Hot Heart

Dean! You know the drill.

After some more experience with the game, one thing becomes very clear: when it comes to the helicopter you have to coordinate with your team. Of course, you need to find out who's on your team first... Definitely something that is heavily reliant on the group though, since most of the game is the constant interactions. I like it because there's a bit more to it than something like Resistance (not that the Resistance is bad). Anyway, I'll come back to this in a bit. Had a Boardgaming Day at a local brewery. Which was fun because there were loads of people and loads of games there. I finally managed to get in a game of Firefly using the Blue Sun expansion, which meant new job opportunities, new supplies and three Reavers... none of which I really interacted with. Well, I tell a lie, the Reavers being all around was pretty cool and also pretty scary. I actually spent some time making sure I got a pilot and mechanic in my crew because of them, but it took too frickin' long finding a single mechanic (or any crew) at one place and then a pilot at another, which essentially lost me the game. Still, I had fun, even though the playing situation wasn't ideal where we are, and I anticipated a three-player game only to discover it became a five-player with some relative newcomers (one of whom didn't really like the game before). Took a bit under four hours in all, so not too bad, I guess... I look forward to trying it again with close friends anyway, and I'll probably take advantage of the new things next time. Meanwhile, others were playing things like Black Fleet, Paranoia RPG, Progress, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Colt Express, while I got stuck between games and wound up observing a game of Dead of Winter. It was pretty fun despite some major mistakes from all the non-betrayer players, with adding loads of pointless useless helpless survivors when they were trying to get more barricades up at the colony. Somehow they managed to complete the main objective (though I daren't tell one of the players that I think they actually built a barricade without spending a die or having a special ability that allowed them to do so). Then I got in some Guillotine, an enjoyable little filler, which I was comfortably winning until someone played a card that prevented people altering the order when pretty much all my cards (which I'd amassed thanks to an earlier bonus) did that. There was nothing I could do and so wound up with some low-scoring and minus nobles as a result. After that, some The Resistance: Avalon, which is cool with the new roles, but I am not very good at it. And, finally, some [redacted] with the same group as Resistance. Funnily enough, two of the players (husband and wife) were American and actually wound up with American loyalty (I was the third). Early on I managed to find a British spy and harassed him, while another player called for the British helicopter. Uh oh! At that point, the American guy decided to 'attack' his wife and stole something she was planning to use anyway: a bomb. He promptly blew up the helicopter and she yelled, "I was going to do that. We're on the same team!" That settled that one. I then went after the guy who originally called the helicopter and kept trying to mug him. Instead, we traded a pair of night vision goggles back and forth... Meanwhile, the American bomber just attacked everyone he encountered, and after a few victories and asking the rewards (injure, interrogate, steal), he was automatically just saying, "You're injured." So half of the spies in the embassy were limping around the place. Fortunately, the big bully spy had nabbed a briefcase and found the British intel was inside, thanks to a codebreaker, while his wife hobbled down to call the helicopter for him. The American spies win! Turns out, he already felt so confident that he wanted to step onto the helicopter without even checking the contents of the briefcase. Either way, he was a riot because he never even interrogated anyone, hobbled the opposite team (and his wife) and escaped with the intel himself. Despite a rocky start, it made for an entertaining game and it was a good group altogether.

Oh, I grabbed Jazzpunk because it was £1-something on GOG the other day.

