Those Origins people finally got it right. Pandemic was chosen for best board game with Dominion taking the honors for best card game. The choice for family/party game was Say Anything and the best historical game was Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear. I haven't played those last two but they seem to be liked by many.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Ed and I were lucky to be invited to spend Memorial Day weekend playing games with three other couples. We stayed in condos on Lake Palestine near Tyler, in the piney woods of northeast Texas. This is quite near my mother's house and where I spent my teenage years, so it was very convenient to dump/drop off our boys with her for the weekend. The condos were shabby, but adequate, and the views were beautiful when it wasn't raining and we managed to drag ourselves away from the gaming and outside to get fresh air.

The view from porch of the condo. Bee-YOO-tee-ful!

The first game up - Small World, which was high on my want-to-try list.

I am a huge fan of Vinci, Small World's predecessor. Back when Vinci was first published, it was very popular with our game group and when a web-based version came out, I played it to death. I'm sure I've played it at least fifty times. So, when a "new and improved" version that fixed many of the issues was announced, I was skeptical. I really didn't think it needed to be fixed. After playing Small World, I still prefer the original. By far, the biggest reason is that I dearly miss the cohesion rules of Vinci. Keeping the regions of your civilization connected drove a lot of the strategy of where to attack and reinforce. I'm not sure why this was removed from the new game - to simplify it, perhaps?

The next problem I have with Small World is the bright, garish graphics. In the old Vinci, I was, with just a quick glance at the board, able to assess the size and positioning of my opponents as well as the various land types and the conquering path I wanted to take. In Small World, I'm trying to pick things out of a headache-inducing jumble of colors. Normally I adore this sort of art but here I think it really hinders this game. Gah - I can't believe I'm saying that! Even I have to admit that sometimes, plain and boring is better.

As far as the open versus hidden victory points goes, I don't really care that much either way. This is an argument that can go on forever (as anyone who follows online forums knows) because it's a matter of personal taste. Do you want to pick on the player you know is the leader or the person you just think is the leader? I probably lean slightly towards hidden as I like bluffing and trying to stay under the radar. However, you could easily play this way with the old version.

Hmmm. Other differences between the two versions - I haven't decided whether I like Small World's fixed number of turns or Vinci's playing until somebody reaches a certain number of victory points. They both seem to work. A fixed number of turns seems to go better with hidden VPs as you can better plan for the end of the game.

Finally, some people complained about how certain random pairings of powers in Vinci were too powerful. I thought that this aspect of the game was pretty fun. Sure, some were pretty powerful but you often had to pay to get them before somebody else did and you were then a big target. Even with Small World mitigating this problem (and quite cleverly too) with the fixed race abilities, I notice that people are still complaining about some being too powerful.

I do think that the streamlining will make the Small World accessible to more people, so that's good. But, call me a curmudgeon for thinking that the old ways are superior and wanting to just stick to the original.

Given how behind we are in playing the new stuff, I figured that I'd be mostly clueless about the nominees this year. Surprising, it turns out that I've actually played three of the five and unlike the past few years, the list includes a few favorites. Here are my comments:

Pandemic: This is simply a fantastic game and my only "dime" from last year. It's the type of game I want to play several times right in a row. It can easily be dominated by a bossy player, but we always play with a little secrecy about our hands, especially early in the game. I'm not crazy about how it looks, but the art is certainly functional. I would love to see this win but I wonder if it is a bit much for casual family play.

Dominion: This is another addictive game that has me wanting to play it over and over again. I haven't played as many times as everyone else seems to have, so I'm wondering if its charm will hold. The sheer variety of card combinations possible is part of the lure. Every game feels like a tense, frenzied rush to get your money engine up and running which I find pretty fun. I do hate the constant card shuffling though. The theme and art are disappointing as well; they could have done so much more with it. I wouldn't mind if it won the SdJ but I bet it's a little too complicated.

Amy, Kevin and John play one of many games of Dominion. This was the most played game of the weekend even though I only played it once.

This past weekend's game had Ed playing the thief, driving me to a strategy of getting my gold from card effects (not treasure cards he could steal) and cards the allowed me lots of draws and actions to find and play them. The strategy almost worked, especially since one of the cards I frequently used was the Militia, which hurt everyone else. Unfortunately, Ed switched to buying lots of Gardens as did I once I noticed. But, it was too late and he whopped the rest of us pretty soundly.

Fits: This was a new-to-me game that I got to try this past weekend. It's another one of those solitaire puzzle games like Ubongo or Take it Easy. There is no interaction between players - you are just attempting to be better at solving your puzzle. In this case, the puzzle is based on the computer game Tetris, in which you are dropping tiles in various shapes down slots to cover up spaces. This boardgame version is by Reiner Knizia so of course, there are twists. In each round, the goal changes a bit and there are certain spaces you want to leave uncovered while covering the rest. The variation with each round makes it especially challenging. I like this sort of thing and, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, Fits is another game I could happily play several times in a row. Given how easy and accessible it is to play, I could easily see this winning the award.

John, Susan and Ed puzzle out Fits. I appear to be praying. Perhaps for the card with the shape I need to be flipped? I wish somebody hadn't left a bag of fattening cookies next to me. They were good!

Vinca: This wasn't even on my radar until the nominee list was announced. After reading about it and looking at a copy at my FLGS today, I'm worried that it will suffer from the same-yness that plagues a lot of recent eurogames (for me, anyway). It looks beautiful though, and just the type of game to win the SdJ. I bet it wins.

Fauna: This game is very far off my radar. It appears to be some sort of trivia game about animals. I don't even know enough about it to comment.

So, my official Spiel des Jahres prediction is Vinca, despite having laid eyes on it for the first time today. I would love to be wrong and see Pandemic or maybe Dominion take the prize!

I was glad to finally give it try when new guy Jeff suggested it. I didn't have high expectations but I hate owning games that I haven't even played. I popped the top off the required beer (but alas, we had no pretzels) and sat down for some "mayhem and mass destruction" as stated on the box. The game is really simple. Each player controls a monster and a branch of the military. You move your monster figure across a map of the U.S., stomping cities to increase your health and stomping major landmarks like the World's Largest Ball of Twine for infamy points. Infamy points can be spent to re-roll dice which comes in handy as you will be rolling LOTS of dice in this game. You can also go to places like Three Mile Island where your monster mutates and gains a new power. You randomly draw these from a deck of cards that includes such awesome mutations as Laser Beam Eyes or Atomic Breath. Your monster has a set numbers of spaces it can move each turn and there may be terrain restrictions.

Military units are used to simply harass the other players' monsters, bring down their health and discourage them from trying to stomp particularly juicy cities. You get to move your military units on the board each turn and you also have the choice of deploying more or doing military research which entails randomly drawing a card that can be played at the appropriate time to either help yourself or more likely, mess with somebody else. The research card deck includes all sorts of fun things. In our game, Jeff stacked a space with military units and then played the Blond Lure on Joey's monster. Unable to resist this sexy blond siren, his monster was forced to move onto the spot only to discover that it was a trap set by the marines who were waiting to attack. I was able to add Fusion Cells to my units, allowing them to move an extra space each turn. A few of the cards allow you to place and control a smaller monster on the board. There are all kinds of things in the deck.

Battles between monsters and military units are simple, with each unit or monster rolling a die and trying to equal or beat the defender's defense number for a hit, in which case it takes a specified amount of damage. Monsters get three attacks per round and if there are any military units left after two rounds, it has to retreat. There is no player elimination. If a monster's health ever gets to zero, he goes to Hollywood as an attraction. Once he gets a certain amount of health back (by rolling a die each turn) he breaks free to continue his rampage across the country. Too funny!

