Sunless Sea: Everything is Calm Until You Die

I was searching out some games as Christmas gifts for my brother, which happened to be during the Steam Halloween sale.
I had heard decent things about Sunless Sea, and it was cheap so I picked it up as an extra gift for my bro on top of the other games I got him.

Then the sleepless nights begin:  Will he like it?  Is it fun?  What the heck is it even?

Walk to PC, go to gift holding queue on Steam, download to self.

Then the addiction begins.

Sunless Sea premise:  in the 1800's, the city of London was stolen by bats (apparently this happens).  London was taken to the depths of the Unterzee, a dark subsea area where apparently there is some bubble of air, like a giant underground lake or something.

None of that matters.  There's no sun.  It's dark.  It's scary.  And it's called the Unterzee.

Welcome to Fallen London.  This is as lively as it gets.

You start off with a small boat, some crew, a tiny amount of fuel, supplies and money, and the warning that your first Zee Captain will probably die.

The game itself is mostly story-driven, with you exploring the Unterzee and filling out your map while visiting the new ports you discover and advancing storylines there.  Some stories are fast deliveries (deliver this stone to here, drop this person off), some are self contained on an island (talk to all these people, learn some things, watch the mansion burn down), and some are longer stories (discover the secrets behind your first officer's unknown past).

The scholar likes weird things from far away islands.  He pays well sometimes for curiosities.  And cool stories.

You can also try to do some trade, those the benefits are minimal (making a couple of Echoes (money) per bottle of wine you ship minus the cost of fuel and supplies to get there is incredibly barely hardly profitable).

You need fuel and supplies to survive.  Collect other cargo and curiosities to trade or advance storylines.  Try not to die.

Basically you'll be doing a lot of the same:  buy fuel and supplies in Fallen London, go out to sea and explore, and return to Fallen London before you run out of fuel or supplies or you go crazy from the Terror you build up out at Zee.  You get some of your money from either selling rare items you find, but most of it comes from visiting islands, gathering news there, and selling it back home for cash, which you use to buy more fuel and supplies and go out again!

Yet somehow this is incredibly fun.  A mix of relaxing boat driving and exploring the curious nature of sometimes wacky story lines of the Unterzee.  I love to say "Unterzee."

The many paths to fame, fortune, and weird stories begin in Fallen London

I discovered Mutton Island!  There's nothing there except a pub and some crazy people.

All seems simple and well and relaxing...but the Unterzee is trying to kill you.

At some islands, you may run into thieves, murderers, cannibalistic cults, dark cellars that are super scary, etc.  You'll be lucky to escape with all your money, crew, and sanity.

Things are scary.  Nightmares.

Lots of the story elements rely on D&D type rolls or something.  Basically you have attributes which you can build over the game, and can be augmented by the Officers you recruit to your ship.  Veils help you avoid being detected by pirates and Zee-beasts at Zee, while also helping your success percentages in rolls involving sneaking around places on islands where you shouldn't be.  Iron deals with boat to boat combat damage as well as story tasks involving brute force.  There are also Mirrors, Hearts, and Pages that all do stuff too.

As you get further from London, there's a lot of empty space.  The Zee is vast and dark...

Sometimes an enemy ship will pop up.  You can hide with high Veil numbers and by shutting off you boat lights.  Dodging line of sight around little islands and in fog can help too.

They can see me.  Everything is fine.

You spend a lot of early game hiding/dodging enemy boats and Zee beasts (the Zee bats are weak but incredibly persistent).

But sometimes you'll get caught.

You can stand a fight, where you get them in your sights and build up a meter which after a time (determined by your Mirrors level) can shoot at them.  

Or you can run.  Put your boats engine into overdrive for a speed boost to escape.  You might get away.  Or your engine might explode and bust up your boat's hull.  Zee beasts ramming you, crashing into rocks, and enemy boat guns also damage your hull.  It can be repaired (at a price) but once your hull is reduced to zero you drown.  Your captain is dead and you start anew.