Another board games evening down the pub the other day. I arrived a bit late for the start of this game, but it was a fun watch... Black Fleet I've heard it compared to Merchants & Marauders, but a much, lighter version. Essentially, each player has a merchant ship and a pirate ship. With their merchant ship, players are trying to transport different coloured cubes (goods) across the map, getting more for them the farther away the port is. With their pirate ship, they'll be blocking off or attacking other players' ships, stealing goods and burying them for cash. Cash lets players purchase various cards they have as a tableau in front of them, unlocking exclusive extra abilities and perks. Each turn consists of playing a movement card that allows them to move both their ships as well as one of the two merchant navy ships who can sink pirates. Turns can be enhanced with various rule-breaking cards to allow extra movement and such. It's a simple 'take that' game, with a constant back-and-forth of ships being sunk only to rejoin and hit right back. The above-the-table diplomacy will probably play a greater part than any tactics or strategy, which is why I feel that it drags on too long for its own good (and not just because I was watching). Then, since one of the other people there wanted to try it in case he missed it during tomorrow's all-day session, I set up a three-player intro game of Hyperborea This was probably the worst circumstances under which to play this game. Forced onto half a table, with the other taken up by Deus, in poor lighting and with someone who's colour-blind. Doesn't help that the reds and purples already look similar, and the blue, green and grey aren't so different in the dark. Anyway, it's a really interesting hybrid design that I think will shine more with a 4th or 5th player (6 might be pushing it, but game allows for it) and the addition of race powers that favour certain specialisations. It's a very claustrophobic civ and strategy game except without extra complications or dice rolls. You have a bag of different coloured cubes, you draw three each turn and use them to unlock specific actions on your turn (move, attack, develop, unlock tech); simple as that. Except, there is a great deal of hidden depth when it comes to what cubes you look to add, what terrain is nearby, what tech you can utilise, etc. It's cool that the game scales for short, regular or long games, but I think the short version doesn't serve it well. Not enough going on and over too soon, but probably good for an intro. I think it's a great addition to a collection because it's somewhat accessible at a base level, it's fresh and replayable, and I personally don't have anything quite like it (my aim was always to get a diverse collection). I think the only downside I could see with some is that the end might feel somewhat anticlimactic, since you just trigger certain endgame conditions and then score for different things rather than go for an all-out victory in one path. Or you see a bunch of miniatures and expect a lighter, dice-rolly, trashy combat game. Then the other day, hung out with friends to try Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition). Yes, that is an important distinction. I think we'd all been craving some sort of D&D/RPG experience but don't have the time or imaginations to devote to it, so this fills that role perfectly. Just a shame that there has to be a bad guy. Cool tactical, roleplaying, questing game... that uses squares instead of hexes! There's a lot to love about the tight, accessible design and scope for a continued campaign as well as expansion if desired. Setup was pretty simple, and I just chose whatever miniature seemed the coolest. Wound up as Syndrael, with the Knight specialisation, who's an elven knight lady with a sword and badass shield (even though my starter card depicted a lame wooden one). The others rounded out the team after I and another had picked the Warrior and Scout classes. Can't actually remember what one is called, but I think it's Healer. Basically, we had the full complement of Warrior, Scout, Mage and Person Who Can Heal People. As was my duty, I immediately went for the biggest thing I could find and started hitting it. Things got a little tense, as we had to prevent goblins from escaping (and those guys can really move!) but the intro scenario is heavily weighted in the heroes' favour. We took the opportunity to nab all the loot we could, since we were in a good spot, and soon enough, killed Mauler. Hooray, for us. We got 1XP each and got some new abilities, the extra loot allowed us to essentially upgrade some gear and we travelled (with its own little story element) onto the next scenario before calling it a night. Really enjoyed it and I think it fits our group well. I eagerly anticipate any greater challenge to follow.

I rarely have my picture taken (thank god), but I think it's about time the rest of the world suffered, so I took a selfie. A goddamn selfie. This one's for you, FDS!

Without having played Unity, I get the impression that the key systems need a much bigger overhaul in order to offer a 'complete assassin experience'. I've always found the combat to be pretty unexciting and somewhat clunky, which almost felt like a punishment for being spotted anyway. "Great, now I gotta hack my way through ten guys." The other incentive, which I much over instafail, would be a 100% sync thing about not being spotted. The trouble is just that the stealth is so terrible. There was nothing to keep it very engaging, and traversal just never helped. It also looked and felt stupid. "Just standing upright behind this chimney stack until the guard turns back round. Ooh, beep, his icon went yellow but if I run a bit farther past him..." Then you get caught on a slight bump or have to run miles away then reapproach. There aren't any cohesive and reliable mechanics that make me want to get better at that, so most missions devolve into mindless slaughter or desynchronisation frustration. I loved the way the new Tomb Raider handled the cover system, the traversal and being able to get the jump on enemies to give yourself an advantage. Sure, with enough upgrades, you were nigh on invincible anyway, but that could be tweaked, I feel.

