Hyperborea: High Per Bore EEEE AHHHH

I couldn't come up with a clever title this time that made any sense.  So I went with a non clever one that made no sense.  If you can't beat 'em, run away, I always say.

I played a lot of Magic this weekend.  Like a lot.  But I did find time to squeeze in one of my board games that I haven't gotten to play yet.
This week's game is Hyperborea.  It's a mix of an exploration and simple field battle type game with a cube pushing euro-type backdrop.  Basically, it amounts to a euro game with ameritrash elements, much like Mage Knight (except Mage Knight is much more intricate and a whole lot better, though much much much longer to play). It's a bag building game, a somewhat new idea where you collect cubes or tokens throughout the game that are pulled out of a bag to allow you to take actions.  I hear Oreleans is a much better implementation of the bag building mechanic, and looking at it and reading the rules I would probably agree if I actually got to play it.

But Hyperborea was on sale, and I now own it, and the box has pretty colors.

Green Arrow and his boardgaming buddies.

 Hyperborea is a pretty heavy game.  Not like game-weight/strategy heavy.  Like the box is heavy.

 

I mean, Terra Mystica is a pretty heavy game (both game weight and box weight); it has so much stuff in that box.  But it doesn't even weigh as much.

My bathroom tile floor is green.  I love it.

So back to the game.  Each player starts off on a home tile of a largely unexplored map.

The home city! With Oompa Loompas!

Each player starts off with 3 dudes on the board, more can be added later.  They also start off with one cube of each color in their bag, plus one more cube of a color of their choosing.  Each cube color represents some time of civilization attribute.  Like green is exploration, blue is science, red is military, I don't remember the rest.  These thematic cube (but still just cubes) get pulled out of the bag on each turn (3 per turn), and you place them on your player board.  Once the spaces next to an action are filled with their corresponding colored cubes, you may activate that action.  

Action board

 Actions include things like adding dudes to the board, moving the dudes, attacking with the dudes, getting straight points (gems), advancing your civilization's attributes (to help you get more cubes), building fortresses (which provide a one turn only defense against enemy fighters), or buying technology cards (which behave just like actions on your action board, but score more points and do more stuff).

A military-based technology

Technology cards comes with gray cubes, which can only be used to activate a few choice technologies but are other-wise worthless.  So you get a sweet tech but you have gray cubes gunking up your cube bag and being worthless.  Guess gray cubes are like pollution or something.  #thematic

So you move around the board, fight enemies, and explore ruins and cities (which give you extra actions or sometimes points, but tie up your dudes until you take enough turns to empty your bag of cubes).
Ruins contain ghosts to kill before you get the goodies.  They look scary.

Ghosts.  Maybe Nazgul.

Ghosts/Nazgul fighting Green Arrow.

Ghost/Nazgul is very protective of his precious.

One of the more interesting things about the game is, of course, the bag building mechanic.  You want lots of cubes so you can do a lot of different stuff, but too many cubes and it's hard to draw the colors you need and it takes longer before your bag is empty and you can reset your dudes who are stuck exploring ruins and visiting cities.  Balance is key.

The game ends when a set number of win conditions are met (1 for short game, 2 for medium game, 3 for long game), those conditions being all of one person's miniatures are on the board, one person has 15 gems, or one person gets to own 5 techs.  Those achievements are also worth 2 points each. At the end of the game, you get points for gems, tech cards, enemies killed, ghosts killed, number of cubes in your bag, and spaces in the world your dudes occupy.

We played a medium length game, which felt way too short still but it was only the first game. I went with a heavy "grab the gems" strategy, keeping my cube count low to explore lots of ruins and cities and reset quickly and to make it easier to keep track of what cubes were left in the bag for planning purposes.

ALL THE GEMS!  And Rob Gronkowski?

I lost by a couple of points to an opponent who had a bag full of cubes that hindered him in terms of being productive during the game but was just enough at the end of the game to put him over me.

Overall, I like the game. It's got some fun mechanisms, looks pretty, plays quickly and just feels different.  2 players is probably a bad number, because there's not enough interaction to spice things up.  The rules are also sketchy in several places which is always a problem.
But the game is cool.  I would play again with more people.

Battle For Zendikar, Magic the Gathering Pre-release

Last Saturday morning, basking in the newness of my newest obsession with Magic the Gathering, I went to my local game shop at 8:00 am for the pre-release event for the newest Magic set coming out.  I was completely new to playing for real, though a pre-release seems to be more about fun and playing with new cards than getting competitive.

