Category Archives: Lonely Gamer

I play two-player games with myself. I have thoughts on these games. A further explanation.

d20-7 Looking for Lunch Boxes to Store Games In

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Two days ago I received my Double Decktet from The Game Crafter. The quality was quite satisfactory, without any die-cut errors. The stickers for the suit chips were alright, not as misaligned as some I’ve seen on BoardGameGeek. I am really very happy with this set, although I wish the suit chips were smaller, they do fit into the My Little Pony lunchbox neatly.

I also found the cards compact enough to fit in a copy of the Vanessa Tarot to play Gnostica and Zarcana with. There’s little room in the box for rules, but I figure that I can use my Kindle Paperwhite for bought books (like the revised and expanded Decktet Book) and my iPad for the various game system wikis (such as the Decktet Wiki, Icehouse Games wiki, and the Piecepack wiki).

I can actually fit in a few more things, so I’ve been thinking about what to fit. I need some Ice Dice (I have the die face images to make my own with), the World War 5 map, player shields (for RAMbots and possibly other games), and so on. As well as a score track bandana of some sort; not sure where to get one, exactly, but it’s necessary for one of the Decktet games.

I went looking for the Doctor Who metal lunchbox, but it wasn’t available from my local game store (which had them in stock two weeks ago; I guess I should have picked it up then). I wanted to put non-game-system card games in there, like Bohnanza, No Mercy, Fairy Tale, etc. Extra points if I can fit in both Race for the Galaxy plus expansions and Smash Up plus expansions.

Instead I picked up a Star Trek (Classic) lunch box, which is likely to be roomier than the Doctor Who box by just a little bit. I plan to stock it full of card games temporarily, but then move the card games to the Doctor Who lunchbox and store tile-based games in the Star Trek box. I’m thinking Dragons of Kir (along with my second chessboard bandana), flat chess pieces (for me to craft somehow, probably using wooden circles bought from Michael’s or something) along with Knightmare Chess, Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers along with another score track bandana or some such, and so on.

I love this idea of packing as many games as possible into a small space. I’m aware that carrying three lunch boxes is a bit of a drag, but still.

So excited. This will be awesome. I’ll see about posting pictures, glorious pictures, when I’m done packing the Star Trek box.

Hm. Just had another thought. What if I used a lunchbox to pack in as many exclusively two-player games as possible? Like the Kosmos 2-player line? SO EXCITE.

d20-3 Update on the Box of Game Systems

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Partially exploded from my metal lunchbox: 6 full icehouse stashes, 5×5 Volcano grid, 4 Martian Coasters, JCD color piecepack from Blue Panther, Crown Royal bag, chessboard bandana, various dice, decktet.

Soon to be added: professionally printed double decktet and 60 decktet suit coins.

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Everything packed up inside. I think there’s enough room for the coming new stuff.

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All closed up and ready to go. Rules are on my Kindle Paperwhite.

D20-7 Game Systems in a My Little Pony Lunchbox

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For the first time in a while, I find myself speechless on the topic of games. It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed them—I have, greatly, and more so in the past few months than in a long, long time.

Right now I’m enjoying myself in one of the island’s quaint cafes, with an iced Mango Ceylon (which isn’t a half-bad blend, even if it turns out to be Republic of Tea, which does turn out decent blends some of the time). My iPad is before me, sitting actually vertically in the Logictech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover, and IA Writer is giving me the three-line focus mode that I am starting to love dearly.

(Really, it’s as though only seeing the last three lines in black, rather than a faded grey, is giving me permission to ram straight ahead and edit later instead of worrying over previously written words; good for first drafts of just about anything. Most of my blog posts are really just first drafts anyways, so this should help with the blogination. I wish more editors had this kind of mode. Although a side effect is that this parenthetical is going on for far longer than it should.)

So anyways, I’m getting interested in game systems again—that is, gaming materials that allow you to play more than one game with them. A great game system allows for many interesting games. A regular deck of cards is a great example, whether it’s a Western deck of hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds; or a tarock deck of cups, swords, batons, coins, and major arcana; or a hanafuda deck of seasons and flowers. Dominoes are another example, with both Western and Eastern flavors.

Often what can be thought of as a single game system (like a deck of 52 standard Western cards) can be combined with copies of itself to fuel more games. Such game systems can even only be partially used—consider a Pinochele deck, which consists of two Western decks but only the 9s to Kings plus Aces.