On that point, you are supposed to die, especially your first game.  After each death, you leave a Legacy behind, passing on some things to your successor.  It's a small consolation.

Also the islands drift around after every death so your map needs complete reexploring!  Fun.  Tedious?  Maybe but for some reason I keep doing it.

My first Zee captain took too much hull damage from Zee-bats and my boat sank and he drowned.

My second Zee captain (after being unable to fufill the wishes of the Demonic Santa Clause creature Mr. Sacks and barely escaping his wrath with my soul), spent too much time in a dark basement and gained too much Terror leading to his crew going mad, a mutiny, and his murder.  Sad too, he had down some exploration, had a good business relationship with the London Scholar, was having a bit of a tryst with one of his officers, and had bought a nice personal lodging back home.  Oh well...

My third Zee captain got shot down by pirates after about only 30 minutes of play and no accomplishments.

My fourth Zee captain is ongoing.  He is bound for success, with the name Captain Smushyface.  His goal, amongst the other general game elements, is to discover the secrets behind the disappearance of his father at Zee.  He's got a nice upgraded boat, solid income, and is working on some foreign relations right now.  He is bound for glory....or an untimely death at the hands of a rock monster.  Who knows?

The temporary safety of returning home...

On the PC

New job, new city.  And no place around here to really play board games.  There is a store I checked out nearby, but they play terrible games.  I'm a boardgame snob and not ashamed.

There is also a boardgame cafe, but it's an hour away and you have to pay for play space.  I may check it out at some point but I don't like the idea.

So most of my free time right now is alone at my computer watching or playing computer games. Here's what I've been up to:

League of Legends.  

Very popular game.  Very difficult game.

I really appreciate the skill required to be good at LoL.  I love watching major matches (Worlds, anyone?) when I can.

For me, the game is more fun to watch than play.  I get a good idea of what I'm supposed to be doing from watching the pros, but they really do make it look easy.  Mix in the fact that LoL has one of if not the most brutal online gaming environments out there in terms of harassment, and I don't play much.

I threw some games out there for screenshots today though.  I played a game on Jinx because she's the first character I ever played and shoots stuff.

Another free-to-play hero this week is Kennen, who is a ninja.  Ninjas are cool.  Ninja with lightning is cooler.  Zap zap!

The pictures are uninspiring because action shots require too much coordination without dying.

Anyway, I'm terrible at the game.  I like to mess around with characters with fun abilities against A.I. but I don't play enough to be serious.

I've spent tons of time watching pro matches and that's good enough for me.

Heroes of the Storm.

With all that being said, I do like the style of game.  Heroes of the Storm is Blizzard's version of LoL.  It's quite simplified.  No gold, no items, no last-hitting.  All that matters is soaking up experience as a team an picking up ability boosters or skills every few levels.
Is that better than LoL?  Not from a "is this game better" standpoint, but for someone who is terrible it simplifies things.

In fact, I haven't been doing too badly.  The game is more brawl like, with very important objectives that force team fights early and often.  For me, it's more fun to play.

And the best part is no one has gone nuts at anybody in chat for playing badly in the games I've played so far.  In competitive mode I expect more of that, but in basic games I've seen none.  HUGE plus for me.  I don't like being yelled at.

My favorite character right now is Valla, a full attack assassin character who shoots arrows fast.

I may get into HoTS more seriously as I play more.  Hopefully I can get good enough.

Overwatch

I've been playing Overwatch since the open beta.  I'm on board.  Rather than the other two games which is straight up MOBAs, Overwatch combines the online battle arena with first person shooter and a super fast pace.

I've logged a lot of time on Lucio, a speed boosting, shield-giving, area of effect healing roller blade dude.  Mostly at the beginning I played him because of a general refusal of random internet teammates to play anyone but damage dealers.  Now I've logged enough time on him to where I feel like I know what I'm doing.

