Study in Emerald, Dune: Imperium, and more...(07/19/2021 - 07/25/2021) | Fsnam's Fun and Gaming Adventures (2024)

26 Jul 2021

Scott Ferrier

(fsnam)

United States
Salem
Massachusetts

Patron Badge for 2007 through 2023

See Also

Pimpology: The 48 Laws of the GamePimpin Ken Net Worth, Books, Quotes, Death History, BioPimpology - The 48 Pimp Rules: Summary | The Power MovesThe Meaning Behind The Song: Pimpin’ Ken by Premo Rice - Old Time Music

Saturday - Wakefield

Craig & I went to visit Edward and crew at Heavy Cardboard. Craig had not seen them in a long while and I returned the favor of driving and we carpooled down. I had not yet eaten lunch and along the route there was just 1 spot that I knew of to eat but had never tried a BBQ place near the end so took a chance and man was that some amazing food, sometimes a flip of a coin comes up in your favor The owner can be a little chatty but it's worth it.

A Study in Emerald

(Edward(yellow), Ken(red), Martin(blue) and Scott(green)) (4P) - Edward was really looking forward to playing this one and I had heard mixed reviews so wasn't sure but the other game was a cube train game so I went with Martin Wallace which is 60/40 if I'll like it. It was a very strange game for Martin Wallace, it had hidden teams were the team with the lowest score was eliminated outright after the end is triggered. I was on the side fighting the old ones and tipped my hand early when I blew one up with dynamite. Ken was obviously working for the elders and Edward looked like he was on my side but wasn't doing anything to help it. He then got Sherlock Holmes which would be great for taking the old ones out but then I noticed what they call "rocking chair action" which means there was a lot of movement but he wasn't going anywhere with either sides score column so I figured he was pretending to help me. Martin had done nothing the whole game to tip his hand one way or another so he was good at staying off the radar but that also meant he would have a low score and tank the team he was on as a side effect. I was going to have to take them all on by myself but I had amassed any army of agents and we had the firepower to do so but it's really involved to blow up old ones and it wasn't working out while Ken ran up his war side and was about to trigger game end. I then noticed an effect card I could try for that made you switch sides... I felt bad but I'm a survivor and did a last second switch, hail Cthulhu! The sides are random secret 3 good/3 bad so split among 4 it was possible I was the only good guy (thus 5p is the best) so now it looked like we were all bad guys. Ken claimed the city of London for big points and triggered the end. Turns out Martin was on my side but way too concerned about keeping hidden so he was low score and good guys got binned as the would say in England. No surprise Edward was a bad guy and tried to earn points assassinating Martin's agents and survived Ken's many attempts to drive him mad. I totally forgot about VP for cities and got smoked but I lived! Gratz Ken! There was a 2nd edition where they changed the rules a bit but I don't care for the board art as much it was like an engineer got a hold of it and removed it's soul...
8.5/10

Dune: Imperium

(Mark, Craig, Edward and Scott) (4P) - 2nd try at this with Craig. I had learned some valuable lessons when Asher beat us down last week so made sure I got someone who would could get me into most the guilds. I nailed all the guild VP I could (6VP from there) but had neglected my buy power and that was the death of me when I couldn't buy the big money Worm cards end game that get you 1VP for $9. I choked at the end but was 1 or 2 points behind the winner so not too bad. I ended up kicking Edward in the nuts with an intrigue card so I stayed out of last place by throwing him under the bus in Dune fashion. I still enjoyed but at 4 players it was way too long, so much so I wonder if we missed a setup step. More game there then the other players were expecting and Craig pulled off some f#@kery cards for the final win which is totally appropriate for a Dune themed game.
7/10

Sunday - Merrimack, NH

Eric P. hosted again a bought everyone pizza and even splurged and got the first group back little bit trays

Pan Am

(Mark, Doug and Scott) (3P) - One of the players really wanted to play Pan Am and I can't drum up enough interest in my play group to get it to the table again I was only too happy. The owner had laminated a list of all the cards in the deck so you knew what could happen which was great and I think makes the game less random feeling which is the major complaint I think. Unfortunately the rules teacher needed some work as he started the teach with wild outlier situations resolutions without going through any basic play so I stepped in a subtly as I could to get him "back in the car" and we got there I also pointed out a few times there were 8 hidden stock in the card deck so don't ignore those which I wish we had known our first play. Everything aligned and I pretty much got to get what I wanted for reasonable price most turns. I also found 2 stock with my engineers woot! Doug found 3 of them as well but had hung too dearly to his landing rights cards, they don't get you anything at the end so build routes with them don't let them rot. I bought at the right time and got lucky with Pan Am buying my routes so I was flushed with cash to buy stocks cheap and won with 14 Stocks(VPs).
7/10

Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

(Luke, Kevin, Kathy and Scott) (3P) - It was this or something I did not want to play so I don't hate this. I thought I was kick ass at heat production but I looked across the table and Kevin was producing 6 more then me, thank god there were not Milestones. He smoked us with some crazy lake powers. I put up a fight but ultimately was last place so we all played well (it can't be we all played badly, not me...) It's ok but not replacing TM.
7/10

Cubitos

(Luke, Randy and Scott) (4P) - It's been a good while and was a great fit for the group we had. The learn was longer then expected, dang explanation and remembering the green dice slowed me down. They had a blast and I was a Secret fish and got to take 3 short cuts through water but Luke had a crazy last roll when I went over the finish line he went 9 spaces so gave him the win. Randy had fun but not good luck and had too many bad dice in his pool as he had naughty dogs that gave him 2 light gray dice ever round it seemed. Keeping in the collection.
8/10

• [+] Dice rolls

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