Twelve Games Finale

 Here are my remaining games for the 2021 Twelve Games of Christmas challenge.

Game 8 (Fri. 12/24) - I played a quick MicroBattle game using amendments based on Sellswords & Spellslingers. I used my blocks rather than minis for this game.

Game 9 (Sun. 12/26) - Some more MicroBattle. Sorry, no pics. I actually played 3 short games, but I'm just counting it as one. The most interesting was my replay of Operation Last Train using 3mm figures. Instead of tracking individual figures, I treated each stand as a squad and tracked that. It has me hankering for some more small-scale sci-fi fun.

Game 10 (Tues. 12/28) - No game on Monday. Instead, we watched a movie along with commentary from an online friend of my wife. If you like movies, you may enjoy his commentary. Check out his YouTube page at Stone Gasman.

On Tuesday, we played a couple of card games, but I'm only counting them as one game.

• We started with Holiday Fluxx. My wife, being a hoarder, likes to store up cards. So she was very happy when she played the Draw 3 card. Then I countered with Play 4. Well, this annoyed her. She eventually won by stealing my Christmas wreath. Then she said she did not want to play a rematch because she hates playing Fluxx with me.
• So we moved on to Love Letter. This was a riveting battle as the princess's favor kept switching back and forth. Eventually, we wound up tied 6-6. The next round would decide the game. On one turn, I had the Prince and Bishop. I took a chance by playing the Bishop, which meant that I compared my remaining card to my wife's. Highest card wins. It turns out she had a lowly Guard. Victory was mine!

By the way, our cat Thomasina loves Love Letter. Our nickname for her is "Princess," so whenever we mention the princess in the game she thinks we're talking about her.

Game 11 (Thurs. 12/30) - Another twofer that I'm counting as one. We started with Codenames: Duet. 

Essentially, it is a cooperative guessing word game with a loose spy theme. One player gives a clue and the other tries to guess words that match, leading to allied operatives. If you guess wrong, the assassin gets you.

I blew it in the very first round, getting iced by the assassin. We tried again. The assassin did not get us, but we ran out of time.

We then played more Love Letter. My wife cleaned my clock this time.

Game 12 (Sat. 1/1) - And we close off the challenge with Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries.

Here is the final board. I was white.

You may be able to trace a white route from Copenhagen (just off the bottom of the picture) to Murmansk (all the way at the top). This route gave me 24 bonus points. Things were nip-and-tuck the whole way, and I almost did not finish a 10-point route. As it turns out, I managed a 17 point victory!

And that's it. The Twelve Games of Christmas challenge complete!

More Twelve Games

Looks like I am proceeding with the Twelve Games of Christmas during my vacation time. Here's what I have played.

Game 1 (Sat. 12/18) - As I previously mentioned, my wife and I played Forbidden Desert.

Game 2 (Sun. 12/19) - I played The Lost Expedition solo, although my cat Thomasina watched.

I picked this up during a short-lived jungle exploration kick. By the time I got it, my interest waned and it sat unopened in my closet. Looking for something to play, I decided to give it a chance. I'm not going to do a full analysis here. Suffice it to say that it felt very random, and naturally all my explorers died.

Game 3 (Mon. 12/20) - I recently discovered Operation Last Train, a free sci-fi game by Joseph McCullough (of Frostgrave et. al. fame). The concept is that a small force of soldiers drop onto a bug-infested planet to save any survivors. Rather than play the rules as written, I adapted the concept to MicroBattle.

My troopers (bottom) arrive at an embattled farmstead. They see some green hellions (I don't have bugs so Khurasan's mini-hellions filled in) near the main building.

Communications failed so no pictures (translation - I was too lazy to document the mission fully) Privates Able and Baker advanced on the left, reaching the left-most buildings and rescuing 6 survivors. 

Sergeant Hawke led Privates Charles and Daniels on the right. They were attacked by a swarm of hellions. Charles went down but they managed to wipe out the little beasts. Sergeant Hawke reached the third building, when five of the hellions jumped him. He went down, followed shortly thereafter by Daniels.

As the hellions rushed at them, Able and Baker escorted the survivors onto the waiting dropship (off board) and managed to lift off.

As they began to fly, they noticed that Sgt. Hawke had activated his rescue beacon. The dropship managed to swoop down so they could grab the sergeant.  

Per the rules, there is a chance for downed troopers to make it out. Sgt. Hawke made his roll, so I created this little bit of fiction. Charles and Daniels, however, ...

Then they blasted off from the planet.

This was a fun game with quite a bit of suspense. I used MicroBattle's random activation/movement, which increased the tension. Just meters away from the dropship. Able's group of survivors froze for 2 turns while the hellions drew nearer. Fortunately, heavy gunfire cut the beasts down before they could get to the survivors.

Game 4 (Tues. 12/21) - Met up with my brother, who is visiting from NYC, to play Dual Powers. My brother gave it to me last Christmas, but I never had a chance to play (I did not realize until today that it has solitaire rules).

It is essentially a resource management game set during the Russian Revolution. I played the Whites vs my brother's Reds. We muddled through learning the game, and made a lot of mistakes. In the penultimate turn, I was able to wrest control of a key sector of the capital, winning the game.

Game 5 (also Tues. 12/21) - To entertain our cat, I pulled out a game in the evening. I chose an oldie but goodie, Elder Sign. I played solo and was a bit pessimistic about my chances because I am a very bad die roller. But I got hot, and easily sealed off the gates before Yog Shothoth appeared.

Game 6 (Wed. 12/22) - My wife fell asleep early so I could not set up the gaming table lest I wake her. But I had to play a game for Thomasina. Therefore I took to my Switch and played video Yahtzee. It counts. right? Sure, why not.

