Day 24: Saturday

On Saturday, I rose again late and started writing to finish the blog before the morning ended. I was missing Susie today as the weekends had begun to be all about Susie, as I could only visit for a short hour or so during weekdays. This Saturday, I wrote after making coffee and an NYC poppy bagel (thanks, Joyce) with Zabar’s grind from NYC 79th Street (thanks, Cat, for that) and carrying that bounty to my home office.

The blog took around ninety minutes to complete and was quite long. I started to receive text from Evan about playing games with me. He was playing games with Richard and his friends. Richard plays an early and late game on Saturdays, with me now only joining the late game. I showered, dressed, and all that. I headed in surprisingly light traffic to Portland and arrived for lunch at The Lucky Lababdor on Hawthorne in Portland.

I ordered a lower-alcohol beer, my only one on Saturday, and a BLT (while not exactly light, it has lettuce, at least). This would be my dinner and lunch. Most of the chips ended up trashed. Evan was surprised I was already in Portland and appeared after lunch.

We tried the board game Unsettled again. This time, with a new planet, we found this a kick. The game is a cooperative game with a sci-fi theme, and you play a scenario on the planet. We unimaginatively picked the first one, ‘A,’ and I read the mission explanation, which sounded like Captain Kirk or Elon Musk had gone nuts. I read it aloud. While I can’t do voices, I tried Kirk’s cadence, and then Evan asked me to try Elon. Evan said I did OK–lots of practice from Dungeons and Dragons.

We started to explore and soon had a lot of distress. The stormy planet was crushing us. We soon learned some of the tricks to mitigate the storm. The planet worsens, and we are now in recovery mode and running away. Oh my! We died. My character was only hit by lightning once and blasted once.

The game, especially this planet module, was quite immersive, and time went by without us noticing–the best sign that you are enjoying a board game. After failing the mission (and dying), we saw the mistakes we made and the subtle things we could have done to be safer. Unsettled scenarios and planets usually need multiple plays to survive; it is part of the experience. Excellent cooperative game. Next time! About two hours of play for Evan and me.

Evan decided he wanted to play basic Scythe. We had not played a regular game, two-player, for quite some time. Evan was randomly offered Saxony (black), and I got the Nordic Kingdom faction (blue). These are on opposite sides of the board. Left alone, blue has some advantages over many other factions (and statically wins often), and I had the Agriculture board, which matches the Nordic lands well. Evan was struggling with efficiency and money with his board, Engineering.

I played aggressively and captured many resources with my character. I had all my Mechs built early and got all those superpowers granted by the Mechs and a star. Evan was bouncing all over the board, but I soon noticed I had plenty of combat cards and power and defeated him in a battle. Later, Evan gets revenge but forgets that the Nordic retreats to lakes. I retreat and start to build quickly, clearing items on my board and gaining stars, and end the game with my sixth star. Evan had picked up on the approach of the end-of-game and had spread out to claim more of the board.

My engine-like turns had generated a pile of coins with my withdrawal to my area. I had also fixed my low popularity and was in the same section as Evan when the game ended. I score over 70 with Evan in the 40s, with the difference being my coins generated in the last ten turns. This is a trick I learned from Cody and Richard–I played a campaign with them.

While paying the bill at the Lucky Labrador, I talked to a pair of gentlemen playing a wargame a few tables over. They had stopped by and admired my Scythe game. All the models are painted, and meeples are printed. I also have life-like resources from the original Kickstarter. There is a historical gaming group that often meets there on the weekend. They have a website and other connections, but I demurred to be included as I have enough to do. I did offer to teach Scythe or other games if they see us playing and want to join in. They might.

At Richard’s, I was surprised to see a four-player Vindication being set up. Richard, mostly, let me do the quick teaching of the game. We then played the most aggressive game I have ever played. Richard locked in two masteries and then focused on owning hexes, and this plan took him to second place. Shawn got a complex, crazy mix of Traits and companions that gave him an unbreakable lead, and he won. I could not pry a single mastery from the other players, and the game was in the third. Michael, the other player, followed me. All of us were within ten points, so it was a close game, and anyone could have won. Richard removed all treachery cards from the game, so there was little risk in drawing cards. This meant it was usually better to draw blind cards.

We played another game, and then I returned to Air Volvo. The rain was pouring, and I was relieved that Air Volvo’s four-wheel drive and tires kept the trip safe. The puddles were vast in Portland, but Beverton had the usual-sized ones.

I had a few cookies to go with my meds and then read until after midnight again. I put on the sleeping music to cover the sound of the water in the gutters. My head hurt, and I had some Tylenol–the right side without a tumor. I started to sleep and put away the book. I was awoken by a dream and the need to prove hydration.

And that is all. Thanks for reading.