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Monthly Archives: April 2017

Yggdrasil Play by Play

Yggdrasil is one of our favorite co-op games, and we especially like that it’s based on Norse mythology. Usually we play a 2 player game, but we’ve played with up to 6 people. Maybe it’s just the way we play or our strategy, but we think a 6 player game is much more challenging than a 2-4 player game. I don’t think we’ve managed to win with 6 players. When you play with fewer people, the game can be different every time depending on which gods you play as.

No matter which gods you play as, we’ve found a few strategies that work for us:

  • We work to remove all the Fire Giants from the white bag and continually fill it with Vikings. This way when the Valkyries are sent back to the beginning, we don’t have to travel down the whole line of islands to find a bag with Vikings.
  • No matter how many people we play with we get weapons for more than just 1 enemy. In a 3 player game I’ll have two +3 weapons and one +1 or +2 weapon. That way we can help each other, especially when the shuffle puts 3 Surt cards in a row, for example.
  • We always try to have what we call “Elf Insurance.” We like to have an Elf we can use just in case we need it.

So it’s no surprise that we mostly visit Midgard, World of the Elves, Dwarven Forge, World of the Dead, and Asgard. We only go to the Ice Fortress when a Frost Giant really needs to be taken out, and I don’t think we’ve ever visited the World of Darkness because we never trade anything.

This time we played a 3 player game.

  • Space Cat: Odin – draw the top 2 cards of enemy deck and chooses which to encounter then places the other card either on the top or bottom of deck
  • Chubby Unicorn: Freyja – can perform two actions in the same world
  • Professor: Frey – can perform a total of 4 actions

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Yggdrasil

Enemies of Asgard were on the move, and it was up to Odin, Frey, and Freyja to keep Ragnarok from taking place. Odin would use his powers to attempt to anticipate enemy movements to give the gods the upper hand.

Thankfully all the weapons of the gods were available to them, and they each armed themselves to deal with certain enemies. Freyja was prepared to battle Nidhogg and Loki, Frey would take on Hel and Fenrir, and Odin would fight Surt and Jormungand. Both Odin and Freyja were also prepared to assist Frey with Fenrir, who looked to be the most problematic of the enemies.

The gods knew how tough the enemy was, so they sent the Valkyries to recruit help from Midgard, having them bring Vikings to help them in battle. At first they faced some difficulties with the Fire Giants trying to take the place of Vikings, but eventually they were able to send the Fire Giants back where they belonged and were able to get the help they required.  They also managed to convince the World of the Elves to send a few Elves as backup.  Finally they called on Vanir to be prepared to help in case things were looking bleak.

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Pursuit of Happiness

This is a worker placement game we backed on Kickstarter. Once we finally received the game and all the pieces, we were excited to play. Unfortunately this game has not lived up to our expectations. We’ve played it a few times, and it’s just not a game we really enjoy.

I think of it as trying to be a more realistic version of The Game of Life, but I don’t think it quite accomplishes that. Each round represents about a decade of life. You start as a teenager which means you can’t get a real job (only temp jobs), and you can’t get involved with a partner (if only! think of all the drama that could be avoided!). You can get involved in projects and get items/activity cards. Certain projects are one turn only while others are long term. In order to progress in long term projects, you have to spend time on them. Some activities are like that as well. If you spend more time on that activity, you can get more rewards.

After the first round, jobs and partners are available. As long as you have the resources, you can get a job which seems simple. Partners also require different resources depending on the one you pick. And this is where we run into problems.

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Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Attack on Sandpoint

This is the play-by-play version of the previously posted story mode.
If you defeat a monster that has the Goblin trait, roll a 1d6. On a 1, each character at your location is dealt 1 Fire damage.

