Recent Posts

71

Table-top Games / Re: Dominion

« Last post by Dragon on October 01, 2023, 16:46:05 »

Today, Isaac and I played Dominion again with the Alchemy set called Potion Mixers. I found that I really like the Herbalist from this set of cards, but the Transmute along with the Golem just got me flooded with more Transmute cards than I ever needed. At the end of the game, I had about as much money as Isaac did, but he had gotten the Silver and Gold earlier and managed to get almost all of the Provinces. He never even got a single potion during the game and I only had one. The Herbalist helped keep the Potion playable more than having multiple Potion cards did in previous plays, but I'm still not sure if it even seems worth picking one up. There are still many sets to try with Alchemy and I'm not giving up on it yet, but it definitely feels safer to have just a single Potion with the sets played so far.

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Table-top Games / Architects of the West Kingdom

« Last post by Dragon on September 30, 2023, 20:47:31 »

Yesterday we played Architects of the West Kingdom. Isaac won with 35 points, Justice got 2nd place with 31, and I was last with 28 points. Justice had some fun at the end capturing most of our workers for extra points in his Keep.

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General Discussions / Jack and the Beanstalk, Tom Thumb, Ali Baba and other classic stories

« Last post by Dragon on September 18, 2023, 18:42:53 »

I found this old recording of Jack and the Beanstalk and a few other stories from a record that I had as a kid.
https://youtu.be/P5Zpeuxp3QI?si=D4-68I6DTHTdnpHF

Jack & The Beanstalk
Owl And The Pusiecat
Pandora
Tom Thumb
Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves
The Pied Piper Of Hamelin

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Table-top Games / Citadels

« Last post by Dragon on September 18, 2023, 18:27:32 »

As our final game of the night, we played Citadels. It is a fun little game of secret identities, bluffing, and managing your cards and money to build up the best districts in the kingdom. Justice started the game as King, by random selection, but achieved his overall goal of the game by holding onto the crown the entire time. In Citadels, players secretly take role cards which have different abilities, then they have opportunities to get money and building cards which are needed for points. Depending on what roles all the players have, some players might not get to take a turn, because the Assassin attacks, some may loose all their money, because the Thief attacks, some may have their building destroyed by a Warlord, but preferably they will have a chance to safely build something to get points. The role of the King can also get changed around, but since Justice chose the King so much, and then would chose the Assassin to kill the King whenever he didn't get the King card, Chris, Isaac, and I learned that Justice was fully committed to keeping the crown. In the end, Justice did not get the most points, but he did achieve his goal of being the king forever! Chris won the game with a score that was nearly matching all other players scores combined.

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Table-top Games / Re: Robo Rally

« Last post by Dragon on September 18, 2023, 18:16:46 »

It is still one of my favorites, but I hadn't gotten Robo Rally out for exactly a year. I played against Isaac, Justice, and Chris.

I like using the robot named Twitch in this set. It reminds me of Johnny 5 from the Short Circuit movie. I was off to a good start but had a little bump with Chris' robot and then mine went off into a pit, so my robot was the first to die and be regenerated. Despite the setback, I did still manage to get to the first flag before anyone else. Chris was coming close behind me with Spinbot, while Isaac's Hammerbot was over to the side of the board. Justice managed to get to the 1st flag 3rd. Isaac, Chris, and I had some tight maneuvers and I managed to have an advantage of more cards than the other players for the first time in the game due to the damage that Chris and Isaac had inflicted on each other. Meanwhile, Justice went flying off into a pit by himself after he got to the first flag. I got around to the 2nd flag without much interference and Chris was close behind. At that point I had the perfect set of cards needed to go from Flag 2 to Flag 3. Chris was close by and had hoped to draw a Move 3 card in order to push me and ruin my plans, but unfortunately for him the fastest card he had was a Move 2, so I was able to get away before he came in and was able to shoot right into Flag 3 to win the game.

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Table-top Games / Re: Bang!

« Last post by Dragon on September 18, 2023, 18:03:07 »

After a couple games of Power grid, we got out the wild west card game called Bang! Justice got the Sheriff card, so he got ready with his badge and the High Noon deck. Chris was to his immediate left, but didn't do anything to threaten the Sheriff, so he was left alive for a while even though Justice had a Volcanic. We got tripped up a little, forgetting some restrictions that were in play, which may have affected the outcome at least of one duel between Chris and Isaac. Isaac was between Chris and me, but Isaac was a Deputy and therefore knew that Chris was not, so he went after Chris. I thought that Chris was the Deputy and Isaac was the Renegade, but we found out soon enough that Anna was the Renegade. Janai, Chris, and I had been the Outlaws, but Justice mowed us down with one after another with his Volcanic, so Justice and Isaac won.

77

Table-top Games / Power Grid

« Last post by Dragon on September 18, 2023, 17:46:50 »

Yesterday we played Power Grid twice!

The first one was kind of a practice, although it took a while. We were getting reacquainted with the game as well as chit-chatting with our visitors. We were still in Step 1 after an hour and a half. Beth was the first to build 7 cities, but unfortunately she had to go to work, so we called that one and started over with me, Isaac, Justice, and Chris.

In the second game, Chris had a solid lead at first, but I managed to jump ahead with the power plants and cities briefly before I got hit needing more resources for my garbage power plant than I was going to be able to get. I managed to switch from garbage to solar power before the end, but ended up dropping my power output slightly. In the end, Chris had 17 cities and was able to power them all, claiming the win.

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Scale Models / Lego Trains

« Last post by Dragon on September 13, 2023, 18:58:01 »

We got some Lego Trains!

On Monday we put together the Lego City Express Passenger Train (60337) and the Lego City Cargo Train (60198) along with some extra track pieces to form this track. The kids and I had fun running the trains around.

Next up... adding the Lego Education Spike Prime kit to control the track switches. 

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Table-top Games / Cathedral

« Last post by Dragon on September 04, 2023, 12:13:41 »

My daughter and I played Cathedral, a classic style, 2-player game where players alternate turns placing a building inside the city walls and try to get all of their pieces on the board. It is similar to a modern and popular game called Blockus, although I prefer Cathedral over Blockus. In Cathedral, unlike Blockus, players can place their piece anywhere on the board that they wish, but once they complete a wall that separates a section of the board from areas that have opposing pieces, the player can claim the territory and therefore focus on building in other areas knowing that space is reserved for them later in the game.

There have been multiple sets of Cathedral produced over the years. Some have plastic pieces, some wood, but mine is made of polystone resin. I think the style of the pieces is one of the best in this edition of the game, and I love the feel of the pieces. The Polystone Edition is long out of print, but can still be found on eBay.

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Table-top Games / Connect 4 Launchers

« Last post by Dragon on September 04, 2023, 11:47:56 »

My daughter and I played Connect 4 Launchers. This is a fun new take on the classic Connect 4 game. In this game, the goal is still to get 4 of your own checkers in a row, but there two levels to the 3-dimensional board, and there are spring-loaded hand-held launchers which are used to flick the red and yellow rings onto the board. Most of the time that we play this game, we alternate turns launching our colored rings at the board. You can move the launchers around, adjusting the angle and position. The triggers that you pull down to launch the ring also has a pretty wide range so you can try to launch it harder or softer. There are a couple variations of rules, in case you want to play with a crazy speed launching contest, or using special options based on markings on the rings. Whichever variation of the rules that are played, Connect 4 Launchers is still a blast to play.

Doesn't she look happy that I won that round?