Solo Carcassonne

If you like tile placing mechanic, Carcassonne is a God among the games. And if you are also a solo player like me, you must have tried all solitaire variants available on the net, and must have your favorite one.
Well, for me it is Famine in Carcassonne by p4warrior. Rules can be found on BGG here or as Google document here.

This variant is based on upkeep mechanics which is great since it is more challenging and surprisingly more similar to multiplayer mechanic then other proposed solo variants. Another good thing is that it needs almost no bookkeeping.

The only problem I have with this variant is that it supposes that the game ends with the win at the moment you put down the last tile. So, the more tiles you have the game gets more and more difficult. For example I play with all light gray tiles I have, and that is a lot of tiles :)

So, to solve this issue, I decide to house rule this variant a bit.
My suggestion is that for a win you have to harvest following:
3 monks
3 peasants
3 knights from the city at least 3 tiles big
3 thieves from the road at least 4 tiles long.

This way a player gets the clear goal to strive to, and according to whom it can guide the tactics during the play.

To keep track of harvested maples, you can use scoring track and big maples from Ins and Cathedrals expansion, red for monks, green for peasants, yellow for thieves and blue for knights.

If you try this variant with my end game rules, let me know what you think.

Solitaire Tsuro variant

As I already mentioned in previous post, Tsuro is a nice filler puzzle like brain burning game that can be played out of the box. All this makes it a suitable choice for solo play by business father types like myself.

So, I created a solo Tsuro variant that suites me best. Variant is based on Path of conquest by S McCulloch.

Start with eight dragons arranged in starting positions around the board. Two dragons should be positioned on each side of the table, on exits 4 and 9.
Select one dragon to represent yourself.
Draw three tiles. Place a tile in a position to move your chosen dragon. Draw a tile. Continue drawing and placing tiles, moving your dragon each turn.

The goal of the game is to kill all other dragons by  making them collide to each other. Do not let enemy dragons escape by leaving the board. Collisions at the board edge are allowed and count as kill.

Scoring:
Minor victory - kill six dragons and place all 35 tiles (one dragon can escape at any time during the play)
Major victory - kill six dragons and then kill also seventh by making suicide attack and coliding your dragon with the last remaining enemy.
Ultimate victory - achieve major victory after placing 35th tile.

Tsuro

We just had a chance to test another tile placing board game. This time it was Tsuro.
So far I have played a two player game against Njam-Njam (its him on the photo).

I have to say that tile placing mechanism is getting quickly up on my list of game mechanics.
Tsuro was just great.

We have played several games and as Njam Njam noticed, we were playing really non aggressive, each of us keeping to our own half of the board, and getting competitive only with last tiles.

With more players game should be quicker and should bring even more fun,  since interaction probably happens sooner.

A great game anyway. I wander if it can be played solo....

Even more purchasing

I wanted this game for a long time, and finally it is here:

I had a chance to play the basic version earlier, so naw I am eager to dig into expansion :)

Shopping mania

For years I was naughty solo RPG player. While everybody else bathed in their excellence, I was the only one who postponed purchasing them....

But finally I also succumbed to their call, and here they are...

 

My own set of Rory's Story Cubes!

I hope that now I have them I will find time to continue my RuneQuest adventure....

 

And when I already went shopping, I decided to also purchase some expansions for my favorite games....

 

So, I bought Agricola - farmers of the moor, although with my current time table I have no idea when I will be able to play it....

I also bought Carcassonne expansion No 6 - Count, King and River; this will see its first play much sooner.

Finally, I brought into my house a long awaited Kids of Carcassonne game. My older kid, age 3, is maybe still to small to play it, but all my nephews and nieces (all aged between 5 and 10) just love it! This is a game I definitely recommend.

Plastic soldiers lost in action

For several days now, the well known web page Plastic Soldier Review is not available on the internet.

This page was the best resource for 1/72 plastic soldiers for all periods and for all manifacturers.

Does anyone know what happened to them? 

NEW INFO:
After some server problems, it seems that they will be back soon. Good news :)

Power Surge review by Andy

There is a great review of my game Power Surge, done by Andy Stallard on BGG page.