The point of all this is to try to beef up your monster for the big monster showdown at the end of the game. Once a certain number of stompings (not a real word according to my spellchecker) have taken place, the showdown will be triggered. This is a fight to the death with the player who triggered the showdown choosing who he wants to fight first. The winner of that battle adds the initial health of his opponent to his monster and chooses the next monster to fight. And so on and so on until one monster is left standing as the King of the Giant Monsters (it's in the rules, I swear) and wins the game. My monster, a pile of purple sludge named Toxicor, won our game, no doubt because he had mutated earlier into a robot that electrocuted his opponents in battle each time they missed. Zap!

I can easily see why this game got played over and over again by a pack of pre-teen and teenage boys at Gulf Games. It's perfect for that group. It has practically no strategy but playing it was a hoot, with lots of trash talking. It's simple and short, so it makes a good "beer and pretzels" style game and it captures the humorous, campy feel of the theme very well. This is the type of game that sends many of my gamer friends running away screaming so it definitely needs the right crowd. It's not the sort of thing I'm itching to play all the time, but I certainly had fun. A few extra beers or margaritas might enhance the experience as well. Just saying...

Megaclaw tries to impress with his giant pinchers. Toxicor laughs in his face!

Next up: Conan wanders around aimlessly and a cosmic parasite terrorizes the galaxy.

Mike's column, Gamer's Notebook, is excellent reading as usual and it includes his Sumo awards for last year's games. I haven't even played his top two games or many of the other games he discusses, showing just how behind I'm getting on the newer stuff.

The game that I'm talking about is Merchant of Venus and after only one play, I'm totally smitten. My cult-of-the-new-Eurogame-only group has been strangely enamored with this game lately and I'd successfully avoided it until today. It came out in the late '80s, a time when I only lurked on the fringes of gaming and there had to be a dragon or wizard on the box for me to notice a game. The ones I did try, like Dragonhunt and Wizard's Quest, were disappointments at the time that kept me on the fringe. I assumed that Merchant of Venus was some sort of science fiction wargame and I wasn't going to go near something like that. I guess "Merchant" should have been a clue. So, when I was told it was a pick-up-and-deliver game, my protective shields started to crack a little. I ADORE that sort of game. That is exactly what Merchant of Venus turned out to be, with the added fun of an exploration game.

Empire Builder (EB) is a good game to compare with Merchant of Venus (MoV) as both games scratch the same itch for me and share many similarities but are also quite different. EB is played on a fixed map and you will always know where each type of good will be found. The random factor is in drawing the Demand Cards that will tell what good needs to be shipped to what location. In MoV, it is the opposite. Each culture produces certain goods, but you will not know at the start where the various cultures are located. The cultures that demand a certain type of good will always be the same but, once again, you will not know where they are located until they have been by exploring the planet locations on the board.

Similar to the Empire Builder games, you can upgrade your ship to either be fast or you can choose to sacrifice speed in favor of more cargo space. In EB, the number of spaces you can move on a turn is fixed, depending on the type of engine. In MoV, movement is determined by dice roll, with your ship's speed determining the number of dice you roll. The goal of both games is to be the first to earn a certain amount of money by picking up and delivering goods. You do spend your earnings in MoV to build things like factories and spaceports, which earn you commissions when other players use them, but their values also count as part of your earnings. However, you actually spend your earnings in EB to build your network of track so you have to carefully monitor your income or you may find yourself in the bad position of having no money and no way to earn more. This makes Empire Builder a bit of a heavier game that requires more analysis. The game builds slowly at first and then speeds up as players get a good network built and they are then just primarily racing to make deliveries. The pace is similar in MoV except the paths you travel are already fixed on the map. There is no money management aspect with having to plan the cheapest and most efficient route to make a delivery that will enable you to build again. Instead, the slow build-up is caused by having to explore the map first and find where the cultures are located. As the locations of the cultures are revealed, you can then pick the most efficient route to pick up and make deliveries. Both games require route planning and adjusting to the randomness, but the two games go about it a bit differently. Both are excellent games.

I guess one other similarity and difference I should point out is that in both games you feel the pressure of a race against time with your opponents. However, in Empire Builder it is mostly just to the endgame requirement. Sure, you sometimes race to get the best connection point into a city or to a smaller city with limited connections, but mostly it is open enough to achieve your immediate goals during the game, especially if you play with only a few players, which is what I prefer due to the length of game. In my experience, cities almost never run out of the goods they produce. In my game of MoV, this was not always the case. Goods are much more limited and once gone, you have to wait for them to be randomly drawn and returned to the board. Also, there are special demands that can come out which can pay significantly more to the player first to deliver. So during the game, there is a lot more immediate tension in the race to certain locations, whereas in Empire Builder you are often able to focus solely on yourself with most of the tension coming towards the end.

There are some fiddly aspects to movement in Merchant of Venus on certain areas of the board that are tied to the numbers rolled on your dice as well as spots to be explored that can turn out to be either hindrances or nice upgrades to your ship. Without going into detail, I will say that while they add randomness which can be frustrating, they also add flavor and theme kind of like the event cards do in Empire Builder. I've overcome most of my frustration over these types of things in games as I now enjoy thematic elements that add a bit of uncertainty and drama unless, of course, they totally overwhelm the game. I don't think they do in either of these games.

The biggest problem with both games for me is that you spend the whole game standing over and squinting at the board, trying to find locations and read the names of goods on tiny markers. Bigger culture markers with clear numbers on them would help greatly in Merchant of Venus. The problem seems much more difficult to solve in Empire Builder.

After playing Merchant of Venus and immediately deciding that I must own it, I was distraught to find that out just how insane the prices are for used copies. There is currently a spending freeze for an indefinite period of time in the Rozmiarek household. There was no way I was going to sneak a $70+ game by the shopping police! There are files on BGG to make a homemade version, but this was going to be a lot of work. I was blown away with the generosity of an online gaming friend who sent me his copy as a gift. I now own the original and can hardly wait to play again.

Mark, Jon, Susan and Paul start off with Merchant of Venus.

I did also play a few other older games which served to remind me that the collection we've got could easily provide me with enough entertaining games for the rest of my life. These particular oldies are definitely holding up over time, I'm happy to say.

It's amazing how a good game can be wholly centered on a single, simple quandary. In Honeybears, it's whether to play and lose a card that by playing will increase the chances of scoring for cards of that type still left in your hand at the end of the game.

Despite the lackluster re-theming of the original, Showmanger, Atlantic Star has remained a fun and unique game of set collection and hand management.

Tonga Bonga is yet another good, light game that nobody seems to have copied. It's a racing game of sorts in which you sail a ship around the board plunking down camps on islands for money. The twist is that the dice you roll aren't used to move your ship. Instead, everyone gives each die they rolled to another player. This is after each player has offered a monetary bribe to entice people into giving them the highest dice. You want the bribes, because money wins the game, but you have to be careful not to help somebody too much. The dice are special, with one side being a zero that is depicted by a seasick sailor hurling over the side. Hilarious!

Jeff, Jill, Susan and Ed are racing ships and building camps with Tonga Bonga

Jeff, Jill and Ed roll the bones in Kingsburg.

In better news, after I declared the monthly Meetup group dead, it has risen from its grave. Apparently, two different wine stores/wineries, of all places, contacted our Meetup host out of the blue with offers to host the group. I've seen several of these types of places show up in shopping centers recently, so I'm betting that competition for customers is fierce. We spent a pleasant afternoon sipping locally made wine and playing boardgames. Late in the afternoon, a band began setting up. When they started playing, that was our cue to leave. I enjoy listening to live music, but it makes it impossible to play games when you have to shout across the table.

