Parting Glass.

After a year of making a go of this blog, to little or no effect, I find that it is time to “give up the Ghost” and simply shut it down. I so wish to thank all who have contributed and who have expressed to me over the past year how much they enjoy the various articles on Boozing and Gaming. However, they are the minority and as I have found out, the majority, has not the attention span for blog articles, and would rather listen to a Podcast (which I have toyed with some) or watch a video blog (Vlog). As I am technologically inept neither of those two mediums are viable options for me to explore anytime in the near future. This old dog has neither the inclination, nor the patience, to learn old tricks let alone new ones.

 However, though I will not be adding any new content except a quick recipe or two for my own reference, we will continue to focus our efforts on our Facebook page. This is not to say the blog has been removed from the web. It will remain in place to peruse and look back upon as an endeavor, noble but undesired. Alas such is the way of things in general.

Thanks again to everyone; I do hope that for the thousands of hits we received at least some of you took the time to enjoy reading the madness of our collective minds. In any event I must away, for pursuits of more earthly matters tug at my sleeve.

Is fhearr fheuchainn na bhith san duil
Cheers
AL

Guild Stats Q1 2014: Out of the comfort zone.

Booze & Board Games had a rather busy first quarter of the year, and like all geeks we enjoy statistics, so we thought it might be interesting to share with you all what we have been doing. We have broken our activities down into a couple of categories with a few numbers thrown in. It is rather impressive for such a small group of players and I personally was a little taken aback by the volume. These stats entail activity from January 1st through March 31st of 2014. (Just in case any of you didn’t know what a quarter was).

 Category #1 Game Sessions:

We attended two Conventions, Snow Con in January for a single day, and Total Con in February for four days. Outside of this we also held eight Guild game days for a total of 10 gaming events attended. If we were to break down each day of Total con we could essentially say we had 13 game sessions. Cons being what they are (large events) we decided to leave the number at 10. The average of game sessions for each month pans out to a little over 3. We also went public by hosting all but one of our Guild game days at a local hobby shop. This helped to boost the next category “Attendance”.

 Category #2 Attendance:

The number of people who attended either a game day, or who we as a guild played with at a Convention comes to 22 individuals. I list them here in order of frequency i.e. attended most sessions to least. I also have included the names (if remembered) and or the names we gave to other people who joined us at some point. If you don’t see your name it means you suck, and have not made any time for the awesomeness that is Booze & Board Games or you are simply forgettable. Attendees: Mike, Al, Tuna, Kurt R., Therin R., Valerie, Anthony, Left Coast Jon, John S., Justin the Hippie, Eric Summerer of the Dice Tower, Rob a very old Hippie, Random Guy from CT., Flip Florie and Chris the Moderator from Flip the Table, Colin the Spaz and his greasy fingered friend, and five others who I have forgotten completely due to Convention exhaustion.

Category #3 Games played:

We as a guild played 32 different game titles and a total of 55 games overall, I have listed the Titles and number of plays below. Some games were very long like “What's He Building in There? and Dread Fleet” while others like “Eight Minute Empire and Zombie Dice” were rather quick. The top three games played were; Zombie Dice (8), Marvel Legendary (6), and Star Wars: X-Wing (4).

Games List: Zombie Dice x8, Marvel Legendary x6, Star Wars: X-Wing x4, Magic the Gathering x3, Eight Minute Empire x 2, Forbidden Desert x2, Pathfinder the Card Game x2, Quarriors x2, Tsuro Seven Seas x2, What's He Building in There? x2, 1775: Rebellion x1, ApocalypZe x1, Axis & Allies War at Sea x1, Can't Stop x1, Carrier Strike x1, Coffins & Tombstones x1, D-Day Dice x1, Dread Fleet x1, Galaxy Trucker x1, Love Letter x1, MacDonald’s x1, Machi Koro x1, Marvel Dice Masters x1, Mega Zombicide x1, Midgard x1, Nothing Personal x1, Panzer Blitz x1, Scalawag x1, Star Trek Cataan x1, Ticket to Ride x1, Zombicide: Prison Outbreak x1, Zombicide: Toxic City Mall x1.


Not bad numbers for us if I do say so myself. Lots of new games played with lots of new faces. Ten separate sessions, twenty two people engaged thirty two different game titles on the table and fifty five total games played. Now to see if we can’t get some decent numbers for Q2 who’s with us?


Cheers
AL

The Emerald.

by Al Butler


A finer line up I couldn't imagine

Nancy Uisce, has been a dear friend and mistress of mine for many a year. She has kept me warm on cold winter nights, and helped me smile even as darkness threatened. Old friends she has called to my side when lonely, and through gentle guile given me new ones with which to laugh and joke. She is indeed charming and beautiful in her own right, with the strength to make any man fall deep into a dream of love, or a rage of passion. But, for all of her many attributes, Nancy is a rather plain old girl, steady and true yes, but not easily dressed up.