The link to the review is this one:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/163934/item/2886520#item2886520

By the  way, Power Surge is my entry for 2013 BGG Solitaire P'n'P contest.

Stolen moment for painting

While girls were occupied by feeding, my older offspring and me decided to do some painting.

So, young Prince Heir got his water colors and I grabbed first miniature that come to my hands.
Here are the results.

Prince Heir produced this:

 

This peace of paper we now call Dogs in the galleries of Paris, upon Her Majesty the Queen's second publish book of poetry (and yes, we know for 100% that he had no attention to actually paint this dog; it is just a conveniently looking stain; we may be talented family but not THAT talented :) )

 

On the other hand, I managed to paint one of the Italeri 1/72 Knights from set 6009.

 

Maybe not my best work, but I am satisfied with what I did while I was simultaneously trying to stop a 3 years old boy from repainting kitchen walls :)

And it is more than I hoped to achieve hobby-wise this month :)

Warrior princess

On September 29th, a warrior princess moved into my castle.
In order to be good servant to her, Her Majesty the Queen and especially young Prince Heir who now asks for more attention then ever, this blog will probably go quiet for month or two. 

But don't let this stop you from checking out Board Game Geek Solitaire P'n'P contest here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1002891/2013-solitaire-print-and-play-contest

and my entry Power Surge here:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1019447/wip-power-surge-solo-superhero-lcg-2013-solita

City within a city

Carcassonne is definitely one of my all time favorites.
It is equally great game when played with friends or when played solo.

One of the solo Carcassonne versions was suggested by Christopher Plummer.
The goal is to build a city within a city, by scoring large amounts of points.
This version is the least complicated Carcassonne solo variant, good to be played when you feeling a bit tired and you need something to clear your head, or when you simply feel to lazy to place and remove followers :)

Here is a photo from one of my victorious games, using base game and Ins and Cathedrals.

It is 310 points game.

Highway to hell

The very first kickstarter project I put my money into was a game called Battle for souls, by Robert Burke.
Of course, I opted for print and play version, since delivery costs to my part of the world were almost equal as the price of the game itself.

And recently files have landed to my my inbox.

Battle for souls is a 1 or 2 player card game where players choose side of Heaven or Hell and try to earn victory points by convincing souls from Earth to join their side.

Since I am primary interested in solo experience, I printed just a Hell side cards so far (Heaven is for girls, right ;) ).

Here is the photo from one of my first games.

Except from souls you are fighting for, game consist of two types of cards.
First type are Temptation cards. Basically, these are 7 differently colored sets of 6 cards, that player tries to arrange into well known poker configurations (one or two pairs, 3 of a kind, full house, etc) in order to get benefits. The color matching between Temptation cards and the Souls is one of the main mechanics in this game.
Second type are special cards that help player earn victory points, and they can be Devils, Sins, or Unholy relics, each with its own specifics.

There is no enemy AI in solo game. Player competes against cards and races against time trying to score 40 victory points before Temptation deck runs out.

The game plays quickly, and I managed to play two games within 45 minutes. I lost them both, reaching 32-33 points, which seems to be average score for inexperienced player. On the other hand, I played these games rather mechanically, with no clear strategy, with the single goal to get familiar with the mechanics. Still, it seems that my decision were important, I was not left to the luck of the cards, and I hope to win some of my next games by preparing my tactics.

As a conclusion, I am happy that I backed this game on kickstarter. It is an interesting game that can be played quick, and that can be played out of a box, which is at this moment really important to me considering that my second kid will be born in less then a month and that my gaming window will probably become even smaller than it already is.

Highly recommended.

Gnomish underwater chaos

I added another boardgame to my collection. And again, it is 1+ game.
The newest sheep among my flock is Red November.

I purchased game in small box, which is good since it will not take too much space in my newly redecorated and therefore no more gaming friendly house....
Also, Red November can be played almost out of the box, so it is a good game for busy fathers like myself.

