Now I have a custom runner deck, I need a custom corp deck to play against.
Taking the Haas-Bioroid cards from the core set and from the Creation and Control deluxe expansion will give me a range of possibilities.
Haas seems to specialise in using its bioroid workforce to do all the work and hence gain extra clicks. These extra clicks in a turn will allow the corp to do what is known as ‘fast advance’, which is to play an agenda then advance and score it all in one turn.
Moving on from playing with the core set sample decks, I am taking my first step into deckbuilding.
Seeing as I have the deluxe expansion Creation and Control, and this is based around the Shaper (green) runner faction and the Haas-Bioroid corp faction, my idea is to create two mono-faction decks. I won’t be using any influence at this stage.
I think I ought to be able to tweak the sample decks into something better, something that plays smoother.
Starting with the Shaper runner deck, I will stick with Kate as the runner identity. She makes it cheaper to install hardware and programs, which makes it easier to get her rig set up. (The rig is all the installed programs and hardware, including extra memory, icebreakers and other programs).
My plan is to select a specific set of icebreaker programs and then build around them to finance and support them.
I got a Bag-O’-Cthulhu.
The figurines are stored in a separate dimension and accessed through a portal within the plastic bag.
While watching some videos of Call of Cthulhu tournament games on The You-Tube, I saw people were playing with tiny little Cthulhus as their domain markers, and not the large ones that come with the core set.
A little research later and this bag of cyclopean fun was winging its way to me.
It is a real thing: A bag of Cthulhu. You get six regular large Cthulhus and twenty-four tiny little Cthulhus!
The little ones are great for using in games, and they don’t take up as much room in the box, which leaves more space for cards.
I now have far too many of the big Cthulhus what with all those that came with the card game core set, but I can probably re-use them in any number of other games.
Here they are, when manifested fully into our dimension:
Great Old Ones up the wazoo. Aren’t they cute?
Of course, one cannot just send rabid lunacy through the post without the proper health and safety warnings. See the age warnings on the back of the label:
I agree, this is most certainly NOT a children’s toy
Notice how infants 0-3 are most prone to insanity. Sad face.
As an early Christmas present from our lovely niece and nephew, Lauren and Sam, we now have a copy of the Mage Knight Board Game. This is an epic-style fantasy adventure game, rumoured to even be the best fantasy adventure game.
You play one of four heroes exploring the Atlantean Empire, killing monsters, visiting villages, recruiting soldiers, capturing cites, learning spells, etc, etc. All the required fantasy stuff.
We ordered a set of special Skull and Shackles dice to go with our Pathfinder Card Game.
They are really cool, looking like ivory or bone, and with sea chart-like designs on the faces.
The highest face on each die is a skull.
The set is really intended for the rpg, so it includes a d20 and a percentile 10’s. We don’t need these for the card game, but they are nice to have.
It is kind of annoying that the game keeps requiring multiple rolls of the same dice as this means we have to include the standard dull blue dice in our rolls. This wouldn’t happen in the rpg, but the mechanics are different in the card game.
“Something is not right here”, says Valeros, looking around the marketplace. His hand moves to the hilt of his sword.
Merisiel taps his arm twice and vanishes into the crowd.
Turning, Valeros glances at the half-elven siblings. Lirianne and Seltyiel are a short distance away, heads together, whispering to each other. Valeros waves briefly to them. They nod, separate, and begin to survey the square.
The mood in the marketplace has subtlely changed. The volume of chatter is lower and the haggling merchants are less animated.
Valeros shifts his position to place his back to a wall.
A faint blue light glistens around Seltyiel’s hands.
Lirianne slowly pulls back the hammers of her flintlocks. There is a clear audible click.
For an moment, like a lull in a storm, a quiet falls over the square. Everyone seems to be holding their breath.
“Uhn!”
“Gaah!”
“Hrrrch!”
“Whu?…nnnkh!”
Merisiel appears at Valeros’s side. She is wiping a dagger on her thigh.
“There were five assassins,” she says. “The fifth got away.”