I'd been saving up for The Devil You Know with my alt (I say 'saving up' but really I need to reach Vanguard Rank 3) because I wanted a decent handcannon for a change (only good Warlock stuff I could buy was for assault rifles) while always hoping to get Hawkmoon or The Last Word, so this was great. Having given TLW a quick go without any upgrades, it is still totally awesome. The look of it, the animation for the weapon switch, the fanning the hammer action, the sound!

Hyperborea I don't really have any Civ/4X games but this looked p accessible and replayable, plus it's supposed to play rather quickly for a civ game even with 6 players (estimate is 25 mins per player). I also like the optional unique race powers and the idea of a bag-building mechanic as opposed to a deck-building one.

Actually, he wanted you all to take a pole.

Dang, FDS, you don't approve? But these were going to be my best clothes that I wear everywhere! Does this mean we can't hang out anymore? p.s. it's spelt 'embarrassing' IS THAT IRONIC?!

I went a bit mad with the BioWare store sale the other day, but then a friend was getting some items too, which split some of the shipping at least. Also, they're sublimated, oooooooh! Then there was a deal on some Assassin's Creed style hoodies that my friend wanted, so I figured it was worth a punt for the price.

I was interested in Sentinel Tactics, but it looked a bit too fiddly like the card game (now available as an app, hooray) and I know my friends would never play it. Plus, getting it all shipped to the UK is a rip-off. Recently played a PnP version of Web of Spies that I assembled (never doing that again!). Currently on Kickstarter but doesn't look like it'll make its target. Probably doesn't help that most of the artwork isn't shown and people were put off by the stark black & white style. Also, you know, it doesn't have a bunch of plastic miniatures. A very easy-to-grasp game whereby you acquire assets on a board, which add more cards to your deck, allowing other special actions to attack, defend, move agents, acquire further assets more easily or sabotage other players, etc. So far, like a very light version of the agent side of 'A Study In Emerald'. Each player has five agents for spreading around the board, cards are drawn in hands of five and discarded at the end of a turn (standard deckbuilder fare) and the winner is the person with the most agents on the board when one agency is completely eliminated (ties decided by 'most kills/trophies'). What this victory condition does is ensure the game self-balances to some extent, since bashing one player will probably not be in everyone's favour (particularly not that poor sap's) all the time. Played this with four friends, which is above the officially supported player count, but it still works well. They had some issues with wanting it to be like other deckbuilders where you can cycle your hand more often and the frustration of not always having quite the card you need (which is in every deckbuilder!) but I think altering it would really upset the balance. Since you're always using your cards to move agents and acquire assets as well (each discarded card = 1 move or 1 acquire point), as well as defend against attacks, you're generally going through your deck pretty quickly anyway. Plus, there are some really powerful cards (agencies for different regions, like MI5, that if used in corresponding region count as an unblockable attack) that shouldn't be coming up so often. There are some cool card combinations in there, like where I had a card where an opponent had to discard 2 cards, or I get to draw 2 more; so he discarded two crappy cards, which I followed up with another card that let me take one from his hand at random, increasing my chances of getting something decent. Another funny moment was when someone moved to attack me, and failed, but then the next player used their 'Secret Weapon' to wipe out all agents in a location, killing us both. On top of that, you imagine these (usually bizarre) scenarios during combat, where you build on the cards used. "I'm attacking you with my cargo plane. I'm dropping cargo on you." "I shoot it out of the sky with my sniper rifle." "So I come after you on a motorbike." "I escape on a cruise ship." "I guess I dropped my bike in the harbour..." However, I do feel that the game might benefit from having more cards available to acquire at a time (you get two known assets and one secret), since deckbuilding mechanics work better if there's more choice in how you tailor your deck. There is meant to be a fight over assets, but sometimes you just don't particularly want something or your agents are just too far away. Other than that my only real gripe is that it went on far longer than expected, considering it's so easy to learn and fairly light. That could've been because we had five people and the length of time spent actually acquiring useful cards before baring our teeth (because of competition and lack of starter ones, which also get trashed). The endgame was pretty tense and fun though, since throughout everyone's encouraging the active player to attack someone else, pointing out how they might win. Ultimately, the win went to the sneaky green player who was down to his last agent, with the rest of us the same except for another at two. Little did we know, he held the 'Double Agent' card, which allowed him to replace any other agent with his own. So he just picks someone to eliminate, he's tied for two agents with the other player, but has killed way more throughout the game. Good show!