That is why cocktails made with Irish whiskey are few and far between, good ones that is.

Nancy Uisce; simple but tempting.

We have all seen and heard of the bright green concoctions ladled out on St. Patrick’s Day. Lovely golden Whiskey overwhelmed by crème de menthe and other equally vile ingredients, served in a martini glass as an “Erin” or “Everybody’s Irish”. Ever wonder why you don’t see these any other time of the year? It’s because they are terrible, and the idiot posers who choke them down can do so but once every three hundred and sixty five days. Nancy’s power rests in her simplicity, sadly, too many people ignore this fact, and they not only harm their guests, but so too negatively skew other’s perceptions of the spirit.

Well, there is one Irish whiskey cocktail that I enjoy which embraces the natural body of Nancy Uisce, and that is “the Emerald”.

Served "up" the Emerald has a bit of class.



Ingredients:
2 oz. Irish whiskey
1 oz. Italian vermouth
1-2 dash orange bitters
Orange peel to garnish

Method:
Fill a mixing glass with cracked ice; add your vermouth, whiskey and bitters. Stir well until cold. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add an orange peel for garnish.


Notes: Be patient when stirring, you want to let the ice do its work of diluting (not too much) and of chilling the drink. The orange peel garnish really adds a nice boost to the cocktail, if you give it a little squeeze over the glass after straining, and a quick run around the rim.

The name is the only thing green about this smooth drink.

The only thing green about the Emerald is its name thank god. The rather basic logic is, "If you mix rye, which they drink in New York, with vermouth, you get a Manhattan; therefore, Irish whiskey and vermouth must be an Emerald." Honestly it matters not, for this simple and elegant cocktail can be served any time of the year and is sure to please any who are enthralled and beguiled by Nancy Uisce. The smooth and mellow flavor will ease away doubt and worry if but for a short while, and grant the drinker a respite from fear and care.


Cheers
AL


Al's St. Patrick's Day Holy Trinity

 

The Holy Trinity

 

It has been said that during the fifth century when St. Patrick was trying to convert the native peoples of Ireland to Catholicism he used a simple shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity. If you don’t know what the Trinity is (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) just pretend you do for now. Not being a man of the church myself, no offence, or perhaps just inadvertently, to the followers of the faith, I have my own Holy Trinity, and I practice its catechism each and every 17th of March. For, what better way to honor that famous Saint than to embrace the holy three from Eireann’s isle; Bailey’s, Guinness, and Bushmills, on his revered day of remembrance?

So I share with you my St. Patrick’s Day rituals through three drinks, timed well throughout and balanced for occasion. It is something of a marathon so remember to pace yourself, it does you no good to be passed out from drink come noon and be missing the rest of the day.

Ulster Fry, from Norn Iron

In the Morn: Play a bit of music, and eat a hearty Breakfast for the day will be long. If you are feeling adventurous try an Ulster Fry it will definitely fill the stomach. I always start my day with a cup of coffee or tea, and on any regular day a sugar or two suffices to liven it up. But today is not just any day, so we start off by mixing in a bit of Bailey’s Irish cream with our morning coffee, just to get things gliding along. You could go with a traditional Irish Coffee as well, but I found out long ago that drinking whiskey at 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning is not only frowned upon by society, it also has the negative effect of weakening the constitution too quickly. For some reason Bailey’s is OK on Holidays.

Bailey's and coffee, 3-4 of these to start.

Bailey’s & Coffee

Ingredients:1 cup of good strong coffee
1-1.5 oz. Bailey’s Irish Cream
1 tsp. sugar (optional)

Method:
Pour your coffee, add baileys and sugar then stir. I do not ever recall actually measuring out the Irish cream, a squint of the eye and a tip of the bottle seems to suffice.

Afternoon: Traditionally a visit to the Pub is in order at some point during the afternoon, however long ago I stopped making this pilgrimage for Pints of celebration. This is due to several factors not the least of which is that most loathsome of concoctions “Green Beer or Ale”. I have yet to come across a person with a glass of that in hand who after but a moment or two I’ve not felt like maiming in some cruel way. It is vile, “Plastic” and has the magical power to summon what I call “an instant Eejit”. I prefer to have my pint of Guinness poured properly or a nice half & half served with a clear line of float, neither of which are guaranteed on this day due to all the attention being given to mixing up pitchers of “Green Plastic Paddy”. So I pour at home and avoid being locked up for assault.

About right.

 Pints of Guinness

Ingredients:
16 oz. Guinness
A fecking pint glass

Method:
Pour the Guinness slowly into a tipped glass and let it settle for a few minutes.

