And Lastly, A shot of our Awesome Swag from the game. Tickets, Programs, and My Puck

Pulp City

So Huzzah has this way of getting in products and then making me buy them. Its like hypnotism or something. Or maybe its just old fashioned gamer ADD. But who cares, Yesterday I went into the store with a few things in mind. First, my Battle Foam Pack MINI arrived after a month on order (yay) next I wanted the Small World Expansions. (got both) next up I wanted to buy the Something Wicked Expansion for Touch of Evil (didn't have it, its on order) and lastly I was pondering picking up a starter for Pulp City. I pondered for about 10 minutes and then remember I had already told chris to reserve me one so I got it. Lets look inside =)



So first things I had to choose between the Villains and the Heroes. Those who know me well enough know that I subscribe to the lord helmet philosophy of the world. "Evil will triumph over good, because good is dumb!" Naturally I got Villains. Mike who agrees with this sentiment in all aspects except miniature games oddly enough grabbed the Hero box set. So my team of Villains consists of 5 dudes.


Guerilla


The Ape with a mini gun. In Pulp there is an entire subfaction of Ape men, who are fighting to overthrow the Humans and take over the world for ape kind. They are also all mercs who fight for either side.

Twilight


A ninja assassin kinda chick. She has a silenced uzi for a weapon.

Hellsmith


Hellsmith is fallen Greek god. He was second only to hephestus as the Forge god, In an attempt to rise in Power he sided against Olympus and was cast down. Now he trolls the streets of Pulp-City with a big ass hammer and a chip on his shoulder.

Nuke


A horrible accident left Nuke a mutated mess. He is mute and psychotic. His powers are emense though, immune to all radiation he is a powerhouse capable of massive damage.

The Gentlemen


My personal favorite. The Gentlemen is a Villain, but works more for money and will work with the Heros for a price. He is a sophisticated hitman, and prides himself on his abilities and is capable of slaying even the most powerful foes. Plus he wears a suit when he kills people.


I have just finished assembling my dudes, and they are ready to cause some serious trouble on the streets of Pulp City.

Random Musings and Christmas Thoughts

Hope everyone had a great christmas. I know I did. I ended up getting some really cool stuff.

Got 5 models for Infinity, which finishes off my army for it. I now have a full caledonian army ready to rock.

I also got Fallout: New Vegas and Descent the dungeon board game, which is really cool.




Ellen got me A Touch of Evil along with the character pack. We got a chance to play it yesterday, its a really cool game, the Head-Less Horsemen is a real Jerk. He beat my butt into the ground several times throughout the game. But we had the last laugh as Brian cut his 30+ wounds in half on his first attack of the Showdown. I played the School teacher, who I thought might suck, but she scaled up quick once I started getting her some books. She gets +2 combat for every book, so at the Showdown I was laying into the horsemen with 7 dice. So far I have played Invasion 2 times, Last Night on Earth 3 times, and Touch of Evil 2 times. And in that limited experience, Touch of Evil is my favorite of Flying Frog's line-up.




As 2010 comes to a close I am in a bit of a different gaming state then I was at the end of 2009. I am more into Miniature games then I was a year ago, and I contribute that mostly to Malifaux being a really awesome game. My board game collection has grown considerably from the tiny selection of Bang and Munchkin, to include about a dozen games and expansions I have picked up or been gifted with since around august of this year (Yay Gen Con) and I still love role-playing, this year saw me try my hand at my first long term campaign idea. It went ok, I would like to say Mike's wedding killed it, but Im pretty sure it was my poor planning that doomed me.

So what to look forward to in 2011? Well more Malifaux for sure. More of my favorite board games, especially Battle Star Galactica's new expansion. And maybe some new things hitting the table for me. I have been looking at 3 miniature games as the year comes to a close. Here my inital thoughts on them. We'll see how they fair into the new year.


1. Infinity - I own a full crew for this game already, but both test games I've played have ended the same way. I have an uber guy and he will use all my action points this turn to own your armies face. Now your uber guy activates a bunch of times. etc, Im hoping there is more too this game then what Im seeing. But if not, then I have invested $0 of my own money, so no Big loss.