Game 7 (Thurs 12/23) - I tried to make it across the Oregon Trail. Here's how my characters did.

In my first expedition, Lil' Jeb died of dysentery, Jim Bob died from a snake bite, and then Mary Sue succumbed to typhoid. The numbers show how far along the trail they got before dying. Given that you need 50 cards to get to Oregon, the expedition barely made it halfway.

I tried a second expedition, but brothers Zeke and Zeb both died of rattlesnake bites. And it was a very short game!

🎲🎲🎲

And so this is where I stand as of last night. Stay tuned for more games over the coming week.

Twelve Games of Christmas

We kicked off my Christmas vacation with a game!

My wife and I played Forbidden Desert, a game of archaeologic adventure in a, well you can guess.

Picture from the manufacturer's website

Does this mean that once again I have taken up the challenge of the Twelve Games of Christmas? It wasn't my intention. In fact, I have not attempted the challenge since 2018. However, I have been remiss in gaming lately, so maybe this is a way to redress the imbalance. We shall see.

Twelve Games of Christmas - 2018 Edition

As per our tradition, we have been playing games while I'm off work for the holidays. Here is a summary.

Game 1 (Dec 20) - Castle Panic
We couldn't decide what movie to watch tonight, so we played a game instead. We selected Castle Panic, a light cooperative game.

Picture from Boardgamegeek

It was a fairly easy victory. Early in the game, we managed to clear the board of enemies. They made a surge late, but it was not enough. We wiped them out. Our biggest challenge of the night was trying to stop our cat Onyx from running away with the dice. Our cat Thomasina hissed at him (she hates it when he messes with the game - she just likes to watch).

Game 2 (Dec 21) - Air Raid

 I decided to play out the next raid in my Lucranian aerial campaign. My wife volunteered to play with me. I posted a battle report the day after.

Tom and Onyx really loved the game. Onyx tried to roll the dice and Tom was very frisky, running up and down the stairs.

 Games 3 - 5 (Dec 22) - Ticket to Ride, Shadows Over Camelot Card Game, Love Letter

Today was a trifecta. We visited my brothers and brought over a couple of games. One of my brothers owns Ticket to Ride so we played that. At first, I was doing well and had an extensive rail network in the west. However, I was soon surpassed and ended the game in last place. Elizabeth completed the NY-LA run however my brother Brett managed to complete 6 routes. His rail system proved supreme by a mere 4 points. Great game.

We followed it up with the Shadows Over Camelot card game. We managed to out the traitor (Brett) and had finished a few quests. We were close to victory.

Shadows Over Camelot components

Then Morgan le Fey blinded us. Unable to see the cards, we messed up some quests and ended up losing. The traitor had destroyed Camelot.

When we got home, we noticed that Tom seemed depressed. She had heard us talking about games earlier and was very cheerful but we had disappointed her by playing away from home. To improve her mood, Elizabeth and I played a game of Love Letter. I eked out a narrow 7-5 victory (much to Tom's pleasure).

Games 6 - 7 (Dec 24) - Squad-Hammer and Exploding Kittens

No game on the 23rd. We watched March of the Wooden Soldiers (aka Babes in Toyland) instead.

This morning I experimented with Squad Hammer using my 2mm sci-fi minis.

We visited with my family for Christmas Eve dinner. Afterwards, we pulled out Exploding Kittens (which was a Christmas gift from last year) and played a couple of hands with my brothers.

Elizabeth won the first round and then Brett won the second.

As of this night, we are halfway through the challenge so I will publish to the blog and then update the rest of the week.

Game 8 (Dec 25) - Oregon Trail Card Game
Merry Christmas!
Tonight we got use out of a Christmas gift - Oregon Trail.

Like the classic computer game, your party is trying to make it Oregon before succumbing to a multitude of possible calamities.

I made it about a third of the way to Oregon before I died of dysentery. My wife pressed on, and was nearly halfway there when she too succumbed to dysentery.

Games 9 - 10 (Dec 26) - Oregon Trail Card Game and Dragonwood
This night we tried Oregon Trail again. This time we gave ourselves 2 lives. Here was our result:

First, the mother Jo-Anne drowned while the party tried to cross the river. Little Heather was next; she died from a rattlesnake bite. Tim repeated her mistake and lost his reptilian encounter. The family patriarch, Billy, pressed on until he succumbed to dysentery. Rumors had it that he was eating his dead kin. The numbers are when they died. Billy made it through 30 trail cards. He needed another 20 to make it.

We then played Dragonwood, an enjoyable, little fantasy-themed dice-rolling game. Below is my wife's haul. She beat me by 4 victory points, and pulled out her victory by beating the last monster, the 7-VP Bronze Dragon, before I could get to it.

Game 11 - 12 (Dec 31) - Air Raid and Elder Sign
No game on the 27th. Instead, we spent the night tormenting ourselves with Darkest Dungeon, a rather brutal dungeon crawling video game. Death is frequent and the tension is high!

More video games on the 28th. This time Skyrim. I am finally playing the Thieve's Guild quests. I normally skip these quests because I prefer being a good guy. I decided to do these now because I created a Khajit character and stealth is a strong suit + I wanted to do something new.

Watched Notre Dame get crushed in the college football playoff on the 29th. Spent the 30th recovering from LARPing.

Finally got back to a game on the 31st. Played a full scale air raid (report forthcoming).

We decided to end the Twelve Games with a bang, or more appropriately a scream. In this case, the game of the night was Elder Sign.

This time we were trying to stop Ithaqua from appearing.

We started well, managing to wrack up several of the 11 Elder Signs we needed to stop him. Then we ran into a patch of trouble and lost 2 characters. But their replacements soldiered on and retrieved the remaining Elder Signs, thus sealing the portal and saving humanity!

Thus ends this year's Twelve Games of Christmas!