Sneaky goblins, terrifying merriod, and our intrepid heroes: The Battle for... Wheat?

Yes, this week's battle was over wheat. Apparently goblins cannot farm (genetic defect) and therefore must steal crops.

The Overlord (played by Al for the first time) may have a greater plan for the wheat but the heroes are just assuming that goblin anatomy makes them incapable of operating even the simplest of farm implements.

Avric bravely battles the rare plastic colored merriod. More common breeds are blue.

The battle was fairly even throughout. The merriod used Immobilize to good effect, letting an early goblin run away with a bundle of wheat. Jain Fairwood attempted to run down a second goblin. She managed to kill him and take his wheat but her escape path was blocked by reinforcements. Thankfully, a secret room was discovered and she escaped harm.

Brave Sir Robin (aka Jain) just before escaping into a hidden room

In the end, two wheat for the overlord, two for the heroes. Stay tuned to see what happens next, when the battle for wheat continues!

Widow Tarha transporting some wheat. Wheat being the cardboard token under the model.

September Game Day Recap: Epic Zombicide

Valerie hosted today and Al, Tuna, and myself were there, as usual. We were joined by newcomer Jasmine, who (whom?) we hope will become a regular!

Al had just received his shiny new boxes of Zombicide Prison Outbreak and Toxic City Mall expansion. Prison Outbreak is a standalone game, basically the next installment in the story of Zombicide with new characters, a new zombie type (berzerker), and new scenarios to run. We cracked this one open and set up the first scenario.

Hey good lookin'

The first thing everyone (who was familiar with the game) noticed was how much more there was. The scenario was huge and we had a lot to do. We had to search both in and outside of the prison for blueprints and maps to be able to explore further in prison later. We had 3 different door controls and countless rooms to search.

One new game mechanic that works to the survivors' favor is that when they die, they become zombies... but maintain their free will. Their abilities change but they still fight for the good side. And they're harder to kill now!

Zombies are no match for... zombies!

We had some really tough moments. Jasmine was dealing out huge damage when she was overrun by six running zombies. But her resurrection next turn saw her rise and slaughter them all.

Undead versions are always better

Al decided to become a zombie intentionally but that may have backfired as his skills changed in a way that made it tough for him to do much.

My character stayed behind in the safety of the watchtower with the rifle to pick off zombies on the street while the rest of the team took on the rest of the prison interior.

In the end, it was a bit anti-climactic. The toughest parts of the game were in the middle. And it was long. But it was still great fun and an excellent second installment of the game. I look forward to trying the expansion with the toxic zombies!

Dinner break. Zombies are piled up in the prison (lower left). Mike's lonely survivor in the watchtower (upper right).

It was already late after the one game, so we played Tsuro of the Seas for a quick cool down. Sea monsters and lack of navigable ocean took all but Al.

Al's Blackberry Vodka Tonic.

Al's Blackberry Vodka Tonic.

If any of you have not yet guessed, I am something of a drink geek, which goes hand in hand with my other "geeky" traits like gaming and reading zombie novels. I am always on the look out for different cocktails, and recipes, so when I came across the base formula for this concoction the wheels began to spin, and my mind raced.

The original was a gin based drink that used lime instead of lemon, and I am sure it works well if one was to stick with it. However, I decided to switch it up and substitute fresh lemon juice for the citrus and Vodka for the base alcohol, and I can say with confidence I nailed this right out of the gate. After making a couple of these two weeks ago and bragging to everyone at my work about it the next day (vanity runs strong in me), I received no less than five requests for the ingredients list and method. I don't think my cohorts have shown this much interest in my mad alchemy experiments since I introduced them to the Dark and Stormy.

Ingredients:

6 large ripe Blackberries
.5 to 1 ounce of fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 ounce simple syrup
1.5 to 2 ounces of Vodka (Grey Goose is my preferred brand)
2 to 3 ounces of Tonic Water

Method:

1. Muddle Blackberries and lemon juice in the bottom of a cocktail shaker or Boston glass. Fill with ice then add simple syrup and vodka. Shake vigorously for 10-15 seconds.

2. Fill a Collins glass with ice. Double strain into serving glass using a cocktail strainer on your shaker and mini fine mesh strainer (held over the glass). The double strain prevents seeds and pulp from getting into the drink. Add tonic water and stir gently.

3. Garnish, you can garnish with a lemon wheel, skewered Blackberries, or you can simply toss two or three berries into the drink itself.



What it is supposed to look like.

I know this looks really simple but once you start crafting you find that simplicity too, has its pitfalls, so note the following:

When Muddling the berries, really crush them up good. Don't be a frisky Eejit and just start slamming your muddler down in the shaker, because if you do you will find yourself and your counter covered in purple stains. Yes, I'm an Eejit and did that on my first go. When straining, the pulp from the fruit will want to clog your cocktail strainer, thus you will need to give the shaker a wee shake with your wrist every now and again to loosen it up. Lastly do not over stir!!!! When I say stir Gently that is exactly what I mean. If you over stir you will flatten the drink.

This little pick me up is just the right combination of citrus, sugar and alcohol. It doesn't overpower with sweet or tart flavor, but simply blends the best of both together smoothly. I don't suggest making these for big gatherings, as they are bit time consuming. But at home on a sunny afternoon, one taste of this summer drink will make all the effort worth it.

Cheers
AL

Weekly Game Night 3 Recap

The Overlord Hustles the Heroes

We settled in for the third installment of the Descent campaign, the second half of the Plight of the Cardinal quest.

