Things happen in the real world that get in the way of our lives as gamers. It's part of the reality of this life. And that's not just for us gamer sorts, but for everyone with hobbies. Sometimes, the real world gets in the way. Regardless of the form it takes, hurdles pop up that must be navigated before we can get back to ourselves. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, but suffice it to say, I've recently been drudging through one such period of my life and I haven't had the time I'd like to have for my gaming pursuits. So it goes. But, I'm climbing back in the saddle so to speak, and here's a recap of what the Grinning Gamer has been up to lately...
Rage!
This is a CCG based on the RPG Werewolf: the Apocalypse. For those of you keeping score at home, the RPG and the CCG have both been out of print for a long time. White Wolf Studios has a new line of World of Darkness games, including a new werewolf game, but WW:tA has been dead for awhile. But, one of my close friends and I have a lot of cards left over from way back when we were playing. Since we've been playing some old school World of Darkness lately (which I'll get to shortly), we've decided to break out the old cards. It's funny though. We used to play a lot, but had the rules all botched up. Now that we're playing correctly, the game is a lot more fun, though there are a handful of cards that seem to just break the game, but I guess that's to be expected. We're starting off easy with single tribe decks for everyone. I'm playing Glass Walkers because I decided after digging through the cards that they were the tribe I felt had the best synergy within themselves that was still available. So, I think it's been fun so far. I'm looking forward to getting into some bigger multiplayer games. The two player games don't have the same dynamic. They were still fun though... More to come on that later.
Werewolf: the Dark Ages
So we've rebooted our group's RP attempt at the World of Darkness. The last one fell through for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was a lack of communication within the group and a lack of experience all around. But, we're moving on. Currently, there are four of us playing, with a fifth possibly joining later. But we'll see how that goes. Right now, I'm enjoying the game. The same close friend from above and I made our characters together and have rekindled some of the old gaming fun we used to have back in high school (which has been longer ago than I care to admit). Basically, we're playing Shadow Lord cousins that are nobility. His character is in line for a Duchy, mine is the cousin that's just around and has a little power he swings around like a club to make sure everyone knows he's better than them. The other characters include a Silent Strider and a third Shadow Lord that's a lupus. The game is going well so far. At time it's hard to get into character, but others it fits like a glove. Still learning the ropes of the character, and I'll get there.
Warhammer
I haven't had nearly enough time for this game lately. I've been working on a few modeling projects, and doing a little painting when I can, but even that's been slow. I haven't had the space to set up anything and leave it where I see it every time I'm at the desk, so it's been even harder to keep focused on. Hopefully the new living arrangements will help with that a little. It's not the same as playing, but I have been a little more involved in the local stuff a bit behind the scenes. Sadly, I'm not as involved in Midwest Warfare as I have been in the past, mostly due to time limitations and travel. But I have been getting more involved in Battleland Games here in the local area. I'm going to be helping run and judge a tournament at the local game-con next month, so that's a plus. Time to start brushing up on my rules.
Magic
This is probably the game that it makes me the most sad that I haven't had the time or money for. As always, this game is my favorite. I've almost got my Legacy Merfolk deck put together, which is an investment that I hope pays off. Merfolk isn't one of the most powerful decks in the format, but it is one of the most consistent and cheapest. I haven't been keeping up with Standard very much, but the new core set looks solid. Nothing jumps out to me as broken yet, but I haven't really had time to get into it a lot. The new block coming up looks promising so far. It's based in the classical Greek/Roman mythos fantasy setting, which is awesome to me. There was also a bit of a hint that one of my personal favorite planeswalkers might be making a return, which is great news to me.
Computer games
I haven't been playing as much Guildwars 2 as I was, but I've been perusing Kerbal Space Program with a vengeance. I've been having trouble with my Munar missions though... Not able to land reliably and not able to dock in orbit, either... So... That's a drag. My rockets have improved, and I'm getting closer on my spaceplane programs, too.
So, that's where my gaming hobbies all sit at the moment. Most of them on shelves and boxes until the moving around is finished. Questions, comments, and ideas are welcomed as always.