  • Seoni – Rin figurine
  • Seelah – Saber figurine

Locations:

  • Sandpoint Cathedral  – Seoni start
  • Town Square
  • Swallowtail Festival
  • City Gate – Seelah start

Seelah opening hand:

  1. Night Watch
  2. Blessing of the Gods
  3. Magic Half-Plate (favored card type)
  4. Magic Shield (favored card type)

Seoni starting hand:

  1. Blessing of the Gods
  2. Force Missile (favored card type)
  3. Acolyte
  4. Blessing of Irori
  5. Invisibility (favored card type)
  6. Sage’s Journal

Seelah 1st turn

Encountered Scout – Combat 8 +1 for Adventure Path 1

Encountering Scout

Before the encounter he does 1d4 -1 Ranged Damage – Seelah takes 2 damage

Recharges Magic Half-Plate to avoid damage

Strength d8 +3, used special to discard top card of deck for a d6 (Spiked Chain), discarded Blessing of the Gods for another d8, rolled 16 (one 3, one 5, one 8), total 19, Scout defeated

Drew Mace and Blessing of the Gods

Seoni 1st turn

Encountered Spectre – Combat 11

Used special, discarded Invisibility for d12 plus d6 (+3), recharged Acolyte for d4, rolled 8 (one 1, one 2, one 5), total 11, Spectre defeated

Drew Blessing of the Gods and Troubadour

Seelah 2nd turn

Encountered Crown of Charisma – Charisma 5

d10, rolled 3

Seoni 2nd turn

Encountered Blessing of Lamashtu – Arcane 5

d12 (+2), rolled 12

Discarded Blessing of the Gods to go again

Encountered Blessing of Pharasma – Arcane 5

d12 (+2), rolled 4

Discarded Blessing of Irori to go again

Encountered Shadow – Combat 13

Force Missile – d12 (+2), 2d4, discarded Blessing of Lamashtu for another d12, rolled 28 (two 4, two 10s), total 30 Shadow defeated

Attempted to recharge Force Missile – Arcane 6

d12 (+2), rolled 6, total 8, recharged

Drew Blessing of the Gods

Seelah 3rd turn

Encountering Frost Ray

Encountered Troubadour – Charisma 7

d10, rolled 4

Seoni 3rd turn

Encountered Frost Ray – Arcane 6

d12 (+2), discarded Blessing of the Gods for another d12, rolled 13 (one 1, one 12), total 15

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Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Attack on Sandpoint (story)

“Stay close,” Seoni said to her acolyte, as she tried to locate Seelah in the chaos.

Amy nodded, looking as panicked as the crowd. No one had anticipated a goblin attack during the dedication of the new Sandpoint Cathedral, and with the mass hysteria, Seoni didn’t want to risk casting any attack spells. Finally she caught sight of the paladin’s armor and managed to push her way free of the last of the escaping townsfolk.

“Did you see which way it went?” Seelah asked.

“It?” Seoni echoed. “And by the way, I’m fine, thank you for asking.”

Seelah didn’t react to Seoni’s sarcasm. “The goblin riding the giant gecko.”

Seoni shook her head. “I barely saw anything. Is that who was leading the attack?”

“It certainly seemed that way, but I lost sight of it.” Seelah paused for a moment, considering her options. “I’m going to check in with the guards at the city gate.”

It was only then Seoni noticed the night watch with Seelah, his face pinched with worry.

“I’ll make sure the cathedral is secure,” Seoni said.

They wished each other luck and parted ways.

Seelah and Nile had just arrived at the City Gate when something slammed into Seelah’s shoulder. She was shocked to see an arrow sticking out of her armor.

“There!” Nile pointed to the scout.

Without bothering to draw a weapon, Seelah pounced upon the enemy, using her superior strength to overpower him.

Nile approached afterwards and examined Seelah’s armor.

“I don’t think it went through,” he said, then yanked the arrow out. “You should get this repaired, though.”

Seelah agreed and removed her magic half-plate, storing it away in her pack then she readied her mace in case they encountered any more enemies.

Seoni expected to find goblins lurking about the cathedral, not a spectre.

“What should we do?” Amy whispered.

Seoni had an invisibility spell prepared but decided attacking was the better option. She used the energy from the invisibility spell to prepare an attack.

“Care to try helping again?” she asked Amy.

Her acolyte looked nervous but offered up her energy.