Don’t overdo it with the pints five or six should suffice to prime yourself for dinner which will be there before you know it. Or you can simply skip the meal and add two more pints of the black and a bit of soda bread to absorb it.

Evening: The music gets turned down to a dull roar as darkness begins to creep in. And if you have skipped dinner your head takes a bit of a swim. If this happens eat something light and wash your face with cold water, always works for me. Now is the time to reflect upon your day and all the things you have not accomplished, better perhaps to chat with a friend or two over a glass of your favorite Irish Whiskey. Note I say friend, for having to dance around in polite, politically correct, discussion with people at this point is pretty much a losing proposition, friends accept you for who you are even if you do end up giving them a cuff or two for being a Hippie. Steer clear of anyone who does not seem to be enjoying the Holiday as much as you are (your wife for example) and this part of the day will go off well.

 

Because I am a man and don't care what you think.

 

Whiskey Rocks

Ingredients:
2 -3 oz. Irish Whiskey (I prefer Bushmills ten year old Single Malt)
Rocks/Old Fashion glass
Ice

Method:
Add a couple of ice cubes to the rocks glass, then pour your whiskey in over it and serve. Let the ice seep a bit and give the drink a wee swish with your wrist. This is a sipping drink to be enjoyed with a fine cigar, pipe, or cigarette. Let the warmth envelop you as the day winds down, and you toast a parting glass to your mates.

So there you have my St. Patrick’s Day Holy Trinity, if controlled and consumed in moderation you’ll have no problem finding your way to bed. If not? Well, I pray you wake not in a dumpster or beside the woman you thought was Christina Hendricks but in the Morning's early light turns out to be a Rosie O’Donnell look alike.

Please drink Responsibly. Really!
 

Cheers
AL

Irish Coffee

by Al Butler

Irish Coffee

As it is March, my favorite month of the year, I will be focusing on drinks and cocktails that have originated from Ireland, including Norn Iron. This week we have the classic Irish Coffee which some say originated at Shannon Airfield in the 1940s or 50s as a way to warm up frozen air travelers on their arrival. No matter who or why it was created, the end result is a strong and warming experience in a glass. I’m going to keep this brief, as I have found over the past months, that what I say, or write, about a particular cocktail or libation is of little interest to the general populace.

Ingredients:
1.5 ounces Bushmills Original or Black, Irish Whiskey
3 ounces hot coffee
1 teaspoon Brown sugar (optional)
1 teaspoon heavy cream

Method:
Pour coffee into a warmed Irish coffee glass .5 inches from the rim. Add sugar to taste, stir to dissolve. Next add Bushmills Irish Whiskey. Top with slightly whipped cream, poured gently over the back of a spoon.

Black Bush, and brown sugar really make this drink sing.

The sugar portion of this drink is optional. But, if you are going to add it use brown sugar, it mixes well with the whiskey and coffee flavors, offsetting the bitterness of the others. Whipped cream is essential, and adding a good dollop has been deemed an art form. Master bartenders pride themselves on their ability to “top off” a coffee neatly and cleanly. There are many methods for getting this done but I feel that lightly whipping fresh cream so that is it still somewhat liquid, and gently pouring over the back of a spoon you get a decent enough presentation without too much effort. NEVER under any circumstance are you to substitute canned Reddi-Whip for fresh cream. If you do then you are a peasant, and you should not be reading this blog.

Well there you have it. A warm, comforting Irish Coffee to either end your evening, or as an after dinner drink instead of dessert. I have loads more I could write on this, one of my “go to” winter drinks, but like I said no one is listening and I'd rather be sipping a glass instead.

Cheers
AL

Scratching the Itch; Summoner Wars IOS

by Al Butler

Summoner Wars IOS App

It has been rather cold up here in the Northeast; negative zero temperatures each morning, with the thermometer not getting above freezing throughout the day. I cannot speak for others but, for me, such frigid conditions tend to stifle my board gaming hobby a bit. Normally, about once a week, I will grab a title from my library after work, set it up, and try and play a solo variant or two, or perhaps simply organize the components so my OCD is satisfied. Not in this weather though, for by the time I get back to the igloo, I mean house, all I want to do is eat something and curl up in a warm spot.

It’s exhausting to say the least. However, the itch to play remains, and so like any good Junkie I have found a way to scratch it and satisfy the addiction.


Many board games have been converted into IOS (apple) apps that can be played electronically on either an iPad or iPhone. A particular title I have had my eye on is a box game Summoner Wars by Plaid Hat Games, which has been available for IOS for quite some time now, so I decided I’d give it a try. The download was free, so it was a far cry less expensive than buying the Master box set ($30-$50). I figured this way I could not only try out the game cheap before going all in but, I could also keep my ass warm in bed under comforters, electric blankets, three cats, etc. while I played.

