Assorted boardgames

We've played a few boardgames at home over the last few weeks and I realised I hadn't posted anything about these.  My son and I actually managed to buy each other the same game for xmas... great minds!!  Luckily he was able to exchange his and bought one of the other games we played instead so a good result in the end.

Game #1 is Dominion.  This has been around for several years (2008 according to BGG) and is a card based game.  Players are rulers of a kingdom and play out their hand of cards to gain coins, estates (which are what give you victory points) and a range of advisers or buildings.  These provide players with more actions, cards, or special effects for a turn.  Initially your hand of cards is small and some of the slots are taken up with coins (which you can use to buy more cards) or estates which are important but annoyingly take up valuable slots in your hand.  Each turn players can choose to buy one of  10 types of card which remain the same throughout the game.  As the game progresses though, your hand grows and, if you know what you're doing, you can build up increasing chains of actions, or trade up your coins to something more valuable which take up less space in your hand.  Very simple but really fun and requires some clever thinking.  What's appealing is that the game comes with 25 types of card of which 10 are in play in any given game so there's lots of variety.  There are also lots of expansions to add to the mix.

Little paint pots act as markers

Our next game was Kanagawa.  This is the game we both bought each other... we both have a liking for all things Japanese and games that are visually pretty and this ticked all the boxes.  In this game you are a student under the great Hokusai and are trying to complete your own painting of different landscapes.  Each turn there are a selection of cards played out which players can claim and then use to either add to their painting or improve your studio.  Essentially it's a 'push your luck' game... if players pass on the 1st round of cards, more are added so you need to decide whether to go for the limited number of opening cards or wait and hope your opponent doesn't snaffle the card you really want.  Paintings build up a number of 'harmony' points which win the game.  It's pretty simple and only takes about 45 minutes but is very nicely themed and looks lovely.

The final game is Viticulture which is the game my son bought as an alternative to Kanagawa.  This 2013 game is a brilliant worker placement game.  As you can guess, you own a vineyard and have to maximise your wine production and fulfill contracts to earn VPs.  You only have a limited number of workers however and there won't be enough slots for each action for everyone to do what they want each turn so it's very strategic and clever.  Each turn is divided into 4 seasons.  In Spring yo sort out player order and a benefit for that turn... an extra card, some cash, a temporary worker (this last one seemed really useful so we were both after it each turn).  In Summer you take turns allocating workers, offering tours round the vineyard to raise some cash, building extra structures such as irrigation systems, windmills etc all of which are useful but cost cash and a valuable worker slot, and crucially you can select vines  and plant them.  These can be harvested in the autumn to give you grapes and eventually, wine.

Cards selected in the Fall provide you with useful visitors (wine specialists, workers etc) which can be played in the Summer or Winter.  Here you can also acquire contracts... these are the only way to convert your lovely wines into Lira but you need to be able to house your wine in your cellar while it matures and the cellar will need to be expanded to accommodate the bottles... all of which (you guessed it!) costs Lira!

It's a brilliant game... actually very simple but really engrossing and full of character.  AS soon as we'd finished I was itching to play again which is a sign of a great game!

Adventures on Mars

I played a great game this week using one of the Wiley Games 'Fistful of Lead' rules.  In this case it was the Glorious Adventures in the Age if Steam rules and took us off to Mars.

The game set some High Martians against a British Patrol who were trying to rescue 'Miss Lucy', a spy who found herself stranded in the Martian badlands (Miss Lucy is the figure from the Temple of the Beastmen game).  The Martians were armed with a mix of pole arms and bows but had the advantage of being able fly over the rough terrain while the rifle armed British had to pick their way around it.  

The Martian Leader scoops in to capture Miss Lucy...

...while the British advance in pursuit 

The shaken spy is rescued! (After being shot by her rescuers!!)

As usual the rules made for an exciting game which went to the wire.  Casualties mounted on both sides and the Martian leader almost escaped off table with his prize but was slowed down when a redcoated rifleman unsportingly took potshot at him, hitting Miss Lucy instead, but thankfully not actually wounding her.  The resulting shock slowed her down though, allowing a better aimed shot to kill my leader and free his prisoner.  Not sure that's really the way Anthony planned it but it worked!!

