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So, a few weeks ago, I picked up a copy of Space Hulk, (Games Workshop) at Mid South Game Center. It’s a really good game, but unfortunately, Games Workshop is a miniature company, not a gaming company. So you can’t just open the box and play the game. It took hours to cut the mini’s off the sprues and put them together to make the game playable.

Of course, GW actually expects most people to paint them. And, if you have been following my twitter feed at all, (or facebook, since it propagates to there too), you know that for the past couple of days I’ve started doing just that. The first night, I only painted one, (the dead one) then last night I painted three more, tonight, I ‘dipped’ them.

They haven’t dried yet, but I went ahead and took some pictures.

You should note, I hate painting, I haven’t done it since high school, I don’t have the time or the patience to do it, but I wanted something more than just the red and blue on the game board, and since this seems to give fast and descent results, then that’s what I’m going with. I don’t care if you like them or not. I think they are pretty good, I will not spend more than about 20 minutes per model dropping the base coat on. I don’t think my time is worth it, for the amount of enjoyment I get out of the game.

Anyway, I’ll keep the album up to date, of course, in a few days, I’ll hit them with the Dull Cote to take off the shine, but that’s essentially what they are going to look like. Perfectly playable, but really under the macro lens, it really shows some flaws, (More than I can see when I look at them from arms length, (which is where they will mostly be viewed from during play.)

written by Chris \\ tags: Games Workshop, Mid-South Game Center, miniatures, painting, Space Hulk

My gods. I’ve never been more frustrated with a game than I am currently with Space Hulk. Allow me to explain:

Before two weeks ago, I had never played Space Hulk before. But I had always thought, that’s not my kind of game. I don’t think I would like it. It’s a big luck driven dice fest.

Well, I judged a book by its cover. Space Hulk has some dice and luck in it true. But it’s more a puzzle movement type of thing. And there are many good decisions to be made, (at least when you are playing with the space marines). It is not at all what I thought it was, and for that, I am glad because I absolutely love it. It actually feels like Aliens (which come on GW, that’s what this game really is isn’t it…).

So, yeah, it’s fun. I had played a couple of weeks ago, a game made by a new gamer here in Oxford. The new guy (CA) introduced me to the game, and we played three games of it that night (It’s also a pretty darn fast game.) This happened to be only a week before GW decided to go on and rerelease it in a 20th anniversary form.

So, strike one. I actually liked the game a lot more than I thought I would. Strike two. It is coming out in a week. Strike three, it’s freaking beautiful…

Of course, all this comes at a price. $100 bucks for the game, though the components are nice, and a game is worth $200 to me if it gets played enough. I just look at it as 8-10 trips to the movies, or 2 trips to the golf course, none of which give me the hours of entertainment I would get out of a board game that hit the table a reasonable number of times. So when I went up to Mid-south Game Center last week, I went ahead and picked up a copy of it.

I’m happy. But now, I have to put it together. And this is no small feat. All the miniatures (45 of them) come on sprues and have to be trimmed, cleaned, and glued together. And of course, minis that look this good will probably require me to put some kind of paint job on them. I think I’m going to go with the quickie minwax paint jobs though.

written by Chris \\ tags: Boardgames, Mid-South Game Center, Oxford, Oxford MS, Space Hulk

I’ve felt so weird lately. I have not been at all enthusiastic about gaming nearly as much lately as I used to be.

Case in point. This past Saturday, Valerie and Olivia went down to Alabama recuriting. This meant that I was alone on Saturday with Sarah. It happened to be the third Saturday of the month. So I figured I would take her up to Mid South Game Center in Memphis Tennessee to go play Pokemon. When I promised to do this, I thought I would be excited about it too.

Well, when Saturday morning came around. I wasn’t excited. I went into my game room and started looking at the shelves, and didn’t see anything at all that I wanted to play. Eventually I ended up taking Reef Encounter, Through the Desert, and Kings Breakfast. These were the only games I thought i might mildly have an interest in playing that day.

Well, when I arrived, I flat out didn’t really want to play any of those either. I kinda wanted to play some war something or another, so we borrowed the demo copy of Small World and set it up. I don’t want to get into a review, or a session report about what I played. But I will say I enjoyed Small World, and would try it again for sure, but I’m not sure if it’s something I really want in my collection. But I digress.