Tap or drag to move during movement phase.

The concept for Summoner Wars is similar to several popular collectible card games: you control an all-powerful summoner with the ability to cast magic and bring various types warriors to fight battles. It uses a card-based mechanic for building magic and summoning new cards, however each card is put on a grid-based field, creating a physical strategy on top of resource management.

I Feel, the iPad is a perfect fit for Summoner Wars. An entire table with dozens of moving cards is condensed to a single screen. Managing the field, your hand, the discard, die rolls, and every other aspect of the game is laid out in a smart and intuitive way, which makes learning and gameplay flow easily. Every card in play has all of its main statistics visible from the field view, and any further special abilities can be read with a quick double tap.

Double tap any card to view up close special abilities.

I’ve played dozens of games and have even bought a couple of expansion decks to add variety. Each race, Elves, Dwarves, Undead, etc. have their own unique special traits as well as strategies for playing them. The AI opponent rarely becomes predictable even after working the same deck combination over and over, but I think a human opponent in online play would really make this title shine even more. Yes that’s available too.

Ranged attack!

The one thing I suggest strongly to anyone who decides to load this app, is to run through the tutorial in full and read the manual before trying to play a match. I being "all knowing" failed to do so and got my ass kicked due to skipping this most basic step. Once I went back and read it, all was good again.

Play the tutorial and read the rules.

So there you have it, I will continue to scratch away at the itch by playing Summoner Wars for IOS each night while all comfy and cozy neathe the covers. At least until things begin to thaw out a bit around here, and I can stand on the dining room floor and not have my feet turn blue. I have also decided to add the Box Set back onto my list of games to purchase.

Summoner Wars App Store Link.

Cheers
AL

A Cranky Grandma.

by Al Butler


Cranky Grandma with a lemon twist.

A few weeks ago while out and about with my wife I had a delightful libation at an Italian restaurant in Freeport Maine. The bar had a menu of specialty drinks which really caught my “Cocktilian” (new word) eye and I felt safe in trying something a bit different. From the various and somewhat unique ingredients listed beside each house cocktail I could tell right away that the bartenders took special care with their craft, so in my mind, it was time to try something new.

The drink I chose was what we at Booze & Board Games are calling “A Cranky Grandma”. We had to rename it because I was bit knackered at the restaurant and could not remember the original. Anyway, our friend and sometime player Brandon Keller came up with this name and I feel it fits pretty well with the ingredients and nature of the drink. Why Cranky Grandma? well I suppose because this is something your old granny might drink on a bad day, or maybe the lemon (sour) Elderflower (name is old) and none too sweet combination makes one think of  "Granny on a Rampage".

So, without much further ado we present “A Cranky Grandma”.

Ingredients:
1.5-2.0 oz. Quality Gin (Hendricks or Bombay Sapphire)
¼- ½ oz. Elderflower Liqueur (handpicked flowers are used to make this)
½ oz. of Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
Tonic water
Lemon wheel, wedge, or twist for Garnish

Method:
Fill a Collin’s glass with Ice, and then add your Gin. Now squeeze in your lemon juice, you can pre-squeeze a bunch of lemons ahead of time in preparation, or you can simply take a half of a medium lemon and squeeze it right into the glass. Top off with the Tonic water, and lastly add the Elderflower Liqueur. Give it a quick stir, attach your garnish and you are all set to go.

Elderflower Liqueur.

This is a simple and fast drink to mix up, but you should always add the Elderflower Liqueur last. The density of the Liqueur insures that it will drop to the bottom, in so doing the light herbal highlights of the Elderflower will blend better with the other components more so than simply stirring. Remember Tonic water flattens quickly when stirred so; gently with the bar spoon if you please.

Some of you are saying that this is nothing more than a fancy gin and tonic, or lemon Gin Rickey, and you are not far off. However the addition of Elderflower changes the dynamic of this drink in a subtle way. Elder flowers are handpicked by small French Peasant children who are beaten regularly if they do not meet their quotas. Their quick and delicate hands gently carry the flowers to their betters who in turn distill these wonderful herbs into liqueur. Only the best of the flowers are used, and woe betide any waif who dares bruise a single petal of the harvest. Child enslavement aside;  Elderflower liqueur adds a light floral flavor to the drink and enhances the botanicals in the spirit thus creating a nuanced experience.

How cute..now BACK TO WORK!

I for one really like this cocktail as it is quick, but tasteful. It reminds me of warm summer afternoons looking out over green fields neathe a blue sky. Of children joyfully singing a harvest song whilst they labor for my benefit, punctuated by a wee cry of fear every now and again as some urchin displeases the overseer. Hmmm the beauty of it all. 

Cheers
AL

DAY TWO:Total Con, Where the Geeky Things Are.