2. Distopian Wars - Another game in Spartan's line of the same game with different packaging. From what I hear its the best of their naval line of games and It sounds really cool. Here are my detracting thoughts. I own FSA already. I hardly play FSA. I have seen this game being played at Huzzah 1 time. Its not cheap and there will be a rather extensive line of models that go with it. If I had all the free time in the world, I would certainly get into this game. I don't, and since I doubt I would play this game enough times to justify the cost of it, I think Distopian Wars will be a game that I just stay out of.



3. Pulp City - Another Skirimsh size game (god how I love them) with an integrated turn system (swoon) and its played with Super Heroes Fighting Super villains (I need new shorts) on a city map where everything is fair game to whomp the crap out of each other. See a lamp post? hit someone in the head with it. See a fleeing citizen? (oh yeah there are citizens fleeing your battle) Throw a car at them and force the Hero to come save the day. Im not really sure how the game plays. It has an action system kinda similar to Infinity, but you get more actions, and each model has a cap for how many actions it can take. Also you need a single D6. Thats all I got for the moment, but the models are super sweet, and It just looks like a boat load of fun. I already have my Villain starter on order at Huzzah. Im gonna swing by and hopefully pick it up today.

And lastly the games I already own: I can see myself playing maybe a dozen games of MonPoc throughout the year. Its a nice change of pace game, and its always fun to smash a town to rubble with giant monsters. I dont really see my 40k, fantasy, WM, or Hordes getting signifigant playing time. And I do see a lot of my spare models for those games hitting Ebay to help Finance my Honey Moon, or just to get them out of my closet.

So thats the end of 2010, most likely. Lets hope 2011 is as awesome as I think it will be... come on october, daddy needs 2 weeks at the beach!

McMourning vs the Dreamer

Got to get in 2 games at Huzzah this past weekend and figured its been a while since I've posted a battle report up.

Game 1 McMourning vs the Dreamer.

Crews:
McMourning, Chiuahauah, 2 Canine Remains, Sebastian, 2 Necro Punks, 1 Belle, Bette Noir
The Dreamer, 4 Alps, 1 Stiched Together, Copelius, 3 Day Dreams

Missions. I got Deliver the Message, adding Frame for Murder, and Grudge Match. He got Plant the Evidence and added in Kidnap and Body Guard.

He started off slow the dreamer popped up and did a few tricks. I rushed the Center of the board to clog the most terrain pieces and prevent him from getting quick grabs as best I could. The game got under way when McMourning sent a Flesh Golem over to say hi to the Dreamer and a Daydream. Taking major offense to this Chompy popped up and slapped the poor Golem silly. With a message in hand a Necro Punk bounded after Chompy Bits but failed to get close enough to tell him that McMourning wants to stuff him taxedermy style. The turn ended with Chompy in Melee with the Necro-Punk and no other nightmares on the board. Mike won inititive and took the chance to slap the poor necro punk around. This played into my hands as I had called that little guy to be my framed for muder victim. 2 vps! Chompy shrugged it off as Mike has called Kidnap on the little guy (and 2 dogs who Mcmourning was nice enough to kill) claiming 2vps right back. Chompy then reverted back to the cute little child of wonder and threw out a Stiched together. McMourning Ran around and scooped up the body parts of the dead Necro Punk and Flesh Construct, while Sebastian and my last dog tried to corner the Stiched Together. Sensing its impendig doom the Stiched Together gambled its life several times vs McMourning. My hand was rather depleted, and I was forced to use Soul Stoned to keep the Doc Alive. Wasting no more time on the Doll, the Doc, Sebastian, and my Last dog shred it, getting me 2 more VP's for Grudge Match. The Doll being a tough sob to put down got one last go of McMourning with 2 more life Gambles. But a lucky flip by me a black Jocker by him kept the Doc around.

I won the next turns Init and used the chance to have McMouring scalpel sling himself up next to the dreamer and give him the message. +4 Vps! Then I went fast and slashed the kid to ribons. The response was impressive. Every nightmare popped up surrounding Sebastian, McMouring, My Dog, and My Necro Punk. Chompy kicked things off Maiming my Dog and Sebastian. Copelius Then went around paralyzing my Necro Punk preventing him from fighting. With almost my entire crew on Lock down things were turning against me fast. Looking at the Board I had the Doc and my Belle left, with Bette hanging in the wings. But the game was winding down and he hadn't activated the points on the Board. The Necro Punk paralze activated and promptly Died from the Alp Auras, this caused Bette to pop up in melee with Chompy. She then took a slice out of the big monster doing minimal damage, but draining his final stones. The alp team then ganged up and took her out, Luckily she was able to save herself with one with the night.