The setting was nice with decent lighting, but the tables were really small and round which limited the games we could play. This didn't stop one group from pushing two together to play Agricola, but they looked pretty cramped and uncomfortable.

Ed and I taught Pandemic to a nice young couple that liked it so much we played twice, losing both times and on the easiest setting at that. Quite embarrassing, I must say. I thought we had a pretty good handle on this game but it kicked our butts this time, especially in the first game where we had too many early epidemics. I love how this game fools you into thinking you have everything under control for a while and then, within a few short turns, it can devolve into a full scale panic of trying to stamp out outbreaks all over the map.

Pandemic was followed by Tier auf Tier, a cute little Haba dexterity game of stacking wooden animals atop each other. My normally shaky hands combined with a few glasses of wine did not help me here, but it was fun!

Lastly, we played Wasabi!, a tile-laying game where you are trying to create sushi recipes for points by placing the necessary ingredient tiles in a row on the board. There are special cards you play to manipulate tiles that have already been placed and your recipes are kept secret from the other players. Like a lot of newer Eurogames, it gave me the feeling of having done this all before, but since I have a soft spot for this puzzle-y sort of game, I'll forgive it this once. Plus, it looks beautiful.

I'm interested to see if this place invites us back. Hopefully, we gave them enough business. Ed and I took home a bottle of a VERY sweet Pinot Gris.

I've been suffering a bit of burnout for the past few months. Not just with blogging and writing reviews, but with the Eurogames that I've been obsessed with for the past eight or so years. What happened? I'm not entirely sure but the never ending procession of new games started feeling the same to me. I've always enjoyed games that had a puzzle-like feel to them but I started to often feel like I was solving variations of the same puzzle. When I blogged about the games, I felt like I was saying the same thing over and over again.

My core gaming group also started gravitating toward only playing all the heavier games coming out and game nights were starting to feel like too much work. I missed having a mix of different types of games. I missed playing a silly, fun game once in a while. Even games that I would call "medium weight" were being derided as "fluff." Unfortunately, it doesn't really matter because our current family responsibilities keep us from being able to attend anything during the week anyway. To add insult to injury, a large monthly group that we could usually attend and play a variety of games has died due to reasons I'm not really clear on (I think the host has lost interest).

What we ARE playing on a regular basis are a monthly D&D 4e campaign and a Descent: Road to Legends campaign. This type of gaming has completely pulled me right out of my Eurogaming doldrums. While I still enjoy a good Eurogame, even a heavy one, I'm now more about dice, theme, drama, theme, socializing, story and theme. :-) A huge board, neat art, and lots and lots of plastic are a plus. Fantasy Flight has been my savior. I guess that currently makes me an Ameritrasher but I'm not completely sure what that means. I'm also branching out to other types of games which I'll leave for future blog entries.

At any rate, if you haven't run away screaming by this point, I'm impressed!

(An aside: should "Eurogames" be capitalized? It looks wrong both ways and they aren't necessarily from Europe anymore. It seems more like a new noun to me. The same goes for "Ameritrasher," a term that I resisted but now accept)

I leave you with a picture of our awesome D&D group in full swing:

Clockwise from me are Joey Belanger, Mike Chapel (our evil DM), Mark Hamzy, Jon Grimm, and Jeff Jones. Ed is taking the picture as always.

Week 9:

A quick recap of our cast:

Overlord
Conquest: 35 total / 35 unspent
Upgrades: Snipers.

Party
Conquest: 28
Money: 2250
Upgrades: Bazaar, Enchanted Boat
Nanok of the Blade: 22 XP. Taunt, Axe, Leviathan
Varikas the Dead: 22 XP. Leadership, Plate Mail, Iron Shield, Sword
Landrec the Wise: 22 XP. Quick Casting, Ghost Armor, Elven Robe, Ring of Protection, Immolation, Gauntlets of Power
Grey Ker: 22 XP. Eagle Eye, Great Bow, Crossbow, Iron Shield

Flametail River Level 3: 11 - The Mine
This was sure to be the last all copper dungeon level, so the heroes wanted to get the most out of it. The heroes are sitting on 22 XP each and want to get to 30. It's possible with the level leader, a glyph and a chest on this level, if the chest does not have a treasure. Figuring that the party would be going for the treasure and gold, I wanted to pack that room to the gills. My hand was full of cards, with several spawn cards to pick from. I was sitting on 24 threat from the last level and the spawn marker was enabled since it was the start of the level. So I went with the option D minions, 3 beastmen, 4 razorwings and a dark priest. I left two razorwings and the priest to guard Geos, the master Bane Spider level leader and the rest went on treasure protection duty.

Early in level the beastmen
await the heroes

The taunting Nanok throws himself at the wall of monsters guarding the treasure. Between his regular attack and a guard order from Verikas, Nanok removes the two razorwings. Landrec moves in the help, but can't do much. Grey Ker snipes the dark priest down and Verikas returns from town with on chain mail which he tosses to Grey Ker and then helps watch the hallway to prevent spawns. I call forth a pair of Ferrox to help out. Nanok is now facing 5 beastmen, a master beastman and a master and regular Ferrox. Nanok should be dead meat. But he survives the 8 attacks. The extra armor from the ring ends up canceling 6 wounds and two critical misses by the master beastman and master ferrox leaves Nanok standing with 4 hits and a bleed token. Meanwhile, a razorwing takes Grey Ker downs to 2 wounds. Another round happened in here I missed in my notes, but I know I was able to spawn a pair of Dark Priests with the master going to the treasure room and the normal protecting Geos.

The heroes are now starting to wonder about the level. Grey Ker decides to run to town. Before hand, he takes out the razorwing and does a strategic retreat towards the glyph. Unfortunately for him, he tripped and caused rock slide. The crushing block takes his remaining wounds and Grey Ker wakes up at the temple in town (+3 CP). Nanok escaped the bleed token with a miss, dispatches a beastman and also retreats towards the glyph. Landrec takes up the offensive push and takes out a beastman. The new block in hallway gave me a wonderful spot to spawn another beastmen war party right behind Nanok. It took all three attacks, but I was able to dispatch Nanok (+4 CP). Landrec was next and the three masters (beastman, ferrox and dark priest) combined to take Landrec out (+2 CP). Three kills in one round!

The heroes take on Geos

With the level finally clear of monsters, Varikas flipped the glyph (+3 CP) while Landrec and Nanok went for the treasure. Low on threat and cards, I could not do much. So I waited for the chest. I had been holding the Monkey God trap card for two levels and wanted to spring it. Landrec was the victim as he reached for the chest, he was transformed.

Unfortunately for me, I was not able to take advantage of the situation and squash the monkey. The heroes covered the LOS well and did not provide any space to spawn. They waited out the two turns for the curse to wear off, while I gathered threat and cards. In the end, the delay was good for me as I now had threat, spawns and traps at the ready.

Here's where everything paid off for the heroes. Back to his normal self, Landrec opens the chest and finds FOUR treasures. Yes, all four dice came up blank on the roll. Amazing. And one of the treasures was the Staff of the Grave. Sigh. Must make them pay.

As the heroes start to exit the level, they leave me just enough room to spawn two razorwings who cut off the overloaded Landrec. The razorwings quickly bring Landrec down to 2 wounds. Wounded Nanok can't risk helping and makes a run for the exit. Too bad he falls into two pits. The first does two damage but he was wary and avoids the second.

While the other three make for the glyphs, Landrec can only wound one razorwing and then guards. With just enough threat to pull it off, I spawn some shades (from Tomb of Ice) to help make sure Landrec is taken down and then pull out Dark Charm, and it finally works! Nanok falls on his axe doing just enough damage to take himself out (+4 CP). Landrec does succeed in taking out the damaged razorwing with the guard, but the new shades complete job on Landrec (+2 CP).