The objective this week was for the heroes to find the key and rescue the Cardinal. The Cardinal is immune to attacks from anyone but the faithful. However, the evil Lord Merrick Farrow was raising zombies of the faithful to do the attacks for him.

Tonight's crew was me (Mike) back as the Overlord, and Valerie, Chip, Brian, and newcomer Brandon as the heroes.

The heroes were doing a fine job of getting past some fire imps and finding the key. Brandon was rolling some amazing defense for the Cardinal, keeping the zombies at bay. They even dispatched of some undead wolves with little trouble.

Then the Overlord made his move. He 'forgot' to attack the Cardinal for one round. The heroes got cocky and decided to take out some goblins ahead of rescuing the Cardinal. He seemed to be doing well on his own. But their rolling luck was about to run out.

Three of the five goblins dropped fast. But two survived and moved to block the entrance to the Cardinal's library. The heroes were unable to dispatch of them both. The door remained closed.

And then the Cardinal died, just before the heroes could bust in and save him. It all played perfectly into the Overlord's plan: let them think they are doing well, then bring the pain.

Brandon's rolls dried up. The Overlord's rolls were hitting for multiple damage per zombie.

Next week will start with everyone gaining new skills and weapons before the next quest begins.

Jain Fairwood faces some enemies front right while zombies torture the Cardinal in the background.

Old Guild mates: an impromptu gathering.

Left to right: Jon, Mike, and Tuna 9/1/2013

It is but a couple times a year that Tuna, Mike and I, are lucky enough to spend time with our old WoW Guild mate Jon. For you uninitiated out there WoW is the acronym for World of Warcraft, an online video game which we all played endlessly for many years. Sadly Jon and his lovely wife Deb live the life of ex patriots on the west coast so our "in person" meetings are few and far between. Thus, when Mr. Clark recently announced his arrival in our fair state on business we jumped at the chance to indulge in our favorite past times i.e. having a wee drink and playing tabletop games with good friends.

As luck would have it Tuna and Mike both had new games for us to try out and I of course pushed a couple of new drinks upon my willing guinea pigs, ahem, I mean hapless guests.

The first game we got in was Tuna's new addition; Smash Up! It is a deck building card game in which you get two "factions" randomly and then have to use the various strengths of both to take bases. The faction combos can be really interesting. For example; Jon ended up with Pirates and Dinosaurs, and I had Wizards and what I'm calling fucking Racist Leprechauns. Anyway the game play was pretty good, because it encouraged you to be ruthless. I was really enjoying this game, even though the art on the racist cards was getting on my nerves, until Jon played a "God" card. He was able to remove all my minions from a base and spread them out anywhere he so chose. I don't mind losing, hell I lose most of the time, but I really dislike being beaten by an overpowered game changing card. Am I being childish? maybe just a bit, but even so I do see real potential with Smash Up! and I think with a bit of practice even the "god" card business can be handled. In the end Mike won and Tuna took second, me and Jon spent most of the game just trying to screw each other over which is normal for us.

The next game we got to play was Mike's newest purchase Cutthroat Caverns. This is a semi cooperative game in which you all need to work together but also have to "stick it" to your team mates at the same time to win. A very interesting concept, but designed so that the duplicity of it works out really well. Essentially each player tries to get points by landing the killing blow on the monster in the cavern, and yes there are more than one. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. However, dead players, which does happen, can't win. Thus I deduced early on that I should try and get a couple folks killed towards the end of the game. After they had done some of the heavy lifting that is. Finally with much laughing and backstabbing by all, Tuna pulled off the win by playing a crit 100 points of damage on the last monster. It was too late for Mike and Jon as both had mysteriously taken much more damage than me and Tuna and they perished. Jon called Tuna a "Sneaky bastard" which of course he is, and we all agreed I should come up with a cocktail and name it after our friend Tuna, i.e. "the Sneaky Bastard".

After a break for two different Southside cocktails and some grilled kabobs, we moved indoors for a final game and a glass of whiskey. Not just any old Irish whiskey, but a kind we hadn't had before which Jon brought called Powers single batch. If you get a chance to taste this nectar I suggest strongly you do so for it is one of the smoothest I've had in some time.

Nectar of the gods!

The last game of the night was Zombicide, which looks like it's becoming one of our primary games.

 The beginning half of the match was pretty easy going and we grabbed the first objective painlessly. Jon jumped right in with both feet and did a great job of picking off hordes of undead with a rifle, sweeping the streets clean round after round. But, then bad things started to happen and the survivors fell behind in killing zombies, spawns got bigger, and then... the zombies got the dreaded "extra move". At that point we all thought we were goners. Mike and Tuna were off by themselves holding a corner open for our escape while the others were trying to get the second objective three blocks away in a building.

Zombies overran the far outpost and Tuna's survivor Phil went down in a pile of rotting flesh. Ned (Mike's toon) didn't give up though, while the undead feasted on his former friend he searched the police car and found a chainsaw. Yup nothing like a nice old husky to clear out a mass of brain eaters. Ned fired that puppy up and cleared the board. Definitely the play of the game, after that Jon (Wanda) roller skated right up the block and into the bunker which won the game.

Wanda in the Bunker for the win.

Overall it was an excellent day for the Booze and Board Game bhoys, made better by having a good friend and Guild mate to spend it with. I hope that the next time Jon comes a calling that he will get to bring his better half Deb and more of our players here in Maine get to meet these fine folks in person.

Cheers
AL