Turn 6 started and Chompy made mince-meat out of a Copelius paralyzed McMourning. Bette popped back in and with a VERY luck defense flip avoided a blow by Chompy. She then went to work putting the big guy down for good. (Body Guard broken). At this point My ploy was very obvious. Load up mikes awesome new toys with big juicy targets and make sure he has so much fun slaughtering them he wont be able to plant the evidence that proves I am indeed a giant douche bag. The ploy worked and he was only able to activate 2 points. With a single Belle at 4 hps and bette my only two living models I pulled out an 8-4 Victory over the dreamer. My first win against the nasty jerk, and Mike's first loss with him. 3 Cheers for the Mad Doctor and his crazy skillz!


My other game was Leviticus vs Ramos. John was playing Ramos and really played his heart out, but the match up seems very one sided. Levicus kept making sure there were no scrap counters on the board and any time a steam punk died it would drop a corpse counter instead of a scrap counter. It made a very rough day for Ramos. Despite some amazing play, such as nickle and diming Teddy off the board, and Bringing a fully charged Joss up to threaten my Wagon, the disadvantages were too much and Leviticus pulled out an staggering 8-2 win over Ramos. John and I will get a re-match in soon I hope, I believe we are 1-1-1 in our games against each other now.

DONE!

DISCLAIMER: I can totally change my mind on this at any time

But Im totally Friggin done with the Redskins. Seriously Rex Grossman? what the hell! Either admit the McNabb move was a mistake and move on, or screw it I don't care. This organization is such a mess that I just don't care any more. Im not sure Im ready to jump ship yet, buts been on my mind. I think this off season will be my last chance for the Redskins to prove to me that they have some for of competent people somewhere in the organization and not a bunch of knee-jerk, assholes who jump at the slightest chance to sign a big name player and sell jerseys instead of building a proper team from the ground up like every other successful team. We need youth god damn it. Freaking figure it out.

Monsterpocalypse

I've been itching to dust off a few of my old favorites and MonPoc ended up winning the fight thanks to D6G talking about it in their last podcast. Yesterday Mike and I e-mailed back and forth and that Helped spark my memory on the rules. So last night I bugged Ellen enough and she agreed to a game after we decorated our tree.



Game was pretty simple We lined up and beat the tar out of each other. The map was called Highway to Hellvue and we placed a ton of buildings on it. She and I stumbled a bit through the rules, (banning a few pieces since I couldn't find out what they did) On turn 2 she had set up an amazing power base. She saw 3 buildings with 2 powerzones near her spawners. Two of the buildings game a bonus power die when powering up so with that little area she was racking up 7 dice each time she powered up. I had to Run Terra-Khan over there, Hyper form him up and blast through it to keep the game more even. We ended up pretty close. She Finished off Terra Khan with a body Slam through a Fire building when she had only 2 HPs left. It was a great time and I think we both had fun. She did comment on how much easier the game was to understand then Malifaux and Warmachine.



So after the Game I pulled out my 3 strategy Guides and started flipping through them. I think Im going to try and Keep MonPoc on the Middle Burner for a while see if anyone else gets the itch to dust theirs off too.

Holy Cow Teddy is Done Already?

As a matter of fact he is!

Wow Dan thats amazing!

Thank you, I know.

Teddy

I wanted to do something unique for my teddies base, so I took a ghoul model I got in the mail and made green stuff intestines for him. Should look pretty creepy when its all done.

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Almost Finished with my Leviticus Crew

First the 4 Steam Punk Abominations. These guys painted up pretty quickly, They looked a lot like my Necro Punks, so I went over them with more highlights and I think they came out great.






And the Hollow Waif, she has been done for a while, but i forgot to snap a photo of her.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle Report

I played a game Wednesday night. I hadn't planned on being free, but Ellen was very sick and could barely even stay awake, so eventually I left her to sleep it off, grabbed my ogres and hit the GW store.