The dungeon complete, the heroes return to Tamalir. The score for his level, Heroes 7, Overlord 15.

CP: Heroes: 35 / OL: 50/50

Week 10:
I picked up my one CP for the week. What was once my only source of conquest is now a drop in the bucket. I'll certainly take it as every little bit helps, but I finally have some conquest to spend, and spend I do. It's time for the silver monster upgrade!

For a change I wanted to do something other than Eldritch, like maybe beasts, but I reconsidered. Given that I will need the fire power against the soon to be beefed up heroes, I went for the silver Eldritch (-25 CP). The fact that the Eldritch are the Sorcerer King's cheap upgrade was a consideration as well.

With 26 conquest left and plans for more upgrades soon, I have to decide what to do with Sir Alric. I decided to send him east through the mountains to the Smokeblue Hills with Riverwatch his final destination.

After much discussion, the heroes decide on a plan. They are sitting on 29 XP each and want one more so Nanok can get two power dice upgrades. So off exploring they go, east towards the Red Echo River dungeon. It was a peaceful trip down the river to the dungeon, with no encounter along the way. They stumble upon the dungeon while camping along the river one night, gaining the one conquest they desire.

CP: Heroes: 36 / OL: 51/26

Week 11:
It was a fairly quiet week for the overlord. The weekly CP is deposited in the account (+1 CP) and it's time for this week's upgrade. It's Lord Merick Farrow (-5 CP); time to split the party's attention and start working towards my evil plot. Lord Merick is sent to the Bitter Downs and Sir Alric continues on to Riverwatch, camping in the Moonglow Marsh this week.

The heroes continue down the river to Forge, again with no encounter. Since they cannot train this week, it's shopping and drinking time. Grey Ker heads for the temple to remove the lingering poison from the last dungeon. Nanok gathers potions for the team. Landrec checks out the market and picks up the Archer's Charm, which is given to Grey Ker. Down at the Tavern, Verikas (undead drink?) picks up a rumor of a powerful Dark Shard up in the dungeon of the Gate to the North.

CP: Heroes: 36 / OL: 52/22

Week 12:
It's training week for the heroes. But before that, I get my turn. Another conquest point in my pocket and I buy another upgrade. Time for some treachery and I pick Event Treachery (-15 CP). Ah, now which card to pick...

Sir Alric makes it Riverwatch and starts gathering wood for the siege. His cousin, Lord Merick, heads north to the Misty Plains.

Decision time for the party; what's the best combination of upgrades, how much they can afford and long term plans. They finally decide on:
Nanok: Adds two black power dice (no surprise there)
Varikas: Upgrades a black melee power die to silver
Grey Ker: Upgrades a black range power die to silver
Landrec will wait until later to get an upgrade so instead went to the market. It was a slow week as only two treasure cards were pulled.

CP: Heroes: 36 / OL: 53/8

Week 13:
This week's conquest point leaves me with 9 to spend. Not enough for another treachery point so I decide to wait and not upgrade anything. Sir Alric places the first of the siege engines at Riverwatch and Lord Merrick arrives in Dawnsmoor.

Feeling beefy, the heroes paddle their way back up the river to check out the Red Echo dungeon they spotted one the way to Forge. The Cahulawassee River it's not, so there are no encounters along the way. After pulling up the boat up on to the shore, the party heads to the entrance of the dungeon and bravely steps through the cave opening.

Red Echo River Level 1: 8 - The Warrens
And here our tale ends this week. Running out of time, we decide to call it for today. Return next time for the power clash of silver sorcerers vs. Nanok the taunting tank and his friends packing the heat.

CP: Heroes: 36 / OL: 54/9

Comments:
Wow, a busy day with another long level. Although I cycled the overlord deck near the end of level 2, I almost did it again on this level. Three more turns and I would have. Maybe I should have toyed with Landrec at the end to see if I could, but I did not want to risk it losing a kill. It's interesting that some people report that The Mine was a fairly easy level. Just goes to show it depends on when the levels show up in the dungeon and how the dice fall. In the end, I won the level 15 to 7 and the entire dungeon 37 to 21. This dungeon got me back into the game. Of course, the heroes came out pretty well with a good deal of cash and four treasures from one chest, unbelievable.

The power escalation has started. I purchased the "dreaded" silver Eldritch, but the party is much more beefy. With the two additional power dice and the ring of protection, Nanok now has 7 armor. With taunt, that's going to be interesting to deal with. Surprising though, Nanok has been the hero most killed so far. Probably since he's going to taunt anyway, I might as well set up to attack him. Now with 7 armor, only the silver monsters will be able to touch him. The rest of the party is powered up with several treasures and silver dice.

The action on the main board is getting interesting. With two lieutenants causing trouble in the south, will the heroes come back down to deal with them or will they go north to the rumor and the legendary dungeon? And it's time to start thinking about the overlord plot. Or maybe I have already...

Previous session reports:
Session 1
Session 2

Week 9:
Our story picks up as the heroes are in the Flametail River dungeon after level 1. With the Overlord sitting at 22 conquest, they have a decision. Should they quit the dungeon and try to get to another before I can upgrade the eldritch monsters to silver or stay and get what they can in the last pure copper dungeon. After some discussions, they decide to stay. I shuffle up the dungeon deck and draw. It's level 44 - The Ice Tunnels. "44?" you ask. That's right, Tomb of Ice baby!

For those without Tomb of Ice, this new expansion comes with four new dungeon levels for Road to Legend. The main features of this level are a stair step design using the ToI 4 by 4 tiles with the non-centered exits, lots (and I mean lots) of ice and a frost breathing Wendigo level leader. These last two would cause the heroes all sorts of problems today. Ice is notable for a character's chance of slipping and ending its turn for each ice space entered (rolling a surge on a black die). And frost of course, makes items brittle and subject to breaking.

Flametail River Level 2: 44 - The Ice Tunnels
The heroes are a bit unsure what to do at the start. About a third of dungeon is covered in ice, including the main passages in the middle and near the exit. There is no way to advance without eventually going over the ice. They are facing Tusk, a frost breathing Wendigo with Stealth, Reach and Tread Ice. There are also two normal Wendigos and a Medusa. There is a pile of gold just past the first patch of ice, another pile in the following room (again, have to get through some ice) and a chest before the exit. However, the red runekey is frozen in a solid block of ice (30 hits, 5 armor and ironskin) near the exit.

The heroes spread out with the ranged characters moving up for a shot. Unfortunately for me, I placed one of the Wendigos around a corner but in range for Landrec. Turns out copper Wendigos are one shot creatures too. I spawned some skeletons, losing one to Grey Ker's guard order and then attacked with the remaining and the Medusa. No significant damage. But here's where the fun starts.

I had intentionally backed my monsters away from the first pile of gold leaving a path to it. The path crossed an ice space and then there was a clear spot next to the gold. Grey Ker moves up and crosses the ice to the clear spot next to the gold and wham! Crushing block! I forced him back onto the ice and made the path to the gold longer and across more ice. The damage was nice too.

The party then started finding out how slippery the ice was. As they moved up across the ice they started rolling surges and slipping, thus ending their turns. This was nice from the overlord's view as it messed up their positioning and they lost attacks. The melee characters had it bad as they had to move into position and risked stopping short. This gave me time to do some frost breathing from Tusk. Nanok and Landrec were the first to feel the chill. The Wendigo didn't do much damage to Nanok but the frost tokens stayed around for most of the level. At one time Nanok had five frost tokens. By the end of the level all four heroes had been frosted at least twice, with three of them losing at least one item. Nanok and Landrec lost weapons and poor Grey Ker lost a weapon, his shield and armor. The running joke today was that bare chested Nanok shouldn't be running around a frozen dungeon half naked.

