June Schedule for the GODS

Gamers,

 

Here's a few brief, additional details about the June Schedule for the GODS gaming group.

 

<> Nobody was interested in attending Games Day Baltimore on June 14, so I won't be attending that convention. Truth be told, it's probably way too overpriced for what it is, especially since us Central PA wargamers already have 3 much better conventions to attend that are close by in Cold Wars, Historicon, and Fall In.   

 

<> I have only received a small handful of responses so far (from Wally, Mayer, and David), but it looks like at least 3 people (including myself) can attend the gaming session on JUNE 14, and 3 people can attend the JUNE 25 session. So it looks like those gaming sessions are a go barring any unforeseen disasters.  

 

<> With only 1 person responding with a Yes, it looks like the JUNE 1 group session may be cancelled. Unless I get some last minute affirmitive responses by 7 PM tonight, I'm going to go ahead and cancel it and make other plans. 

 

<> I know that arranging your personal schedule 1-month in advance is a dicey proposition for some folks. Some people love the advanced notice of a monthly schedule, while others prefer to hang loose and plan their events only a few days in advance. Whatever floats your boat. All I can ask is that you try your best to LET ME KNOW at least 4 days ahead of time if you plan on coming to a planned gaming session. I would prefer that you let me know even earlier than that if possible, but if you're a last minute type of person, then at least give me the courtesy of 4-day advance notice so I can plan accordingly. Thanks. 

 

<> From time to time, I plan to extend personal invites to friends to come over and play 1-on-1 games. I've got a bunch of wargames, battle games, abstracts, and strategy games that fit the 2-player mold quite nicely. In fact, I might even go as far to say that 2 player games are my favorites (although it's a fine line). Anyway, I'll try to squeeze some head-to-head sessions in from time to time as my schedule allows it. Right now, with group playtesting of my Sword of Severnia miniatures wargame going on, finding the extra time won't be quite as easy as I would like, so please bear with me. 

 

<> Lastly, I put the first-ever POLL up on the Six Sided Rhinoceros blog. To find the poll, check the right-margin of the blog, just below the Blog Archive section. This week's poll asks you to choose your favorite Adventure (or Adventure/Strategy) games. You can check off as many games as you want. Feel free to choose both those you're already familiar with, as well as those that you're most eager to try out. 

 

Later gamers...

 

Back in the Gaming Saddle Again

It has been quite awhile since I sat down at the table with my friends and played some good old fashioned board games and card games. Hopefully, all of that will change fairly soon.

February through mid-April is always a real killer for me with respect to my free-time. I'm typically swamped with preseason baseball stuff. Whether it's working on enhancing, selling, or fulfilling orders for Rhino Baseball during the day, or planning and managing all the events associated with HARL, my longtime fantasy baseball league, I basically have close to zero free-time during the 1st quarter of each year. I'm learning to deal with it a little better, but it's still far from perfect.

Once May rolls around, I start to get my life back again and can actually enjoy it a lot more.

Although I had hoped to get my on-again, off-again tabletop gaming group (the GODS) kick-started in early May, I was just too busy with other things to address that. Part of May was spent planning and going on a short vacation with my wife to New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore on a whirlwind east-coast city tour. We had a blast, despite the fact that it was rainy a few of those days. We went to see Young Frankenstein on Broadway at the Hilton Theatre, which was absolutely fantastic; go see it! We also visited the Liberty Bell and took in a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game in Philly, and visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.



My other free-time was spent doing an assortment of gaming-related stuff.

Some of it involved buying goodies on eBay. I finally scored all 4 packs in the Wave-7 expansion set for HeroScape for under $40. Those cool Templar Knights are finally mine! I also purchased a miniatures game called Monster Island, which involves (you guessed it) giant monster combat.

And finally, I bought some new miniatures (a bunch of Trollbloods made by Privateer Press), and an absolutely stunningly painted Troll Lord (shown above) painted by MidgardModels in Argentina.