Afterward I still felt all blah. Not knowing what to play. I played several things that day, half enjoying myself for the most part. But the straw that broke the camels back was another game of Stone Age.

It’s official. I don’t like that game at all. There is no fun in it. It’s same old same old. I don’t care about who wins when I play it. It’s meh…

It made me think though. I don’t care who wins most of the time.

So tonight is game night too, and I asked a friend what he wanted to play. And secretly I’m hoping he’ll say Hammer of the Scots, or Hannibal, or Twilight Struggle or something, and I’m thinking to myself, if he doesn’t say one of those things. I’d rather sit at home and play Sid Meier’s Pirates instead.

written by Chris \\ tags: Boardgames, Memphis, Mid-South Game Center, OSBG, Pirates, Pokemon, Sarah, Sid Meier, Wargames

So, this past Saturday was the first Saturday where I took Sarah to the Pokemon League in Memphis at the Mid South Game Center.

Of course, I picked this past Saturday because it corresponds to the same Saturday where the MSBGC happens to meet at the same store for their regular Monthly Memphis Game Day.

So, I figured she could stay in the front of the store playing Pokemon, whereas I could be lurking toward the back of the store playing board games.

It was a very friendly place, there were about 6 or 7 Pokemon players, and she had a blast. She signed up for their league where every game they earn points toward getting free cards and eventually they can get their Poke Badge… Now I’m not sure exactly what that is, but I do know that she seems determined to get it.

It’s interesting. I watched a couple of her games… The game isn’t all that compelling. Magic has much better decisions, but I suppose the cards aren’t nearly as cute. Which would be the reason that Pokemon is probably more popular among the kids.

Now, as for me. I finally managed to play Le Havre. I had really wanted to play this game during BGG.con this past year, but I never managed to get myself over to the table where it was being played at the right time. It does look interesting and it’s the same Designer as Agricola, which is a game I very much enjoy.

Well, my take, is it’s another optimization worker placement type game, along the same lines as Agricola. But it has less luck, since the card deck is available to all the players, rather than just the individual player. Other than that, optimize your actions of which you have more you need to do, than you have time to do them.

It was very good. I still think that I like Agricola more. Mainly because I kind of like the luck. There are so many cards in Agricola, that each game your strategies must change depending upon your hand. Le Havre doesn’t have that. Since you use the same base building deck in every game, You will pretty much be able to follow similar strategies in any game. There is a small bit of randomness in the distribution of the buildings, and the dock tiles, but they will always all be there.

And Le Havre kind of seemed more dry to me than Agricola, still, again, I liked it and would play it again. I might even purchase it if it wasn’t so freaking much money to try to get a copy here in the United States.

Other than that, I played a little bit more Manoeuvre, a game I’m very quickly loving more and more and more. And I played a quick game of Ghost Stories as well. Which we lost. I think I’m currently 1 for 8 playing Ghost stories when played with the correct rules.

written by Chris \\ tags: Boardgames, Mid-South Game Center, MSBGC, Pokemon, Sarah

I took Sarah a couple of weekends ago to the Mid South Game Center. in Memphis. She had cleaned her room at my request without too much complaining, and Olivia had not. So I wanted to do something nice for her.

Anyway. We went up to Memphis to goof around and shop. And I pulled in here. Sarah, for some reason loves Pokemon. I don’t know why. She just does. She has a few cards, and I’ve played the “training” type game (30 card decks) with her a few times. But I got her a diamond/pearl starter, and she spent some of her own money for some other cards.

Then, we spent an evening creating a 60 card deck for her out of what she has. I haven’t played that much Pokemon, so I don’t know all the finer points. So I’m sure it’s not that great. Plus we had a limited card supply, but the point was, we kind of had fun with it. Her trying to put in all her most powerful pokemon, and me trying to prevent her from doing so because they would be too hard to play in a game situation.

Mid South Game Center apparently has Pokemon going on pretty much all day every Saturday. So I’ve decided the next time there is a Memphis Strategy Board Gamers Session there (third Saturday of every month) I’ll go ahead and take her. She can play Pokemon for a few hours, and maybe learn a bit more about the game, and I can watch her, and maybe play a boardgame or two.

written by Chris \\ tags: Boardgames, Mid-South Game Center, Pokemon, Sarah