So with the ice slowing down the party's advancement, I had more time to build threat and spawn. A pair of Dark Priests did some damage to Nanok and dropped a curse on him as he killed the master priest. A beastman war party took out a frosty Grey Ker (+3 CP) while shattering his shield and armor. Nanok found out why Ferrox are tank killers. After three bleed tokens Nanok was down to 2 HP. A razorwing almost took Nanok out but we remembered that he had taken an invisibility potion. After rolling the stealth die, it turns out that the razorwing missed on the killing blow. No worries, as a crushing block did the final damage to the cursed Nanok as he was heading towards the glyph to heal (+5 CP). The level leader Tusk got in a kill as well, taking out an icy Landrec (+2 CP).

And where was Varikas this whole time? Well, early on he took on the rear guard role trying to prevent back spawns and tossing orders around. As the other heroes moved up to take on Tusk, Varikas decided it was time to brave the ice and move up to help. Turns out he had slippery boots. Varikas fell on the ice three moves in a row. This effectively took him out of most of the battle. He did finally make it up to the front lines but only after a majority of the minions had been cleared.

So, as always, the heroes were finally able to take out the minions and wore down Tusk (+2 CP), although, Tusk's Stealth ability made it a bit harder. A newly revived Grey Ker made it to the chest which unfortunately was not trapped since I had just spent the threat on the crushing block. The chest contained one treasure, a bow which Grey Ker took.

With the level clear the heroes took on the ice block with the key, which proved to be tough. It took four rounds of attacks to break it open to get the key. Since I was bored, I decided against my better judgment to spawn some skeletons to take a few pot shots at their back. It was a waste of threat as they slipped on the ice getting into position. Landrec took them out fairly easily. At least the level lasted long enough for me to cycle through the overlord deck (+3 CP).

This was a good level for the overlord. Today's totals were 13 CP for the Overlord and 5 CP for the heroes. The heroes picked up 1050 in gold from the gold piles and the chest but had to spend some of that for replacements of the shattered weapons and armor.

CP: Heroes: 28 / OL: 35/35

Comments:
Ice is nice, at least for the overlord. What I really liked about this level and the previous one, "Stuck in the Middle", is that the heroes were not in complete control of their positioning. The ice made the party very cautious and forced them to deal with non-optimal positions forced on them by slipping. This was in great contrast to the usual team tactics they had been able to use in prior dungeons.

Sure, my monsters got hit a couple times as well by the ice, but all in all, I believe it benefited me more than the heroes. Slow heroes mean more time for the overlord. Time is the overlord's friend, more threat, more cards, more options. Slipping heroes might get left out in the open, vulnerable to attack; they might lose their attack, meaning my monsters live longer or they may be completely out of the battle like Verikas.

Campaign wise, today was a definite win for the Overlord. I now have options. Before the level I thought the heroes would bug out and run to another dungeon before I got 25 conquest. Now I have that and more. I can actually start planning some upgrades and get more into the game. The heroes aren't too bad off. They got some decent gold and they are all sitting on 22 XP to spend. If they get 8 conquest during the third level of the dungeon Nanok will have enough for two power dice upgrades. At least I'll have silver Eldritch to counter Nanok the tank.

Previous session reports: Session 1

Week 7:
The heroes had just arrived in Dawnsmoor with Nanok hurting from their last encounter. They stuck with their plan from the previous session to heal Nanok before taking on Sir Alric. Healing Nanok leaves them with 25 gold.

Of course, prior to this happening I got my weekly conquest handout and Sir Alric placed his fourth and last siege engine. The heroes' decision to not attack Sir Alric right away means that I will get one chance to roll for the siege before they attempt to force Sir Alric away from the city. Hopefully I will get lucky and raze the town on the first try. That would make up for some of the bad luck during the last session. It would also give me some flexibility during the upcoming fight. Given the lack of hero kills so far, the two conquest points a week would be really nice.

CP: Heroes: 14 / OL: 7 total / 7 unspent

Week 8:
The fateful week.

I gather my government handout conquest point and warm up the dice for the raze roll of Dawnsmoor. Will it succeed? I have a 1 in 3 chance. Given the way this campaign has been going, I don't have my hopes up. But, one must be positive and go for it when you have the opportunity, right. So with that, I give the die a final blow for good luck and drop it down the into the dice tower. It travels down the enclosure bouncing back and forth gathering luck from both sides of the battle, finally emerging from the randomization device and coming to rest in the tray at the bottom.

I glance down, hoping for the best. Thinking, "Please let there be a surge on the die." And what do I see?

A power enhancement.

Rats!

The raze of the city fails; on to the battle between the heroes and Sir Alric.

After double checking with the gang that they really want to fight the lieutenant I shuffle the encounter location deck and draw the Haunted Trail. The main feature of the location is that all figures have -1 armor. That will help both sides get hits on the other.

I figured that it was up to the heroes to come after Sir Alric so I decided that it was best to be defensive. Therefore I set up a single group near one of the exits as I wanted to make sure Sir Alric survived. I would give up the siege to keep the lieutenant alive. I placed the soaring razorwings up front since the melee characters would not even be able to attack them. I also hoped that they would stand up long enough to the ranged attacks to allow me to bring in some extra minions.

On their first turn, the heroes took up defensive positions in the trees. After I did nothing but reinforce with a razorwing the party knew the normal battle was out the door. After examining the setup they realized what I was attempting. After some back and forth discussions the heroes decided to attempt a shot or two at the soaring razorwings in the front line and seeing what happened. Much to my dismay, Landrec was able to hit one of the razorwings and bring it down, so much for soaring. I was really hoping that they would last a few rounds and allow me to bring in several extra minions. It was not to be.

With the front line breached the melee characters were able to move up. Nanok was close enough to move up and take on the hellhound (i.e. a four legged speed bump). This brought Nanok close to the remaining minions and Sir Alric. I decided to change from a defensive stance to more offensive. I sent the beastmen and sorcerer in to soften up Nanok before sending in Sir Alric. Using threat for movement, I was able to move Sir Alric up to Nanok and battle. The two attacks did not take him out, but did some serious hurt.

The remaining minions occupied the other three heroes and left Nanok and Alric one-on-one. Although Nanok got in some damage, Alric was able to take Nanok out the next round for the Overloard's first kill of the game (+4 CP). Yea! However, it was now just Alric versus the remaining three heroes. Even with his regenerate 5, 3 on 1 was going to be tough. Alric took some damage from Grey Ker who had used a power potion. I had enough threat to battle Grey Ker and move next to the exit if things went bad. Unfortunately, Sir Alric did miss on one attack and did not kill Grey Ker. So, Sir Alric hightailed it out of town.

Not the best result for the encounter in that I lost the siege on the city, but I saved Sir Alric and got my first hero kill. Things were looking up.

CP: Heroes: 14 / OL: 12/12

Week 9:
Still without enough conquest to do my planned upgrade, this week starts out with the regular conquest allotment and I sent Sir Alric back out to Bitter Downs. The heroes decide to head to the Flametail River dungeon north of Dawnsmoor and on the way they have another encounter. They meet up with three trolls at a Troll Bridge near a Quiet Pond. I thought I might get another kill out of this. Three trolls, one of them a master, a decent chance. However, after reading the text, we see that they heroes can buy their way out of the encounter by paying half of their gold to the trolls in toll. And just how much gold does the party have? 25 gold. Argh! So laughing, the party flips their last 25 gold piece to the trolls and scoot on their merry way.

