It’s autumn here in the northern midwest [it’s autumn everywhere north of the equator, you idiot -ed.] and we’re getting our last batch of sun-filled days cool enough to comfortably wear a sweatshirt, yet warm enough that you can sit outside and not converse through chattering teeth. As such, I’ve decided to take this afternoon off and go hang out with my kids when they get home from school. What will we do? No idea, but I assume it will involve jumping and leaf piles.
Why am I telling you all this? Because it appears the Stately Staff is doing the same. We’re awfully light on glimpses into the future this week, but we’ll give you what we got. Just a warning, I’m dying to get out there and enjoy the weather, so we might be light on links, too. Yep, it’s a full-blown disaster of a post. Huzzah!
Have a good weekend, everyone!
Beast Quest (for the little Rinellas) and a bunch of other stuff
Cthulhu Wars (and Age of War, but that’s just to have a new restaurant game) is arriving today from Miniature Market, so I’ll be spending the weekend wishing I weren’t saving that to be a Christmas present for my daughter. Hey, I have a ten-year-old daughter who wants the game, so a little patience seems not too much to ask.
I think I might be about Destiny 2ed out, and my son will be on the PS4 as often as we’ll let him this weekend playing the Beast Quest game. I almost feel bad for buying it for him, it’s so terrible, but he clearly loves it. So I’m planning on getting West of Loathing for the Switch. The Valley of the Ancients expansion for Ascension is still bringing me all kinds of joy on iOS, picross keeps whiling away the minutes, and I finally managed to finish a secret room in Cinco Paus, so I’m pretty satisfied with the classics there.
-Kelsey Rinella
Fort Sumter and Arkwright
Volleyball season wraps up this weekend (volleyball free for only a couple weeks then club volleyball revs back up), so I won’t be getting a lot of gaming in between tournaments, team parties, etc. Luckily, however, tonight is free and my gaming buddy asked me over to play Fort Sumter from GMT (you can find a very well written review by our resident Whovian here). I picked it up about a month ago, but getting 2-player games to the table is always a chore so it has sat, untouched, until tonight. I soloed it a few times to get the (rather simple) rules down, so it should be smooth sailing when we throw it down on the table.
I’m also taking the behemoth Arkwright with me. If you’re not familiar, Arkwright is a heavy economic euro set at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. When I say “heavy”, I mean both in complexity and poundage. It contains at copse load of cardboard chits and chunky wooden cubes and some of the most inscrutable rules I’ve ever had the misfortune to lay eyes on. Thankfully, the folks at Heavy Cardboard did a playthrough and I watched enough to get my bearings. Tonight we won’t play the game, but I’m going to teach it to my friend so when we have the entire gang together we can tag-team the daunting teaching duties together. We’ll see how that goes when we get there.
-Dave Neumann
@Neumannium Let is know how Fort Sumpter goes! I’m very interested in picking it up.
This weekend, I’ll be playing Diablo 3. Maybe. See, I’ve got this little thing called Dead Cells and I’m terrible at it, but I’m finally getting strong enough through grinding that I keep getting a little further and finding new secrets each run. So just one more run. Then Diablo. Or maybe another Dead Cells run…
The group I’ve just met had a game of Arkwright. Their final photo of the board showed an old school calculator at the table! apparently useful for adding up and multiplying the victory points
Cool! I hope you enjoy Fort Sumter, and thank you for the link.
Let me know how it goes.
I have a hockey game tonight and then a bit of a road trip tomorrow, but I’ve been playing a lot of One Deck Dungeon lately, so that will probably get played tonight and tomorrow night.
Not to mention finally getting an online game of Terraforming Mars started. Yay, us!
iOS: Marvel Strike Force - my defenders team is now 4/5 G11 and starting to really shine. The journey to 7* will be a long one. But I am happy this is the team I will take high.
PC: pathfinder kingmaker - I have just unlocked the kingdom building aspect. Playing it on the “easy” combat mode - 0.4x hp I think. Almost too easy so might have to bump that up.
Oh, and thinking of getting a new tv to replace my 40” Sony from 10 years ago. A 65” Sony - about $1800. Seems like a good deal? I know nothing about tvs…
iOS - Star Realms, Marvel Strike Force and Solgard.
Also I have Stardew Valley now, as I have 3 hours spread out over the weekend when my 6yo is in swimming lessons, piano lessons, art class and Tai Kwon Do, and I am bored of what I have on my iPad when I have no wifi (I don’t have wifi iPad obvs.)
Mac - Last weekend I started Battle Chasers: Nightwar and was loving it. I only got a few hours into it though, and did not have time to play during the week. So hoping to find some time this weekend.
US Dollars? We got a 65” Samsung about a year ago for $1,000. I know there is a lot more that goes into a TV than just the size, but whatever technology makes a TV at the same size “better” than another is completely lost on my eyes and my capabilities anyways. Also keep in mind that Black Friday deals are just around the corner.
This is how you know they had fun. I can’t remember the last time I gamed where we didn’t need a calculator as the game wore on. My friend actually got some deal on amazon for a dozen cheap calculators and put one inside every one of his 18xx games.
For $1800 it might be OLED? Actually, I think those would be even more expensive. I don’t know, I haven’t bought a TV in so long that I’m way behind the curve on tech.
We also have a 65" Samsung that I think we got for about $1200 a year and a half ago and I am pretty happy with it. My only complaint is the occasional ad in the smart menu.
Probably Vampire: the Masquerade Bloodlines. Man, I wish my friends in college had been into Vampire instead of DnD. Would have been cool.
Valkyria Chronicles 4, Terraforming Mars, Obsession, Arctic Scavengers, and Sniper Elite 4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv_2dJMr9fwCalculators and flow charts. We know how to party!
Let me know how Sniper Elite 4 goes. Good old Rebellion.
Aussie dollars, sorry!
You’re over in Aussie Bael? I didn’t know. If ever, for some godforsaken reason, you find yourself in Christchurch New Zealand then let me know. I could probably find us a board game group every night of the week at this rate. It’s a super long shot but I’m in Perth in January if you’re a WA miner and looking for a game.
I am certainly a WA Miner that lives in Perth
Ios: Marvel Strike Force, completing my last game of the Star Realms league.
PS4: Continue Valkyria Chronicles 1, which I finally started this week
Cardboard: undecided yet, either Terraforming Mars or the newly revived Horizons from Kickstarter.
Somehow my friend and I just couldn’t get into Fort Sumter, even if we’re both big ACW games fans. We found it to be a pale copy of 13 minutes.
Really quite good. Somewhat realistic rifle ballistics combined with Hollywood sensibilities. So trucks go up like napalm soaked in petrol with one well-placed bullet, but you have to adjust for bullet drop (they’ve included range presets for 0-500 metres this time, which is ace) and windage (no scope setting, you just have to do it by eye), and I think the wind is merely a uniform value across whatever the range is, rather than a varying one regardless of where your bullet travels. The bullet cams are gorier than ever. The level design is accomplished, you’ve got plenty of opportunity for sneaking, long range shooting, and setting traps throughout environments that are more intricate than they look.
iOS:Starting a Darkest Dungeon run on the Stately Estate next. I’m trying OSRS to see if it’s up my alley or not (almost certainly not - I don’t have the time). More coding, art and music.
Switch: I’m cruising into HR6 with Valor HH on MHGU. I’m getting some help because my armor isn’t up to snuff. I need to finish off Village 7* somtime as well. Some Enter the Gungeon, some other stuff. Preordered SSBU.