 

Red November is a game where chaos jumps out of every corner. I played with 3 gnomes on the submarine and events just started popping out, much quicker then I was able to solve them.

But this is obviously a game one needs to learn how to play, so first several games player is destined to loose. One thing I learned so far is never to relay on luck when playing with fire....

 

Not the game I will play every day, but  will find it's place on my gaming table occasionally.

Going small

Confronted with growing family and reorganization of my living space, I will have less space for wargaming then I was used to.
As one of the countermeasures, I decided to go smaller and try 6mm figures, first for Napoleonic games.
I will base 6mm figures as individual soldiers, on 5mm square bases. This is 1/4 of the standard 20mm base, and I will use 1/4 of the measure for all distances mentioned in games like Song of Drums and Shakos or Muskets & Shakos. All these game are meant to be played on 3x3'' board, but with 6mm figures I can play them on as little space as 9x9' !

I already have some 6mm models, some British infantry (line, light, rifles and Scottish) and some British light cavalry in Tarleton helmets.
Here are my first attempts in painting them. Only tabletop quality, but I want to have them on the table as soon as possible.

I ordered more British cavalry (Bicorns) and British Artillery, and of course complete Polish/French army from Baccus,  I hope that this will arrive soon. 

Then I will see if my plan about using small playing field will work....

2013 BoardGameGeek Solitaire Print and Play Contest

And it is that time again!
2013 BoardGameGeek Solitaire Print and Play Contest is here!

If you are interested to participate, link to contest rules is here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1002891/2013-solitaire-print-and-play-contest/

As readers of this blog know, my entry for this year is called Power Surge.
Playtesting components can be found here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/article/13087073#13087073

Enter the contest, play games, and when the time comes - vote!

Boardgaming with friends

With summer holidays pending, things are getting slower, so I finally found some time  to play with my friends.

 

Here you can see Njam-Njam to the right, Zombie in the middle and me, playing a game of Carcassonne. I have to say that we are all becoming really addicted to this game.

We also played a couple of King of Tokyo rounds, but as much as I like dice allocation, at the moment I think I like tile building better..... Others felt the same so we quickly switched back to Carc :)

Nice couple of hours....

Quick boardgames

As much as I like to wargame, my private and business obligations take me away from it, and closer to boardgaming every day. And even there, my time is limited, so, as much as I like complexity and challenge of Mage Knight Board Game and especially Agricola, the setting for these games takes too much time.
Especially now, while my home is under renovation, I have started to appreciate games that literary do not need to be taken from the box to be played.

Castle panic is one of them. Very interesting combination of card and board game, extremely playable solo, where every game is decided in last turn.
I do not own the game yet, the one I play is borrowed, but I like it so much that I have already ordered original game together with a Mage Tower expansion from a local game store.

 

Another really good quick and solo playable game is Carcassonne. So far, I am playing solitaire version by John Fiore from Solo Nexus.

My result so far is moderate success, with around 100 points and unfinished islands.

There are other solitaire variants of this game roaming around the net, and I am eager to test them, as soon as I manage to win this one :).

Third game I tried is solo Munchkin. I have Star munchkin, with Clown Wars expansion, and I tried variant also mentioned on Solo Nexus blog but I did not get the same level of satisfaction as with Carcassonne or Castle panic, so Munchkin goes back to the box for now.

Muskets and Shakos

The long awaited Napoleonic ruleset Muskets and Shakos by Bob Mondeo and Two Hours Wargames is finaly here!

Unfortunately, they are published at the worst time for me, since I am waiting for my family to grow bigger again, and I accepted invitation from my better half to completely renovate our house, so it currently looks like this:

Therefore, all my miniatures are packed in the boxes, and it will take at least two weeks until I will be able to take them out and play a game of Muskets&Shakos.
So far I am just reading the PDF and getting familiar with the rules....

Enemy at the doorsteps

With expecting recent publishing of new Napoleonic solo game Muskets and Shakos from 2HW, I am pushing the painting of my 1/72 Napoleonic armies.

Here are some enemies :)

10 British wing company - light infantry soldiers.
Models are mostly HAT, but mixed with soldiers from other companies here and there....

