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.