I was greeted at the game shop by a very friendly gentleman who helped me get registered and set up for my first official Magic event.

That's not the friendly gentleman.  The friendly guy was wearing a polo shirt and jeans. And his eyes weren't that scary.

After registration, I had a donut and some coffee while I waited for things to start.  It was free, so that was nice.  But it was Dunkin' Donuts, which, it turns out, has not very good donuts.

Too dense and not very sweet, but makes for a nice picture.

For those of you new to Magic (like myself), the "Sealed" Pre-release event I attended goes something like this:  For $25 I got a special event deck box containing 6 booster packs from the new set containing 15 cards each.  Using those, we had 50 minutes to construct a 40 card deck to use over 4 matches throughout the morning.  More booster packs were given out as prizes to those who did well (not me).

Shiny promo deck box, and D20

We also got these sweet promo tokens that one of the store workers' friend made.  Pretty cool.

The play area was set up with long tables with full table sized playmats.  A lot of the players put their own playmats on top of these playmats.  Extra protection I guess.

Giant playmat!

So sitting down at my dragon art table, with my bunch of cards, I realized I had no idea what I was doing.  I ended up playing a blue/green deck.  Those are the two colors I like to play the least, but my blue cards all worked together and with my strong colorless cards nicely and my green cards had abilities and creature sizes that balanced out my weaknesses, so I went with them.  In hindsight, I could've used some different colors but time pressure got to me.  Actually, most of the players played tri-color decks, but with my inexperience I figured that would be too much to handle.

I even brought card sleeves so I didn't look like a noob.

My cards.

I didn't take any pictures once the tournament started, because I didn't want to look like some kind of wide-eyed tourist.  And it would probably annoy people. 

Anyway, I didn't do too awful.  I won my first match and drew my second.  I got crushed in my third and had a close loss in my fourth.  I didn't win any extra prizes.  Except extra fun.
There was even a really nice guy who sleeved his cards with sleeves with pictures of kitties on them who, after our match, gave me some pointers.  Nice people.

Oh, I did get a free deck box in the attendance raffle.

It's a deck box.   It says so.

Overall, I had a TON of fun.  It was long and exhausting, but worth it.  I will do it again next time.  In fact, I'm even thinking about occasionally going to Friday night events at my store to play some more.  I'm excited.

I'm getting obsessed.

After the event, I ate a burrito.  Because my favorite taco shop is down the street from my favorite game store. And I was very hungry.

It was a good burrito

Dark Link for Gen Con 2016!

Gen Con 2016 is fast approaching! (not really, but I wish it was).  

I didn't go this year.  Though I found out a friend went and never told me.  If I had known I would've asked to tag along.  But I didn't know.  It was quite upsetting.

Anyway, can't wait for next Gen Con.  Gotta prepare.

Next year, my gaming group and I are planning to take a day to dress based on a Legend of Zelda theme.

I thought Link was too typical, so Dark Link was suggested instead.  I like it.  He Link, but dark.  Edgy, even.

I got excited, because Gen Con gets me excited.  So I've basically put my costume together already.

Now, of course, I don't make my own costumes or go all out or anything.  So I opted for a modern, sleek, night on the town style for my take on Dark Link.

First off, the dark shirt.  I went with a simple slim fitting black button down shirt. 

Now, the idea of wearing tights just seems unpleasant to me.  As homage to the link undertights, however, I've paired the dress shirt with its sleeves rolled with a tight sportswear compression shirt.  

Keeps Link cool and shows off the killer abs when the shirt comes off at the end of the day.

Dark Link would wear this if he were as sleek as myself.

Next is the pants.  Again, no tights.  Constricting.  Don't like.  Modern Dark Link would wear slim fitting jeans.  In black, of course. Levi's.  A modern classic.

Pants.  Very exciting.

And then, shoes.  I love shoes.  Let that be known.
I saw these Clark's boots on sale, on a shopping trip where I said to myself "I wonder if I can make it through this without buying shoes..."
They're rugged and classy at the same time.

With the main outfit assembled, I began seeking accessories.

Number one accessory for a Dark Link is, of course, the cap.
Found a really nice felt cap on Etsy.  It fits my head perfectly.

Mozzie loves hats, so he wanted to model it for you.  It doesn't quite fit him.

MY NAME'S MOZZIE AND I LOVE HATS!

