G&G IV.V Day One: Circvs Maximvs

Were it not for the COVID-19 pandemic, I`d be over at Mike`s place for Gaming & Guinness XV right now. Instead, we`re meeting virtually for G&G IV.V, racing chariots in Tabletop Simulator. 

Gaming & Guinness XIV Days 4 and 5

The final days of G&G are always bittersweet, as our revels now are over...or about to be over. I was pretty pleased this year with my Battletech performance; I actually managed to contribute to our team's victory, and didn't get killed until the very last moment of the game. That's a much better showing than last year, when I killed myself by overheating.

The chariot race! Fanfare! Extravaganza!

Jeff took home the covered G&G Circvs Maximvs trophy for the fourth time, with Mike T and Mike P nipping at his heels. I tried to take more risks than I usually do, and wound up flipping my chariot for my pains, resulting in a DNF. Maybe next year...

After midnight, we finally got around to playing Speak Out, the game where everyone jams a plastic device into their mouth and struggles to say certain phrases coherently. The prospect filled me with so much glee that I had a protracted laughing fit before the game even began. Mike Totman captured my paroxysms.

And that was that! I can't wait for next year. 

Gaming & Guinness XIII: Day Four, Part 2

By tradition, Gaming & Guinness concludes with Circvs Maximvs, the game of Roman chariot racing. Here stands the magnificent trophy, awaiting the next champion.

It's always anyone's race in Circvs Maximvs; while some participants have won the trophy two or three times, I think everyone else has managed to place at least in the top three.

Island Mike made a point of taking some cryptic notes:
2018-          This was bad.  Dead last with team near death at the finish; Team speed of 5 crossing the line.  Drive +2, Team +0, Endurance +2.  Slowest possible team (14), 64 or 65 endurance but rolled poorly on the whip and then jostled twice on rolls where I needed 11 (can’t complain about dice rape, reference see Pitts, Jeff)

2017-          This was good.  Drive +2, Team +0, Endurance +2.  Slow team (got 15 ….on unlucky roll? Or is that the max with a Team +0?)  but MAX endurance (74) and things were going well until we blew the corner roll – 2 over, rolled 17, minus 2 for the driver, flipped chariot.

2016-          Jeff used the heavy chariot very effectively to damage Horses.  Even a medium chariot can easily hurt the horses and reduce the team speed.  Nearly impossible to avoid this if they’re coming after you.  Any way to go to Driver +3?

o   If you want to take someone out in a hurry, go chariot on chariot?  What’s the best way to do it?

-          Might be better to go +0 team speed and +2 endurance.  A slow horse can be whipped but a fast horse without endurance is dying.

o   So Drive +2, Team +0, Endurance +2

-          Most corners can be exited at a cost of +2 test.  No big deal unless you blow a roll like I did and then misinterpret the rules….

o   Side swipes in the corner COST NO MOVEMENT

Jeff is a three-time champion, but the dice were against him tonight, even when he wasn't rolling them! Rounding a turn slightly too quickly, I sideswiped Jeff's chariot by  accident and took him out of the race. (I wound up finishing fifth.)

Poor Jeff. These were not his Games.

A catastrophic collision.

An imminent trampling.

Scott's charioteer was dragged across the finish line.

The winners: Pete, Scott, and Mike. This is Pete's second championship.

And with that, the festivities wound down, at least for me. I stayed for a round of Tee Shirt Party (a Playstation JackBox game), then retired, wiped out by my pneumonia. But it was, as always, worth it; a highlight of the year. 

Visions of G&G XII

Earlier this month, I joined my G&G brethren in celebrating the twelfth (!) annual Gaming & Guinness gathering. By now, anyone who follows this blog knows the drill: once a year, I meet with some old buddies and we play games and drink Guinness (well, most of us; Scott and I are teetotallers). Every year is special in its own way, and this time around three highlights stand out: the swag, the group photo concept, and my successful attempt to make X-Wing more efficient.

You can see the swag above: Island Mike and Rob collaborated to mint challenge coins for the group. Not only are they quite handsome works of art, they bring the challenge coin tradition to G&G; for those unawares, members of any challenge coin group are meant to carry their coin at all times. If you run into another member of the group, you can challenge that person to present their coin; if they don't have it with them, they need to buy you a drink (or perform another service of similar value). If they meet your challenge, you buy them a round, and so on.

Jeff came up with the idea of staging a photo that presents us as a bunch of back-alley gamblers.

Since we were all wearing our jerseys from last year, we took the opportunity to shoot them from the rear:

As for X-Wing, I learned from last year's mistake of having everyone take the time to custom-build their own fleets. It's fun in principle, but it adds at least an hour of preparation to the game. I avoided that this time by pre-building ship options and limiting ship choices to those few that were to be used in the scenario I developed, which pitted a squad of basic TIE fighters and a Firespray against a hodgepodge Rebel fleet trying to get away with a stolen TIE fighter and a freighter full of defectors. The Imperials won this particular engagement, and the game flew by quite quickly. Lesson learned!

And now, some selected photographic highlights from the festivities...

Congratulations to Steve for winning Circvs Maximvs for the first time, and to Jeff and Scott for reaching the podium. And thanks to Mike for hosting!