The arcane blast hit the spectre dead on, and it disappeared. Unfortunately Amy still hadn’t mastered the flow of her energy and swayed on her feet. Seoni tucked her away in an alcove.

“Stay here until you’ve recovered.”

“There you are!” Trevin declared, running up to her. “This isn’t quite the festival activity I was expecting.”

“I don’t think any of us was expecting this,” Seoni replied. “Care to join me in rooting out any lingering enemies?”

Trevin looked hesitant but agreed. Together they searched the cathedral, and Seoni was beginning to think it was time to move on when she noticed a strange shadow. She gestured to the troubadour to remain where he was, and prepared to unleash her force missile. She happened to glance up, noticing she stood in a part of the cathedral devoted to Lamashtu. Figuring it couldn’t hurt, she silently asked for the god’s blessing and sent her force missile at the shadow, destroying it instantly. Thankfully there was enough energy left over that she was able to recharge her spell before storing it away.

“Nicely done,” Trevin said. “I honestly thought you were being a bit paranoid, but I’m glad I was wrong.”

“In this case, I don’t think one can be too careful,” Seoni replied, as a discarded scroll on the floor caught her attention.

“What is it?” Trevin asked, a hint of wariness creeping into his voice.

Seoni smiled. “A new spell,” she said with glee. “I’ve been looking forward to trying out something like this.”

“What does it do?”

“Freezes your enemy to death.”

“Oh.”
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Code Names

We bought this game for Signing Monkey for her birthday, and it’s a pretty fun game that really makes you think.

Let’s say you have 4 players. You split into two teams: red and blue. The Spymasters from each team sit on one side of the table while the Field Operatives sit on the other side. You lay out a 5×5 grid of codename cards, and the Spymasters randomly choose a Key Card. The Key Card tells the Spymasters which codenames they need to get their Field Operatives to guess and the ones they need to avoid (everyone needs to avoid the assassin!).

This games really shows how differently we all think and view things.  If I’m a Spymaster and I see that “microscope,” “lab,” and “teacher” are the codenames I need my Field Operative to guess, I might give them the clue “science 3.” My Field Operative guesses “microscope” and “lab” correctly, but instead of “teacher” they guess “doctor” which scores for the opposing team. When I was looking at the cards, I didn’t even think about “doctor” being a possibility. This happens all the time throughout the game which often leads Spymasters to give clues for single cards instead of groups of cards (for example “magnify 1”  for “microscope”). It really forces you to think very carefully about the clues you give and the possible interpretations.

The team that identifies all its codenames first wins.

Things can get interesting when you have an odd number of players. When we played with 5 people, I decided to be a double agent. This meant I guessed for both sides and gave hints to the Field Operatives when they were guessing. My goal was for both sides to succeed.

We enjoyed this game so much, we bought our own copy.

Shadow Hunters play by play

We picked Shadow Hunters up at a local game shop. We were looking for something new to play and asked for a recommendation. Without hesitation the owner said Shadow Hunters. He was so sure we’d like it, he said if we didn’t, he would buy it back from us. We didn’t need to take him up on that because it’s a great game.

The first play through was a little rough. Some of the Hermit Cards can be a little confusing at first, and since you’re supposed to be all secretive about who you are, you can’t really ask questions during game play. Most cards instruct you to do different things depending on what type of character you are. For example, if you’re a Shadow you take 1 damage. That’s pretty straightforward. We got confused on the cards that had more than one option. “If you aren’t X, discard this card,” isn’t written on the card, but that’s what you do. It took us awhile to remember that, which was why we got confused, I think. One player in particular decided that if she didn’t understand what a card wanted her to do, she would just discard it. It made it very difficult to figure out what she was.

Looking at the cards now that I’ve played more, they make perfect sense to me. It’s one of those instances where I wonder why we couldn’t see it before, but it’s probably just a matter of spending time playing the game.

You also have to remember a lot of information. Unless you get the super awesome Hermit Card that just lets you see another player’s character card, you have to remember what you’ve “accused” people of being and how they responded. This also caused a bit of confusion the first time we played. Someone mixed up their information and ended up attacking and killing their ally. Oops!