Finally, I wanted the iconic shield.  Last Gen Con I attended, I carried around a nylon shoulder bag which was small and uncomfortable, so I thought a shield backpack would be great.  But where do you find one of those?

Here is where.

MINE!

The very nice people there informed me that they just moved some of their operation to the US, and I was the recipient of their first backpack made here!!  I had to wait a few extra weeks for them to get their materials in, but they were very responsive and still shipped it out pretty quickly.  Nice.

They also put a ton of love into the shipping and packing:

Pink box wrapping and butterfly!

That's wear I cut to open the box!  Lavender tape!

Inside the box.  Lots of pink frillies!

And a cute handmade card.

The backpack is awesome, soft, well made, and comfy.  It is simply excellent.

Time to put it all together.  Mozzie volunteered to model for you yet again.

By the way, I totally didn't come home from a hard productive day at work and dress up a teddy bear in my clothes.  That...that would be ridiculous.  I'm a grown man.
Sure, it is kind of adorable.  I mean, if I was cute girl I would date a guy who did adorable things like that.  Especially if he was kinda nerdy and liked boardgames.
But like I said, I didn't do that.  Come on.

No judging.  I can smell your judgment.  And it smells like pumpkin ale (Happy Autumn everyone!)

Anyway, here's Mozzie!

He's super tall!  And maybe dead.

Hi!

What?  Mozzie, no!  The Dark Master Sword is not a toy!  That's how you hurt yourself!

Aw man.

And yeah, when the time comes, I'm going to get all sinister looking and make my eyes pop with some eye liner.  And maybe die the hair white.  Yeah.  I'm cool.

And after a solid day of boardgaming and other activities, I'll kick back and absorb and enjoy the wonderful day I had.  Looking forward to Gen Con 2016!!!

Magic: The Obsession of the Gathering

Magic the Gathering is really the epitome of collectible card games.  In the past, I've bought intro packs just to play for fun with my brother or friends, but have never taken the game seriously.  The result is that I've accumulated a fair amount of crappy cards over the years that get very little use.

Last week, some friends invited me over to play some Magic.  I quickly threw together a pretty disjointed Red/Black deck just to have something to play with.  There were 4 of us playing at once.  It was pretty wild.

But hey, I won a game!  It was way too much fun.  We also were drinking.  That helped too.

The real problem here is now I'm hooked and want better cards.  I already have a boardgame problem.  I don't need another hobby to eat my money.  Though I guess Magic counts into my boardgame hobby, so it's really the same thing.  But even more expensive.

In this past week, I've spent over $200 on singles to help me make a couple new decks.  I know maybe this isn't a lot of money at all for cards, but it's like 4 boardgames for me.  That's pretty significant.

Luckily, my CoolStuffInc discount on card singles is up to 6% so I saved like 5 bucks!

Anyway, this is a super addicting hobby.  I've been spending a lot of time looking at cards and deck ideas online (and I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of what I'm doing!), which is a great way to spend that downtime at work when you're done eating but still "at lunch."

I may keep you updated on my Magic shenanigans as I begin this fun and addictive journey.

Gamers Gotta Eat (Bonus Feature): Pretty Plates and Taco Test

It's my blog, I can write about whatever I want.  This post is not about board games. 

But it is about food.  And I need food to live.  And I need to be alive to play board games.  It's the circle of life and it rules us all.

One of my non-boardgames hobbies is cooking.  In fact, I love a good boardgame night that involves a big meal with friends.

For more on these meals I refer you to one of my favorite blog friends.  Lots of food, much of which was shared during board game nights.
This post in particular I hold near and dear to my heart.  It was also a fabulously successful attempt at duck l'orange.

But onto the main event.  Here's some plates I've made up over the past month or so.

Pan-seared venison with a red wine reduction and brussel sprouts:

 

Braised pork neck bones in marinara with pancetta alfredo pasta

Luganega sausage with red wine reduction, artichoke, and garlic cheese bread

Simple burger with fried egg and pico de gallo

Panko breaded chicken breast with beurre blanc sauce and a spring mix salad

Shrimp and mussel paella and brussel sprouts

On a less classy note, today I decided to see if I could eat a whole taco 12 pack from taco bell.

Turns out I could.  But not worth it.  

I hope I made you hungry.  Happy gaming and happy eating!

Five Tribes: For Those Who Like Meeples and Aladdin

Arabian Nights is a very catchy opening song from the Disney film Aladdin.