Flametail River Dungeon Level 1: 30 - Stuck in the Middle
I had heard that this was a good level for Overlords with the hidden web spots slowing down the heroes. I went with the minion set with the two deep elves since I have not used any in our campaigns up to now and it also came with a dark priest, always a favorite.

However, the way this started I thought for sure I was in for another bad day. The heroes were very cautious and moved up in a group just behind the first corner. And what is in my initial draw? Dark Charm. Lovely. Using the extra threat from being the Sorcerer King I can spawn a couple Lava Beetles (yea! first appearance of a Tomb of Ice creature) and charm Nanok. And what does Nanok roll? A blank to avoid the charm! Argh! I've play Dark Charm five or six times over two campaigns and it has worked only once! The odds of that happening are staggering. On top of that, the heroes easily take out the newly spawned Lava Beetles on their next turn. Sigh.

Things started to slowly turn around after that when the heroes found the "web in the middle". Nanok was the first to find some web, soon followed by Grey Ker. The best thing about this was that it slowed down the advancement of the group, giving me time to gather threat and snipe. After a round where Nanok's taunt drew some ineffective fire, the next round was more deadly. An enraged level leader master skeleton was able to plunk Grey Ker twice followed up with a back stab from a deep elf. This sent Grey Ker to the temple in town (+3 CP).

Eventually, Varikas was able to plot a course through the web zone and got to the chest which exploded in his face, but only dealing 2 damage (chest: 400 gold, + 1 CP). Next round he flipped the glyph for another 3 conquest for the good guys. The taunting Nanok found his way up to Kagus, one of the level leaders and killed him (+2 CP). Again, undying failed me so Kagus stayed dead.

As the cautious party found a bit more web I was able to spawn a beastman party near by. They rushed Nanok and the combined forces took him out (+4 CP). Funny, Nanok, the one character I was worried about is the first to be killed twice. Of course, they have not upgraded his armor yet. Grey Ker took out the two regular beastmen while Varikas and Landrec ganged up on Allina, the remaining level leader, who died and promptly failed her undying roll (+2 CP). (I still have had only one successful undying roll over two campaigns.)

With the exit door unlocked, I figured the level was over. However, still cautious of the web spots, the heroes did not run for the door. This left an opportunity to slow them down by spawning more beastmen. They rushed Landrec who was quickly sent packing (+2 CP). This encouraged the remaining heroes to run for the portal and out of the level.

CP: Heroes: 23 / OL: 22/22

Comments:
After that first, lopsided session, I'd have to call today's session a draw. The heroes did force Sir Alric away from Dawnsmoor, saving the town from being razed. They also generated a decent amount of gold (about 1500). The heroes gained 9 conquest for the day and now have enough to get Nanok a power dice upgrade.

From the Overlord view, I lost my siege but did save Sir Alric, who would not have much to travel to get back to Dawnsmoor if I want. Between the lieutenant battle and first level of the dungeon I got my first four kills. All total I gained 16 conquest today and am now only one point behind the heroes.

The heroes must now decide whether to stay in the dungeon or flee. I am very close to the magic 25 conquest that will allow me to upgrade my cheapest monsters to silver. For the Sorcerer King that is the dreaded silver eldritch who caused much pain for the heroes in our first campaign. However, if they flee they give up the potential income of another dungeon and run the risk that they cannot train Nanok and get to another dungeon before I can upgrade anyway.

Decisions, decisions.

We actually set up this campaign at the end of our previous one so we are able to jump right into the action. To review, here is the party of heroes that will be attempting to save Terrinoth:

Nanok of the Blade with Taunt
Varikas the Dead with Leadership
Landrec the Wise with Quick Casting
Grey Ker with Eagle Eye

As I told the heroes when I saw this group unfold, I think that they have a strong party. With their experience from the first campaign and this party, they should do much better in this campaign.

They will be facing the Sorcerer King and his sniping Skeletons. The Sorcerer King will be attempting the Endless Night scenario.

On to the action...

Week 1:
The campaign starts slowly. With not many options right now, I sent Sir Alric out to cause trouble. There is only one road out of Blackthorn Grove and that's to the north to Bitter Downs. The heroes decide to stay in Tamalir to shop. They had not spent all of their initial money and hoped to find a treasure or two in the shop.

CP: Heroes: 0 / OL: 1/1
(That's Conquest Points (CP): the heroes' total and the Overlord's total / unspent)

Week 2:
It's another quiet week for the Overlord. I pick up the weekly conquest point and send Sir Alric further north to the Misty Plains. The heroes decide to move out and head to the Starfall Forest (+1 CP). It was a quiet journey with no encounter along the road.

Starfall Forest Level 1: (26 - Trial by Fire)
This is an interesting level as it has three level leaders of increasing difficulty. I thought it would be an interesting test of the heroes' party. The first leader was a hellhound, basically a speed bump (which was the theme for later in the day). The heroes start off cautious and hold back. This gives Firefang, the hellhound a chance to attack. It was more like a warm breeze than a fire breathing assault. (Question: Do copper level hellhounds ever do any damage?) On the heroes' next turn, Nanok quickly takes out the hellhound (+2 CP). This opens the door to the second section and Grimfire, the awaiting dragon.

Again the heroes played it cautious by moving up slowly and using guard orders. Landrec stayed back to watch the entry hallway to avoid spawns behind the party (which probably saved them on this level). I was able to spawn a beastmaster party to go along with Grimfire's skeleton minions. Over the next couple rounds we closed the gap. With the help of the master beastman, I was able to plink Nanok a couple times for minor damage as he ran for the gold pile. The normal beastmen also got a hit or two against Varikas who moved up to keep the dragon from rushing down the hallway. Nanok decided that healing was better than dying and ran back to the starting glyph to visit the temple in town. By now I had the dragon in striking range and I played rage to get in a double attack against Varikas and Grey Ker (Landrec was still hanging back). This did decent damage and also placed two burn tokens on the two heroes.

With Nanok already back in town and two other heroes hurt and burning, the party decided to pull out. This shows they have changed tactics in the campaign. Last time, they probably would have pushed on, lured by the treasure chest in the Grimfire's room. But, not wanting to give away conquest, they ran for the starting glyph. Since Landrec was watching their exit route I had not been able to spawn any blocking monsters.

Luckily, as the three remaining heroes are standing next to the glyph I draw my last cards... Dark Charm and Charge. Counting up my threat I found I had enough to play the Dark Charm, flip the spawn marker and spawn some Blood Apes and charge the dragon. Surely this will get me at least one kill, right? Here's where my good luck went out the window. First off, the Dark Charm fails (Two campaigns, 5 plays of dark charm, 4 blanks rolled to avoid the charm. Sigh) OK, let's spawn the apes. Only one can get spawn close enough to hit the heroes, but better than nothing. Well, Landrec's guard order allows an attack and takes out the ape. Strike two. Third try, charge the dragon so he just gets to the corner and breathes fire at the party. Miss. Strike three. The heroes then popped back to town, thus ending the dungeon.

CP: Heroes: 3 / OL: 2/2

Week 3:
Still without much to do, I pick up the weekly conquest point and send Sir Alric to Dawnsmoor where he sets up shop and starts gathering wood. Needing more money, the heroes head south to Thelsvan Highway, another quiet stroll in the woods with no encounter.

Thelsvan Highway Level 1: (36 - Mask of the Monster)
I was not impressed with this level. The level leader sounds interesting at first with the magical mask. However, once he takes three non-magical hits the mask breaks and he loses all of his extra powers and is basically a normal master. That's not hard to do. Also, the minions on this level are mostly beastmen, basically one-hit speed bumps to the heroes. So, to be different and hoping that I can get a few hits in I went with the master Troll and two beastmen option. These were placed in the first room to guard the treasure and gold.