It gets easier after the first couple times. Luckily for Signing Monkey she got an easy character card for her first time playing.

A play by play doesn’t really do the game justice because we can’t know what Hermit Cards are given, so we don’t really know what the responses mean. In any case, this is what happened:

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Shadow Hunters

Fu-ka, undercover as Chubby Unicorn, knew there were two Shadows lurking on the streets. She also knew another Hunter was in town, but hadn’t been able to identify her ally yet. She’d narrowed the possibilities down to four: Professor, Space Cat, Clumsy Ninja, and Signing Monkey. One was the other Hunter and two were Shadows which meant one of them was a neutral party. She would have to observe their actions carefully to discover who was who.

Professor and Space Cat had a series of altercations at the Church and Cemetery. Space Cat came out worse than Professor, though Clumsy Ninja and Signing Monkey also attacked him. Either they were attacking each other blindly, which only complicated matters, or Professor was the other Hunter. Just in case he was her hidden ally, Chubby Unicorn decided to help Professor tend to his wounds. In any case, she hoped to foster a bit of good will to stave off any attacks from him.

Clumsy Ninja continued on her violent spree, attacking Chubby Unicorn and Signing Monkey. Chubby Unicorn began to suspect Clumsy Ninja of being a Shadow, especially since she attacked with a creepy doll. Signing Monkey was lucky to walk away without a scratch. Before Chubby Unicorn could recover from the creepy doll incident, Signing Monkey attacked. Chubby Unicorn decided it was time to start fighting back, even without confirmation of her ally, and counterattacked.

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Best Treehouse Ever

This is a quick and fun little card game. And who wouldn’t want a treehouse with a water slide, butterfly garden, and laser arcade?

Game 1 first scoring

It’s a pretty easy game to learn. You get a tree and a hand of cards. You choose one of those cards to go on your treehouse and pass your deck clockwise. When you place a room (like a butterfly garden), you have to move your balance marker. This means you can’t just build rooms on the right side of your tree because your tree would fall over! There are only two times you don’t move the balance marker: on levels 3 and 5 you can place a room in the middle of your tree.

Game 1 Final Scoring

After the first level, things can get tricky. Let’s say on level 1 you played an orange room and a blue room. On level 2 you can continue to play orange and blue rooms (if they’re available in the hand you get), or you can play other rooms. If you block your blue room, you can’t play any more blue rooms for the rest of the game. This is because if you already have a room of that color, all rooms of that color have to connect.

Once all cards have been placed or discarded, players get to choose Game Changer Cards. These change how rooms are scored at the end of the round. You don’t have to play with these cards, but it does make things more interesting.

This process if repeated two more times (total of 3 rounds), and the player with the most points wins.

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Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Black Fang’s Dungeon

This is the play-by-play version of the previously posted story mode.

When an Ancient Skeleton is encountered, everyone at that location encounters an Ancient Skeleton

  • Seoni – Rin figurine
  • Seelah – Saber figurine

Locations:

  • Shrine to Lamashtu – Seelah start
  • Desecrated Vault
  • Temple
  • Throne Room – Seoni start

Seelah opening hand:

  1. Standard Bearer
  2. Blessing of the Gods
  3. Spiked Chain
  4. Wooden Shield (favored card type)

Seoni starting hand:

  1. Blessing of the Gods
  2. Arcane Armor (favored card type)
  3. Acolyte
  4. Troubadour
  5. Invisibility (favored card type)
  6. Burglar

Seoni 1st turn

Encountered Mirror Image – Arcane 6

d12 (+2), recharged Acolyte for d4, rolled 3 (one 1, one 2), total 5

Drew Standard Bearer

Seelah 1st turn

Encountered Ogre – Combat 14

Spiked Chain – d8 (+2), 2d4, used special to discard top card of deck for a d6 (Mace), discarded Blessing of the Gods for another d8, rolled 19 (one 1, one 2, one 3, one 6, one 7), total 21, Ogre defeated

Drew Night Watch

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