Past...

It's that time of the year, or rather it was that time of the year last year, and everyone else is doing it so here's my look at the past year of gaming and what the future might hold. However I've decided to split my usual Past and Future post into two to be able to go into a little bit more detail. Here's what I've been playing during the past year.

Board Games

Peekaboo!

Not surprisingly Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition was my top played board game. We started playing the campaign in August and almost finished it, but then took a long break until December to actually finish it. We had a great time with the new rules and the lenght of the campaign felt just right. I have ordered the expansion and next time Micke has promised to pick up the Overlord mantle. Looking forward to it!

Second on the list (same as last year!) is The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. I've come to the conclusion that this game is not all that fun when you are four players. It's simply too easy and quickly becomes uninteresting. However, it shines with two and three players and now that I have the complete Mirkwood cycle of cards I've started dabbling in proper deck building which is fun. Writing about it now makes me want to bring it out to play actually.

This might come as a bit of a surprise, but my third most played board game of 2012 is actually Space Alert! It was back in April/May when we kind of re-discovered it with a new group of players. We played it a bunch of times, but often had to start from the beginning to allow new players to learn the rules. We still haven't got to internal threats or using the fighters. :(

After this it starts to get muddled; Gears of War, Lords of Waterdeep and Runewars have been played to an equal amount. As have High Frontier which I'm really happy about! It has met with some resistance in my group but I think a couple of them are starting to see the light. Anyway, we've also played some Arkham Horror, Twilight Imperium and A Game of Thrones... among others. I'm sad to say that last year's most played board game, Earth Reborn, haven't had single play in 2012! Need to remedy that.

Roleplaying Games

2012 has not been a good year for roleplaying I'm sad to say. During the first half of the year it was me who was tired of always having to GM and during the second half as I felt a bit more energized my group proved resistant, seeming more interested in simple board gaming. We did manage to squeeze in a session each of Fiasco, Diaspora and recently the demo adventure for Only War, but it's not nearly as much as I would have liked.

To be honest I'm not sure how to remedy this situation. I've said before that the best solution would probably for me to find a new group to play roleplaying games with, but this is a tricky thing as I'd like to play with people similar to myself rather than the usual suspects at the local games store. I'm going to see if we can get The One Ring or some other cool game going but I don't have high hopes. :(

Miniature Games

Rebels raiding an Imperial convoy for supplies.

Well, 2012 haven't been the year of roleplaying but it has been the year of miniature gaming! Star Wars: X-Wing manages to just barely snag the top position as not only the most played miniature game but the most played game of the year! While we experienced a break from the game during the autumn the Kessel Run event helped push the plays up. I'm having a great time with the game and it just becomes more fun as you start learning how to maneuvere better and the importance of formation flying. Certainly a game I'm looking forward to seeing more of during 2013.

Just a single play behind X-Wing is of course Dust Warfare. It was finally released in May last year and we had fun playing the initial battles where I was loaning models from Anders. It was with the release of Campaign Book: Zverograd and the new SSU faction that I really started to enjoy it though. I think the Russians are a lot of fun to play as and their style suits me well. While they have been missing some troop types, limiting their tactical options, these have recently hit the street in the form of Campaign Book: Hades. This latest book also includes a simple, yet fun looking campaign system that I think we'll start to try out during the coming months.

Finally we have Infinity which have slipped down a couple of places since last year. The reason is two-fold: X-Wing and Dust Warfare have taken most of my miniature gaming/painting time and I have been waiting for the Paradiso campaign book. Of course, the book is out now and I'm feeling the urge to get into some serious tactical action rising! There are certainly more models that I want to paint for my Yu Jing, but I'm seriously considering getting myself some mercs heavy Qapu Khalqi as a second faction.

I've also tried Task Force Zeta and Judge Dredd the Miniature Game - two games that I really enjoyed and would like to play more of in the coming year. The 1.1 version should also be making its' way to me courtesy of Robin Fitton so I see some 15mm gaming in the not too distant future as well.


So there we have it, a quick rundown of my gaming 2012. I have to say that my favourite gaming purchase as well as gaming experience is Phil Eklund's High Frontier! While it's not my most played game it's just such a different experience from anything else I've played! It's a game that demands a little more from the player in form of pre-planning and coming to terms with the very open sandbox play style, but once you get it the reward is great. You can read my two session reports right here on the blog: Going For the Asteroids in High Frontier and Going Interplanetary in High Frontier.

