I played COH First firefight twice so far and both times the Germans trounced the poor Russians. It's a very enjoyable game and I'm holding off on my review until I've played more of the scenarios as each one starts to add other features like Smoke, Artillery and Vechicles. You really need to play the first firefight however just to retrain yourself on how you play war games as there is no "not paying attention" in COH. Also the pause between each action takes some getting used to but it really needs to be done.

I also played a solo game of Warriors of God and I will be getting this to the table soon. I have to be very careful who I play this with, there is a major luck element on when leaders die in this game and as I played I could envision several of my gaming buddies bitching up a storm because there plans we're foiled by a leader dying.

Got to play Say Anything this weekend at a Halloween party, this is the perfect party game. You're up in playing in 5-10 minutes after explaining the rules, I think you could teach a monkey to play this in about 20 minutes. Of course with any party game of this type its all about who you're playing with and for some how many drinks have been involved.

This group was perfect, I can say that with 100% certainty. You see you can't have duplicate answers so the first one to put theres in is good and the other have to change it. So as this questions was asked;

Name something inappropriate to have on your desk at work.

The fact that I stopped 2 other female players from writing Dildo because they were too slow is my evidence that it was the perfect choice for this group. Now my regular Eagles gaming group, ehh not so much.

Conflict of Heroes Awakening the Bear! - Russia 1941 - 1942 is one game I am geeked out to play. I read the rule last night and plan to play a solo scenario tonight. The rules are well laid out and the basic concepts sound simple. I really like that as a player you can react to your opponent so this means you have to pay attention at all times. I'll save the rules for when I do the review but know component wise this is how all war games should be made.

The box is damned heavy when you pick it up and of good stock, the counter aren't cheap and are a nice size and stock. The art work on them is also fantastic and the boards are heavy and mounted. Comparing the quality of this game to other new company release like Galactic Emperor aren't even fair as Conflict out classes it in every way.

Unless something at home prevents it, look for a solo play session recap tonight or tomorrow.

Images taken from Board Game Geek

Sometimes as a gamer you just gotta have you some new gaming love. With a pile of games from GenCon I still haven't played I was struck with the mood to spend some money. I usually order from Fair Play games but they didn't have what I needed so I went with Thought Hammer. I ordered Friday and they showed up today and that was the free shipping option.

What did I get?

Conflict of Heroes
Combat Commander Europe
Warriors of God
5 counter Trays, guess why?

Can you guess what kind of games I am thirsting to play right now? To fill out this most wonderful order I also got a copy of Say Anything because we all need some party games right?

I plan to open Conflict first I am itching to see this game. Of course I have a load of video games stacked up to review, Mines of Moria, Socom Confrontation, NWN2 Expansion and Disney Sing It! (not joking I requested it as I have a 3.11 and 5.5 year old girl)

Plus I just got Fable 2, FIFA 09 and Fall Out 3 is next week. Not to mention Left 4 Dead which I really want. I just love this time of year.

We played BSG again last night with 6 players and it was a totally different game then last time. It also played a hell of a lot quicker, I would like to try and 4 player game next time to test somethign out.

Players
Dan - Helo
John - President
Chris - Sharon
Mark - Admiral Adama
Todd - Starbuck
Tony - Chief

The loyalty deck was seeded and passed out, as we would find out later the 2 Cylon cards came out in the initial deal. I started as not a Cyclon but of course stranded. The early game went pretty well since 3 of us had played before and everyone picked it up pretty fast. Our challenges were not very difficult and we made our first jump pretty quickly and moved 2 on the destination deck.

The second run was going fine, we again moved up the jump track quickly without incident although some questionable skill cards were kicked in, more then the destiny deck could screw us with. Then we got back to back Cyclon ship cards. Next thing we know we've got 2 base stars, something along the lines of 8 raiders and 4 civilian ships just sitting targets. I can't recall who did it but I'm pretty sure we FTL jumped out of there since we were one away from auto jump and escaped any combat.

The destination deck afforded us another 2 which meant we we're at the halfway point and the loyalty deck made another run. I got the sympathizer card and since all system were in the Blue I became the lame sympathizer Cylon. I call it lame because you get no Super Crisis card but you can still deal some damage.

The third leg got a little hairy part way through as I was able to bring in ships from the crisis cards, but the players managed to jump again this time getting a 3. I was wondering how long it would be before my 2 cylon brothers revealed, as it turns out not much longer. Not far into the 4th leg the two other cyclons revealed (John and Chris) and while all that was happening two of the 3 players we're in the Brig only the chief was roaming free. We got a base start on the board and ships we're every where.

It looked grim for the humans as they weren't in a position to FTL jump, their fuel was at 1 and actually one of them wanted to just end the game, to which we all said no. The humans managed to get out of the brig, nuke the base start and get to the ftl jump. But the destination cards weren't in their favor as both of them called for a loss of fuel and it was game over.

Again the humans failed to win a six player game and like last game their situation ramped up the later in the game we got. This is definitely in line with the theme of the show, the question arose if the humans could actually win. I think a 4 player game would give them a better shot, but i still think it is achievable.

While I still love the game, I think reactions we're a bit mixed afterwards. Some liked it and wanted to play again and others were on the fence. I'll say this if you don't enjoy cooperative games then you won't like this game, there is some downtime when it is not your turn even though you're always involved.

What tends to happen during a 6 player co-op game is side conversation start up, not only between players but onlookers who want to see a game that's technically not released yet. These conversations can extend the play time, I think we could of finished 30 minutes earlier if we didn't have to deal with distractions. You''ll also need to be able to get into a game like this, some game players just aren't into the theme of a game, they just play it an evaluate it like a text book instead of getting into the theme / setting.

All in all I think BSG is a fine game and I would play it whenever someone asked me to, I just think you need to know what the game is before you site down for a 2-3 hours game that may not be your cup of tea.

Some of this may be old news and some of it new. Talisman was canceled for XBLA back in August apparently. Twilight Creations Zombies!!! is going to be making an appearance on XBL and PSN in 2009. Also in the works as previously mentioned is Tide of Iron, Wings of War and Blood Bowl.

I picked up the recent XBL title Age of Booty last night and only played the tutorial and came away less then impressed, more on that as I delve into it.

I can't believe it's been over a month since I've updated. Life has taken it's huge sacks of stress and tea bagged me with them repeatedly. I haven't played a game since that BSG game, that's a long time.

I should be attending Eagles this week which is the local group and hope to get in some gaming time, then there is KitCon coming up November 8th and if you're in the Chicaog land area and want to get in on a day of great open gaming let me know.

News wise I'm out of the loop but now that the dust has apparently settled I plan to get back into the blog and gaming, winter is coming after all what else is there to do.

On the electronic gaming front I've been picking up more assignments from Gameshark, money is tight right now so every bit helps.

Last but not least I am looking for people who would like to help out on this blog and take it from blog status to website status. I'm looking for someone to monitor news items and of course reviewers. Just so we're clear no money is involved, you would be doing it just for the sheer joy of it.

Talk to everyone soon