Wednesday, October 23, 2013

There and Back again...Part #4

Well to continue with the theme...This has truly been an "Unexpected Party" for me.   

A group of bearded heroes set forth on a quest, to reclaim what was rightfully theirs from a big red bird.

The next chapter of "There and back again"...

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Far south of Boston's foggy cold   
To fandom meek and park of mold
We played the Rays from Tampa Bay
To seek World Series trophy gold.
 
The Sox fans down south made mighty yell,
While Ray fans countered with lame cow bell
Sox caused balls to leap, Rays went without a peep,
Boston moved on and could rest a spell.
 
Onto ancient team and coaching lord
Team of solid bat with ace pitching hoard
We battled and fought, looking good for Detroit
'Til Papi's bat spoke with thunderous word.
 
Far over Appalachian Mountains old
To city that weeps and stadium cold
We win the two of three, to the Sox fans glee.
To claim League Series stranglehold.
 
Goblets were full of Sam Adams Beer
Fenway was packed, roaring with mighty cheer 
Victorino's slam long, stirred many a song
Red Sox claimed Pennant for another year.
 
The Pirates were crying out in fright,
The Dodgers were moaning in the night.
The Bird was red, it's fandom spread;
From City which brews and drinks Bud Light.
 
Gritty team sent poor pitched balls to sail  
Solid pitching made former Sox bats flail;
The Cardinal’s ire more fierce than fire
Both Tinseltown and Steel City looked frail.
 
Old rivals again meet beneath the moon;
Cards swept in '04 wish to change that tune.
St. Lou shall learn to Fear the Beard
Once again Champs will be the Red Sox soon!
 
Far over Appalachian Mountains grim
Comes a Cards team who don't feel chances slim. 
Pitch count and double play, shall win the day,
And take World Series gold from them!
 

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

There and Back again...Part #3

Some more "There and Back again" mojo...

Far over Appalachian Mountains old
To city that weeps and stadium cold
We 
win the third ere the break of day
To claim a Series stranglehold.

Fear the Beard....
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Monday, October 7, 2013

There and Back again...Part #2

Well...continuing with the "There and Back again" theme for our Bearded Sox friends....(Part one can be found here)

Scene 2:  Tampa Bay bullpen during warmups.

Moore and Price are giving Cobb some advice on how to approach the Sox at the plate.
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Cobb: Well, I could Roast them on the inside. That should finish them!

Moore: Nah, I tried that in Game One

Cobb: I could burn them with the High Heat...

Price:  Nope, Didn't work in game two...

Cobb:  Maybe I'll just nibble away at them...

 Buchholz sticks his head over the wall between bullpens 
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Buchholz: Maybe you could just leave them standing at the plate...like Statues.

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Moore:  ....*turns to stone*
Price:  ...*turns to stone*
Cobb: ...*turns to stone*

Buchholz: And that is how you Win a series boys.

Friday, October 4, 2013

There and Back again, Part #1: Bearded Red Sox...go on a Quest.

Been a few years since I've spoken of the Red Sox...

Last time I felt truly inspired and posted to the Sons of Sam Horn website was back during the 2007 World Series run (Lord of the Red Sox).

Now the team has once again taken up a quest...

To return to where they rightfully belong...

And with the Beards this team is showing...The symmetry was too much for me to stay away.

Time for the Sox to go "There and Back again..." (to win it all!)

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Hit the ball and touch home plate!
  Catch their flies, and deny their base!
That's what Old Joe Maddon hates--
  Win three and End their playoff race!
Watch the count and swing a good bat!
  Bunt the runner over one base more!
Corners of plate and their batters get sat!
  Extra base hits and run up the score!
Kick that team back to Tampa Bay;
  Pound them good and leave your mark;
Make them sad and call them "Devil Rays"
  Remind them that this is Fenway Park!
That's what Old Joe Maddon Hates!
  So, carefully! carefully touch home plate!

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Legendary Update...

Found some neat stuff about the upcoming Legendary Expansion : Fantastic Four.  (release date 10/22/13)

Turns out the Two Masterminds in the deck are Galactus and Mole Man....




The 20 fight is impressive...but you can counter that with the Cosmic Threat which lets you pick a hero color and for every card of that color you play this turn, Galactus strength drops by 2.  So when building your hand during the game focusing on a color will be very important vs. Galactus.  

Also Silver Surfer has a new ability called Focus.
Guess that if you reach the "6" recruit that kicks off the "Focus" ability.  Betting you do not get to use the recruit at that point...but we shall see.

Have a great day all...
  

Monday, September 9, 2013

New House and Game updates.

  So some of you know we are upgrading our home.  Taking the 25 year old doublewide off the full foundation and putting up a two story colonial modular home. A new "Hat" as it were for the Gamers Bullpen.  Here are the Floorplans...needless to say we are very excited and hope to be in our new home by Thanksgiving.




