October Catch-Up

Having stepped back from blog-posting for a while to build up some lost enthusiasm, I’m dipping my toes back into the chilly blogosphere waters. Life has been pretty busy; there always seems to be more events to attend and watch during the Fall.

I also happen to be a bit of a sports fan, so between watching Penn State college football and Philadelphia Eagles NFL football games, clutching my heart while my beloved Philadelphia Phillies win another nail-biter and move forward in the MLB baseball playoffs, and our local Hershey Bears hockey team starting to play games this weekend, I’ve been watching WAY MORE television than I usually do.

My wife also joined a work NFL fantasy football league and begrudgingly (at first) I agreed to help her manage the team. Of course, I started to get semi-obsessed with it, which is not very surprising being that I used to play fantasy sports a LOT back in the day (23 years running a die-hard NL-only baseball league, over 15 years playing fantasy football, and quite a few years running a fantasy hockey league — I even won a national experts league).

All that is to say, I not only wanted to give myself a break from blogging, but I’ve been so preoccupied with other stuff that I really didn’t have any time for it. That’s not to say that I haven’t gotten any gaming in over the last 6-7 weeks. On the contrary, my friends and I have actually played board games and miniature wargames. I’m going to quickly recap some of that in reverse chronological order.

Horrified

It’s October — Halloween season — so it was prime-time to finally get Horrified to the table, which we did on OCT 7. Horrified is a co-operative board game for 1-5 players where your group of heroes is trying to prevent the town from being overrun by a group of roaming monsters. These aren’t just any old monsters, they’re the classic creatures from the old Universal films: Dracula, the Wolfman, the Mummy, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible Man, and Frankenstein’s monster and his bride.

We had 4 players facing off against Dracula, the Wolfman, and Creature from the Black Lagoon. Even though it’s recommended that you only use 2 monsters for your very first game, we’re all experienced gamers, so we played a standard game against 3 monsters. In order to defeat the monsters, you have to complete various tasks to first weaken the creatures (such as smashing Dracula’s four coffins which are spread in various locations across town, sailing a boat to the Creature’s secluded lair, and collecting chemical ingredients to make an antidote to cure the Wolfman of his lycanthropy). You need to collect items of certain colors/types to do this, and items only appear in random locations during the Monster Phase, right before the monsters get to move towards you and attack.

In addition to collecting the right items to complete your tasks, you’re also trying to escort wandering villagers to safety before they get mauled by the monsters. It only takes 1 hit for a monster to kill a villager, and each time that happens the Terror Level bumps up by 1 point. Once the Terror Level reaches 7, the town is overrun and you lose the game. Although heroes never die, if they suffer enough damage, they must go to the Hospital and the Terror Level increases. You can also lose if you exhaust the Monster card deck, so there’s a built-in timer that you’ll also need to deal with.

We ended up defeating all 3 monsters before time ran out, but it was a close call (only about 3-4 cards left in the Monster deck). Phew! Horrified is a fun game. The rules make sense and it’s fairly easy to learn. The board art and components are great (colorful and easy to read). And it’s a game that players of all ages would enjoy. You have to cooperate well to win (sharing items and clearly discussing your plans is a must). There’s also a lot of re-playability here because there are 6 different monsters (Frankie & the Bride work as a couple) and 7 different heroes, and you’re only using a handful of them. Plus, it’s easy to set the Difficulty level you want; certain monsters are very tricky like The Mummy and it’s quite hard to beat 4 monsters. Overall, I really liked Horrified and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun medium-light co-op to play with family and friends.

One big thing to mention here is that those super cool monster minis you see are NOT the ones that come with the game. I wanted to bling out my version, so I purchased a bunch of the Funko Mystery Minis Universal Monsters off eBay. They weren’t cheap. I got Dracula, Wolfman, Mummy, and Frankie for around $8 bucks apiece. The Creature was about $22 by himself since he’s rare on the collectible scale. I’m looking to get the Bride of Frankenstein and Invisible Man soon, but beware, the Invisible Man is especially hard to find and pricey (in the $30 to $35 range). The minis cost me way more than the entire game. I don’t usually do that kind of thing, but I have a soft spot for the Universal Monsters and anticipated this game getting repeated plays, so I splurged. Big kids and their toys, yeah I know!