The heroes were cautious again (seems to be normal for them now). They moved up, opened the door to the room with the troll and beastmen and placed guard orders. On the first OL turn I was able to spawn a couple sorcerers to help out (I do like the 10 threat the Sorcerer King starts with). However, the beastmen were wiped out by the guard orders before they could anything, but this cleared the way for troll and sorcerers. Great! Sorcerer one move in and attack... miss. Sorcerer two... miss. Argh! OK troll, three of the heroes are bunched by the door, bash time. After sizing up the situation I realized that I would most likely get one attack with the troll so I risked it and rolled all five power dice for the bash. Roll the dice and not one, but two blanks... miss. Of course, the heroes make take out the troll with a couple battle actions, leaving enough fire power to also take out the sorcerers.

With just the level leader and no spawn cards, the level looks about over. So I decided to play for the next level. I had the level leader move up to take on Varikas who was out by himself without a standing order. The master did cause a little damage but nothing serious. Varikas and Grey Ker battle and take out the level leader (+2 CP).

The heroes flip the glyph (+3 CP) and cautiously go for the portal thinking I was going to spawn. I wasn't going to waste a spawn when they could just run away, so I collect threat and wait. I did get Evil Genius out to play for the next level. In hind sight, I probably should have held this until the start of the next level. The heroes head into the portal to the next level.

Thelsvan Highway Level 2: (24 - Eternal Prisoner)
So, I spend several minutes putting this level together, getting it set up and placing the minions. The level leader is a demon who gets free spawns but can't move until freed by the heroes triggering the exit door. I have a full hand of cards, Evil Genius in play and have some threat built up, it looks like I might make up for the easy first level and finally get a kill. Wrong. The heroes size up the situation for a bit and discuss it. After a few minutes they decide not to even try and headed straight back to Tamalir. Yep, they have learned. And boy, how frustrating for the OL. Two dungeons, three levels, not a single hero kill. Again, sigh.

CP: Heroes: 9 / OL: 3/3

Week 4:
This is a quick week. I picked up another conquest and Sir Alric starts his siege of Dawnsmoor. The heroes stayed in Tamalir to spend their money. They upgraded the Tamalir market and bought the boat. This left the party with 100 gold.

CP: Heroes: 9 / OL: 4/4

Week 5:
The heroes decide they need to stop the besieging Sir Alric and head out towards Dawnsmoor. On the way to Blackwing Swamp we have our first encounter. The party met up with the Circle of Doom (sorcerers) in the Corrupted Forest (2 hits if a hero places an order). I thought with (probably) no guard orders to worry about and Varikas' Leadership ability nullified I might have a chance. Of course, I need to stop rolling misses.

Well, the misses return so I can do very little damage. The sorcerers turn out to be one hit wonders, although Landrec did miss a couple times which allowed a couple sorcerers to last a bit longer. In the end, no real damage was done and only the master sorcerer is left facing off against Varikas and Grey Ker. The heroes are placed so a desperate blast attack between them could cause some pain. Miss. Again. (Over 10 misses for the overlord today). The master sorcerer is then taken down, but he's undying so we roll... and he stays dead. My unlucky streak with bringing back undying leaders continues. The heroes pick up 2 conquest for the leader and one for discovering the Blackwing Swamp.

CP: Heroes: 12 / OL: 5/5

Week 6:
As Sir Alric continues building siege engines outside Dawnsmoor the heroes head towards the city and have another encounter. This time they encounter a master beastman and his cronies. Great, more one-shot kills for the heroes. This encounter goes pretty much the same as the other one. The monsters do very little damage to the heroes. Nanok and his taunt skill plays a major roll. I was not able to move the normal beastmen past Nanok so had to attack him. Even with the boost from the master's command was not enough to do more than scratch Nanok. But they added up. When the master moved up and attacked I was able to add some extra dice with the threat. I got Nanok down to 5 hits but that was it. The next round the encounter was over. (+2 CP for the heroes)

The heroes got to Dawnsmoor and visited the shops.

CP: Heroes: 14 / OL: 6/6

Comments:
This campaign has started off much differently than our first. The heroes are much more cautious and my conquest total is suffering for it. Although, unlucky rolls on that Dark Charm and a bunch of misses did not help the situation. As I thought, this combination of heroes and skills is a pain. Varikas' leadership is giving the heroes at least one more attack (via guarding) each round. This usually means an extra kill for them. Since Varikas gets a free fatigue each turn, he will always have one for the Leadership ability. Landrec's quick shot has been felt some and he recently picked up the Gauntlets of Strength. Let's see, Landrec gets two free surges each attack, he feeds those into the gauntlets and get a fatigue to power quickshot. Going to be a nasty combo. And then there's Nanok with taunt. If I can't get more firepower before they buff him with a couple more armor, I'll be in serious trouble.

As for the campaign, the heroes have a decision to make. Sir Alric will complete his last siege engine during the upcoming week. They can attack him right away during the next week and try to keep me from making a siege roll. However, they would risk coming into the battle not at full health. If they spend the week to heal up, I get one shot at razing the town before the battle.

What will happen? Only time will tell.

< Week 8 >
< Garden of Tarn dungeon, level 3, "Pit Fiend (23)" >
Dear Diary,
Ah, Diary, It seems like it has been months since I last had time to record my thoughts here. These pesky heroes must have been lost in a time warp going from the second to third level of the Garden of Tarn dungeon. Whatever the cause was, they finally showed up knocking on the door of the Pit Fiend's lair.

The heroes were very cautious and set up a defensive position near the first intersection. Looking in my bag of tricks I could only find the summoning spell for a bunch of Kobolds. So I sent them to the dungeon to help out the Pit Fiend's razorwings and the Fiend's pet manticore. I hoped that the Kobolds would buy some time and I had the masters hang back with the Pit Fiend to help him spring traps on the heroes.

Then Runemaster Thorn made his normal speed run for the gold and ended up just in range of a couple kobolds and razorwings. This group rushed in and almost took Thorn out, but was not able to finish the job. Meanwhile, Corbin and Steelhorns went after the manticore and were able to just take it out. Thorn, hanging on to life was able to call up enough energy to take out a kobold and with the help of Kirga, they cleared out a couple razorwings and the other kobolds. This enraged the Pit Fiend who charged out of his corner and tore into Thorn, sending him back to town.

The tricky master kobolds were able to spring a couple of traps before Steelhorns realized what was going on. He then charged the kobolds and quickly brought them down. The rest was mop up action as Kirga was able to bring down the Pit Fiend with a couple of well placed dwarven firebombs. And even though the chest turned into a mimic Beastman, no serious damage was done to the heroes before they exited the dungeon.

(Conquest: Heroes +7, OL +5)
Editor's note: Total Conquest ... 199 ... one shy of silver.

< Week 9 >
Dear Diary,
I was not happy how last week ended up. However, I woke up today in a better mood. As I walked outside I thought I saw a glimpse of a silver ring around the sun. That can only mean that the gods are pleased with my work. At night the great comet appears closer. My Ascension can not be far away. I feel it.

The weekly updates from the minions have arrived. The siege at Nerekhall continues to show no end with the walls still holding and the population still determined to support the old gods. They will be reeducated soon as I tire of their resistance. Sir Alric reports that his siege engine construction is complete and will soon start his active siege of Greyhaven. And Kar-Amag-Atoth continues his uninterrupted building of siege engines outside of the capital of Tamalir.