FFOL are probably my favourite skirmish rules... I've used them in settings from Ancients through to 19thC, as well as the SF version Galactic Heroes, and they always give an exciting and fast moving game.  In our post-game discussion I admitted that, while I'm an unashamed rules junkie with far too many unplayed sets filed away, I've been increasingly jaded with many of them.  I guess ultimately there are only so many rules mechanics and often rulesets promising 'new innovative features' are a rehash of several other existing games.  Like a number of gamers I've chatted with I'm finding that increasingly I'm narrowing down to a few sets to use more consistently rather that flitting, moth-like, to the next shiny thing.  Doesn't stop my buying new rules though!  More on recent acquistions in another post...

In space, no one can hear you whimper...

This week Anthony and I played a board game which both of us have acquired in the last couple of months... Alien: Fate of the Nostromo.  I'd bought a copy off eBay a while ago but it has been sat in the 'to play' pile so when Anthony mentioned he had it as well I knew it wouldn't be long before it appeared on the table.

As you'd expect it's a nicely produced game with miniatures for each of the key crew members and one of the Alien itself.  The map features rooms and corridors on the Nostromo split over 2 levels.  

The game is cooperative.  Players are allocated 3 random missions that they have to complete before the final mission is revealed.  Each turn random event cards move the Alien or pesky Science Officer Ash who is doing his best to thwart the crew's actions, usually by confiscating the scrap material you'll need to build things like cattle prods, flame throwers etc. and generally getting in the way.  Some of the cards are incident free and Jones the cat makes the occasional appearance.  As the game progresses the more benign cards are removed, meaning the tension ramps up as things build to a climax.

In our case the final mission involved having each player in specific locations and having to manoeuvre the Alien into the airlock.  Of course the Alien is doing it's best to attack the crew... if it does, no-one actually dies.  Instead the player has to flee and the morale tracker counts down.  In our game we'd got 3/4 of the way through the morale track before successfully blowing the creature out of an airlock.

It's a fairly simple and quick game but nicely challenging and replayable.  And the board also features a lovely picture of Jones... what more could you want!

Nam!!

 1st game of the year was a chance to dig out some neglected figures and venture back to Vietnam for the first time in years.  

Last year I'd picked up a copy of the 2nd edition on Peter Pig's 'Men of Company B' rules... I used to play the original rules quite a bit and really enjoyed them.  Like a lot of PP rules they contain some really interesting concepts, but sadly like a lot of PP rules the layout can make it had to make sense of the rulebook!  I've picked v2 up a few times but never got very far into the rules so, when I'd suggested a Vietnam game to my friend Andrew I thought this might be a good spur to get to grips with them

In the event I failed completely to read them and had to dig out v1 since I was reasonably familiar with these rules.  MOCB is a small scale patrol-style game with the US (or ARVN) troops on a mission to drive off NVA troops and seize supplies, both of which gain victory points.   The US player has a choice of missions from 'Hearts and Minds' which gives more points for securing supplies and penalties for civilian casualties, to 'Bodycount' which emphasises wiping out the NCA/VC and is less worried about innocent bystanders!

The US troops activate zones by contacting markers which reveals hostile troops (possibly), civilians, and supplies.  Of course the NVA/VC player has a choice about where to place the markers and how to populate them.  There are options to 'interrogate' the locals and to call in artillery or air strikes.  The NVA/VC player has a chance of redirecting these however!

The M113s trundle happily down the road...

Uh oh....

In our game the VC sprang an early ambush from a paddy field, causing an expensive US casualty and pinning down one of the 2 M113s that were advancing down the road, thanks to a well-aimed RPG.  Sadly this was the high point of the game for the plucky revolutionary heroes.  I made a mistake in my allocation of troops... in hindsight I should have concentrated the bulk of my force in one location to hit the US troops hard... they really can't afford too many casualties.  Instead I'd spread them piecemeal across the table and lacked the killer punch I needed.  This allowed Andrew to deal effectively with each VC cadre he encountered and then to hoover up supplies and Intel.