I'm eagerly looking forward to the next expansion and also picked up another Sierra Madre game, Bios: Megafauna, that I'm hoping to try out soon.

Well, that's the first part done! Next up will be the ...and Future part where I'm looking forwards at the year to come. Happy 2013 everyone!

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Descent Campaign Update 2

 At a critical point during the Interlude...

Let's see, where did I leave off?

Oh yes, the heroes had just finished the introduction and the two first quests in Act I and had started to get a feel for the game. While they had lost both The Masquerade Ball and Death on the Wing they kept a stiff upper lip and soldiered on.

Third Quest - The Cardinal's Plight

"Look! There that doddering old fool is!"

In the first encounter the Overlord is using Lord Merrick Farrow to try and raise as many zombies as possible to send off the map so they can then (in the second encounter) attack the Cardinal (an NPC with) while the heroes try to get to him in time.

The heroes played well in the first encounter, and I didn't use my monsters to block well enough so I only had time to raise and send off a single zombie towards the cathedral. Jain's special ability again proved invaluable and starting to think she's probaly the most powerful hero in the base game. It all went by so quickly I forgot to take pictures even!

Anyway, in the second encounter where I need to kill the Cardinal the heroes first had to find the key to get into the room where the cardinal was located. With only one regular and one master zombie attacking I had a hard time doing much damage to him and some of it was offset by a special item the heroes could use to heal him. They made short work of the monsters in the cathedral and I kept doing just one or two damage per turn - not enough by a longshot!

The Cardinal almost out...

The turn before the heroes were to open the door and affect the rescue I pretty much played any and all attack cards from my hand and actually managed to do a respectable nine damage! Which meant I only had to do three more to kill the cardinal and win. However, he was now free to move and if he managed to run too far my zombies (the only ones who could hurt him) would simply not be able to follow. My lieutenant and some cronies turned up at the exit but they were all killed. except for Lord Farrow. The cardinal made his way towards the exit but he lost one more wount to Disease and I managed to do another damage with a zombie, but alas he made it out alive with just one hit point left! Talk about a close fought game!

The heroes won and got the Staff of Light relic as a reward. Anders picked this up to use with his necromancer.

This quest felt a little different from many of the others simply because result of the first encounter made a big difference in the second. Had I managed to get three or four zombies off the board in the first encounter it would have been a cakewalk. Whereas none would have meant it was almost impossible for the Overlord to win. While all the quests are built with two encounters the result of the first usually don't influence the second to that degree.


Interlude - The Overlord Revealed

What it looked like after setup. The exit is at the far end and the paths 

with monsters in them have the different portals.

After playing three Act I quests it was time for the interlude and since I had won two of the Act I quests the Interlude was The Overlord Revealed. In it the heroes start in the middle of a dungeon with four paths. They would have to go down three of these paths and close portals there before I as the Overlord could pick up the Shadow Rune and bring it to the exit at the end of the fourth path.

The heroes spent the first couple of turns going to close the portal of strength, which would be the most difficult for them considering they are all physical weaklings! In a stroke of luck though, they managed to close it at the first attempt and killing the Ettin guarding it at the same time. However, while they were busy with this I rushed my goblins and barghest toward the Shadow Rune and lay my dirty paws on it by the second or third turn. Closing the first portal also allows my lieutenant, Baron Griegory, to enter play and he's quite powerful. He also carried the Shield of Zorek's Favour, that I had got during Death on the Wing, so any hero hitting him was likely to get three or four hits back in return!

Closing in on the Shadow Rune, with only Widow Tarha left to defend.

What followed was a rather drawn-out affair. This was easily the longest running quest for us, even though it's only one encounter. Basically I had the Shadow Rune and just needed to push through the heroes and two doors to win, while they still had to run off and close two more portals while still not letting me get out. I think the problem for them was that they didn't commit fully to closing the portals from the start, but rather was planning to take one at a time. Problem with this approach is that it takes too much time. If they had split up and tried to close one portal each they might have made it, but instead they were stuck at the fourth path trying to stop me getting out.

"Well Jim, Team Heroes are getting pushed back as Team Overlord is 

slowly grinding their way to the finish line"

"Indeed it is looking grim for Team Heroes, Bob, but you never know - a fumbled ball handling by the Overlords could result in a turnover giving the Heroes another chance"

"And that is why we love this sport so much, isn't it Jim? Never say never and all that!" 

It actually felt a little like playing Blood Bowl! I had the guy with the ball in the middle and a bunch of linemen  around him and the heroes were the enemy team trying to block my slow moving box of players. Of course I had a powerful star player in Baron Griegory and in the end he won me the day by getting out with the Shadow Rune.