But surely you can agree that letting it be optional via the Iron skull like 3 and 4 (and I believe CE:A) is better than having it be mandatory, right? Oh, definitely, I'm always for more options in games.

Halo 2 was the only one that did insta-fail if one of you died in co-op, and I kinda liked it that way. I never had problems with the Flood in CE or 2, it's 3 where they bombarded you with those tank-like mutations and the ones that climbed up buildings and sniped you from miles away; far worse than Jackals ever were. That was not fun in any way. Plus, Halo 2 had great enemy variety, from Elites to Brutes to Flood. As for PvP multiplayer, I really liked 3. Played it loads and loads, was always fun. Reach, I just hated. The armour abilities and everything just ruined it for me, the traffic flow on the maps sucked, and I did not want to be playing on the same boring 'a load of blocks in the sky' Forge layouts (as cool as it was having that mode). Halo 4 was actually really good, tweaked the armour abilities and other features, made it flow that much better, so I think 5 should at least be pretty good in that regard.

I have so many happy memories of doing CE and 2 in co-op on Legendary. Especially, since 2 meant you had to nail everything perfectly. The bit with the snipers sticks in my memory because my friend managed to flip a warthog as we passed a checkpoint, so we had some improvised cover whenever we failed. Just falling out of this warthog over and over... With 3, I didn't enjoy it so much. A large part is probably due to playing online rather than sharing a sofa, but also I fucking hated the Flood in 3.

I want to see Interstellar and Nightcrawler. And Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