By Tuna Farrell 

 



 

This is the second installment in a series of posts dedicated to our adventure at Total Con. Tuna secretly kept a detailed journal of the events and items of interest and we have decided it is important for us to not only share these bits of geekery with other folks but also to save them for posterity here.

Feb. 21st The vendor room wasn’t ready to open yesterday so we take some time to wander around in there. We see a lot of games we’d love to try but they’re not available to demo in the convention hall. Bummer. Still, lots of cool things that tempt us with their shiny cellophane wrappings and brightly painted images.

Quarriors set up

It’s day two of the convention and it is starting to fill up; there are definitely more people here than yesterday; though open tables are still pretty easy to find. We manage to get a copy of Quarriors from the library (the game Marvel Dice Masters is sort of based on) so we give that a go. Being familiar with the game mechanics we picked it up really quickly and it was pretty fun. A random guy walks by the table and offers to sell us his copy of Quarriors for “cheap”. Of course he keeps raising the price, which sort of aggravates me. I decide that as long as a new copy isn’t outrageously expensive I’ll buy a new one rather than give this guy my money.

It’s the principle of the thing.

Takenoko Deluxe.

We spend some time relaxing and just wandering around looking at what people are playing seeing if something catches our eye. We see a deluxe version of Takenoko (a Japanese import game that involves a panda eating bamboo. Yeah I know but It’s cooler than you might think) being played. I really liked the preview I saw of this on “Table Top”, however, I find the deluxe version a bit of a put off because the pieces are so huge. It’s beautifully made, really good quality game pieces. But all the pieces are 4-5 times bigger than the regular set, and the die that comes with the game is bigger than a softball. Plus it costs $300. I might buy the regular set, but not this collector’s edition.

Can't Stop, no seriously you Can't!

Next we play a game called “Can’t Stop”, a game from Mike’s childhood. It involves dice, a slotted board, and colored traffic cones. Yup, traffic cones. You advance your traffic cones across the board in order to be the first to the end. Believe it or not, it was fun. Not complicated, there was some real strategy involved, it was over fairly quickly, but it was pretty fun.

ApocalypZe, eh we tried.

A bit later we decide to try one of the developer games (ApocalypZe), a zombie based card game, with various survivor factions. It was .. okay. It felt overly complicated and didn’t seem to flow very naturally from one play to the next. They had obviously put a lot of effort into it and the artwork on the cards was very well done, but we probably won’t be picking this one up.

Eric Summerer of Dice Tower, with Flip Florey and Cris M.

The people from Dice Tower were doing a live recording of their show here at the con, and Mike wanted to attend. I was going along just because it was something to do and Al figured he’d show up and leave after a few minutes. I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed the show, and Al was even more surprised that he stayed and liked it as well. They had guests from several different gaming pod casts (Flip the Table, Not Just Another Pod Cast, and Cardboard Jungle). The Flip the Table guys are actually from Bangor Maine. This is probably as close to celebrity that I will ever actually get, so of course I am getting star struck being in such proximity to “famous” people; especially as this is a small con and we keep running into these guys everywhere.

The Pod Cast hosts talk about new games that they have played (Marvel Dice Masters gets a mention), games that they hope to play, and just general board/card game stuff. One new game they discuss is called “Doom That Came to Atlantic City” sounds pretty cool. It’s a reverse version of Monopoly. You start with a full city and then you have to summon the Elder Gods to destroy it. I’m looking forward to that one let me tell you.

They record two episodes, and at the end, perform a short skit about syndicated radio host Dr. Judy who gives dating advice and advises a female caller that her instincts that her boyfriend is cheating on her are spot on. What adult man plays board games all day?

*e-hem*

We also got some swag at the pod cast. Mike got some official Dice Tower Dice, and Al and I got some throwaway card games. Yay! Free stuff!

What's he Building in There? A win for Al that's what.

Not knowing what else to do, we decided to take one of the games we brought with us down to the game floor to play. “What’s He Building In There?” is a game I haven’t tried yet, though Mike and Al both have. In this game you are a mad scientist building a doomsday device and an escape vehicle. You have to place workers and your scientist on the board each turn to gather the materials you need to build both your device and escape. Another awesome game, even though I didn’t complete my doomsday device (I forgot my refined glass!).

Side note: There was a woman there selling cupcakes and cookies. Cookies had written on it “Bribe” to bribe your GM, or Health or Mana; cupcakes had little frosting dragons or frosting hands reaching up from inside. She also had a great business model. Roll a twenty sided dice. On a twenty you got a free cupcake, on a 17-19 you got .50 off, on a roll of one you had to buy two cupcakes. I told her “You picked the right audience for this".

I rolled a 10, Mike rolled a 17. They were pretty good cupcakes.