There was a guy looking for a game and he had 1500 points of dwarves. I pulled out my 2k list, made some cuts and had a nice 1500 list to play with.

His List looked something like
Lord with runes
Thane with Runes
BSB with Runes
20 Long Beards
20 Hammeres with runed banner
10 Gunners
15 Miners
1 Cannon
1 Catapult

My List was
Bruiser with Items
Butcher
5 Ogers
5 Ogers
4 Iron Guts
2 lead Belchers
2 lead Belchers
3 Maneatters



Set up & Turn 1
So I felt like I had a nice advantage. We were playing a mission called mountain pass. You play long ways. Get a 24in deployment zone, and the long edges are impassible terrain. He set his gunmen up on a far flank so I was able to avoid them most of the game. He started moving up very agressively so I moved to match him. He didn't get very good shooting off turn 1. Only managing a few wounds.

Turn 2
I moved my Leadbelchers up and charged my unit of Bulls with bruiser and Maneaters into his long beards, who were joined by the BSB and Runesmith. In the shooting phase I killed a few hammeres, My magic phase was basically ignored since he had a decked out runesmith. On to combat. I wiped the floor with his longbeards, I won by 9, mostly due to the casualties I caused, he fled and I ran down the unit. But the real gem of it was His Hammers Fled from Panic, it was priceless. He was in deep trouble as turn 2 ended.

Turn 3
His Hammeres rallied and stood tall and his warmachines were kicking my butt. I moved as quick as I could to take out the stone thrower, but as I was closing in the Miners popped up and got in my way. They tried to Charge my Maneaters, but failed. His cannon fired off and killed 2 Ogre Bulls, leaving my Bruiser without a Unit. His Gunners dropped a Maneater. I moved a Lead belcher to block the Hammerers from charging my Bull Unit. I shot in with the other belchers and managed to kill a few. In my Magic Phase the Butcher Killed himself with Gut Magic.

Turn 4
So I charged the Miners and failed to wipe them all out with the Bruiser and Maneaters. His Hammerers had their best charge lane blocked by a single leadbelcher, so he charged his lord out of that unit alone and over ran into the middle of my Army. He shooting was hilarious that turn, he failed to wound with ST 10 like 3 times, it was priceless.

Turn 5
I charged his Lord with my Ironguts, and stood ready to shoot more with my last 2 Leadbelchers. His shooting was laughablly bad again, and I was able to Wipe out the Miners and Cause his Lord to run from Combat with my Ironguts. I ran down the Lord and ended up killing 3 more Hammeres from shooting. It was a very good turn for me.



Turn 6
The Hammerers charged and killed the Leadbelchers. I countered with a charge from my last Bull unti and rolled out my butt. On 9 attacks I killed 7. His unit Broke and was run down. He hit my Bruiser with a Cannonball to the chest, but only did 2 wounds. My Bruiser responded by charging into his Catapult and wiping out the Crew.

We ended up playing another turn since he didn't think it was turn 6, but It didn't matter, the Cannon ball killed 1 Irongut, and the gunners were out of range.

So I ended up with a Very strong Victory. My Maneaters lived, I captured 3 banners, Killed his General, and only left him with 140 points of the 1500 he started the game with.

I was thinking about it on my trip home last night. I have played 5 games of Fantasy since 8th Came out. Here is my break down

Vs Dwarves 2-0-0
Vs High Elves 1-0-0
Vs Dark Elves 1-0-0
Vs Skaven 0-0-1

4 Wins & 1 Draw in my first 5 games. *pats self on the back*

The Lament of a Redskins Fan

So this has been on my mind for a long time and I would say our recent trouncing at the hands of the eagles made me want to get it off my chest. The Redskins are the most frustrating franchise in the NFL. Now that doesn't mean we have the worst team, and its argueable that Dalls is more frustrating to their fans this year, but over the last decade there is no doubt that the Redskins take this mantle. Lets look deeper.

