Going backward, the night ended on early Sunday morning with me arriving in Air Volvo after 1AM from Portland. I took my pills and just collapsed in bed. The drive back was a bit hard when it got to be so late. However, the rains had halted, and there was no rain until Monday, so the roads were easier to drive than I expected.
I had come from Kathleen’s house in Milwaukee as I dropped her off after playing at Richard’s house. We three, Richard, Kathleen, and I, met at 6PM to play board games at Richard’s Portland home. This is my usual Saturday night routine: head to Richard’s and play a few board games. I used to play more often, but with the changes in Susie’s condition, I do not feel safe scheduling more than a few games a week, and with the blog, seeing Susie every day, and working for a living, there is just not enough time to fit in more board game play.
Tonight we went for mad games. We first played my copy of Cthulhu Wars, finally getting it out after years and enjoying the insanely huge pieces and rules that simply are mere guidelines as the game keeps breaking all the rules. Kathleen, naturally pedantic–her own assessment, had to embrace chaos playing the Creeping Chaos. Richard played the Black Goat and started spawning everywhere. I played Cthulu and just wanted to devour and kill everyone. My master gaming friends, for Halloween, had to embrace their inner child to play with the massive pieces and their inner cultist to join in with the theme. And the Creeping Chaos and Black Goat made an alliance and beat the crap out of Cthulu, rightfully so, and managed to win the game. Kathleen scored the highest, but their cultists can argue that for all eternity, both won according to the rules.
Cthulhu Wars is a five-year-old game filled with giant pieces and a crowded map. A player plays a faction and usually (there are exceptions to everything) has a Lovecraftian Great One, including Hastar, Cthulhu, and other of the Mytho’s great hits. Your cultists give your faction power, the currency of the game, and you have a magical gate to summon, now that the stars are right, horrors from the worlds of Lovecraft. Spells books, unique powers, game interrupts, and built-in rule-breaking are features of the game. It plays three to whatever expansion count you bought (going to nine (!) if you bought that add-on). I would not recommend the endless add-ons, and the game is costly (with its ten-inch tall models), but if you can find a cheap copy–it is the only totally themed game I have played that even breaks its own rules for the theme.
Next, staying mad, we played Wonderland Wars. I picked Alice this time. Kathleen was the smiling cat, and Richard was the Mad Hatter. This is a resource management and placement game with a showdown mechanism. You collect resources at the Tea Party and then use them to fight over Wonderland’s various locations. You can call in an endless number of randomly available characters from the stories to help you in the battles. The system is mad as it uses a bag of pulled tokens from your bag of resources–you don’t pick. Richard crushed us, and I lost to Kathleen by a few points. Next time!
There is a new Kickstarter for Wonderland Wars, and for $180, I could get this mad game in all of its deluxe glory. ‘Curiouser and curiouser.’ I enjoy playing it, but so far, I think I will enjoy Richard’s copy. I am not ready to paint more figures.
Here I will break the narrative to cover some items I received today. I received more figures from a Kickstarter: The Arcane Academics figures from Pulp Figures of Canada. These are a set of 1920s-styled 28mm figures with a hint toward movie versions of professors and include a grail setting and a Crowley figure. I also received my plant book for role-playing systems from Exalted Funeral: Hernalist’s Primer. This even comes with a system-neutral role-playing adventure focused on plants. Nice to see some things break through the logistic issues.
Returning to our story, before heading to Portland to go mad playing mad games, I was with Evan playing a less mad board game, except I lost, which is maddening, Scythe at The 649 taphouse in Aloha, Oregon. I played the Scotts, and Evan went for the Norse, and he crushed me. I could not get the production to work efficiently and soon fell behind. Next time.
Scythe is a steampunk 1900s game themed in an alternative history where WW1 never happened, and Tesla (not the cars) discovers an alternative power source that runs a steampunk-like technology revolution. The game is 4x, so everyone is against each other, rushing to build up as fast and efficiently as possible. It is a fav.
At The 649, I had soup and then shared a charcuterie board with Evan. I stayed with one beer as I had to play mad games in the evening–I would have to teach the insanity of Cthulhu Wars, so it was best to limit my drinking to one beer.
Before this, Evan met Susie and me at the Washington Square Mall. It was still damp and threatening to rain, so Susie agreed that the mall would be a better choice for today. I had loaded Susie into Air Volvo. Susie did not stand for me, so I did most of the carrying. It was better when she got out of the car.
Susie seemed to enjoy the different experiences in the mall. She picked out some flowers to take back with her (which we forgot and are still in Air Volvo) and enjoyed some ice cream and a sip of a cider product. I took her to the second floor’s food court and got myself a hot dog and ice cream for Susie. We watch some of Oregon against UCLA American football game in a little beer garden area. Evan found us as we finished up the light snack for Susie.
We toured the mall and enjoyed the sights. I stopped at a cooking store, resisted a new cookbook and supplies for cooking, and turned away from all the naked cookware. So shiny! French, American, or stainless is everywhere. Resist!
Susie was still showing exhaustion from the flu shot, I think. She was reticent but enjoyed the ice cream.
Before this, I started as usual on a Saturday by writing the blog from Friday and having a banana with some croissant loaf and liberal coffee.
I was also contacted by a long-lost relative from the Bell family. Andrew Bell is a distant cousin (using that word loosely) from another line of my family. He was interested if I was his relative–I went to his parent’s wedding (I think), yes, and if I had information on the vaudeville acts of the 1920s. I do. He has some of the stuff too. We agreed to connect more soon. More to come on that.
Thank you for reading.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 