Our foundation is actually 52' so we took these plans and added 8' to each side in various places (Larger bedrooms pretty much.)  There is actually a little addition on to these plans as well, we have a small 12' x 12' room where the mudroom / bullpen stairway used to be. There will be an archway from the dining room to this new "Sun room".  Anyway...Bullpen access will now be in the center of the house.

  On to the Game updates.

  • Dreadball Season 3 stuff should be here "Soon" hopefully before the end of the month.
  • Kingdom Death: Monster has been pushed back to Q1 2014 at least.  I have no issues with this...it is a huge game...New price on the Box will be between $150 and $200, glad I dropped the $100 on the kickstarter.  Still thinking about Magnetizing the whole game, making the players minis upgradeable as they upgrade their characters in the game....we shall see though.  Rated R game...not one for the kiddos.
  • Legendary Fantastic Four is due out in October...looking forward to that.  Got to play 3 games this past weekend of Legendary with 5 players...only won one of the games.  Still good times were had.
  • Played a round of Robinson Crusoe with the kids...unlike Legendary...the ages 12+ suggestion on the box is there for a reason...will be a couple of years before I break this one out again with my 9 year old daughter....much longer for my 5 year old son.
  • Forbidden Island is still a hit with the kids.  Glad I grabbed this one...
  • Warhammer 40K on the backburner...boxed up and packed away until the new house is finished.
  • Same with Battletech / Alpha Strike...
  • October 19th I'll be bringing both Legendary and Robinson Crusoe to the Boardgame geek meetup in Brunswick.  http://mainegamer.tumblr.com/post/18390343950/3rd-annual-northern-new-england-bgg-user-meet-up  
One final note...Though I signed up to be an assistant coach...I'm now the head coach of my Sons soccer / Bunchball team.  Should be fun times.

That is all for now.



Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Legendary Expansions, Encounters and Robinson Crusoe

Couple of things that are on my Radar...

First two upcoming Expansions for Legendary, the Marvel Co-Op deckbuilding game.

The first of which is the Fantastic Four set, 100 Cards...Due out Oct 22nd.  Adds the Fantastic Four, and Silver Surfer as Characters, plus Galactus as a Mastermind with none other than a 20 attack!  Kinda makes Apocalypse with is 12 look like a kitten.


2nd is the just announced at GenCon, SpiderMan Expansion.  No Details other than Carnage as a Mastermind and the Spidey in it will be a lot tougher than the one in the original game.  February release date planned.

Next is a New Legendary box that is not Marvel based....Legendary Encounters.  Roughly the same engine but not exactly the same.  Based in the Aliens Universe....Ripley, Apone, Hudson, Hicks, etc. vs the Aliens.  Game Producer has said you can use the Heroes or Colonial Marines in the other Legendary games.  So You want Nick Fury to lead a new squad of "SHIELD Marines" against Kingpin you can...or put Colossus, Wolverine, Rogue, Storm and Cyclops against the Alien Queen (Brood anyone) you can do that too.  Not fully interchangeable, sounds like the only thing that can be swapped about is the Hero decks...still that is pretty neat.

Finally the game that is on my Most wanted list.  I spent quite some time watching the Gen Con live feed from Board Game Geeks looking for other games that might fit well with the family and the gaming group.  Came across this one that came out last year.  Robinson Crusoe, Adventure on the Cursed Island.
Fully co-op, 1-4 players, survival game.  Game is busy with a lot going on...cards, cubes, dice, hextiles, deckbuilding (in a bad way).  Has been said it is VERY challenging to win...making LoTR co-op game seem easy.  Also no  cutthroat version if one player dies, the game is over.  No hoarding food for yourself.  6 Scenarios in the box, each with their own theme (Crusoe/Castaway, Swiss Family Robinson, Volcano Island, Cannibal Island, Cursed Island, and the one that I'm forgetting)  Plus two more scenarios online (King Kong, and Explore the Galapagos).  

YouTube review that gives the basics of the game...



That's all for now...
 

Link to one of the best reviews / setups of Robinson Crusoe on the net.


Monday, July 22, 2013

New game on the way...Legendary

  Ever since I tried The Lord of the Rings board game by FFG I've fallen for Cooperative board games. Being on the lookout for any new one that may strike my interest, the interest of my gaming group, or even the interest of my Wife and Kids (now 8 and 5 years old).

  I have Kingdom Death: Monster on the way...pretty sure that will be a non-starter for the Kiddos and Wife.  I have numerous Dreadball teams having gotten one for each of the kids.  Still they are a few years from really enjoying Dreadball.  Then I discovered "Legendary" the new Deck building card game by Upperdeck.


