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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
Unspecified
Every homo sapiens needs an outbuilding within the curtelage of their property
Welcome...to my Shed!
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Everyone Needs A Shed
Life and Games (but mostly games) from Tony Boydell: Father, Grandfather, Husband and Independent UK Game Designer.
Archive for Tony Boydell
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
Unspecified
Every homo sapiens needs an outbuilding within the curtelage of their property
Welcome...to my Shed!
-
(logs into Magic: The Gathering Arena online; checks new Blue/Black Syphoning Zombies deck is set - this is a progression from the original Blue/Back What's Yours Is Mine Deck)
Tony: Right - picking 'Standard: Best of One' and 'Play'...
(waiting, then starting, screens load; the game commences)
Tony: Great! I'm going first...play a Swamp and done.
(opponent plays a Mountain)
Tony: Right. I'll play an Island and cast a Champion of the Forsaken. Done.
(opponent plays an Island then casts Expressive Iteration)/pic6467079.png)
Tony: O - kay: Prismari Dragons with Alrund's Epiphany it is...
(time passes; some of Tony's stuff is countered or burned. The opponent's extra Epiphany turns kick in and the Goldspan Dragon swings in repeatedly for the kill. It's all over.)/pic6467078.png)
Tony: Goodness me; that wasn't really very close...never mind: let's go again! And 'Play'...
(waiting, then starting, screens load; the game commences)
Tony: 'On the draw' this time...
(opponent plays an Red/Blue dual land)
Tony: Um...
(time passes; some of Tony's stuff is countered or burned. The opponent's extra Epiphany turns kick in and the Goldspan Dragon swings in repeatedly for the kill. It's all over.)
Tony: Never mind: let's go again! And 'Play'...
(waiting, then starting, screens load; the game commences)
Tony: 'On the draw' again...*tchoh!*
(opponent plays an Island)
Tony: Er...
(time passes; some of Tony's stuff is countered or burned. The opponent's extra Epiphany turns kick in and the Goldspan Dragon swings in repeatedly for the kill. It's all over.)
Tony: Surely this can't be the ONLY deck people are playing?!
(forty five minutes later)
Tony: Okay - that's 10 matches and 10 losses to players playing Red/Blue Prismari Dragons with Extra Turns. I guess "Standard", online at least, isn't very interesting at all. How long is Standard format rotation again?/pic6467080.jpg)
Tony's Inner Voice: About two years, mate.
Tony: Fuck.Quote:*Unless you're playing Wrenn & Seven (mono-green); a choice of two Tier 1 decks? Yawn.
tl;dr
The deck is very effective at keeping many quicker decks at bay until it finishes the opponent off in a sweep of extra turns immediately after each other. It seems - according to the Magic Meta - that this is the only deck worth playing. If you're NOT playing it, then best find another Format - drafting, historic, midweek Magic - because this is the only shit you're going to be seeing for the foreseeable. I give you the herd mentality and creative void that is the Magic: The Gathering community*.
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
Unspecified
Every homo sapiens needs an outbuilding within the curtelage of their property
Welcome...to my Shed!
-
The Museum of Board Games isn't all about board games, you know; I have handful of delicious RPGs from the 80s that would catch the eye of many a gamer too!
There's something wonderful about the effort that went into designing these systems, most of which are variations on the same, core mechanisms but twisted to fit the story and detail of their subject matter. The player guides, the referee guides, the 'monster' lists and maps - oh, good Lord: the maps! The opportunity to live, breathe and actually participate in a favourite fictional world is splendid thing; movies are fun, but it's passive consumption only./pic6462706.jpg)
When this packaged Lot appeared on my eBay feed, there was no way in Hell that I was going to let this pass me by. As I have remarked, previously, I grew up a HUGE James Bond fan - the films and the novels. Since The Spy Who Loved Me, I've made certain to see each film in the cinema first to fully appreciate the daft, exotic nonsense on the biggest screen with the loudest sound. Our first - and only - post-lockdown cinema trip was, of course, to see No Time To Die and I felt 9 years old again: wide-eyed and excited./pic6462709.jpg)
I've sneaked a few of my acquired-as-an-adult Fleming First Editions 'just because'
NPC lists, vehicle controls, shooting skills, a catalogue of villains, investigations and a huge book of scenario snippets (a la Fighting Fantasy) liberally-spiced with illustrations of fighting men, fast cars and beautiful women./pic6462707.jpg)
The solitaire box, especially, piques my interest; I wonder if I might occupy a quiet Winter Museum afternoon with some action adventure - all laid out on the display table for visitors to observe/scrutinize?!/pic6462708.jpg)
Sat Oct 23, 2021 6:15 am
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
Unspecified
Every homo sapiens needs an outbuilding within the curtelage of their property
Welcome...to my Shed!