Game systems can take on a variety of shapes and forms. The chess set can be considered a game system with the many, many variants that can be played using the pieces. And there are numerous modern games out there, such as the esteemed Lost Cities, that can be implemented with one of the simplest game systems around: a deck of cards with six suits, numbered 1 to 15.

With a good game system, or even set of game systems—there’s no rule against combining different ones—one can have a small box of more games than one could play in a year, playing one game every day. I bought a My Little Pony lunchbox with this in mind.

The game systems I have in mind are more modern ones. I’m thinking of fitting the following into the box:

  • Piecepack set, the base set only
  • Pyramids, perhaps 15 per color
  • Chessboard bandana, folding purposes
  • Decktet, two extended packs plus suit chips

and maybe a few other odds and ends of games, plus Penny Gems for markers. Or maybe even full out suit chips.

My iPad will carry the rules, though it won’t be packed with the games.

And now I need to return to reading the Decktet book. I have the Decktet loaded into CardWarden, and have been enjoying the solitaire game Adaman.

Whether I enjoy myself with the Box O’ Gaming, I’ll need to tell you over the next few weeks. For now it’s just fun to gather the needed components (such as temporarily printing out my own extended decktet).

Hm. I really need to find a nice place to play some Agricola. I wish I had my game stuff with me, but it’s all at home and it’s way too nice to head home just yet.

D20-8 Dungeon Dice Kickstarter

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I’ve backed a lovely little dice game called Dungeon Dice. It’s a highly interactive game about trawling through a dungeon full of monsters and treasures, this time using dice to represent your level, monsters, spells, treasures, and artifacts (special treasures). The goal is to reach 3-4 fame points before anyone else.

The interactiveness comes from the deals and trades that players can make with one another. Many monsters are tough to beat on your own, especially at the beginning of the game when you don’t have the experience to level up, and, like Settlers of Catan, you’re not going to get ahead by refusing to make deals with everyone. “I’ll help you for a 50/50 chance at the treasure.” “You have a skeleton key, why not help me so that you can get a chance at an artifact?” This interactivity works even in 2-player mode.

I like this game because of the variety of dice involved, and because dice rolling and dungeon delving just work together—and the dice mechanics in Dungeon Dice abbreviate the typical D&D monster bashing experience.

If you don’t want to back yet, or are still hesitant about it, check out the Kickstarter page. They’ve got detailed explanations of the components and rules, as well as three gameplay videos about 2/3rds down the page. They even have a link to a free print-and-play download—print onto a large sticker sheet, cut and apply to 16mm dice, et voila. Warning—there are a lot of dice involved!

Best of all? They’ve been funded and are on their way to stretch goals. Someone has also backed them at a high enough level to add two special Kickstarter-exclusive monster dice to the game!

D20-14 requires some thought

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Hmm. I rolled a 14 on my d20, which means a review. But reviews are quite difficult for me to do, as I wish to do the book justice (whether in praising it, in ripping it apart, or in expressing meh in amusing ways).

So instead I will talk about the games I’ve received quite recently and are yet unplayed.

Most recently, I’ve gotten Smash Up, from AEG, which is not so much a deck-building game as one where you smash together themed pre-constructed decks (such as dinosaurs and zombies, or pirates and aliens) and battle with your minions for bases to score points. The expansion has yet to arrive, and I look forwards to a steampunk-plants smash-up.

I also received Survive! Escape from Atlantis, a remake of an older game with far better components. You need to move your people off a sinking island, but the waters are infested with sharks, sea monsters, and whales! Can you get your most valuable meeples to safety? Expansions, also being sent in the mail, will include giant squid and helpful dolphins.

I now have in my hot little hands Mice & Mystics, from Plaid Hat Games, and look forwards to enjoyable times playing as mice that need to battle and escape birds, rats, spiders, and cats!

Last but not least, I have Takenoko, from the designer of 7 Wonders and Tokaido. Colorful bamboo must be cultivated according to your secret goal, but a voracious panda, pet to the Emperor, devours everything in sight! I think.

An LotR:LCG Saga: The Hobbit – We Must Away, Ere Break of Day

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ETA: I played things wrong; my threat being that high meant that all three trolls should have engaged. Been playing the game wrong all this time! Better rewind and replay a bunch of stuff.

I’m using this deck and blew through the first quest with the ease I associate with Passage Through Mirkwood, even though the quest is a lot harder than Mirkwood—and getting the best result, where you win Orcrist, Foe-Hammer, and Sting, is far more difficult and something I didn’t achieve.