Gunstorm: Cops and Gangsters

It has been a long time since I did some wargaming, and I really wanted to play something yesterday. Therefore, I decided to playtest new free Gunstorm rules by Spacejacker.

Rules can be downloaded here:

http://tinysolitarysoldiers.blogspot.com.au/p/gunstorm-rules-system.html

I decided to play cops against gangsters game, where I will play the bad guys.

My gang had two veterans, one with the Medic stunt and girl with two guns (Rapid fire stunt), regular Biker and rookie with heavy blaster.

Police force had legendary Inspector with command stunt, veteran special force operative and two rookie street cops with riot gear (armor 7).

All models are Ceasar 1/72 scale.

I do not have much urban terrain, so I used my kid’s garage to make a scene.

I had a scenario in mind, but due to the luck of the draw, it turned to be irrelevant.

Inspector’s command stunt, as the only stunt in the crew, allowed cops to win every Fate phase (tap it, then automatically untap, since it is the only stunt) at the beginning of the game and to move very quickly, which is OK, since it all looked like organized action by police. 

So, all my gangsters could do was to move once, and the police was all over them. Girl and Biker tried to shoot them as their approached, but all missed.

Policemen ganged first on Biker and then on Girl, and send them bleeding out of the game.

On the other side of the board, inspector charged into Medic, sending him out of fight also.

Then, the luck changed. Player shooting phase was next, which allowed my rookie to kill inspector. This nullified command stunt, I won next Fate phase by lucky 6 to 1 roll, used autofire option of heavy blaster and eliminated all remaining cops….

The game was fun, with real cinematic shootout feel. Rules have great potential, although they still need to be worked at (as Spacejacker himself admits on his blog)

Two things I will change next time I play Gunstorm are:

  

        1. I do not like wound resolution done by pulling counter out of the cup.  It can create a situation that all red counters are on the table, and only black in the cup. The player can use it to his advantage in multiple combats, by choosing which to resolve first (I did it in order to win this game). This is not right since all combat actions should be simultaneous. Therefore, I will house rule it that each wound adds +1 to guts statistic, as well as -1 to fighting and shooting. Model is out of fight when its guts become 6+. So rookie goes down after the first wound, regular after second, veteran after third and legend after fourth wound. Furthermore, if the gut check is failed by rolling unmodified 1, model has to take 2 wounds instead of one. 

       2.With 4 or 5 models on enemy side, I think I will use behavioristic AI model for each enemy soldier, in the way Mats Lintonsson did it in his solo rules for Song of Blades and Heroes game. It should reduce the feel that I am playing both sides simultaneously.

Even more boardgaming...

So I finally had a chance to play the games i purchased recently, and I have to say that I am very satisfied with experience.

Ghost Stories is a mix of contradictions: it has great mixture of humor and horror that really tinkled my boardgaming nerve. Also, it is at the same time fun little game and extremely complex experience that is almost impossible to win. Rules are easy to learn, but to learn to play it, you need practice.
I played several games so far, end each of them ended after no more than 15 minutes with ghost overwhelming the board. And it seems that climbing a mountain towards my first win will be long journey.

And then, there is Agricola. This game is really something special.  I played it first time last night and I am totally taken by it. I just want more and more! I will have to clarify it by few more plays, but it I think I will consider Agricola the best solo game I played so far...

PS. After 3 solo games (1 won, 2 lost), the feeling is still the same. So glad I got this! I think I can even persuade my wife to play it with me one of these days...

Counting points on my first victorious (52 points) game (5th cow in the fence is a pet :) )

 

Boardgaming addiction

Well, here are latest additions to my solo boardgames collection.

Agricola I purchased used, from local gaming forum, for some 70% of its commercial value. The game is in great condition, played maybe once or twice. Furthermore, all cards are already sleeved, which adds more value.

On the other hand, Ghost stories came brand new from local gaming club.

Can't wait to try them both....

Mage Knight Board Game

I received my copy of Mage Knight Board Game this week, so I used weekend to play first couple of games.