SD13
Monday, July 29, 2013
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Online Gaming and Preperations
So, I have a few things I want to touch on before I go into much detail about my most recent gaming efforts. First of all, support your local game store is still a cause I think we should all be behind. Buy your materials there so they stay open. Otherwise, don't complain when they close and there's no place for you to go play. Secondly, I'd like to apologize to the community as a whole. I played Magic against a guy in my home town last weekend and because I was having bad luck, and he was on a deck that I thought was a scrub, I complained, talked down to him, and basically threw a fit. That's not appropriate behavior for any game environment. Were some of the things I said true? Absolutely. I was there to play test against other competitive decks, and his Dimir mill deck was most certainly not that. Does that mean the whole thing was a waste of my time? No. I should have told him up front that I wanted serious playtesting and that his deck wasn't what I needed to play against. That's bad form on my part, and I wish I could remember the guy's name, because I'd apologize directly.
Moving on...
Guild Wars 2... Holy crap, give me my money back and stop holding my life hostage! I love this game. It's the best MMO I've played to date. The dailies are relevant, built into what you're already doing, and easy to get done every day. The crafting skill give you access to actually useful gear at every step of the way instead of being able to craft some kinda cool stuff at max level only. The story line is ever evolving and it is interesting to play through. I love that every character you make can have an individual story line to play along the way as well. I wish I could go into some detail about the instances, but since I'm only leveling, I haven't had the opportunity to do any yet. But I'm very much invested in the game at this point. Also, having it buy to play, with micro-transactions covering the rest of the monetary costs means that this game only costs you as much as you want it to instead of having to pay a monthly fee like others.
In other news, there's a TCGPlayer Diamond open event in Indy on the 6th of April. I'm planning to attend (finances available) and I plan to play a very similar Esper Tokens build to what I've been playing. I've made a few tweaks, and in the games that I've played so far, I love it. It seems very solid. There are a few other directions I can take the deck that have been suggested, but I haven't made up my mind on those yet. All in all, this is probably the deck I'll be playing until rotation this fall.
So happy gaming. Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women. There is no sweeter sound.
SD13
Moving on...
Guild Wars 2... Holy crap, give me my money back and stop holding my life hostage! I love this game. It's the best MMO I've played to date. The dailies are relevant, built into what you're already doing, and easy to get done every day. The crafting skill give you access to actually useful gear at every step of the way instead of being able to craft some kinda cool stuff at max level only. The story line is ever evolving and it is interesting to play through. I love that every character you make can have an individual story line to play along the way as well. I wish I could go into some detail about the instances, but since I'm only leveling, I haven't had the opportunity to do any yet. But I'm very much invested in the game at this point. Also, having it buy to play, with micro-transactions covering the rest of the monetary costs means that this game only costs you as much as you want it to instead of having to pay a monthly fee like others.
In other news, there's a TCGPlayer Diamond open event in Indy on the 6th of April. I'm planning to attend (finances available) and I plan to play a very similar Esper Tokens build to what I've been playing. I've made a few tweaks, and in the games that I've played so far, I love it. It seems very solid. There are a few other directions I can take the deck that have been suggested, but I haven't made up my mind on those yet. All in all, this is probably the deck I'll be playing until rotation this fall.
So happy gaming. Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women. There is no sweeter sound.
SD13
Monday, March 11, 2013
Leagues, Tournaments, and Other Adventures
Alright, so an update about the Mordheim stuff. I won the first Battlelands league by a landslide. I've already registered for the second and I'm playing Beastmen this time around. I'm looking forward to getting started. I should have my core built and painted by the end of the week if all goes well.
Next up is Magic. I've started playing again. This Saturday, the 10th, I played in the Star City Games Open in Indianapolis. I started off bad. I had been in a hurry to get to the event and I was still filling my deck list out during the player's meeting. They announced at the player's meeting that this was the biggest SCGOpen to date, at 775 registered players. There were to be eleven rounds of swiss before cutting to top 8. So, let me give you the over view, then I'll touch on a few highlights.