Mind you, even with this deck, there are a couple of things to keep in mind with the quest, namely:

1. Build up resources on Bilbo Baggins, you’ll need them to (a) unsack characters when the trolls come out, and (b) to claim objective cards that let you have access to the Troll Cave (Troll Key, optionally Troll Purse).

2. Quest slowly through the first phase. You want to build up allies, get a Troll Camp in the staging area (otherwise Bilbo can’t unsack people), and build up resources on Bilbo. It’s ok to fail at questing in this case, though you might want to keep an eye on your threat as well.

3. Read through the Sack cards (there are only seven) and determine what conditions would cause a character to get sacked. Then, try your best to make sure that you’re not in a position where your best characters and/or heroes are sacked. For instance, don’t dress up the Erebor Battle Master with more attachments than other characters.

4. When engaged with trolls or about to be engaged with trolls, do not exhaust Bilbo for any reason other than unsacking characters after the combat phase has resolved. You don’t want an exhausted Bilbo to get sacked, then even he can’t unsack himself. Note: this concern goes away with Fast Hitch, though this deck doesn’t have it. Improvement time?

5. The encounter deck for this quest is made up primarily of treachery cards and locations. This makes it easy to quest too quickly if you’re not careful, which will result in pain when the three big hairy trolls come out.

For more about this quest, see this FFG forum thread.

Erebor Battle Master reminds me of Eowyn, except on the combat rather than questing side. Their abilities aren’t exactly parallel; but their utility in certain kinds of quests are.

An amusing thing about the trolls: I ended up engaging them from hardest to easiest instead of the other way around due to the amount of threat I got, but with Erebor Battle Master, Khazad! Khazad!, Goblin-Cleaver, and Dwarrowdelf Axes I was able to one-shot each troll. I ended up not using my Feint for the last and littlist one.

This is one of the few times I’ve played a single-deck solo, rather than working two decks. I don’t mind using other people’s decks, as it does teach me about the synergy between cards and the various strategies and play styles available.

Scoring:

Final Threat 44
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero 0
Damage Tokens on Heroes 4 (all on Gimli)
Turns taken x 10 70
Minus Victory Points -12 (all three Trolls)
Total 106

In other news, getting a binder and Ultra Pro pages to store my cards has been rather a success. I have the following sections:

- Heroes
- Spirit
- Lore
- Tactics
- Leadership

Each major set or cycle is ordered by character, then enchantment, then event cards. I do no other sorting. Three cards store easily to one slot, so no need to worry about duplicates taking up extra pockets. I can flip through pages easily and gaze at nine cards at a time, which covers ground very quickly, especially if I know what major set or cycle a card is part of (made easier thanks to Card Game DB).

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An LotR:LCG Saga: Escape from Dol Guldur

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Well, that didn’t work. Threat got out of control quick, and so did enemies. All the heroes in play died.

This quest is just cruel, crippling one player’s deck by temporarily removing one hero from play. I think the quest would work well if you have four players with single-sphere decks, but if you have fewer players? Someone’s going to be hurting a lot.

But, like getting through the hard bits of video games: TO GOOGLE!

Some resources for beating Escape from Dol Guldur:

People seem to agree: this is a nightmare scenario, and probably should be rated higher than a 7. I imagine that, since it’s a first core set scenario, the development team just didn’t have the experience yet to properly rate Escape from Dul Guldur’s difficulty. They even added another special ruling to make the scenario even harder—no attachments can be played on the Nazgul. Which means you can’t Forest Snare it into not attacking you. Thematic, yes; makes the scenario better, arguable both ways. At the very least the difficulty rating needs to be boosted.

You also need to seriously tune the deck(s) specifically to beat this scenario, so it’s one for the devoted deckbuilders (which I’m not so much a part of):

  • Concentrate on one sphere alone per deck.
  • Focus on consistency over flexibility, because flexibility will only get you deads.
    • 3 copies of every card, minimum (which means you need two Core Sets to get enough Core Set Gandalfs).
    • Very tight resource control.
    • Very strong threat management for both locations and enemies.
    • The ability to kill enemies before they rez… er, I mean, engage.

I wonder if an all-Eagle deck will work alongside an all-Rohan deck. Maybe cards from Khazad-dum expansion are needed? On the other hand, probably not.

I’m not going to try this scenario again. It’s just evil and possibly the hardest quest out there yet, even with all the expansion packs accounted for.

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An LotR:LCG Saga: Journey Along the Anduin

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Whew. Ouch. Difficulty: 4, the scale seems to go up to 10. I’m going to need better-tuned decks to survive harder quests. I did manage to beat every victory card in the deck. The Hill Trolls are definitely not fair.