After several hours at Total Con I have made an observation. A majority of the people here are men over 40, in excess of 220-240 lbs. bearded, and wearing glasses.

…..

This makes me distinctly uncomfortable.

Mike and I had signed up for a con run game of Zombicide. We play this a lot amongst ourselves but we wanted to try it with a different group. Al signed up for an old Avalon Hill strategy game called Panzer Blitz while we did this.

Eight Minute Empire.

Al goes off to his game, and we head to the assigned table … no Zombicide. There’s a mother/son there waiting also, but no one is there to run the game. Mike and I decide to try out a game from the open cabinet called “Eight Minute Empire” while we wait to see if anyone shows up. Turns out the game is somewhat miss named. It took longer to play than eight minutes; though the rules only took about eight minutes to learn so maybe not.

So, no one shows up; Al finishes his game. Nothing much going on so Al decides to head up to the room with a promise/threat that he’ll come back later to check on us. Mike and I decide to wander around for a bit just to stretch our legs and hopefully our imaginations. We see one of the guys from the pod cast with a bunch of Zombicide stuff sitting out and we go over and say hello. After talking with him for a few minutes he asks us if we want to play a game. Sure!

Mega Zombicide layout with all the boards.

While he’s setting up he mentions that he had a scheduled game that no one showed up to. Turns out he had changed the assigned table because the original table wasn’t big enough and nobody updated the change on any of the lists. We had even asked one of the guys at the desk earlier and they told us the wrong table! We could have started playing over an hour ago.

Stupid convention people.

Mike our new "Star" makes his move while Tuna looks on.

So, the game itself is a custom made scenario created by combining all three Zombicide sets into one gigantic map, with a few house rules thrown into the mix. It wasn’t bad, but aside from a few small things it was too easy and didn’t pace as well as a regular game would have. The only bad thing? One of the players was some teenaged kid who was a total spaz. It wasn’t too bad in the beginning but as the game wore on he began to get on almost everyone’s nerves. He was actually taking turns for other players at some point, because he was too much of a spaz to wait for them.

For me, he was the only bad part of the convention (the hotel I consider a separate problem).

The game also lasted until 12:30 in the morning and lack of sleep might have made me a bit grumpy.

 

Later

Tuna

DAY ONE: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Total Con.

By Tuna Farrell

This is a first instalment in a series of posts dedicated to our adventure at Total Con. Tuna secretly kept a detailed journal of the events and items of interest and we have decided it is important for us to not only share these bits of geekery with other folks but also to save them for posterity here.

Feb 20th Not just another Geek Day, but a whole long Geek Weekend! Mike and Al arrive to pick me up around 10:20, so we can drive towards our long planned trip to Total Con: New England’s largest gaming convention (according to them). This differs a bit from Temple Con last year in that this convention is only about board games, whereas last year we went to a con that had a mix of themes and events. Our hope is that this one will have more access to games we can try out and more developers promoting new games (also for us to try out).

The drive down only contained two things of interest. One, the prerequisite stop at the New Hampshire Liquor Store TAX FREE BOOZE!! … you may have noticed I typed that all in caps. Because it’s important.

Second, Mike played us a pod cast called “The Dice Tower”. They review games and they talked about a game called Marvel Dice Master that sounded pretty cool to us. Plus one of the guys, Eric Summerer, from the pod cast was going to be at the convention and after listening we were hoping we could talk to him about it.

We arrive at the hotel too early to check in, but not too early for lunch so we go to a local sports bar that you can see from the highway but can only actually find by sheer luck. No, really, we drove around for a while and couldn’t find it; we turned into a side road thinking to turn around and then we could see it at the far end of the street. Still, we all got a decent beer and I got a mountain of buffalo wings.

Mmmm. Beer.

So, back at the hotel we go to check in aaaaaand there are three of us, two rooms and according to the desk clerk only two beds total. When Mike specifically reserved the rooms with 2 beds in one and 1 in the other. The response? “All the rooms are taken up by the convention”. Yeah, that’s US. Mike reserved these rooms the first day they were available. Y’know, so we could attend the convention!

So, they offer to comp Mike breakfast and send up a roll out bed. Mike tells them to "Piss Off" with the breakfast, well not really, but he was extremely angry about the mix up and refused the gesture. I offer to sleep in the roll away because I’m shorter than Mike. Plus I’m not sharing a room with Al. No offense.

The Sanctuary.

And it wouldn’t be Booze and Boardgames if we didn't talk about booze. We set up the bar in Al’s room, because he has a fridge and brought all his mixing paraphernalia. Al experiments with a new drink involving Elderflower liqueur and gin, and a couple other things. It’s a fancy gin and tonic really, but people who like gin (i.e. people who are not me) seem to think it brings out some of the flavor in the standard gin/tonic thing. Me, I’m sticking with the old standby: the Dark and Stormy. For the record, Mike did not provide any extra stormy during this trip, though he did offer.