ME AGAIN Boardgames evening down the pub. Started with Colt Express (though, not my copy) Managed to get the full six players which made for some pretty chaotic times. I was Django, who gets to push people across one carriage when he shoots them, which can be very handy but like most of the special abilities, it's situational (though, Belle's seems best all-round). I got off to an early lead, since I started in the second from last carriage and nabbed a couple of gems while others tried to race ahead but then... people started shooting me. A lot of people started shooting me. See, you 'program' your moves for a round by playing action cards into a common pile, with each player going in order, but you'll have to try and remember what people played before and how they might move or shoot (since that's a later decision). You start with 10 cards, and draw 6 for the round. A round will typically have 4 phases where you play a card (you can skip to draw 3 more) but sometimes they will be played face-down, or players put in two simultaneously (allowing them to obscure the first part). If you get shot, a bullet card gets put into your deck, which you might draw instead of something useful. I was shot twice in the first round... Anyway, the game continued and I was holding onto my two valuable gems, looking to have more money than anyone else but then there is the Gunslinger bonus. See, each player has six of those bullet cards for shooting other people. Anyone who manages to use all of them, gets a massive $1000 bonus. Since gems are all $500, and purses range from $250-450, it's a very big bonus. Problem I had was trying to shoot people but also stay away from the Marshall, and I had a rivalry going with the red player, Tuco. While everyone else was having a scuffle on the locomotive, I was battling it out with Tuco, who'd managed to snag a decent number of purses by 'bottom-feeding' (to be fair, I did push him back a couple of times) and had managed to fire off all his bullets. It came down the final round, where like the one before it, I'd 'wasted' a turn getting more cards so I could get my Shoot one, since I'd been shot eight times and found my deck completely clogged. A decision had to be made when I played a move card, and an unexpected Marshall move had scuppered my initial plan. I just needed to shoot one more person and I should seize victory. Rather than join the scuffle and the front and risk dropping my loot from an errant punch, I decided to try and anticipate red's moves. He makes his final move and switches to the roof of the carriage, I fire and find there's no one in sight to take that final bullet. Nooooooooo! Red wins. Good game! 7 Wonders In most circles, and for most of this group, I think this game has been played to death. Me? I'd heard of it, but never had a chance to try it. What a fool I was. It is a great game. Even the 'vanilla' version. It's essentially a card-drafting, set-collecting, empire-building game, but with a nice injection of direct competition among neighbouring players. In our six-player game, it meant that things would be going on far over the other side of the table of which we only had a vague idea... but in a good way! Each of the three Ages sees hands of cards going round from player to player, with each choosing one and passing it on. You have multiple ways to earn victory points, and it's all about picking/hoping for the right cards to come round as well as working off/responding to what the players to your immediate left and right are doing. You have to watch out if they're building a military or find ways to benefit from resources they stock, or a way to earn VP or cash multipliers off cards they've played. Since it was a first game for a few of us, I overheard one tip: if in doubt, go for more resources or military. I kept that in mind and with a quick overview the game got underway. I started with a few resource things, not really having an idea about what I was doing for the first few turns, but I guess did alright, getting myself some sort of market, which would be handy for buying any required resources cheaper from neighbours. The end of Age I came round, and by the number of red cards out, I could see that the other end of the table had gone into full-on war mode. Meanwhile, my neighbours and I had foregone such barbarism. "See, this end of the table is far more refined and civilised. I've started on building Baths and a Scriptorium," I commented, jokingly. Age II begins and I'm looking at a hand of cards, all of them military except for two not so great ones. And so began my military pursuit. The owner of the game acted faux-offended. And I felt kind of bad since twice during Colt Express, I'd been forced to shoot him as the only legal target, but hey, I'm building an empire here; gotta pre-empt your enemy. The game continued, and I was enjoying it more than I thought. I 'starved' the player to my left by keeping my available resources lean, but using my own merchant stuff to get any things I needed cheap and managed to get some extra military and such thanks to owning prerequisities as well as a well-timed injection of cash thanks to a multiplier and 'burning' (term the game's owner used for paying to remove a card from the game to build a stage of your own wonder) a card which I sensed I shouldn't pass on. Also mamaged to snag a multiplier based on my neighbour's negative military tokens, which was handy since I won the military stages of Ages II and III despite the right-hand player's best efforts to respond. At the game's end, I'd enjoyed myself and felt confident that I'd at least done pretty well for a first-timer. As one guy went round the table, using an app to calculate the final scores, I was looking okay at 53, while the closest others were at 48 or high 40s. Then it got to the owner of the game, the guy who clearly loved it, and the app started totting up his science scores. I look at this same wheel/cog symbol and see he has 4 and then some extra stuff. Uh oh... The app keeps on adding them up, the player mentions how one level of his wonder lets him choose a symbol, so he elects for the same again... the live score ups his bonus from 16 to 25. Yikes! ...but his final effort comes in at 49. I win! The owner of the game mentioned how he had advised me on one modifier card (honestly, not in a sore loser-ish way) which gave me 8VP by the end, but my initial thought would've given me a straight-up 6VP (so, I still would've won!). In actual fact, what probably clinched it for me was a certain card I'd burned earlier because I didn't want to pass it on. A sciences one, with a wheel/cog symbol... I'll never tell him. Then we played Alhambra, which was clearly his revenge. God, I hate that game more each time I play it. Although, it has made me aware that I seem to excel at games that involve card-drafting and card combos but definitely not whatever the hell you call the mechanic in Alhambra and Ticket to Ride.

KITTEH-REX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzdRQCnDBlw

Haha. I was going to write something like Kenshi did (except probably nowhere near as good) on the subject of people needing the story to do the work for them. Although putting it that way sounds kind of rude... Anyway, it is those grey areas, those mixed endings that make you question yourself, your beliefs/perspective and discuss it with others and give stories life long after they've ended. For all the hooha about the ME3 ending, I'm glad there wasn't simply a vanilla ending (not that there weren't plenty of other problems). It often gets attributed to 'the writers wanted to be edgy by being downbeat and depressing' but I think as you mature, you tend to appreciate the nuance between grimdark and just... life is shit, people be people.

Forgot to mention that I watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. After the Jump Street films and The LEGO Movie, I was expecting good things. I was not disappointed. Great film with a cool cast of voices.