Final score: 221, compared to 111 for the difficulty 1 quest.

Thoughts:

1. Power in the Earth is not a terribly useful card; should replace it with another Gandalf and Dwarven Tomb.

2. Always have at least one ally involved in a quest if you can, because The Necromancer’s Reach is devastating otherwise, especially if Eleanor is exhausted without an Unexpected Courage. This is hard for the Tactics sphere, which works by killing things.

3. Goblin Sniper is very annoying; Descendant of Throndor is almost necessary, especially combined with Born Aloft.

4. Eagle decks are the new angel decks. Concentrating on Eagles and creature cards is a nice way to get the most out of a Tactics deck.

5. Man, these games are brain twisters. In an enjoyable way, of course. I made a couple of mistakes that jeopardized the quest, and were it harder I probably wouldn’t have made it.

6. Faramir and Eowyn make a nice couple on the power questing side. Of course.

7. It’s hard for me to build a deck with high-threat heroes that works well. Lower threat helps a lot and gives you time to prepare. Of course, the alternative is to build a Tactics/etc deck with higher threat, bigger heroes, while keeping a Spirit/etc deck low in threat. I may try this… Boromir’s self-destruct damage-dealer may be useful on some of the harder quests.

Should I try the next quest in the series? Ah, like Sailor Moon, I’m a bit of a crybaby. o.o But it would be worth it for the experience alone.

An LotR:LCG Saga: Passage Through Mirkwood

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I’ve decided to go through all the Mirkwood scenarios before moving onto the Hobbit scenarios (skipping the Moria ones, because Moria as a sub-theme just didn’t interest me).

But seriously, ya’all. I want to make a happy quest theme for a quest one of these days, probably something to do with gathering items for Bilbo’s birthday party.

Anyways, the very first, and possibly the easiest (though I hear there’s another that’s even easier; but the rest are all strictly harder), is Passage Through Mirkwood. It’s basically just surviving constant spider attacks while progressing through quest stages with highish progress token requirements (8, 2, 10 for each stage respectively). A deck (or in my case, a couple of decks) ought to pass this quest easily as a minimum bar to have even a remote chance of beating other quests.

The current decks are a spirit/leadership deck and a tactics/lore one. They move a little too slowly for my tastes, but make up for it by heroes with a low threat costs, giving more time to build up armies of allies before too many of the more serious enemies start attacking. They’re meant to work together, and I don’t know that they’d survive alone.

I predict there’ll be trouble with the deck speeds on the harder quests.

Spirit/Leadership
Heroes
- Eowyn
- Eleanor
- Theodred
Attachments
- 2x Song of Kings
- 2x Power in the Earth
- 2x Dunedain Warning
- 2x Dunedain Mark
- 2x Steward of Gondor
- 2x The Favor of the Lady
- 1x Unexpected Courage
Events
- 3x Ride to Ruin
- 2x Hasty Stroke
- 2x A Test of Will
- 2x Will of the West
- 2x Sneak Attck
- 2x Dawn Take You All
- 2x The Galadhrin’s Greeting
- 2x Stand and Fight
Allies
- 2x Snowbourn Scout
- 2x Guard of the Citadel
- 3x The Riddermark’s Finest
- 2x Silverlode Archer
- 3x Lorien Guide
- 2x Faramir
- 2x Elfheim
- 2x Northern Tracker
- 2x Gandalf

Tactics/Lore
Heroes
- Thalin
- Legolas
- Denethor
Attachments
- 2x Born Aloft
- 2x Song of Wisdom
- 2x Blade of Gondolin
- 2x Dwarven Axe
- 2x A Burning Brand
- 2x Forest Snare
- 2x Support of the Eagles
- 2x Self Preservation
Events
- 2x The Eagles Are Coming!
- 2x Quick Strike
- 2x Feint
- 3x Lore of Imladris
- 1x To the Eyrie
Allies
- 3x Vassal of the Wind Lord
- 3x Winged Guardian
- 3x Gondorian Spearman
- 2x Silvan Tracker
- 2x Daughter of the Nimrodel
- 2x Mirkwood Runner
- 2x Descendant of Thorondor
- 2x Eagles of the Misty Mountains
- 2x Haldir of Lorien
- 1x Landroval
- 2x Radagast

Thoughts: I should have more triplets than couples or even singles, especially of the wizards, but I wanted to have some versatility in the decks, particularly the longer a quest takes.