Seltyiel raises his hands and takes a slow step backwards. The rapier point follows his movement, inches from his throat.
The alleyway is dark. Moonlight shines on the roof tiles, but shadows hide the features of the ruffian brandishing the sword.
“Time to pay up,” the thug snarls, “We don’t like people trying to avoid our ‘taxes’!”
Three more sinister shapes sidle out of doorways and three more blades glint in the darkness.
Seltyiel flexes his fingers slightly. Faerie-fire flickers on his fingertips as he watches the sword-points advance towards him. His back presses against the rough wall and he prepares to strike.
Suddenly four sharp cracks echo around the alley. The bitter smell of gunpowder fills the air. Four bodies slump to the ground.
“Not bad if I say so myself,” comes a voice from the rooftops, “Four out of four, and in the dark too!”
Seltyiel relaxes. “Where have you been?” he says, “I’ve been leading them around for hours.”
Lirianne drops lightly to the cobblestones and holsters her flintlocks.
“Stop fussing,” she says, “You are being like Dad.”
Seltyiel grimaces. “Why do you keep saying things like that?” he says, “Just because you were old enough to know him before he left and I wasn’t.”
Lirianne hooks her arm around his neck and rubs her knuckles into his scalp.
“Come on,” she laughs, “Let us get out of this miserable port. I am sick of the smell of fish.”
Valeros leans on the bulwark and gazes down into the frothing waters. Merisiel places her slim hand on his shoulder.
“We are a long way from the Lost Coast, my friend,” she says, “You should try and forget her.”
Valeros smiles, tight-lipped. Merisiel joins him at the rail and together they gaze out across the waves. The ship sways slightly as it glides through the shoals and the archipelago of the Shackles islands seems to float on the horizon.
Merisiel glances sideways at her companion.
“Seoni was always going to go her own way,” she says.
“I know,” sighs Valeros, “I just… I thought I could be what she needed. Someone to rely on.”
“She was a barbarian sorceress,” says Merisiel, “and there was otherworldly blood in her. I do not think she knew what she wanted, or will ever.”
Valeros straightens up.
“You are right,” he says, “I should put the past behind me. Let us instead look ahead to the future, and the adventure and riches we have in store.”
Merisiel smiles and claps him on the back.
There is a sudden cry from high in the rigging.
“A sail, a sail! Bearing upon us from the nor-east!”
Valeros and Merisiel dash across the deck to see the approaching vessel. The lookout holds the spyglass to his good eye.
“They are raising their colours!” he cries, “It is the Skull! They are pirates!”
Bifur puts down the book, being careful not to damage the crumbling pages any further.
“It is a sad tale,” he says.
His fingers trace the runes carved into the dusty tomb. “Balin, son of Fundin. Lord of Moria,” he reads.
Gimli is by the door to the chamber.
“The orc patrols were below us but I can no longer hear them,” he says, “It does not seem likely that we have lost them.”
Dain joins him at the doorway. A flicker of fire gleams far down in the atrium. It grows brighter as they watch.
“There is nothing more for us here,” says Dain. He turns to Bifur who still stands by Balin’s tomb.
“Come, Bifur,” Dain says gently, “We must leave this place.”
Bifur sighs.
“We had many adventures together over the years, Balin and I,” he says.
Dain puts his hand on Bifur’s shoulder.
“Indeed. He fought valiantly alongside me at the Battle of the Five Armies,” he says, “but I sense a great peril approaches and we must away.”
In boardgames, there are (for me) three main aspects that determine how much I like a game. These are Theme, Flavour and Mechanics.
The Theme is the overall story or setting of the game. It could be a Star Wars game or a Cthulhu game, a Sci-Fi space exploration game or a Sword and Sorcery D&D game. I am less likely to play a game if I am not fond of the theme. I don’t want to run a farm, for example, or sell textiles in medieval Florence. I want to shoot stormtroopers, or fight dragons, or try and stop the world being eaten by oceanic elder gods. You get the idea.
Let us suppose (correctly) that I am interested in any game that has anything to do with Cthulhu. What makes a good Cthulhu game?
Tim's Boardgames 