Back in the Groove

I was quite looking forward to a welcome and restorative return to gaming back at my local club yesterday, after a difficult few weeks for me personally, but found myself in a bit of a quandary. What to play? I felt I needed to play something that was familiar so I could enjoy a game without rule thumbing and which also didn’t require too much preparation. And preferably a game that was a good multiplayer and a laugh to boot. Quite a considerable number of gaming systems sprang to mind with that rather vague proviso!

So, whilst dithering through the Battleshed rule library (OK, rule pile), my eye was eventually drawn to the tottering stack of board games. A nostalgic theme tune popped into my head and before I knew it I was making arrangements with one of my gaming buddies to put on demo game at the club.

The sounds of a blender and mewing from the House on the Hill

Happy New Year! The Battleshed is back on-line! After a couple of weeks of festive wargaming stasis, things are getting back to normal. As mentioned in my previous post, my wargaming calendar (Kelly Brooks again this year!) for 2016 is looking pretty busy. I've a lot of painting to do, not to mention terrain and board building. So the heady fug of paint and glue will soon be brewing in the Battleshed!

Finding Common Ground in storm Desmond.

Today I drove north to Stirling, braving storm Desmond - or as these things used to be called, Winter. To a gaming venue I've long wanted to visit. Common Ground Games. Riding shotgun was my gaming buddy, Jamie, as we navigated a cross-country route trying to avoid anticipated congestion on the main central Scottish motorways. The famous Forth Road Bridge is closed until the New year for emergency repairs. But a winter storm and mayhem on the roads wasn't going to stop the gaming!

The Bonnie Mae rides again

Another epic game of Firefly at my local club this weekend. Similar to the recent game held in the Battleshed, it was another with all current expansions in play. However, this time there were six players (or pilots) enjoying the game over two days! 

As Livingston Battleground are lucky to have a both a Friday and Saturday morning sessions booked in the same room we can start a game on a Friday evening and happily, and securely, leave for resumption the next day - after a bacon butty in the canteen below. I assume vegetabalist options are available.

This was another immensely enjoyable game. Plenty of room - as posted previously, Firefly needs lots of card space! Six eager pilots, all but one of whom had played before. And we had a regular player acting as host and 'banker'. Plus intrigued onlookers!

You can imagine the banter! I've posted the merits of Firefly before.  Suffice to say, I came away with a huge, cheesy grin, mostly because I won!

Despite all the false allegiances, negotiations, back-stabbing and countless run-ins with Alliance and Reaver ships, I quietly set about the game objective - the pilot with the most unique Solid Contacts before the depletion of available 'Goal' tokens. 

My cunning plan was not to get embroiled with the inevitable pilot politics in the Core systems, competing amongst the most popular trading planets. It got real messy in there, with a cluster of rival pilots, including Alliance and Reaver complications. I did manage to acquire 'Vera' the sniper rifle though.

Instead, I upgraded the Bonnie Mae with an extra emergency burner (bought after short trip to Silverhold) and pocketed a couple of jobs way out in the Rim. Yes, there were Reaver risks, but as I'd made some early contacts in the central system I concluded the odds were better out there than being embroiled with the pilot scrum.

Firefly. A truly epic board game. Solo to 6 players.

 Did I mention I won?

Jail Break in the 'Verse!

There was an epic game of Firefly in the Battleshed on Sunday. A marathon four hour game with all the current expansions in play, including the latest, Kalidasa, which is the second Rim expansion (after Blue Sun) adding another new star system to the 'Verse. 

The choices we make

What makes a perfect gaming session? Like all things in life, it's subjective, and open to so many variables. But sometimes, enough of those variables align to say, yeah, that was just right.

At Livingston Battleground this weekend, four gaming veterans - or old farts as the younglings called us - reverted to another game of Firefly. A regular stalwart for when none of us had organised a particular game.

Its probably whimsy, but when you have four experienced gaming mates, playing a semi-familiar board game over a four hour period; chilled, (as I believe those same younglings say), with much hilarious craic, fun and camaraderie, it's the perfect antidote for a heavy working week.

What helps, is that Firefly is not overtly adversarial. In line with the TV (and movie) series, it's all about individual traders meeting the overall objective. At the beginning of the game, a random scenario card is drawn. It's the first player to meet to meet those objectives that wins. Each player is free to do what they please. Cooperation, or not, it's up to you. At the start of the game, you draw ship and owner;  it's up to you to find crew, kit and supplies...