I lost my first round. I then went on to beat the kid I was playing round two and went on to win round three as well. Round four I was really stupid (I'll touch on this more in the highlights) and ended up losing. I lost round five and round six. It was a kick in the pants and I was really shaken out of my focus. I went and sat down over by myself and ate some jerky and granola and just tried to clear my head. After refocusing and getting the bad start out of my way, I went on to win out the rest of the day.
Here are some of the highlights of my day. I screwed up in the hurry to write my list out and missed my Hallowed Fountains, leaving my deck at 56 cards on the paper. I got pulled aside and told about this during round two. So I got a game loss. The good news is I went ahead and beat the kid two-nothing after that for the round win. No sweat, still feeling alright and at least I was even again.
I went into round four with a 2-1 record and was feeling pretty good. I'd been able to recover from my early mistakes and was feeling strong going into the round. When I read my pairing, I found I was against a man named Kyle Zimmerman. The name seemed familiar, but I couldn't place it. I made the worst play I've made in the last couple of years of competitive play in game one, and it probably cost me the next two rounds because I'd lost my focus. I flashed a Snapcaster in early on to block a big nasty and to flash back the Tragic Slip in my yard back to finish it off. Solid plan, solid play. However, I messed up and flashed him in, then played the Tragic right away and ended up two-for-noning myself. That rattled me hard. I was so shaken up that I missed that I was set to win the game later and ended up giving it away. After getting trounced in game two, Kyle was nice enough to compliment my deck and pointed out the mistakes I made in game one. Apparently the rest of my play was solid. We talked a bit about his list, since I complimented his use of Thatcher's Revolt in a Naya Humans (blitz) deck and he told me what it was really in there for and how it worked. He was a pretty cool guy, really. (Wait for the big reveal at the end of the post...)
So I went into round five feeling like I'd been kicked in the gut and couldn't really focus very well. I lost pretty quick to an UWR Aggro (as I've started calling it "Murica") in a close game two race. It was over fast enough that I had about fourty-five minutes or more left between rounds, so I took the time to get a snack, a drink, and refocus myself. I went into round six feeling a little better, but still lost.
I still want to talk about my round six match. I was playing with Mathew, a cool gentleman from Mt. Vernon Illinois. He was piloting Murica! as well, and I ended up losing on game three. But we were talking and he was telling me about his friend's shop that just opened down in Mt. Vernon. I would like to encourage those of you (though I doubt I have any readers down there) that are in that area to stop by Asgard Keep and buy some cards, play some games, and get to know the locals. There's a rant to follow on that mater at the end of the post as well.
So, here we go after six rounds, I was getting my rump kicked around and I was feeling kinda crappy, but after loosing round six, I was feeling a bit better. Even though I had lost, round six was relaxed, calm, and easy to enjoy. I sat down for round seven with a very careless attitude and I ended up winning. And then I won round eight... And nine, and before I knew it I was back even at four and four. Then I was on a roll. I did something that none of the other guys thought was possible and a few of the other guys had dropped over because they had hit the dreaded x-three mark. I won out the rest of my day and finished very strong in the standings, though I was still a match win away from winning any prize money. That's happened twice now.
So what else should be discussed after such a long and drawn out event? Well, how about a deck break down of what I saw in the metagame? I played against "Murica!" three times, Esper midranged once, Bant Flash twice, Bant wolf run once, and an interesting Bant Mutants once. I played against Naya Blitz (humans) twice. My Esper Token build was strong against most of the field. I lost to Naya in close races that it felt like I just couldn't win, and I lost to Murica! twice for the same reason. The games I won against them, I won because I stuck an early Doomed Traveler. That card is a very strong bit of defense against early aggression. I also found that Blind Obedience stuck early enough is good not just because it slows down their haste creatures but because the lifegain from extort is completely relevant.
So, now for the closing comments. Remember the Kyle guy from round four? Yeah, as it turns out, after a brief but fruitful Google search, I found that he was winning and top 8ing a bunch of Qualifiers and SCG Opens last year with Delver. So the single worst play I've made in years, I made against a pro who will forever remember me (if at all) as "that guy who screwed up his Snapcaster play and then gave away the game." Awesome.