I was actually a little sad that we didn't get to play the Shadow Vault interlude instead as I've heard that it's a lot of fun! Hopefully the heroes will do better in our next campaign and we'll get to try it.


Fourth quest - The Desecrated Tomb

"There, pretty as a picture... Aah! Zombies!"

The first quest of Act II! In the first encounter the heroes are searching for a map in an old tomb and they need to get it quickly and escape with it to win. The Overlord gets to spawn loads of zombies and simply have to try and keep the heroes occupied for as long as possible. If it takes eight or more turns for them to ge off the map with the map the Overlord wins. In the second encounter my lietuenant, Sir Alric Farrow, armed with the Duskblade is going to kill a powerful Shadow Dragon. The heroes have to take the sword from him and escape with it.

The first encounter was a lot of fun as it felt a bit like a zombie movie with new undead crawling out of the ground as fast as the heroes could put them down! As in virtually all of the quests in this second edition speed is critical and using monsters/heroes to block movement is often the best tactic.

They just keep popping up!

I managed fairly well as the heroes had to search several times before they found the map. I blocked their way back with rotting corpses and even managed to get a couple of them Diseased! They did manage to cut their way through in the end though and I think it took five turns for them all in all.

Because it took five turns at least Sir Farrow got to set up five spaces closer to his target, the dragon Khorayt. The way I saw it was this, if the heroes ever got hold of the sword they would win as there simply was no way for me to be able to catch them (especially not Jain!), so I used Dash on Farrow to get him to the dragon as quickly as possible and then I used an elemental to block the path to him. It took a turn or two for the heroes to deal with the elemental which allowed me to get a couple of solid hits in on Khorayt.

Brave, brave Sir Alric - racing to kill that nasty dragon. Pesky adventurers.

Hower, the dragon didn't just roll over but of course fought back to the best of its ability! Again the relic shield proved its worth as Farrow has high strength and sent four or five wounds back to whoever attacked him. When the heroes got past the elemental they started to attack Farrow while still staying out of reach of the shadow dragon. At the end of the heroes turn Micke actually managed to bring Farrow down using Jain's crossbow but as he works like a hero in this quest he could get back up and with a final blow he killed the mighty Khorayt, giving me the victory. This earned me the Duskblade relic and the option to always use Shadow Dragons in future quests if I wanted.

The penultimate turn I think. Farrow in the corner trying to bash the dragon's 

head in while being peppered by arrows from Jain.

I really liked this quest as the first encounter was zombie fun, and the second quite different with a big dragon to kill/save instead of just some magic trinket to get to. Both Micke and Claes thought the second encounter was impossible for the heroes (with the Shield of Zorek's Favour and all) but me and Anders both felt it was a close fight. I think they simply were a bit too involved to perhaps see the larger picture. Fact remains that they did down Sir Farrow. Had I been a little less lucky with that last dice roll of mine, or if they had had an un-activated hero left I think they would have won. Farrow wouldn't have survived another hit and, as I mentioned above, had they managed to pick up the sword it would have been game over for me.


Final thoughts

Another fun bout of dungeon crawling! It's now apparent that the majority of quests in this second edition are some variety of race. After a while this might start feeling a bit artificial I think, but on the other hand it makes for very tense, exciting games with an in-built timer mechanic. There's no wasted turns where the heroes or Overlord is simply dallying about. I for one think this was a good choice by the designers as it also keeps the play time down.

The Relics (which we didn't pay much attention to last time) are starting to really prove their worth and I wonder what would have happened if the heroes had got hold of them instead of me... *shudder*

I definitely enjoy being the Overlord but I wish there was some other experience/levelling mechanic besides buying cards for your Overlord deck. Now don't get me wrong, having the right cards at the right time can be both crucial and utterly hilarious, but it's not as exciting to buy two new cards that might turn up in the next quest, as it is to buy a new skill for your character allowing it to do new cool stuff every turn! However, I'm confident that there will be a expansion in the not too distant future that not only brings more quests and monsters but that also expands the entire campaign mechanic.

Anyway, goot times were had by all! We've actually already played another session, but I thought I'd keep things manegeable and still split them up into two.