Had another game night with friends. Started with my newest arrival [redacted]. A game about being a secret spy who is after secrets while keeping secrets from other secret spies at a (non-secret) party in an embassy. This was a first game and wasn't how I intended to introduce it, since we had 6 people. I had originally planned to host a four-player game to make it easier for me to track and check any rules queries, etc. but the mission also works for 6, so what the hey... The 'classic' Mission Diplomatique involves getting the enemy side's intel to your side's helicopter on the roof (or blowing up two of the opposing side's helicopters). The problem is a) you don't know quite where that intel is (could be locked in the red or blue briefcase, in the item deck or even dealt to a player at the start of the game), b) you don't know who's on your side and might blow up your helicopter given the chance, c) calling the helicopter can only be done from right down in the basement, which means even getting to it can be a task. The tactical element comes into how you interact with players (Friendly, Neutral or 1 of 3 Rock-Paper-Scissor-style weapons) whenever you encounter them and how you utilise certain room functions (e.g. x-ray to see players' items as they pass through certain doors). Our game pitted the Chinese against the British (Russia and the US are also options), and had some funny little interactions whereby one friend thought the other's wife would be polite but was in fact a ruthless bully, playing weapons when he was clearly friendly. There was a funny moment where my harasser (who'd beaten and interrogated me earlier) wanted to get by me. "Where are you planning on going?" I asked. "Just down to the basement." "Fair enough, I wanted the top floor to myself anyway," I replied, and casually passed my interaction card. He passed his and we look to see we'd played the exact same weapon card. Unfortunately, one agent got the perfect duo of items: the enemy intel and the service staircase key. In other words, he was able to call the helicopter and sneak up the service staircase unimpeded, even with the basement locked down. Victory for the Chinese... not my side. Noooooooo! Little did I know that had I not been forcibly ejected from the x-ray room earlier, I would've seen the item. While it turns out the person who did was on the same side and so had an allegiance confirmed when the helicopter was called. However, the problem was my side consisted of someone who clearly does not like social deduction, deception or conflict in games (he's a pushover in Cosmic Encounter, for example) so wasted his turns trying to avoid people, and the guy who was fooled by the friend's wife. D'oh! Added to that, I got the same item twice, and its only real use was getting to discard it so you don't have to move on your turn, which is useful in certain situations but not for me and not twice! Despite this horrible distribution of luck/teammates, I think it's a neatly-designed game and throws up all sorts of amusing interactions and possibilities. Problem is my group has wildly varying tastes, where some don't like that element of conflict or social deduction and others prefer dry mechanics over an engaging theme. Next we played Timeline I think our pack was 'Science' and 'Discoveries' but other themes are available and can be mixed together. Really simple game. You have a bunch of cards with events on, you try and place them correctly in an ever-expanding timeline, first to clear their hand wins. Main issue is that whoever goes first starts at somewhat of an advantage because there are wider time gaps for them to play any trickier cards early on, and we found that both times the first player won (which was me during the first game). I've heard that it's very much like a much older game called Chronology, which seems a bit like a better design since each player has their own timeline, which should eliminate that 'turn order' issue. Might see about picking up a pack or two (or maybe Chronology) to play with the family at Christmas, though I have heard complaints about translation errors which look like factual errors (e.g. with regards to photography and certain cameras) Then we played Anomia (yawn) and Wits & Wagers (double yawn) yet again and then onto a PnP version of Dead Drop, which a friend wanted to test... before forgetting to back it on Kickstarter. Simple game of deduction where one of the above cards is kept face-down as 'the drop', with players having to figure out and reveal two cards equal to its value in order to win (guess incorrectly and you're out, with those cards staying revealed). Each player has two cards and you've got a few things you can do on a turn like exchanging one of them with a public stash or another player, or revealing both to another player to see if they have a card that matches their total and swapping something if so. Essentially, you're trying to figure out how many cards are out ("I've seen two 3s and a 5, so the drop can't be that") and get into a position where you can match the value or mess with others' plans before they get to it. I guess it's reminiscent of Love Letter except way easier to learn and memorise. Plays very quickly, but the theme is entirely tacked-on, and if one person messes up they can inadvertently hand the game to another player (as happened the first game). I had fun deliberately holding the lone 4 through multiple forced swaps and seeing another eliminate themselves because they guessed the drop incorrectly, even though it didn't really help me win the game ultimately. You could actually spoof the whole thing easily (we did with playing cards, though the suits thing makes it a little easier) and probably find the rules online if you wanted. Still, it's a smart design so worth checking out.