I played introduction scenario both times, once just following game walkthrough, and once using dummy player to spice things up.
The setting of the game is the longer part, after that game runs rather smoothly.
Unfortunately, with small kid in house I will not be able to play one game through two or more sessions any time soon, which is what this game is designed for in order too show full strength...

In other news, I have detected big change with my gaming group. Having small kids I am not regular on the meetings, but where just few months ago only WFB existed and nothing more, now I hear only about boardgaming, mostly Battlestar Galactica and Arkham Horror sessions.
Maybe it has something to do with all members of my group getting close to 40 :)
I also hear that there are some new kids getting into WFB in our town and that they are forming group of their own...

Dancing WIth Wolves part 3

Some 3 years ago, I played two sessions of Runequest campaign, then for some reason I stopped with it, but I always wanted to come back.
Here are these sessions:
Part 1

Part 2

Finally I got a chance to go on with the adventures of Dragonfly, using 9Q guidelines and Runeuest engine. Random idea generators are mixed through game....

Q1 What looming hostility inherent within the setting unexpectedly comes into conflict with the heroic motivation, threatening to worsen over time?

Be the GM first: Lightning /Meteor the rumor spreads that a meteor stone was found in the prairie. Around it, every night a flight of fire tongues is seen dancing at dusk.

Be the PC next: if they are alive, fire tongues are some king of tribe. And they probably do ritual dance around the stone, so hoping that he can learn something, Dragonfly decides to investigate. Can he find somebody willing to go with him there?  (unlikely). No.

Be the GM once more:

Haw far is the rumored location of the stone from Dragonfly’s home? 6 days.

2 days of travel uneventful. Encounter on third day. What kind of encounter: assist the mundane. Dragonfly noticed a farmer’s wagon with vegetables broken on the road. He tries to help repair it, but he can’t. He offers to run to the farmer’s village to get help, while farmer keeps eye on the wagon. It is easy task, so soon Dragonfly returns with the help. Villagers keep him from dinner, so he loses one day. But he is fed and equipped with food for a trip.

Another day passes without events, and then on day 5 hero runs into another encounter. Recruit love. New NPC (or PC?). Dependable home maker. Convey wealth. Interact riddles. Review dreams.

At one moment, Dragonfly noticed another person going parallel to him. Two travelers soon started approaching each other, and Dragonfly noticed that it is a girl of his age, obviously also a lay member of Lhankor Mhy cult. When they finally met, she suddenly stopped, her face overwhelmed with surprise.

I, I…. I know you… Actualy I don’t  but…. I have seen you in my dreams…. Our destinies are bounded together…. I, I…..

The girl’s name is Tigerina. She is also traveling to investigate rumors about meteor stone, with motivation (carry outside) of finding knowledge about transferring objects and knowledge from this to different worlds. She has high hopes that meteor stone can help her with that.

Tigerina is a townswoman, her riches are counted to 162L, caries a dagger, and has no armor.

They decided to continue together. The rest of the trip to the rumored location of meteor stone is uneventful.

Q2 What unusual event occurs soon afterwards?

Be the GM first: pursuit. Mistrust Pleasures.

As Dragonfly and Tigerina entered the area of prairie where the stone is said to be, a mob of women appeared. There is 9 of them, they are armed with improvised weapons, and even from a far one can see crazed look upon their faces. Mob started approaching heroes, with obvious killing attention.

Be the player next: Heroes start running. They outrun 6 mobsters, but 3 were persistent. As Tigerina started falling behind, Dragonfly decided to turn and fight.

Mobsters attacks first. How many will go for Tigerina? None. All go for Dragonfly!

After some fight, and Dragonfly getting some damage soaked by armor, heroes find themselves with one mobster dead and 2 lying on the ground, unable to stand.   

Be the GM once more: But mad woman crawl to continue the fight. It was obvious that their madness can’t be cured. Dragonfly and Tigerina had to kill them quickly, not wanting these woman to be eaten alive by animals or maybe even their mad sisters.

