March Madness Game Day Review

March Madness was a huge success and I have to say it was even better than my Birthday Game Day last year (Which is a tall order since that was one of the best I have had in my life. We had with a record turnout of 12 folks at the highpoint including a few newbies to the group like Renee, Tim Scott’s wife, and Eric Letarte, a friend of the Myers clan, who were all in attendance as well.

Tim Scott made his second appearance, and rounded out the rest with Jordy, Tim Myers, Mike D. Jim B. James M, Andrew M. and rounded out with yours truly.

We opened with The Spectre battle, and because James and I (having discussed the game the night before) decided to give each player a 300 point army instead of 200 based on the 9 players who took me on 1:1. Well, Huge mistake on my point. Although it was over an hour until the Spectre took a hit, once the groups came together and worked out a strategy, it was end of the line for me in a matter of 2-3 rounds. Although my goal of taking out the heavy hitters was accomplished at least by taking out 2 Supermen, and a few others of choice. Although I got my butt kicked, and got made fun of for having to lift the Spectre’s Cape to view one of his dials making it look rather “provocative” it was a fun time and introduced a bunch of folks to HeroClix in a fun unique way.

Afterward we moved to break up games including Blockus, Guillotine, and a few other fast filler games before one group moved to El Grande and Betrayal at House on the Hill.

Again, I did not survive Betrayal, but in my defense, Jim who became the traitor, read the haunt wrong giving him a slight advantage, like 150 times for powerful then he should have been. We may have lost but now we have total right to rip him a new one. Well worth the loss.

We broke for dinner and dessert, which was the greatest ice cream cake I think I ever had, if not for the fact the piece I had made me feel I had eaten an entire ice cream truck.

Finally the evening wrapped up with the New RPG and 8 players (9 when Erin joined later on) I will have another full recap of the game elsewhere, but I will say I think I pulled off my goal to creep everyone out a bit and make the game a fast paced thrill ride. Everyone got to participate and we had some great laughs, not the least of which was the last line of the night, “I turned into water!”

Way to go Eric, we are happy for you bro. Hopefully that is enough for him to return to see all the sick things I can do with water…

Every RPG should start with one of these

Here is a little video I put together for my RPG group to help get them in the mood.

If they find Earth, it will not have a Battlestar CCG

Well in a strange twist, the most popular series on Sci-Fi, and one of the top 3 Science fiction series on TV was not strong enough to keep the CCG (Collectible Card Game) version of the show alive.

Sales slumped so bad that Wizkids even cancelled the next expansion for the game (which was due in February 07) so it will never see the light of day, or Earth for that matter.

Battlestar was not a bad CCG. Once the mechanics are learned it plays well, and has many features of current CCG games with some new twists. So why the failure?

Mostly, in a world of 1000 CCG games on the shelves, and every game trying to capture the awesome Juggernaut that is Magic the Gathering, this game simply does not inspire you.

Fans of the show may like the cards and artwork, but it plays like many other CCG games, and fails to draw you into the Battlestar world. For those not familiar with the show, there are simply better games and more wide spread games out there.

In the end I am glad I grabbed a few copies and boosters. Who know, they may be worth more after the game leaves the shelves for good.

So ends this transmission, "By your command!"

A fond farewell

Today we say goodbye to Michael Barnes on the BGG. Michael is the first BGG user to be banned and although I have not always agreed with his opinions, he was a huge contributor and added spice to what I sorely believe will become a much lighter fair on the BGG.

I fear this also opens the floodgates for future banning and worse, a more critical censorship of what can be posted on BGG.

I always though if you did not like what a person said, you could ignore it or the types of forum psots they are prone to do, but I guess I am too much of an adult and take responsability for myself, unliek those who need to ban those they don't agree with or just plain dislike.

Too bad I say.

So long Michael.

Your may be Ameritrash if

To Follow the Eurosnoot Blog, here is the official SGW "You may be Ameritrash (American style games player) if" list.

1. You think, "Who give a rat's ass about rules, this game has Zombies and half naked chicks!"



2. A games value is dependant on not just how many dice it has, but how many of them are custom dice.



3. You have every variant of Risk, including both versions of Star Wars Risk.



4. You pay $80.00 for a game because it comes with miniatures, that you can then spend another $80.00 on plus days of work to paint, all for the thrill of playing the game once, maybe twice, then boxing up again.



5. You know who Michael Barnes is.



6. You buy any game with name Zombie, Monster, Evil, or Attack in the title.



7. You use the cubes from the few Euro games your buddies talked you into getting to prop up your Heroclix figures in the back row of your collection.



8. You do a game check at every game day. If you cannot pronounce it, you will not play it.



9. You have played Warhammer 40k and Space Hulk and enjoy them for their subtle variance but similar thematic elements. Plus miniatures are cool!



10. You have every played a game based on a movie or TV show.

You may be a Eurosnoot if...

For those who do not know Eurosnoot is a title give to Euro gamers by American game players. While anyone can be a Eurosnoot (not just Europeans) many of you may not even know you are a Eurosnoot, so now you can take my "You May be a Eurosnoot if" test.

You may be a Eurosnoot if...

1. You could care less about the theme of a game as long as it has small wooden cubes.


2. You actually know who Reiner Knizia is.


3. Most of your games have titles that are not English.


4. Dice, we don't need no stinken dice!


5. You think being a Bulgarian Grain Farmer or Aztec Accountant sounds more intriguing than being a Zombie Hunter.


6. You played Risk once, but is was on a dare, and you were drunk, otherwise you never would have played it.


7. You bought the expansion to Thurn and Taxis because you felt there was so much more that could be explored with a game about creating Postal Routes in Europe and the turn of the century.


8. You think, "Why have miniatures when Meeples are so functional."


9. You have a different expansion for Carcassone for each day of the week.


10. You painted a Rubicks cube all black and presented it to yourself to represent your ultimate dominance at all Euro Games