I was pretty bummed with the Trollbloods, as they arrived from Canada in a zillion pieces and the painting was chipped in several places. They were poorly packed (heavy models wrapped in very thin tissue paper) and consequently broke apart during shipping to the USA. It took me well over 2 hours to glue everything back together again, and I'll be spending a lot more time than that touching up the paint jobs to a more suitable level. Oh well, eBay sales have generally treated me very well, but I guess you can't win 'em all.

I also made a very big boardgaming purchase at the Compleat Strategist in Manhattan. I picked up copies of Cutthroat Caverns, Kingsburg, Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage, and Colossal Arena. The guys at the Compleat Strategist in NYC were extremely friendly, and were kind enough to ship the games to my home in Pennsylvania for free (so I didn't have to get them soaked in the rain). Now that's excellent service!

Recently, I began my efforts to get the GODS gaming group going again. The GODS are a small group of friends and acquaintances that occasionally get together at my house to play board games, card games, and miniatures games.

I just setup the biweekly schedule of get-togethers for June, so we'll see how that pans out. Although getting friends to show up to play games on a consistent basis has been very difficult in the past (scheduling is always tricky when you're dealing with adults who have family commitments), I'm not giving up yet. I think it's just a matter of the group gaining some momentum and getting people to make regular gaming get-togethers a habit much like their other extracurricular events. FUN is NOT the problem. We always have lots of fun when we play these games. It's just scheduling the darn things. Of course isn't that true of just about any club/league/organization that you try to form? So I'm going to be patient.

With the pending onset of summer, convention season is also upon us in a Big Way. Over the next few months, we've got:

• Games Day Baltimore - June 14 (Baltimore, MD)
• Origins - June 25-29 (Columbus, OH)
• Historicon - July 24-27 (Lancaster, PA)
• World Boardgaming Championships - August 5-10 (Lancaster, PA)
• GenCon - August 14-17 (Indianapolis, IN)

I'm still not sure if I'm heading to Games Day (about 50/50 right now). I will definitely be going to Historicon. And I really want to go to GenCon, since I've never been there before. That's a very long trek for someone in Central PA, so I'd probably make a mini-vacation out of it and spread it over several days. Gonna run this one by the guys and my wife to see what's cooking there.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for an upcoming post covering my board game / card game wishlist, and information about a HeroScape campaign that I'm hoping to start sometime soon.

See you next time!

GODS Schedule for June 2008

Here's the current Schedule of GODS Tabletop Gaming Sessions for June 2008:

• JUNE 1  = SUN, STARTS 5 PM, LASTING 2-4 HOURS 
• JUNE 14 = SAT, STARTS 1 PM, LASTING 2-4 HOURS 
• JUNE 25 = WED, STARTS 7 PM, LASTING 2-3 HOURS 

All gaming sessions are held at my home in Enola PA. For those needing directions to my house, please contact me via email or by leaving a comment on this blog post.   

 

Note that the JUNE 14 session date may change. That day is also the date of Games Day Baltimore, a 1-day miniatures convention sponsored by Games Workshop and held at the Baltimore Convention near Inner Harbor. I won't bother going to this show myself, but if someone wishes to join me for a day-trip, then let me know by no later than this Wednesday (May 28) so we can plan a carpool down there accordingly. If some of us do head down to the con, then I'll be rescheduling the JUNE 14 session to another date (either evening of 6/11 or evening of 6/15). If nobody else wants to go, then the JUNE 14 gaming session will remain scheduled as-is. 

 

With the GODS schedule in-hand, please review it and let me know which gaming sessions you plan to attend. Based on the responses and participants planning to attend, I will choose games to play at a later point (since virtually everyone said they're game to play anything).

 

FINALLY.... Shortly, I will have news of a HeroScape campaign that I'm going to start soon. It can accomodate up to 6 players, each controlling their own kingdom and 1200-point army (broken into 3 legions). The game is centered around a new campaign system I've developed, where the object is to capture provinces within the world of Valhalla through conquest and diplomacy. The campaign will run for several months, with the eventual campaign winner being awarded a prize. More info will be forthcoming, so stay tuned to this blog. 