---

Cave Troll

Back on SEP 28, we got together for a 3-player game of Cave Troll, an older small-box game from designer Tom Jolly. At it’s heart, Cave Troll is an area control game where you’re playing your mix of heroes & monsters to seize control of the most valuable cavern-rooms while preventing your opponents from doing the same thing. There’s a Chess-like push and pull between playing offense & defense, but without the agonizing analysis-paralysis of Chess. And playing the Cave Troll is like dropping a surprise nuclear bomb on the board, as the big guy will screw up your enemy’s best laid plans. My comments on the game from BGG say this:

Underrated. This has always been a blast to play, no matter how many players we’ve had. The simple game-mechanics yet surprisingly thinky game-play is unique. Tom Jolly’s games are always a hit with me. Packs a lot of punch in a small game box. Would rate it a point higher if it had a bigger board and bigger minis.

Those comments still hold true today. I always enjoying playing Cave Troll. I really wish that some company would create a spiffier looking version of the game with bigger minis, a larger board, and larger cards. I would buy it in a minute. For now, we’ve got to be satisfied with an average looking game with great game play.

---

SAGA (Normans -vs- Norse Gaels)

It has been quite some time since I last played SAGA. It’s not for lack of interest. I’ve been steadily collecting painted figures the past few years to build both Norse and Late Roman warbands. I also have several new bags of plastic Victrix figures to work on painting (don’t get me started on my pathetic lack of output), so thoughts of returning to SAGA has been on my brain for awhile. Prior to that, my only viable warband was Vikings. I love them, but wanted to explore other dark age forces because, well because it’s just fun.

On SEP 7, my lifelong friend Kevin and I got together to play 2nd Edition SAGA. Kev fielded a warband of Norse Gaels, while I commanded the Normans. It was the first time for each of us that we played with these armies, and our first time playing the 2nd Edition of the rules.

We had a great time. Although we both studied the rules beforehand, it took us a little bit of time to get reacquainted with things and settle in. I must say that although there aren’t all that many significant changes to 2nd edition SAGA, for the most part, I liked everything that was changed. The ability to freely maneuver units that are far away is terrific, and I like that Levies now get 1 SAGA dice.

Our battle was initially back & forth, but my Normans eventually got the upper-hand. Having cavalry was cool since that’s rare for most SAGA armies, and the Norman archers have some powerful abilities on the battle-board that make them surprisingly potent. After steadily whittling down the Norse-Gaels and with time winding down (6 turns was our time-limit for this particular scenario), I thought I had victory within my grasp.

But I made one fatal mistake. My Norman Warlord, wandering the battlefield on foot and showing off his buffed armor and elaborate kite-shield, was left out in the open too long. The violent Norse-Gael warriors, with their battle-board that can produce some seriously massive hacking attacks when you least expect it, chopped down my mighty Warlord during the battle’s final turn. Gaaaah! If I’m not mistaken, every single time I’ve lost a game of SAGA (except once), I’ve lost because my Warlord got smashed into a bloody pulp. You think I would learn my lesson and protect him better. But there I go being all Bold and Crazed again — which is I how I imagine my dark age Warlord would act!

SAGA has unique mechanics centered around its warband-specific battle-boards which I truly enjoy, and it scratches that mid-sized battle game itch quite well. Looking forward to getting some more games of SAGA mixed into our regular rotation of wargames and teaching some of our other friends how-to-play.

---

Condottiere

On AUG 31 we had a lively two-game session of Condottiere with 4-players. It has been several years since we last played and I’m so glad that we dusted it off and got it to the table again.

Condottiere is a card-based game by designer Dominique Ehrhard. It’s chock-full of fun, sneaky, interactive card-play mechanics (bidding, bluffing, special actions) and it’s one of those games that elicits lots of table talk. A typical game lasts somewhere around 45 minutes, so you can usually play a couple games of it if you’re so inclined.

The 1st edition Eurogames big-box version, which is the one I own, is the best version of the game and a true classic. This version features a big map of Italy and neat Tarot style playing cards. You might be able to find a copy of that on eBay. The newer small-box versions don’t have the same table presence, and the rules are a little different and weaken the game a bit in my humble opinion by killing the power of the Bishop.

---

Until next time, have fun gaming. Oh yeah, and go Phillies and Eagles… and Anna’s Red Zone Rebels (my wife’s fantasy football team)!