-
It was a Mecha-themed session at the Museums small but perfectly formed though it would be nice if it were a bit bigger Wednesday evening session. Poor Dave must've over-stretched himself with the wine-making last time because he'd come down with this Year's Very Nasty Cold (That's Not Covid, Honest) and had to cry off at the last moment; it's a shame because I know he was well-up for the evening's promised distraction:
This glorious table-hogger never fails to please - even when I'm having another slow-brain session. Kudos to Gerv for putting up clearing out all his recruits early and garnering a huge amount of leeched, free stuff as a consequence. Tom deserves no praise at all for playing 'white' and getting two out of every three Encounter card bonuses...including an encounter card bonus that gave him two extra encounter cards: one for each of his next two turns with two out of three of their effects available that ALSO included - takes a breath - 9 money and a free extra turn! If you're gonna abuse one aspect of the game then that's certainly the way to do it!
All of these shenanigans were still not good enough to catch Paul who cheekily ended the game with a double star placement immediately before the turn that I was going to do it! Oh, the timing in these Stonemaier Games games! It wouldn't have changed my own position much - perhaps an extra 10 money to be still in last place BUT I think Gerv would've won instead: I was going to attack Paul, you see./pic6462695.jpg)
Despite the drizzle outside, the atmosphere was warm and genial and we had enough time for a filler before Tom had his long journey home:/pic6462696.jpg)
I haven't played Fzzzt! since Leiriacon 2019, so it was fun to dig it out of the box marked "Tony's Smalls". Gerv exploited a couple of good Production Units to win comfortably; my own lack of attention left me with a huge 'failed PU completion penalty' and the worst score in Fzzzt! that I've ever recorded - maybe I should look to Viticulture for the 'big points'?!
Paul suggested we might have a go at Dead of Winter sometime soon; not that I'm a zombie-theme fan much but if we're going to roll into Christmas as a happy quintet, I think I'd be up for more thematic fayre - sharing stories in a cosy room while the Seasons blow-and-bluster around us.
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
Unspecified
Every homo sapiens needs an outbuilding within the curtelage of their property
Welcome...to my Shed!
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/pic6461260.png)
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
Unspecified
Every homo sapiens needs an outbuilding within the curtelage of their property
Welcome...to my Shed!
-
Four large boxes, a thin raincoat and my eldest son accompanied me to the Tuffley Community Centre for Tuesday evening distractions. Fred was off a-roleplayin' while I, not the designated driver, decided to get tipsy and play board games: it's been a pig of a week so far, you see.
There was a little Dance of the Tables before everyone settled into their bubbles: Fridge Raiders of the North-Eastern Paladin Seas, Coloma and - for me, Ben, Rudolph and Mark - a bit of dice-placement nobility:/pic6460461.jpg)
Not even halfway through the first bottle of Weston's 'red top' cider, I was making a laboured fist of the rules explanation; for some reason, everything I wanted to explain was in my head but none of it was coming out in the right order! It all made absolute sense within about three picoseconds of actual play, though. Ben got a little side-tracked with some of the interference abilities on the Alien Tech cards and was constantly disappointed that "displaced" ships only went to the Maintenance Bay rather than being atomized; he also rather over-enjoyed crashing his own ships into the planet to become colony bases...a wanton disregard for space-faring vehicles that would make him entirely suited to a session of Eclipse sometime, methinks. AF is a brisk, all knees and elbows affair that saw both Warhammer-poachee Rudolph and Mark snapping at my heels for the six base placement; in the end, Mark won out after Rudolph was sideswiped by a Ben colony swoop.