The NFL is divided into 4 sections. Elite, Good, Mediocre, Awful.
Examples
Elite: Indianapolis, New England, Pittsburgh - (Playoff Lock, super-bowl contender)
Good: Tennessee, San Diego, Seattle, NYG - (Likely Playoff Teams, outside superbowl)
Mediocre: Washington, Miami, Chicago, Tampa - (Maybe playoffs, likely wildcard exit)
Awful: Buffalo, Carolina, Detroit - (No playoff hope, maybe building towards future)

You see when you look at Detroit you know they will suck this year. They admit they are rebuilding and are a year or two outside of honestly competeing. But you look at all the young talent they have, Suh, Stafford, Johnson, Best, and you see that they are building to maybe compete in the future. You look at the Steelers, Colt, and Patriots, they expect to be the best every year. They build from within, and keep the talent coming, they don't rest because they have the best at a position, they try to create depth, and youth.

But Washington is very different. every year we expect to be good. And every year we are mediocre. If that weren't bad enough we compete in the toughest division if football. Every year its a crap-shoot which team will win the NFC East. Because there are 3 solid contenders... Washington hasn't won a division title since 1999 when the rest of the division was in tatters. But every year is a new hot Thing! Bruce Smith, Deon Sanders, Albert Haynesworth, Donovan McNabb and all of a sudden expectations soar. And thats the problem. We once again expect to be good. I would be much happier with advanced knowledge that we suck, so long as I saw something solid being set up for the future. Maybe our O-line will start to get some youthful energy. A new center and guard could really help liven things up... but wait we don't have a 3rd or 4th round pick. The likely spot that quality interior o-linemen are drafted.

So finally I asked myself a pretty tough question. "Why am I a Redskins fan?" Its a legitimate question, ask yourself. The best reasons I could come up with aren't really valid.

1. "They give something back to me" - ulcers and rage don't really count
2. "They are winners!" - HA!
3. "They are my home team." - Ok thats valid, but why should I be married to a football team simply because of my geographical location.
4. "The ownership cares about the city" - suing ticket holders... really?
5. "They are building toward a strong future" - Oldest roster in the NFL is... well you know.
6. "Im already emotionally invested in them." And I think thats the big one. It would not be easy for me to break up with the redskins. Sure they are basically the wife-beater of the NFL and I'm the battered woman who tells the police I walked into the door or I deserved to get hit because I didn't listen. I mean lets face it I know more about the team then any person rightfully should, I fully believe they can beat any team in the NFL on any given sunday, and I can't help geek out at any mention of them, just last night I drove by redskins park and I was tempted to drive up and see if they were hiring.

I guess its all moot anyways, If I tried to leave them they would sue me anyways. Plus I can live vicariously through secondary franchises, like the Falcons and Colts who are my other favorite teams. Aww I can't stay mad at you... come here.

Rusty Alyce

I finished Rusty Alyce... thats about all I got

Malifools Month 3

I jumped in on the Malifools Monthly painting contest. I chose Leviticus for this one. Here are some pics.

Malifaux Tournament on 11-6

Mr. Anderson took the time and effort to put together a Malifaux tournament for Huzzah hobbies, and decided to use Wyrd's newest official tournament rules. Basics are as follows. 1 hour games, 4 strategies, 5 schemes, VPS determine standings and pairings. Bill also added in a players choice painting contest.



My Tournament:
So a staple of the Wyrd tournament if that you only need to declare a faction going into a tournament. You are allowed to switch out your entire list each game. I was feeling a strange mixture of lazy and Cocky and chose that I would play Kirai every game.

So here is my list
Kirai, 4 Seishin, Datsue-Ba, 3 Gaki, 1 Onryo - 4 Soul Stones

Game 1 vs Dixon (Leviticus)
He took a list I had never seen with Levi before, 2 belles, 3 spiders, levi, and Alyce. I had a mission where I had to have my guys on his side of the board and he had to kill my people. My schemes were Bodyguard, and get a model in his deployment zone. His were Bodyguard and Assasinate. I basically played a slow moving sacrifice game. I would keep him on his side of the board by summoning and dropping models on his side. he would spend most of his turn tyring to kill my new guys and I would keep him back on his side. The game was running out of time so I super summoned Ikiryo into his deployment zone, but Forgot to move Kirai across the half way point of the Board. So I ended up costing myself 4 vps. and I lost 6-5.