Let me know if you have any questions or anything! :)

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Descent 2nd Ed. - First Impressions

After spending a week in Berlin (lovely city!) I got stuck back into gaming this past Saturday, getting to try out the new edition of Descent: Journeys in the Dark. Woo! While our group of gamers played the first edition a bit a few years ago we never really got that into it. While we enjoyed ourselves and generally had a good time, the game didn't engage us as much as we had hoped it would. Mostly I think the slow pace didn't fit us. Even when playing with Road to Legend and its shorter quest structure it would usually take an entire session just to get through one quest.

So when second edition was announced I was intrigued to see what FFG would make of it, but initally not all that interested. However as more and more previews was published my interest grew! It seemed like they had basically taken all the stuff that I didn't like about the first edition and either streamlined them or simply got rid of them altogether. Add to this more structured heroes with specific purposes, a built in campaign and a much more story driven gameplay and I was drooling over my keyboard. Not to mention that the miniatures looked better!

I won't go into the details of the rules as they're available for download anyway, but generally they've been revised and the game plays a lot smoother now. A lot of the small, nitty-gritty stuff has given way to ease of play. While some might be sad to hear this I think it's a great boon as it means the game will actually hit the table in my parts. You still have your basic stats and there are still power dice, monsters and Overlord cards but with the tighter ruleset (or looser, from a certain point of view).

My favourite part is the emphasis on the narrative though. Included in the box is a campaign called The Shadow Rune which is played in two acts with an interlude and a finale. You play three quests in each act and each quest consists of two encounters. Depending on which side won the quests in the first act different quests are available in the second. There's also a map showing the location of the quests with small travel icons where you have to draw special Travel Cards when you pass. While it is not as elaborate as the old Road to Legend expansion it's a lot more maneagable and the entire campaign shouldn't take more than 20 hours according to FFG. So lets have a look and see how our bold heroes fared...

I played with Anders, Micke and Claes - the same people who I played first edition with. They chose one character each, all from different archetypes. In this new edition there are four archetypes - Warrior, Scout, Mage and Healer - as well as two classes for each archetype. Anders picked the mage Widow Tarha and made her a Necromancer, Micke picked the scout Jain Fairwood and made her a Wildlander and Claes finally picked the healer Avric Albright and made him a Disciple. While this seemed like a good mix of characters (damage+damage+tank/healer) they didn't spend any time looking at their attributes which would come back and haunt them later.

While all the quest information in Descent is open to all the players and there are no secrets being kept by the Overlord I'm still going to warn readers about SPOILERS below.

Introduction Quest - First Blood

Unfortunately the Overlord goes last...

In this single encounter quest the heroes have to stop a gang of goblins from rushing into the tunnels beneath Arhynn by slaying their Ettin leader. I don't think we played for more than three or four turns before the Ettin had been killed! I had only managed to get two goblins of the map as Jain easily could pick them off at range while Tarha and Avbric finished off the Ettin. They managed to find some gold and a crossbow as well so generally a good quest for the heroes!

Naturally this is slanted in the heroes favour to give them a sporting chance to learn the system against the Overlord who most likely already does. It's a good scenario that introduces the race theme that is quite common in the second edition quests. Basically what you need to focus on are the objectives, the monsters are simply speed bumps. The Overlord also learns the importance of blocking the path and playing tactically but with an overall strategy in mind.

After the quest you play a Campaign Step where the heroes and Overlord get xp to buy abilities and you can spend gold for new stuff. Avric bought a sword and the other two bought a new ability each. I as the Overlord bought a new card allowing me to heal monsters.


First Quest - The Masquerade Ball

After some deliberating the heroes decided on The Masquerade Ball as their next quest. After an uneventful journey they discovered that a vampire and her evil minions had barged in on the ball and they had to escort all the guests out (well, particularly the lord but they didn't know what he looked like so... everyone) while the vampire wanted to do the same basically. The guests were represented by objective markers that the heroes could spend an action to unmask and then start escorting back to the entrance. The twist was that half of the guests were cultists that would stab the hero in the back!

This encounter only lasted for two turns I think as some lucky guest/cultist placement and some bad dice rolling from the heroes side allowed me to run off with all three guests. I think this encounter is fairly difficult for the heroes but it also depends a lot on where the real guests end up and the mobility of the party. They almost managed to block the exit where I needed to go, and had they succeeded it could have gone differently.

Eek! Spiders!

The second encounter in the quest took place in the catacombs beneath the castle where the heroes had to chase the vampire through a series of magically locked doors. To get through the doors you had to roll against either your Knowledge to simply teleport to the other side or your Awareness or Might to simply pick the lock or break the door down. If the heroes had won the first encounter the Vampire would be in the same boat, but since she had the kidnapped lord with her she could automatically teleport through. The heroes were in for a race!