I'd also like to congratulate two of the players from my local group on their top 64 finishes. Hayden Treadway and Cody Albaugh both made the money this round, as did one of the gentlemen from Legends that I play with on occasion, and a buddy from Full Moon Games, Gareth. I'm proud that the local area is producing some high quality players and that I've been a part of such a fun group.
Secondly, the bit about local game stores. Over the last year or so, I've become a very outspoken promoter of local game stores everywhere. Not the big ones that are chains and have huge player bases that are in major cities and are running very little risk of closing day to day. Those will survive. The ones that need our support are the little ones. The ones that have only been opened a year or so, or even less. Despite how you may feel about waiting, or about mail ordering stuff, you should go to these stores and buy gaming things. Spend money at them, don't just hang out (though you should do that as well). If you don't, they go away. Then, there's no where to go play. No place that'll host leagues or tournaments. And no place where you can go hang out and be yourself with your fellow nerds and gamers. So next time you're looking at SCG, or GamesWorkshop, or any other online avenue to buy your gaming materials, go to a the local store and get them there when you can.
I'm signing off on this one now. May you always find the answers,
SD13
Next up is Magic. I've started playing again. This Saturday, the 10th, I played in the Star City Games Open in Indianapolis. I started off bad. I had been in a hurry to get to the event and I was still filling my deck list out during the player's meeting. They announced at the player's meeting that this was the biggest SCGOpen to date, at 775 registered players. There were to be eleven rounds of swiss before cutting to top 8. So, let me give you the over view, then I'll touch on a few highlights.
I lost my first round. I then went on to beat the kid I was playing round two and went on to win round three as well. Round four I was really stupid (I'll touch on this more in the highlights) and ended up losing. I lost round five and round six. It was a kick in the pants and I was really shaken out of my focus. I went and sat down over by myself and ate some jerky and granola and just tried to clear my head. After refocusing and getting the bad start out of my way, I went on to win out the rest of the day.
Here are some of the highlights of my day. I screwed up in the hurry to write my list out and missed my Hallowed Fountains, leaving my deck at 56 cards on the paper. I got pulled aside and told about this during round two. So I got a game loss. The good news is I went ahead and beat the kid two-nothing after that for the round win. No sweat, still feeling alright and at least I was even again.
I went into round four with a 2-1 record and was feeling pretty good. I'd been able to recover from my early mistakes and was feeling strong going into the round. When I read my pairing, I found I was against a man named Kyle Zimmerman. The name seemed familiar, but I couldn't place it. I made the worst play I've made in the last couple of years of competitive play in game one, and it probably cost me the next two rounds because I'd lost my focus. I flashed a Snapcaster in early on to block a big nasty and to flash back the Tragic Slip in my yard back to finish it off. Solid plan, solid play. However, I messed up and flashed him in, then played the Tragic right away and ended up two-for-noning myself. That rattled me hard. I was so shaken up that I missed that I was set to win the game later and ended up giving it away. After getting trounced in game two, Kyle was nice enough to compliment my deck and pointed out the mistakes I made in game one. Apparently the rest of my play was solid. We talked a bit about his list, since I complimented his use of Thatcher's Revolt in a Naya Humans (blitz) deck and he told me what it was really in there for and how it worked. He was a pretty cool guy, really. (Wait for the big reveal at the end of the post...)
So I went into round five feeling like I'd been kicked in the gut and couldn't really focus very well. I lost pretty quick to an UWR Aggro (as I've started calling it "Murica") in a close game two race. It was over fast enough that I had about fourty-five minutes or more left between rounds, so I took the time to get a snack, a drink, and refocus myself. I went into round six feeling a little better, but still lost.
I still want to talk about my round six match. I was playing with Mathew, a cool gentleman from Mt. Vernon Illinois. He was piloting Murica! as well, and I ended up losing on game three. But we were talking and he was telling me about his friend's shop that just opened down in Mt. Vernon. I would like to encourage those of you (though I doubt I have any readers down there) that are in that area to stop by Asgard Keep and buy some cards, play some games, and get to know the locals. There's a rant to follow on that mater at the end of the post as well.
