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Old August 6th, 2018, 08:17 AM
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Re: What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

LITTLE GENCON IN BROOKLYN

This weekend Taeblewalker and I had our own miniconvention here, playing three games each day! We played both brand new stuff and some classic old designs! We did board games, but also some Role Playing and even miniatures!

SATURDAY AUGUST 4, 2018

GAME ONE: BATTLE OF KARLSDORF (Fantasy Medieval Miniatures)

This was only the second time I played with the Fantasy Medieval section of my 54mm miniatures collection (of over 30,000 painted plastic figures), and the first time in 8 years. Many toy soldiers were on the table for the very first time, with over 100 little men per side:


Good Guys
Mounted Army Commander: Sir Edward of Ellis Den
Grognard The Green Wizard
Harold the Friendly Giant
Human Cavalry
Elf Infantry (Bow)
Dwarven Infantry
Northern Men Infantry
Amazon Infantry (Bow)

Evil Guys
Army Commander/Wizard Cashek the Undying
Cedrik the Cyclops
Orc Warg Rider Cavalry
Orc Infantry
Ogre Infantry
Skeleton Infantry
Flying Demon Infantry

All infantry 25 figures, cavalry 12.
Terrain:* One low central hill ("The Karlsdorf").
Wizards may choose 5 spells of the 10 spell Spell Book.

The Good Guys won this massive action, after collapsing my Left Flank and taking the central hill, although I won on the Right. Those Good Guys are just...Evil!

GAME TWO: MARVEL SUPERHERO ROLE PLAYING

Using the old FRP from the 1980s, he Game Mastered a team scenario where I played Captain America, The Thing, Spiderman and Captain Marvel vs Doctor Octopus (and his giant robot and nefarious stationary machines), The Radioactive Man, The Beetle, The Fixer, and The Scorpion. Beginning with Aunt May getting mugged and an enforcer harassing a hot dog man, both in the park in NYC, we foiled these criminals, stopped the super criminals in a heist (although Captain American spent some time in the hospital), and eventually Doc Ock and his devices elsewhere. My first time doing this was lots of fun, and the heroes ended up with very high Karma (Experience) Points.

GAME THREE: TALES OF THE ARABIAN KNIGHTS (Z-MAN GAMES, 3RD EDITION)

My pal had just gotten this game the day before, and when he brought it out it was still in its shirnk wrap! I noted that I'd heard of this publisher's games for years but never played one, and he mentioned that he'd met the nice guy who used to own the company at a convention. This first play was a big hit with both of us. Its a very colorful story telling game where your hero (He took Aladdin and I took Ali Baba) travels in the mythical world of fantastic Moslem medieval adventure in Europe, Africa, Arabia, India, and along the Silk Road to China. It uses a huge Book of Stories with thousands of entries and a matrix of NPCs including all kinds of colorful people, supernatural beings, and monsters. Its very entertaining. We both had some bad encounters and some good ones,eventually accumulating useful skills, status cards, and far flung cities to explore. We had a chance to learn a great design, and I pulled out a win. But we both enjoyed it immensely.


SUNDAY AUGUST 5, 2018

GAME FOUR: ALIEN FRONTIERS (GAME SALUTE, 3RD EDITION)

We started our second day with this Euro Classic, a 1950s Sci Fi theme about racing to colonize an unknown planet, which I had recently purchased at Islandscape 2018, but never played. I'd solitaired it a day before to learn the rules, and he'd played it once long ago. I pulled off a slick combo move at the start, and was ahead most of the time, but my opponent managed to get more points than I had toward the end, when it counts. Luckily I managed one more sneaky move for the win. This is a popular game where the rules and components are both nice and very elegant, producing a very simple yet fun concept. The eight planetary areas are named after old science fiction authors I am familiar with. Its worker placement with a bit of area control and even some Take That!

GAME FIVE: KING OF THE TABLE TOP (FANTASY GAMES UNLIMITED, 1980S)

My pal had brought along this old school game we'd played once before, with his hand mounted charming paper counters on posterboard. I used to know the head of this small publishing company, and the art was simple yet cute line drawings, reminiscent of that of Kings and Things, with a huge diversity of Fantasy characters, terrain, and magic items. It has just two player boards, and cups to draw from. I started out with three identical Desert terrain tiles, which is very bad, as it only supports that type of creature for your army. My opponent went on to cream me both in economic development and in two militarty attacks, taking terrain from me. Finally he defeating the only attack I could make against his superior force. But its a fun and nostalgic little game! Its amazing what gamers can pull out from their collections.

GAME SIX: TALES OF THE ARABIAN KNIGHTS
(STILL Z- MAN GAMES, 3RD EDITION)


We had enjoyed this design so much we played it again! This time our fortunes were much more disparate. I took Ali Baba again and he choose Scheherazade, the story teller in the framing tale of 1001 Arabian Knights (I like the version by the very famous 19th Century British Sufi Explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton, the only Westerner ever allowed inside the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem). Even though its theoretically a competitive game, my pal helped me out immensely along the way, and I vowed to help him out also, but we never manged to cross paths, as I could have helped him only by being in the same space. Becoming a Vizier, I had to keep returning to my Origin City for every city I visited. He allowed me to get into Timbuktu where he could have messed me up when I was only once space from reaching it, but chose the better nature of his character to allow me to get there. I was only one away from returning to my city on the southern tip of India when I was whisked away across the board to Stonehenge to encounter Druids! Later I returned on the back of a giant eagle. But we were so busy zipping all across the board several times that we never could get together.

My poor buddy ended up both sex changed into a man (and therefore ineligble to win the game until he was transformed back) and then was changed into an ape! Along the way he was shipwrecked and had other disasters which left him with negative Status Cards that hobbled his game play. I on the other hand became Sultan of a city at the tip of southern India! I was Respected (Status Card) and immensely wealthy. I went on to win the game and put him out of his misery! Such are the Ways of Fate at the Will of Allah! The moving finger writes and move on, and no one can change a single line...until next game, which he'll try again in a few days back home.

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