That has very little to do with anything.  It's just a fact.

Five Tribes was a game released around the time of our Gen Con trip, though we never test-played it because the table was always way too crowded and I didn't have a super great interest in it. But it looked fun anyway and I eventually received it as a birthday present, which was pretty cool.

The guy on the right is DEFINITELY the merchant guy from Aladdin who sings the song.

In the game, players take turns moving meeples around an Arabian desert-themed set of tiles by picking up all the meeples on a single tile and dropping them off along a path of adjacent tiles (mancala-style).  The only rules there are you can't go backwards and the last meeple you drop has to match in color with at least one other meeple on the tile you stop on.

Meeples meeples everywhere.

When you are done, you grab all the meeples of the same color on that tile as the last meeple you dropped there.

If your taking of the meeples clears a tile completely, you get to place you little camel dude on the tile.  That tile is yours.  You get its points and all the points associated with its palm trees or palaces built on it.  And no one else can ever claim it again.  It is yours.  Because your camel is sitting there.

Guard camel.

Camel meeple.  Cameeple.  Hangin' out at the market.

 Regardless of whether you claimed the tile or not, you then take the action associated with the tile AND the action associated with the colors of meeples you took.
Tile actions include buying treasure cards, summoning Djinns, and placing palm trees or palaces.

Royal cameeple chillin' in the shade of a palace.

As for the meeple "tribe" actions:
Yellow viziers you just get to keep (they are worth 1 point each and whoever has the most at the end gets bonus points).
White elders you also get to keep and can spend to buy or activate Djinns (also worth 2 points at endgame if you still have them).
Green merchants let you take treasure cards.
Blue builders let you get money for blue labeled tiles surrounding where he landed.
Red assassins kill meeples on other tiles or kill opponents viziers or elders.  If you want to be mean.

Most of these abilities are more powerful the more of the meeples you pick up.  More greens means more cards, for instance, or more reds mean longer killing range.

Treasure cards and worker cards (which are meeple substitutes, like tofu)

In this game, money is points.  Just like real life.
You want both things that score you points (like tiles and Djinns and certain meeples) but you also want lots of money which are also points.  Got it?  Money is good.  You got it.

At the end of the turn you always have the option to trade in sets of different treasure cards for money.  The more different types of cards you have, the more money you get and the scale rewards those who wait until they have them all rather then spending small sets early.

Another complication is turn order.  You bid for it.  With money-points.  Turn order is important, because sometimes there is just a great move sitting on the board and everybody wants to go first.  But you have to pay for it.  Going earlier means spending more money-points.  Hopefully it's worth it.

In a 3 or 4 player game everyone takes one turn per round.  The 2-player variant gives each player two turns per round, which introduces an extra bit of strategy into the bidding, as taking two turns in a row is incredibly powerful for using the first move to set up an amazing follow-up move.
The two-player tokens only come in "argue with my mom over whether it's green or blue"-teal and "bubblegum-flavored antiobiotic"-pink.

Bidding track.  Going first costs you money-points.

Finally, the Djinns.  If you land on a magic lamp tile, you can spend elders to buy Djinns, each worth some amount of points while also having some sort of Phenomenal Cosmic Power (and itty bitty living space) that is either ongoing or can be activated once a turn.

Hmm.  Which scary looking dude do I choose?

Less ripped Incredible Hulk Djinn

This Kumarbi guy above, for example, lets you spend a worker card during the bidding phase to pay less for a higher spot on the turn order track.  He's cool.  Saves you money-points with his menacing sword, creepy yellow eyes, and titanic tummy.

You play until one player runs out of camels or until there are no legal moves left on the board.  Then you tally up points on some really pretty score sheets.

I won this one.  By quite a bit.
There's a lot to be said about trying to make good solid moves in this game.  You want to help yourself or set yourself up but not leave anything good for you opponents.  That's really hard.  And if you try to consider all the possibilities, you are in for some serious analysis paralysis.  In the end though, it may just be more fun to not stress over it and just move.  There's too many possibilities and I'm not patient enough to look at all of them, especially having no idea what my opponent is going to do.

This game is a lot of fun.  Not a game I feel like I can ever "be good at" because it's just too hard to know what to do.  Maybe if I play it a ton.  But the mancala movement mechanic and the colorful components make this game pretty great even if it doesn't feel like any sort of heavy euro game of the type I prefer.