  Basics of the game work like this, 1-5 players take on the game.  There is a Mastermind Villain that the heroes are trying to take down.  This Mastermind has a Scheme (Read as what nefarious plot they are trying to achieve).  They also have other Villains and Henchmen assisting them in their goals.  Opposing them are 5-6 heroes.

  The players play these Heroes but not in the way that you would initially think.  This is a Deck "Building" Game. So with the expansion there are 32 playable heroes, 31 different ones and Wolverine get 2 versions...well because his is Wolverine.  Each of these heroes has 14 cards. So the players select the 5 heroes they want to use and all of those cards go into a "Hero Deck"  All the players get their own personal deck which starts with a 12 SHIELD agent / trooper cards that can be spent to recruit the "Hero" cards that come into play.  So as these Heroes are recruited, they are added to that players personal discard pile.  When their current player's deck is empty they reshuffle all their discarded cards to restock their draw deck.

  There is a high replay value as with the Dark City expansion there are 9 Mastermind villains with 16 Schemes, 13 villain groups, and 6 Henchmen groups.    Which can be randomized, or even pre-selected if you wanted to re-create a major Marvel storyline (Avengers movie, Inferno, Legacy Virus, Civil War...etc)

  Here are a list of the Heroes currently in the game...
    • Black Widow
    • Captain America
    • Cyclops
  • Deadpool
  • Emma Frost
  • Gambit
  • Hawkeye
  • Hulk
  • Iron Man
  • Nick Fury
  • Rogue
  • Spiderman
  • Storm
  • Thor
  • Wolverine (X-Men)
  • Angel
  • Bishop
  • Blade
  • Cable
  • Colossus
  • Daredevil
  • Domino
  • Elektra
  • Forge
  • Ghost Rider
  • Iceman
  • Iron Fist
  • Jean Grey
  • Nightcrawler
  • Professor X
  • The Punisher
  • Wolverine (X-Force)

In October the next small release comes out "Fantastic Four" which will is rumored to have 5 heroes, 2 schemes, 2 masterminds, a villain group and a henchmen group.  Those are rumored to be Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thing, Human Torch, and Silver Surfer.  Rumor has it they plan on one Major and two minor releases every year, and they have plenty of heroes left...

  • X-Men (Beast, Psylocke, Kitty Pride, Dazzler, Longshot, Havok, Polaris)
  • Avengers (Black Panther, Ms. Marvel, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man, Tigra, Mockingbird, Wasp, Ant Man / Giant Man / Yellow Jacket)
  • Others (Spider Woman, Moon Knight, War Machine, She Hulk...)
  • Guardians of the Galaxy (bet the are a small set release to go along with the movie next year)

The Box says ages 14+...though after watching a couple of videos of the gameplay, I'm fairly certain my 8 year old can handle it.  My 5 year old, will play with Dad, or have a hand of his own face up for me to help him with.

Should be getting the game in a couple of days

Here is a video of the basic gameplay...looking forward to flipping some cards with you.



Monday, January 7, 2013

Kingdom Death: Monster...

Jumped in on another Kickstarter project.  Yep, I am surfing the wave that is Kickstarter popularity right now.  Anyway...this Boardgame project (Kingdom Death: Monster) will not actually hit store shelves until Novemeber 2013, but the idea and gameplay looked too interesting to pass up.

Here is a video that goes over the basic premise of the game:
 

Here is a video going over the combat portion of the game...

And a video that goes over the other aspects of the game...

Love the look of the minis, how the game will play and that the group will be sitting around the table working together rather than against one another.  As a mini painter / modder, I look forward to the challenge this game will present.

I ended up bidding enough in the Kickstarter to get the base game and the Dragon king expansion.  I'm sure if it takes off with the group, I'll get more expansions later.  Convincing the Wife to play will also be a challenge...but a worthy one.

That is all for now...

Add on...Found a really neat article about painting fleshtones over on BOLS...(putting it here so I don't lose it when I actually get the minis this winter.)

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/02/hobby-practicing-skin-tones-with.html

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Two years away...what have I been doing.


Well to be honest working on my other Game specific blogs.  I wanted to keep the Chocolate out of the peanut butter as it were, and keep things more organized than they would be here in one Blog.

In case you missed it...here are the other Blogs...




Current Project...Dreadball.
http://mainedreadball.blogspot.com/

















Wrapping up a Tukayyid Battletech campaign.
http://tukayyid.blogspot.com/















Ran a very fun Solaris VII Battletech Campaign.
http://solarisseven.blogspot.com/











Computer game wise...playing World of Tanks, Star Trek Online.  Tried Mechwarrior Online, but it made me motion sick.  Played through Diablo III once...was good.  Waiting on Marvel Heroes, Mechwarrior Tactics, and Neverwinter currently

That's all for now.  I'll attempt to post more often.