 

SEVY out!

 

GODS Game Group -- Game Inventory

Hi Folks,

The following is an inventory of tabletop games that I have available to play during our gaming get-togethers.

I have compiled this list so that you're aware of the types of games that we might play together at GODS sessions. You can find detailed info about each game by visiting BoardGameGeek (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/). Also, feel free to ask me questions about any of the games in my collection. Many of them are new to me as well!

If there are particular games on this list that you're really eager & excited to play, then please let me know and I'll make sure that they get to the table during our scheduled sessions.

I've broken out the list into 6 major categories (Adventure, Miniatures, Party, Sports, Strategy, and Wargame).

<> My personal favorites are highlighted in blue.
<> Games that are on my "Sell List" (to be sold) are highlighted in red. Contact me if interested.

On with the list!

ADVENTURE

• Co-Operative = Arkham Horror, Shadows Over Camelot
• Head-to-Head = Dungeon Twister, Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
• Quest = Dark Tower, Doom, Pirate's Cove, Prophecy, Rogue Trooper, Talisman

MINIATURES

• Mass Combat (Historical) = DBA, DBM, Tactica, Ancient & Medieval Warfare (Neil Thomas)
• Mass Combat (Fantasy/Sci-Fi) = Armies of Arcana, Battlestorm, Celtos, Crucible, Hordes of the Things (HOTT), Orc's Drift, Sword of Severnia, Vis Magica, Wargods of Aegyptus, Warhammer, Warmaster, Warrior Heroes
• Skirmish = AT-43, Chronopia, Gnome Wars, HeroScape, Monster Island, Warlord, Wings of War
• Racing = All Wound Up

PARTY

• Dice = Pass the Pigs, Yahtzee
• Drawing = Thinkblot
• Trivia = Facts In Five*, Image, Scene It! (Movie Edition), Trivial Pursuit, VH1 Pop-Up Video
• Word = Apples to Apples, Balderdash, Jargon, Password, RSVP, Scrabble, Wise & Otherwise

* Good party game, but currently have 2 copies of this (one to keep, and one to sell).

SPORTS

• Dexterity = STIGA Rod Hockey
• Simulation = Bowl Bound, NHL Strategy, Pursue the Pennant, Sports Illustrated Baseball, Sports Illustrated Football, Statis Pro Baseball, Strat-O-Matic Hockey
• Strategy = Americana Golf, Battleball, Blood Bowl (1st Ed)*, Blue Line Hockey, Let's Go to the Races (VCR game), Thinking Man's Golf, Win Place & Show

* Looking to sell old 1st Edition game and purchase new 3rd Edition game w/ minis.

STRATEGY

• Abstract = Backgammon, Breakthru, Othello, Rummy-O, Twixt
• Area Control or Route Building = Carcassonne, Domaine, Through the Desert, Ticket to Ride
• Cards = Chaos Marauders, Citadels, Colossal Arena, Condottiere, Cutthroat Caverns, Guillotine, Illuminati, Ivanhoe, Monkeys On the Moon, Mystery Rummy, Pinochle, Poker, Saboteur, Slapshot, Starship Catan
• Deduction = Mystery of the Abbey
• Economic / Resource Mgmt = Acquire, Executive Decision, Kingsburg, Monopoly, Rollout, Stocks & Bonds
• Negotiation = Cash 'N Guns, Cosmic Encounter*, Diplomacy

* Have the old West End version. Looking to sell it and buy the new FFG version once it's released in 2008.

WARGAME

• Abstract = Feudal, Knightmare Chess, Lionheart
• Campaign = Attack!, Battle Cry (American Heritage), Dark Emperor, Hammer of the Scots, Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage, Monsters Menace America, Nexus Ops, Russian Campaign, Wizard Kings
• Tactical = Battle Cry (Avalon Hill), Battlelore, Gettysburg, Tactics II, Tide of Iron

That's all for now!

Severnius
Keeper of the Games