There's (mostly) very little harassment in this game's quickplay as well though sometimes there an outlier who doesn't understand that "quick play" means "not serious" and forgets that games are supposed to be fun.
I've even played competitive mode and the toxicity there is pretty minimal as well it seems.  Good.

Overwatch is solid and I can fit in a few games here and there without a huge time commitment.

I have an antivirus update.  Always bothers me in the middle of a game even though I set it to stop doing that.  It's a jerk.

I need to start playing some of my solo board games at the very least.  I miss the feel of cubes and meeples.

Moving and Exploring

Hey all!

I moved!  For work.  It's been stressful, but I'm finally settling in to my new apartment in the middle of nowhere Connecticut.

That means exploring!

But first things first, gotta get my apartment in order.

Got the game shelf set up!

 

 

 

 

Game shelf.  Pika and Charmander on the side.

And I set up a space for my gaming PC.  Made a desk out of some sheets of MDF and two IKEA dressers.  It's nice and big!

Computer station

Then Totoro had to get settled in:

 

And Panda squishable found a happy home in the big closet:

 

Well, that was pretty much everything important.  I also built a bunch of IKEA furniture.  It's surprisingly nice.  The couch is quite comfy.  It passes the afternoon nap test.

With most things set up, I set out to explore the area!

Games stores!

The first store I visited was called the Citadel Game Cellar.  It is literally in a basement.  It looks like an unfinished basement, has dim lighting, smells a little musty. 

But there are shelves and shelves of board games (and miniatures and RPG books too).  Lots of the modern games as well as some oldies that are out of print. 

If I'm looking for a place to search out a treasure of an out of print game, this would probably be the place.  The environment isn't really for me, but I'll check out what kind of gaming events they have and will probably be back for on of those.  They just got a new owner, let's see what happens with this place.

(I didn't take any pictures.  It was really dark)

The next store I visited was the Toy Vault at the nearby mall.  T

The Toy Vault is mostly a small comic shop.

They also had some action figures!

Really brawny plastic men.

No board games though.  I checked it out as a potential place to play Friday Night Magic.  It's small.  We'll see how it is.

The store I'm most excited about is Ice Imports.  Also in the mall, this place is a weird mix of fantasy weapons and Magic the Gathering.  No board games here either.

But the store is very clean and quite nice.  It is split down the middle.
On the left of the entrance is the fantasy weapon and trinket side.  It has a dark light kind of ambiance, lots of blue feelings.

I saw swords!

 

I saw knives!

I saw rocks!

The other side of the store is for Magic the Gathering, with tables set and a separate counter for buying and selling cards.  There's even a big screen TV that streams MTG players and tournaments and the like.

They have a solid calendar of events.

And a a convenient buylist.

Overall, this place seems like a great, clean, bright place to play.  I'm going to try this one out for FNM first!

And Zelda!

Finally, I found a legit pizza place, called The Rolling Tomato.  Brick ovens, bubbly cheese, really good.  I will be back there.

Food Break: Fresh and Spicy and Smoky Chicken Tacos

I haven't really played a lot of games lately.  I've been mostly stressing about my professional life, finishing up things so I can move on to bigger and better things.  Then blowing off steam playing Magic the Gathering every Friday night.  Not really a whole lot of my game-playing friends are left in town, and I too will be moving on soon.

One thing I still have to do is eat.  And I LOVE TACOS! 
Seriously, I make them in some form or another every other week.  Homemade tacos are pretty great.

I thought I'd share a recipe for spicy shredded chicken tacos with you.  It's one of my favorites now.  Sadly, it's very time consuming to do it right.  Took me about 2 hours to makes these, but totally worth it.

As a warning, I don't cook with measurements.  I just add stuff in amounts that seem about right.  This isn't baking.  Exact amounts don't matter.  As long as you don't go overboard on things like salt or spicy things, you can always adjust later.

I started out with some chicken thighs.  Amount: Some.

Chicken thighs I find have a deeper flavor, stay moist, and stew better than chicken breasts.  Also, they are cheap.  That might be the real reason I used them. 