So, here we go after six rounds, I was getting my rump kicked around and I was feeling kinda crappy, but after loosing round six, I was feeling a bit better. Even though I had lost, round six was relaxed, calm, and easy to enjoy. I sat down for round seven with a very careless attitude and I ended up winning. And then I won round eight... And nine, and before I knew it I was back even at four and four. Then I was on a roll. I did something that none of the other guys thought was possible and a few of the other guys had dropped over because they had hit the dreaded x-three mark. I won out the rest of my day and finished very strong in the standings, though I was still a match win away from winning any prize money. That's happened twice now.
So what else should be discussed after such a long and drawn out event? Well, how about a deck break down of what I saw in the metagame? I played against "Murica!" three times, Esper midranged once, Bant Flash twice, Bant wolf run once, and an interesting Bant Mutants once. I played against Naya Blitz (humans) twice. My Esper Token build was strong against most of the field. I lost to Naya in close races that it felt like I just couldn't win, and I lost to Murica! twice for the same reason. The games I won against them, I won because I stuck an early Doomed Traveler. That card is a very strong bit of defense against early aggression. I also found that Blind Obedience stuck early enough is good not just because it slows down their haste creatures but because the lifegain from extort is completely relevant.
So, now for the closing comments. Remember the Kyle guy from round four? Yeah, as it turns out, after a brief but fruitful Google search, I found that he was winning and top 8ing a bunch of Qualifiers and SCG Opens last year with Delver. So the single worst play I've made in years, I made against a pro who will forever remember me (if at all) as "that guy who screwed up his Snapcaster play and then gave away the game." Awesome.
I'd also like to congratulate two of the players from my local group on their top 64 finishes. Hayden Treadway and Cody Albaugh both made the money this round, as did one of the gentlemen from Legends that I play with on occasion, and a buddy from Full Moon Games, Gareth. I'm proud that the local area is producing some high quality players and that I've been a part of such a fun group.
Secondly, the bit about local game stores. Over the last year or so, I've become a very outspoken promoter of local game stores everywhere. Not the big ones that are chains and have huge player bases that are in major cities and are running very little risk of closing day to day. Those will survive. The ones that need our support are the little ones. The ones that have only been opened a year or so, or even less. Despite how you may feel about waiting, or about mail ordering stuff, you should go to these stores and buy gaming things. Spend money at them, don't just hang out (though you should do that as well). If you don't, they go away. Then, there's no where to go play. No place that'll host leagues or tournaments. And no place where you can go hang out and be yourself with your fellow nerds and gamers. So next time you're looking at SCG, or GamesWorkshop, or any other online avenue to buy your gaming materials, go to a the local store and get them there when you can.
I'm signing off on this one now. May you always find the answers,
SD13
Friday, February 8, 2013
Live, Learn, Gain XP.
So life has been an adventure all its own lately. I'm not going to go into a lot of details, but suffice it to say that things have been changing in my personal life and that's kept me away from some of the gaming I love so much. It is what it is.
Even so, with all the other crap going on, I've managed to keep some time open for the local miniwargamming shop's Mordheim campaign. I think right now I'm bouncing around in the top 4 or 5 out of around 20ish players. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. If you haven't played this game yet, I highly recommend it. It's fast paced, fairly easy to learn, and very quick to play. Part of the reason I've managed to work that in even ahead of my other gaming pursuits such as Magic or Warhammer is that each game only takes around an hour at most and some are much much shorter.
I think my next post will be a battle report from a game. I'll take notes and pics of the game I'm playing today and post them on here for the enjoyment of the few readers I have. I would say I'd make a video, but I'm not much into that kinda thing. I may have a scheme to get some more hits onto the Midwest Warfare group though... I'll have to talk to my buddy about it this weekend.
I'm going to take requests this time. Are there any games that I'm known to you to play that you want to hear more about as a reader? Which of the games that I write about bore you to tears and you skip over? I know I'm kinda spastic with what topics I cover and the frequency of my posts, but now that things are calming down, hopefully I'll be able to pick that up again.
Here's to the future. May it hold many crit hits and miraculous top-decks for us all.
