Here's a nice video piece of the 2010 World Boardgaming Championship.  GEEKFEST!!!

Rainy day at the beach? Break out the GAMES!!

My wife laughed at me when a loaded several games in the car for our vacation to the beach.

"What if it rains?"  I said.

"Well, just take one game then!"

Here I thought she understood gamers by now. 

I am proud that my family is really turning into a bunch of gamers.  Especially on that one day at the beach in NJ when it rained from about midnight until 6:00pm.  Oh , what to do, cooped up in a cabin all day with 2 active boys?   Why, break out the GAMES of course!

MILLE BORNES:
Played this a couple of times - Michelle got this at a thrift store.  Old card game of driving, getting flat tires, waiting endlessly for a stupid GO card, etc.  We played partners to try to make it easier on Ryan.  Dunno, this game just doesn't blow my skirt up, but the kids liked it, so I endured.

LEAPING LEMMINGS:
New game from GMT that I picked up at the WBC.  Michelle was leery at first, but this game seemed to catch on with everyone.  First game we messed up a rule about how the eagles feast, but once we figured that out, the game is a lot of fun.  Even my 7 year old can play it, though he just needs a little help understanding the special action cards.

ROLL THROUGH THE AGES:
Got this awhile ago (don't remember where).  Civilization meets Yahtzee.  Fairly fun, not  very deep, occasionally very frustrating.  Might try the free expansion that is available online sometime. 

All in all, it was a good day despite the weather.  Family game time is some of the most fun we have as a family. 

Yeah, that's some awesome hair I had.  Shufflin' for Mille Bornes

Ryan intently moving his lemming in LeapingLemmings

Michelle studies the board & looks to avoid hungry eagles
(or is she trying to get the eagles to eat my lemmings?)

Roll Through the Ages board - courtesy Alex's superior camera-fu

I got brain-jobbed!

Got to play Supers tonight at Mongo's.   I was Red Devil and Dr. Mindbender who we renamed BrainJob (and by we, I mean Doc Merkury & Mongo).   Our objective was to get the Omni Box from the good guys. 

Of course, we didn't get far, when the damn thing activated, and we ended up floating around like a game of asteroids.  It was a pretty surreal scene, and fun to try to figure out how to get across the board.  Complicated by the fact that my evil comrades and I were not particularly good shooters or jumpers. 

Brainjob managed to take out Brix, which wasn't hard since he was just a pile of rocks, by melting his tiny rocky brains. Ok, well it took 2 tries to do it, as somehow BrainJob got out brained by a pebble brained moron on the first attack.

All in all - a very fun time - very thematic and some good action.  The sides were  a little mismatched for the good guys, but I guess good should always triumph, right?

It was pretty cool when Den's Super got the Omni Box and it turned him into  the OMNI CREATURE!!!

Giant Commie Stomping Robots - Getting Stomped

Last night, thanks to Al & a few folks from the Northern Lancaster Wargamers, I was able to participate in a playtest session of MekaTac - which is basically a Battletech mutant, simplified.

We went with a straightforward 5 vs. 5 scenario - your basic slugfest. My Rooskie Mech was a pretty big SOB - fairly mobile and well-armed. The drawback was most of the weapons were close range. VERY close range. I was going to have to get up close and personal to make any carnage.

Early on, I charged ahead to do so, but did not position myself very well. I ended up taking some early damage, after missing with a couple of missile shots against Bob's Mech which was hiding like an American coward in heavy forest.

The Americans basically hid in terrain most of the game - popping up in the air, firing, then hiding. The terrain advantage made them hard to hit & root out. One of Al's mechs exploded after a Reactor critical hit. My pilot ended up taking one in the face, splattering his innards all over the cockpit. Captain Roshon's mechs both got their legs shot off and were basically metallic paperweights with guns.

All in all, a fun time. What's not to like about giant fighting robots? I wrote up a couple of thoughts & suggestions for Al the Rules Maker as the game mechanics are still being ironed out. It's fun to see a game evolve, and I hope to get another chance sometime to do some stompin'. It's ROBOT FIGHTIN TIME!!

How America Was Overrun by the Commie Hordes

So Fortress America hit the table today.  4 player game - I accepted the position of the USA - a great honor to try to defend our wonderful country from the invading commies, fascists, and terrorists.  Alex was the Rooskies, Jayson the Yellow Devils, and Jason the Blue Latin American whatevers.  Ok, I made those names up.   Below was the setup::

So let me just say I hadn't played this in close to 20 years I think.  And I don't think I ever played theUSA before, so I remembered nothing of strategy.  The USA has to keep the invaders from taking & keeping 18 of the 30 cities.  Many cities will fall early, as the USA forces are too spread out to mount much defense.   It also helps to get good die rolls as the USA.  I did not, especially in the east, which is the most active & congested part of the map.  A lot of cities leads to a lot of early fighting.  Crappy rolls make things very tough.   My situation deteriorated quickly.

My mistakes were plenty.  I usually need to play something a couple times before I can develop solid strategies for it.  I was not aggressive enough early to try to stave the advances of the invaders, especially in the south.  My thinking was to focus on some key areas.  I think more spreading out of my forces would have made them slow down a bit.  I also misplayed the movement a bit, as I needed a few turns to really grasp the rules again.  That made me inefficient.   I also put one of my lasers in a precarious place , and it was destroyed by the Russians.   

But the game was fun.  I like games where a good story emerges.  I do feel some guilt, as the freedom loving Americans suffered a horrible fate.  My opponents, of course, felt no remorse.  The Battles of Salt Lake City & St. Louis were memorable.