I browned them up in a cast iron skillet with a little oil after seasoning them well with salt and pepper.  Cast iron skillets are cool.  In the "awesome" sense.  They actually get pretty hot.

Sizzle.

Sizzle sizzle.

I didn't fully cook the chicken at this point, because it's going to finish up later.

Then I removed the chicken and scraped up the delicious chickeny bits in the pan so they wouldn't burn but still let them float around in the pan because they are flavory bits.  

Next, I threw in a couple tomatoes and husked tomatillos.  Tomatoes are tomatoey, as one would expect from tomatoes.  Tomatillos, however, add a fresh, tart acidity to the tacos which will brighten your day, I swear.

 

Then gotten let those tomatoes and their tart green cousins get all toasty and blistered and a little soft.

 

Followed the softened veggies (maybe fruits?  I dunno really) with some chopped onions, chopped garlic, dried cascabel chilis, dried arbol chilis, chipotle powder, and dried oregano.

You could imagine using any peppers you want, though I wouldn't skip on the chipotle, powdered or canned or fresh doesn't matter so much as long as that smokey pepper dude wiggles its flavor into there somehow.

Also, I probably should've taken the seeds out from the dried peppers.  I'm okay with really spicy, but not everyone is and these were pushing it. 

Once things got all soft and toasty, I added the chicken back in and filled up the pan almost covering everything with low sodium chicken stock and a couple splashes of red wine vinegar.

 

Cooked on medium-ish heat or something.  Until the chicken was fully cooked.

Then I removed the chicken once again, and shredded it up.

And now the wait begins.  Continued bubbling the stock and veggies until everything reduced down to thick and almost goopy.

 

This took quite a while.  I was hungry.  Chips and salsa to hold off the tummy growls!

Got the little bowls at Crate and Barrel.  Love that place.  And the bowls are super cute.

 

Then things got fun again.  Once the sauce was thick and reduced, I threw it in my blender to grind up all the chunks into a smoother, thicker sauce.  With minor chunks.

 

Finally, I threw in the shredded chicken and mixed it all up.  Yum yum!

 

Served with cheese and cilantro and some lime juice squeeze on corn tortillas.

I added some sour cream on my second helping.

 

Then I had more for lunch again the next day.  And the next day.  Delicious every day.

I HIGHLY recommend these tacos if you are a taco person who likes tacos.  Go make and eat some tacos, next time you are in the mood for tacos.

One Game To Rule Them All?: War of the Ring

I gave my brother War of the Ring for Christmas.  He likes Risk-like games (see Shogun, it's fabulous), and Lord of the Rings, and this game has great reviews as being the quintessential LOTR game and a great 2 players game.  Seems legit.

In the game, one side plays Sauron's forces, the other side plays the humans, elves, dwarves and the Fellowship of the Ring.

The game board is actually 2 boards.  And setting up the board the first time took about an hour.  And another hour to read the rules.  This isn't for the light-hearted.  It's a pretty epic game, as could be expected of epic fantasy.

The good guys win if they take over enough enemy strongholds, or if the Fellowship can get the ring to Mount Doom.
The bad guys win if the ring-bearers get corrupted by the ring, or if they take over enough strongholds.

While the plastic units are kinda tacky, the rest of the board and pieces are really sweet.

Panda-orama View.

Sweet dice.

The game is mostly a move troops, roll dice kind of game, but with a number of more euro-y elements.  You rolls dice at the beginning of your turn to take actions with them.  These include moving troops, recruiting troops, drawing or playing special cards, and other things.  There are a lot of things to do.
Each side has their own cards. They do things, either during main turn actions or during combat.  Very often the titles and resulting effects tie in thematically with the LOTR storyline. (Like "Here Come the Eagles"  or "Awaken the Ents" or something).
The bad guy cards seem to be more troop recruiting and fighting oriented.

 

Each side also has character cards, which show special abilities, movement, and combat abilities if these characters are around.