Lets go shopping...

It's a great game, highly recommended for club play with 3 or more players. We played with the expanded 'Verse, so we had the Reavers and Rim space to navigate amongst all the normal difficulties. I've reported on a few games now, so I won't go over old ground. Suffice to say I thoroughly enjoyed the club game this weekend. Massive thanks to JF, JM, and BG! 

The Great Recession in the Verse

Still in then throws of a lean gaming period (for me), I really appreciated the opportunity of another game of Firefly, the board game,  over at Livingston Battleground today. A two-player game against an experienced player, 'J',  with all the current expansions in play. It was a challenging game for both pilots, as life in the 'verse often is!

The scenario, 'The Great Recession', somewhat appropriate considering my recent gaming activity, had us competing for a drastically reduced number of jobs with the winner being the pilot with the most cash, less costs, after four of the contacts had no more jobs to offer. I managed (don't ask!) to get no less than five outstanding Warrants making any dealings in Alliance space, um, difficult!  J got the win, having the most cash as per the triggered victory condition (see photo), although it was reasonably close; if I wasn't delayed with a tricky entanglement dodging and scrapping with those bloody Reaver ships, I could've been me! 

Apart from the usual challenges navigating the 'verse, the pilots had to deal with an angry fleet of Reaver ships, somewhat ruthlessly provoked by me early on, hoping to steal a lead on my competitor!

If you're a fan of Firefly (me, me!) then I can highly recommend Firefly the board game. Its relatively easy to learn and goes a long way to simulating life in the 'verse. As with many of the GF9 games, it does contain a lot of tokens and cards and needs quite a bit of 'space' to play. It isn't a quick game, with the two-hour to play estimate for most scenarios being very optimistic! However, there is an excellent set of solo scenarios included and what with the expansions and online support its worth the effort. 

I came across and excellent tutorial on YouTube recently by GrumshBGG, which I recommend to anyone interested in this game.

Mid October round-up: The Rim, The Forlorn Hope and a right Saga!

It's all been a bit quiet on the gaming front over last few weeks due to one thing or another. Too many commitments, too little time. Same old story!

Anyway,  I did manage to join some of my buddies over at Livingston Battleground last weekend for  another game of the excellent Firefly board game. It was great to see the latest expansion in play, Blue Sun.

This includes a map expansion which adds two new tiles to the board. These align with the left edge of the old board, completing the Murphy system and mapping out Rim Space with a new system (Blue Sun) and a new Supply Planet, Meridian. It also includes new supply cards, nav cards and contacts.

I'm still not sure how the goal card we used, however, can quote '2 hours' to play - unless that was the time required to pack up all the cards and tokens afterwards!

I also 'endured' game 7 of our continuing SoBH campaign recently, where my First Law warband, now officially given the title 'Falorn Hope', were at the receiving end of yet another drubbing at the hands of the dastardly elves. Unless the batteworn and reduced human warband can get off the ropes it'll be all over for them by battle 10.  

Unfortunately, I forgot to take my usual camera and was so wrapped up in how Bayaz, First of the Magi, (and possibly the last given this battle!), attempted to extricate his warband from a deadly situation, I neglected to take any BatRep notes. Luckily for me (or not!), my opponent, ArabianKnight has posted up all the gruesome detail over at Wee Blokes.

Finally, I also demonstrated Saga for my brother-in-law, who is no stranger to the Battleshed, usually with a new board game or card deck to try. He's a regular FoW and WHF player too, as I've been at the receiving end of his Vampire Counts and German heavy armour on  numerous occasions! 

I used a similar set-up to the demo with ArabianKnight previously. Basic battle, 6 points, using some of my Empire Warhammer miniatures to act as the Viking warband facing the Scots.I failed to convince John, however, that the mounted Scots Hearthguard weren't some devious plot to include uber-warriors on my side.

In my defence - their only 'advantage' is the long move (and are disadvantaged when being shot at and lose cover bonuses); as Jamie can attest over at Livingston Battleground, having a full group of charging mounted Hearthguard does not mean they still can't be stopped and decimated by a group of indifferent warriors lounging on a hill! :s

So a quiet few weeks, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Over the next few months I plan to revisit Warhammer Fantasy again, as my brother-in-law is ever so keen to let his Vampire army have a go at my semi-retired Empire troops - can't think why ;) Dead Man's Hand and In HerMajesty's Name are also pencilled-in and my next 'big' project will be to build a Carthaginian army for Hail Caesar.