My Collection Ranking 27/12/2016

So today I found a link to a site which helps you rank your board game collection.  It works by taking the list of games you want to rank and pulling two of them up and asking you which of the two you prefer.  When you select one of the two a new pair are put up for you to compare.  This can take a while especially for large collections but once you have answered all of the questions it gives you a list of board games in order of preference.

The link to do this yourself is http://www.pubmeeple.com/board-game-ranking-engine/

For this list I imported my collection from Board Game Geek.  Then I cut out games that I haven't played yet and expansions.  For my comparisons I just picked which of the two games I'd rather play if I was given a choice with no other factors taken into consideration (available space and time etc) and assumed I had my preferred player count for each game.  I also assumed I'd have access to any expansions I own for each game (Ticket to Ride for example I considered any of the map packs I own and Marvel Legendary includes all the expansions I own).

Read More for my list.

The End of the World: Zombie Apocalypse "Death on the Open Water"

So tonight we ran a game of The End of the World: Zombie Apocalypse.  This was the first time I had GMed a RPG, the first time I'd played the The of the World system and the first time any of my three players had played an RPG so it was a bit of a learning experience for all of us.

For those that don't know The End of the World is a series of RPG games that all use the same system from Fantasy Flight games.  They all have different scenarios for the Apocalypse where the players play as themselves trying to survive an apocalyptic event.  This was a Zombie Apocalypse but they also have Alien Invasion, Wrath of the Gods and Revolt of the Machines.

The system itself is easy, players create a pool of positive and negative dice when making a test.  Any positive and negative dice with the same result cancel each other out and as long as one positive that is left is under the target number (determined by the players stats) they succeed.  If any negative dice are left they player takes stress (damage) in the appropriate area, Physical, Mental or Social.

This is the story of how my players did on the open sea.

Malifaux

If you read through this blog you will notice I stopped posting Warhammer 40,000 battle reports.  I have really stopped playing Games Workshop games because I can't afford to keep up with the cost.  I still have my Flesh Tearers army and the last set of rules/codex for them but I probably won't continue to buy more for it.  The issue is mainly the price, I love miniature wargames and all the back story for the universe, in fact I still keep up to date with the lore and read novels and stories based on the universe.  I can't afford to spend a large amount of money buying miniatures, updated rules and re-writing army lists because new codex's make my current ones underpowered.

I recently started looking for alternatives.  I had the idea of a skirmish style wargame like Necromunda.  The idea of smaller forces and less models means it will be cheaper to play.  I was put off Necromunda because it isn't supported by GW any more so I looked at others.  One I found that really appeals to me is Malifaux 2nd Edition.

Red November

 Red November was one of the first board games that interested me but I had some real problems getting hold of it.  Finally I managed to get a copy and have got it on the table enough to feel happy writing about it.

When I first tried to buy it I brought it off Amazon and it never arrived.  I contacted the seller and was refunded but there were no more copies in stock.  For months I kept looking for a copy but everywhere was sold out, or internationally based so shipping was way too high.  When I finally saw a copy for sale that I could get shipped I snapped it up.

So what is the game?  In Red November you are a group of Soviet Gnomes on a nuclear submarine that is in real trouble and you have to try and survive for one hour in order to be rescued.  Problem is not only is oxygen running out, pressure building and nuclear reactors heating but fires are starting, the ship is leaking and somewhere out there is a Kraken hoping to make to make your sub it's "special friend".

Can you keep it in tacked for an hour until you are rescued or will the ship go down? If it does all go Pete Tong will you abandon your comrades and try to make it on your own?

Zombicide: Black Plague 1st Impressions

So I have my Zombie Apocalypse survival plan sorted and there are 100s of games out there that let you test how you'd do.  Black Plague is different, most zombie games have a modern or post-apocalyptic theme, Black Plague is a fantasy take on the original Zombicide.

I got the chance to play two games and thought I'd write a bit about my first impression of the game and the changes between this and standard Zombicide.  I haven't played enough for a full review but I can let you know what I think and what happened during our games.

Kickstarter

I thought I'd talk about some of the stuff I've backed on Kickstarter for this week.  Now I live in the UK so I often see games on there that I just can't back, some of the shipping costs on projects to the UK are sky high.  Have backed a few that were EU friendly and a couple that were low cost enough that it made it worth it.  It is my biggest issue with Kickstarter really, that so few projects can ship to me without paying almost as much for the postage as for the actual game.

Saying that I really like Kickstarter, I think it is a great way of getting games printed that might not have been released otherwise.  I do think it is going a bit too far for some companies, there are plenty of companies still using Kickstarter that could afford by now (with so many successfully games previously released) to produce games without Kickstarter.

So what Projects have I backed?