Treasure: heroes find 57L on bodies. Dragonfly takes them, Tigerina says she do not need this kind of blood money.

Q3. What elements of the results of Q1 and Q2 suddenly get twisted together in a surprising manner, increasing the danger to the heroic motivation?

Be the GM first: Mistrust Allies. Betrayal/Combat

Tigerina suddenly attacks Dragonfly. Her face represents the same madness mobster woman had!

To be continued.....

Song of stars and void - playtest

Recently, I was lucky to become one of the players Andrea from Ganesha Games sent for playtesting a copy of his new space combat rules called Song of Stars and Void.

I played one game solo, playing both sides, just to get in touch with the rules, before I find a playtesting buddy for this new toy :)

I played a 450 points game, with pregenerated ships, Commonwealth against the Shaggeroths, 2 escorts and 1 Capital ship per side.

Shagaroth Cruiser Achievement got his indirect fire weapons jammed in very first turn...

Some starting manouvering

Commonwealth Cruiser CF Vanguard fires some missiles at Achievement

but Achievement uses manouver around asterid field to get rid of them...

 

Later in the game, heavily damaged Frigate CF Ettrick leaves the battlefield. CF Vanguard, gets the lucky shot from behind at Cooperation Destroyer, blowing it out of the skies...

The game runs very smooth, but it needs some learning curve, befopre a player will be able to use the ships to the best of their posibilities...

I had so many wrong tactical  decisions on both sides this time arround, that I decided to quit the game here, and start tomorrow from beginning....

Into the dungeon

For some time I wanted to test a new dungeon exploring rules from Warrior Heroes Legends by 2HW. Finally, I managed to play with it a little.

So, my hero Rattus Rattus Alexandrinus, a wererat assassin entered the dungeon followed by two rat monks (fanatics).

All PEFs are preloaded, it will be some pesky dwarves, with very small chance to encounter goblins, which might turn to be friendly, neutral or enemies.

The dungeons started with the almost direct descend to level 3. Rattus noticed something with the end of his eye, but he could not tell if his mind is playing tricks or him or not (encounter level raised from 3 to 4).

Another stairs down, and my heroes finally bumped to some dwarfs four stores underground.
It turned to be group of two missile armed dwarfs and one soldier. 

In Sight test was taken.

 

I have to admit I had to cheat here. At first, I sent my fanatics charging into soldier, but with AC6 and shield he easily took them down both.

So I decided to start this combat again, from the beginning. 

Dwarfs with guns are shooting first. Rattus was hit, but his luck of a rat (or Star power to be precise) saved him from harm. Other shooter missed.

One fanatic charged lower missile dwarf, and scored snake aye for damage! Dwarf is Obviously Dead! Another monk charged upper rifledwarf, scoring OOF result. This was enough for warrior who failed his man down test and run away. 

Much better :)

Next room contained a trap, probably set by running warrior. But rats are known for their speed, and my heroes had no problem to evade the dart.

 

Road was clear for some time, but then, in one room a ceiling collapsed. Probably another pathetic attempt the dwarf made to stop my heroes. Rats came out of it unharmed, but the way back was blocked.

 

Since I couldn’t remember what to do when the way back is blocked, and I was too lazy to look through the book, I decided that all stairs from now on will lead up, until level 1, where the dungeon will end with en exit.

The ground started rising immediately, leading my heroes directly to level 2! (3 face cards in a row!)  

And there, on second level of the dungeon, 3 rats entered an ancient library build by dwarves. Rattus picked up few books with promising titles, hoping that inside some useful secrets of dwarf war machines could be found. Then, my heroes left the library through the opposite door.

Another trap waited for them there, but, being rats after all, they again managed to evade it easily. Then another stairs appeared, and above them Rattus could see the light of the day.

Heroes waited for the night, end only then Rattus decided to squeeze part of his muzzle outside. The library was too close to the surface, so this exit was probably surfacing somewhere in the middle of the dwarfs territory. And Rattus hated dwarfs; they are always a pain in rats back…

Next encounter will probably be a chase, with our heroes trying to escape the whole population of dwarf kingdom….