As I await the right conditions to start casting the spells to strengthen my creatures, I have spent this week researching the tomes for new treacherous tricks to spring on those heroes. I will have a new trick or two up my sleeve the next time they test a dungeon.

Speaking of those heroes, they were seen passing by the Thelsvan Highway late in the week.
(Conquest: Heroes +0, OL +1)

< Week 10 >
Dear Diary,
What a glorious week!

Early in the week I woke to find what I was hoping for, a shiny silver ring around the sun. A clear sign that it was time to take the next step for my Ascension. I immediately rushed by to my chambers and started casting the spells to provide my humanoid monsters the same silver enhancement that my Eldritch creatures have been using.

I received more wonderful news later in the week as the report from Sir Alric came in. Greyhaven has fallen! The citizens of Greyhaven were caught unaware as Sir Alric started the siege. He made quick work of their defenses and razed the city. I must send my new priests to Greyhaven to oversee the construction of the first of my new temples. I have sent Sir Alric to Tamalir to relieve Kar-Amag-Atoth there.

Unfortunately, the entire week was not a success as the report from Nerekhall was the same. No success with the siege.

My servants in Riverwatch sent a report that the hero band showed up there. They went straight to the market to spend their ill gotten gains from the last dungeon.
(Conquest: Heroes +0, OL +6)

< Week 11 >
Dear Diary,

Oh Diary, what another magnificent week. Nerekhall has finally fallen! Lord Merrick showed the town no mercy as he cleared it out to prepare for the new temple. Two weeks; two cities razed. Much better progress. Can there be any question that the gods are truly on my side?

Sir Alric started the siege at Tamalir and as one could expect, the walls of the town held up to the first wave of attacks. I have sent Kar-Amag-Atoth south to follow up on the hero band.

I decided to try out the second level enhancement spell on my Eldritch creations. It worked flawlessly. They now glow with a golden hue; wonderful.

The heroes stayed in Riverwatch another week. Three of them were seen hanging out in the market digging for new toys. There was a report that Kirga was seen training and that later in the week was seen around town with a new Shadow Soul hovering around.
(Conquest: Heroes +0, OL +7)

< Week 12 >
Dear Diary,

The gods are surely pleased with my work...

The walls of Tamalir have collapsed.

The city is mine.

Nothing can now stop my Ascension.

The comet IS coming.

They will fear me!

Final Box Score:
Avatar: Demon Prince
Scenario: Ascension
Week: 12
Nerekhall: Razed
Greyhaven: Razed
Tamalir: Razed, Cathedral upgrade
Eldritch: Gold
Humanoids: Silver
Conquest: Overlord 154 (43 unspent) / Heroes 59 : Total 213 / Silver level

So where do we go from here? Another campaign of course. We had time to reset the game and start fresh. And this time I think the heroes will do much better. Not only do they have the experience from this first campaign, they have a much stronger party. They have:

Nanok of the Blade with Taunt (Yikes!)
Varikas the Dead with Leadership
Landrec the Wise with Quick Casting
Grey Ker with Eagle Eye

They will be facing the Sorcerer King and his sniping Skeletons. The Sorcerer King will be attempting the Endless Night scenario. What will happen? Stay tuned for the story to come...

If things go as planned this weekend, I should have another chapter in the "Excerpts from the Diary of a Mad Overlord" series sometime next week.

Descent Bane Spiders	Descent Nagas
Descent Chaos Beasts	Descent Golems
All monsters from Well of Darkness expansion	All monsters from Altar of Despair expansion

You can see all of the Descent miniatures I have painted in the picture gallery.]]> 2008-11-13T09:17:57-06:00 http://www.rozmiarek.info/games/archive/000343.html 343@http://www.rozmiarek.info/games/ Wow, has this been a bad few months for gaming. We missed this month's Meetup group, the first since it started. The previous two have been less than stellar and I didn't want to write about them because all I'd be doing is whining. Other than that, we've hardly had any time for games at all. Okay, so I've changed my mind and I'm going to whine a little now. :-)

Last month, with it just before Halloween, I brought Last Night on Earth to the Meetup in hopes of a fun, spooky game. I set it up on the table in all its glory in order to entice people to the table. And there it sat while I played Shadow Hunters, a fun game but one in which we learned that it doesn't really work with just four players. More people began showing up and despite my asking around, LNoE continued to be ignored while I played Oregon, a pleasant (read boring) game but hardly what I had in mind. So, the night wasn't a bust but it was disappointing. I wish I could find more people willing to loosen up and have fun with some Ameritrash games. At least my family likes them.

The Meetup before that was one of the worst gaming experiences I've ever had. I brought a shiny, new copy of Journey to the Center of the Earth which I'd already played once and enjoyed as a light, family game that plays in about an hour. We get a lot of new people to the Meetup, often new to hobby games as well. This is actually a plus sometimes for me, as it provides a chance to get my "fluff" fix with games like Ticket to Ride. I try to go out of my way to get these newbies involved which I feel is important to keep the group active and growing. Alas, it did not turn out so well this time. This one new person was totally unable to grasp a few of the rules despite me (and eventually the others) trying to explain them over and over again throughout the game until I was blue in the face. The game took us over 2.5 hours to play and I was exhausted and thoroughly frustrated by the time we were finished. Ugh.

So, enough of the negative and now on to the positive: Ed and I are helping out our FLGS, Rogue's Gallery, by doing a demo of Memoir '44 next Sunday afternoon. We pulled it out this past Saturday to reacquaint ourselves with the rules and played the Sword Beach scenario. Why, oh why, don't we get this fabulous game out more often? We had a short but furious skirmish with my Allies falling just before breaking through the left flank. Fun stuff. We later broke out our new copy of Dominion and played a couple of games. Both were with the "big money" set of cards and it was fun trying out a different strategy each time. This game is going to see a lot of play as we both really like it.

We have a big gaming weekend of D&D 4e, Descent, and Memoir '44 planned. So, hopefully the dry spell is over!

Some random stuff:

Math trades on BGG - We haven't convinced ourselves yet that these are worthwhile, but I must say that we did pretty well in the last two. Usually we end up trading down or not trading at all and I'm not sure it's worth the price of shipping to trade one mediocre game for another. Then again, that does allow us to try games that we are curious about but not quite willing to buy to do so. However, we just traded Monastery for the 2nd expansion for Command & Colors: Ancients. Monastery is a game that has some neat stuff in it but it just didn't click with us. C&C: A exp. #2 is something we have been wanting but it is pretty pricey and our gaming budget is very meager these days. Our most recent trade, though, is the one that's got me doing a happy dance. We traded InterUrban, a lackluster Michael Schacht game with typical crappy Winsome components for a shrink-wrapped copy of Touch of Evil. I have been anticipating getting this for a while now, but was saving it for my BGG Secret Santa list.

We got a Hasbro catalog in the mail, presumably because we ordered Heroscape stuff from them recently. Of course, I immediately went to the games section. Their line of selected classic games all done up in pink to appeal to little girls (I guess) has always amused me but I was astounded to see a new pink version of an Ouiji board. I didn't even know they were still around. I thought that was some old new age-y occult fad and it isn't even a game. And pink?!?! Hardly creepy! What ghosts would a little girl want to try to talk to? Both bizarre and amusing.....

To make my thrift store hunting more interesting, I'm now collecting differently themed Monopoly sets for the little pewter tokens which I'm displaying in a curio cabinet with other little miniature things. I keep the dice as well, of course, and toss the rest. This week I scored a Star Wars copy that had all nine tokens in it. Oddly, it was missing the board. Barnes & Nobles currently has a Nintendo version in its stores right now. I'd love to find that in a thrift store some day.