King of Tokyo

Does anyone remember the old computer game Rampage? Ever wanted to play that on a board?

King of Tokyo is a more recent purchase for me that has been seeing a lot of table time.  It is a fast and fairly simple dice game.  As the name suggests it is basically a King of The Hill style combat game.

Dice Masters

There are a lot of different sets for Dice Masters now.  I have two and my usual opponent has three (two differant from me).  They are the ones my opinion is based on because that is what I have experience with but they all work the same.

I have the DC Justice League set and the Marvel Uncanny X-Men sets (with a few Age of Ultron cards and dice thrown in that my friend gave me as spares).  I normally play against my friend with his Uncanny X-men, Age of Ultron and Amazing Spider-man sets.  It is one of my most played games and one I actually have a decent win/lose ratio at.

Sheriff of Nottingham

Smuggling and bribery, it's all fun and games...right?

That's the theme of Sheriff of Nottingham.  Each of the players is trying to get goods from the market into the city of Nottingham.  The problem is that the Sheriff is checking sacks as they come through the gates and not everything in your bag is legal.

Eve Online: 1st Day in a New Alliance

After rejoining Eve I have found myself a new corp and alliance.  I wasn't really sure what I wanted to go and do in game but I was sure it wasn't going to be 0.0 Sov Wars.  I was looking for any non-sov PVP corps that I thought could be fun and I have ended up back with my first love, Lowsec Piracy.

I have joined Relentless Terrorism, a lowsec pirate corp and member of the Separatists alliance.  I love being back in lowsec and it something I have gone back to a few times since I first flew with The Gurlstas Associates back in 2011.

I also had a very nice 1st evening in the alliance.

Back To Eve Online

As you may know I used to play Eve Online for a long time.  I used to really enjoy it but after moving and not having a reliable internet connection I stopped and never went back to it.  Well now I am.

So what made me come back?

1st Play Through of Fury of Dracula

A few month ago I posted a list of games I wanted to get next.  On that I said that one I was really looking forward to was Fury of Dracula 3rd Edition.  I haven't bought it, but a friend of mine did and we tried it for the first time Saturday Night.  I'm not going to do a review, I know we made a few mistakes and we didn't use all the advanced rules, I'd rather wait for play a few more games before writing a proper review.  Instead I'm going to write up our first play.

The BBG play record is here.  It does contain spoilers for this write up about where Dracula started.

Eve Online: A Tale of Fail

OK so this Eve Online post is different from others I have done.  It is a write up of a kill but not the same as my last.  This was written by another guy that was there and I'm just copying and pasting.

For a little background I was looking for anomalies to run while we were quiet in lowsec.  We were in a pirate alliance but everyone was AFK and me and you're mum decided to make some money.  I was in a dead end system with no stations when this happened.

Everything below was written by You're Mum and is a direct copy and paste, it is NSFW...sort of.

Fluxx

Fluxx, the game where the rules are always changing.  I will admit up front that with all the different versions of this game out now I have never played the original game, but I have played a couple of different versions.

World of Tanks

The last few weeks I've been playing a lot of PS4 rather than tabletop games and this game is the reason.  A few years ago me and a group for friends used to play World of Tanks on the PC, now it has just been released on PS4 (and is also on XBoxOne) and we have really got back into it.

Upcoming Purchases. Jan 2016

I recently went through some new games I was looking forward to in October.  Yesterday I got my hands of the first game off that list and played it, Vault Wars.  I only played one game of it, so wanted to get a few more games of it under my belt before I review it.  It did get me thinking about what games I am thinking about getting next.

Some are the same mentioned in that post, others are older games I have got or haven't played but want to.  I only buy one game a month average, so I am unlikely to get all of these in the next few months, but they are all games I am thinking about getting soon.

I have a long wishlist of games but I have a few, which change from time to time, that make it to my shortlist.  When it comes to buying games I pick one of this smaller list.  This post is that short list as it stands now.

Spyfall

This entry I'm going to talk about one of my new favourite party games, Spyfall from Cryptozoic.  It is a relatively simple social deduction game, that can be played over any number of rounds you choose, so one game can be as short or long as you like.

Legendary: Marvel Deck Building Game

I going to talk about one of my most played games, Marvel Legendary from Upper Deck.  It is a deck building game where the players work together to defeat a Mastermind and their scheme.  I had a dilemma when I choose to buy this, I am more of a DC fan than Marvel and there is a DC deck builder as well.  I picked this one in the end because I think the game underneath the theme sounds better.  I haven't played the DC game and might look into it in the future but for now I am happy with this.  I have a few of the expansions to, at the moment Dark City, Paint the Town Red and Guardians of the Galaxy.  I will just be talking about the base game now.