I'm Still Alive, Just Busier Than I'd Like

I was away for a business trip during the second half of January and did very little gaming or hobby stuff during that time. During my trip I did however have a chance to meet a fellow gamer down in the Tampa, FL area. Patrick (aka styx) was kind enough to show a few of my co-workers and I around during some of our downtime. You should go read one (or all) of his blogs...

- Army of the Week
- Dice of Legends
- Strange Aeons Adventures

After I came back it took me some time to get back into my regular schedule. Actually, I may still be working on that. In terms of miniatures I haven't finished anything new yet, but I've got a batch of SuperFigs on the table that should be fun once they're finished.

I've received several more items from my Kickstarter-craze last year. Sorry for lack of pictures, all I have is a list of text.

- Incursion: buckets of blood level t-shirt. Pretty nice, and I had forgotten I was getting this!
- Hell Dorado, Inferno: complete shipment with my expansion book and almost 20 figures to add to my collection. Another reminder that I should finish my Lost and Immortals starter boxes.
- Achtung! Cthulhu: My miniatures arrived just before I left. Come to think of it I may have mentioned these already. They'll fit in beautifully with my collection of figures for Strange Aeons.
- Judge Dredd miniatures game: I got another small envelope with the elec cordons and boss sky-surfer guy. The models look good as per usual, but I'm tired of this project...I still don't have everything I should.

Lacking the energy to paint much or construct models I made a trip to get some board games. I made stops at several shops around town, and even placed an online order to add stuff to my collection.

- Deadwood: I picked this up used (but never played) at Anthem Games in Florida for a paltry $10. I've read the rules and it looks like fun, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet.
- Cyclades Hades expansion: I love the original game, and need to play it more. With the way things start disappearing after a year or so of being printed I decided to grab the expansion just so I wouldn't miss out on it later.
- Serpents and the Wolf expansion for Spartacus: Same reason as the Hades expansion. Ironically (or stupidly) I haven't played the base game yet.
- Kragmortha: I bought this game several years ago for my brother-in-law and thought it was hilarious. Little did I know at the time that it was a limited-edition printing. When I found the reprint I couldn't resist picking it up.
- Tsuro of the Seas: A friend has the original game which is fun but not amazing. The larger board and addition of the dragons causing chaos put this one into my must-buy list. In the week since I bought it I've played it a total of seven times with three different groups and everyone loves it.
- Forbidden Desert: Forbidden Island goes over well with new or non-gamers, so I wanted to try the update. This adds enough new stuff to keep it interesting, without making it so hard that the same people who played Island can't keep up with Desert. Worth picking up for the family game night.
- Romulan Empire expansion for Star Trek Fleet Captains: I'm a sucker for Star Trek stuff. I have no idea when I'm going to get Fleet Captains back on the table, but the expansion is getting ever more difficult to find...so I grabbed it before it was gone.

An old friend dropped by town over the weekend and we ended up playing Caverna: The Cave Farmers (BGG link) for several hours on Sunday night. It was pretty interesting, but also difficult to wrap my head around in the first few rounds. There are so many different options each round of the game that it's complicated to know what choices to make. I'd play it again, but would likely not buy it due to the length. I doubt I'd get any of my regular gamer friends to sit down and play it.

I could keep going because there are more things on the way, but I'll stop here. Congratulations if you made it all the way through my wall of picture-less text!