Tannhauser

So, I was really excited to hear yesterday that Guardian Games went up to the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle and met up with the folks from Fantasy Flight Games. While there, they managed to get a pre-release copy of Tannhauser!
Of course, since I'm so awesome, they let me open it and play with it today. I read through all the rules, punched everything, and played with the minis some while drooling on the board, but I didn't actually get it out to play yet.
My first impression is that you guys might not like it, as it is basically a tactical squad-level minis combat game that takes place on a board. It is basically a two-player game, with each player controlling a team of five characters. There are a few different ways to play the game, such as a standard deathmatch mode, a story mode with missions, and a capture-the-flag mode. The system is designed to be totally expandable, with many expansions already planned, with new boards, missions, characters/minis, and equipment.
I don't have time for more details right now, but I will say that it is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. The artwork is incredible. The minis come pre-painted, and are the same size and quality of the Marvel Heroes game(which are really nice, even though the game isn't liked by all).

Anyway... I can't wait until I can buy my own!

Showdown on the Strip

So, I recently bought Vegas Showdown and really wanted to try it out. The game calls for 3-5 players but sometimes it's just hard to get three people together. So, I checked out the variants on BGG and sure enough found a link to an official 2-player variant on the Avalon Hill website. Sweet!

Anyway, Becki and I decided to try it out Sunday night and let me tell you it was awesome! The game uses a dummy player that bids on slots and premier rooms every turn. The dummy players bid is determined by a dice roll so there seems to be an increased luck factor which leads to some frustration (Becki was outbid by the dummy several times). Despite the luck we still enjoyed it a lot and actually played it again on Monday. Becki smoked me both times so I'm really looking forward to another showdown so I can attempt to show her up!

Ticket to Ride (Mini) Session Report

I had a chance to play Ticket to ride with Heather, Cruise Irene, and Chruise Irene's friend. I used my usual 'hoard the cards' strategy and it payed off nicely. I had two fairly short and heavily overlapping routes, so I just kept drawing cards for the first 2/3 of the game, ignoring all the comments about how I had half the deck in my hand. Then I looked at what I had and plopped down the longest possible route that touched all my cities. Tried to stick to 4, 5 or 6 routes. It worked perfectly and I went home with the big W. No,... not Dubya,... the big W, as in win.

I had a little scare about half way in that caused me to act prematurely. Heater hadn't dumped all her train pieces out and I thought she only had 5 left. I was like "Oy!" and started laying routes like crazy, only to discover that she had another 20 trains left after the 5. This caused me to run out of cards before I ran out of trains. It still worked out in the end, though.

Are you battle-ready?

Alright.... I succumbed to months of desire and had Guardian Games order me a copy of BattleStations, which I just picked up today...

It's a boardgame role-playing experience unlike any other(if you're to believe what I've read). The players all create their own characters, and build a spaceship from all sorts of available modules(e.g. rooms such as Engine Room, Teleporter, Helm, etc.).

The modules form a floorplan of the ship, which is the board the characters move around on. Then there is another board which is a hex-grid of outer space, upon which the ship counter moves around. The team has to work cooperatively to operate the ship and complete missions.

Do you let go of the controls to return fire on the alien life form who has beamed itself into your location and is shooting his lasergun at you?

Please read more at the link above to BoardGameGeek.com, and get psyched, because I want to try it soon!

Howdy There Pardners!

Welcome to the official blog of Blue Lake Playahs!! This blog will be the home for things such as session reports (not necessarily exclusive to the Blue Lake Playahs gaming group), pictures, thoughts, upcoming events, and other babblings as we all see fit. This blog is an attempt to become organized (heh!) and hopefully stop the speeding roller coaster wisping us speedily down the track to loserdome. We might be geeks but we refuse to be losers!

Stay tuned for more geekiness!!!