 

 

The Fellowship gets a lot of characters.  They can travel together, in which case you can use them as "Guides" which is a special power for leading the fellowship, or they sacrifice their lives to help prevent the ring-bearers from being corrupted.  They can also split off from the Fellowship to help in battles elsewhere or recruit armies to the war effort.

Fellowship Characters

By the way, if you split everyone off from the Fellowship, Gollum becomes your guide.  He helps you sneakses into Mordor.  Yessssss...  Helps the master...

GOLLUM!

 The Fellowship starts in Rivendell.  Very thematic.

The game also has a bunch of tracks, very euro-like in that regard I suppose.

Military Victory Point Track

The military point track shows one way to win.  If the bad guys get enough strongholds (10 points worth) they win.  The good guys only need like 5 or something.  I don't quite remember.  There are a lot of rules in this game.  And the good guys basically don't have a chance at winning this way anyway.  Once good guy units die, they are gone forever, but bad guy units have endless numbers of reinforcements.

The Political Track

The political track designates where individual nations stand in terms of getting involved in the war.  The bad guys all start out "active" meaning they can move along the track towards war.  Once a nation is at war, it can cross enemy borders and also attack enemy units.
The good guys all start out inactive, meaning they can't move towards war.  Cards can activate them, as can their units being attacked, as can certain Fellowship members visiting their countries and rallying them!
Getting to war fast is important militarily.

The Corruption Track

The Corruption Track shows how close the ring-bearers are to being corrupted by the evil evil nasty power of the ring.  It also shows the movement of the Fellowship.
The Fellowship can move using die roll actions.  When this happens, they don't move on the board.  They move a space on the track, because they are hidden.  Basically, they only show up on the map where they were last spotted by the enemy.  If they get revealed in the hunt for the ring (another action at the beginning of the turn), then they are forced to move, and also take corruption damage. 
12 corruption, Fellowship loses.

Combat is pretty straightforward mostly.  Roll die.  High numbers (5,6) are hits that kill units.  Cards played precombat can modify these rules.  The other complication is units can retreat into strongholds which makes only rolled 6's count as hits, but then they can't retreat.

I played with my brother, starting off as the bad guys.  I overran him really quickly and he didn't know what to do with the Fellowship, who seems more complicated to play, especially since I was teaching the rules so I had a better idea of what to do.  We scrapped that game, and I switched to the Fellowship to let him play the more straightforward military heavy bad dudes.

He immediately recruited up Saruman who built a ridiculous Isengard army.  I dedicated resources to moving troops up to defend borders.  A huge standoff ensued.

At one point, Legolas went to help out Rohan, because he could.  He added some leadership bonuses, which allow die rerolls for combat.  Ultimately, though, we had to retreat into Helm's Deep, where we were overrun by Mordor troops and Legolas took a rusty sword to the gut.  Dead forever.

ORLANDO BLOOM WAS OVERRATED ANYWAY!

Aragorn came to help out Gondor.  They held the border well.

I really focused on not dying, while rushing the ring to Mordor as fast as possible.  I ditched the Fellowship and picked up Gollum and got into Mordor quickly.
Turns out that's not the best idea.  You really need to heal up as much corruption as possible before going in there.  Having no Fellowship members to sacrifice to the corruption was bad too, maybe. The Mordor track is brutal and hits you hard, involving drawing tiles which are bound to give you corruption damage to move along the track.

The Crack of Doom: Sauron's Plumber's Crack?  LOL!!!!

I got corrupted and Game Over.

Overall the game was fun.  I don't feel like it's a super duper deep thinking strategy game.
But have a beer, take an afternoon, play the game, watch Legolas die.  I think it's a pretty fun time.

Mozzie thought the dice were sweet.

Also, I got this toy called an OzoBot.  It moves along and recognizes color codes as commands.  There were a lot of colors and lines on the board, so he took a stroll. 
Took out some units, then headed Into The West. 

I thought it was pretty funny.