Game 2 vs Chris (Pandora)
Chris only owns Pandora so he was playing a single list too. He got Kill my master and I got the same get my guys accross the board mission I had the last game. He deployed first and was in a single corner. I deployed in the opposite corner. I had one goal, just haul it accorss the board and hope I live. I called Body Guard and Breakthrough again, he called Bodyguard and kept 1 hidden. We played a few turns and then Time was called. I kept Kirai away from Pandoa to prevent him from killing her. And sent a few gaki and the Ikiryo over into his lines to slow him down. It ended up working and I won the game 8-3.

Game 3 vs Rockett (Sonnia Criid)
Ryan got Kill my master and I got a strange mission called get the stuff. You place 50mm bases around the board, but placement is REALLY limited, and I have to take (1) action to get the stuff, then I flip and see how much stuff I get. Kirai can be a very fast crew, so I called Hold Out and Body Guard, he called the same. Our game never really got under way. Turn 2 I had already collected all the Stuff I needed for 4 vps. and part way through turn 3 time was called. So Ryan and I never really engaged in our game, and I basically had no chance of losing much that game. I won 8-4.

Game 4 vs John (Rasputina)
He got slaughter, I got get the stuff again. We both called bodyguard and Hold out. Again I had the Stuff I needed for max vps on Turn 2. So I spent the next part of the game trying to break his Holdout. He ended up preventing it and Time was called again before the game really got under way. Strangely we both got max VP's 8-8



Datsue-Ba was my MVP of the day. She made several new Gaki for me and only died once. She was a major thorn in the side of all my opponents. So big props to the old gal.

So the Top three shook out like this
Dan the amazing - 29
Rockett - 28
John - 26

So I took home the gold, or in this case the gift certificate along with a cool piece of terrain, and I ended up winning the Players choice painting award. All in all it was a damn fine day for Kirai and Me.


Ok, so Bill wanted feedback on the Tournament format, as I believe it is still in Beta. So here are my likes and dislikes.



Likes - VPs for standings. I like this over the 3-win, 1-tie, 0-loss because in the last game John and i each took max points. Had that given us a tie I would be pretty upset. It also means there is always a chance to come back because if the top player losses big, it puts everyone else right back in the runnings.

The Bye system. In this format you take the average vp's won by every player in the round and that is what the Bye player ends up with. It ensures that the player with the Bye isn't screwed out of a chance to win the tourney. Most times the buy player got 5-6 points. Which is a respectable game.

Bill's painting contest. I do not think Painting should decide who wins a tournament. That said I spent a crap load of time painting my models and I was very glad to get some recognition for it. I really liked painting contest as a bonus to the Tournament.



Now the unfortunate side of things. My Dislikes.

1 Hour games. A normal Malifaux game is 6 turns. I got to turn 4 once this weekend. It gave me a serious edge because Kiria is the queen of snagging objectives at the last moment, and VERY tough to kill quickly. This game NEEDS 1.5 hour rounds.

No defined number of rounds. For 8 or less people a tournament should be 3 rounds. Bill said this wasn't well defined. But I think the Ideal tournament would have had 3 1.5 hour rounds.

5 Schemes aren't enough. I only called 3 of them all day, and I used 1 of them in all 4 games. A little more variety would help I think.

Bonus points for preventing called Schemes. Im pretty sure outside of the time limit this is the one that bothers me most. You are already at a disadvantage for Announcing your scheme to your opponent, and now he gets an additional an advantage for stopping it. Rockett got 5 bonus vps for preventing his opponents Schemes. Its pretty lame in my eyes. I could have been a dick and prevented several of my opponents Schemes through out the day, but I decided against it.

Get the Stuff, this mission is butt easy. I never in either game felt I would not get 4 points with it. Its way too easy and doesn't require interaction.

FSA Painting

So a while back I painted up some Aquan ships for Brian's Birthday. Jay bought him a few more ships, but then Brian decided to became a loser and stopped playing, so I never painted up those last ships. Last night I got the itch to finish off the last few ships, maybe in the hopes that it will re-vitalize Brian's desire to play FSA. Here are the 6 Escorts and the Carrier



Also since I love myself and all things I do I painted up a Gunship for my Sorylians. These guys are amazingly badass, so I really want them table ready asap, especially since Warstore has shipped my heavy Cruisers already and I think they will be in before the weeks ends.