SD13
Even so, with all the other crap going on, I've managed to keep some time open for the local miniwargamming shop's Mordheim campaign. I think right now I'm bouncing around in the top 4 or 5 out of around 20ish players. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. If you haven't played this game yet, I highly recommend it. It's fast paced, fairly easy to learn, and very quick to play. Part of the reason I've managed to work that in even ahead of my other gaming pursuits such as Magic or Warhammer is that each game only takes around an hour at most and some are much much shorter.
I think my next post will be a battle report from a game. I'll take notes and pics of the game I'm playing today and post them on here for the enjoyment of the few readers I have. I would say I'd make a video, but I'm not much into that kinda thing. I may have a scheme to get some more hits onto the Midwest Warfare group though... I'll have to talk to my buddy about it this weekend.
I'm going to take requests this time. Are there any games that I'm known to you to play that you want to hear more about as a reader? Which of the games that I write about bore you to tears and you skip over? I know I'm kinda spastic with what topics I cover and the frequency of my posts, but now that things are calming down, hopefully I'll be able to pick that up again.
Here's to the future. May it hold many crit hits and miraculous top-decks for us all.
SD13
Monday, January 7, 2013
More Mini Madness!
So I've been working on the 40K campaign a bit, which has proven to take a lot more work than I first anticipated. I've also been working on a new game that has caught my interest quite heavily. Mordhiem by Games Workshop has been very much at the forefront of my gaming mind lately. I'm also excited about the next Magic set as well. So let's break it down.
The campaign is going to be cool if I can get all the details worked out. I want it to start with a boarding action that takes place throughout the ship. Multiple small battles each played separately but with consequences that tie into the whole campaign from round to round. I'll illuminate that idea more as it comes out though.
Mordheim is what has really been eating my spare time lately. Since I decided to get involved in the campaign that's starting this month at the local store (Battleland Games), I've traded some cards off to pick up bits and models to make my warband. Mordheim is a skirmish game based in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. You play with a small force of troops that range from three up to 20 or so members. As you play, these "characters" gain experience and can acquire new gear and skills. It's very much a cross between a roleplaying game and a table-top minis game. But in a much cooler way than 4th Edition D&D. I won my first game of it yesterday and I'm supposed to be going to play a game or two this afternoon when a friend gets a hold of me.
And then there's Gatecrash. The new Magic set that's coming out soon. From what I've seen of the spoilers, I'm very much looking forward to this one. I haven't enjoyed the Standard format at all over the last few years and since the release of Return to Ravnica, that's changed. Things are heading in the direction I like and I enjoy the more wide-open feel of the format. From what I've played and seen so far, there isn't a single deck that's really dominating. Though there are a few cards that are, such as Thragtusk and Shpinx's Revelation. But that's to be expected in any format.
So that's all from me for now. I'll post more about my gaming adventures soon. Until then, may the dice be ever in your favor.
SD13
The campaign is going to be cool if I can get all the details worked out. I want it to start with a boarding action that takes place throughout the ship. Multiple small battles each played separately but with consequences that tie into the whole campaign from round to round. I'll illuminate that idea more as it comes out though.
Mordheim is what has really been eating my spare time lately. Since I decided to get involved in the campaign that's starting this month at the local store (Battleland Games), I've traded some cards off to pick up bits and models to make my warband. Mordheim is a skirmish game based in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. You play with a small force of troops that range from three up to 20 or so members. As you play, these "characters" gain experience and can acquire new gear and skills. It's very much a cross between a roleplaying game and a table-top minis game. But in a much cooler way than 4th Edition D&D. I won my first game of it yesterday and I'm supposed to be going to play a game or two this afternoon when a friend gets a hold of me.
And then there's Gatecrash. The new Magic set that's coming out soon. From what I've seen of the spoilers, I'm very much looking forward to this one. I haven't enjoyed the Standard format at all over the last few years and since the release of Return to Ravnica, that's changed. Things are heading in the direction I like and I enjoy the more wide-open feel of the format. From what I've played and seen so far, there isn't a single deck that's really dominating. Though there are a few cards that are, such as Thragtusk and Shpinx's Revelation. But that's to be expected in any format.
So that's all from me for now. I'll post more about my gaming adventures soon. Until then, may the dice be ever in your favor.
SD13
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