At first they thought it seemed impossible from the get-go and Micke in particular talked about simply grabbing the loot and not even try to catch the vampire. However, nothing's ever impossible so they powered through! In the first little corridor were a bunch of cave spiders. They are small and not very powerful, but they can poison their victims. When poisoned you have to roll against your Might to get rid of it and since all of the heroes only had a score of 2 this proved a difficult task and the poison from the spiders would linger long after they were all squashed themselves!

And Barghest!

The vampire made her way through the doors and the heroes slowly followed. With low Might scores they didn't have much chance of breaking the doors. Their Knowledge scores were a little bit better but only allows for the hero rolling to teleport through. The best option seemed to be to have Jain pick the lock with her Awareness of 4 so that's what they did. Some Barghest in the second room slowed them down but after that they rolled well on the next couple of doors and it looked like they perhaps could catch up with the vampire! Unfortunately they ran straight into a Shadow Dragon. Tarha managed to sneak past him and towards the last door before the dragon blocked the corridor for the other heroes.

And a dragon! Raawr!

The vampire was in the last room where she had to roll to open the last magical door. I rolled badly and she simply stood there for several turns while the dragon kept Avric and Jain busy (knocking Jain out twice). Anders managed to go through the last door by way of teleportation and started attacking the vampire. She proved to be a tough cookie though who could suck life from her targets. She knocked out Tarha and kept trying to open the door. In the final couple of turns the heroes killed the dragon and rushed into the last room. They managed to shave a couple of life points off the vampire but then she finally opened the door and escaped! Victory to the Overlord!

I quite like this entire quest and although the second encounter looked like a walk-over for the Overlord it was actually tense all the way to the last turn! The heroes bought some more abilities and Avric got himself some chainmail. I bought another card.



Second Quest - Death on the Wing

We forgot that the winner is supposed to choose the next quest so the heroes went for Death on the Wing as their next target. They have to go to a nearby mine to see why the ore shipments are slow. This time there were some events during travel which netted me an extra Overlord card an put some fatigue on the heroes.

The Merriod simply provided speed bumparage. I would have liked a second one...

In the first encounter the heroes have to race through a tight ravine before it's being filled by boulders pushed down by the Overlord's minions. Just like the last encounter this looked really difficult and Micke almost lost hope! They first ran into a Merriod which I had been eager to try out. Basically it's some kind of fish-troll with long reach and the ability to immobilise its targets. There were also some cave spiders (poison!) in the ravine.

The heroes played well and quickly made their way past the Merriod and towards the ravine. The spiders poisoned the heroes but were then dispatched quickly. I had managed to block the ravine with two boulders but Anders rolled lucky against his Might and managed to smash one of them. This really put a spanner in the works for me and before I could do much they had all managed to run out the exit. Well, they deserved a win I suppose. Besides it's the second encounter that counts. :)

The Elemental guards the bridge while the Barghest are ready to rush in on the guards.

In the second encounter the heroes come upon the mining guard tower and have to kill the dragon hybrid lieutenant before he and his minions kill the remaining four guards. I had actually read about this quest on the forum and that it was hard for the Overlord. I brought some Barghest to kill the guards and an Elemental to deal with the heroes. The guards are pretty tough cookies though and after they had dispatched two of my three Barghest I realized that I would have to concentrate all my efforts on killing the guards to succeed.

Belthir the dragon hybrid and the Elemental both raced back towards the guard tower and together they managed to dispatch the guards before the heroes could kill Belthir. Contrary to what it said on the forums I think this encounter might be easier for the Overlord - as long as you keep your objectives in sight!

We decided to pack it in after this quest, but there's only one more to go until the Interlude and act II! :D


Final Thoughts

We all had a good time with the game and were all surprised that the managed to get through three quests (five encounters) in about as many hours, including setup rules explanation and pizza break. I don't think any of us ever felt bogged down or that things moved slowly, instead it was pretty much non-stop action from the start. I much prefer the smaller encounter format and having two making up a quest allows for some nice narrative twists and pros/cons depending on who won. Not to mention a change of scenery.

I'm eager to play again and I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of expansions FFG will put out for this new Descent. Having smaller card/tile based expansions with a quest in it as well as larger boxed expansions with more monsters is the way to go I think. We'll see.

Anyway, that's my first impressions and first session of Descent 2nd Ed. Just let me know in the comments if you have any questions! :)

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