*Super Special Edit!* As of 11pm last night my Heavy Cruisers are in Virginia!

Board Game Review #4

I think today will be the Long awaited reveiw of Hex Hex XL. At least I've been waiting, I doubt anyone else has.



Hex Hex is best described as a far more complex version of Hot potato. You get a deck of 150 cards and pass 5 to each player. Each person begins the game with 5 voice. You then pass the Hex around using the cards in your hand until the Hex lands on a person who can't play a card to pass it. That person is then hexed, and loses 1 voice. The person who sent the Hex to them gains 1 voice. That is a bare bones easiest possible way for the game to go. You player a number of rounds equal to 1+ the number of players. Giving each player a chance to be first, the last round, who ever is losing chooses the first caster. After that the player with the most voice wins.

But its not so simple. In the 150 card deck are several cards that really offer a great twist to the game. Some cards create new hexes, so there are more than 1 Hex bounding around the Board. Some cards force the Hex to move only 1 direction. Some boost the amount of Voice lost by the Hexed player. There are several dozen cards that pop up in the game that help make it fun, random, and always keep it fresh.



The Large box set called Hex Hex XL, comes with 2 expansions. Hexen Sticks, and Hex Hex Vexxed. The Sticks are added into the main game and play the same with 1 exception. You place a number of sticks in the center of table equal to one less then the number of players. Then there is a New Card called Grab. Once its played there is a mad scramble for the sticks. Once all sticks are claimed you flip a card from the special Hexen Stick Deck. It gives reweards to certain players and penalties to others. Usually the Penalty falls on the player with out a stick. But not always. Its a nice addition as it keeps everyone paying attention to whats going on in the game. Hex Hex Vexxed, adds in the Vex Deck. After each round who ever was Cursed, is then Vexxed. It adds a hinderance to that player for 1 round. It can be that they can only say words like Ping, ZZzzzt, and Pa'keew. Or other random obnoxious things. Its also a ton of fun, but mostly we just use the Sticks.



Hex hex is very fun and random game. Most times we play ditching any ideas of strategy for plays that will cause more chaos and ridiculousness. And at the moment it is my personal favorite of all the games in my Library. Hex Hex is an A+ in my book.

Board Game Reviews #3

This Week we tackle the old school game that was re-released by Fantasy Flight known as Talisman.



In Talisman you play one of a number of Fantasy style characters. The Warrior, a Wizard, Dwarf, or a Troll. There are around a dozen different characters with uniquq abilities to choose from. The game board is set up with three rings. The outter ring is where you begin the game. each player moves along the board 2d6 spaces and picks up adventure cards. They range from items, monsters, or events such as a market sets up allowing you to buy things. Each player is out for themselves so you can fight your fellow adventurers. Your goal is to become powerful enough to make through the second and third rings, so most of the game takes place in the outter ring.

Once you are ready to cross to the inner ring, you must either fight the Guard at the bridge, or find a boat to cross the water. From there you mush break into the castle of elemental evil, or something. When you finally reach the very center of the board, if you have a talisman card you reciever the Crown of Command, which you then use to kill all the other players and rule the world.



Its a pretty simple game to play. But we have found a fair number of flaws. Its tough to tell when your ready to start making your way into the second level of the board. It can be very difficult to cross the bridge into the second ring. And the game almost always favors the person who gets out to an early lead. there are balancing factors, such as an evil witch who can turn you into a toad. This happened in a game where Mike was crushing. He got changed and Ellen scooped up all his gear and went on to win. Also know before you start it that this game is VERY long. The original game I hear was even longer. Since FF took it over and revised it they added in a few features to speed up game play, such as tokens which allow die re-rolls. I think my main issue with the game, is that there are times when you need to land on a certain space, but the only way to move is by rolling 2d6. I had a game where I was cursed and it kept me out of the main game trying to land on a certain spot to remove it. I spent 10 turns doing nothing but bouncing around the spot I needed. Eventually I was given the chance to have my character die and I did it, so that I could start a new one and have a shot to play the game.

I do enjoy the game, but its not one I want to play as frequently as the others I own. If your into fantasy adventures and the like this game is perfect, if not, I would pass on it. My rating comes in with a C maybe into the C+ range. Overal just not my favorite.