Drinks in hand we prepare to invade the Con floor.

Okay, stuff in room, drinks in hand (secretly because you’re not supposed to drink at this convention) we head on down to the convention floor.

The first thing we see? The guy from the Dice Tower, Eric Summerer, who we listened to on the drive down. And he’s setting up the game we wanted to ask him about: Marvel Dice Masters. This may be really, really, really geeky; but that’s totally awesome. We introduce ourselves and ask him about the game and he offers to walk us through it. More totally cool.

Eric Summerer was really cool and down to earth, not like Al.

The game is sort of a cross between Quarriors and Magic: the Gathering. If you have no idea what one or more of those are, Quarriors is a deck building game but with Dice, and Magic: the Gathering is a collectible card game. And if you still don’t know … why the hell are you reading this? Anyway, Marvel Dice Masters is an awesome game. If you like Magic: the Gathering, dice games, and deck building you’ll enjoy this game.

Midgard.

Our second game was Midgard, a game about Vikings taking control of the various realms of Nordic myth. It’s a simple strategy game, but I had a lot of fun playing it. Not enough to go and buy it outright, but fun enough that I’d play it again.

Ticket to Ride.

Surprisingly, Al agrees to a game of “Ticket to Ride”. Al not being fond of games where there is no fighting or killing I did not expect him to go for this. And even more surprising he didn’t hate the game either, and thinks it might be a game he could play with his wife. It is considered one of the “Gateway Games” that brings people around to the wonderful world of tabletop gaming. ;)

After gaming around for a bit, we discover that a late night dinner is in order so we find our way to the hotel restaurant and enjoy some nice beers and burgers. Well, Mike had a fruity girly drink from the menu called a Gandalf, of course we quickly renamed it to “Gandalf the Gay”, seriously look at the picture.

Yup mike getting his Con on, drinking a "Gandalf the Gay".

Back at the room Mike and I play a round or two of Magic: the Gathering. Al actually seems to take an interest and we think we might have convinced him to perhaps start playing, but it turns out he was just exhausted. So, we have finally figured out the secret to getting Al to start playing Magic: the Gathering, just wear him down to exhaustion and put some cards in his hand ;)

Later
Tuna

February 9th; a sober, but fun, Game day.

by Al Butler

Kurt gets the low down from Mike.

This past Sunday we had another game session which went on for several hours and included all of the usual highs and lows of our get-togethers, sans alcohol that is “yeah I know”. Anyway it was a pretty “epic” day as you’ll see further on, and if you missed it I can only encourage you to show up next time and join in the fun.

We arrived around noon at Dirigo Hobbies in Gray, and after the pleasantries of “hey how you been? and how you doing?” were completed we got down business and began setting up a game of Toxic City Mall. This game is not easy by any stretch of the imagination, what with zombies that splatter you with toxic blood upon dying, and you starting out with a frying pan as a weapon. It tends to get a bit intense, but after the board was down, markers and tokens placed and much discussion of the new rules we were ready to give it a go. Kurt and his son Therin had never played any of the Zombicide games before so we took some extra time to educate them on the basics of actions, how to shoot, move etc.

While thus engaged, the owner of the store, Doug, came over and asked if would try out a piece of plexi-glass over the board tiles to see how we liked it. He has a plan for this, but more on that another time. The glass didn’t work so well as we had pushed two 6 ft. long tables against each other and the board tiles were resting right in the middle where the tables came together. This caused tiles to shift every time one of us moved the table. I think if we had a solid playing surface to start from, the glass would work really well. Also my OCD is a bit strong at times so I may have just been over analyzing it.

Layout after a few moves.

The scenario chosen, tasked the survivors with finding some other lost humans on the map represented by tokens. They then had to exit the board by driving off in either one or two of the cars available. The tricky part was there were a lot of tokens to grab and we didn’t know which ones were going to be the ones needed until we got them. Also there were four toxic walkers just waiting for us which did not give us a lot of options right out of the gate.

Tuna got some nice pistols right at the beginning and as everyone else searched the rooms in the first section they all ended up with a decent ranged and melee weapon. All that is except myself who found bottled water, rice, and of course a few undead. But with frying pan in hand I was undaunted by the fearful odds before us. (Sorry that’s the kind of thing that runs through my mind when playing).