Marines take cover in the jungle

Interrogating the locals...

I really like this game although I'm not sure Andrew was as convinced.  It has inspired me to properly read the v2 rules and have a think about other Vietnam rules that are out there.

Bliadhna Mhath Ùr

So it's a rather belated Happy New Year to everyone... resolutions steadfastly ignored, decorations are down, and I'm bracing myself for the return to work tomorrow :(

As is traditional it's a good opportunity to do a review of the year and look ahead although if 2026 is anything like 2025 I'm keeping my eyes shut!  On a personal level last year and 2024 before it were really tricky with lots of health issues in the family which have had a real impact on everyone.  For me this manifested itself in various ways but one of the most telling is that I haven't picked up a paintbrush in over 6 months.  Just didnt have the motivation to get going.  I'm feeling a bit more inspired (maybe the Xmas break helped) so perhaps I'll get going again soon.  I did keep on gaming though and a big thanks to my game-friends for keeping my spirits up ❤️

Looking back at blog posts I managed to have a game most weeks.  Boardgames seem to dominate with lots of games of Crusader Kings, Mosaic, Zombicide, Skyteam and a smattering of old school Metagames.  I have a pile of games I've picked up over the year that are still unplayed (can't resist a bargain!) and need to try and break some of these out of the box in 2026 .  There were some miniature games (Zulus, ECW, Jacobites and a rare outing for my Congo figures) but these were all definitely in the minority this year.  Im hoping to.start the year with a proper tabletop game later this week.

And so to 2026... no resolutions and no plans.  Maybe try to get to more that 1 show this year. Last year I only managed to get to Salute.  And try to get back into painting, at least a little bit.

Season's Greetings

As Shaky would say....Merry Xmas everyone!

I hope you have a lovely day however you celebrate, and that most of us made it onto the 'nice' list

Return to Fife

There's been another lull in posts as I'd been away for a pre-xmas catch up with family, as well as a chance for a bit of a break ahead of the festivities.  We headed back to Fife to a house we'd rented back in the summer.  We'd realised it was as cheap to do this as staying in a hotel for a few nights (especially if, as planned, our son was going to come and join us), it's only an hour or so to Glasgow, and it's a lovely place to recharge batteries.  Sadly my son went down with the lurgy that seems to be doing the rounds at the minute so decided not to come up.

Despite it being Scotland in mid-winter, we have brilliant weather and lots of lovely beach and coastal walks, met up with friends and family, and saw lots of wildlife... rabbits, gannets diving (which I could watch all day), a Minke Whale (or possibly just a large splash in the Forth but I'm telling everyone it was a whale!), and a worryingly close encounter with a seal which had wandered up onto the coastal path at dawn and which one of my dogs thought would make a very tasty breakfast!  Luckily all was well and the seal slithered over the rocks and safely back to sea.

Cisco remembers he was a hunting dog...

Last time we'd been to a few historical sites... not so many this time but a couple of interesting places both quite unexpected.  

First up is this statue of Admiral Cochrane who was born not far from my home town in Lanarkshire but spent a lot of his early life in Culross in Fife.  Culross may be familiar if you're a fan of Outlander as apparently it doubles as the fictional village of Cranesmuir in the series.  Incidentally in true Scottish style Culross is pronounced completely differently to it's spelling and is Coo-ross.

Cochrane is one of those larger than life, heroic characters who fought the French during yhe Napoleonic Wars, but was also a key figure in the South American Wars of Liberation and is a big inspiration for Hornblower and Aubrey.  It's reminded me I have a biography somewhere upstairs which I must get round to reading

Culross Palace

Next up was a very unexpected find, based on a small plaque we found on a house while walking with a friend and our dogs in Aberdour.  The plaque commemorate Captain Cyril Percy Ryan, credited as the inventory of the Hydrophone, used in submarine detection.  It turns out the house is is Hawkcraig House, also known as HMS Tarlair.  

Hawkcraig House 

During WWI this was an experimental station for the development of hydrophones, as well as mining and the development of a mine sweeping launch, controlled by seaplane.