With not really enough time to teach and play either Cuba or Obsession, I spotted Sheriff of Nottingham in Ben's bag and held it aloft. I'd seen some noisy plays of this resolve themselves back in the mid-teens when the Ross-on-Wye club was still at The White Lion (ahh, those were the days: peace and quiet by the River) and thought it might be fun...especially as
a) Mark rolled his eyes in a 'God! Please, no!' manner and
b) I was fair motoring through the ciders and wanted to get silly for a bit./pic6460462.jpg)
Cue much barracking, heckling, trouble-stirring and liberal sous entendu about Ben's Cheesy Sack (cheese) /a pair of Excitable Cocks (chickens) - mainly from me, it has to be said. With the pleasing glow of alcohol having removed any caution, I blagged my way through honest and dishonest 'market days' and, as Sheriff, accepted a ridiculous series of hefty bribes - to amass 149 money. I'm sure we were playing it wrong, though: that figure on the bottom-right of the card means something for caught smugglers, doesn't it? I couldn't work out how because the rulebook wasn't very clear and my eyes had stopped working properly.
Jack joined us for the excellent Cryptid - which I did a much better job of explaining:/pic6460463.jpg)
Sometimes, you can just get a lucky hit with this one; this time, I nominated a spot that got three out of five 'Yes' markers which was all the information Rudolph needed to have a punt on his turn and win: he had several likely candidates and the first one he chose was the 'lair'.
All done and dusted in 15 mins, the RPG-ers had joined us in the waiting for the driver shuffle; this led to a couple of games of Selfish: Space Edition:/pic6460464.jpg)
I watched while the others played: a sort-of slow sprint across the Great Void - think Deep Sea Adventure crossed with Munchkin and you've got the flavour of it. Talking of flavours, I was struck by a bad bout of the munchies during this astronautical nonsense and had to gather emergency pork scratching/chilled chocolate supplies from the Bar. Scoffing heartily, I watched the intrepid spacefarers dobbing each other over until they'd all died cold and lonely deaths in the vacuum: just another glorious day in Corps.
Wed Oct 20, 2021 7:36 am
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
Unspecified
Every homo sapiens needs an outbuilding within the curtelage of their property
Welcome...to my Shed!
- ...but, maybe, half a dozen eggs?
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
Unspecified
Every homo sapiens needs an outbuilding within the curtelage of their property
Welcome...to my Shed!
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/pic6456150.png)
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
Unspecified
Every homo sapiens needs an outbuilding within the curtelage of their property
Welcome...to my Shed!
-
This is Porcini: the latest addition to the Boydell household:
/pic6454347.png)
Part cat, part parrot: a carrot?!
Mrs B and I found her on one of our countryside walks as we were wandering down toward the canal and heard a very loud mewing; she emerged from the hedge, tiny and very hungry. We took her to the vet and were told that she was also very dehydrated - dangerously so, in fact - so, we took her home and tended to her. Not usually a cat person, I've quite taken to the little monster: I especially like her pouncing. Also, she discovered some spare Titanic Plum Porter bottle tops and has taken to designing her own game:/pic6454362.png)
Think Shove Ha'penny meets Tiddlywinks: we're naming this game Tops Cat.
And in the best tradition of our family pet naming, there is a David Bowie aspect too: Ziggy is, of course, 'Ziggy Stardog' and Porcini is 'The Cheen-cheenie'.
Here's fun: what other Bowie-esque pets could we have? A gerbil called 'Gerbil Gerbil', perhaps?
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Anthony BoydellUnited Kingdom
Newent. Glos
Unspecified
Every homo sapiens needs an outbuilding within the curtelage of their property
Welcome...to my Shed!
-
British sit-coms (situation comedies) are the funniest sitcoms in the World: hilarious and dark. The recently-lost and much-lamented comedian Sean Locke scripted a radio show in the late 1990s that transferred to several BBC TV series in the early 2000s and they're now available on the iPlayer (UK only, unless you've got hacking skillz OR the YouTubes) to simultaneously cringe and laugh at. In one of the episodes ('Dead Swan'), we get a glimpse of two drunk and wasted board game players: masochistically-subjecting themselves, in a roll-and-mover, to pill-popping and electro-therapy:
:strip_icc()/pic6448327.png)
No. This isn't in the BGG database; I looked...
We may laugh and scorn but, really, how different are we to these delinquents? Dress it up in all the planning, engine-building and timing skills you like but we're still hunting for 'the hit' of a great move of our own / the suffering of our fellow players!
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