The first few spawns were rather tame and with a bit of teamwork our survivors managed to get out of the starting area relatively unscathed. But then due to Tuna’s rather terrible shuffling ability we all of a sudden had loads of toxic zombies marching our way. Kurt found a chainsaw and really went to town on clearing out all the regular zombie groups until they took him down. Coming back as a Zombivor (yeah that’s so cool) he tanked us through enough so we could pick up two more tokens one of which was a survivor. Sadly our maniacal husky wielding hero succumbed to a large party of toxics and he was eliminated from the game. As Kurt is a decent sort, generally, we gave him the rescued survivor to play so he could keep going. Therin got to drive a Pimpmobile and run over a whole slew of ugly Zombies as well as blast his fair share with a shotgun. How many 10 year olds can say they did that?

Yeah we need that car all the toxics are covering.

Anyway, the last few tokens were in a large building on the far side of the board. By now the spawns were coming out at red experience level and we had to try and get to a safe door and try to “funnel” the marching masses of zombies, and pray we picked up the last tokens quick. As it turns out at this point I was the only one who could open doors so our whole team lost a turn waiting for my slow ass to catch up to them. Finally I wander up and kick in the door. The building consisted of ten rooms, which meant we had to flip a zombie spawn card for each of those rooms. As all of the zombie minis were pretty much on the board already this would mean a lot of extra moves for the bad guys. Mike had done the math and though he thought we could die it was our only shot. Card after card the horde came closer and closer and just when we thought we were goners the spawning was over and we could breathe a sigh of relief. Just one though, because the very next turn everyone was crushed beneath a tidal wave of stinking rotten flesh. Four plus hours in and we all wiped.

Awesome Deck Building game!

Tired and worn out Kurt and his son went home, and Tuna begged off as well. Mike and I decided to stick around and play a game of Marvel Legendary, after a sandwich that is. Legendary is a deck building game set in the Marvel comic book universe where you try to defeat masterminds and their minions. I like the game overall, but the Mastermind and scheme we picked for this match was really tough. The Dark City expansion cards which I included in the set really changed the dynamic of play. Harder but more engaging overall. We ended up losing horribly, and decided to call it a night.

Though we lost both games, we still had a lot of fun, and I cannot wait to set these titles up again with my friends and guild mates hopefully this up coming Sunday.

Cheers
AL

the Half & Half

by Al Butler

A thing of beauty.

There are moments when I simply want to sit back with my friends and enjoy a beer or two. I find that the unpretentious nature of a pint, accompanied by loud boisterous laughter, draws me as a moth to flame. And as Beer is the world’s third most popular drink overall, behind water, and then tea, it’s no surprise that you can find thousands of different brands, made by hundreds of various breweries worldwide to choose from. Personally I am particular to Guinness, as I find “the black stuff” smooth and pleasing to consume, and as a bonus it comes from the finest island the world over, Ireland.

Now you can simply pour a pint and drink it to while away the hours or you can take a moment, and craft an eye catching beer drink called the “Half & Half.”

The Half & Half consists simply of half a pint of Harp lager (also made in Dublin) and half a pint of Guinness, and if the pour be done right the Guinness will sit on top of the Harp in the glass which is rather pretty indeed.

 Ingredients:
Guinness half a pint
Harp lager half a pint
A pouring spoon or Turtle

Method:
Tilt your glass and pour in your Harp lager gently so as to reduce “heading” on the ale. Stand the glass upright on the bar and place your turtle or spoon on the rim. Next, ever so softly, start pouring your Guinness over the back of the spoon. Keep a steady hand and go slow, and you should have a nice looking drink with all gold on the bottom and black on the top when finished.

Lovely.

 “Wait a Minute Al that’s a Black and Tan not a Half & Half or whatever you are calling it!”

No it is not! A Black and Tan is made with Bass Ale instead of Harp Lager, and though almost every drink with Guinness floating on top is called a Black and Tan these days the simple fact of the matter remains that each time you change the lager or ale to a different brand, the name changes too. Which for me is important, and if you find yourself in the Republic of Ireland someday it will be important to you too. Because if you order a Black and Tan in Eire, you just may find yourself out on your ass in the street wondering what the Christ just happened.

Black & Tans search a citizen, note the dead body in the background.

The term Black and Tan has a rather negative and offensive connotation to it in Ireland, as the Black and Tans was the nickname given to the Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force, which became notorious for a brutal crackdown during the independence war. They murdered, tortured and looted their way across the countryside. They burned the city of Cork, and robbed the shops laughing; they assaulted women, and shot innocents indiscriminately. These “reserves” were so vicious and cruel to the Irish people that ninety two years after they were disbanded the mere mention of the Black and Tans riles people up.

So try to keep that in mind when you pop into any fine pub in the fair city of Cork.

Eejit Poser with a Pint.

The Half & Half is in no way snotty or uppity, no matter how hard Posers and Yuppies have tried to make it so, and its combination of smooth creamy stout and slightly light sharp lager make it a wonderfully delicious drink any time of the year.

Cheers
AL